Beekeeping
Albert Einstein, a pretty smart dude, said something like, “Without bees, the human race will survive for maybe four years”.
These beautiful little creatures are simple as individuals, but as a colony, they exhibit such complex behaviors that entomologists, beekeepers, and even philosophers are still trying to figure out how they do it.
In this overview class, we start with what, exactly, a honey bee is, and then progress through some of the simple and complex behaviors that they express.
Finally, we’ll go over what you can expect if you were to decide to keep bees. You’ll get information on what kind of equipment you need, where to get bees to start, how to deal with diseases and parasites, and how to protect them from the New England winters.
We’ll also have a demonstration on honey extraction.
To whet your appetite, here’s some bee factoids:
- The queen bee lives for up to two years, while all of the other bees only live around six weeks.
- In order to get a pound of honey, bees need to travel 50,000 miles.
- Female bees, workers, have many different jobs, including nurses, foraging, and security. There’s even a role as undertaker.
- Male bees, drones, don’t have any jobs in the hive. Their only job is to mate with queens from other colonies.
- 5,000-year-old honey has been found in archeological excavations, and it is still edible.
- Honey has almost miracle healing properties when applied to skin wounds.
If you’re interested in keeping bees, this class is a good place to start.
Time: 2 hours
Cost: $40
