I attended this past Saturday, a workshop sponsored by the Tupelo Beekeepers Association. It was held at Laurence Cutt’s honey house in Chipley, FL. There were 150 registured participants and I would guess about half of them were new wannabee’s and about 1/4 th of the remaining were new beekeepers with one to three hives. The rest of us were called upon during breaks to talk to those one on one to explain what they didn’t understand or catch during the classes.

I personally had a couple there that is/was from my list of honey customers. They were very attentive and I think they had a positive impression. I have not had the opportunity to talk with them since the workshop. I personally have had a chance to be a student this time and do some class attending. Most of the workshops, I have either been in charge or I have been put to work and have not had the opportunity to listen in class except for the Master Bee College.

They had 3 classes with one of them divided into 2 sections that you could only attend one. It was the class on queen rearing. One group was for commercial queen rearing where the beekeeper(s) raises from 20 to 1000+ queens for sale, and the other part was for the part time or small beekeepers raising queens or queen cells for their own personal use.

One class was hands on for splitting and swarm control. This is where you take a parent colony that is overflowing with bees and taking half of the frames with brood, honey, pollen, and and half the bees and putting them in another brood box and starting another colony. In this colony a new queen or queen cell must be placed to continue the bees.

The process is the same for both splitting and swarm control. The reason for both is, the hive has become over crowded and there is no place to lay eggs nor to put any more nectar. That is when the bees begin to make preparations to split on their own and relieve the congestion in the hive.

The third class was for the extraction and let me tell you, there is an extraction setup I would love to have. Here, words are not enough to describe. Pictures would be better, but unfortunately, I did not have my camera that day. Perhaps I will be able to go back for a visit and get some photos of his extraction room. When I do, I will write another post and explain each of the equipment that he utilizes.

Until then, just keep you equipment clean and in good repair. Now would be a good time to make a list of the equipment that you need to put together for future use. Read more books, or maybe go back and review some that you have already read.