Continued from Master Beekeeping Program post:

I asked my son how to study for a test since it has been over 50 years since I graduated High School. He said that he waited till the last week and crammed all that he could so it would be fresh on his mind. (I didn’t know at the time that he was joking.) That is exactly what I did. I crammed and crammed and in the night I dreamed that if I wasn’t a bee in the colony, then I was a beekeeper and was covered with honey, ants, wasps, yellow jackets, or I was in the honey house covered with honey, ants, wasps, yellow jackets!!. I was very strung out and on the way to Monticello, FL where the meeting would be held, I started having doubts about my knowledge.

My wife and I left on Wednesday so I could get a good night sleep and be alert for the school Thursday morning. I won’t go into minute by minute details, but I will say that trying to find the school area which was at the same place that the open bee hives were proved to be difficult in the night.  I did find it the next morning by talking to someone and having it explained that the testing site was inside another site that was not named in the directions.

I did take the test and suffice it to say that I wasn’t at all impressed with my answers. The written test was kinda ok with some reservations. 50-50 chance of passing. The practical test I knew that was a disaster. I had to guess at over half of the insects and there was no way I could tell you if they were East or West Yellow Jackets, Greater or Smaller Bumble Bees. North or South Carpenter Bees, Red or Green Fly’s, or if they were even in Florida at the time of the test. Certificates were to be given at the banquet Friday night.

After that was over, my wife and I hotfooted it down to the place we were having a cookout. It was served inside the Opera House that is over a hundred years. Had a good time just visiting with old friends and making new ones. Next day would be another story. Sooo——Continued again  hehe!