Tentative Course Outline for East Farm Beekeeping School

Mark Robar has permitted us to publish his tentative syllabus for the upcoming beekeeping school, sponsored by the Rhode Island Beekeepers Association (R.I.B.A.), to be held at U.R.I.'s East Farm starting at the end of February. There could be some last minute changes to the course listing, so please keep that in mind if you are planning to attend.

Some time ago Mark mentioned he would like to invite Louis J. Chasse of North Kingstown, proprietor of Arson Alley Apiary, to demonstrate equipment assembly. Like Mark, Louis is also very generous with his beekeeping knowledge and experiences. If he is going to appear at East Farm, we'll let you know!

R.I.B.A's East Farm Beekeeping School, 2008 Syllabus
Feb. 27th
Introduction to R.I.B.A.
Brief history
Why do we keep bees ?
The honey bee colony
Basic beekeeping terminology
Basic beekeeping equipment

March 5th
Excerpts from The Honey Harvest (video)
Choosing an apiary site
Acquiring equipment
Construction of equipment
Purchasing bees

March 12th
Feeding bees
Bee swarms
Supercedure
Re-queening

March 19th
Honey bee pest and diseases (video)
Treatments or IPM's for pests & diseases
(Video)

March 26th
Preparing for the honey flow
Supering
Extracting and comb honey
Fall feeding & IPM's
Wintering
Spring Inspections
Spring flower (video)