Date: Saturday, March 12th
Time: 9:00am-1:00pm
Ages: Adults and children 14 and up
Cost: Online ticket ordering has closed; please join us on March 12th; cash, check, and credit cards will be accepted at the door. $30 online before March 1; $35 online after March 1 and at the door as space permits.
Location: NewsBank Conference Center, 352 Main Street, Chester
Celebrated Vermont beekeeper Ross Conrad will host an Organic Beekeeping workshop on Saturday, March 12, from 9 AM to 1 PM. This workshop includes three highly-requested topics by local beekeepers: “Working with Honey Bee Queens", "Working with Swarms", as well as "Organic Controls for Pests and Disease other than Varroa”.
Time will be allotted to discuss beekeeping and answer questions with Ross and to meet other beekeepers. Attendees are welcome to bring their own bagged lunch. For more details, please see a complete description of this exciting event.
Workshop Details
"Working with Honey Bee Queens"
The queen bee is the only fertile female bee in the hive and can lay 1,500 eggs or more a day during the peak of summer. Ross Conrad from Dancing Bee Gardens will provide beekeepers with information they need to work productively with queens. Workshop participants will learn how to differentiate between healthy queens and unhealthy ones, receive tips on how to introduce queens into a hive, and how to address queen problems that may arise. Note: this workshop is NOT about breeding queens and grafting.
"Working With Swarms"
This workshop will explore the swarm...from the swarm as an expression of the hive's vitality to the intricate details of how the hive decides on a new location to build their home and the process they use to coordinate the movements of 10,000 bees so that they all arrive at the new location at the same time. Based upon research conducted at Cornell University, Ross will share tips on understanding the swarm, how to work with the swarming impulse, and how to capture swarms.
"Organic Controls for Pests and Disease (other than Varroa)"
This workshop will cover everything from bears and skunks, to wax moths, small hive beetles, foulbrood, nosema, viruses and more.
This workshop includes:
- Ross Conrad’s beekeeping presentation
- Free Coffee if you bring your own reusable mug
- Light refreshments
- Raffles include Ross’ CD & book
- Honey Tasting: Share a taste if you can spare it of honey from your hives. Will you taste regional differences in foraging habitats in the honey?
- Check out the Flow Hive. Brought by Mark Verespy
- Opportunities to meet other beekeepers
- Comfortable seating and lecture accommodations.
About Ross Conrad
Conrad is the author of Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture. He learned his craft from the late Charles Mraz, world-renowned beekeeper and founder of Champlain Valley Apiaries. A former president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, Conrad is a regular contributor to Bee Culture: The Magazine of American Beekeeping. His beekeeping business, Dancing Bee Gardens, supplies honey, candles, and other bee-related products and also provides bees for Vermont apple pollination.