Pre-registration is required. The class on each date is the same and the schedule is ambitious. Topics covered will be:
 

• Reading the comb – What you can determine about the colony status (good and bad) from what is directly before your eyes.

• Marking queens - Students will practice on drones

• Making a nuc split

• Queen cell installation

• Applying a beeswax coating to plastic foundation

• Installing new frames into a functioning colony

• Supering for a honey crop

• Using Queen excluders – How, when, and why

• Shake testing honey frames for extraction

• Paper merging bees

• Sugar roll and alcohol wash mite assessment. Done by small groups of students.

• Mixing (on electric stove in the honey house) and applying oxalic acid dribble and oxalic acid saturation pads in the field.

• Treating with oxalic acid vapor - field demonstration instructor only.

• Treating with Apiguard and formic acid pads - Field demonstration, and hands-on with appropriate colonies.

• Pulling, uncapping, and extracting honey