Beekeeping schools are popping up across the commonwealth starting this weekend, teaching beginner to expert level courses how to raise honeybees.
Audubon Beekeeping Association President Larry Stone is teaching classes in Henderson on March 5th. He said raising a hive could help an entire community.
“They’ll pollinate and fly several miles. They usually stick to a mile radius and pollinate if your neighbor's have apple trees, fruit trees, or flowers...and those things need to have the pollination, so they (the bees) help everyone.”
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture has introduced a Pollinator Protection Plan in an effort to protect honeybees, which have suffered from population decline for more than a decade. Stone said last year he lost several queen bees and says he knows many more who had a problem with diseases in their hives. Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the rusty patch bumblebee on their endangered species list, a species native to the upper midwest and northeast.
The 2017 beekeeping school schedule is as follows:
- Eastern Kentucky Winter Bee School, Jan. 21, 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. EST, Perry County Cooperative Extension Service office, Hazard
- Ohio County Basic Beekeepers Workshop, Jan. 21, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. CST, Ohio County Cooperative Extension Service office, Hartford
- South Central Bee School, Feb. 4, 8:15 a.m. CST, Allen County Intermediate School, Scottsville
- South Eastern Bee School, Feb. 4, 8 a.m. EST, Whitley County High School, Williamsburg
- Discovery Trek: Introduction to Beekeeping, Feb. 25, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. EST, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg
- Northeastern Bee School, Feb. 25, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. EST, registration opens at 7:30 a.m., Maysville Community and Technical College
- Small Farm and Garden Conference, Feb. 25, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. EST, Franks Building, Ashland
- Northern Kentucky Beekeepers Association Beginner Bee School, Feb. 25, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. EST, Boone County Enrichment Center, Burlington
- Audubon Beekeepers Bee School, March 4, Henderson County Cooperative Extension Expo Center, Henderson
- Bluegrass Beekeepers School, March 11, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m., EST, registration opens at 8 a.m., Kentucky State University, Frankfort
- Kentucky State Beekeepers Association Spring Meet, March 18, Franks Building, Ashland
- Queen Production Workshop, April 7-8, Pulaski County Cooperative Extension Service Office, Somerset
- Field workshop, April 12-15, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. CDT, Kent Williams Apiary, Wingo
- Kentucky State University Queen Production Workshop, May 19-20, Jenny Wiley State Park, Prestonsburg.
