Beekeeping Classes

Beekeeping Classes- Online or in Person

Looking for beekeeping classes?  We offer both online beekeeping classes and in-person classes during the year.   
See our bee class schedule and sign up today.     Read what our students said about our classes

Attend a Live Beekeeping Class

See the schedule  / register for the next live small group bee class, online or in person.   We announce classes in our newsletter during the year. 

Purchase a Recorded Video Class   

Cant make a live class?   You can buy a recorded video of a class to watch when you wish.  Purchase

Ray's Beekeeping Classes

Class 101 Getting Started In Beekeeping 

5 hours of essentials to get you started in beekeeping.   It’s a “Beginners Beekeeping School” in a day. 

  • The Why of beekeeping 
  • Bee Keeping Lingo
  • Myths and Truths
  • Must Know Bee Biology / Lifecycle
  • Identifying Cells on a Frame
  • Costs of beekeeping
  • Time investment in beekeeping
  • How many hives do I start with?
  • Anatomy of a Hive / Types of hives
  • Tools & Equipment needed to start 
  • Dealing with Stings
  • Buying Bees – packages vs nucs 
  • Setting up your hives
  • Frames: Waxing &  Drawing out the foundation
  • How to Install Bees 
  • How to do Hive Inspections 
  • Feeding Your Bees
  • Summer and winter solstice 
  • Wax moths, hive beetles
  • Mite Testing 
  • Mite Treatment Methods
  • Basic of Honey Harvesting and more 
  • Includes a Video Version of the class for future reference. 

Class 201 Intermediate Beekeeping

4 hours of skills to take your beekeeping to the next level.    Recommended for beekeeping who have had a hive for a min of 6 months or longer. 

  • How to Extract Honey
  • Queens: Finding, Marking
  • Avoiding swarms – Inducing swarms.
  • Catching swarms – Making Traps
  • Demaree Method of swarm prevention, honey production
  • Ways to Split A Hives
  • Using 5 Frame vs 2 frame nucs
  • Requeening, when and why
  • Introduction to Queen Rearing with and without grafting
  • Queen Castles and Mating.
  • Hands on practice marking a bee and grafting
  • Includes a Video Version of the Class for your future reference. 

Hands on Bee Handling Class

  • Offered in person only
  • Demonstrations and Hands on learning
  • How to inspect a hive
  • How to light a smoker
  • How to find a queen
  • Demonstration on testing for mites. 
  • Reading a frame
  • Tools of the trade explained.
  • Bee Suit is required as you will have the chance to handle the bees.  
  • Held in April and June. 

Quarterly Online Electives

  • Offered online only in Feb, April, August, and November on a Monday night, at 7 pm.  
  • After signing up, you will be emailed a link prior to the class for the online presentation.   It’s best to view on a computer. 
  • Ray will review what you need to look for and do for the next 3 months, and take your questions 
  • It usually lasts 75 minutes. 
  • Just $20, or free to members of the mentoring club
  • See the schedule here. 

Bee Class Gallery

Frequently Asked Questions

Sure, contact us and we will answer all your questions.   

Yes,  if you have a group that would like to learn about bees, we offer a 20% discount on groups of 6 or more. 

We accept cash, Venmo, checks, and cards.   Please register in advance

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