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| Forget the Birds. Learn About the Bees |
Master Beekeeper Program holds spring, summer workshops
Bzzzzz ... so you want to
be a beekeeper? Cornell, fortunately, has a Master Beekeeper Program this
spring and summer at Dyce Lab, run by Prof. Nicholas W. Calderone,
entomology.
There are three different workshops: Apprentice Level
Spring Workshop, Integrated Pest Management and Inspecting Colonies Field
Day.
The program is for both people interested in starting with
bees and those with more experience. The Apprentice Level Spring Workshop
focuses on the history of beekeeping, honey bee biology, starting with
bees and equipment, colony inspection, pests, diseases and spring and
summer management. Integrated Pest Management looks at identifying honey
bee pests and how to manage them with the least amount of pesticides. The
Inspecting Colonies Field Day class offers a chance to inspect bee hives.
"Without a lot of experience and having only seen a few hives,
it's hard to distinguish a good one from a bad one or judge the health of
a colony," Calderone said.
There will be a master-level class
offered in the future for experienced beekeepers to learn how to make
presentations to public groups.
"They serve as the ambassadors of
beekeeping to the broader society," Calderone said.
Katrina Thomas,
an administrative assistant in entomology who took the apprentice class
last year, said, "The workshops are very intense; they cover a lot of
information in a very short period of time and give you a better
understanding of beekeeping."
Calderone explained that there are
many different valued products from honey bees. These include candles,
honey, creamed honey, pollen and royal jelly. Honey can also be flavored
with blueberry or cherry extract, among others. Propolis is a product
collected by bees from trees containing antibiotic compounds and is used
in various home remedies.
Beekeeping is a fairly small industry,
but bees have a large impact on agriculture.
"Fewer than 2,000
people in the country make most of their money from bees, but there are
about 90 crops that are partially or totally dependent on honey bees --
about 200 million pounds of honey produced each year -- and honey bees can
increase the quality or size of crops," Calderone said.
There are
other pollinators that cultivate crops, but since they are not usually
sufficient to meet the needs of farms, farmers tend to rent bees. There
has also been a large loss of honey bee colonies recently because of
certain parasitic mites.
Laurie Buck, the teaching program
coordinator for computer science, decided to attend the workshops because
she has just started beekeeping.
"Anybody who is serious about
beekeeping should consider doing it; the most useful part for me was the
information about pests and diseases," she said.
"Bees are a
valuable part of our culture and economy but have a bad reputation because
of the stinging," she added.
"The class makes it a lot easier and
more fun to keep bees and talks a lot about what is needed to be
successful," said Jase Baese, who supplies computer support for the
horticulture department. An additional 2,000 square feet has just been
added to Dyce Lab where the program takes place.
"It's more
convenient to have the class right next to the bee hive instead of having
to go somewhere else," Calderone said. He is also looking to expand the
program to include a honey processing class because the department already
has all the equipment for it.