By: Ann Harman
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2019 issue of BEEKeeping Your First Three Years
Learning about honey bees and beekeeping is never-ending, but is thoroughly enjoyable. It has been said that more books have been written about honey bees than anything else. Establishing and using your own bee library is worthwhile, as is watching your own bees at work. However, there is another way to expand your understanding of these fascinating insects – attending meetings.
No matter where you live in the United States there are beekeepers somewhere nearby. Beekeeping classes are offered, whether in a meeting room or online. But when the classes are over, you may have found there is more to learn. Is that a small swarm on my fencepost in late August? Do bees do that? When do I start looking for Spring flowers in my area? What is the news about pesticides?
Meetings and conferences on honey bees are held throughout the year: local club meetings, state meetings, regional conferences and national conferences! There is also an international conference held every two years, in a different country each time. The amount of information that can be obtained is mind-boggling. Let’s take a look at these meetings and see how you can benefit from attending. That’s a wonderful way to become a better beekeeper.
If you have not investigated local bee clubs in your area, now is the time to find out. Usually the state bee association has a website that lists the local clubs. If not, contact your Cooperative Extension Service agent or an officer of the state association. You may find one or more local clubs that are close. Some have newsletters, some do not. Some will send out meeting notices to members, frequently by email. Find out the day, time and place and attend a meeting. If more than one local club is close, attend their meetings.
Belonging to a local club and attending the meetings puts you in contact with beekeepers in your area. Here you will find out when the swarm season is, the forage plants and their bloom time, problems and successes that the beekeepers are experiencing. Most of the time the meeting program features the local beekeepers. However occasionally a special speaker will be on the program. The members of a local club will range from newbees to old-timers. Do all these local beekeepers agree on hives, queens, management? No. They never have and never will. However their discussions will make you think about how to take care of your bees.
Local association meetings may feature one of their members who processes beeswax and makes beautiful candles, or one who makes lotions and lip balms. After seeing the demonstration you may wish to try. If not, now you know where to buy some. During Summer a local club may have a Field Day at a member’s apiary. If the beekeeper makes nucs and raises queens you will learn how it is done. You may wish to use some of those local queens and bees. At a Summer picnic you may hear “swarm stories,” each one funnier than the one before. Although you may not be able to attend every meeting or event, you will be enriching your knowledge about bees.
Some local clubs own extracting equipment for the members to use. This is an excellent resource for someone owning only a few hives and wishes to extract but does not have storage for large equipment. Local clubs usually have a list of members who retrieve swarms or remove bees from buildings. You can offer to help them and learn how to do those safely. You may then wish to add your name to the swarm list and expand your number of colonies.
Your local club probably announced the next meeting of your state beekeepers association. The state meetings can have a large attendance. States will hold one or two meetings a year. They may be one-day or two-day events. Check on the website for information about place, times, and about the program. State meetings may be held in different areas of the state each time. In states with a large area moving the meetings around the state will reach beekeepers from the surrounding area. Venues may be local colleges or hotels with meeting rooms. The featured speakers are invited from universities and the USDA bee laboratories. Bee inspectors or the state apiarist may be on the program. Sometimes a banquet or dinner will have a speaker.
Some state meetings will use an afternoon to offer workshops on many practical topics. With a smaller audience, more time can be given to questions from the those attending. Honey shows are held at a number of state meetings. Depending on location, and weather, a few hives may be brought in for some workshops.
A highlight of state meetings is the trade show. Vendors, large and small, will have displays. You will be able to see new gadgets and ask questions about their use. Now you can decide whether it will be useful to you or not. This is a great opportunity to look at a selection of veils and hope to find one you like more than the one you have. Books about bees and beekeeping are always tempting. This is your chance to flip through ones to add to your bee library. New books appear all the time. You can find t-shirts, bee jewelry, beeswax and honey lotions, soaps, candles and electronic hive monitors. Sometimes bee equipment dealers will take pre-meeting orders to be delivered to you at the meeting. For large equipment, such as hive bodies, boxes of jars for honey, the money saved in shipping costs is quite worthwhile.
Dues for state associations are quite reasonable. Some may have a newsletter. So, join! Then attend your state meeting. You will be talking to beekeepers at break times and meal times. A state meeting is a great place for learning.
The United States has three regional beekeeper associations: Eastern Apicultural Society (EAS), Heartland Apicultural Society (HAS) and Western Apicultural Society (WAS). Each has an annual conference held during the Summer months in the area covered by each. EAS members are principally from states east of the Mississippi River and the eastern provinces of Canada. The HAS territory includes those states west of the river to the mountains plus the Canadian provinces. WAS covers the western states, starting in Colorado and includes Alaska and Hawaii along with the western Canadian provinces. Although the majority of beekeepers attending will be from their particular region, you will encounter beekeepers from all over the U.S. plus Canada and even some from other countries.
Visit the three websites to learn the history of the society, the location of their next conference and view the program and speakers. You may have heard a few of the speakers before if you have attended your state meetings. The topics may be different or new research presented. These conferences will have programs for those new to beekeeping as well as ones on advanced topics. You can choose to attend workshops with demonstrations and open hive work with hives brought to the venue by local beekeepers. Be prepared to take notes during the lectures. You can review them later when you return home and spend time with your own bees. Look on the conference schedules for any evening programs and a banquet with a speaker. A sight-seeing trip or visits to nearby beekeeping activities may be offered, depending on the conference location. Some beekeepers will combine attending a regional conference with a Summer vacation. No matter where you live you can be a member of one, two, or all three of the regional associations. In that way you can plan which one to attend.
Bee talk continues at break times and meal times. Since the beekeepers attending the conferences are from areas different than yours, you will find out what problems they face and realize that many problems are common to all. Sharing information, successes and disasters, increases your beekeeping knowledge.
Because many beekeepers will be in attendance the vendor display is big, much larger with more vendors than at a state meeting. Fortunately the conferences are for several days so everyone can find time to wander through all the vendor area not just once, but multiple times. The vendors are always happy to answer questions. Spending time in the vendor display is a part of becoming a better beekeeper even if you do not buy something. However since some vendors will have a conference special price on certain items, you just might want to bring a bit of extra money.
Not only local, state and regional associations exist, there are actually four national ones. Two of these are large and two are small with limited membership. However all four have yearly conferences, separately or combined. These conferences are given in early January and the locations will be different each year, moving around the U.S. The venues will be conference hotels with large meeting rooms.
The American Beekeeping Federation (ABF), founded in 1943, draws its membership from the entire country, as well as from Canada and other countries. Members will have from a few hives to tens of thousands. They may produce honey or can be large-scale pollinators. The American Honey Producers Association (AHPA) celebrated its 50th year in 2019. Although its members are primarily honey producers, large and small, some would be pollinators also.
One of the two small associations is the American Association of Professional Apiculturists (AAPA) whose membership is primarily scientists from universities and the bee laboratories. Their annual conference is in conjunction with one of the two large national ones. The other small association is the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) composed of inspectors and state apiarists. Their main conference is also held with one of the two large national ones. If a beekeeper attends one of the two large national association conferences that also has the AAPA or AIA meeting it is possible to attend all or parts of the smaller association lectures.
Attendance at the annual conferences of ABF and AHPA can be as large as 900. Speakers at the 4-day conference can be from the USDA laboratories and universities, from government, and from beekeepers.
Would a small, new-to-beekeeping beekeeper benefit from attending these big conferences? Definitely yes! Especially if the conference is in a city near you. The information presented in the lectures gives excellent information of the entire world of beekeeping from new findings about diseases and mites and their treatments to pollination, to pesticide problems.
In addition the trade shows at both the ABF and AHPA conferences are huge! You may see some of the large commercial-size equipment for honey processing on display. Production-line automatic uncappers, extractors, bottling equipment, and perhaps forklifts on display outdoors. Yes, you will find books, clothing, gadgets, treatments also. Look through the conference programs and decide when you will pay visits to the trade show. Your beekeeping education has now widened to include the world of large-scale beekeeping. You are now a better beekeeper. You understand something about the entire world of beekeeping.
Remember, the bees know more than you do and probably always will. But don’t let that stop you from learning their secrets by attending meetings, small and large.