Boston Flora

Tag: beekeeper

  • Saturday, March 31, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Spring Hive Management

    Join Massachusetts State Beekeeper Ken Warchol on Saturday, March 31 at 10 am at Berkshire Botanical Garden for an in-depth lecture on spring management of honey bee hives. This lecture will focus on how to manage spring hive population build-up, feeding, dividing, pest monitoring and protection and most importantly how to prevent swarming. For beekeepers this program will provide critical information and most especially timing of important management techniques to get the honey season off to a positive start. Following this class, participants are welcome to stay to meet and discuss beekeeping with others. $5 for BBG members, $10 for nonmembers. Register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

    Ken Warchol, is a 6th generation beekeeper and former teacher whose lectures are enjoyed by expert and novice beekeepers alike. He has previously served as a Massachusetts State Bee Inspector. Advance registration is highly recommended, but walk-ins are always welcome, space permitting. Image of Ken Warchol from www.stevensbees.blogspot.com.

  • Tuesday, March 20, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Attracting Pollinators to Your Landscape

    Celebrate the first day of spring with this illustrated evening program on transforming gardens and landscapes into native bee habitat. Learn about native bees and what steps we can take to create pollinator friendly landscaping including providing food for bees and nesting opportunities to raise their young. Join Tom Sullivan, M.A.L.D, of PollinatorsWelcome.com, for an evening filled with ideas and inspiration – from simple techniques to community practices focusing on connectivity. Tom is a pollinator habitat designer, land consultant, and educator with a special focus on native bees. He gives talks and workshops on the nesting, foraging and life cycles of native bee species in New England. A beekeeper in his youth, Tom switched his interest from honeybees to native bees in 2008 after Colony Collapse Disorder emerged and it became clear how intricately tied whole ecosystem health is to pollinator well-being and human survival. This event is co-sponsored with the Northfield Bird Club and the Athol Bird and Nature Club. Free and open to all, at the Northfield Mountain Recreation and Environmental Center 99 Millers Falls Road Northfield, MA 01360. For more information contact (413)659-4462 or visit http://www.h2opower.ca/recreation/northfield-mountain-recreation-and-environmental-center/

    Image result for pollinatorswelcome.com

  • Saturday, January 22, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Beekeeping for Gardeners

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop, to be held Saturday, January 22 from 9 – 12,  is for everyone with an interest in honeybees and beekeeping. Learn how to start a honey bee colony, the seasonal management required to keep a healthy hive of bees and the role of pollinators and their relationship to flowering plants. Topics provide an overview of the beekeeper’s job, and will help new beekeepers, or those who are considering becoming a beekeeper, to make the correct choices starting a backyard apiary. Equipment and tools used by the beekeeper will be discussed and step by step instructions for starting a new colony of bees will be covered. At the end of the workshop participants should have a solid understanding of how to successfully begin as a new beekeeper.

    Dan Conlon owns Warm Colors Apiary in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. Warm Colors maintains bee yards in western Mass for honey production, and provides pollination services on area farms. As a full-time beekeeper, concerned with the decline of all bees, Dan focuses on management that improves Queen development & health, colony nutrition, and reduces the environmental risks threatening bees. He is President of the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association, and was recognized as the Eastern Apicultural Society’s 2004 Beekeeper of the Year, and the Massachusetts 2005 Beekeeper of the Year.

    $37 BBG members, $45 non members. Call 413-298-3926, or email info@berkshirebotanical.org for more information.