Campuses:
This 2 day course provides all the information necessary to keep bees in cold climates. We take you through two years of beekeeping; purchasing and assembling equipment, ordering bees and queens, hiving packages, ensuring colony survival through winter, dividing colonies in the spring, and producing, harvesting, extracting, bottling, and selling honey. We also cover the important basics of disease and mite management and control, emphasizing a reduction in chemical use within bee hives.
We have made a change this year: This course is for beginning beekeepers only. If you have kept bees before, please enroll in the April course. We have had to turn a number of people away in recent years due to over-enrollment. Please, give our newbees the opportunity to register! We need more beekeepers!
When: Yearly in March (March 2 - 3, 2013). There will not be an October class in 2012!
Where: University of Minnesota Arboretum
More information and registration for March 2 - 3, 2013
This course is for experienced beekeepers wanting to learn the Horizontal 2 Queen system or those people that have already taken the Basics course in the past and need a refresher. First time beekeepers: please register for the March basics course! Thank you! This 1-day intensive course quickly reviews all the information provided in the Basic course (offered in March). The main focus will be on wintering your colonies and on making divides in spring to prevent swarming. We will also give the latest updates on disease and mite management and control, emphasizing a reduction in chemical use within bee hives. All questions will be answered.
When: April 13, 2013
Where: University of Minnesota
More information Registration CLOSED
Why not rear your own queens? The University of Minnesota Queen Rearing short course teaches one method of rearing queens that works consistently for both hobby and commercial beekeepers. Topics covered include queen and drone biology, timing of queen rearing in northern climates, stock selection and breeding for hygienic behavior, setting up mating yards, and record keeping. Everyone will have a chance to try their hand at grafting larvae and raising their own queens. A unique feature of the course is the section on queen rearing equipment designs that will allow you to build your own!
When: June 28-30, 2013
Where: University of Minnesota
More information and registration
This web-based course is a guide to keeping bees healthy and on their own six feet. It features the Hives Angels (our Super-Heroines, the honey bee colony) and her Villians (the diseases and mite pests that attack the Hives Angels). The user will first become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the Hives Angels, and then will follow a 5-step approach to combating the villains.
When: take it anytime ONLINE!
More information and registration
This is a 3-week, entirely hands-on course, in which all students learn to handle and manage honey bees and bumblebees. The course is open to the public, but requires registering for one credit through the University of Minnesota. See Academic Courses.
