Next Saturday, the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park is offering a workshop on the ins and outs of backyard beekeeping.
Anybody can keep bees, but not everyone should be a beekeeper. Take the first step by learning about this fascinating and important pollinator that – faced by introduced pest species, environmental pollutants and a myriad of other factors – has struggled for survival in recent years.
Armed with a background of honeybees’ needs and current challenges, we’ll move on to important considerations to take into account before jumping into this dynamic new hobby: where to place the hive, equipment options and sources, and how to get bees. Your sweet reward at the end of class will be the opportunity to taste several varieties of local honey.
The workshop will be taught by Bonnie Bollengier, a member of the Marin County Beekeepers and the Marin Survivor Stock Project. She is committed to breeding local, untreated bees. Bonnie is also a co-coordinator for the 2012 Marin Pollen Project, a collaborative effort between Penn State University and beekeepers of Marin County.
The class runs from 9:30am until 12:30pm, and costs $30 for Botanical Garden members, $35 for non-members. You can register by downloading a form from their website, or by calling 661-1316, ext 400.
Sarah B.
How about keeping it local?
San Francisco, particularly the Richmond district, is a completely different microclimate than Marin. San Francisco Beekeepers Association puts on an amazing meeting every month, complete with lectures by well-known bee experts, and the camaraderie of local, experienced Beeks. All the classes you’d ever need are taught for every level of experience and on any subject, including “Bee Biology” which is the class being held this Saturday at the Randall Museum, taught by Brian Fishback for a third of the cost of this Marin class.
For more information, go to SFBee.org.