Success StoryEastern Bluegrass Bee School



Eastern Bluegrass Bee School

Author: Eric Baker

Planning Unit: Estill County CES

Major Program: Bees/Beekeeping

Plan of Work: Marketing, Diversifying, and Managing Local Agriculture

Outcome: Initial Outcome

Beekeeping is a great way to further diversify the farm, or homestead. Bees can be used to make a variety of products including honey, wax, and a variety of value added products such as soaps, lotions, and many others. These products can supply additional revenue streams to small farms or homesteads. Bees are also important for their role in pollinating various crops such as vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, and others. Several research studies have also indicated that pollinator insects, including honey bees, have been on the decline. Due to the opportunities associated with beekeeping, and efforts to reverse the trends on pollinator decline, interest in beekeeping in Estill and surrounding counties has grown in recent years, and additional beekeeping education has been requested by Estill County residents. As a result, Estill County Beekeeper group was established by the Estill County Cooperative Extension Service in 2017 and began meeting 1 day per month. These meetings were designed to provide an opportunity for beekeepers at various levels of expertise to share ideas with each other, allow beekeepers to be updated on hive status/condition in the county on a regular basis, and to create an opportunity to share unbiased university-based research related to beekeeping and pollinator activities. The Estill County Beekeeper group, along with beekeepers in surrounding counties, recognized a need to create additional educational opportunities for beekeepers in the eastern Bluegrass Region. In an effort to meet that need, the Clark, Powell, Madison, and Estill County Cooperative Extension Service collaborated to conduct the Eastern Bluegrass Bee School in February 2018. This was a one day school that was designed to provide learning opportunities for both new and advance beekeepers. Dr. Tom Webster, Kentucky State University Apiary Extension Specialists covered the basics of beekeeping by going through a calendar of beekeeping activities to complete throughout the year, discussing hive pest management practices, the basics of beekeeping supplies, purchasing bees, and much more. Dr. Ric Bessin, UK Extension Entomologist, discussed practices for protecting bees from pesticides, discussed the new Kentucky Pollinator Alert, and much more. There were 80 participants that attended the bee school. A survey at the end of the program indicated 85% of the participants learned about recommended beekeeping practices which they did not know before attending, 86% learned information about starting a hive that they had not known previously, and 91% learned new hive pest management practices as a result of attending the school. The survey also indicated 93% of the participants planned to alter, implement newly learned beekeeping practices that they learned about during the school. Of those that attended, 91% indicated that they would alter, or establish new hive pest management practices based on what they had learned by attending the bee school. All of the participants indicated that they would like to see the school conducted again in the spring of 2019.






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