Honey Bee Short Course

2007 Course: Beginning Beekeeping
cancelled

Please contact Karen Pruiett if you have further questions.

A six-week Beekeeping for Beginners class is being offered in March 2007 by the Central Eastern Illinois Beekeepers' Association, in conjunction with the University of Illinois Department of Entomology at the recently completed UIUC Bee Research Facility. This noncredit comprehensive course will address beekeeping basics for the beginning student including honeybee biology, purchasing and assembling equipment, handling techniques, and package bee installation. The course ends on April 12, 2007, and runs every Thursday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M., for 5 weeks in March and one in April at the UIUC Bee Research Facility located at 3515 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana. Space is limited to 25 students and course cost is $30 which includes textbooks and other written materials. Equipment and package bees will be made available through the course for an additional fee. Minimum age requirement to attend the class is 14 years. Reserve your spot by sending your name, address, phone number, and email to:

Attn. Karen Pruiett
Beekeeping for Beginners
320 Morrill Hall
505 S.Goodwin Ave.
Urbana IL 61801

Please enclose a check made payable to Central Eastern Illinois Beekeepers' Assn. For class information, including directions to the bee lab, click here. Online registration forms will shortly be made available for download; check back soon.

To cover the liability issues of possible injury while attending the class at the Bee Research Facility, students are asked to sign a Waiver of Liability, which will soon be available for download.

Any questions may be directed to:

Note: After Feb. 10th, please contact one of the above persons to make sure that class space is still available before sending registration and class fee.

Course Information

Please click >here< for information on the course syllabus, materials required, and directions to the bee lab.

History

Gene Robinson initiated the University of Illinois Bees and Beekeeping Short course in 1997. The course is supported by the Department of Entomology, the Center for Economic Entomology at the Illinois Natural History Survey, and the Illinois Cooperative Extension Service; it is staffed by members of Robinson's research group, colleagues from the department and other parts of campus, and outside specialists. The course features lectures and workshops on many important topics for beginning and advanced beekeepers including mite control, sting allergies, and queen rearing. A unique feature of the course is the opportunity to learn about the exciting new research on honey as a nutraceutical performed here by a research team led by May Berenbaum. Another feature of the course is the opportunity for participants to join research teams and perform real experiments with honey bees as "citizen scientists." Response to the course has been very enthusiastic, and was offered for the fourth consecutive year this past summer. The course fits well with a new emphasis on university outreach, and we can expect it will be just the first of several outreach courses offered by our department.

Beekeepers get some hands on experience at a hive	Professor May Berenbaum lectures on the nutraceutical properties of honey