Learning About Bees and Beekeeping – The National Associations

Reader Contribution by Kim Flottum
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To successfully manage any colony…top bar, conventional or something in between, you must become schooled in the art, science and sometimes the politics of the craft of keeping bees. Many levels –  individual effort, informal and formal group efforts and actual institutional educational opportunities exist for all beekeepers. And you are never too old to learn or to learn more.

But don’t forget the primary rule… ask five beekeepers how to do something and you will get more, sometimes many more than five answers… most of them will work but some will be better than others, some won’t work at all, but more than one will be correct…correct that is for the beekeeper that gave the answer. It’s up to you to choose which one works best for your style, equipment, time, budget, location and skill level. Like most things in life there’s more than one correct way to accomplish almost any beekeeping task. And, like politics, all beekeeping is local. So how do you find out?

There are books to read, mentors to be found, classes to attend, groups to join, CDs to watch, blogs like this one to read, college courses to take, chat rooms to visit, internet classes to subscribe to, youtube videos to watch, magazines to read, and the guy down the block who may or may not know it all but doesn’t hesitate to tell you how to do it his way. Sometimes it may seem you are alone out there but in reality what you can find can be overwhelming. So where do you begin, and where do you go and who do you turn to for more once you’ve started?

Following are my observations on many of the educational opportunities beekeepers have. I think my information here is pretty unbiased. I’ve been involved with most of the sources we’ll discuss for more than 25 years. I’d like to share information about national, regional and local beekeeping associations, books to read, classes to take, internet opportunities to explore, and more. But not all at once. And, if you’ve been around awhile you have probably found some of these already. It will be interesting to compare notes on how helpful, or not, you find these sources. I’ll start with the National Associations because they are responsible for much of the policy that dictates how beekeeping research is directed and funded, what rules are created and implemented and much of the day to day things that make, and keep beekeeping possible in this country.

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