The Bare Basics of Backyard Beekeeping
Sat, Aug. 29th | 10am | Choose Your Price ($30 to $5)

Most people get into beekeeping for the honey and stay for everything else. A hive is a working colony of tens of thousands of insects running a system that has been refined for millions of years, and you get a front row seat to it.
This class is for anyone who has been curious about backyard beekeeping and will help answer questions about the time, effort and costs associated with it.
Tim starts inside the hive: who does what, how a queen differs from a worker, why the drones get shown the door every fall, and how an egg becomes a foraging bee in about three weeks. Once you understand what the colony is trying to do, the rest of beekeeping makes a lot more sense.

In this class, you’ll discover:
- Honeybee biology and the life cycle, from egg to adult
- What actually happens inside a hive across the seasons
- The equipment you need to start, and the equipment you can skip
- Where to buy hives, tools, and bees here in Western North Carolina
- What a first year realistically costs
- When to order bees, since the good sources fill up months ahead
- How the Macon County Beekeepers Association supports new keepers year round
No experience needed. You will not be opening a hive or handling bees in this session, so come as you are.

Tim Maier is Vice President of the Macon County Beekeepers Association.