Start your beekeeping adventure the right way! Led by MABA’s panel of experts, this one-day intro to beekeeping course teaches the fundamentals of beekeeping — from equipment selection and acquiring bees, to bee biology, inspections, pest control, diseases of the hive and more. Anyone interested in learning about honey bees is welcome to attend, even if a hive is not in your immediate future. You must register in advance (see below).
What’s Included
• First-class presentations presented by experienced urban beekeepers
• Information on how to get started in beekeeping properly, including:
– Beekeeping Equipment and Hive Locations
– Installing the Bees
– Honey Bee Biology
– Live Smoker Lighting Demonstrations
– Flowering Plants and Trees for Bees
– Diseases and Pests
– Hive Inspection and Care
– Honey Extraction and Hive Products
– A Year in the Apiary
• One-year MABA club membership
• Continental Breakfast
• Lunch with an experienced beekeeper
• Artisanal honey ice cream snack break
• Chance to win door prizes and raffle drawings
Each participant will also receive a goody bag filled with:
• UGA entomology professor Dr. Keith S. Delaplane’s book First Lessons In Beekeeping
• Beekeeping Supplier Catalogs
• List of sources to obtain bees
• Local honey
• Helpful reference materials
• And more!
Equipment Vendor
Joining us this year as our supply/equipment vendor will be Pigeon Mountain Trading Company. This gives prospective beekeepers the opportunity to purchase equipment on site, see equipment first hand, try on beekeeping suits, etc.
Register at:
https://www.memberplanet.com/s/mababc/retreatregistration_44_1_1_2_2_1_1
MABA-member Wayne Hughes will be speaking on the topic of treatment-free beekeeping. Wayne is a UGA Certified Beekeeper and has kept bees since 2010 and has been successfully treatment free for the entire duration! He is the owner of the family-run Sweet Harmony Apiaries in Marietta, Georgia, where they do not use any chemicals in their hives. Wayne is a jack of all trades, holding degrees in Music and Information Technology, and spent the formative years of his life working in the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC trades. After much study, research, and field trials, he used his skills from the HVAC trade to understand beehive thermodynamics and developed a patent pending hive design. This design leverages biomimicry to provide optimum conditions for honeybees as well as being lightweight, easy to manipulate, pest resistant, and maximizes honey yields.
Our monthly meetings are held at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (3180 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30305) inside Heritage Hall on the 2nd Monday of each month, except September and December when we hold our annual fall honey show/pot luck and holiday party respectively. On arrival, check-in at the welcome table to be entered into our monthly door prize drawing. Enjoy snacks and fellowship in the back of the room. Membership is not required. Everyone interested in honey bees is welcome!
At MABA’s March 10th meeting, our featured speaker will be Dr. Isaac Weinberg. Dr. Weinberg received his PhD from Tufts University in May of 2023 where he studied the behavioral ecology of honey bees. He now works for Dalan Animal Health, the Athens, GA-based company which has developed the first licensed vaccine for honey bees. Isaac will be speaking to MABA about his dissertation research on temperature in the hive and how it affects where bees store food and brood in their hives. His research looked at where and why bees choose to raise brood in certain parts of the honey comb and where they store honey and pollen.
Our monthly meetings are held at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (3180 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30305) inside Heritage Hall on the 2nd Monday of each month, except September and December when we hold our annual fall honey show/pot luck and holiday party respectively. On arrival, check-in at the welcome table to be entered into our monthly door prize drawing. Enjoy snacks and fellowship in the back of the room. Membership is not required. Everyone interested in honey bees is welcome!