Summer Doldrums

Making Money from Honey  
– a beekeeping course taught by Neil Bertram and Ron Miksha

“Beekeeping can be fun and profitable.”

It’s July. Beekeeping time in the north.  During the past few weeks, I’ve been reviewing our course notes, re-writing the Making Money from Honey guide, and making some tweaks to our program.

Not much needs changed. Our feedback forms from the April class were very positive.  However, one person suggested that we spent too much time reviewing bee equipment. I think that’s a fair comment. I spoke for almost an hour on the types of equipment on the market, their various pros and cons, and the economic impact of selecting the wrong style of hive for your area. In the equipment lecture, I also talked about something that usually goes unspoken – even good beekeepers eventually die. Or get tired of bees. Or become allergic to stings. Or become too weak to lift honey supers.  When you buy your first boxes or expand your outfit, you have to consider the type of equipment that will sell best when it’s time for it to move on to new hands.  As you can see, between expansion and death, there is a lot to cover in the bee equipment section – but I’ll condense it into half an hour at our autumn offering.

While I’ve been working on course revisions, my teaching partner (Neil Bertram) has been busy with his bees. It has turned into a honey of a year here in Alberta, Canada, with a bumper crop filling most beekeepers’ shops. Neil took a short break (if you can call it a break) and opened his honey house and apiaries to a tour that was made possible by the Calgary and District Beekeepers‘ summer program called Saturday at the Hive. You can see something about that event here.

Keep following this site for our announcements for our fall courses, coming up in a few months!

The Fall 2016 session of Making Money from Honey is scheduled for Saturday, November 19.

Author: Ron Miksha

Ron Miksha is a geophysicist who also does a bit of science writing and blogging. Ron has worked as a radio broadcaster, a beekeeper, and is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has written two books, dozens of magazine and journal articles, and complements his first book, Bad Beekeeping, with a popular blog at www.badbeekeepingblog.com. Ron wrote his most recent book, The Mountain Mystery, for everyone who has looked at a mountain and wondered what miracles of nature set it upon the landscape. For more about Ron, including some cool pictures taken when he was a teenager, please check Ron's site: miksha.com. View all posts by Ron Miksha