Learn bees
The honey bee arrived with the colonists in the early 1600s and spread rapidly. Our honey bee is also known as The Western Honey bee (scientifically Apis mellifera) and originated in the tropics of Africa. Early settlers valued the honey bee as a source of honey and beeswax.
Honey bees get used today as the pollinators of choice in agriculture – not because they are the “best” pollinator but instead because honey bees are 1) generalist pollinators and 2) their colonies are easily transportable, and 3) the foraging population of a honey bee colony can be 30,000 bees.
The honey bee is not the only bee in Maine: there are over 280 bees native to Maine! Most of the native bees don’t live in colonies and don’t make honey nor beeswax beyond their needs. The native bees appear to coexist with honey bees, as long as honey bee colony numbers are not overwhelming.
All bees need a healthy place to live, along with access to food and water. Anything you can do to improve your local environment for bees is a huge help!
Honey bees are here, and they are not going away! Maine Bee Wellness wants all bees in Maine to thrive.
So you want to keep HONEY bees.
Great!
We’re here to help!
First a quick question: Why?
If you answered ”to help save the bees” there are things that can make you a more effective bee crusader. You might focus, for example, on improving the habitat for honey bees and native pollinators.
Did you know that not only is the honey bee not native to Maine but that there are at least 286 species of native bees in Maine? Many of those natives are the ones that need saving, not the Honey bees.
But if you want to learn about bees, improve your garden or orchard pollination, make some honey, or get involved with agriculture, keeping bees may be the thing for you. Most any spot in Maine can support a few hives, and there are plenty of places you can learn about Honey bees and how to keep them!
Depending on your learning style, you may find yourself taking a class or reading a book. There are some great videos and instructional websites on the Internet. We’ll be here to help you pick out the books you should read and the websites you can trust.
Maine has a marvelous reputation for having some of the best bee education in the country. We’ll help you find the right class for you.
There is a support system. Most areas in Maine have a local bee club, and those clubs are almost always part of the Maine State Beekeepers Association. (a statewide organization for beekeepers and people wanting to learn about beekeeping.) Maine also has a State Apiarist – a full-time person inside the Department of Agriculture who spends much time providing education about bees and beekeeping.
And, of course, there is Maine Bee Wellness, too. We want you to be a successful keeper of bees!
So come on in; the water is fine. Most people spend the fall and winter learning about bees and gathering the equipment needed to start keeping bees in the spring. This website will tell you what you need to know.
Beginning bee books
There are hundreds of books about bees and many more if we include out of print ones. For those just starting out, here are a few we like. (The links are to Amazon. Please try to borrow or buy the books locally – we want you to see the covers without dealing with copyright issues.)
Storey's Guide to Keeping Honey Bees, 2nd Edition
And while often used as a text for introductory classes, we feel it probably should be considered more of an intermediate level text:
VIDEOS
There is no shortage of videos about beekeeping on the internet. Lots of good ones, some bad, some entertaining and bad.
If you find yourself watching a video and you hear “Watch me as I install my first package,” quickly turn off your computer! The information presented just could be harmful to your bees!
There are three sets of videos, all available on Youtube, that are full of solid information. They are produced by The University of Guelph (in Ontario, Canada) Honey Bee Research Centre, EAS Master Beekeeper David Burns of Long Lane Honey Farms, and Canadian Beekeepers Ian Steppler and Devan Rawn.
All of these are excellent. Of course there are others. These are ones we have confidence in.
Master Beekeepers
A Master Beekeeper is someone who has demonstrated knowledge of bees and beekeeping to the satisfaction of a certifying organization.
Some certifying organizations simply test, while others provide instruction.
In Maine, the most popular program is that of the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America, Inc., which tests candidates once yearly at their Annual Conference & Short Course. In 2023, the EAS Short Course and conference will be held at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst from July 31 to August 4, 2023, in Amherst, MA.
A popular online option is the program offered by The University of Montana’s School of Extended and Life-Long Learning. Prerequisites include completing their Apprentice and Journeyman classes – though testing out of them may be an option.
New to our area – and while MEBW is not aware of many Maine participants – it may because of proximity be interesting – is the Pollinator Network at Cornell. (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences). This program offers online classes and, in normal times, requires traveling to Ithaca, New York, for testing (it is amazing what one can do with Zoom these days). As of December 2022, MEBW is aware of three Maine residents recognized by the Cornell program as Master Beekeepers.