Classes
2023 classes and workshops
- Beginner beekeeping classes:
- Beginner class series
- Backyard beekeeping class
- Beginner field workshop (March)
- Beginner field workshop (May)
- Intermediate beekeeping
- Intermediate class series
- Intermediate field workshop (March)
- Intermediate field workshop (May)
- All levels of beekeepers
- Integrated pest management (IPM) class
- Integrated pest management (IPM) field workshop
- Honey harvesting
- Overwintering your bees class
- Overwintering your bees field workshop
Beginner Beekeeping class series (9 hours, $215)
Know you want to keep bees? Classroom sessions will include basic bee information, seasonal cycles of a colony, equipment options, where to place your hive, how to get bees and tips on working with your equipment. When the weather warms up, there will be a field session so you can observe and practice working with your tools and bees.
$30 discount if you already took the Backyard Beekeeping Class. Some of the information will be repetitive, but there’s a lot of information, so probably not a bad thing!
Class room sessions: Saturdays, January 21 & 28, 9am – 12pm
Field Day: Sat., March 18, 9:30am – 12:30pm, location San Rafael (Rain date April 1)
Drop ins: $75 per class session, $95 for field workshop
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Intermediate Beekeeping class series (9 hours, $215)
You’ve got your colony through winter (or not) – now what? Class sessions will include how to clean up your equipment, expanding hive size for spring, swarm prevention- and if that fails, swarm capture, setting up bait hives for swarms, identification of common pest and diseases and management options for them. Topics will also include dealing with special situations: aggressive hives, queen failures, and laying workers. Field day will include information on how to split a colony, pest and disease ID, and swarm prevention.
Class room sessions: Saturdays, February 4 & 11, 9am – 12pm
Field Day: Sat., March 18, 1:30pm – 4:30pm, location San Rafael (Rain date April 1)
Drop ins: $65 per class session, $85 for field workshop
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Backyard Beekeeping (Saturday, March 11 or April 15 or November 11 or December 2, 9:00am – 12:00pm, $75)
Considering becoming a beekeeper? Take the first step by learning about this fascinating and important pollinator. This is a great time of year for new beekeepers to start planning so equipment is ready and bees are ordered in time for the 2016 season.
In this class, you’ll learn about the roles of the queen, workers and drones within a colony and how they interact with seasonal cycles. Learn about basic considerations you’ll need to take into account before jumping into this exciting new hobby including where to place your hive, equipment options and sources, bee sources, and time required.
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Beginner Beekeeping field workshop (March 25, 9:30am – 12:30pm, 3 hours, $95)
Observe different colonies of bees and practice working with your tools… and bees!
Location: San Rafael (Rain date April 8)
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Intermediate Beekeeping field workshop (March 25, 1:30am – 4:30pm, 3 hours, $95)
Coming out of winter: where / when to add space, swarm prevention, diseases and mites.
Location: San Rafael (Rain date April 8)
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Beekeeping Basics field workshop (Saturday, May 13, 9:30am – 12:30pm, $95)
You have your bees, now what?? Learn tips and techniques for using smoker, bee brush and hive tool. Will look into how to work your frames and what to be looking for to determine health of your queen and the colony as a whole. As urban beekeepers, it is important to prevent swarming (to the best of our ability), so you’ll learn what causes swarming , how to prevent, and how to recognize early warnings that a colony is making preparations to swarm. You’ll also get to see what a laying worker colony looks like (we inevitably have a few from queens who didn’t successfully return from mating during our nuc production) and techniques for making it queenright.
Location: San Rafael
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Intermediate Beekeeping field workshop (Saturday, May 13, 1:30pm – 4:30pm, $95)
An overwintered colony requires different spring management than a new colony. Some of the topics covered will include space management in the hive, queen issues (when you might need to replace and how you do that), and splitting a hive (for colony increase, swarm prevention, or as a method of varroa control).
Location: San Rafael
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) class (Saturday, July 8, 9am – 12pm, $75)
The challenges of managing pests and diseases in your colony can be overwhelming. We will look at the potential risks and benefits of various tools and techniques available to manage common pests and diseases in your colony.
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) field workshop (Location: San Rafael, Saturday, July 15, 9am – 12pm, $95)
We’ll be evaluating colony conditions and looking at different management options. Workshop will include conducting sugar rolls to determine mite infestation % levels and organic options for dealing with mites.
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
The Hows of Honey (Saturday, September 9, 9am – 12pm, no charge but donations to support The Fairfax Backyard Farmer encouraged)
Ready for your first harvest? Or want to learn tips to make the process easier? Join Bonnie and Gary as we discuss the “How’s of Honey:” How much you can harvest, how to collect honey from the hive, how to extract, how to clean up, how to process cappings, and more.
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Overwintering Your Bees: class (Saturday, September 16, 9am – 12:00pm, $75)
Preparing for winter, how to handle common winter problems, how to clean up / store equipment.
Location: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer, 135 Bolinas Rd, Fairfax.
Registration: The Fairfax Backyard Farmer
Overwintering Your Bees: field workshop (Location San Rafael, Saturday, September 23, 9am – 12:00pm, $95)
We’ll dive into hives to look at how much space needs to be reduced for winter, how much honey can be pulled, clean / store hive boxes for winter, and show you a use for the propolis scrapings.
