Classes
2024 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) field workshop
- Honey harvesting
- Overwintering your bees field workshop
- Wax Crafting
The Heidrun Meadery Bee Experience
Join Bonnie and Gary on the grounds of the beautiful Heidrun Meadery in Point Reyes Station for their legendary Bee Experience… a true flower-to-flute event
After a brief introduction to our apicultural program at Heidrun, we’ll don beekeeping suits and head out to the apiary for a hands-on inspection of working hives
From those hives, we’ll pull frames laden with honey to hand-extract and you’ll even jar up our estate honey to take with you! We’ll then walk you through how honey is made into mead and wind down on the patio with a relaxing mead-tasting
These one-of-a-kind tours are offered on select Sundays Spring thru Fall
Visit this link for more details
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.
Classroom sessions: Saturdays, January 27, February 3 2024 9am – 12pm via Zoom
Field Day: Sat., March 16, 9:30am – 12:30pm, location San Rafael (Rain date April 6)
Refund Policy
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.
Classroom sessions: Saturdays, February 10 & 17, 2024 9am – 12pm Via Zoom
Field Day: Sat., March 16, 1:30pm – 4:30pm, location San Rafael (Rain date April 6)
Refund Policy
Backyard Beekeeping Lecture via Zoom
(Saturday, March 9 or April 20 or November 9 or December 7 , 9:00am – 12:00pm, $65)
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 2024 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.
Refund Policy
Beginner Beekeeping Field Day workshop (March 23, 9:30am – 12:30pm, 3 hours, $85)
Observe different colonies of bees and practice working with your tools… and bees!
Location: San Rafael (Rain date April 13)
Intermediate Beekeeping Field Day workshop (March 23, 1:30pm – 4:30pm, 3 hours, $85)
Coming out of winter: where / when to add space, swarm prevention, diseases and mites.
Location: San Rafael (Rain date April 13)
Refund Policy
Beekeeping Basics Field workshop (Saturday, May 11, 9:30am – 12:30pm, $85)
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
Refund Policy
Intermediate Beekeeping Field workshop (Saturday, May 11, 1:30pm – 4:30pm, $85)
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
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Field workshop Saturday, July 13 9am – 12pm, $85)
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.
Location: San Rafael
The Hows of Honey (Saturday, September 7 , 9am – 12pm $85 )
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.
Location: San Rafael
Overwintering Your Bees: field workshop ( Saturday, September 21, 9am – 12:00pm, $85)
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.
Wax Crafting: Field workshop ( Saturday, October 26, 9am – 12:00pm, $105, includes materials fee)
Join us for an illuminating wax crat processing and creation workshop in this ancient art form .
Learn tips and tricks to create a variety of golden treasures for yourself or as holiday gifts for loved ones
Participants will learn how to melt and clean wax capping and create three wax crafts to take home
Location: San Rafael
