The 4-part Art of Beekeeper course allows up to 10 people per class.

Normal cost to attend Bird and Bee 4-part Beekeeping class is $255, plus $150 for equipment (beekeepers jacket, gloves, smoker and hive tools) = $395. We are able to subsidize this price through grant-funding, and offer the course for $200 total, with equipment included! (Additional veteran and community scholarships are also available). In addition to the four in-person Saturday field days at Bird and Bee, we add four virtual meetings via Zoom where we meet and talk story with other Big Island beekeepers.

Participants are immersed in 26 hrs of beekeeping through Google Classroom, in-person lectures, and hands-on experiences in the beehives at the apiary. Most students are farmers local to the Big Island who already have their own farms or orchards. Students participate in classes to provide pollination to their farm and community; create value-added products; understand beekeeping for future application on their homesteads, or understand honey bees and the role that pollinators play in growing food.  A weekly mentoring program through Bird and Bee is offered free to all past participants.  This allows for ongoing learning as well as networking with other beekeepers in the community.

The course will cover the following general topics as well as much more:

• The bee colony and the history of beekeeping in the United States.
• Tools of the trade – What equipment is needed and how to use it.
• How to build equipment.
• Pests of the hive – how to manage them
• Value-added products of the hive
• Honey extracting -the tools needed and how to use them
• Colony management techniques