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Interest in bee keeping has grown tremendously over the past ten years. Central Texas Beekeepers Association has been part of that movement, and is once again hosting its annual beekeeping school to help people of all ages learn more.
The 15th Annual Beginning Beekeeping School will be held Mar. 1 in Brenham, Texas. It will include sessions on Beginning Beekeeping, Apitherapy (the use of bee products in medicine), how to extract honey, where to get your bees and many more interesting topics.
There is even the opportunity to “suit up” and visit a live bee hive while a beekeeper opens the hive and shows the queen and honey inside.
Ninety-eight percent of the instruction is in the classroom. Here are some highlights: Dennis Herbert drafted the original legislation that allows small acreage land owners to receive their agricultural valuation by raising bees on their property. He has been a beekeeper in Bell County for 27 years. He will host several sessions that will discuss this law and how you can use beekeeping to qualify for property tax savings.
Ferhat Ozturk teaches Biomedical Sciences at the School of Science and Technology in San Antonio. He will be sharing his research into the use of bee products in medicine. For example, Bee Sting Therapy has been used to treat MS and Lyme disease. Honey is an anti-bacterial that can treat wounds and can help with allergies. Propolis, which is tree sap that bees gather to seal their hives, can make a tincture that has microbial and antiseptic properties. And bees wax can be used to make lip balm and in salves.
Brandon Fehrenkamp, the owner of Austin Bees, will teach a class on Top Bar Hives, bee removals, and bee consulting. Top Bar Hives are a natural way of raising bees without all the traditional equipment and without lifting heavy honey supers. They allow the beekeeper to harvest comb honey and eliminate the need to purchase additional equipment.
The one day Beginning Beekeeping School is open to the public and families are welcome to attend. The cost of the school is $100 for the first adult in a household and $90 for additional household members over 18. Active and retired Military will be $80. Students, including college, are $40 each. Children under the age of 12 are $25. Admission includes lunch.
Learn more about the school at www. centraltexasbeekeepers. org.
