Now is a good time to reserve a spot in Bee Camp:
https://bushfarms.com/beescamp.htmI call this my "Tom Sawyer" bee camp. What I want is for you to come and do my bee work and pay me for it. But, of course I hope you get to learn a lot about how I keep bees in the process. Seriously it is how I hope to get somewhat caught up on bee work while teaching at the same time.
I call this a "camp" because it fits my view of what "camp" is. They have football camp, band camp etc. and in this case most of the participants are camping in tipis or their own campers or tents, so it is a camp in that sense as well as the "football camp" sense that we are focused on bees. I suppose we could call it a symposium, but that sounds so much more formal than sleeping in tipis, doing bee work and talking about bees all day and half the night. It is kind of an immersion into beekeeping as we will be doing things to do with beekeeping all day long for the most part. We may spend some time on other farm related things, but everyday will involve bees and most conversations will involve bees.
Bee Camp dates: 23-27 May 2024 (arriving 22 May leaving 28 May)
(Work week will be 18-22 May 2024 arriving May 17)
Location: Nehawka, Nebraska 68413(45 miles south of Omaha Eppley Airport)
Accommodations: meals and camping in a tipi provided. I highly recommend staying in the camp. If you don't you will miss a lot of the camaraderie, but Hotel or Glamping (glamour camping) are available in the area at the cost of the camper and the camper is responsible for arrangements. Here is a list of hotels by distance and the top ten hotels by ranking. The map that shows the hotels does not show Nehawka. Nehawka is 2 miles or so west of Union.
Weather permitting we will be doing bee things for at least 4 hours a day, usually more like 12 and other activities the rest of the day.
We will probably be talking about bees all the time.
Bee activities we will do:
All aspects of queen rearing will be done (several batches going at once) including:
Cell starter
Cell finisher
Grafting
Mating nucs
Catching and marking queens
Working with an actual swarm
Also
Splits
Inspections
Building equipment
Repairing and cleaning equipment
Tentative schedule (depending on weather, bees etc. Equipment, inspections etc. will fill out the days). I am giving this so you can better plan what days to show up and leave but it is not "cut in stone" as weather and bees sometimes decide for us and I may adjust to better serve the participants if they have to leave and we haven't covered something they want to do.
Fri May 17 people who wish to earn a scholarship to cover their expenses show up for "work week" get settled in
Sat May 18-Wed May 22 Work week for those working for their scholarship.
Wed May 22 pick people up at airport, settle people in. Orientation etc.
Thu May 23 put cells in mating nucs. Move cells from starter to finisher. (batch of queens started the previous friday). Setup starter. Setup finisher. Graft.
Fri May 24 inspections of outyards possible splits, cut down splits etc.
Sat May 25 cells in mating nucs. Transfer cells to finisher
Sun May 26 catch queens or setup more mating nucs
Mon May 27 inspections
Tue May 28 get people to the airport etc.
Due to issues with turning people away because we were booked up and then having them not show I've decided to get $100 non-refundable deposit to hold your spot.
Topic: Bee Camp 2024 (Read 4626 times)