Registration is Open for the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Short Course!

This year my friend and fellow beekeeper, Julia Mahood, and I are the co-chairs for the MABA short course.  The course is a one day event from 8:30 - 4:30 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden on January 18, 2014.

If you are in the Atlanta area or know someone who would love to start keeping bees, please sign up!
It's a great day of learning and finding out lots of tips and tricks about being a beekeeper.  We have a good line up of experienced and Master Beekeepers to provide tons and tons of information.  A good lunch is provided with vegetarian and gluten-free options and we are going to have a great day.

Historically the course sells out long before the day of the course so you have to sign up ahead of time.
Here's the SIGN UP PAGE!


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Come one, come all!

Bees in Winter at the Botanical Garden

For the first time this year, the Atlanta Botanical Garden has a new event, a festival of lights that is really beautiful. We toured the whole thing the Friday right after Thanksgiving....along with about 2999 other people.

It was really spectacular - especially the display in the main plaza.

When we got to the back side of the garden, they have an herb wall garden.  Each brick of the wall has herbs growing on/from it.  In front of these herbs is a display of bees created from light.  We, of course, just had to take pictures!  My daughter took all of these below.



One of the bees up close and personal.



Here I am in front of one of the bees.



And again.

Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Short Course

On Saturday, January 24, we held the annual Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Short Course for beginning beekeepers. We had over 61, I think 64, paid registrants. The course was held at the Atlanta Botanical Garden and you can see all the eager faces below, ready to learn to be beekeepers.



The kids from the Montessori school presented a beginning beekeeper talk for the group. They brought their observation hive for all to see. It was great for the participants both to hear the enthusiasm of these kids and to see real bees at the short course.



Curtis Gentry, the official beekeeper at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, gave a helpful talk on the components of the hive. Curtis is a great teacher - really good with labels and with providing easy to understand answers. Here he is answering the questions of a participant (Dr. Gentry is on the left).



A regular presenter at our Short Course is Dr. Jamie Ellis, second from the right. He is also helpful, funny, engaging and generally a pleasure to listen to as he imparts his vast knowledge. Before we lost him to Florida, he was at the University of Georgia bee lab working with Keith Delaplane.

Metro Atlanta Short Course coming up in January - Register NOW

If you are in the Atlanta area, the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Association offers a fabulous short course for beginning beekeepers that happens this coming January on January 24, 2009 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The focus is always on helping one get started "bee-ing" a beekeeper and you'll find it well worth your while if you are within driving distance of Atlanta. We actually had a beekeeper from Mississippi come to take our course last year!

A good description of what will be offered and what you may learn can be found here.

If you sign up after reading this, be sure and tell them that you read about it on my blog! I'd love to know if writing about it here has any impact.

Hive Inspection at the Atlanta Botanical Garden Apiary

Today I was lucky enough to get to participate in a Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' Club sponsored inspection of the hives at the Apiary at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The inspection leader was Gerard McCann, a skilled beekeeper, an expert on comb honey, a good speaker (he's given some very educational programs at the Metro Beekeepers' meetings) and the person in charge of these hive inspections. He set this one up as an extra session especially for all of us who couldn't put our names on the list for the dates available because by the time it came around to our side of the meeting room, all slots were filled.

In general, Gerard is generous of spirit and kind in his approach....in other words, a perfectly lovely afternoon was had by all with Gerard as our guide - even in the sweaty, humid Atlanta heat.

To watch the slideshow AND read the captions, click on the picture below. That will take you to the web album page where you can choose "slideshow" (upper left) and watch the whole thing. You can make the slide stay on your screen longer by clicking on the plus sign and changing the seconds upward from 4 at the bottom of the picture on your screen.