Beekeeping Bootcamp

If you've gotten your beehive through its first winter in Colorado, congratulations! You're about to have a second year hive! With a second year hive comes all new adventures in beekeeping, one of the most important of which is swarming. When a colony swarms, not only does a beekeeper lose their valuable experienced queen, but other issues such as a failure to produce a new queen or swarms moving into dangerous locations can occur. It is in a beekeeper s best interest to learn how to artificially create a  swarm  by doing a split to prevent their bees from becoming a community nuisance. It is also beneficial for new beekeepers to learn about swarm behavior and how they can get themselves free bees by becoming a swarm catcher.

In this workshop, we'll learn all about swarms, including signs that a colony is going to swarm, how to prevent your hive from swarming, how to make more hives by making splits, and basic swarm catching techniques. The workshop will start with a classroom lesson then move to Butterfly Pavilion's on-site apiary for a demonstration of how to split a hive.