BEEKEEPING SCHOOL SUMMARY

Warning, long post!

So I got up at 5:15am.  Showered, dressed and headed out by about 6:15am.  It's a lovely drive from Houston to Brenham, about 65 miles NW.  Pretty much just getting on one freeway and driving until you exit, turn right and arrive!

When I arrived, there was already a line at the check in table.  They had over 500 participants registered.  It was awesome!  We all received these yellow gift bags that were full of catalogs and brochures and magazines, all related to bees and beekeeping.

Since I was a bit early, I did partake in the breakfast of champions; donuts and hot tea with some bee reading!

Of course, there would be local honey for sale, I mean what kind of beekeeping school wouldn't have that? LOL.  The first class of the morning was two and a half hours.  It was called "Beekeeping 101: For Beginners".  It lasted from 9:00am to 11:30am.  The time FLEW by.  So much good info and the instructor was great.  He went through things step by step, how the hive works, anatomy of bees, how the colony is organized, pests, where to put your hive, feeding, wintering, etc.  LOTS of info, handouts and a bunch of handwritten notes.  For a brief moment, I had a college flashback.

Then it was time for lunch, traditional Texas fare at an event like this, smoked BBQ chicken, sausage, potato salad, beans, pickles, onions and white bread.  It was yummy!

...oh, and being that the fairground in Brenham, TX is just a few blocks up the road from the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory, there was, of course, Blue Bell homemade vanilla for dessert (I did not eat that entire box).

After lunch, there was time to visit some of the demonstrations before the next class.  Here was a demonstration of hive building from kit form. Fascinating but it made me realize I will buy hives that are already built, ha.

This was a hive inspection demonstration.  It was nice to see children involved and interested in bees.  Lots of children there and they truly seemed interested.

Then I visited the vendors area where they had all sorts of honey related products.  This is a Texas winery that produces mead, a honey wine.  I tried a couple.  One was delicious and sweet but another tasted like cough syrup, ha.  I wanted to sample them all but didn't want to come across as a lush or something.

This lady brought her painted beehives to display.  Very pretty!  Her beekeeping tool box (on the side) was painted purple.  I would love to see her bee yard.

Then it was time for a smoker demonstration.  It was really nice to see how the smoker is lit and used...as long as you weren't standing downwind, ha.

Had to swing by the table with all the home baked 'honey goodies' and t-shirts and gift baskets from the local clubs.

I was really loving this sparkly new, white, Langstroth hive.  It was part of the grand prize raffle that was held at the end of the day.*

*Alas, I did not win.

There were also vendors there that were not bee related but certainly interesting to see and chat with.  We're going to look into these large cistern rain collection tanks once we get gutters up on the house.

The last demonstration I attended was on honey extraction.  That was fascinating, as I had never seen the entire process.

She showed how the frames were prepped (decapping) and then put into the honey extractor.  It uses centrifugal force to spin the honey out without damaging the combs. She tipped it over when it was done...

...and poured out some wonderful, fresh from the comb, honey.

After eating lunch, visiting vendors and watching the demonstrations, I finished up the rest of the classes I signed up for:

"What Should I Order?  A Trip Through the Catalog"
"Beekeeping as a Property Tax Exemption"
"Beescapes: Choosing Honey Plants for Gardens, Landscapes & Rural Land"

The day was over about 5pm.  I learned a LOT, took tons of notes, and I'm already perusing through the catalogs and creating a list of what to buy.  I think I may have even already pinpointed a spot at the farm to make a bee yard.

This is pretty cool.  When you checked in, they had participants' names printed on little slips of paper.  They gave you your name and a pin and you pinned it on this map of Texas to show where you came from.  The red dot is where the school was held so you can see how far away some people came.  Those slips outside the map?  They are from other states!

I'll share the things I learned in upcoming posts so I can spread the knowledge.

We have two thank you shout outs to give.  The first is to blog commenter JM and his wife.  They are the ones who tipped us to the school just in time to sign up for it.  Thank you both!!!   And of course, we would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped organize and teach the school.

Central Texas Beekeeping Association