Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12A
THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2016
Beekeeping Institute: 25 years, 2,500 attendees
BY MERRITT
MELANCON
UNIVERSITY OF
GEORGIA
For more than two
decades, beekeepers from
acro.ss the Southeast and
beyond have come togeth
er each spring in the north
Georgia mountains to talk
bees, learn from each other
and hobnob with some of
the most renowned bee
experts in the world.
Part comic-con for bees,
part tent revival for pollinator
protection and part Exten
sion workshop, the annual
Young Harris College - Uni
versity of Georgia Beekeep
ing lastitute has educated
more than 2,500 beekeepers
over the past 25 years.
“This is our 25th year
doing the Young Harris
College - UGA Beekeeping
Institute, and I think any
thing that lasts 25 years is
pretty commendable,” UGA
Honey Bee Program director
Keith Delaplane. “This has
emerged from being just a
regional meeting to having
a national and international
scale. We have people com
ing in from different coun
tries and from many, many
states.”
In 1991, Delaplane teamed
up with fellow beekeeper and
Young Harris College biolo
gy professor Paul Arnold to
develop a regional beekeep
ing workshop to help South
eastern beekeepers tackle
emerging problems.
“We needed a place
where people could go to
get a good, well-rounded
education in beekeeping,”
Arnold said. “There were a
lot of local bee clubs and
beekeepers all over Georgia
and the Southeast, but one
of the things that was lacking
back then was an education
al component.... At the time
we started this, we wanted to
make a difference in the edu
cation of beekeepers.”
Starting with 50 beekeep
ers and a few hives around
campus, UGA and Young
Harris iastructors and bee
experts from across the
region came together to host
the first iastitute. Over the
years, each three-day work
shop has grown to include
between 250 and 300 student
beekeepers and iastructors
from around the world.
This year beekeepers from
as far away as the Cayman
Islands, Oklahoma and
Michigan joined the institute.
The iastitute’s reputation
for presenting the latest,
research-based information
in an informal atmosphere
has not only increased the
geographic diversity of the
attendees, but has also
grown the demographic
diversity of the attendees.
The beekeepers gathered
at the iastitute in recent years
are more diverse in terms of
age and lifestyle. Twenty-five
years ago, the crowd was
older and more likely to live
on rural farmland, Arnold
said. Today, you’re just as
likely to meet a 35-year-old
suburban dad or a 20-some-
thing working on an urban
agriculture project in down
town Atlanta.
“In the last 20 years or so,
there's been a resurgence in
beekeeping interest,” Arnold
said. “I see more young bee
keepers today.”
“Sue Selewski, who farms
several vacant lots in down
town Detroit, came down
to the beekeeping iastitute
because she was looking
to revitalize her beekeeping
operation and expand her
farm."
“We don’t have any pro
grams like this in Michigan
— nothing that’s this exten
sive,” said Selewski. “I really
wanted to get into something
that was more scientific.”
“This has been very, very
good,” she said. “My mind
was on fire yesterday.”
Selewski plans to take
these lessoas back to Michi
gan and share them with her
local bee club in Detroit.
The skill and information
sharing that happens at local
bee clubs after members
return home makes it hard
to measure the full impact
of the iastitute, said Jennifer
Berry, a UGA-based bee edu
cator, institute organizer and
laboratory manager for the
UGA Honey Bee Program.
There is a lot of informal
information sharing after the
iastitute, but, over the years,
the staff has also certified
more than 500 Georgia Mas
ter Beekeepers. The training
and rigorous tasting program
— run as part of the institute
— is modeled on the Geor
gia Master Gardener Exten
sion Volunteer program and
requires an annual commu
nity education or service
commitment to maintain
certification.
For instructors like Berry,
the annual institute is a
chance to recharge. The
enthusiasm of the students
helps to reaffirm the reason
that she and other research
ers study bee health.
“It’s really enjoyable to
meet new beekeepers and
it really reinvigorates us,”
Berry said. “The quastioas
that new beekeepers ask —
because they haven’t been
involved in it as long — actu
ally stimulate us to think
about it in a different light
as well.”
For more information
about the Young Harris Col
lege - UGA Beekeeping lasti
tute and the UGA Honey Bee
Program, visit ent.uga.edu/
bees/.
Merritt Melancon is a
news editor with the Uni
versity of Georgia College
of Agricultural and Environ
mental Sciences.
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