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Beekeeping: Home

Beekeeping for Beginners

The Upper Valley Campus (UVC)  is offering Spring Beekeeping for Beginners course on Saturday, April 21 from 1-4pm in the UVC gardens.  To pre-register online go to www.napavalley.edu/commedreg.  This course is perfect for those who have little or no beekeeping experience who seek more knowledge and practical hands-on skills in order to begin owning and caring for their own honeybee colonies.  Designed primarily for those wishing to explore beekeeping, gain understanding about honeybee behavior, and learn options for the management of honeybee colonies, this two hour class is also an excellent opportunity for people with prior beekeeping experience to refresh and hone their beekeeping skills while gaining knowledge of the latest information on beekeeping options.  Led by Jon Sevigny, longtime beekeeper, beekeeping mentor, and lead for the Napa Valley Beekeeper's Association, this engaging mix of hands-on activities and lecture includes essential beekeeping topics and how-to-skills:  the importance of bees, honeybee biology basics, beekeeping equipment, beekeeping resources and how to connect to the local beekeeping community.  This Libguide is just one of the many resources available to support students taking this course.

Fun Facts About Bees

  • In the course of her lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.

  • To make one pound of honey, workers in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers.

  • A productive hive can make and store up to two pounds of honey a day. Thirty-five pounds of honey provides enough energy for a small colony to survive the winter.

  • Theoretically, the energy in one ounce of honey would provide one bee with enough energy to fly around the world.

  • Most researchers believe the honeybee originated in Africa. The first European colonists introduced Apis mellifera, the common honeybee, to the Americas. Native Americans referred to the bees as "White Man's Fly." Today honeybees can be found all over the world.

  • Bees have five eyes. The three ocelli are simple eyes that discern light intensity, while each of the two large compound eyes contains about 6,900 facets and is well suited for detecting movement. While bees cannot recognize the color red, they do see ultraviolet colors.

Beekeeping in the Napa Valley

The Death of Bees Explained

Beginner Beekeeping (A series of videos from the University of Georgia Continuing Education)

A Supermarket without Bees

What Happens If All the Bees Die?

Pollinators Extra-Ordinaire

Bee on Stained Glass