Hello Again Backyard Beekeepers!
It’s great to feel the cooler weather come in and to look forward to the coming months of holidays. I hope you all are healthy and are resting, or soon to be resting, from your many beekeeping activities this past year.
I still get such a kick out of talking about bees with anyone interested in listening. Non-beekeepers and new beekeepers alike have such a great curiosity about our honeybees.
When in conversation with many of those people I often bring up BYBA. I speak about our programs, our bee yards, and especially our mentorship program for the following reason: I believe many more people would get into beekeeping if they knew there was a support mechanism in place. This is exactly what BYBA and our mentorship program offer.
Beekeeping is such an exciting hobby to enter into, but as with all new things, some people have trepidation because of their preconceived notions about bees, about getting stung, the time commitment, and about the potential problems with neighbors if one were to introduce bees into the neighborhood. I think it’s our job to help dispel some of the myths and the many concerns that “prospective “newbees” may have. We do this best through conversation and education.
We can educate people by talking about our own experiences from when we first became beekeepers. We can remove some of the fear by talking up our mentorship program. Where else do you know that you can join a club and be given a mentor in essence, for free? Our mentors love helping new beekeepers and sharing in the excitement that they bring as they venture into our wonderful hobby.
Our mentors are there to answer calls, come to the mentee’s home, and go into the hive with them. Many mentors have helped their “newbee” build new equipment, hive their first package, extract their first frame of honey, and teach them all about the small nuances of how to read their hive.
All that we as a club do and all that we as individuals do, to educate people about keeping honeybees, is why I am proud to be part of BYBA. And I know you all feel the same way.
So, keep talking to everyone interested in listening about beekeeping and introduce them to the Back Yard Beekeepers Association. Tell those who are interested to check us out and invite them to come to one of our meetings. Become a mentor in 2022 and let’s get more people into beekeeping. They will be glad they did!
Rick Glover
President
BYBA 2021