SAN FRANCISCO BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION |
The Best Intro To Beekeeping Training in SF!
2024 Intro Classes are over. Next Intro training in Spring 2025.Beekeeping/Part 1: Essential Equipment
Here are some of the things about gear we will cover:
- About bees: Who they are and why do we want to keep them?
- Hardware and Protective Gear: Smokers, hive tools, bee suits, gloves and other gear
- Hive Boxes: Eight or ten frames, deeps vs mediums, prepping, painting, what you need now and what you'll want later in the year
- Queen excluders: Use one or not?
- Frames: What's right for you? Wood vs plastic, wax vs plasticell foundation?
- Tops, Bottoms, Feeders: What's best for your set up?
- Where to place your hive: The good, the bad and the "don't do that."
- Where to buy stuff: Major online retailers, the choices out there, should you buy used?
- Where to learn more: Online forums and more
Beekeeping/Part 2: Beekeeping Basics
Here are some of the things we will cover so your bees stay healthy:
- Lots more about honey bees. Including some important bee math.
- Locating your hive in an urban setting: The good, the bad and the ugly.
- Hive components: A review so you have what you need when the bees arrive.
- Installing your bees: The moment of truth when you get your first bees
- When to release the queen: Timing is everything with packages.
- Feeding your bees: What to feed, what not to feed, when to stop feeding, all important.
- When to check, when to leave alone: Your first hive inspection. And second, and...
- Follow up inspections: Colony growth, maturation, adding boxes
- Where to buy stuff and when: A review, with information that will make more sense now
- A live hive inspection: Hopefully, in person. We'll suit you up and let you hold bees. Exciting!
Questions, please email classes@sfbee.org.
Beekeeper training FAQs
Why choose the SFBA classes?
There are other intro beekeeping classes out there, but most are just overviews. None that we know of go as far in-depth as these and give you the best chance to successfully keep bees right from the beginning. Plus, at just $50 for the pair of classes for SFBA members, they are the best bargain around!
How can a class that costs just $50 for members can be such high quality?
Easy: We're a 501c3 not-for-profit that truly cares for bees. Up front in our mission statement is the pledge to educate and support urban beekeeping, so we're not in this to make money. SFBA classes are given by longtime, volunteer beekeeping teachers with a curriculum honed over years of experience training and mentoring new and intermediate beekeepers.
Can't I get the same information online?
We see people who read a couple books and watch YouTube videos and think it's enough. Then when their first set of bees die, they give up. Learning with guidance and having a club to support you during your first year or more makes for healthier bees and happier beekeepers.
But why take classes as a member?
Joining the club costs just $30 for an individual, $40 for a family. Training is $50 for members and $100 for non members, so you save right from the start.
Plus, membership gets you peer support, discounts, free events, access to senior beekeepers, cheap extractor rentals and much more. You won't be disappointed.
Finally, how do I get my bees?
We have a long-standing relationship with a highly regarded breeder and offer great bees at a special low cost each April or May. More details in class. And please note, we require new beekeepers to at least attend the Part 2 of the training in order to buy bees through the club.
If you have any questions about the classes, please email classes@sfbee.org.
