We inadvertently scheduled the beekeeping workshop for the same date as the FCSSC community forum on Oct. 25. We’ve rescheduled the beekeeping workshop for the following Saturday.  Please see information below.  Hope to see you at the community forum & the beekeeping workshop!
----Catch the Buzzzz!!!
New Date: 
  Saturday, November 1st - 10 a.m. at the McGee Center in Conway –Beekeeping Workshop
 
Interested in keeping honeybees, but haven't a clue how to start?  Allison Wallace will offer an informal bee-ginners' workshop on Saturday, NOVEMBER 1st, at the McGee Center in West Conway , from 10 am till noon.  There's no fee to attend, but if you want to build a hive during this session (in which to put bees later on, in February or early March), then you'll need to purchase some materials ahead of time.
 
If you want to attend just to learn and help you decide whether beekeeping could be in your future, that's fine--no need to bring any materials beyond pen and paper for taking notes.
 
For those who do wish to get started this fall:  an Internet search will turn up many mail-order suppliers; the one Allison has used for years is Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, out of North Carolina .  The website address is www.brushymountainbeefarm.com , or you may call 1-800-233-7929 to request a paper catalog.  If you plan to order materials via snail mail, be sure to allow a full couple of weeks ahead of our October workshop.
 
If you have no equipment yet whatsoever (i.e. you haven't inherited some other beekeeper's smoker or gloves or whatever), then Allison recommends you order the 10-frame Bee-Ginners Kit (or something like it from another company of your choice), priced at $139.95 plus tax and shipping.  It will provide you everything you need to get started, except the paint and paint brush you'll want to use on your hive box before you set it outside exposed to the elements.
 
You may also elect to start with the 8-frame English Garden Bee-Ginner's Kit (bad puns, by the way, abound among beekeepers), as it is attractive and will weigh less, once it's full of bees and honey, than a 10-frame hive.  It retails for $179.95 plus tax and shipping.  (The fancy copper top accounts for the higher price.)
 
Either of the above kits will arrive with the hive fully assembled.  One drawback to the 10-frame kit is that it does not include a "super," an upper story in which the bees can store honey.  This can be ordered separately, now or later--there will be no need for it whatsoever until next spring.
 
If you already have things like a smoker, hat/veil, long canvas or plastic-coated gloves, a hive tool, a bee brush, and so on, then you might want to order just the hive components themselves:
 
--the hive body, sometimes also called a "deep super," of dovetailed construction --a medium or shallow "super" (like a hive body, only not as high; serves as a second "story" to the hive) --an inner cover --a telescoping outer cover --a bottom board (definitely choose the IPM screened bottom board, for reasons we'll review in our workshop) --an entrance reducer --an entrance feeder (for sugar syrup, which you'll feed the bees on occasion)
 
IMPORTANT:  DO NOT PLAN TO USE OLD WOODENWARE (hive body, super, inner cover and bottom board) PREVIOUSLY USED TO KEEP BEES.  You want to get your first hive up and running with no worries whatsoever about disease, and old woodenware can transmit disease.
 
The other hive components to order are the innards, so to speak:
 
--10 frames (or 8, if you're going with a smaller hive) of the right size for the woodenware you've chosen.  Allison uses the frames that come with a grooved top bar and a divided bottom bar (terms to be explained later on).  These frames will hold foundation on which the bees will build wax cells.
--You'll also need as many sheets of wax foundation as you have frames.  Plastic foundation is also available, but Allison hasn't found it to be as appealing to the bees as genuine beeswax foundation.  NOTE:  YOU'LL NEED FOUNDATION SHEETS FOR BOTH THE "HIVE BODY" (LOWER STORY OF THE HIVE) AND THE "SUPER" (UPPER STORY), AND THE TWO STORIES MAY BE OF DIFFERENT HEIGHTS.  ORDER THE CORRECT SIZE FOUNDATION FOR EACH.
 
Hive components ordered separately (i.e. not part of a kit) will arrive unassembled.  We will assemble them during our workshop, so if you plan to go this route, please bring along as well the following:
 
--a standard hammer, for building the hive body and super --a small hobbyist's "tack hammer" (Brushy Mountain carries this, but so do lots of hardware and hobby stores) for assembling the frames and installing the foundation
--1 box of nails, 2" long, for the larger woodenware
--1 box of 1-1/4" nails for the frames
--1 box of tiny, 5/8" nails for the foundation --a small container of wood glue
 
A final item that could be very important to have is a book for beginners, which can also be ordered from Brushy Mountain (as can DVDs).  The beginners' kits include a book and an instructional DVD.
 
As mentioned, paint will eventually be needed but not during this first session.
 
This first workshop will probably not be enough to really launch you into your beekeeping career.  So what we can do is negotiate together when we meet in October a good day and time to follow up with a second workshop, closer to the start of the next bee season (late winter).  One thing we will review in October is the many ways one can go about obtaining bees, and the various cost--ranging from "free" (but risky) to about $75, for one hive.
 
Questions, before you order your materials?  You are welcome to e-mail Allison at allisonw@uca.edu .  A bit of background:  She has kept bees off and on for about 15 years, and has written a memoir about the experience, which you can check out at www.allisonwallace.com .  There you'll also find a few fascinating facts about these amazing, irreplaceable critters.  She will be reading from this book at the Faulkner County Library the evening of September 4.
 
Finally, it would be very helpful if those who really do mean to attend the October 25 workshop would indicate as much by replying to this message.  If we have no takers at all, then we'll know not to schedule a room at the McGee Center .
 
Happy bee-ing!