Beginning Beekeeping course

[simplynaturalfarm]

It's been 13 years since I took my beginning course and while I'm doing online research, if any of you have done one, could you share what you liked and didn't, if it was too long, things that wasted time etc?

I agreed to help out president with a course last Saturday. I asked her what she wanted me to do ( I have never spoken in public ever in my life and didn't even do a high school graduation because that would have required me to have the spotlight)
She said come and help her if people ask questions. I can do that I thought and I got there an hour early the way she requested, she slept through her alarm and came 20 to the hour we were to start. Our attendees filed in, she handed me 40 sheets if papers with her power points and asked me which subjects could I present on!! I thought I would die. . And I'm sure my horror showed, so she wrote her name beside first three and said I could do last seven points. I thanked God for my obsession with research last month and frantically wrote highlights in my brain in the margin beside slides and then talked for 2 hours. I rambled, spoke about things no new beginner should waste brain space on and couldn't remember to look at different people in the group. My daughter told me I did okay, but gave way too much information. I was mortified and hope I haven't just turned 90% of people off of beekeeping.

So I'm hoping to be way better prepared ( could i be worse lol) for this next course in 8 days.

The president didn't cover any of the wonderful Dynamics in bee hive, what the different bees do, pollen vs nectar, Royal jelly, how Queens are different from anything else - are those things you would like to hear about? She asked me to speak on winterizing hives and I thought why, these guys are 10 months away from that and won't remember a thing I say, but I dutifully talked about it. She asked me to cover splitting hives ( which I'm passionate about and talked about for too long...) And I'm thinking do a 2 minute thing and move on.

Any suggestions? I would have been so stressed if i'd known about speaking, so this forced me on those poor people and now I need to do a better job!

She had no interesting pictures of bee stuff, which was a shame, but I'm working off her power point, so I'm stuck.

[Squeaky McMurdo]

The legality of it! I had no idea we weren’t allowed bees in town (I got boxed in by the town over the past 8 years) and found out when an exterminator came and sprayed my mentor’s hives and handed me the bill. I then of course got handed the bill by my mentor too because his hives were junk.

[rosalind]

Ours was a full one day class, with one day a month hands-on classes throughout the summer.

The initial class was on the very basics - what is a hive, who lives there, their lifespan, what they eat, predators, and such.

Then bits about anything we might encounter in the first year like swarming, predators, lack of food late in the season and how to sugar feed, etc.

Our first hands on class, and the only one we went to was the day we got our package. The group showed us how to put the bees into a hive, then we all picked up our packages and took them home and tried to mimic what we saw earlier.

From there, we could email instructors with questions if needed.

If your interested, I could see if I still have my packet from the class...

[simplynaturalfarm]

yes please Rosalind, just an outline with topics would be great.

I never would have considered the legalities of in the city so I will look at that as many members are in the city.

[treatlisa]

Good for you for learning to speak in public on the fly! Wow!! I'm sure it's like everything - the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get. Learn from your mistakes and try again. That's great.

I challenged myself a long time ago to a community college class on public speaking because I was so horrified by the idea of it that it was ridiculous. It was hard for me, but I'm really glad I did it. Oh, I'm still really bad and really scared but at least I learned I won't actually die from it...

[rosalind]

[simplynaturalfarm]

Wow, that was quite the course!! Thank you for scanning and finding the information- it will help save the next batch of people who are forced to listen to me!

[simplynaturalfarm]

So new question. a very enthusiastic gentleman who was at the course and joined our beekeeping group posted online a complaint on a post I had made about beekeeping equipment. He is a very quirky individual who arrived an hour early, spoke to himself, and methodically bounced a tennis ball off the walls of the hall for the hour before the community college opened the door for us.

He wrote this "I left early, as the class was supposed to go until 1 p.m. and it's frustrating when full drawn out questions are asked (and answered in full, livid detail) and the rest of the material is neglected, especially when plans are made ahead of time to be there and presume to be finished by the ending time. Frankly, perhaps a Q & A session can be done after the class. I cannot imagine attending a college class and a classmate gets long-winded and wants a full, detailed explanation to something that sidetracks everything. I think we need to be mindful and respectful of everyone's time, or else we need to fill out time cards as to pay when the class goes over."

While it was true we went 20 minutes over time, he did not leave early and we covered everything while he was there. I should not have answered questions in so much detail (i told you all I knew I'd rambled), and that my nervousness had me spend more time on my comfort zone which were subjects not as appropriate for a beginning beekeeper course. I am fully aware of that!
At this point I can't tell him 'I was recruited 20 minutes before a course you paid $29 for, so I'm sorry." I felt guilty at the time that I might have wasted people's time and money, but what is proper etiquette for this? I acknowledged that the course went over time and told him we we are streamlining it as we don't normally go over and thanked him for his input.

[rosalind]

With questions, you're bound to sometimes go over time. I'm a big fan of Toastmasters if you want to become more aware of timing - very helpful!

Being unprepared is difficult... You'll do fine next time!

[simplynaturalfarm]

Can one learn from toastmasters online? I don't think so, but maybe you know of something?
I've been driving the 89 miles to town twice a week to do asl classes with kids, and I can't imagine adding another day (nothing is ever on same day!)

[rosalind]

www.toastmasters.org/resources/video-library

It's better in person, but you could practice with your kids. The basic layout of a speech, as I remember - you have 5 to 7 minutes.

You could sort your topics onto chapters, each one X time limit. Your kids could be your audience (or use your mirror). There are three cards: green, yellow, red. Yellow is when you have two minutes left, red is wrap it up - 30 to 60 seconds.

There's an evaluation sheet. Google toastmasters evaluation form. Your audience can fill it out.

[simplynaturalfarm]

Thank you!!!!!

[lew92]

Feb 9, 2020 20:14:07 GMT -5 simplynaturalfarm said:

The president didn't cover any of the wonderful Dynamics in bee hive, what the different bees do, pollen vs nectar, Royal jelly, how Queens are different from anything else - are those things you would like to hear about? She asked me to speak on winterizing hives and I thought why, these guys are 10 months away from that and won't remember a thing I say, but I dutifully talked about it. She asked me to cover splitting hives ( which I'm passionate about and talked about for too long...) And I'm thinking do a 2 minute thing and move on.

Any suggestions? I would have been so stressed if i'd known about speaking, so this forced me on those poor people and now I need to do a better job!

She had no interesting pictures of bee stuff, which was a shame, but I'm working off her power point, so I'm stuck.

All of the things you mention should have been covered. It is the society of bees that has me so totally entranced. When I taught community ed classes, I prepared handout packets for the attendees and roughly followed an outline but didn't have anything scripted. It was interactive classes limited to 6-9 students, so I was able to use their interests and experiences as a jump off point.

Now that you have one under your belt - and in spite of one narrow minded individual's opinion - it sounds like you did a great job for the first time and on the fly at that!

I'd much rather attend a course that is lead by people who are fired up about the topic and able to address the unusual or oddball situations that can happen. When I took the course, I was so happy that someone addressed "What happens if your queen escapes?" Because that is exactly what happened when I tried to introduce my very first package of bees to their hive. I was almost in tears until I settled down and remembered what they talked about in class...after frantically looking through "Beekeeping for Dummies" and not finding an answer.

You did great and I'm sure you helped more people than you confused or overwhelmed. You'll do better each time and remember the important basics and that is what counts the most. From what I know of you on the forum, you are a very approachable person and I'm sure that people will feel comfortable reaching out to you if they need to and are able (I'm not sure how you have that set up).

I doubt the president came across anywhere near as prepared, friendly, and knowledgeable as you.