- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Applications close Jan. 30.
Apprentice assistant is the first level of the trainer programs offered by CAMBP), launched and directed by Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Other levels are apprentice, journey and master.
What does an apprentice assistant do?
As the website says: "The apprentice assistant level of the CAMBP explores the art and skill of beekeeping prior to keeping bees, even if you live in an area where beekeeping is not possible. This level of the CAMBP is the perfect science-based introduction to everything you need to know in order to keep safe, healthy bees. If you cannot keep bees at your location, and want an ‘in-hive' experience, the CAMBP can recommend options. The CAMBP requires 10 hours of volunteer service and 12 hours of continuing education each year so members maintain and expand their beekeeping knowledge and skills."
On the application form, you'll be asked:
- What inspires you to learn more about honey bees and beekeeping?
- Do you currently keep bees?
- Are you a member of a local bee club?
- What, in your opinion, is the biggest challenge facing bees and beekeeping today?
- Are you capable of performing 10 hours of volunteer service and 12 hours of continuing education on bees and beekeeping as an apprentice assistant in your first year in the CAMBP?
The cost to enroll in the class is $50. At the onset, accepted students will receive links to three live, online study halls, facilitated by CAMBP staff, to meet other new beekeepers and ask questions in preparation for the tests, which will be administered in person or virtually via Zoom (depending on COVID-19 restrictions.)
The class officially starts in March, according to program manager Wendy Mather, with final exams scheduled for September. Students must score at least 80 percent to become an official apprentice assistant. They then will have access to the CAMBP member network; webinars; and CAMPB member news. And if they wish, they can apply for the next level, apprentice.
"One cool factor about apprentice assistant is if you decide that beekeeping isn't for you, you still get a certificate stating you've passed the 'theory' portion of the course if you choose only to write the online exam and satisfy your curiosity about humanity's only sweet treat purveying insect," Mather said. "It's not mandatory to get into a hive."
More information is available on the apprentice assistant website or contact camasterbee@gmail.com.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What's a honey bee to do when one of her favorite flowers, cape mallow (Anisodontea sp. "Strybing Beauty") is not open for bees-ness.
Well, leave it to the bee to find a way.
We recently witnessed a honey bee encountering a yet-to-open flower in the early morning. No entry! No way? And right at the beginning of National Honey Month, too. (USDA's National Honey Board founded the event in 1989 to celebrate the beekeeping industry and honey.)
As for Anisodontea, it's a perennial shrub that likes full sun.
It likes bees that pollinate it, too. It just closes at night and reopens in the morning.
Interested in keeping bees or knowing more about bees? The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) lists a number of bee classes on its website. The program, launched and directed by Cooperative Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño, based in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, educates and trains bee ambassadors. You can become a Master Beekeeper and "communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators" within your community and serve as mentor for other beekeepers. Master Beekeepers are the "informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and the UC Cooperative Extension staff," according to Niño and program manager Wendy Mather on their website. (Email camasterbee@gmail.com for more information.)
Currently available are three online courses or webinars:
Seasonal Honey Bee Colony Management in Southern California, Online
- Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, 9 a.m. to noon, South Coast Research and Extension Center, Irvine
- Event details
- Register here: https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/730
Broodminder: Apiary Technology and Honey Bee Health, Online
- Saturday, Oct 9, 2021, 10 a.m. to noon
- Event details
- Register here: https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/739
Exploring Beekeeping 001 #2 Online
- Saturday, Oct 16, 2021, 9 a.m. to noon, South Coast Research and Extension Center, Irvine
- Event details
- Register here: https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/733
Unlike flowers that close, the California Master Beekeeping Program does not, despite the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to grip us. CAMBP has just found another way--online.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She and 51 other beekeepers had gathered that day in September 2016 at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis to undergo testing to become California Master Beekeepers at the apprentice level.
The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program, launched and directed by Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, continually seeks science-based bee ambassadors. CAMBP's vision is "to train 2500 apprentice beekeepers over the next 5 years so they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UCCE (UC Cooperative Extension) staff."
The 52 beekeepers had just answered 125 questions on the written test, dealing with basic honey bee biology, beekeeping equipment, maladies of the hive, and management techniques. Then they took the practical exam, which consisted of 20 minutes of one-on-one time with an examiner. They demonstrated their mastery of basic colony and hive inspections, identification of equipment and different hive types, and various management techniques.
Veretto, then president of the Sonoma County Beekeepers' Association (SCBA) and a member of the Sonoma County Master Gardeners (SCMG), had no qualms being first in line to take the practical test.
“I signed up to get it over with," Veretto told us. "I hate waiting for a test--it is nerve-racking. But once I opened the hive, I felt at home. The Master Beekeeper session was somewhat intense studying for the test. There is a lot of science/biology and vocabulary that I learned. Overall, it was a great experience. And I passed."
Sadly, Cheryl Veretto died on Aug. 3 after a hard-fought battle with cancer.
"It is with a heavy heart that I inform you all that Cheryl passed away on Tuesday 8/3," wrote a daughter on a Go Fund Me page. "She fought long and hard and in the end, she was surrounded by family and love. I want to thank you all for for the love and support you sent to Cheryl. She was loved and treasured by us all."
Cheryl had moved several years ago from a small town in Sonoma County, California, to a small town in Hays County, Texas, west of Austin, to be closer to family. She was a member of the Hays County Beekeeping Association.
The accolades are pouring in on social media:
-
"What a sad day when we lost Cheryl. A beautiful person inside and out."
- "I have missed Cheryl and her vivaciousness and energy since she left Sonoma County a few years back. I will always remember her in her bee outfit practically giving away the plants she propagated at the bee club meetings. She was a talented master gardener, artist, graphic designer, leader and beekeeper. Hard to believe she is gone. Much love to the family."
- "The story I remember the most is when you put down your hive tool and couldn't find it just when you needed to put the hive back together because the bees were angry and coming at you. I'll never put my hive tool down again while I am in the hive!"
“No, my family runs from bees,” she quipped. “I come from a family of gardeners-- generations of them."
We wrote about her and the California Master Beekeeping Program in a Bug Squad blog on Dec. 13, 2016.
At the time, Veretto said she lived on a small rural farm with her human family and 12 bee hives, along with Cashmere goats, chickens, cats, dogs, a food garden and several pollinator forage gardens.
"I started beekeeping with one hive six years ago and gradually built up to 12," she told us. "I think that is a good size of apiary for me; it takes a little more time for management but I am learning so much more, having several colonies to watch, and something different is going on in each. I keep bees in both Langstroth and TopBar hives, and have an observation hive for demonstration.“
Veretto related that she joined SCBA seven years ago, and had been keeping bees for six years.
How did she decide to be a beekeeper; what interested her in bees and in beekeeping? “I started out as a greedy gardener-- wanting everything to be pollinated so that I could select my best,” Veretto recalled. “I have always planted for pollinators in my gardens, but wanted to maximize, and so, I started beekeeping--and what a journey its been. I am now an activist for pollinators, and you never stop learning when you get into bees/beekeeping. The honey bee and humans are tied together closer than many think."
Veretto said she thoroughly enjoys keeping bees and engaging in public service. “I enjoy building community. We have an awesome bee club with a membership that is fully engaged--we have activities going on most every week, and we are active in the community, doing presentations and demonstrations,” she said. “I do public speaking with both SCBA and SCMG groups talking on 'Planting for Pollinators' and 'Safe Gardening' practices. I just finished the Advanced Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program with Master Gardeners and hope to include much of that information in my presentations as well. My true passion is gardening and propagating bee forage plants; most days you find me outside in the gardens and apiary.”
"It is important to recognize we have to change our landscapes, build community, reclaim yards and convert them to gardens, grow food--share with your neighbors--plant it and they will come. Our environment is changing rapidly and we have to act fast to make a difference."
Let it "bee" known that Cheryl Veretto made a difference, a huge, definable difference.
Beekeeper Christine Kurtz of Petaluma said it well: "Cheryl was an amazing person, gardener extraordinaire and deeply cared about bees and all pollinators. She ran circles around us and her enthusiasm was intoxicating. We miss her so but she lives everywhere in our pollinator gardens because we all got plants from her. We will all continue planting in her honor. Life is short embrace the ones you love even if it's virtual."
Current SCBA president Kelli Cox related that in Cheryl's memory, "we are going to have a very informal gathering at Bees N Blooms in Santa Rosa on Saturday, Oct. 2 from 4-6. Her beekeeping friends, her gardening friends, her fellow Master Beekeeping Friends and family members are among those planning to attend. (For more information, contact her at president@sonomabees.org)
Cheryl Veretto's passing brings to mind, "telling the bees," a European-based ritual that involves telling the bees when a beekeeper dies so that bees can share in the mourning.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Carlson made his first batch of mead in 2009 while living in Tucson, Ariz. "I've also been brewing beer on and off for the last decade. I am excited to share my most recent mead brewing experiences which have focused on single source honey."
"I'm from a family of biologists and naturalists," Carlson related. "I was helping my father (an endangered fish specialist) sample freshwater fishes of New York as soon as I could walk and carry a bucket. My mother was a public school teacher specializing in environmental education. My brother and sister both have PhDs in biology and my sister specialized in pollination biology. As a result, we all enjoy physiology and monitoring native bees on our local blooms.:
- Understand honey and mead using comparative sensory analysis and other scientific tools
- Review options for sanitizing equipment
- Introduce the process of fermentation
- Engage in a honey and a mead tasting
Special guest Michael Zilber, owner and mead maker at Heidrun Meadery, Point Reyes Station, "will join us at 11:15 to share his passion and lead us in a mead tasting," said Wendy Mather, program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP).
Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty directs CAMBP, which uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping. Its vision, as detailed on its website, is to train 2500 Apprentice beekeepers over the next five years "so they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) staff." Check out the website for upcoming courses. For more information on the program, contact camasterbee@gmail.com.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
There's a "me" in mead. The American Mead Makers Association says mead has exploded 130 percent since 2011, making it "the fastest growing alcoholic beverage category in the United States."
And now a me-and-you mead course is buzzing our way.
The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) has announced it will sponsor an online introduction to mead on Saturday, May 1. It's a time to learn, taste and sip--and you can do so with friends who also register for the course, says CAMBP program manager Wendy Mather.
The virtual event is set from 9 a.m. to noon. Master Beekeeper candidate Mark Carlson "will lead us in a general mead and honey appreciation class," said Mather, adding "We will leave the mead-making lessons to the experts at the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. "Mark will identify what makes one single source honey different from another, presenting them both from a flavor perspective, but also as a scientist who loves chemistry. The emphasis will be on nectar origins and equipment sanitation for the most part." Special guest Michael Zilber, owner and mead maker at Heidrun Meadery, Point Reyes Station, "will join us at 11:15 to share his passion and lead us in a mead tasting."
The course, "Introduction to Mead 2021," is designed to:
- Understand honey and mead, using comparative sensory analysis and other scientific tools
- Review options for sanitizing equipment
- Introduce the process of fermentation, and
- Engage in a honey and a mead tasting
The event is open to the public at $40 per ticket. Register at https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/718.
Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty directs the California Master Beekeeper Program, which uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping. Its vision, as detailed on its website, is to train 2500 Apprentice beekeepers over the next five years "so they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) staff." Check out the website for upcoming courses. For more information on the program, contact camasterbee@gmail.com.