“Modern Beekeeping: New Ways of Doing Old Things” is the 2010 theme of America's biggest one-day beekeeping workshop, which will take place on Saturday, March 6, in Wooster, Ohio - with an additional March 5 evening program thrown in for good measure.
The 32nd annual Ohio State University Extension and Tri-County Beekeepers Association of Northeastern Ohio Spring Beekeeping Workshop will include sessions for both experienced and beginning beekeepers and for both adults and children. The event will be held at Fisher Auditorium and Shisler Conference Center at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster.
Last year, 675 beekeepers from Ohio and neighboring states attended the workshop, and a similar number is expected to swarm this year.
Pre-registration is due on March 1 and costs $35 per person. The fee for participants 17 years of age and younger is only $5. The walk-in registration cost is $45 per person. The fee includes materials and refreshments. Lunch can be purchased with pre-registration, or at local restaurants nearby.
For those spending the night in Wooster, a block of rooms has been set aside at the nearby Hilton Garden Inn, 959 Dover Rd., Wooster, at a cost of $89 per room plus taxes. For reservations, call 330-202-7701 or log on to http://www.wooster.stayhgi.com (mention the code name “OSU Bee Meeting”).
Friday evening activities begin at 6 p.m. with tours of the OSU Beekeeping Museum, located in OARDC's Administration Building. Following the tours, at 7 p.m., participants can choose between two presentations: “Good Bees in Bad Places,” by Jim Tew, OSU Extension apiculture specialist, and “Bee Culture Through the Years,” by Kathy Summers, A. I. Root Co.
The Saturday program features a keynote address, “Colony Collapse Disorder and Africanized Honey Bees: Not Everything Is All Bad,” by Dewey Caron, professor emeritus, University of Delaware, at 9:20 a.m.
The presentation will be followed by 18 breakout sessions, divided into three workshops. Sessions include “Beekeeping Without Chemicals - Can It Be Done?”; “Urban Beekeeping”; “Cooking with Honey”; and several sessions designed for beginner beekeepers.
There will also be sessions for kids, a baking contest and vendors exhibiting their products.
Get the full list of breakout sessions and speakers at http://beelab.osu.edu/PDF/10_PRegistration_Packet.pdf; or contact Sherry Ferrell of Ohio State's Honey Bee Laboratory, 330-263-3684, ferrell.6@osu.edu.
