Bee in the Know
- Danielle Butschek
- Jun 10
- 4 min read
Updated: 18 hours ago
Life has a funny way of getting busy. With young children and two large dogs, running a home, carefully designing an apiary and building our forever home … I could barely keep up some days. But I needed to set aside time to become educated about beekeeping and honeybees and get more connected in my community.
A quick internet search opened my eyes to the countless universities that offer learning opportunities through extension programs. Several offer beekeeping courses with both apprentice and master level classes. In addition to the course material, the instructors host monthly speakers who discuss hot topics in beekeeping/garden/birding, etc. Some courses offer certificates upon completion, while others do not but both are equivalent in what is learned. The courses can be self-guided or more formal with attendance policies and weekly live classes. The latter are similar to a typical college course with graded exams. I chose the former that allowed for more flexibility in my personal life, yet still allowed me to learn about honeybees and beekeeping.
Having a mentor is a game changer. The continuous hands-on experience I had with my mentor and soaking up her knowledge of honeybees and beekeeping has been and continues to be exceptionally invaluable. I am so thankful for her. I feel having a mentor in your beekeeping journey is the most important aspect of beekeeping. Local beekeeping organizations can help connect you with a mentor if you don’t get lucky like I did and have an individual volunteer. Again, mentors are a game changer.
My mentor encouraged me to join her at meetings with our local beekeeping organization, the Wasatch Beekeepers. It is a diverse group with members who have kept bees from anywhere from two to 20 years. The meetings are monthly and they start with hands-on experience completing hive inspections of beehives that are shared within the club. There are presentations that follow the hands-on hive inspections that are heavily science based and are truly thought provoking. The members of this club complete volunteer hours for Pollinator Week each year, work with local public gardens to engage community members at various events throughout the year and are a wonderful resource for all things honeybees.
Here is a fact, I am not a gardener. I never had much of a green thumb but did occasionally get lucky with a plant that flourished. I have always marveled at the sight of a beautiful garden but never had the desire to create one of my own. A true garden is intimidating. One day I stumbled upon a simple, outdated website about a local garden club. It was not clear if the club was still active after being in existence for over 35 years, so I decided to inquire about the club on a neighborhood website. I received a response almost immediately. The ladies only, garden club met monthly for presentations and each member had to bring wine and food to each meeting. I was invited to apply for the waitlist and was a guest of the president for the first meeting of 2025. The ladies were so welcoming, knowledgeable and witty. Most of the ladies were the founding members who have grown fond of each other over the decades and now there is a group of “the kids” that I am part of (I was luckily waitlisted for a short period of time). We are the young, hip kids on the block with fresh ideas and funny stories of our children that the older ladies enjoy. The older ladies are a wealth of knowledge regarding the history of our town and love sharing their incredible experiences with us kids. This garden club is such a gem and a wonderful connection to my local community. There are two beekeepers in the club and the other members seem genuinely interested in what we do and why we keep honeybees. I will soon host an evening at my house and bring my passion of beekeeping to my friends. I hope it will be an evening of great food and great conversation surrounded by my new friends and my honeybees.
Another fun way to engage with your local community is through the local farmer’s market. Farmer’s markets are great places for small businesses to connect and sell their products, which are usually far superior to what one can purchase at any grocer. My husband and I enjoying buying local honey, baked goods and peaches here in Park City. We do hope one day to sell our honey at our local farmer’s market and continue to meet and interact with both members of our community and visitors alike.
Photo credits KF 2025 & RMF 2025
I do hope after reading about my experiences that you feel beekeeping is possible and it’s not as scary as most make it seem. It can be a bit intimidating, but once you are connected at a local organization and really see the art and science that is beekeeping, it really is fascinating.
Below is a list of some local organizations for where we live, hopefully you can find some local to you.
There are also magazine subscriptions that are available in the US and likely other countries (I am not 100% sure). They are a wealth of knowledge and offer physical magazines as well as a more green option via email. The websites are wonderful, comprehensive resources for all things beekeeping.