Georgia master beekeeper program

Now a third-generation beekeeper, Fred has written articles for Bee Culture and Farming magazines. He has presented workshops for local beekeeping associations, the Tennessee Beekeepers Association and also for the Heartland Apicultural Society. Together, they enjoy working bees, catching swarms, harvesting honey and sharing their knowledge of beekeeping with others.

They take pleasure in managing their bees and producing local honey for sale. In the tradition of Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth, Fred is a clergyman apiarist. Fred is now retired from active ministry, having served as a chaplain in the US Army and as a local church pastor.

While doing short-term mission work in Honduras, Fred also developed a love for scuba diving on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef system and he is a certified Master Scuba Diver. Services: Fred is available for local swarm removals and to speak to beekeeping associations, schools, churches or civic groups. Contact: Alexander Blvd.

Murfreesboro, TN fbhembree gmail. Jay is constantly learning as a beekeeper; he focuses on current research and science, as well as proven techniques from older, experienced beekeepers. He attends beekeeping conferences throughout the USA and enjoys networking with other beekeepers, building some of his own equipment, and experimenting with new ideas.

His primary interest in beekeeping, other than the pure enjoyment of observing and working with these amazing little creatures, is in helping honey bees return to healthy stability in our environment.

Services: Jay raises queens for his own use, sells honey to personal customers, removes swarms, helps new beekeepers, and does a variety of volunteer work, including classroom and on-site apiary presentations. She maintains the observation hive at Dunwoody Nature Center. Her passion is exploring the art of suburban beekeeping.

Cindy has many awards from honey contests at the local, state, and international levels. She is a prize winning photographer and enjoys photographing bees at work. Cindy frequently speaks about bees and beekeeping at nature centers, garden clubs, schools, festivals, and other organizations and events. One of her more popular activities is bringing an observation hive which allows the group to closely view worker bees, the queen, and various stages of brood in a colony. She handles swarm removal and rescues and is pleased to sell local raw honey when available.

He has consistently kept bees as a hobbyist since and now maintains fifteen hives at his Cahaba Heights home. John and Michael have coauthored articles in local medical news publications and Bee Culture. John currently maintains hives for the Jefferson County Beekeepers Association at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and along with Michael maintains an observation hive at the Birmingham Zoo.

Box Birmingham, AL About Dan: Dan comes from a family of avid gardeners and nature lovers. For the last 20 years he has operated Brushwood Nursery, a mail order nursery specializing in clematis and shipped to all 50 states. He began beekeeping in but has only gotten serious about it since moving the family and business to Athens, Georgia. He has two at home and four adult children. Dan keeps around 18 hives most of the time.

Several of them are observations hives, a particular fascination for him ever since he began maintaining one at Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens. He designs and builds them as well and maintains two at home.

In addition to the usual liquid honey, Dan enjoys making soft set creamed honey for family and friends as well as offering it for sale. He also barters rendered beeswax to a local woodworker where it is used in a natural finish.

He has also provided educational opportunities for children, teens and adults through various programs and classes. He is available to speak to clubs and other organizations and will consult on the construction, installation and maintenance of observation hives for residential and public locations. About Noah: Insects have always fascinated Noah, so when his mother brought home an observation hive in , he was hooked.

A few years later, he was running his own colonies in the backyard, and now he has kept bees in numerous Atlantan locales, including the Blue Heron Nature Preserve and Chastain Park.

He attained the ranking of Master Beekeeper in Noah enjoys discussing bees with whomever will listen—whether they be new beekeepers, old beekeepers, radio hosts, or people off the street. He also enjoys presentations to elementary school children as they often share his sense of humor, literary taste, coloring ability, and general maturity level. About Julia: Growing up in a house full of girls who were all terrified of bugs, Julia never imagined she would become a beekeeper.

Things that flew and stung were to be completely avoided. But when she became a mother, Julia's two sons introduced her to the fascinating and wonderful world of insects. Her yard, and her passion for bees, has been buzzing ever since. Her oldest son, Noah Macey, is also a Master Beekeeper. Julia has found that the educational opportunities within the beekeeping community, both as a student and as a teacher, have greatly increased her enjoyment and continued fascination with the amazing honey bee.

She is also very active in the Georgia Beekeepers Association, which named her the Beekeeper of the Year. Julia started the beekeeping program at Lee Arrendale State Prison and through the GBA assists in starting and supporting prison beekeeping programs in the state.

She has won many awards for her honey and hive products. She is also available to speak to beekeeping clubs for a fee. About Wil: I started keeping bees about in California, the state where I was born and raised. I try to help new people interested in starting out with a hive or two of bees. I'm listed at alabees. I got to know Dr. I was privileged to participate in the project for two years.

The goal was to see which type of queen was the most resistant to the mite Varroa destructor. When instructed to do so, I would collect bee samples into plastic bags and either take or send them to the University of Alabama Huntsville campus where Dr. Ward would do a mite count and calculate whether or not a hive needed medication. The VSH queens proved to be the more mite resistant, followed by the Russians and as expected the control queens were the poorest.

The most difficult portion of the experiment was getting queen acceptance. In some cases the hive would accept a queen, only to supersede her within two weeks. I've had many hobbies in the past, but beekeeping is the only one that has given the most challenge and satisfaction.

I currently manage about 25 hives in Alabama. Services: I pick up swarms and remove bees from a building for a fee. I sometimes attend a farmers market in Gadsden, AL, selling honey and beeswax candles. I have two prerequisites if you want my assistance getting started with bees: 1 hives must be registered with the AL State Apiary Department and 2 you must be a member of the Alabama State Beekeepers Association. About Steven: Unlike most beekeepers who learned the craft from a close friend or family member, I had no exposure to honeybees until my 20s.

Along with my wife Jacqueline, we produce honey and many other hive products in the central Georgia area including bee pollen, beeswax candles, and lip balms. Our products can be found in several central Georgia retail outlets as well as local farm markets. I am currently serving as president of the Heart of Georgia Beekeepers Association. Services available: I am available to do honeybee presentations with or without live bees. I also pick up hanging swarms and remove honeybees from structures.

This is not the first time bees have been in the family. Jay remembers on his way out to collect eggs from the chicken house and being cautioned by his grandfather not to go behind it because there were bees there. Well, curiosity being what it is, Jay, after returning with the eggs, just had to ask what those white boxes behind the chicken house were for.

He missed out on a good education there as his grandfather died very young and never was able to pass on all that beekeeping information. He plans on continuing in this field of bees and dreams well into retirement and feels that there is a whole lot more entomology to learn as well as practices to implement. Now that Jay has a few over twenty hives, he thinks it is time to expand on a number of themes.

His honey house is nearly complete and Department of Agriculture approval just down the road, so certain commercial avenues may open up in the future. More hives are a definite as well.

Jay has been active in the honey contest sector too and has a number of red, white, and blue ribbons not to mention a Best of Show ribbon also. He has won the ribbons for extracted honey in several color grades, wax block, section comb, creamed honey, and mead.

Perhaps candles, sculptures and other related products will be next. His favorite however, is getting the bees to make wax and honey in the older section comb tradition using the square basswood boxes. He uses antique section comb cartons when participating in honey shows. When not being taken to task by his Apis friends to maintain their little wooden square homes or repair the furniture therein, Jay teaches for the Cobb County School System.

An early retirement always seems like a really fine idea when it comes up for discussion. Jay is available for outside swarm removals, removals from inside houses, and select presentations with an observation hive. Jay sells honey and candles at some of his presentations and is also developing a fledgling website to promote products and honeybee awareness.

Contact: Kimberly Lane Norcross, Georgia thehoneyman att. About Barbara: Dr. Phillips retired from her surgical practice in New York City and is now a resident of Savannah, Georgia. She is on the voluntary faculty at Mercer Medical College, Savannah campus and a member of many subspecialty medical societies. All of her hives are kept on Skidaway Island and she is very active in both adult and school level bee and ocean education.

She has appeared on both national and local television in bee related broadcasts. She has several hives which supply friends and family with honey with a little left over. About Jim: Jim attributes his love for honeybees to his grandfather who began teaching him the craft in Today, Jim operates about 40 hives, produces and sells honey, and is on call for swarm removal. Jim is an advocate for honeybees and beekeeping.

He hopes by speaking to young students about the importance of the honeybee he can inspire them be the next generation of beekeepers. Jim speaks at many of the local daycares and primary and elementary schools. Jim is available to new beekeepers to answer questions on the various aspects of beekeeping, demonstrate how to work and maintain a hive, honey extraction, how to catch a swarm, and swarm removal from a structure.

Jim is employed at the University of Georgia — Griffin Campus. He is a Research Professional in the Entomology Department. Services: Presentations, Demonstrations, and Bee Removal. All services are evaluated individually to determine fee. About Philip: For many years, Philip worked in the UGA Honey Bee Program apiaries and laboratory to maintain the honey bees and collect research data, including projects in microscopy and dissections. He also managed this UGA Honey Bee Lab website and the GA Bee Letter Listserv database, compiled and analyzed research data, contributed to professional publications, created and maintained project management software, coordinated the Young Harris Beekeeping Institute, as well as graded the exams and kept the historical records for the GA Master Beekeeper Program.

He has presented various public beekeeping courses and workshops, has been a well-regarded instructor at our annual Young Harris Beekeeping Institute, and has spoken to beekeeping clubs, garden clubs, schools and other groups, such as the Georgia Farm Bureau, on various honey bee, beekeeping and pollination-related topics. About Tom: Beekeeping for me started out as a choice between honey or fresh eggs.

Honey won out because bees take up less space and are much cleaner than chickens. What I never expected was that beekeeping would also feed my intellectual curiosity. In my professional life, I am an engineer and serial software entrepreneur. I've worked on computer vision and artificial intelligence projects at General Electric and Lockheed. I started and sold two companies based on artificial intelligence technologies.

So I became intrigued as I learned about the intelligent behaviors of bees and their colonies. I was also humbled because - even with the unlimited resources of large defense contractors - we never created anything as smart as a bee. I enjoy sharing my passion with others in classrooms, clubs, public demonstrations, and as a mentor. My interest in the intersection between beekeeping and technology is expressed in my blog, Beehacker.

About Howard: Howard came from a multi-generational beekeeping family. His father, grand father, and great-great grandfather all kept bees. So, he grew up around bees and kept bees for most of his life. Howard belonged to the Forsyth and Amicalola bee clubs, where he mentored new beekeepers and represented the club annually at the Forsyth County Fair. He also spoke to schools about honey bees and beekeeping.

About Dale: Dale began beekeeping at the age of five under the tutelage of his Grandfather, E. Al Dietz and maintained the UGA bees, which at that time consisted of colonies kept on campus behind the Biology building.

He continued to teach and learn about honey bees thought his adult life, and obtained his Master Beekeeper certificate in Dale has been a lifelong member of the Georgia Beekeepers Association, and a Director for the Association on many occasions. Dale founded and chartered the South Georgia Beekeepers Club in , which was one of the first beekeeping clubs in South Georgia.

The club was a very strong and active force in South Georgia until it was disbanded 12 years later due to aging members and time restrictions on most of the remaining members.

He is also a member of several other local beekeeping clubs. Presently, Dale is either Administrator or Moderator for several bee-related sites on Facebook, and stays active in the beekeeping community, both locally and on a international basis. This occurred while responding to an incident in Dougherty County Albany in which an elderly gentleman was clearing some debris piles and was fatally attacked by Africanized Honey Bees.

Since that time, Dale has worked diligently with local, state, and Federal officials to monitor for more AFB and to educate the public and emergency responders about AHB and how to respond to their presence. Dale is an emergency responder for bee-related incidents for many local agencies, as well other governmental, military, industrial, or police agencies.

Volunteer Services Dale does honey bee presentations and classes throughout South Georgia for schools and civic groups, and participates in the Jimmy Carter Farm Days on the grounds of the Jimmy Carter Farm when available.

His habit of eating honey straws before each game has spread to all four of his teams, as well as some opposing teams as well. He also owns the websites www. Dale also handles other stinging insects, including yellow jackets, hornets, wasps, bumblebees, etc.

He also does free swarm removals. Find out what Extension has for you! Extension Changes Georgia University of Georgia Cooperative Extension programming improves people's lives and gets results. Our Impact. Keith Delaplane State Director ksd uga. Certified Beekeeper: Individual should be familiar with the basic skills and knowledge necessary for the beginning hobby beekeeper see Certified requirements.

Journeyman Beekeeper: Individual should be functioning as a competent hobby beekeeper with the skills and knowledge for moving into sideline beekeeping if desired see Journeyman requirements. Master Beekeeper: Individual should be able to function as a sideline or commercial beekeeper. Can also demonstrate knowledge in such areas as bee botany, business aspects of beekeeping, honey and bee-related judging, bee behavior and other specialty areas see Master requirements.

Master Craftsman Beekeeper: Individual should have general knowledge of all relevant areas of beekeeping as well as be a specialist in one or more selected topics. Level is comparable to a graduate program in apiculture at a major U.