Among backyard gardeners, perhaps the biggest buzz of the past 15 years concerns bees. Keeping them, and keeping them healthy, adds additional challenges and brings a sticky sweet reward to the farm-to-table movement.
Apiarists from throughout the region and people considering raising bees will gather from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday for the annual Western Pennsylvania Beekeepers Seminar at Gateway High School in Monroeville.
Billed as the largest bee seminar in the state, the all-day event Saturday will include local and national speakers, vendors, more than a dozen seminars for amateur and professional beekeepers as well as Beginner Beekeeping 101 classroom training. A swarm of 250-300 keepers and aspiring apiarists are expected to attend. Seminars cost $70, Beekeeping 101 is $90. To register or for more details, go to beavervalleybees.net.
Organizer John Yakim of Monroeville set up his first suburban hives in the summer of 2014. By fall of the next year, he had “more honey than I could give away,” he said. Today Mr. Yakim manages bee boxes in Monroeville, Penn Hills, Plum, Murrysville, Apollo, White Oak and McKeesport.
“It’s something different that intrigued me,” he said. “I’m still an amateur — I’m not an expert — but the more I learn about bees the more fascinated I become.”
Apis mellifera is not native to North America. The first hives were brought to the New World about 400 years ago and honey bees have become critical to commercial agricultural pollination. All are considered European or Western honey bees, but some “races” are more popular than others. Most amateur beekeepers keep Italian honey bees.
Honey is a mere byproduct of the beekeeping industry, which trucks hives over the interstates to pollinate entire farming regions. Commercial pollination services in the U.S. generated about $435 million in 2017.
Although bees from local hives can help to pollinate neighborhood gardens, amateur keepers raise them mostly for the honey.
A beekeeping starter kit, said Mr. Yakim, would include two boxes of bees, two queens, a bee-keeping veil, smoker and miscellaneous tools. The cost of about $1,000 could be spread over time.
“Theoretically a beekeeper could start in the spring and have honey in the fall, but we tell them not to expect honey in the first year,” he said. “We recommend that a new beekeeper keep two hives ... for comparison and making corrections as their skill level grows. Too many things could go wrong.”
The Western Pennsylvania Beekeepers Seminar will be held at Gateway High School, 3000 Gateway Campus Blvd., Monroeville. Information: beavervalleybees.net.
John Hayes: 412-263-1991, jhayes@post-gazette.com
First Published: February 14, 2020, 5:14 p.m.
