Central Beekeepers Alliance

Photo credit: Ardyiii

Longwood Gardens, the 1,050-acre horticultural treasure of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, has launched a year-long changing exhibit and public education program on pollination, entitled The Buds and The Bees.

Offered as part of the 2009 program, two events in particular will be of interest to beekeepers who may be visiting in the Philadelphia area this spring and tempted to stop in at Longwood Gardens.

Beekeeping Basics with Jim Bobb
Saturday, March 14, 2009
1:00 PM — 4:00 PM
For anyone considering taking up apiculture as a hobby…[this class] offers participants the opportunity to observe hive equipment and discuss its intricacies with an expert. The mechanics, cost, and the ideal time to get started will be discussed so potential beekeepers can make informed decisions about taking the next step.

Jim Bobb was named Pennsylvania’s Beekeeper of the Year in 2008, with a long and active history of volunteerism and beekeeping. He keeps some 140 hives of his own at various public gardens as well as at his own property, and teaches horticulture classes at the Barnes Foundation as well as instructing at Longwood Gardens.

The Drama: Bee Colony Collapse Disorder with Dennis van Engelsdorp
Friday, April 03, 2009
7:00 PM
In recent years, an interesting and alarming phenomenon named Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has emerged. Honey bees are mysteriously vanishing across the country, putting $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts, and vegetables at risk! In this lecture important topics such as the potential causes of CCD will be discussed, and questions will be raised about what life would be like without our most widely used pollinator.

Canadian beekeepers will be familiar with the name of Dennis van Engelsdorp, who began his beekeeping career at the University of Guelph, studying Buckfast bees and honeybee tracheal mites, then served as the Government of Canada’s consultant to the Antigua Beekeepers Cooperative in the West Indies, before helping to develop Cornell University’s master beekeeping program. He currently serves as Acting State Apiarist for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, through Penn State University, and was one of the first researchers to tackle CCD.