DECATUR — The busy workers in the Sangamon Valley Beekeepers Association are all abuzz about introducing a new class of converts to the sweet joys of running their own hives.
The pastime of beekeeping is on a roll, and a new eight-week crash course for beginners began in February, taught by experts from the Decatur-based association. “This is our second annual class,” said member Pam Schnake, who handled the registration chores.
“The first class was filled up with 25 people, and this one was filling fast, too. I would certainly think we would do another class next year; people are really interested in this.”
Beekeeping traces its history back to biblical times and beyond, as mankind soon discovered that providing bee accommodation got repaid in the golden rent of honey by the gallon. The fact that honey can also be fermented to make mead, a rather potent drink with a nice sting in the tail, also lubricated the hive’s journey into human society.
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In later years, Schnake said, mankind would come to understand the critical role of bees in pollination and learn that things grew and fruited better when bees were in the air. She said bees now fit nicely into a trend towards buying locally grown foods produced in gardens or on bigger scales with sustainable agriculture techniques.
“A lot of us got bees because we love our gardens and we wanted to have excellent pollination,” explained Schnake, 54, who’s kept bees for 20 years at her home in rural Decatur. She also teaches team dynamics at the Tabor School of Business at Millikin University and can’t help but admire the industry of a group of workers, more than 40,000 of them in the typical hive, who labor to get the work of honey and pollination done with such efficiency.
“They are part of the great cycle of life, and they are fascinating,” she added.
Donald Miller, president of the Sangamon Valley Beekeepers Association, said there is a lot to learn about keeping bees, but the association doesn’t just graduate you from its class and leave you to fly solo. He said experienced beekeepers are always available to help neophytes with their questions, and expert assistance is just a phone call away.
“We provide a network of mentoring,” he said. “We can come out and say ‘OK, this is what you need to do next’, and really help you through that first year.”
Miller, 47, said the horror stories of mysterious bee diseases and afflictions such as “colony collapse disorder” have not ravaged Illinois, and bee populations here continue to do well. “The No. 1 axiom of successful beekeeping is to keep your colony strong,” he added. “And we can help you learn how to do that.”
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