Private Class - Mentor Service

Sometimes beginner and experienced beekeepers need a little extra hand with some on-site advice. Beekeeping can be difficult at times as you try to make sense of what your bees are doing. We were beginner beekeepers once, and we remember wondering if everything was going terribly or if everything was going well. For local customers within 20 miles of our store, we will visit your hives and consult for $125 for the first hour and $18.75 every 15 minutes after that. When you purchase the service, that puts you on our list. Then, we will contact you to schedule a day and time to perform the consultation. Generally, this service is performed on weekdays. Would you like to come to our bee yard and get a private lesson? We can do that too.  Some of the ways we can help you with our mentoring service include: HIVE INSPECTION A routine hive inspection is essential to every good beekeeper. During a hive inspection, a beekeeper can find out how well the bees are doing and if any action is needed. We can help with your inspection and advise on the next steps, and show you how to do your own inspection. HIVE SPLITTING  If you have a particularly strong hive that you would like help splitting, we can help you find the queen and the right frames for the job. If you need to mark the queen before splitting or have queen cells that you would like transferred, we can help make that job easier for you. Splitting hives is a great way to keep your bees healthy and prosperous, as well as increase your apiary. PRE-BEEKEEPING HELP Need help figuring out what you need to get started? Meet with us early to see the equipment options and get a personalized consultation so you can get the equipment that works best for you. There is a lot to consider before getting your bees and get you started off on the right foot. These are great for our virtual consult.  HONEY HARVESTING If all goes well with your bees, you may be able to harvest a little honey for your friends and family. Not all frames are ripe for harvesting, so we can help go through your hive and pull frames that will do the job. It also helps you uncap and spin out your honey. It's quite a process, but it's helpful to have an experienced beekeeper alongside to help.  POST MORTEM After a colony dies, it is helpful to look at the frames and make a diagnosis as to why they died. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell, but we can help diagnose the situation to hopefully keep it from happening again. What do you do with the equipment? We can help you find a plan for that too. Losing colonies is part of beekeeping, but we can help reduce the pain from that sting.  BEE INSTALLATION When your bees arrive, it can be an intimidating process of "installing" them. We can help demystify this process and coach you through the steps, or you can watch us. Different techniques are used for packages and nucleus hives, and we can help you and your bees get started on the right foot.  SPACE PLANNING It can be difficult planning the right spot for your bees, as there are so many variables to take into account. Choosing your apiary location takes careful planning and prep to ensure you and your bees do well. If you need your hives moved to a new apiary, we can help with that too.  VARROA COUNTING Varroa mites can wreak havoc on a beehive, often going unnoticed until it is too late. It is practically impossible to just look for varroa mites on the bees, so we can offer a definitive count of the varroa mite population in your hive and give advice based on what is found.  SWARM CATCHING Have your bees swarmed, and you want to get them back? We can help you get your own bees back and transfer them into a new hive. There are certain tricks we can share with you to ensure your new (old) bees stay in their new hive, turning lemons into lemonade.  HIVE SITTING Sometimes, our schedules don't mesh well with our hobbies. If you aren't able to take care of your hives for a period of time, we can step in and help your bees while you are away. Whether that is feeding your bees are adding equipment to reduce the chances of swarming.  SO WHAT DOES IT COST? There is no extra charge for locations within 20 miles of our retail store. This covers much of the Birmingham area. For locations further than 20 miles, we charge for $2 each mile over 20 miles to the apiary. For example, if your apiary is 30 miles from our store, we would charge $125 for the first hour and $2 for each additional mile beyond 20. If we spent another 30 minutes with you and your bees, it would be only an additional $37.50. We don't charge mileage for the return trip. We calculate our time from the point we start talking about bees to when we stop.  If you would like to book a time with us, please purchase the consult, and we will contact you immediately after to schedule an appropriate time.  We enjoy teaching and want you to be successful as a beekeeper, and our mentoring service gives you the opportunity to work with an experienced beekeeper with your bees.