Nith Valley Apiaries, 1041 Christner Road, New Hamburg

Join professional beekeepers Jodi and Mike, plus 9 other bee enthusiasts, for a morning of bees, nature, and connection!

Attendees will meet at Nith Valley Apiaries on Saturday May 21st at 9:00am and get their information package. We will provide a short intro to bees + safety guidelines. You will then follow Mike and Jodi to a local bee yard where you will learn how to inspect a hive: Mike and Jodi will do a demo on two hives with a group of 5 attendees each. Following this you will have the opportunity to inspect a hive on your own while Jodi & Mike walk among attendees answering questions/guiding you in your inspection. You will fill out a hive inspection log to practice record-keeping and become familiar with what to look for in your own hive (several sample log styles will be included in our info package). Additionally we will discuss mite and pest management, general care during the first year, and how to test varroa mite levels, all followed by a Q&A period. 

At noon we head back to home base (Nith Valley Apiaries) and collect your empty hive box plus 15 potted trees and bushes grown at Silver Creek Nursery in Wellesley - including two heritage fruit trees! By the end of the morning, you will have the knowledge and resources you need to support your own healthy hive and you can go home, plant all the things + prepare your hive boxes. Then in mid-June you'll come back and pick up your very own nucleus bee colony! 

$1000+HST/ticket; you may bring a significant other or children at additional $30/head. Bee suits available for rent at $40/suit and must be sorted out ahead of time with organizers.

• attendance space for one (1) person (all attendees must sign waiver and bring/rent a suit)
• 3hrs learning + hands on hive inspection, including discussion on care in the first year and mite/pest management - you will get to do an inspection start-to-finish on one of our hives, while we walk among attendees guiding your inspection
• nuc care + resource handout created by @huckleberryhives & @nithvalleyapiaries
• 15 potted bee-friendly trees/shrubs + planting instructions from @silvercreeknursery (plant list is below, valued at approximately $400.00)
• one (1) set of hive equipment (bottom board, deep super, inner cover, outer cover, 4 frames with plastic foundation + 2 drawn comb frames (value $130; drawn comb will be sent with you at nuc pickup time so you don't have to worry about wax moths)
• one (1) 4-frame nucleus bee colony (to be picked up mid-June, supplied by Nith Valley Apiaries at a value of $250.00)
• additional supplies for your nuc: 1 x pollen patty + 1 x 16oz Mason Jar of sugar syrup to stimulate their comb production & expansion into their new home (you can purchase your own hive feeder to put the syrup in, or we can show you a simple method that used the mason jar with several minor modifications)

This ticket covers an additional person participating in the hive inspection workshop portion. Please contact us to confirm that there is space for another extra head, and we will collect payment for any extra persons at the beginning of the event. Please note: bee-suits/protective equipment are not included in this fee.

• Eastern Flowering Dogwood
• Eastern Redbud Seedling
• Sweetgum Seedling
• Pink Pearl Apple
• Esopus Spitzenburg Apple
• Northern Catalpa Seedling
• Pussy Willow Seedling
• Red Maple Seedling
• Sumac Seedling
• Rose of Sharon
• Nova Raspberry
• Comfrey
• Jerusalem Artichoke/Sunchoke
• Sedum
• Liatris (Blazing Star)
• Groundnuts

1. Limited bee suits available for rental, please connect with us to arrange your bee-suit or bee-jacket rental if desired. You are more than welcome to bring your own bee suit. For bee biosecurity, we will provide our own hive tools for use during the hive inspection. 
2. This event WILL run during mild cloudy/rainy weather. The hive inspection portion will be rescheduled in the case of severe weather, at the professional beekeepers' discretion.