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Small group, limited to 4 people, hands-on apprenticing with Corwin Bell. A unique opportunity to deepen your understanding of top bar hives and Bee Guardianship Methods.
Earn your Bee Guardianship Hive Doctor Certificate while being actively involved in hands-on hive doctoring sessions with Corwin Bell. Unique training and participation opportunities while visiting several beehives and backyards each day.
"Apprenticeship is a time honored tradition of transmitting knowledge and skills of a craft as the apprentice learns by participating in intricacies of the craft of the master practitioner. Apprenticeship retains fresh information and ideas within a common body of knowledge."
Corwin instills an instructional scaffolding of support during the learning process, tailored to the needs of each student with the intention of helping the student achieve the highest level of Bee Guardianship.
Bee Doctor Intensives are active, social, and authentic.
Bee Doctor Intensives
Whether or not you want to actually perform Hive Doctor visits after the Intensives, this apprenticeship will give you a vast amount of experience for understanding your own hives.
We are limiting the intensives to 4 people per session, so there will be a great opportunity for hands-on learning.
Requirements
It is required that you have taken the Session I (Beginning) and Session II (Intermediate) workshops from BackYardHive.com
What is a Bee Doctor?
A Bee Doctor is an individual who has had the experience of seeing and working with many hives in varied conditions of health, and is called upon when someone is unsure about how to resolve their hive issue. It is someone who has the skills to assess a hive and perform all the necessary hive tasks, from harvesting honey, to re-queening a hive. A Bee Doctor is someone who has gained the experience and sensitivity to know what needs to be done for the well being of the hive.
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"Suzi and I are well and importantly, after one hot and one wet summer season, our Cathedral Hive colonies are powering. The oldest one (6 months) is very strong and ready to split a second time and the first daughter colony is healthy but still fairly small. It has added air tunnels around first frame which is all honey. Paperbark is about to blossom and they will pack that 30% protein nectar in bug time so expansion is necessary. We speak and think of you often - always inspiring to do so. Hope you are well and thriving also."
Sean and Suzi, Australia
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"I attended Corwin’s Bee Doctor Intensive last year (2014) and found it to be the most valuable experience in honeybee colony analysis and resolution that I’ve had in my brief four years as a bee guardian. There is nothing comparable to hands-on experience, and Corwin filled our days with true field work - showing, guiding, teaching, encouraging, and supporting us as we experienced (and hopefully absorbed) his lessons. Corwin’s mastery of bee guardianship, his skill at assessment and resolution, as well as his strong compassion and respect for the bees and all life, shone throughout the Intensive and kept me captivated. Beginner or experienced, we all agreed that the Intensive was a unique and valuable experience. Although very tired, with my head spinning from all that I had seen and learned, I didn’t want it to end, and I will sign up to do it again! "
Valerie G., Longmont, CO
First of all, Corwin really fought against using a fixed certification model, so we are modeling the intensives after aviation training, where a student pilot keeps flying with the instructor until the teacher and the student agree that it is time for a solo flight.
In Corwin's experience it usually takes around 4-8 days for a person to become confident enough to do a bee doctor visit solo. Just as getting ones pilot license, certification is not set at a set number of days of training, but will depend on if both the student and Corwin feel there is confidence and competency to go solo! The goal of the intensives are to give you the experience to assess a beehive's health and well-being with confidence and to have the skills necessary to assist others in resolving problems.
Intensive days count toward your certification. You don't have to take the intensives in order, its the specialized hands-on experience that counts. Certified Hive Doctors will receive a special necklace medallion.
Once you have been certified by Corwin you can attend any Bee Doctor Intensive for $100/day.
Begin 8:30am with discussion and questions. Work on hives in our Eldorado Bee Sanctuary or one of our yards in Boulder. We will do two to three Bee Doctor visits each day each with specific or unknown issues. Recap the days learning
Healthy bees!
Cross comb
Queen-less hive
Re-queening a hive
Combining hives
Hive transfers
Heat issues
Hive mishaps
Dwindling hives
Comb Harvesting
Opening up the brood nest
Re-setting aggressive bees
We will be seeing many hives in various stages of growth and health. These varied conditions allow participants to gain confidence in how to resolve complex hive issues.
