[Michael Bush]

I call this my "Tom Sawyer" bee camp. What I want is for you to come and do my bee work and pay me for it. But, of course I hope you get to learn a lot about how I keep bees in the process. Seriously it is how I hope to get somewhat caught up on bee work while teaching at the same time.

For more information:

Bee Camp, Michael Bush

Bee Camp, Michael Bush, Beekeeping camp to learn natural beekeeping. Details on my bee camp. Come learn hands-on beekeeping.

www.bushfarms.com

 

[Michael Bush]

Another fun aspect of Bee Camp is living in a tipi. Not only are they beautiful but they are functional. You can build a fire to stay warm and you have a lot of space. This year I pitched two twenty foot tipis, a sixteen foot tipi, two eighteen foot sibley tents and one twelve foot sibley tent. Plus whatever anyone else brought.

 

[Michael Bush]

Camaraderie

 

[Michael Bush]

Learning to mark queens by marking drones:

 

[Michael Bush]

Every year at Bee Camp we set up an artificial swarm so we can observe actual swarm behavior. This year we did a lot of things and one of those was to experiment with drumming them into the box. We dumped a package out on a sheet and tied the queen in the tree. We waited for a swarm to form around the queen. Then with some of the bees still on the sheet we added a box to the sheet. A few bees showed some interest, but whenever we would drum (tap tap tap) on the bottom board of the hive, many would start marching towards the hive. If we stopped some would continue but many would stop. If we restarted the drumming they would march to the hive and then into it. It was a lot of fun to play with a swarm. You can set this up with either a shaken swarm (from a strong hive) or a package. It's a great thing to do with your bee club. Of course you can play with a real swarm, but there is always the risk they will take off for places unknown. Another thing about an artificial swarm--everyone wants to touch the bees...