Seminar for 2020 will be held at the Gateway High School and is scheduled for:
Friday, February 14th (7-9PM)
All registrants are invited to attend the Friday Night presentation (including New Beekeeper class)!!
and
Saturday, February 15th – (8AM – 5PM) – Registration at 7:30AM on Saturday

We are really excited about this year’s seminar!

Speakers will include:
Lewis Bartlett
Brock Harpur
Ian Steppler

The topics that we have scheduled for this year are:

Friday night – All registrants are able to attend Friday Night presentation (including New Beekeeper class)!!
Lewis Bartlett – Learning from Bees in Nature: Dancing, Drugs, and Diversity.
Covering the wonderful world of bee behaviors – what it means for our beekeeping, and how bees might reveal secrets that benefit all of society.

Saturday Morning
Lewis Bartlett – Crowding and Caravans: Is industrial beekeeping bad for bees?
Understanding the complexity of how nomadic, densely packed beekeeping might make our bees sick – not always in the ways we might expect.
Brock Harpur – Mite Biting
Ian Steppler – Single Hive Management

Afternoon
Breakout Session #1
Bartlett – Bee Breeding: Problems and Promises of Darwinian Beekeeping
Insights from an evolutionary biologist on the risks and rewards of trying to shape selection in our bees.
Harpur – Drone quality
Steppler – Sustainable Queen Rearing
Charles Vorisek – Honey sources

Breakout Session #2
Bartlett – Viruses, Varroa, and Virulence: What makes bee parasites deadly?
Ever wondered why parasites and pathogens hurt the hosts they rely on, including our bees? We’ll take a dive into epidemiology and ecology of honeybee health, and what it can teach is about all diseases.
Harpur – History of honey bee importation
Steppler – Honey Bee Management within Our Changing Landscape
Cathy Vorisek – Teaching Children and Doing Educational Presentations

Breakout Session #3
Steppler – Lessons I’ve Learned as a Growing Beekeeper
Dwight Wells – Working with Feral Honey Bees and Varroa
Ann Fry (Better Bee) – Oops (pictures and stories of a variety of mistakes we all have made)
Karen Roccasecca, State Apiarist and Bonnie Hall, State Inspector – American Foul Brood

We also have a Beginner Beekeeper 101 Classroom Training that will take place during the seminar. Please note that you can sign up for the Beginner training or you can see the speakers on Saturday. Can’t do both – Sorry.
All registrants are invited to attend the Friday Night presentation (including New Beekeeper class)!!

For those taking the Beekeeping 101 course, we recommend that you read page 1 through 17 of this text PRIOR to attending the course. This will help familiarize you with some of the words and terminology used in beekeeping. Do not worry if you do not understand everything that you read in the text, we will cover this material and more in the course.http://denton.agrilife.org/files/2013/08/beekeeping-basics.pdf

All in attendance will have access throughout the day to the huge pool of Beekeeping Equipment Vendors.

There will be morning Coffee as well as a delicious lunch served.

There is registration available at the door for $70.

OPERATION HONEY DROP
This year we will be starting a new tradition called “Operation Honey Drop”. All Seminar attendees are asked to Drop one bottle of their Honey at the registration table of the seminar. We will arrange all of the honey for a photograph that will help showcase all of the dedicated local beekeepers around our area. After the seminar, all of the honey will be donated to local food banks in the Monroeville area. Everyone who brings honey will have the opportunity (not obligation) to provide their name and location as well as variety of honey along with their Honey to be included in the website write-up after the Seminar.

Special Hotel Room Rates are available at the Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn listed below:

Monroeville Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Block Code “BEE”
3936 Monroeville Blvd.
Monroeville, PA 15146

Hotel: 412-376-4900
Fax: 412-376-4901

Rate $89.00

Hampton Inn
https://hamptoninn.hilton.com/en/hp/groups/personalized/P/PITMVHX-BEE-20200214/index.jhtml
Group Information
Group Name: Western PA Beekeepers Seminar
Group Code: BEE
Check-in: 14-FEB-2020
Check-out: 16-FEB-2020
Hotel Name: Hampton Inn Pittsburgh/Monroeville
Hotel Address: 3000 Mosside Blvd.
Monroeville, Pennsylvania
Zipcode – 15146
Phone Number: 1-412-380-4000

Rate $78.00

If you have any questions or problems, please call John at 412.576.3062

VENDOR LIST
Blue Sky Bee Supply
BetterBee
Rose Microsolutions
Thriving Hive
Dadant
Hive Butler
McCormack Apiaries

Vendors will be added to this list as they are confirmed. Check back later to see a more complete list.

The Committee and the clubs affiliated with the Western PA Beekeepers Seminar reserve the right to make schedule changes for administrative reasons as well as reasons beyond our control Many of our speakers travel a great distance and unforeseen travel and weather issues may emerge. Efforts will be made to produce a valuable seminar. Furthermore, any changes occurring because of issues with the school facility, beyond the control of the seminar committee will not be the responsibility of the committee members.

REGISTER:

https://beavervalleybees.net/index.php/event/western-pa-beekeeping-seminar/