Bees 203 - 204: Queen Rearing & Colony Increase 2026
Schedule
Sat, 18 Apr, 2026 at 07:00 pm to Sat, 02 May, 2026 at 07:30 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Bee CARE Institute at the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild | Washington, DC
About this Event
This series includes queen rearing and colony increase courses.
Location: 1400 Quincy St. NE, Washington DC
Colony Increase 204
Dates: April 18, May 2, 9, 16, (30th alt bad weather day)
Time: 10:am - 1:pm
Queen Rearing 203
Dates: April 18, May 2, 3, 9, 16, (30th alt bad weather day)
Time: 1:30pm - 4:30pm
Click to attend just: Queen Rearing 203 or Colony Increase 204
Both workshops consist of classroom sessions, demonstrations, hands-on lessons in the bee yard, homework assignment, and quiz.
Prereqresets:
- Completed a short course and have one year of experience in maintaining colonies
Or
- Two years of experience maintaining colonies and demonstrated knowlege
Course Description:
Participants must attend all class sessions to be eligible for the certificate of completion. In addition to in class time participants will be expected to complete homework and a comprehensive final quiz.
- Textbooks included
- Participants in the queen rearing workshop will get to take two queen cells home.
Queen Rearing Topics:
- Hive evaluations for selecting breeders and record keeping
- Equipment and instructions for starting queen rearing
- Setting up starters and finisher
- Grafting
- Care of cells and queens
- Setting up Mating Colonies
- Catching and Marking Queens
- Evaluating for success
Colony Increase Topics:
- The right time to make splits and nucs
- Assessing a colony for increase potential
- What's in a nuc
- Queen introduction techniques
- Walk-away splits
- Swarms
- Caring for new colonies
- Evaluating for success
Where is it happening?
Bee CARE Institute at the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild, 1400 Quincy Street NE, Washington, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 175.00 to USD 295.00
