UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For those interested in learning about how beekeeping is practiced in different parts of the world, Penn State Extension is offering a free, seven-week webinar series.
“Beekeeping Around the World” is designed for beekeepers, farmers and social insect enthusiasts.
Webinars will take place from noon to 1 p.m. each Thursday from March 2 to April 13, apart from the March 23 webinar, which will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. Each week will feature a different location, and presenters will discuss what it is like to keep bees there. The series will cover the following topics:
- “Apimondia,” March 2. Apimondia is the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations. Participants can learn why beekeeping is a popular and profitable venture around the world.
- “The Canadian Prairies,” March 9. Instructors will discuss how bees are kept inside buildings during the long, cold winters in the Canadian Prairies and how large amounts of honey are extracted in the spring.
- “East Africa,” March 16. This webinar will focus on beekeeping in Kenya and the challenges beekeepers face; traditional log hives and other styles of hives; and management of highly aggressive colonies.
- “Australia,” March 23. Attendees can learn about the parasites that have reached Australia, how authorities are reacting and how beekeepers deal with the pests.
- “China,” March 30. China has developed a line of bees that produce royal jelly, which is used in cosmetics and medicine. This webinar will cover how royal jelly is made and harvested and differences between European honey bees and Asian hive bees.
- “Argentina,” April 6. This session will focus on drone congregation areas for honey bees, where they form, and how European and African honey bees hybridize.
- “Switzerland,” April 13. Participants can learn about managing bees in bee houses and how queen breeders mate their queens in remote parts of the Swiss Alps.
Penn State Extension offers this series free of charge, but participants must register by 1 p.m. on each lunchtime webinar date — or by 5 p.m. for the March 23 session — to receive the link to access the live webinar. Registrants also will receive access to the webinar recording.
More information about the series is available on the Penn State Extension website.