If you are interested in signing up for any of these classes, please call the store at 415-744-1465 to sign up via credit card or come in person to pay via cash.  All classes have a maximum of 15 students, so seating is very limited.  Payment must be made in advance online or on the phone with a credit card or in person with cash.  All classes are held at the store at 3520 20th Street, San Francisco.  No refunds, exchanges, or rescheduling is possible.

Registration is required.  We need to prepare chairs and learning materials in advance, so no walk-ins, please! 

Webinar:  Urban Beekeeping: Ins and Outs - Dos and Don'ts - FREE 

Register for the Webinar here!

Sunday, January 24, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM PDT

We will hear from 3 experienced Urban Beekeepers. Learn from these people and issues they confront and mistakes they have make.

Toni Burnham has been an urban beekeeper for 5 years, starting with 2 still-thriving hives on her Capitol Hill rooftop. She now manages 10 hives in the city and the suburbs, mentors about a dozen other urban beekeepers, participates in teaching at several local short courses, and is Vice President of the Maryland State Beekeepers Association. One of her great privileges in 2009 was an invitation to inspect the beehive managed by Charlie Brandts at the White House. She has blogged her beekeeping experiences at http://citybees.blogspot.com

Cameo Wood currently owns a beekeeping supply & honey shop in the Mission district of San Francisco, California called Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper.  I enjoy this a great deal, as I'm helping to create food, pollinate flowers and fruit trees in my city, and I am contributing to making the world a little better.  She keeps a few hives in the Mission and Castro districts of San Francisco, and is working on putting up new hives all the time! She has only been working with bees for the last year, but this has been her life and full time job since she started building her store in October of 2008.  

Cindy Bee (yes, it’s really her last name) is a beekeeper near Atlanta, Georgia.  She is a past President and currently on the Board of Directors for the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers’ Association.  They meet in the heart of downtown Atlanta where there are a good number of beekeepers who have their hives in small backyards there. As a club, they’ve had beehives at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Zoo Atlanta, and other inner city locations. Cindy has a fulltime business removing bees from within structures for the past 14 years, and most of her removals are in the Atlanta area neighborhoods.

Register for the Webinar here!

Beginning Beekeeping- $30    Enroll Online

Saturday, January 30th, 9:00 AM - 11:30AM

Taught by Karen Peteros
2.5 hours: What you need to know about SF Beekeeping (But didn’t know who to ask).  If you ever thought you might want to take up beekeeping, but do not know what would be involved, this 2.5-hour class is for you.  Subjects we will cover include applicable SF and CA laws, cost$, time commitment, equipment options, and what other practicalities you need to consider if you are to fulfill responsibilities to yourself, others in your household and building, neighbors, nearby community and, importantly, the honeybees you would keep.  

Those who wish to further explore the possibility of taking up beekeeping are encouraged to take “Inside the honeybee colony”. 

San Francisco Beekeeping Meetup! February Meetup - FREE  Signup here

Wednesday, Feb 3rd, 7:00 PM - 8:00PM

Borderlands Cafe,  870 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110

Hosted by Cameo Wood
Our group has gotten too big for the store, so we'll be moving to a cafe one block away - Borderlands Cafe. They have light snacks, coffee, tea, and treats! We'll be meeting in the back, and I'll have a nametag

This month we'll be talking about our first beehives!

In the next few months, first time beekeepers will start to purchase equipment, look for places to keep their hives, and receive their bee packages. Other beekeepers will find that their hives are going to start getting more active, and will start to swarm. Let's talk about both of these issues, and then have time to chat with each other, and maybe organize a few hive-tours for next month!

And as always, If you are a beekeeper, bring your own honey in. If you just love honey and have something unusual, bring it by to share.

--

SF Beeks is an informal gathering of beekeepers of all abilities--if you're interested in bees, you're invited. A beek is an affectionate name for a "beekeeping geek" - so come beek out with us! You can meet other beeks; maybe find a beekeeping buddy, ask about how to start beekeeping, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a pollination garden question, share beekeeping stories; the sky is the limit. It's low key and it's fun. This is a chance to get some of us together, have a drink, and talk some bees!

Beginning Beekeeping- $30    Enroll Online

Sunday,  February 7th, 9:00 AM - 11:30AM

Taught by Karen Peteros
2.5 hours: What you need to know about SF Beekeeping (But didn’t know who to ask).  If you ever thought you might want to take up beekeeping, but do not know what would be involved, this 2.5-hour class is for you.  Subjects we will cover include applicable SF and CA laws, cost$, time commitment, equipment options, and what other practicalities you need to consider if you are to fulfill responsibilities to yourself, others in your household and building, neighbors, nearby community and, importantly, the honeybees you would keep.  

Those who wish to further explore the possibility of taking up beekeeping are encouraged to take “Inside the honeybee colony”. 

Beginning Beekeeping- $30    Enroll Online

Saturday, February 27th, 9:00 AM - 11:30AM

Taught by Karen Peteros
2.5 hours: What you need to know about SF Beekeeping (But didn’t know who to ask).  If you ever thought you might want to take up beekeeping, but do not know what would be involved, this 2.5-hour class is for you.  Subjects we will cover include applicable SF and CA laws, cost$, time commitment, equipment options, and what other practicalities you need to consider if you are to fulfill responsibilities to yourself, others in your household and building, neighbors, nearby community and, importantly, the honeybees you would keep.  

Those who wish to further explore the possibility of taking up beekeeping are encouraged to take “Inside the honeybee colony”. 

Beginning Beekeeping- $30    Enroll Online

Sunday, February 28th, 9:00 AM - 11:30AM

Taught by Karen Peteros
2.5 hours: What you need to know about SF Beekeeping (But didn’t know who to ask).  If you ever thought you might want to take up beekeeping, but do not know what would be involved, this 2.5-hour class is for you.  Subjects we will cover include applicable SF and CA laws, cost$, time commitment, equipment options, and what other practicalities you need to consider if you are to fulfill responsibilities to yourself, others in your household and building, neighbors, nearby community and, importantly, the honeybees you would keep.  

Those who wish to further explore the possibility of taking up beekeeping are encouraged to take “Inside the honeybee colony”. 

Beginning Beekeeping- $30    Enroll Online

Saturday, March 13th, 9:00 AM - 11:30AM

Taught by Karen Peteros
2.5 hours: What you need to know about SF Beekeeping (But didn’t know who to ask).  If you ever thought you might want to take up beekeeping, but do not know what would be involved, this 2.5-hour class is for you.  Subjects we will cover include applicable SF and CA laws, cost$, time commitment, equipment options, and what other practicalities you need to consider if you are to fulfill responsibilities to yourself, others in your household and building, neighbors, nearby community and, importantly, the honeybees you would keep.  

Those who wish to further explore the possibility of taking up beekeeping are encouraged to take “Inside the honeybee colony”. 

Beginning Beekeeping- $30    Enroll Online

Sunday, March 28th, 9:00 AM - 11:30AM

Taught by Karen Peteros
2.5 hours: What you need to know about SF Beekeeping (But didn’t know who to ask).  If you ever thought you might want to take up beekeeping, but do not know what would be involved, this 2.5-hour class is for you.  Subjects we will cover include applicable SF and CA laws, cost$, time commitment, equipment options, and what other practicalities you need to consider if you are to fulfill responsibilities to yourself, others in your household and building, neighbors, nearby community and, importantly, the honeybees you would keep.  

Those who wish to further explore the possibility of taking up beekeeping are encouraged to take “Inside the honeybee colony”. 

About the Instructors:

K.Ruby Blume is an educator, gardener, beekeeper, artist, performer, bodyworker and activist with 10+ years urban beekeeping and 20+ years urban gardening experience.  She has studied permaculture, botany, pollination ecology, entomology, massage, sexology and coaching  as well as teaching herself cooking, canning and fermentation techniques. Ruby knows how to set tile, install a sink, do electrical wiring, fire a kiln, sew a dress, crochet a hat, tend a beehive and repair a motorcycle.  She has taught gardening, beekeeping, puppetry, mosaic, massage, stilt-walking and more to people age five to ninety-five. Ruby has a permaculture design certificate from OAEC and  currently runs the Institute of Urban Homesteading in Oakland California,  a small school offering affordable classes in urban sustainability.   She is excited to be teaching here in the Mission District, where she started her first urban garden over 20 years ago.  www.sparkybeegirl.com/iuh.html

Arno Boer likes to kid around a lot, and a lot of kids like to be around Arno. Arno has been playing intently with children of all ages in various professional settings for the last 6 years. He is skilled at creating a harmonious rapport with children and has developed a style of educational entertainment that engages every child in their own way. 

Jeremy Bornstein is a consumer of new hobbies, soap-making being the most recent in a long list of sometimes impractical, sometimes dangerous, and sometimes merely annoying activities.

Karen Peteros has been beekeeping for four years, simultaneously in various SF neighborhoods, in Oakland and in Southern Oregon.  During her beekeeping tenure, she has managed as many as 35 of her own colonies, she has raised some of her own queens and she develops nucleus colonies for sale.  Apart from her part-time work as an attorney, she has taught beekeeping classes in SF and in Oregon, and was the 2009 President of the San Francisco Beekeepers Association (SFBA).  As a SFBA member she has regularly mentored new and beginning SF beekeepers.

Carrie Redfern can almost always be found using her hands in some crafty way. Some of her practical passions are candle making and herbalism. She has made and enjoyed all manner of beeswax candles for many years. Carrie is primarily a self-taught crafter, but has also been guided by a few wonderful teachers, and was educated in Western Herbalism at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, and Clinical Herbalism at the California School of Herbal Studies. Her herbal explorations revolve primarily around herb cultivation and medicine making with a focus on body care products. You will find some of Carrie's creations at Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper.