Real Buzz Words: Beekeeping Sites for 

 All Levels 



Diane Baedeker Petit 



Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources 



It's no surprise that beekeeping is a traditional 

 farming activity. Bees provide a much-needed service 

 by pollinating crops, and the honey they produce is a 

 great product to offer at farmstands and farmers' 

 markets. Whether you're just thinking about getting 

 into beekeeping, or if you're an experienced apiarist 

 looking for new ideas or suppliers, the Internet is 

 swamiing with information on the subject. 



The following are several good general reference 

 Web sites, but these will, in turn, lead you to more 

 specific resources on beekeeping and honey sites 

 around the world. 



BeeSource.com (www.beesource.com) is a nicely 

 designed site that provides new sources of bees, books, 

 supplies, plans for constructing beehives, information 

 on beekeeping laws, equipment and issuer; there's also 

 a page of links to other beekeeping Web sites. 



If you're looking to share infomiation with other 

 beekeepers, this site provides its own bulletin board 

 for discussion on various beekeeping topics, as well 

 as links to other beekeeping discussion groups, news 

 groups and more. 



The Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and 

 Extension Consortium Beekeeping Information Index 

 (http://maarec. cas.psu. edu/Beeinfoindex. html) is a 

 simple Web site that provides all the basics of 

 apiculture. This site is organized and reads more like 

 a manual. It provides everything you need to know 

 about beekeeping from honeybee biology to beekeeping 

 equipment, and colony management to diseases, pests 

 and parasites and pollination. 



The Colony Management section includes 

 infomiation on managing for honey production and 

 managing for pollination. Other management topics 

 are organized by season. There's even advice on 

 contracting with growers for pollination services. 



The design of this site is not fancy, but links and 

 information are presented in an easy to navigate format. 



Only a small amount of the infomiation here is specific 

 to the Mid-Atlantic region. Most of it is applicable to 

 beekeeping anywhere. 



There's a page of additional resources, which 

 provides names, addresses and phone numbers of 

 organizations, industry journals and experts. The page 

 is dated 1996 so you have to wonder if some of the 

 infomiation is out of date. The glossary of beekeeping 

 terms is quite extensive. 



The Beehive {www.xensei.com/users/alwine/), 

 based in Massachusetts, is an electric mix of useful 

 beekeeping information and games. In addition to 

 practical resources such as bee anatomy, how to start 

 beekeeping and how to store and use honey, there is 

 also fun stuff here as well, such as a beehive crossword 

 puzzle, a trivia quiz and a game called "Sting Me." 

 There are articles on how bees were used as weapons 

 of war and city beekeeping, as wells as frequently asked 

 questions about bees. 



The programs that you can download from this site 

 also reflect the mix of serious information and fun. 

 Included in the download section are an e-book on 

 Beginning Beekeeping, and a beehive jigsaw puzzle 

 program that is fun and easy to complete. 



This light-hearted site would be a good resource 

 for young people just getting into beekeeping. 



National Honey Board (www.nhb.org) is a broad 

 resource for honey producers including national news, 

 business information, marketing resources, quality 

 control infomiation and statistics on national honey 

 production and consumption. There are also numerous 

 articles here on honey research, legislation, organic 

 standards and the like. 



All of these sites are great resources worth 

 bookmarking, but don't stop there. Be sure to follow 

 the many links to more resources that these sites provide 

 to round out your research in apiculture. 



'k ic ic 'k :k 



Fruit Notes, Volume 68, Spring, Summer, & Fall, 2003 



13 



