I can say with complete confidence that the OCBA Bee School really prepared me for my beekeeping journey! Sure, everything was much more difficult online but the Bee School educators put a lot of effort into teaching us the material and I really appreciated it! In fact, one of the upsides about online learning is an increase in confidence for me. I’m a very shy person in real life, but this online format gave me the confidence to speak up whenever I had questions.

I think two of the most intriguing topics I learned from Bee School were about the diseases of honeybees and the honey packaging requirements! When I first went to Bee School, I never could have imagined that bees could have been infected with these diseases. I was naive to believe that since they were domestic and well taken care of, they would nevertheless be susceptible. Additionally, after learning about the honey package requirements, I realized just how serious and passionate beekeepers are with their work. However, I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed with how elaborate the requirements were! For instance, you literally have to put down your address, contact info, and pounds in both English and metric in order for the honey to be deemed legal for selling. It really comes to show that the expensive price that comes with honey is due to the hard work of the bees and the beekeepers who are responsible for them! I think my goal from this learning is to be able to discern fake from real honey and to educate others about it.