This past week my son and I visited Turtlebee Farms. It's an amazing place located just outside of Byron Michigan.  Turtlebee Farms has seasonal classes on caring for honey bees.

Alex and I have decided to become hobbiest beekeepers.  We've gotten a lot of equipment and a place for the bees prior to going but we haven't yet actually acquired bees.  We wanted to make sure we were fully prepared for the responsibility and effort involved in taking care of honey bees.  Plus, I wanted to make sure my son would be able to handle being up close and personal to bees.

Here's some pictures:

Mr. Bennett shows us how to takes bees from a Nuc and put them into a new hive.

My son and some other children around a hive. Honey bees can be very docile, especially when there isn't any honey to defend.

There's a reason why it's called Turtlebee farm. There's a pond with an amazing number of turtles in it at the farm. The water is literally rippling from so many turtles (think many dozens of Painted Turtles).

Mrs. Bennett made bread while we were there from scratch and the entire class was very informative and helpful.  Before coming, I had read up on a couple of books on beekeeping as well as researched what I could on the net but found my understanding greatly enhanced from the class. 

One other observation about the class that I thought was particularly interesting was that nearly every other child (and possibly every other child) was home schooled. My son goes to public school and I had taken him out of school that day to take him to this. But the sense of parental involvement was very tangible and the people incredibly nice with very well behaved children attending (a far different experience from my experiences in chaperoning field trips for my boys where the kids seem out of control often times).

Turtlebee Farms sells everything you might want to become a beekeeper as well as a wide selection of honey based products.  It was a really enjoyable time. If you live in the lower peniulsa of Michigan and are curious about learning more about honey bees, I highly recommend Turtlebee Farms.