Aaron, Peter and Mike have spoken words of truth. Being a small hobbyist  and fairly new beekeeper my experience is my story of beekeeping in NY.  Quite a few of us beekeepers started the same time in my area of Delaware County.  In the early years (first hive 2012) I  attended  ESHPA and found my needs weren’t met there. In tandem with trying to learn I found NY Bee Wellness doing a program at Hudson Valley Bee Supply when they first opened. Megan and Jorik do an outstanding job with their classes there and in their Bee Club.  And the SABA Seminar is great also; Tom Seeley and others;  Samuel Ramsey last year, and Mike Palmer.  Heck, we drove 5 hours to VT to learn!  Pat Bono (NYBW) works so hard trying to educate us hobbyist beekeepers with the result of us passing on what we learn to others.  Every teacher there at the NYBW program contributes to this list.  Her program met a need.  What I find is lazy beekeepers. So however the State “fixes” the Apiary laws and education, it seems you cannot fix lazy beekeepers. AFB is easy now;  what about the viruses that are in our hives? CBPV, n. cerana.  So who addresses that? I have to add here that Randy helped me immensely by answering emails even though he is busy with his research.  NYBW has a virus mapping program that I participated in, where we send bee samples to Dave Wick in MT. That’s how I knew the dwindling in my hive was n. cerana, and that there was a low titer of CBPV, which I’m pretty sure three of my hives have now, and will find out for sure this year because I am participating again in this great program. I think that new beekeepers should have a requirement to take an educational class, basic bee biology, and actually get into a hive. I am grateful that I had an opportunity to do this with you guys on this list and NYBW. 

Deb Corcoran
Delhi NY
Delaware Cty
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