Melinda:  To answer your questions and comments:
 
Yes, you are correct, the "Bee", by Rose-Lynn Fisher, is another great anatomay book, we bought a copy of the Scanning EM book for our course illustrator's.   
 
However, it's been done before and more extensively  by the Eric Ericson while he was at the Tucson lab, and his atlas is still be available for free by downloading from on-line.  Look for A Scanning Electron Microscope Atlas of the Honey Bee, Eric H. Ericson, Jr.; Stanley D. Carlson, and Martin B. Garmen.   The nice thing about the Ericson book, you can download and print those pictures you want to hang.  My favorite photo is of the zipper-like hooks on the wings.  And we humans think zippers and Velcro are unique.
 
 
As per our classes - several have asked and those of  you who have asked should be hearing from Clare.Kelly ([log in to unmask]), from the University of Montana's School of Extended and Lifelong Learning early next week.    Our next Apprentice Course starts Feb 23, 2015; the next Journeyman March 23, 2015.  The latter requires 2-3 years of successful beekeeping (you kept your colonies alive for more than one growing season, and you have to either have passed out Apprentice Course or you can opt to take a test.  We learned from this year's Journeyman - people with years of experience don't necessarily have the breadth of knowledge we expect for entry into this class level.  

For more information, or to register for these courses go to: http://www.umt.edu/sell/programs/bee/   Click on the tabs for Apprentice or Journeyman (the picture icons near top of the page).

These are not follow along courses.  To get either a Certificate or Academic (University Levels) Credits, you must pass exams, participate in a substantive way to the Discussion Forums.  We introduce a Topic per week, and the class has about a week to finish each set of exercises, take the week's exam, or submit an assignment (there is some writing to be done, and we require participation in the Discussions for each week.  

The Apprentice Course focuses on standard equipment and proven methods - we mention some of the alternatives  like Top Bar hives, but we consider them to be more of an aesthetic or experimental choice, not necessarily a place to start.  First, learn one must learn the basics.  

Furthermore,  we don't even mention these alternatives in the Journeyman class - we expect students at that level to be serious about learning how to be better beekeepers - we do expect Journeyman class participants to access a microscope, and starting with this new Journeyman class, we will require students to sample and examine their bees for evidence of Nosema and Tracheal mites, and to get a better look at bee anatomy.  We anticipated that would happen in the first sections, but it didn't necessarily follow; so this next round, we will want a report from each student about the presence or lack of varroa, tracheal mites, and nosema in their own bees.

Do expect to put in some serious hours - you work when you can, but you need to keep up with the pace of the course.  Also, we've a long waiting list, these courses fill fast.  We just opened the next round, so you are ok, and for those of you from overseas, we've had students from Europe, Canada, South American countries, New Zealand, and Australia.  Basic concept and science based bee management is not confined to one location.  

Jerry
 

 
 
 


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