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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Jerry Bromenshenk <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 19 Dec 2015 15:24:25 -0500
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Randy:

Now don't get me wrong--I fully support the educational programs.  I just
think that the title name above journeyman should be different

 
 
Randy    Overall, I agree.  However, the question is:  What do we call the levels?  What would appeal to both groups of stakeholder.       We chose  to go with the recognizable terms ,and hope that we can break down the resistance of long-term beekeepers who knee-jerk at the titles. 


Remember, it was our own commercial beekeepers who first asked me to develop the series.  Admittedly, their primary concern was about the impact to their livelihood of the rapidly increasing number of newbie beekeepers who were 'learning beekeeping' from the internet gurus.  Their main concern was the growing  exposure of their own  bees  to   mites and diseases from poorly managed colonies  - stereotypically 'newbies'.
   
What UM's classes really need is the mix, just as that's what makes Bee-L worthwhile.  I hope that our courses provide sufficient content to warrant the attention of beekeepers and families who derive their income from taking bees.  Rather than tell me what our courses aren't - how about having one or both of your sons take our Journeyman before making up your mind?

Having grown  up on a family dairy with one of the best -highest per cow milk production, lowest bacteria counts, cleanest milk in Yellowstone County, at the time, I  was dismissive of many so  called expert pronouncements in Extension Service publications.  Still, I now realize that I was home schooled in Dairy management - we knew some things very well, did them better than most.  

Unfortunately for my father, I didn't share his passion for milking cows every morning and evening - 10 years was enough.  Nor were college courses in Precision Agriculture available.  That's changed dramatically, and my dairy talents which were better than average in the 50 and 60s wouldn't pass muster today.

From our UM perspective, when we developed these courses at the request of industry leaders, the harsh reality was   that   if one doesn't have Extension Money to support  course development, which UM lacks as a non-land grant college - it's a Liberal Arts College-   then one has to make the courses self-supporting on the fees charged.  And the development costs were fronted by the Dean of SELL - but he wants to recoup his investment.

From an income generating perspective, there are orders of magnitude more small scale beekeepers, and a limited number of commercial in the U.S. and world-wide.  Simply put, we'd have never gotten as far as we have if we had to look to commercial beekeeper registrations to kickstart our courses.  

I don't see an easily resolution to the Title issue.  I do know that if we add a 4th level, which we anticipate happening, we will not call it Craftsman.  



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