Beekeeping is a rewarding and fun way to interact with the evironment and contribute to the local ecosystem.  While it is a great deal of fun, it is also an incredible amount of hard work, and it takes time, experience, and study to successfully manage and maintain healthy honey bees.  

Seasonal mentoring is a perfect way for "newbees", or those simply aiming to improve their beekeeping knowledge and skills, to work through one annual cycle of beekeeping, and all that comes with it, alongside an experienced, Cornell University Master Beekeeper, Heath Quiles.  

This is full service support for established or new beekeepers for one bee year!  

In this model:

• the mentee will have their own apiary, hive(s), all related equipment, and bees.  

• the mentor will guide and provide direct instruction to the mentee through each cycle of the maintenance and management of the colonies for one beekeeping season, which typically will last between late March until early October.  

Over the course of the bee season, the mentor will provide support and hands-on instruction and hive management support, at least twice a month throughout the season.  Of course, the frequency and duration of each experience will vary, depending on the time of year. During the late spring, for example, it will be likely that sessions will need to occur once a week.  

The mentee will reach the end of this experience with the knowledge, skills and confidence to independently maintain healthy bee colonies, as well as manage a honey crop.  Along the way, the mentor will support the mentee in the creation of a cyclical bee management plan for their apiary.  This will include establishing systems for taking notes, managing inventory, and having an annual plan which insures you are always ready for the next steps within each season of beekeeping, and for the unexpected (which happens all the time in beekeeping, by the way!)

This full year service is available for $1275.00.  

If you are interested, or have any questions, reach out to Heath Quiles, Master Beekeeper at River's Edge Apiary, at riversedgebees@gmail.com or call us at (518) 937-5405.

For beekeepers interested in shorter-term support, or looking for help with specific, or seasonal, issues which they are facing in their own colonies, short-term mentoring could be right for you!  

Let Cornell University Master Beekeeper, Heath Quiles, provide you with support, instruction and guidance on any and all topics related to your apiary.  These may include, but certainly aren't limited to: 

• Pre-beekeeping set-up/planning and hive installation, 

• Regular hive inspections and assessments,

• Assessment of colony well-being and nutrition, with instruction on the recognition, and treatment of, diseases, pests, and pathogens which are harmful to honeybees,

• Understanding honey bee biology, reproduction, castes, division of labor, foraging behaviors, and social systems, both inside of the colony, as well as outside of the colony itself, 

• Spring population growth/swarm management,

• Queen management and installation, 

• Making splits and nucs,

• Creation and management of resources hives,

• Varroa testing, and treatments, either chemical or cultural, 

• Management of honey supers,

• Extraction and bottling of honey,

• Winter preparation and overwintering techniques for the Northeast. 

You name the issue, and Heath will aim to help!  

Short-term mentoring services are available for:

• $75.00 a day, or 

• as a package, at 5 days for $298.00.

If you are interested, or have any questions, reach out to Heath Quiles, at River's Edge Apiary, at riversedgebees@gmail.com or call us at (518) 937-5405.