Spend time with a beekeeper in the Boston Area Beekeepers Association’s apiary (bee yard) at MassAudubon’s beautiful Boston Nature Center. Visitors will don beekeeper jackets and hoods, and work right alongside the beekeeper as they open their hive, look for honey, young developing bees, and a healthy queen. You will learn basic beekeeping techniques for how to grow and nurture happy & healthy beehives. There’s always plenty of time to ask questions, and if all is well and the bees are having a good day, you might even get a chance to hold some honeycomb covered with bees!
Sessions run from 10am to noon, and begin at the Boston Nature Center’s main building, where we start with a close look at the basic layout of a bee colony inside an indoor, glassed-in ‘observation hive.’
Meet the Beekeeper is suitable for all ages, but everyone is strongly encouraged to act reasonably calm when in the apiary; while bees rarely sting, it does happen, especially when they feel threatened. If you are highly allergic to stings, or if you don’t know whether you are allergic, then it is best if you either watch from a distance (+20 feet) or not attend the outdoor session in the apiary.