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Beekeeping Is Getting More Popular In Florida; Online Courses Now Available To The Public

John Coldwell, left, and Sarah Blackburn, right, check in on 15 hives of honey bees at the apiary in Deerfield Beach.
Caitie Switalski
/
WLRN
John Coldwell, left, and Sarah Blackburn, right, check in on 15 hives of honey bees at the apiary in Deerfield Beach.

Florida is abuzz about beekeeping. 

The number of Floridians who’ve started beekeeping has increased by over 500 percent in the last 14 years. 

The demand has gotten so large, that the University of Florida’s Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab recently added more to the Master Beekeeper Program that’s open to the public — online.

 Listen to the audio version of this story.

Beekeepers John and Teresa Coldwell of Broward County take UF's advanced beekeeping course. One of the public apiaries — that's a collection of hives — they helped start around the county is located at the Deerfield Beach Apiary, behind the city's recycling plant. 

“Good mornin' ladies, how you doing?" Coldwell said to his bees, as he squirt smoke on them and lift the lid of a hive.  

There's about 25,000 to 30,000 bees in each hive — and at the Deerfield Apiary, there's 15 hives.

"They’re all nice bees," Coldwell said. 

The Coldwells have been keeping honey bees for about eight years — after they tried gardening.

“We found out that we’re good beekeepers and probably forever, not the best gardeners," Teresa Coldwell said. "So we focused on bees instead of the gardenin’ it’s just mushroomed from there.”

 

Some of the hives at the apiary in Deerfield Beach will get moved to a new public apiary in Lauderdale-By-The Sea.
Credit Sarah Blackburn / WLRN
/
WLRN
Some of the hives at the apiary in Deerfield Beach will get moved to a new public apiary in Lauderdale-By-The Sea.

They’re both really involved in local beekeeping associations. John Coldwell is the president of the South Florida Beekeepers Association, as well as the Broward Beekeepers Association. He also sits on the board for the state Beekeepers Association. 

They’re passionate about bee education. Other than Deerfield Beach, the Coldwells have added public apiaries in Oakland Park, Tradewinds Park, Heritage Park, Treetops Park, and, most recently, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, along with even more private apiaries.

Read More: This Miamian Explains Why You Should Get Over Your Fear Of Bees

"John always says you’re going to find your bee philosophy," fellow beekeeper Sarah Blackburn said. She calls the Coldwells her mentors.  "My philosophy is always natural. Kind of let the bees do their thing."

Blackburn's an apprentice beekeeper in the UF program.

“Once you see that you have an endless supply of honey and how messy and sticky and what a job it is to harvest honey, that love and passion for that part goes away — and it's just the bees," Blackburn said.

You can start the UF Master Beekeeper Program without having your own bees, but eventually you need to actually keep a hive to advance in the certification. To take both parts of the apprentice level, the cost for the public is $250.

The first part of the Apprentice Program was put online in 2018, and the full course was made available online in June 2019. The Advanced Program is expected to be online in full by this summer, according to UF. 

UF Entomology Professor Jamie Ellis created the Master Beekeeper program and directs the university's Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab, which falls under the university's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

"What honey bees really do for us is, they pollinate our plants," he said.  "And so we get fruits, vegetables and all kinds of things from the pollination efforts of honey bees." 

Ellis said there’s a back-to-farming movement, especially in urban settings such as South Florida. 

"This awareness of bees and beekeeping — awareness of the importance of beekeeping — and a growing awareness of people who say, ‘Gosh, I could do this’ — all of these things contribute to people’s interest and desire to get into beekeeping," Ellis said.

Copyright 2020 WLRN 91.3 FM

Caitie Switalski is a rising senior at the University of Florida. She's worked for WFSU-FM in Tallahassee as an intern and reporter. When she's in Gainesville for school, Caitie is an anchor and producer for local Morning Edition content at WUFT-FM, as well as a digital editor for the station's website. Her favorite stories are politically driven, about how politicians, laws and policies effect local communities. Once she graduates with a dual degree in Journalism and English,Caitiehopes to make a career continuing to report and produce for NPR stations in the sunshine state. When she's not following what's happening with changing laws, you can catchCaitielounging in local coffee shops, at the beach, or watching Love Actually for the hundredth time.