general · Steve S.
Pro
· 2026-07-03 02:40
I have 4 mentees that seem to be doing very well
Some things I am learning by mentoring newer folks are:
New beekeepers may do things in an odd fashion, and it is working for them. I have seen a few things that I hear are real taboo, but seem to be really working well over the last couple of years, so I dig into them more.
New beekeepers ask great questions and some really bad questions, so it is a really good time to help them ask better questions so they learn how to ask the right questions. As we know, ask 10 beekeepers one question, get 30 answers, and most of them are probably right, but maybe not at the time.
New beekeepers keep me wanting to learn more.
New beekeepers will challenge your knowledge, so some things you may not have seen yet, you have to figure out how to answer, what to answer, and again, teach them how this process works. Making them dependent on you is not such a good thing (well maybe if you are a paid mentor, but I am a free mentor in our bee club)
▲ 2
1 replies
Founder
· 2026-07-20 17:25
I have a friend who has 40+ hives and a small gift shop that I can talk to but no mentor. A mentor would be nice to bounce questions and ideas off of. For example, we started beekeeping on April 28 with a small nuc. That one little hive grew amazingly. We installed a second nuc June 29. June 30 the first hive swarmed. We caught the swarm. July 18 there was an after swarm. We caught that. We now have 4 hives with a lot of work to do to build them up for an upstate NY winter. The second nuc might be honey bound. We’ve had a very good spring and summer. Facebook, YouTube, and Google Gemini/Chat GPT are good but not the same as a real person that has been through it. Appreciate that what you offer is free for your mentees. They are lucky to have you.
▲ 0