Powell Butte farm offers free beekeeping classes

Central Oregon bees are becoming more active. Spring has sprung, and the bees are pollinating. A farm along O’Neil Highway is helping locals learn about the bees in their backyards.

“If they can survive the winter here,” Smudgie Goose Farm owner Rob Deez said, “then they can survive the winter HERE, and that’s what we want.”

In order to keep Central Oregon bees local, his farm on the banks of the Crooked River decided to open its doors for class. The three-season bee school is open to the public through October.

Smudgie Goose Farm teamed up with the Prineville Honey Bee Mentoring Partnership to make the classes possible.

“There was nothing that got into depth that we were looking for,” Deez said. “We figured if we couldn’t find it we might as well teach what we’re looking for in depth.”

The style of the class is hands-on. Hives are open every other week, to give students an in-depth look at beekeeping.

“We’re just trying to get the proper information out, or at least the information that we feel is proper,” Deez said. “There are so many ways of doing anything, and this is just our style.”

The class started with a lesson on catching swarms. They follow the bees in real time to give students an idea of the life of a bee.

“We want to be ahead of the bees,” Deez said. “We want to keep the bees in the box, but we want to think outside of it.”