Agriculture & Outdoors

This class is designed to look in more detail at key aspects of beekeeping, particularly helpful to those who wish to run several hives and get the most out of them. The course is a good follow-on from the beginner’s course.  Building up hive strength, swarm prevention, splitting hives, making nucs, disease prevention, feral colony relocation and honey production are all covered.  This is a live online class.

Makeup class, if needed, 05/17/21.

Peter Cowin, a/k/a the Bee Whisperer, started keeping bees in the 1970s at the age of 11, and now tends to more than 130 colonies.  He is past President of Penobscot County Beekeepers Association and mentor to many local beekeepers.  Peter runs a beekeeping supply store in Hampden, Maine.  He sells packaged bees and produces queens and makes hundreds of nucleus colonies for sale each year.  His bees produce thousands of pounds of honey per year sold under the Bee Whisperer name.  Peter has been teaching beekeeping at his honey farm and for Adult Ed for more than eight years.

Most of the Hunter Safety classes have an online component with the option of an in person skills and exam day.  This Fall, most of the 'in person' sessions in Maine are full, including the one hosted by Ellsworth Adult Education and the Ellsworth VFW Post. 

There is now a Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife approved, 100% online course offered by hunter-ed.  The course covers proper firearms handling (rifle and shotgun), personal safety, survival/first aid, hunter responsibility, map and compass, and landowner relations. 

Students 16 and older may take the firearms hunter safety course completely online at hunter-ed.com/maine and, upon successful completion of the online exam, may immediately print out a permanent Hunter Education Firearms Card.  

Students 10-15 years of age are still required to attend the in person skills and exam day.  They can complete part of the firearms hunter safety course at hunter-ed.com/maine and, upon successful completion of the online exam, they will be provided a voucher allowing them to attend the required skills and exam day.