If you are curious about honey bees, interested in starting your own hive and harvesting your own honey, or you already have a hive and want to learn more about managing it, join experienced beekeepers in this class at The Morton Arboretum to learn how to start beekeeping.
Explore the history of beekeeping, bee anatomy, starting up a colony, managing it through the year, basic beekeeping supplies and equipment, honey bee pests and diseases, harvesting honey, and more.
This program meets in person at the Arboretum.
Instructor: Pete Soltesz, president, Cook-DuPage Beekeepers Association; Kim Kulton, beekeeper, Bee All About It
Age: 16 and older
Course number: N158
Instructors
Pete Soltesz, president, Cook-DuPage Beekeepers Association
Pete Soltesz has been president of the Cook-DuPage Beekeepers Association, one of the largest beekeeping clubs in the Midwest, since 2013. During this time, he has introduced hundreds of new members to the culture of beekeeping via classroom instruction, hands-on mentoring, and hosting guest speakers and webinar series. He has also served on the board of directors of the Illinois State Beekeeping Association as a former vice president. He has extensive experience in raising treatment-free bees, rearing queens, splitting hives, pollinating crops, relocating bees, and creating habitat. He is passionate about helping others acquire the knowledge and skills needed to have a successful journey with keeping bees.
Kim Kulton, beekeeper, Bee All About It
Kim Kulton, born in Elmhurst, Illinois, earned her bachelors of science in biology and chemistry at Northern Illinois University, minoring in anthropology. She began her career as an entomologist with the state of Illinois and was first to confirm the presence of West Nile virus in Illinois. In 2013, she was visiting a friend who was having a colony of honeybees removed from her roof. Kulton was so fascinated, she rolled up her sleeves, climbed the scaffolding, and helped the beekeeper vacuum the bees and cut out the comb. Later, she went on to form her own company, Bee All About It. Today, she collects and removes swarms, raises local queens, promotes bee venom apitherapy, provides pollination services, and produces local honey for sale. She manages more than 85 colonies of bees in eleven locations around the Chicago area. She is a director on the board of the Cook-DuPage Beekeepers Association.
What to Know
This program meets indoors.
Please bring a notebook and something to write with.
Program Schedule
This program meets the following five times.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Thornhill Education Center (Parking Lot 21), West Side
