1) On April 18 and 19, from 10am to about 4:30pm both days - we will offer the Gold Star
Weekend Intensive class on Top Bar Beekeeping - ONLINE and FOR FREE. It's two full days of class, we'll start at 10am and run through to 4:30pm with a half hour break to get some lunch. This will take some figurin' out to get the right tech-vehicle to present it - most likely it will be YouTube Live Stream or Facebook Live. We're testing that out and will be sending info asap!
AND 2) We will take
PRE-ORDERS for hive kits from today until
***, a cheerful and uplifting spring holiday if ever there was one - for Gold Star Hive kits. They will go back to being made out of pine (Because... Maine) there will be a $20 discount coupon (Enter COVID at checkout) for each hive kit, (the reduced price will be $675), they will still ship for free, and we will aim to get them all shipped by May 8th. So think about your bees, and when you expect them, and act in accord. For the rest of the details and to pre-order your hive - please go
here.
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AND HERE'S WHY THAT'S GONNA BE SO COOL.
I got in touch with Chuck the other day. Who's Chuck, you say? Chuck is the guy who used to build the Gold Star top bar hive kits in Maine, before I and Gold Star Honeybees moved to North Carolina in 2017.
During our conversation, I (almost) jokingly asked if he wanted to build hive kits for me from Maine. There's a lot of logistics involved in doing this sort of thing long-distance, so I honestly thought I was just engaging in some wistful, wishful thinking.
But that's when I learned that Chuck has an apprentice - Cliff. Cliff is not just somebody hanging out in the wood shop, but with Chuck to teach him, he's embarked upon a structured academic experience, offered by the
Maine Crafts Association, in partnership with the
Maine Arts Commission, and funded by the
National Endowment for the Arts. Someone with a good heart, like Chuck, who turns his talents into an opportunity for good every chance he gets. The building of kits, where the most important feature is that each one must be identical so that all the parts are interchangeable, is a real time lesson in mass-production woodworking. Cliff will learn about new tools, and jigs and reliable repeatability and we - we will get hive kits out of the deal. Win/Win!!!
Now life is uncertain and this plan may crash headlong into the "Chaos of Corona" but it will also bring us together, and in these strange and distant times, that can only be a good thing. If we don't get enough pre-orders to start construction, we will refund your money, no harm, no foul.
Be sure to share this email with friends -- so nobody misses out!
