New beekeepers are often advised to go to their local beekeeping club to find a mentor, but little else is said about the subject which can lead to confusion and disappointment. Read on to find out what you need to know about finding a beekeeping mentor and how to go about it.

Read A Book First

Before you begin the search for a mentor, you need to do a little work yourself. Your first step should be to read a book or take a class or both. It’s important that you have a basic understanding of beekeeping when you meet with potential mentors for a couple of different reasons. The first is that it will help you to communicate more clearly with your mentor and give you a better understanding of whatever arrangement the two of you come to. The second reason is that you do not want want to start out your beekeeping experience by relying 100% on your mentor. There are many ways to do things in beekeeping. You should find out what interests you and discuss this with anyone who might mentor you so you can find the best match.

Vet Potential Mentors

It can be difficult to find any mentor at all so, if the opportunity arises, many new beekeepers enthusiastically accept the guidance without asking the proper questions. Not all beekeeping mentors have the same level or type of of experience and it can be useful to know this background information from the start. Find out how long your potential mentor has been keeping bees and ask how many hives they manage. It’s also useful to know if they’ve ever mentored anyone before. If they have worked with other new beekeepers in the past, you may want to talk to them about their experience.

Determine Compatibility

When meeting with a possible mentor, don’t evaluate them by experience alone. You should also consider what kind of beekeeper they are. What is their beekeeping philosophy? What are their goals? Are they focused on commercial aspects like honey production, pollination work or queen breeding? Or are they in it for love of the bees alone? Are they making a income from their beekeeping work or are they hobbyists? What hive styles do work with? Are they open to beekeeping styles other than their own? Finding out the answers to questions like these may will help you determine how compatible you are with your mentor and help you have a smoother, more enjoyable experience together.

Establish A Clear Agreement

Don’t assume that an experienced beekeeper is willing to mentor you for nothing in exchange. There is an array of agreements that happen between new beekeepers and their mentors. Some charge hourly or monthly while others work in trade or offer their knowledge for free. Find out the specifics of what your mentor is willing to offer. How often will you meet? Can you text them when you have questions? Will they sell you a colony in the spring? Whatever agreement you come to, make sure you both understand it before it starts. You may even want to put it in writing.

Set Expectations

It’s also important to set expectations. If you are paying your mentor, make sure you communicate what your goals are. If you are not paying your mentor, be sure to find out what they expect of you. It may be that a beekeeper is willing to teach you in exchange for help in their bee yard with no money changing hands, but what kind of help do they want? New beekeepers sometimes try to cherry pick the best learning experiences, while skipping out on the more labor intensive activities. For example, they may be eager to shadow during inspections, but won’t make themselves available for an afternoon of building honey supers. This kind of behavior can create resentment between you and your mentor. It’s best to know up front what kind of work is expected of you in exchange for this learning experience.

Learning Without A Mentor

At this time, there are more new beekeepers than there are experienced beekeeping mentors and so, your options may be limited. Don’t worry if you cannot find a mentor locally that suits you. It’s entirely possible to learn independently— this author did! Plus, there are so many learning options for new beekeepers now. Many new beekeepers find inspiration and guidance from beekeepers who are not in their same town. In addition to this blog, I offer two online beginning beekeeping classes, I have written two books and I frequently teach via Instagram. For those of you in San Diego, I offer in-person classes, private mentoring sessions and this spring I will do a 6-month intensive mentorship program. Given all the options, it’s probably better to learn on your own than it is to work with a beekeeper who isn’t well matched to you. Although there are some wonderful mentors out there, not all experienced beekeepers are good teachers. They may only confuse you or lead you in a direction you ultimately did not want to go. Hopefully, this article helps you to avoid these situations and guides you to a more helpful and happy beekeeping mentorship, but don’t be afraid to strike out on your own.