Dykman buzzing with knowledge about beekeeping

Darrell Dykman, a Lodgepole farmer and owner and operator of his beekeeping business Queens Choice Honey, will be giving a presentation this Saturday, March 9 at the Sidney Public Library.

He will be presenting on one of his biggest pastimes, beekeeping. The program is part of the library’s ongoing yearly educational series.

The informational session will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will include information on the bees, as well as the tools used in keeping the bees, said Dykman.

“I have a PowerPoint geared toward basic beekeeping and I will have some equipment used in beekeeping there for people to look at, as well as some clothing that goes along with it,” said Dykman of Saturday’s event. “It will basically be general information about honeybees.”

Although this is the first time that Dykman is teaching an informative class, his experience with bees dates back to his high school years.

“I use to have beehives in high school, so I’ve been familiar with bees from years back,” said the beekeeper. “My cousin and I found a swarm and ended up capturing them and getting some equipment and got real interested in them. Then about seven years ago my wife saw a beginning beekeeping class in Scottsbluff so we went up there and took that. Dr. Marion Ellis (a professor of entomology at the University of Nebraska) was teaching the course, so that’s kind of how I got started and I just do it pretty much for a hobby.”

Dykman said that although he does sell some of his honey, he likes beekeeping primarily to be surrounded by the insects.

“I do sell some honey but it’s not a business as far as trying to be a big moneymaker or anything, it’s more of a hobby,” he said.

Dykman said that he usually has about 15 active beehives, but he started out with 21 this year before the cold of winter left him with only 10 hives alive.

“I lost a lot and that’d never happened before,” he said.

The beekeeper said that he will also open up the class to a question and answer period during the event.

“When you get to talking about bees you tend to have a lot of questions, so we’ll probably do that to,” he said.

“Bees are very interesting and if you can have someone, a mentor or somebody to talk to that has done beekeeping before, it really helps as far as getting into beekeeping and really understanding them,” said Dykman. “But bees are very interesting to work with in general.”

“Saturday will just be a fun day to learn about bees,” he said.

For further information on the program, those interested can contact library officials at 308-254-3110.