Awarded Beginning Beekeeping Grant!

This is a brief post, but hopefully it’s useful for anyone wanting to enter into beekeeping or other types of small scale farming activities. Getting to understand what resources are available is hugely important both from an education perspective as well as a financial one. The side benefit of being immersed in these organizations and programs also allows farmers to meet experts and/or other farmers who have a lot of knowledge to share. Your extension office and local universities are your friend! 

There are non-profit groups who help farmers with business plans (which can be required to apply for various grants.) Some will even help you with grant applications. They also know how to navigate a lot of the information out there as there is so much, it can be a bit overwhelming. 

For beekeeping specifically, there are state level organizations as well as more local associations that are well worth joining. Most issue newsletters and have education aspects to their regular meetings. Our local university has a variety of small scale farm grants and one is for beginning beekeepers. The maximum amount is $500 for this particular grant, but that is enough for a starter kit like the one below which costs about $430. Though I was told these grants can be challenging to win the first time around, I am extremely excited to say that we were awarded this one on the first attempt. As a grant recipient, we are committed to various activities such as keeping journals of progress, taking at least 6 continuing education courses over the next year and providing receipts for our purchase. We also are required to source any bees locally and purchasing of any bees is not allowed as a legitimate use of the funds.