Bees Bees and Great Honey tasting - Being lifelong learners, we were looking for an opportunity to understand more about Bees. My Wife and sister-in-law have always like bees and wanted to know more. We found this tour while surfing the web looking for kool things to do during our annual visit to the Big Island and found this gem. The location of the tour is on Susan's Bee and Bird Farm in Honokaa off the Old Mamalahoa Hwy on the North end of the island. The drive was an experience on its own, a bit over and hour from Kona Coast and was green and beautiful drive. Even if you do not do the tour you gotta drive this rural road, be careful lots of single lane bridges! Upon arrival we were greeted by a rescue puppy and Susan Collins, Beekeeper. The location is almost hidden in the foliage giving the location a feeling of solitude and peacefulness. The bee complex with hives and outbuilding are located centrally when you arrive. After introductions and complimentary coffee/tea with honey of course, Susan gave us a tutorial on Bees 101 that was geared to our starting knowledge. After this Susan took us out to a few hives and we got to see working colonies in action. She provides us with excellent Bee gear and made sure we were safe and sound while doing the field portion of the visit. We got to see worker bees in action in the hive as well as queen in action and drones just being drones LOL. Each worker bee has a specific task they do to make the colony a mini working city. It was great to see the hives inside with bees in all stages of life cycle from inception to grave. We got to hold and study the racks which hold the hives, honey and related items. Susan made us comfortable in this endeavor and now have a new respect for beekeepers. Once we finished the field portion of the tour we went back to the classroom and got to taste various types of honey, and she told us the various types out there including clone honey imported, sad to hear that. If you have any interest in Bees this is a great introduction to Bees and if you want more advanced knowledge and training Susan offers additional classes and training. We recommend this tour 150% and you will too as Susan is passionate and knowledgeable on Bees and talks at a level commiserate on who is in the class.

Buzzing with Practical Information and Hands-on Experience ! - I was super blessed and grateful to learn about Bird and Bee Hawai'i. I took a month long bee keeping class with Susan and learned so so much. For decades i have wanted to learn how to keep bees and after my four weeks I feel like an informed confident novice! I appreciated the basics about bees and getting supervised instruction on getting into the hives, identifying the queen, and knowing what to look out for long term in the hives. The small group made it easy to connect to Susan and others. Great class and value!!! mahalo nui loa Susan for your leadership and inspiring more bee keeping here on Moku o Keawe.