The "Save the Bees Challenge" has raised my awareness of the potential for actually having a honeybee hive in my backyard. It will be a little late for the challenge, but I signed up for a class on Backyard Beekeeeping at Portland Community College (class is in May - earlier classes had sold out). The most interesting aspect of the class for me is that it is taught by a local beekeeper in Northeast Portland, so I hope to get some insight into how difficult it is to maintain a beehive in our local climate. Seems like it would be extremely challenging in the winter and early spring in a backyard setting. I've always wondered if backyarders just start over from scratch every year.
It's a really short course - a 3 hour classroom session covering the basics of setting up and maintaining a honeybee hive and then a field trip to the instructor's apiary, which is literally in his suburban backyard 
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The instructor runs a small business, Bridgetown Bees which provides beekeeping supplies and nucleus colonies (NUCs) and queen bees that he sources from bee farms in more rural areas of Oregon. I'll see if it is viable to start a hive this year or whether I should just stick with the solitary native bees (Mason and leaf cutter bees). The finishers prize in the challenge would allow me to do the latter, so I'll do that anyway.
These classes are pretty popular - this session was almost sold out when I signed up. These community college classes are a great way to meet fellow hobbyists. And for old folks like me, the fees are discounted 50%...
Of course, if I do start a hive - I'll be able to use my challenge instrumentation for real 
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dougw
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