Week Three: Bee Meeting and Livestock Inservice

So far the third week of my internship with the Carroll VCE has been jam-packed with learning opportunities, and it isn't over yet!

Monday we held a beekeeper’s meeting at the office. Originally, the plan was to visit one of the successful beekeeper’s beehives at his home and open one. However, Mother Nature put a stop to those plans by giving us some thunderstorms and some much needed rain, so no one really complained. My knowledge of honeybees is pretty small, so I was interested to hear how these beekeepers manage their hives. I learned about predator management, particularly how to keep mice, skunks, raccoons, and bears out of hives by electric fencing and other measures. We also discussed what to do to combine a weaker hive with a smaller hive, as well as swarm retrieval. Something I found interesting about this particular meeting was the way Steve conducted it. To start with, one beekeeper gave a talk presenting those in attendance with some general information about what to expect from their hives in the coming months, particularly honey flow. Afterwards, Steve had the participants break into groups. Each group discussed a different topic, and then later discussed their topic with the entire group as a whole. Apart from this meeting, most of the Extension meetings I’ve attended were generally held with a lecture format. I enjoyed how this bee meeting was more interactive and allowed for the participants to bounce ideas off of each other as well.

Tuesday afternoon we headed up to Virginia Tech to participate in a livestock in-service. An in-service is a training program for professionals on a specific subject.  I met ANR agents from all across the state of Virginia, and have learned about various issues regarding the beef cattle and sheep industries. This in-service has provided myself and others with so much information, including forage management, animal handling, BQA, and youth livestock shows just to name a few. Tuesday we even got to conduct a breeding soundness exam on a bull. I am glad I had the opportunity to attend. Hopefully I will be able to use a lot of this information I have learned in my internship as well as in the future when working with either children or livestock producers in my community.

I particularly enjoyed getting to see all of the agents bounce ideas off of each other. During each session there were a lot of question and answer discussions that contributed greatly to the presentation itself. It was also good to be refreshed on many of the concepts I learned in my classes at Virginia Tech. The agents I met at the in-service all have such ambition to help their communities. I love seeing the enthusiasm each of them has for their job and the constant willingness to learn. At this point I am still undecided whether I want to teach high school agriculture or become an Extension agent and work with all members of the county. Either way, I am now sure that I want my future career to allow me to share my love for agriculture and education with others. I am able to witness this every day with Extension.

Sheep caught in the rain at the Copenhaver Sheep Center

Watching Dr. Whittier perform a breeding soundness exam