The written test begins first thing Tuesday morning and you’ll have four hours to complete the test. When you finish, you’ll go to the oral exam, which will last about an hour. The schedule is similar on Wednesday, starting with the lab exam, which you have four hours to finish. The field exam takes place after you have completed the lab and will take about an hour, plus any time needed to travel to the apiary and possibly some time waiting for a team of examiners to become available. If you finish the written and/or lab tests early, you will probably have time to attend some of the conference events. It might not be wise, however, to make any definite plans. Also, depending on the number of candidates we are testing and the layout of the conference venue, we may need to schedule your oral and/or field exams for a later time in the day. We would let you know if this is the case. We all have to remain flexible to accommodate everyone.
Dr. Delaney, our Academic Advisor, holds a pre-exam Q & A session via Zoom the week before the conference. As a candidate, you will receive an email invitation to attend this session. Any questions you have can be asked at that time. In addition, there’s usually a “Meet & Greet” session on Monday of conference week, which will give you another opportunity to get your questions answered. It’s smart to direct questions about the written or lab exams directly to Dr. Delaney. Questions about the oral exam should be directed to Dorinda Priebe, the oral exam Team Leader. Similarly, if you have a question about the field exam, you should speak to David Burns, our field exam Team Leader. The Certification Committee Chair, Landi Simone, is also a good resource for answering questions.
We are always tweaking the testing protocol in an attempt to improve the process and a Master Beekeeper volunteer helping with oral exam testing may not be aware of recent changes to the field exam, and vice versa. For this reason, it’s not a good idea to ask just anybody, even a Master Beekeeper volunteer.
There is an extensive list of reference materials on the EAS website: https://easternapiculture.org/programs/master-beekeepers/master-beekeepers-certification-program/master-beekeeping-resources/. We recommend you start with these materials to prepare for the exam. We also have copies of the written and lab exams available, along with the answers, from several past years. Those can be found here: https://easternapiculture.org/programs/master-beekeepers/master-beekeepers-certification-program/mb-practice-written-and-oral-exams/. In addition, there are guides on how to prepare for all four of the examinations, including sample questions from the oral exam and tips on prepping for the field exam: https://easternapiculture.org/programs/master-beekeepers/master-beekeepers-certification-program/master-beekeepers-exam-prep/.
Unfortunately, the answer to this one is usually “No.” But everyone is in the same boat. We’ll have a table you can put your laptop on, and you can turn it so the examiners can see the screen. It’s not ideal, but it works. Some conferences do have AV facilities for the oral exam and if it’s available, we’ll be happy to help you get your talk loaded. It would be a good idea to bring a flash drive with the talk on it in addition to your laptop.
You may have to get creative with this one. If there’s no one person familiar with your work with the bees, you might need to get recommendations from more than one person. For instance, if the state inspector has certified your nucs for sale and can attest to their quality, that says something about your work. Perhaps you could arrange to shadow the inspector for a day so that he or she can also speak about your competence in working with the bees. Or, if that’s not possible, if you are able to work with a highly experienced beekeeper for a day, that person might write a recommendation. We are looking for experienced people who: 1) Can speak to the type of person you are and whether you are willing to volunteer to help other beekeepers, and 2) Has actually seen you work bees. If you’re unsure whether a particular individual would be acceptable, email the Certification Committee and ask. We’ll always do our best to work with you.
Historically, the field exam was always the easiest of the four exams, with a higher percentage of candidates passing it than passed the others. Over the past decade, we’ve worked to bring the level of difficulty of the field exam up to that of the other three tests. Passing the field exam means your skills are on a par with a competent State Apiarist or Inspector. We expect you to be able to identify any condition in a colony and recommend appropriate management. You might encounter diseases such as sacbrood, chalkbrood or EFB. The colony might have a queen issue – drone layer, laying workers, virgin – or some other issue entirely, such as starvation. You will be inspecting a colony as one Master Beekeeper discussing its conditions with two other Master Beekeeper colleagues (your examiners.) It’s also possible you’ll get a hive that’s perfectly fine. Our testing apiary hives are typically provided by a generous local beekeeper for use at the conference, and thus we can never predict exactly what we’ll receive. Whatever its condition, as a Master Beekeeper candidate, you will be expected to inspect any assigned colony smoothly and without wasting time, killing too many bees, or aggravating the bees. We will also probably ask you to identify and/or use some specialized equipment, which could be anything from an item used in queen rearing, honey handling or varroa management to queen marking pens.
No. The EAS Master Beekeeper testing takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday during the week of the EAS conference. There is no other time or location.
Yes. The exam is given in conjunction with the conference, and it would be impossible to prevent someone from attending conference functions who was there only to test. Your Master Beekeeper volunteers are also missing a portion of the conference to help with your testing. We certainly encourage everyone to take advantage of every learning opportunity while you are at the conference. At the very least, you must register for the short course, though we strongly recommend you stay the entire week.
No. it’s still 5 years but we decided that it wouldn’t be fair to penalize candidates for starting their testing before the Covid-19 pandemic so the years 2020 and 2021 are not being counted. In 2020 no conference was held. The 2021 conference in Kentucky was a much smaller one and, with fears of disease still at the forefront of many people’s minds, we felt it was understandable if a person decided not to attend.
If that’s your preference, then the EAS program is probably not for you. The EAS certification program is one of the oldest and most highly respected in the world. You’re right, though, there are no structured classes on which you’ll be tested Our certification program attracts those who are motivated to educate themselves, whether they do that by independent study or by formal classwork at universities or elsewhere, is up to them. Our job is to see if their level of knowledge and experience meets our high standards.
We discourage the use of gloves except for medical reasons such as sting allergies. If you want to bring gloves, clean disposable nitrile gloves are preferred. If you must have leather gloves, they would need to be brand new. The reason for this is to minimize the risk of disease transmission to or from the testing colonies.
You are welcome to bring both a frame holder and an Italian hive tool but both must be brand new to prevent disease transmission. Please do not bring used tools. A used smoker is okay but please clean the outside and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol.
There’s a good chance you’ll have to wait for at least a little while. The Field Exam Team Leader is coordinating multiple exams simultaneously and cannot control the exact time each exam will finish, freeing a hive and testing team. In addition, candidates finish the lab exam at different times. If several finish around the same time and present themselves in the apiary to take the field exam, it can mean a wait. If it looks like the wait may be long, the Field Team Leader may ask one or more candidates to come back at a later time.
Letting your smoker go out is a rookie mistake and you will undoubtedly be docked many points if you let it happen unless, for example, your test takes place in a heavy rainstorm. It is not an automatic fail but we cannot recall any candidate who has passed the Field Exam after letting their smoker die.
You’ll be contacted by the oral and field exam Team Leaders to let you know what time your testing will take place. As a retesting candidate, you will almost certainly be scheduled earlier in the day while the new candidates are still taking their written and lab exams.
