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Journeyman and Master Study Guide

Journeyman Review Lectures:


PDF Version of Journeyman Presentations:


Journeyman & Master Study Guide:

The expected outcome for the Journeyman level reads,

Individual should be functioning as a competent hobby beekeeper with emerging skills and knowledge for functioning at the sideline level or serving as an industry leader and ambassador.

To that end, the Journeyman is expected to demonstrate solid competency in the fundamentals of beekeeping and bee science along with growing knowledge of the broader impacts of honey bees on human society and the environment. The successful candidate will demonstrate emerging leadership as an instructor and public educator on beekeeping matters.

Written Exam Guide  |  Practical Exam Guide

 

JOURNEYMAN & MASTER Study Guide Information for the Witten Exam

New for this year's 2025 exam:
The Journeyman written exam will contain one essay question to test your problem solving skills when dealing with issues in or out of the bee yard. There will be a short study session on Thursday morning for the Journeyman. Times TBD. If you are planning on taking the exam September 2025, please email Jennifer Berry, jbee@uga.edu. 
 

Recommended texts for both Jouneyman and Master levels are:

  • Dewey Caron & Larry Connor: Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping
  • Jurgen Tautz: The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism
  • Mark Winston: The Biology of the Honey Bee
  • Heather Holm: Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide or Pollinators of Native Plants (*New for testing 2026)
  • Douglas W. Tallamy: Bringing Nature Home or Nature's Best Hope (*New for testing 2026)

Written exams often address the following topical areas and specific points of knowledge:

Toxicology

  • Measures of toxicity, the LD50, LC50, chronic vs. acute toxicity

  • Categories of insecticide active ingredient: pyrethroid, carbamate, organo-phosphate, organic acid, neonicotinoid and relative advantages/disadvantages of each from the points of view of beekeeper, environmentalist and crop grower

  • Insecticide formulations – wettable powder, dust, solution, granules and the implications of each for honey bee toxicity

  • Management measures for minimizing insecticide exposure: timing of application, residual toxicity times, reentry intervals

  • How to read an insecticide label and judge its potential hazard to bees

  • Special considerations for urban mosquito spray applications: drift, timing of application, whether to cover hives or move them

  • Symptoms of acute bee kill; symptoms of chronic bee kill

  • Restorative therapy for insecticide injured colonies

Pollination

  • Sexual parts of a flower

  • Measures of “good” pollination: fruit-set, pollen surface deposition on stigma, number of ovules fertilized

  • Self-fertile vs. self-sterile crops and implications for pollination dependence

  • Why is California almond such a huge pollination event?

  • How can honey bee pollination efficacy be optimized?

  • What are the world-wide dynamics affecting pollination demand?

Biology of honey hoarding

  • The importance of C.L. Farrar’s 1930s research on colony population and honey hoarding

  • The importance of colony density on honey hoarding – when should you super and when should you crowd them?

  • How did Farrar’s knowledge revolutionize beekeeping? What did beekeepers think about swarming pre- vs. post-Farrar?

  • How do bees use the recruitment dance to optimize honey storage? What stimulus makes a bee forage for nectar vs. pollen vs. water?

  • How can beekeepers reduce swarming?

Honey bee relatives and other insects

  • What are the five common families of bees fourn in the US?

  • What are the differences between wasps and bees from the standpoint of diet, morphology, and life strategy?

  • What is mimicry and how can one distinguish a bee mimic from a real bee?

  • What one clear unambiguous character can distinguish a bumble bee from a carpenter bee?

  • What are some environmental benefits provided by wasps?

  • What is the difference between solitary, perennially social, or annually social species? Which strategy describes honey bees? Bumble bees? Cicada killers?

Honey bee biology

  • What are the three criteria of a “eusocial” species?

  • Why do honey bees make honey?

  • What is the annual life cycle of honey bees? Why do they swarm so early in spring?

  • What is polyandry and why is it important?

  • How many chromosomes do bees have?

  • What is the difference between homozygous genes, heterozygous, and hemizygous?

  • Why is inbreeding such a problem in breeding programs? What is the biggest symptom of inbreeding?

  • What are the long-term triggers of swarming and near-term triggers? How can a beekeeper manage each of these to reduce swarming?

  • What are some of the age-based changes in worker tasks?

  • What are the most economically important honey bee races? What are their scientific names?

  • How do bees regulate nest temperature? Both cold and heat.

  • Understand honey bee morphology as it pertains to beekeeping. What is the crop? The corbiculum, the antenna cleaner, mandibular gland, Nasanov gland, wax gland, venom gland, stinger, mandibles, head, thorax, abdomen. How many wings and legs do bees have?

Honey preparation

  • What are the pros / cons of using heat in the extracting process?

  • What are the guidelines for a legally-labeled jar of honey?

  • What are the criteria for comb honey? Chunk honey?

  • What is HMF and why does it matter?

Pollinator conservation

  • What are some common native plants that attract pollinators and what would you recommend for folks to plant in their yard? *New for testing in 2026

  • Name non native plants currently used in landscapie design. Is grass beneficial? Why or why not?*New for testing in 2026

  • Why are native plants important ? *New for testing in 2026

  • Explain Doug Tallamy's Home Grown National Park concept and how it would help with pollinator conservation? *New for testing in 2026

  • How can a landowner encourage solitary bee nesting?

  • What other measures can one do in order to conserve pollinators? *New for testing in 2026

Honey bee health

  • Be prepared to describe the concepts and practices of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

  • What is the difference between IPM and organic beekeeping? What about “survival stock” beekeeping?

  • Know all the major bee diseases and pests by symptom, name of causative agent, and treatment (if available): DWV, Israeli Acute Virus, sacbrood, black queen cell, Nosema, chalkbrood, stonebrood, Varroa mites, EFB, AFB, SHB

  • Know IPM control methods for each disorder, if available

  • Review the latest information on bee decline or “CCD.” What are its causes? What can be done about them?

  • What are some principals of epidemiology that can be applied for bee health? Is hive density important? Propolis?

  • What are some important bee traits for genetic pest resistance?

 

 

JOURNEYMAN ONLY PRACTICAL EXAM GUIDE: There is no practical exam for the Master Level

The jump from Certified to Journeyman is one of the most demanding steps in the Georgia Master Beekeeper sequence. One reason for this is our insistence that candidates score no less than 100% on visual diagnostics of honey bee disorders and bee-related arthropods. It is our belief that certainty of knowledge in these categories is a necessary condition for certification at the higher grades.

In this section we plainly tell you what will be on the exam, in many cases showing the actual questions. Our wish is to eliminate as much “surprise” as possible from the exam experience so that you can concentrate on learning the material you will need to know that day. Please be aware that you will be tested on real specimens on-site, and they will not necessarily be the same specimens you see in practice sessions or in the linked photographs.
 

Here is a summary of the same exam you will see on test day:

Journeyman Practical Exam

 

This column examiner use only

 

 

pass

 

fail

You must pass each of required questions 1-6 and any four of elective questions 7-12. Unless otherwise stated, passing is 70%.

1

 

 

 

Disorder identification #1

2

 

 

 

Disorder identification #2

3

 

 

 

Disorder identification #3

4

 

 

 

Disorder identification #4

5

 

 

 

Describe in detail the causitive agents, differences and recommended treatment for American Foulbrood and European Foulbrood 

6

 

 

 

Identify (by common name, scientific name or adequate description) the insects in the case.

7

 

 

 

Interpret colony status from written descriptions.

8

 

 

 

Draw and label anatomical structures of the honey bee.

9

 

 

 

Identify parts of a flower from a diagram, model, or fresh specimen.

10

 

 

 

TBD

11

 

 

 

TBD

12

 

 

 

TBD

 

 

 

 

 


Questions 1-5 may include any of the following:

  • Be prepared to distinguish samples for each disorder: Varroa mites, small hive beetles (SHB), AFB, EFB, laying worker, drone layer, SHB larvae vs. wax moth larvae.
  • Be prepared to name causative agent (if not same as disorder name) and recommended treatment.

Question 6 will include the following:

Honey bee worker, honey bee queen, honey bee drone, bumble bee, sweat bee, carpenter bee, cicada killer, Vespula yellow jacket, Polistes paper wasp, Sphecid slender waited wasp, Europeon hornet, Scollid wasp, robber fly and a species of fly bee mimics. Extra credit will be given for correctily identifying native bees (mason, 

Here are links to some pictures and a powerpoint presentation that should be helpful:

Question 7. Next to each set of indicators, write the letter of the one most likely explanation.

Indicators

Explanations

     Few workers, lots of brood

a. Acute pesticide kill

 

b. Varroa mites

 

c. Colony has swarmed and may swarm again.

 

d. Colony has swarmed and will not swarm again.

 

e. Tracheal mites

 

f. Colony has recently been requeened by the beekeeper.

 

g. Queen is producing inbred progeny.

 

h. Colony is overwintering in February.

 

i. Colony Collapse Disorder

 

j. Overwintering starvation

 

k. Colony is superseding its queen.

 

l. European foulbrood..

 

m. American foulbrood

 

n Colony is overwintering in November.

 

o. Chalkbrood

 

p. Colony is not preparing to swarm.

 

q. Colony is preparing to swarm, but the queen is performing poorly.

 

r. Colony is Africanized.

     Heaps of dead bees on floor board, many with tongues extended, remaining survivors staggering and uncoordinated

     Heaps of dead bees between combs, hundreds dead head-first in cells

     Brood cappings sunken and perforated

     Moderate adult workers, moderate capped brood, no young larvae, no eggs, at least one opened queen cell present, other queen cells present opened at the sides

     Brood capped, uncapped brood showing multiple visual abnormalities, adult population moderate to small, many bees with crinkled wings

     Moderate adult workers, moderate capped brood, no young larvae, no eggs, ripe queen cells present, queen cells present with tips opened

     Uncapped brood discolored and twisted in various positions

     Plenty of food, disorganized clusters of bees, some bees crawling on grass

     Bees tightly packed head-first into cells and between combs, no brood, bee density higher at edges than the center

     Few adult workers, brood spotty, drone brood or drone adults not necessarily present

 

For Question 8 you will be given a blank sheet of paper and asked to draw a bee and label as many specific structures as possible (minimum 15). Don’t worry about artistic quality. Diagrammatic clarity and specificity is what counts.

For Question 9 you will be given a classroom model of flower parts, along with freshly-collected flowers from outdoors that day, and asked: Identify the labeled flower parts. Some parts may be repeated among the different specimens.

For Questions 10 - 12 TBD

 

 

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