Beekeeping Courses
There are two courses available:
- The Beekeeping Experience.
- The Two-Day Introduction to Practical Beekeeping Course.
1. The Beekeeping Experience.
Beekeeping Experiences are of approximately 2 hours duration giving you the opportunity to look inside a beehive and handle a frame of bees. This might help you decide if beekeeping is for you.
Beekeeping in poor weather is not much fun so if the weather is very poor there will be no choice but to cancel.
All Beekeeping Experience sessions will commence at 2pm in May and June and 10am in July and August.
The Beekeeping Experience will take the following format:
On arrival:
- Tea or coffee.
- We will discuss how a honey bee colony functions.
- We will discuss the biology of the honey bee & other introductory beekeeping information.
- There will be an input on Health & Safety and what to do and not do in the apiary.
We will then put on bee suits and head for the apiary.
- You will be shown how to light a smoker and keep it lit.
- You be shown the various hive tools and how to use them.
In apiary.
- You will be shown the parts of a hive and how they fit together.
- Richard will open a hive and you will meet worker and drone bees, eggs, little larvae, big larvae, worker and drone brood and queen cells if present. We will look for honey or nectar (carbohydrate) pollen (protein) and propolis. If we are very lucky and she is not being too shy, we may even see the queen!
- You will then have the opportunity to use a hive tool to remove a frame of bees and we will discuss what we can see.
- All this will be under Richard’s supervision.
- We will discuss what we saw and importance.
- We will discuss The Two-Day Introduction to Practical Beekeeping course.
- We will then have a Q&A session with honey tasting.
The Beekeeping Experience costs £70/person.
2. The Two-Day Introduction to Practical Beekeeping Course.
The emphasis of these courses is on husbandry and correct handling of bees; essential for them and the beekeeper! You will spend time on both days in the Staithe Farm apiary with the bees.
No previous experience is necessary.
Courses will run from 10am to 4pm. There will be an opportunity to eat your lunch you have brought with you between the different sessions. Tea /coffee is available.
Beekeeping is weather dependent so a rigid timetable is difficult.
The two-day course is a mixture of theory and practical and the following will be covered.
Honey bees.
- Why keep bees.
- Different castes of bee.
- Basic bee biology.
- How a colony functions.
Equipment.
- Choosing your type of hive(s) and why.
- Hive parts, frames and foundation.
- Making hives and frames from kits.
- Importance of protective clothing and being stung.
- Correct use of smoker and hive tools.
Managing your colony.
- Obtaining your first bees.
- Siting your bees.
- Reasons for inspecting.
- Correctly handling your bees.
- Finding and marking your queen.
- When to super.
- Swarming.
- Splitting and uniting.
- Introducing a new queen.
- Inspecting for disease.
- Pests & diseases and your obligations.
- Feeding bees.
Extracting Honey.
- How to determine if honey is ready to extract.
- Process of extraction including filtering/bottling and labelling.
- Honey regulations.
The Two-Day Introduction to Practical Beekeeping course costs £260/person.
Please do see our terms & conditions before booking.
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