weekend course special beekeeping weekend

location: nr Carlisle, Cumbria

Visiting from overseas? Are you coming to the Olympic Games? Why not spend an Olympic Weekend Beekeeping in the North of England, the land of Heather and wild rolling hills, Hadrian's Wall and fortified farm houses (for defending the farm from marauding bands of Scots raiders). Up here Beekeeping is a special art, the bees need to face the more extremes of weather, the harsh life of the windswept hills and rugged moorland. We use special bees and enjoy delicious honey from wildflowers, trees and of course the famous moorland Heather. We will be doing a lot of Beekeeping Weekends during the Olympic year (2012), but one specially for the Olympics on August 13th & 14th. Our aim is to cover the same curriculum as outlined above, but we will be taking into account that some participants may not be beginners. We will put a special emphasis on introduction to the specifics of the area.

This is a 14-hour weekend beekeeping course. The aim is to give you a grounding of theory sufficient to help you towards becoming a self-reliant.
Including 2 hours of hands-on beekeeping practice where you will handle the frames, bees and look for the queen, spot the eggs and be talked through what is happening on that day. Learn to identify: queen cells; sufficient stores; sickness and infestations; sufficient space and so on.

This course does not give you the hands-on practice or the same degree of depth of coverage as our 30 hour, 10 week course, but if you live too far away or if you do not have the time to commit to 10 consecutive weeks then this is the solution for you. Enjoy the weekend and get steeped in beekeeping. You will find this is a good and thorough course covering all the essential basics.

We will cover the most important tasks of the beekeeping year, including:

• Introduction to the beehive.
• Classes of bees in the hive and their respective tasks
• The life cycle of the honey bee
• Introduction to the British Beekeepers Association and the National Bee Unit
• Presentation of Ted Hooper's 5 inspection points
• Presentation of principles of: swarm control, artificial swarm, making an increase and uniting colonies
• Introduction to the problems of: siting a hive; the public, neighbours, friends and enemies
• Insurance
• Food sources, forage, pollen, nectar and feeding bees
• Disease control
• Springtime and summertime beekeeping
• The honey crop and preparing for the winter

And many other topics as well as answering your questions.

You can arrange accommodation at the venue here if required.

dates: see 'book online' below