30-hour course over 10 weeks beekeeping in-depth

location: Gateshead

This course is on 10 consecutive Sundays, excluding Easter weekend. Unlike our weekend courses, on the 10-week course you will have:

1. Many more hours of practical hands-on work (normally at least 1 hour per session - weather permitting. 10 hours of bee handling in total) at the location of the course.
2. The opportunity to visit working apiaries away from the course location. There is a working apiary at the course location where you will work every week, but in addition to this you will have time to be taken to visit other apiaries.
3. We invite guest lecturers who are experts in the field, including a lecture from Ian Molyneux, the Northern Regional Bee Inspector from the National Bee Unit in York.
4. Many more classroom hours than the weekend course in which to ask questions and gain more in-depth knowledge and have previous information recycled and reinforced.

In addition to this we will cover the most important tasks of the Beekeeping year including:

• The beekeeping year
• Recommended reading
• The honey bee community
• The life cycle of the honey bee
• Hives and equipment, sterilisation etc
• Introduction to the British Beekeepers Association and the National Bee Unit
• Introduction to and work using Ted Hooper's 5 inspection points
• Introduction to and practice swarm control, artificial swarm and making an increase
• Colony management, noninvasive diagnosis, inspecting a colony, finding and marking a queen, uniting colonies, moving colonies, feeding and preparation for winter.
• Insurance
• Food sources, forage, pollen, nectar and feeding bees, farmers and neighbours.
• Introduction to disease control
• Springtime and summertime beekeeping
• The honey crop
• Preparing for the winter.
• How to get started.

At the end of the Course we will do our best to find you help for follow-up, either in the form of a mentor or through your local Beekeepers Association.

dates: see 'book online' below

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