Advice on Bee Keeping Course

[JohnRoss]

Hi All,
I have been asked to run a three day bee keeping course over the May bank holiday weekend. The course will be aimed at beginners or people who have had bees for a year or two but who haven't had much success in terms of honey production, swarm control, disease control, overwintering etc ( nothing too advanced). The course will be delivered through the Irish Language as it will be aimed at and delivered in rural parts of the west of Ireland where Irish is the predominant spoken language.

The course will not be particularly intense. I will cover 2 topics each day (1 on the monday), with about an hour and a half on each topic, then a practical visit to an apiary each day (weather permitting). What I need is to select 5 basic topics that I need to cover well and in depth. I was wondering what peoples Ideas for these topics are? My thoughts were

1. Bee Life cycle and it's implications in bee keeping.
2. Inspecting your bees.
3. Swarm control and swarm capture
4. Varroah and other health issues
5. Honey Production.

Any thoughts?

 

[madasafish]

Hi All,
I have been asked to run a three day bee keeping course over the May bank holiday weekend. The course will be aimed at beginners or people who have had bees for a year or two but who haven't had much success in terms of honey production, swarm control, disease control, overwintering etc ( nothing too advanced). The course will be delivered through the Irish Language as it will be aimed at and delivered in rural parts of the west of Ireland where Irish is the predominant spoken language.

The course will not be particularly intense. I will cover 2 topics each day (1 on the monday), with about an hour and a half on each topic, then a practical visit to an apiary each day (weather permitting). What I need is to select 5 basic topics that I need to cover well and in depth. I was wondering what peoples Ideas for these topics are? My thoughts were

1. Bee Life cycle and it's implications in bee keeping.
2. Inspecting your bees.
3. Swarm control and swarm capture
4. Varroah and other health issues
5. Honey Production.

Any thoughts?

£50 per head per day -- total £150 - would be very good value for the attendees.

 

[dn170221]

does subject 1 include the beekeeping year?
Maybe a bit on equipment hive types, and what they might be buying as beginners and from where, probably included in your hives visits anyway.
At the start maybe also ask them what they expect to get from the course, that might give you something to add in.

Sounds like a fun weekend!!

 

[Arfermo]

All that stuff is usually obtained at BKA club night chats and at the club apiary or visits to fellow beeks? Ought to go to their BKA and do some reading instead.

 

[Travelator]

If you have access to a copy of the BBKA "Course in a Case - Beginners", the tutor notes are worth looking at - both in terms of the content and the suggestions about how to deliver it effectively. I think the topics they suggest are similar to what you have outlined.

Before anyone starts cracking jokes - I don't recall seeing any references to the dreaded matchsticks in the notes, but you would obviously be able to excise them in the process of translating the material into irish.

 

[BeeJayBee]

If you have access to a copy of the BBKA "Course in a Case - Beginners", the tutor notes are worth looking at - both in terms of the content and the suggestions about how to deliver it effectively. I think the topics they suggest are similar to what you have outlined.

Unlikely in Northern Ireland because the courses and syllabus aren't the same as B8KA.

Checking out the syllabus for the B8KA Basic would be a good idea, there are also several blogs with a breakdown of what's needed to pass the assessment.

 

[Heather]

I am charging £40 to our members (£50 non members) for a full day and lunch thrown in.
Covering.. bee biology, the colony, types of hives, the beekeeping year, queens, swarming, pests & diseases, honey and other products, bee plants... and how to get started. Think I offer value here in Sussex.

Have the first 4 course in cases but the first (white) very basic - bit naff.

 

[REDWOOD]

If the beginners no nothing about beekeeping then a demonstration hive in the class room would make sense. Bee life cycle and swarm control could be in the same lesson, I would leave inspecting your hives until last, I don't see the point if they beginners don't know what they are looking at. 4 and 5 look OK.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hi All,
I have been asked to run a three day bee keeping course over the May bank holiday weekend. The course will be aimed at beginners or people who have had bees for a year or two but who haven't had much success in terms of honey production, swarm control, disease control, overwintering etc ( nothing too advanced). The course will be delivered through the Irish Language as it will be aimed at and delivered in rural parts of the west of Ireland where Irish is the predominant spoken language.

The course will not be particularly intense. I will cover 2 topics each day (1 on the monday), with about an hour and a half on each topic, then a practical visit to an apiary each day (weather permitting). What I need is to select 5 basic topics that I need to cover well and in depth. I was wondering what peoples Ideas for these topics are? My thoughts were

1. Bee Life cycle and it's implications in bee keeping.
2. Inspecting your bees.
3. Swarm control and swarm capture
4. Varroah and other health issues
5. Honey Production.

Any thoughts?

Aimed at beginners AND people who have had bees for a year or two? I would be concerned you are trying to be all things to all men. I'd be more inclined to split this into two courses.

One course for beginners covering
1. Bee colony structure - workers, queen, drones, comb building and its use by the bees.
2. Hives with some options of sizes and materials.
3. Bee swarming with following going into a hive (mention scout bees) mating flights, laying into prepared cells, eggs, larvae, pupation, emergence and the various duties of the workers from emergence to death.
4. Health, Varroa treatments and practical work including contact with bees if the season permits.

The second course would build on the groundwork laid down in the first course and cover
1. stores for the colony, taking the excess, the use of OMF floors with inspection boards (out).
2. Finding the queen, queen cells and what to do (and what not to do). Handling and marking queens.
3. Brood Disease identification and control.
4. Hive temperature and insulation
5. Forage, nectar flows, seasonal variation of forage, osr and ivy.
6. Extraction of honey, tangential radial and crush + strain
7. Further reading and mention the benefits of this forum (if the reader has a healthy cynicism to separate the wheat from the dross)

This is just my first thoughts and will no doubt benefit greatly from revision and modification.

PS Is the course being run commercially or to aid a BKA? If it's a BKA the first part might make sense as a free offering with tea/snacks sold for fundraising.

 

[Edwardking]

I'd add marketing and selling honey / honey products to the suggested second course.

 

[Heather]

Have to say for real beginners it is helpful to look in a hive at that point. They soon realise if for them or not. Have had one chap flee from the scene, another couldn't cope with the feel of an insect crawling on her.

 

[alanf]

That's quite a range, everything from those finding out if they want bees to those looking to improve. If there is more than one day, I'd start with only those who hadn't had bees before. It can be pitched at a basic level and those there are less inhibited asking the questions with obvious answers. If that includes a look in a hive, then next day you can at least assume everyone knows the usual hive layout and an outline of basic bee life cycle.

 

[psafloyd]

That's quite a range, everything from those finding out if they want bees to those looking to improve. If there is more than one day, I'd start with only those who hadn't had bees before. It can be pitched at a basic level and those there are less inhibited asking the questions with obvious answers. If that includes a look in a hive, then next day you can at least assume everyone knows the usual hive layout and an outline of basic bee life cycle.

I agree. I would split out beginners and improvers so you can give far more focused information to each group.

Starting with the basics on the beginner course makes sense – show them and break down the hive into components.

Explain the life cycle of a bee, what bees actually do (some people really do believe honey just sits in the hive ready to be scooped into jars), then give them some basics on handling.

That would be the time to get into a hive and get people looking at what goes on inside. You could then have a break and get people handling on another hive, then finish with the pros (pollination, hive products, maybe karma, contemplation) and cons (the stresses of swarming season, disease and parasites, IPM, managing your hive parts, etc).

You could then run a dat for improvers looking at the theory you have mentioned and then get into a hive and offer insight into their handling. This may tell you much about why they have had little success.

 

[biglongdarren]

If some are complete beginners what about even showing them how to make up frames, inserting wax etc and how to build a flat pack hive?
also how to light and keep a smoker alight,best smoker fuel and how to remove a sting and so on.

Darren.

 

[beeno]

Hi John Ross,
Swarm prevention and overwintering configuration issues i.e. learning to keep the bees seems to be big issues. I would not split the group, improvers need a recap usually and ask pertinent questions which will help beginners as well as themselves. More interesting class IMHO.

 

[REDWOOD]

I think you would get problems with 1-2 year beekeepers sitting in a class with beginners, most of the lesson they should already know. if it was free then that's a different matter, people expect to get value for money

 

[Teemore]

Unlikely in Northern Ireland because the courses and syllabus aren't the same as B8KA.

Checking out the syllabus for the B8KA Basic would be a good idea, there are also several blogs with a breakdown of what's needed to pass the assessment.

Course in a case is used in NI - it seems that several of the UBKA affiliated associations use it as the basis of their beginners courses, supplemented by the FIBKA syllabus for the Preliminary Course. It is a good starting point if you can borrow one for a while. Take a look at the syllabi for the FIBKA Preliminary and the Basic Assessment on the BBKA website - they will give you an idea of broad areas to cover. Folk going to a course like this will ask a lot of questions so it is probably best to keep thing general to allow for responses to those questions.

 

[Teemore]

I have helped organize and run a couple of one day courses for people interested in starting beekeeping. We covered the following topics:

• Threats to the honeybee
• Pleasures of Beekeeping
• Life of the Honeybee
• Division of labour within the hive
• What bees forage on
• Swarming
• Preparing Honeybees for Winter
• Will I Get Stung
• How to Become a beekeeper
• Basic equipment and costs
• Starting with a Nucleus Colony
• How to acquire healthy honeybees
• Selecting an apiary site and apiary layout
• Beginners ‘ Pitfalls: What Help Can I Get?

Hope this helps.