Courses
Courses for 2019
Here at South Clwyd Beekeepers’ Association, we are proud of the work we do in educating new beekeepers and helping existing beekeepers to improve their skills. To this end we have run successful courses for both beginners – those with no prior knowledge or experience of bees or beekeeping, and improvers – those wishing to consolidate their knowledge and improve their skills.
As part of their training, new beekeepers can be introduced to an experienced mentor, who will provide advice and support during the initial stages of setting up an apiary and obtaining bees.
As well as providing the training, we also provide beekeepers with the necessary hands-on skills and experience they need at sessions held throughout the year at our dedicated training apiary.
Beginners’ Course
This course is suitable for anyone who is interested in the world of beekeeping or who wants to become a beekeeper. It is also suitable for anyone who has recently started beekeeping but has not yet completed a course. The course aims to provide all the essential elements of beekeeping:
– To explore the lifecycle and behavior of the honey bee colony
– To discuss beekeeping equipment and what is needed to start beekeeping
– To understand the involvement of the beekeeper during the year, including summer management and winter preparations
– To provide practical experience in the inspection and handling of colonies of bees in our training apiary.
– To understand the process of honey extraction
– To provide an introduction to honey bee diseases
A protective bee suit will be provided on loan for those who don’t have one of their own.
This course, along with the support of a mentor, should enable you to become a confident beekeeper. The course is run over four Saturdays between February and May with practical sessions in the apiary
The course tutor is Jenny Whitham who is a member of SCBKA. Jenny has been a beekeeper for over 10 years and has a home apiary which is 1100ft above sea level on the edge of a heather moor in Llandegla, as well as an apiary at her business at Patchwork Pate in Ruthin. Jenny spent a brief spell as a seasonal bee inspector.
Dates for the 2019 course (all Saturdays) are:
16th February 16th March, 13th April and 11th May (10.00am – 4.00pm)
Venue: Patchwork Traditional Food Company, Llys Parcwr, Ruthin, Denbighshire, LL15 1NJ.
If you require any further information about the beginners course please contact the course tutor jenny@faraway.org.uk or if you would like to register for the 2019 course then please Contact education@scbeekeepers.co.uk
Download an application form for 2019 below
WBKA Basic Assessment
If you have kept bees for at least one full season, have you thought about taking the WBKA Basic Assessment?
After your first season you will have built up your skills through practical experience and through attendance on a beginners and improvers course. This is the ideal time to take things a little further.
Successfully passing the Basic Assessment demonstrates that you have achieved a good level of understanding in managing your bees.
You will need to do a bit of reading in preparation, but the assessment is quite informal and
actually quite enjoyable.
WBKA would like 50% of beekeepers to take the Basic Assessment, and SCBKA would like to support this approach.
If you are interested, we can put you in touch with someone who has already passed, or if a number of people are interested, we could set up a study group, an approach which has proved popular for other assessments.
If you require further information about the WBKA Basic Assessment, then please contact education@scbeekeepers.co.uk
Intermediate (Improvers’) Beekeepers Course 2019
This course is aimed to follow on from the Beginners Course and is aimed at consolidating and revising the material covered previously and to introduce new topics which should interest those who have kept bees for a year or more. It will therefore be of interest to those who have already attended a Beginners Course, or anyone returning to beekeeping after a gap of several years. It should also help those who wish to prepare for the WBKA Basic Assessment which we are keen to encourage.
The course is run over three Saturdays in February and March as a series of informal seminars and aims to help course participants develop the confidence and skills to read honey bee colonies and manage them in a way that is both empathetic and enjoyable. These days will cover theory only, as the bees will not be very active. They will be followed by a further optional practical day on a date to be agreed with course participants. The practical day will include disease inspection, artificial swarming, uniting and queen marking.
The course tutor Steve Rose is our Native Bee Champion and member of the Bee
Improvement and Breeders Association. He keeps around 40 colonies in South West Denbighshire and breeds and supplies near native nuclei and queens. He has a passionate interest in local bees and their interaction with and adaptation to our own particular conditions and liaises closely with Bangor university on DNA testing and other native bee research
Dates for the 2019 course (all Saturdays) are:
16th February 23rd February and 2nd March (9.30am – 4.30pm)
If you require any further information about the improvers course please contact the course tutor steve@cilgwri.com or if you would like to register for the 2019 course then please contact education@scbeekeepers.co.uk
You can download an application form below