Course Materials 2023

Practical Teaching Sessions

It has been a late start to this season, the continuing cold weather is not helping at all.

We will start with three sessions on Thursdays 4th , 11th and 18th of May. These will start at 3pm at the association apiary. We intend these to be ‘two sittings’ (3pm onwards and 5pm onwards) to help students who are at work or have other commitments. We will finish around 6:30 pm (or maybe later as the evenings get lighter), so we will cover material twice, as required.

In these three sessions we will cover different topics, teaching the foundation skills that you need to master, including:

frame making and equipment management
safety, smokers and practical hygiene
hive manipulation and inspection.

As the season develops we will plan other sessions on the same basis.

There will be (weather and bees permitting) practical hive work in all sessions. You are welcome to use smartphones etc. to record what we do, but please remember that beekeeping is a messy business – honey , propolis and hi- tech are not a good mix and also that if you have gloves on, touch screens may not work!

Please let us know on WhatsApp which time you will be attending for each session (so we can go home if no-one is coming!).

Please Bring:

your beesuit and wellies
a new pair of Marigold gloves ( you must keep these for use ONLY at this apiary). Keep other pairs if you are working with other hives.
your questions!

Please park inside the apiary.

We look forward to seeing you all again.

Theory Course Catchup.

The course topic is updated after each session with a Zoom recording and other material that may be useful. This will stay here until the middle of the active season.

Topic #1 You and the Community of Bees

Download the Slide Set

Topic #2 The Colony

Download the Slide Set

Link to ZOOM Recording (Password: P*uepxb5)

Topic #3 The Beekeeping Year

Download the Slide Set

Link to ZOOM Recording (Password: oxeye?hs#)
We are very sorry for the technical issues at the start of this session. Please start listening to the above Zoom link at about 2 mins 54 secs.

Topic #4 The Hive

Download the Slide Set

Some Useful Links:

Thorne’s ‘Assembly’ – and other useful videos

Thorne’s Catalogue – a useful read about equipment

Maisemore’s website – a Gloucester-based equipment supplier

National Bee Supplies – an Oakhampton-based equipment supplier

Seasonal Beekeeping – useful webpage by National Beekeeping Supplies

Frame Assembly and Foundation Replacement (YouTube 4mins 45 secs)

Summary of Frame Sizes and Cells Counts

Construction of the Modified National Hive

Construction of the Langstroth Hive

(Both of the above need modifying to include a mesh floor for Varroa management: Typical design for a Varroa Floor)

Topic #5 Bee and Colony Health

Download the Slide Set

Link to ZOOM Recording (Password: ^EqZnf8)

AFB/EFB Diagnosis and Treatment (12min)
(This is an old video from DEFRA, but still accurate and reliable )

Healthy Bees on a Page a simple summary PDF

Wax Moth Damage (YouTube 2min – look closely!)

Shaking Bees off Brood Comb (YouTube 25 secs)

Beebase home page

National Bee Unit advice page
There is a lot of expert advice at all levels here, but the first four links (to pdf docs) relating to bee disease (‘Living are necessary reading for all beekeepers.
Please take the time to look at them before this session- don’t try and learn it all, but get the main themes.