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What is it?

Our basic course provides the basic knowledge and practical skills required to keep your own bees.  

The course is led by experienced beekeepers who will share their knowledge and experience. All sessions are regularly updated to ensure all information is current and include photographs, videos, and lots of time to answer questions. 

By the end of the course you will:

• Be familiar with the equipment and tools used to keep bees
• Understand the costs involved to start keeping your own bees
• Understand the biology of honey bees and their life as members of a colony
• Learn how to set up an apiary and take precautions to reduce any nuisance to others
• Learn what tasks you need to do throughout the year
• Understand the practices necessary to maintain good apiary hygiene and healthy bees
• Be introduced to the processes you can use to manage swarming
• Start to learn how to read your bees and understand what is happening in the hive
• Learn how to extract and bottle honey and harvest beeswax
• Learn how to spot problems such as pests and diseases and suitably control them
• Gain practical tips on how to successfully handle and manipulate colonies of bees

We provide everything you need in order to get hands on with our bees and help you gain confidence.
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People attending our Basic Beekeeping course make new friends with which to share their new hobby and gain mutual support.  We encourage all attendees to become members and join us at our regular apiary meetings to further their learning.

How much does it cost?

The basic course costs £140.

When is it?

The basic course comprises 8 theory sessions (1.5 hours each) at The Main Place in Coleford and 3 practical sessions (2 hours each) at our association apiary in Lydney.