Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Beekeeping Course

two National beehivesLast night I went to the first evening of the local Introduction to Beekeeping course. I tried to sign up for this in the autumn of 2006, but was told it was already full. So instead I went on a two-day course in Keele which was excellent, and gave me the confidence to get two colonies of bees last summer.

But I still wanted to go on this more in-depth course, which has nine two-hour theory lectures in February and March, and six hands-on sessions in May and June.

It was a good lecture last night - I learned some things I didn't know about bumblebees, and I got to meet some other local novice and would-be beekeepers.

4 comments:

salmonpoetry said...

wow, that is cool, it must be the season. i just put up a post on my blog today about my own burgeoning venture into beekeeping.
i appreciate your posts on chickens and bees and everything green. i once lived in england (cambridgeshire) but now am a long way off. your posts still seem so relevant out here.

Anonymous said...

What did you learn?

Irish Sallygardens said...

Me too. I've been writing a post on what honey bees do in winter. I'm itching for spring so I can peek in and see if they are still alive, hard to believe they are for some reason!

Jen Kuhn said...

We recently had a bout of 60*F weather a few weeks back, and my bees were out and about. I fed them and hopefully they will make it through the rest of the winter. Usually it is after the winter thaw and before the spring that people around here lose their bees.

Just went to the Dadant beekeeping store yesterday, picked up wax coated foundation and new wooden frames. My college has given me permission to set up a hive on our vegetable plot, so I ordered a complete starter set, 2 supers and a 3 pound pkg of bees. I can't wait until May when I can set them up, as I have never done that before. My hive came from my hallway wall. We will get the queen cage, and get to watch them set her free. Fascinating.

So what did you learn at the meetings?