Practical Beekeeping Training

It is important that you have already completed a basic course on
beekeeping, which can be either an Introduction to Beekeeping course or
similar, before you attend further practical beekeeping training with us.
Warwick and Leamington Beekeepers also ask that you have joined our
branch as a Registered, Partner or Junior member to ensure you are
covered by public liability insurance.

We will endeavour to find a mentor to support you throughout your first
year of beekeeping and we also provide ‘hands-on’ training at our
teaching apiary for your first season.

We meet 6.00 – 8.00pm, one evening per week from the end of April until
mid-September.  We ask our trainees to help with the seasonal work
required by our colonies and provide specific instruction in the following
areas:

  • Use of the smoker and other calming methods
  • Opening, inspecting and closing hives
  • Use of hive tools and the apiary tool-kit in general
  • Aspects of hygiene, pests, predators and diseases, including Varroa
    monitoring and control
  • Safety, stings and protective clothing
  • All aspects of hive components including maintaining bee space.
  • Different hive types. Equipment cleaning and storing. Recognizing
    brood, adult bees and stores.
  • All the fundamental manipulations e.g. uniting hives, swarm control,
    comb changes, queen marking and clipping, making nucs, queen
    introduction and hiving swarms.  Loading an observation hive and
    "bleeding off" bees for shows
  • Adding and removing supers and introduction to honey extraction
  • Disease inspections and recognition.  Sampling bees.  Other colony
    problems
  • Feeding bees and preparing colonies for the Winter

WLBK Expert Instructor