Beekeeping Course

A couple of weekends ago I attended a two day beekeeping course with Matt and my colleague Ste (plus 21 other people). The course was run by the Manchester & District Beekeepers Association (MDBKA) at their headquarters in Heaton Park. The course was two full days (Saturday and Sunday).

The mornings were lecture based, covering everything from the lifecycle of bees and what equipment you’ll need through to how to prevent a swarm (no easy task, so I understand!) and how to manage diseases.

The afternoon sessions were practical and covered inspecting a hive (yes, we got to wear a bee suit and open a hive!), woodworking (ie building your hive), honey extraction and varroa treatment.

We were made to feel very welcome on the course: all the members of MDBKA I spoke to were very friendly and open people and more than happy to answer questions and share their knowledge.

My impression of beekeeping is that, more than the majority of hobbies, it is not possible to start it alone. You need practical, hands-on experience and you can only get that through the help of other beekeepers. So this course served a dual purpose: firstly to provide information and a little practical experience, but also to give the opportunity to meet some other beekeepers.

It was interesting to hear the backgrounds of the other people on the course. A handful had some experience already: often because someone else in the family already had bees. Others were there because they were “eco warriors”, or because they wanted bees on their allotment, or just because their spouse had paid for the course as a present. One person had, like me, been sent by their company so they could keep bees for the company.

So, best bits? Well obviously getting suited up and opening a hive was the most exciting part of the two days. At this time of year the bees in a hive are still the “winter bees” that have spent the cold months huddled in the hive keeping alive. These bees live about six months, but it must be a tough six months. They will hardly leave the hive, but instead will huddle together in a group to keep warm like king penguins in Antarctica.

The colony in the first hive we opened had died, which was rather sad. They were all huddled together around the queen, motionless. Scott of the Antarctic.

The second hive had a bit more activity. It was fun to very gently lift a frame out of the hive and hold it up to inspect the bees on it. Whilst there were not a massive number of bees (a winter colony is about 10,000), there were enough to see different types of activity and get a bit of a feel for what it must be like to open a hive in summer.

The extraction session was also very interesting. We got hands on experience of scraping the wax caps off the honeycomb in the frames, then loading it into the centrifuge and extracting the honey. Ten frames (one hive) makes a lot of honey! It filled a small bucket, and weighs about 10kg. We also got to taste rather a lot of different honeys. I felt somewhat lightheaded after it!

So what happens next? I’m not exactly what you’d call an experienced beekeeper, despite two full days. Next comes a year of further hands on sessions that are aimed to allow the new beekeeper to experience all the things that you need to do throughout the year. MDBKA run these sessions on a Monday night, so I’m looking forward to getting the date for the first one.

Meanwhile, in even more exciting news, I have been working with the site facilities lady at work (and Ste, my beekeeper colleague) to define what it is we need to do and buy to be able to get our first hive at the office. More on this in future posts.

Meeting the bees

 

Extracting honey

Making new frames

Why a blog about beekeeping?

Like every hobby and craft, the internet is riddled with websites, blogs and forums about beekeeping. So why have I started another one?

Well obviously it interests me, and some of my friends have shown an interest in what I’m up to. So I’d like to share that here, allowing you to dip in if it is of interest.

But I’m not planning to teach you about beekeeping, apart from what information I need to explain to make the articles make sense. You can find lots of information to help you learn about beekeeping elsewhere. Just use Google. Over on my brewing blog I take the same approach: I explain bit and pieces where needed, but mainly focus on what I’m doing, why I’m doing it and what it means to me. I think that makes it more interesting than just writing technical articles.

Of course in the case of beekeeping I hope this will be a shared hobby with Matt, so I’ll be opening the blog up to him to publish to as well. I hope you’ll find his view on the subject different and refreshing.

My interest in bees

Welcome to me new blog! If you know me, you are probably aware that I have been making beer and writing a blog about it for several years (although I have not published a great deal in the last year or so). That blog is over here: http://cheshirepeaks.blogspot.co.uk/

Recently my interest in artisan creativity has gained a new direction, thanks mostly to my son Matt. A few years ago he became very interested in bees and I received many requests for us to keep bees. I don’t recall where he got this interest from, but I do recall responding with the standard “yes, that would be fun” reply, knowing that the practicalities of indulging him would mean it would never happen. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, but being a boring parent I knew that the complexities of actually getting started with such a hobby would mean life just got in the way and it was a non-starter.

Fast forward to last year and a chance conversation with Rachel, the lady from my company’s site facilities team. In 2016 my company had hosted a beehive at my office in Manchester. Last year the hive was taken away by the owner, but as part of the company’s “green credentials” they were keen to bring the bees back and get their own hive. She said they already had one person who was interested in being trained to look after the hive, but they were looking for another. I heard the words “sign me up” come out of my mouth before I really had much chance to consider it.

After that conversation nothing much happened for a number of months, and then Rachel contacted me about booking me on a two day beekeeping course. Once my booking was sorted out I rang the Manchester & District Beekeepers’ Association and also booked Matt onto the last place on the course so we could attend together.

Meanwhile, I started reading. And reading. And reading. (I do that).

The course took place last weekend and Matt and I enjoyed it very much. We came away with a lot more knowledge but also a little experience of actually opening a beehive and inspecting bees. Very small but exciting steps.

I’ll leave this post at that, and write a separate post about what we learned on the course.