Bicton Bees

By ALGrace | Tuesday, April 06, 2010, 20:07

If you are interested in making your own honey and other bee-related products, local professional beekeepers will be running a one-day course on 24th April 9.30am - 4.30pm at Bicton College in East Devon.

A fifth of the UK honeybee population died last year

Did you know that almost a fifth of the UK's honeybees died last winter? As they're worth £200m a year to UK agriculture because of their work pollinating crops, experts are calling for more money to be put in to research and even the WI have launched a campaign to save the honey bee.

Bicton College is encouraging anyone even slightly interested in keeping bees to join an introductory course to find out why the honey bee is essential to ensuring the survival of Britain's plants and crops, and how to keep these amazing insects.

Before taking on the responsibility of caring for your own bees, it is important (for you and the bees) to know what you are doing. In a one day course designed as an introduction to beekeeping with local professional beekeepers Ken and Dan Basterfield, both highly-regarded members of the British Beekeepers Association, you can learn about caring for honeybees, the beekeeper’s year, swarming, harvesting, health and many more important issues involved in taking on your own hive.

The course is for people seriously thinking about keeping bees or who have an enthusiastic interest, but do not know where to start. If you want to make your own Devon honey or other bee related products, or just to enjoy watching them work your garden, then this course will show you what’s involved and the equipment you will need.

Course organiser Kitrina Bishop said, “We want people to engage with bees and wildlife in their gardens and to derive joy and pleasure from it. The more hives there are, the more resilient the whole Devon honey bee population is to the outbreak of disease."

The one-day course is running on Saturday 24th April from 9.30am to 4.30pm at Bicton College. The course costs £60 which includes lunch and protective equipment for the day. For more information or to book a place, visit the Bicton College website, contact Nick Nicholls on 01395 562347 or email: kcbishop@bicton.ac.uk

Re-post Write a story

Ads by Google

Comments

I also read that honey is very good for healing wounds - but I am not sure if that is a specific type of honey......it would be good to hear what these experts have to say about that. There is also the old favourite 'honey and lemon' to soothe a sore throat - much better for you than taking harsh throat sweets and I have always found it just as effective. It is lovely to see the big bumble bees pottering about the garden again.

By Heidi_girl at 21:16 on 12/04/10
Report
Not only does honey taste great but, I once heard that it was good for hayfever suffers. If a spoonful of honey, from LOCAL bees, is taken daily, it helps to ease the symptoms.

By MargiG at 19:53 on 09/04/10
Report
Sounds very interesting! We have a large area of land to the back of our house that would be great to keep bees. We had been thinking we would just grow fruit and veg, but I love the idea of making honey too! £60 for the day sounds pretty reasonable too. I couldn't really imagine an English summer without bees!... I'm happy for the wasps to buzz off though!

By blackandblue1 at 15:38 on 07/04/10
Report