in partnership with the Duchy College
The Association offers a Basic Beekeeping course in partnership with the Duchy College, Cornwall College's Agricultural Faculty, based at Rosewarne, which hosts the Asssociation apiary, where practical teaching takes place.
The course, which leads to the Basic Beekeeping Certificate awarded by the BBKA, consists of 3 terms of classroom and practical sessions of approximately 60 hours tuition by Rodger Dewhurst, one of the county's leading experts. Classroom sessions take place on Thursdays: 19:00 to 21:00 from Oct 1 2009 and practicals on Saturdays from April 2010. Enquiries and applications to: Admissions 01209 722100, or email rosewarne.enquiries@duchy.ac.uk
The course will equip you with the knowledge and practical skill to start your own apiary if you so wish and to carry out all necessary operations with confidence. It will also help beginners to revise and extend their knowledge and skill. The course will help you aim for the highest standards of beekeeping and anticipate some of the pitfalls of the early years. Beekeepers with less than 3 years experience will be as welcome as people with no knowledge at all.
All teaching will be at Rosewarne. West Cornwall Beekeepers’ Association has both an outdoor apiary and a bee-house at Rosewarne as a cornerstone of their developing partnership with the Duchy College. WCBKA provides the majority of the course teachers, for both background knowledge and practice. It is a presumption of the course that students will develop better beekeeping practices in the long term if their activities are firmly based on an understanding of how bees function, best practice from modern research and guided by selected experienced local beekeepers
Topics that will be covered include
Purchasing healthy colonies Siting colonies safely The year’s work in the apiary Opening a hive and assessing a colony Swarm prevention, control and management Keeping your colonies healthy Keeping varroa under control |
Maximising your honey crop Taking, storing and presenting honey Marketing the hive products Modern hives and their maintenance The life cycles of the honeybees Helping to pollinate seed and fruit crops |
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content last modified July 2
2009