Stepping up to the wicket

Having firmly asserted in my last blog that beekeepers should expand their operations and try to build rather than simply struggle to deal with the problems of colony disease and collapse disorder, I have to put my money where my mouth is and invest in the idea of trying to get more beekeepers to go the extra mile. Also it seems to me all beekeepers have a duty to encourage and inform prospective beekeepers.

This is why Sue and I are keen to create a somewhat different type of beekeeping school. There are a tiny number of admirable examples of people dedicated to teaching beekeeping; one that immediately springs to mind is John Hamer at Blackhorse Apiaries in West Surrey. Most of the courses offered elsewhere will give adequate training to budding beekeepers but I humbly believe there are a number of improvements that can be made to many of these. For example one course I attended a few years ago to try to see where gaps were in my knowledge cost a very reasonable amount of money and lasted ten weeks (2 hours an evening)but it was light on practical work and almost non-existent on the very important area of follow-up. It was designed to dump a load of knowledge of mixed value on as many people as possible at one time and then start planning for the next course(about 40 people started the course and 28 survived to the end!) Not once did any of the three tutors who often talked at cross purposes and contradicted each other, offer to be available if people needed help after the course ended. At 9pm at the end of each session they could not get the people out of the door quickly enough. Get 'em in, load 'em up, kick 'em out, shut the door. Next cattle truck!! Oh yes, sorry, they did always try to get people to join them in the pub afterwards....

After a lot of thought we have decided to limit the numbers of people we will have on each course to eight or nine. If this means running several courses in parallel, that's what we will do.

I think it makes little sense to take people through a course that is at once straightforward but at the same time heavy on know-how without being available to them on an ongoing basis in the months and years that follow. There is no way you can cover all the aspects of beekeeping in 20 hours and after years of beekeeping I can firmly say that every year I learn much more than I could have thought possible. Much of this learning will be self-taught and arises from practical experience but there are many occasions when another beekeeper's views can be invaluable. This knowledge exchange process is also two-way. No beekeeper however experienced can afford not to listen to another beekeeper, even if the Ego is telling you that this kid is too green to know what he is talking about. Listen and learn applies to teachers as well as students.

A good local club is perfect for disseminating knowledge particularly when you have done a basic course and there is nothing quite as useful as watching somebody else open a hive and carry out a particular manipulation. However, unless you get more closely involved with one or two members, meetings are usually monthly and therefore too far between to satisfy most beekeepers. This is why those who give formal lessons should be willing to continue to give advice and help after a course finishes.

What Bees'n'Beans will try to do is to provide a closer level of attention to each student both whilst on a course and in the future to continue to be there for him or her. I am sure any experienced beekeeper will agree with me that far too many new beekeepers give up in their first year or two because they are discouraged when something goes wrong.

Is beekeeping hard work? It can be very hard though it is pleasant to realise that in the coldest months of the year both you and the bees rest but do not hibernate. If like us you deliberately set out to build your apiary (ies) towards bigger numbers of colonies the amount of work can be daunting. Even so there are ways of working WITH the bees that make life a lot easier. For example using topbar hives or long hives can seriously reduce the amount of heavy lifting. This is where a conscientious teacher can lay out all options for all types of student. Unfortunately beekeeping is a craft where many aficionados foam at the mouth if you suggest their particular method may not be the final say on perfect beekeeping. I hope we don't fall into that trap. We have set up an apiary dedicated to working examples (inhabited hives) of all the most common hives in use in the UK and this can be used to show people the pros and cons of different systems without bias.

One good thing about a local club is the opportunity to network with one or several people who would be prepared to help each other at harvest time. Why don't those that run courses help connect people who want to network in this way?

Make no mistake, when you get into beekeeping you are likely to be afflicted with some seriously off-putting challenges and frankly you need to be truly committed or waste a not inconsiderable amount of money and effort you have expended on setting up your first hive. At moments when you open the hive and realise there is a problem as serious as queenlessness it is very reassuring to have somebody at the other end of the phone to whom you can pour your heart out.

Okay, I am plugging Bees'n'Beans but I think the idea of continuing contact is very important.

Another thing we see is a lack of available courses such as a "taster" session. We don't set out to provide a cheap alternative to other courses (not that there are any such courses within easy distance of where we work) in fact we believe that value should be paid for but if you know almost nothing about beekeeping how do you know you will want to keep them? Geographically we are in a good position not to be competing with other schools but that does not lead to complacency. We are passionate about our beekeeping and want to share our love of bees and the craft but it would be foolish to pretend we are not running a business. Sound business practice is to constantly add value and "Always Add Value" is one of the big needlework samplers we should have over our bed. It applies to personal relationships too, of course.

As far as I know there are very few if any intensive courses available to enable people to get to grips with the subject in say three or four days or two or three weekends. This is quite surprising. In many educational areas ( language training springs to mind) intensive courses have been offered for many years but not beekeeping. We want to offer that to individuals or small groups. A group course aimed at a particular community is another idea that is under-explored.

I any of the above makes sense to you or especially if you think I am talking out of my trouser leg please tell me!

Apianus.