The Early Years
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Beyond the first few years: Expand your knowledge and skills
A one-day course to help and encourage beekeepers in their formative years who are keen to move on from their initial teaching, gaining ideas, knowledge and skills that should help them understand their bees more, so becoming better beekeepers. To appeal to all beekeepers, the programme has interesting topics that should encourage attendees to find out more and explore different management methods, some of which may not be found in standard teaching material.
The tutors are Karl Colyer (Cheshire) and Roger Patterson (West Sussex), both are nationally known practical beekeepers who willingly pass on the experiences gleaned from many years in the craft.
VENUE LIST
Programme
9.00 Venue open, Registration
9.25 - 9.30 Introduction and welcome
9.30 - 10.15 Roger Patterson: “Learn the basics”
10.15 - 10.30 Break
10.30 - 11.15 Karl Colyer: “Things I Wish I'd Known Earlier”
11.15 - 11.30 Break
11.30 - 12.15 Roger Patterson: “Queen cells: Their recognition and uses”
12.15 - 1.00 Lunch (please bring your own lunch and refreshments)
1.00 - 1.45 Karl Colyer: “Balancing your beekeeping with your other commitments”
1.45 - 2.00 Break
2.00 - 2.45 Roger Patterson: “Observation: Interpret what you see”
2.45 - 3.30 Karl Colyer: “Raising your first queens”
3.30 – 4.00 General discussion, Q&A and close
For BIBBA Members only - free of charge
Please bring your own lunch and refreshments.
Parking may be limited. Please share transport if possible
Terms of Booking https://bibba.com/terms/
Speakers and Presentations
Karl Colyer
Karl has been keeping bees since 2003. He enjoys building his own hives from recycled wood where he can and is a very practical and hands-on bee breeder, bringing his engineering, quality and production experience to the fore.
Over 500 hives have been built and approaching 2,000 queens have been reared during this time. Various hive designs, configurations and methods of operation were explored to understand how to have the simplest, most flexible, cost and time-effective way of managing a large number of bees whilst juggling other life commitments. Karl rears locally-adapted bees for enjoyment, education and his sole source of income.
“Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier”
In those early years of beekeeping, I made lots of mistakes and took everything that another beekeeper told me to be the gospel truth. It wasn’t until I figured that the advice from different people started conflicting with each other and that the ‘foolproof’ solutions didn’t always work that I had to go back to basics and make my own decisions.
This talk touches on some options to consider as well as ways to save money, get free bees and how to end up with a beekeeping plan that works for you.
“Balancing your beekeeping with your other commitments”
Beekeeping is a responsibility and there is a minimum expectation of input in terms of time, effort and understanding required. Many of us have jobs, children, family and club commitments and it can be a juggle to fit everything in together. By understanding the time required in terms of how much and when and combining that with the various tasks to be done during the year, choices can be made on what aspirations to have of your bees and your beekeeping. Ultimately, there is a balance between the number of bees you have, the time you have available and how much you get to know and understand the practicalities of the craft.
“Raising your first queens”
Being able to raise your own queens can be transformational in your beekeeping. Free bees for the rest of your beekeeping days! People are often daunted with how to start and whether it is worth the effort. This talk explains the why and how of queen rearing for the people just starting on this journey so that they feel properly prepared to raise queens with minimal equipment and stress to yourself and your bees.
Roger Patterson
Roger is a practical beekeeper who started keeping bees in his native West Sussex in 1963. He has learnt a lot by observing bees and beekeepers in a wide variety of locations, which has helped him to develop his simple management system and to question what he is told.
Roger has learnt a lot from bees, that he willingly passes on to others as a prolific speaker, demonstrator and author of five books. “Live@theHive” features him being live streamed inspecting colonies of real bees and giving tips from his home apiary.
He has been a demonstrator at the Wisborough Green BKA teaching apiary since the early 1970s and is currently the Apiary Manager, where there are normally over 30 colonies for tuition. He therefore knows what beekeepers want and need to learn. For about 15 years he had 130 colonies of his own, but is now down to around 35. He is President of BIBBA and owns and runs the Dave Cushman website http://www.dave-cushman.net/, which is considered to be one of the world’s most comprehensive beekeeping websites.
“Learn the basics”
The learning of a few factual things will go a long way to helping you solve many of the common issues that you will experience at the hive. You may then be able to solve problems yourself, or at least have a little knowledge, so you can understand what the advice you are given is trying to achieve, or even if it is sound and will work in your situation. Many beekeepers, often quite experienced ones, don’t always know the “basics”, although they often think they do. This presentation covers some of the common ones.
“Queen cells: Their recognition and uses”
Beekeepers often decide what type of queen cells they have in their colonies by where they are placed on the comb, because that is what they are taught or read in books. This can be very unreliable, resulting in the wrong diagnosis and the wrong action being taken, possibly leaving the colony hopelessly queenless. There will be some clear guidance on what to look for, so colonies can be managed accordingly. There will be tips on how to use queen cells.
“Observation: Interpret what you see”
Lateral thinking and observation are two of the most valuable assets a beekeeper can possess. There are many things an observant beekeeper will spot during a colony inspection that others will miss. This ability comes with experience, but the key is to know what is normal, so you can spot something different. A colony of bees is telling you something all the time. Good beekeepers can interpret what the bees are telling them and what may happen in a colony in two, five or 10 days’ time. This presentation is not to be missed and shows some things that are often seen in colonies, but may not be taught or seen in books or videos.
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