A day of theory and practice for all beekeepers
Walton, Nr Wakefield, West Yorkshire
What is it?
An all day event for beekeepers of all abilities to help and encourage them to improve their bees by using locally produced queens.
Why?
When buying queens you may be promised high yields and docility, but later generations of these queens can often produce aggressive colonies. To overcome this problem it is often advised to buy new queens every year, but this "quick fix" approach is unsustainable. Also if imported, they may not be best suited to your environment, with the added risk of bringing in disease.
What will I learn?
There will be presentations and demonstrations on a number of topics including:-
- Colony handling techniques
- How to assess colonies for behaviour
- Setting simple criteria for what you want in your bees
- Raising queens by simple methods (the bees often do it for you!)
- Making up and maintaining nuclei
- Introducing queens and queen cells
Cost: £18/head before 25th May, £20 afterwards. Includes refreshments and lunch.