Winter Courses 2026-27

As the active beekeeping season has closed, winter is the perfect time to review what you have done in the past, perhaps consider what you may have learnt from mistakes and plan for a more successful coming season. To help you, this winter BIBBA is running two practical one-day courses on the same weekend across nine UK locations. Led by two well-known experienced, practical beekeepers Karl Colyer (Cheshire) and Roger Patterson (West Sussex), these sessions are packed with good, sound information that is intended to help beekeepers manage their apiaries more efficiently and with better understanding.

“Early Years” Designed for those moving past their initial training. If you've just survived the hectic learning curve of your first few seasons, this day will map out how to shift from reactive troubleshooting to managing your colonies with knowledge and confidence.

“Sustainable Bees and Queens for Everyone” Suitable for all experience levels. With growing concerns around the risks of imported bees including pests, disease, and unpredictable aggression, this wide-ranging course focuses on how you and your local BKA can raise robust, locally adapted bees and queens suited to our fickle climate.

The nine venues are Warwickshire, Essex, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Scotland, Cheshire, South Wales, Northumberland and Somerset.

How much is it?

Both courses are free, but please read on. As an educational charity, our goal is to support and educate beekeepers. We want to offer these winter courses completely free to our members.

To protect our charity status and allow us to claim Gift Aid on subscriptions, UK tax rules mean we cannot offer "members-only discounts" against a standard non-member ticket price. Doing so would invalidate the Gift Aid we rely on for part of our income. Therefore, we run these specialised days as exclusive, members-only events, but ask non-members to join so we comply with HMRC rules. For just £15 a year (via Direct Debit, or £25 by other methods), you gain full access to both days of winter learning, plus other benefits for a full year. We think it’s incredible value for a full day (or two!) of tuition.