Our learning programme is extensive:
Beginners and Improvers Course starting Monday 12th January at 7:30pm until 9pm (unless otherwise stated) and will run for 10 weeks. The full programme is as follows:-​
                    Monday 12th January 2026 - General Introduction and the Bee Keeping Year
                    Monday 26th January 2026 - The anatomy / internal workings of the Honey Bee
                    Monday 02nd February 2026 - Pollination
                    Monday 09th February 2026 - Hives and other Bee Keeping Equipment
                    Monday 16th February 2026 - Products of the Hive. Preparing Honey and Wax
                    Monday 23rd February 2026 - Swarming and the Queen
                    Monday 02nd March 2026 - Honeybee Health, Diseases and Pests affecting the Honey Bee
                    Monday 09th March 2025 - Plenary Session and Quiz
                    Wednesday 11th March 2025 - Hive Building. Practical Session and Drop In at the Durleigh Road Apiary
  • Location: Spaxton Village Hall, High Street, Spaxton, Somerset, TA5 1BS
  • Cost: There will be a small nominal charge of £2 per session to cover the cost of the hall. 
  • If you wish to take notes during these sessions, you will need to bring a notebook and pens
  • Practical Sessions - There will be practical mentoring and improvement sessions the season.
  • Beekeeping Microscopy (BBKA syllabus)

To join any of the courses, or if you would like further details, please email our secretary, [email protected]
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New beekeepers

For new beekeepers the initial programme is shown above. Any practical sessions are timed to match the beekeeping season.  Mentors are always there to help with the tricky bits. The intention is that new beekeepers can learn at their own pace timed to the beekeeping year. 

Experienced beekeepers

For the more experienced beekeeper there are sessions on
  • Queen Raising. This follows on from the visit (in 2016) to Peter Little at Allerford to see his Queen raising facility. This also helps to provide the Queens that are needed for our learning programme.
  • Disease / Varroa Control/ Asian Hornet, making increase and swarm control.
  • Microscopy. A one year programme to prepare beekeepers for the BBKA Microscopy exam. Also sessions for the ‘non-microscopist’ about bringing your honey to the apiary and doing your own analysis of the pollen, or doing your own disease checks. It was popular last year.
Any members wishing to take the BBKA Basic Certificate or other BBKA modules and exams are welcome to join the study groups which will be organised according to need. Just get in touch with one of the officers.