Beginners Classes

Interested in beekeeping? You’ve come to the right place!

 

Here you’ll find experienced, friendly beekeepers who can teach and advise, and a programme of lectures and apiary visits where you can learn about the wonderful world of honey bees and beekeeping. It truly is the most enjoyable and fascinating hobby, and one in which you are always learning something new, even if you’ve been a beekeeper for years.

 

Each year Dunfermline and West Fife Beekeepers Association run an Introduction to Bees and Beekeeping course. The courses are run by experienced beekeepers and cover all aspects of beekeeping. This is an excellent way to learn about beekeeping and meet others who share your interest. The course includes lectures and practical sessions from January through to April as well as outdoor apiary demonstrations throughout the Summer. The classes include:

 

• Lifecycle of the Honey Bee 

• Keeping bees healthy

• Equipment, beehives and tools

• Choosing an Apiary site

• Making frames and beehive parts

• Spring and Summer management of honeybee colonies

• Why bees swarm and practical ways of managing this

• Stings and how to deal with them

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No prior beekeeping knowledge is required. Beginners are encouraged not to invest in any equipment until completing the course. Protective suits will be provided at the hands on demonstrations. If you think you’d like to become a beekeeper yourself (a decision only to be made once you’ve completed the beginner course, handled bees yourself at the demonstrations and know you are comfortable with the thousands of bees in a hive) we can provide you with a nucleus of our local bees. This is a small colony of bees with a new queen which you can help build up so that it is strong enough to survive the winter. Starting out can be expensive, so avoid buying any equipment until you’re sure beekeeping is for you.

 

There was a time when a beekeeper simply put a hive at the bottom of his/her garden and left it there, but this was before varroa arrived from Europe. Now a beekeeper needs to inspect weekly from May – July to check for signs the colony is thinking of swarming, and less often but still regularly to check the colony is building up well, has enough space, is disease free and has enough food to survive.

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​Unlike our native bumble bees, honey bees are not in decline. If you decide that beekeeping is not for you, you will have learned a lot about the fascinating world of bees and the important job you can do in supporting our native bumble bees, providing sources of pollen and nectar and safe places to nest.

 

Please don't order bees from the internet – you need local bees adapted perfectly to Fife’s climate, and you certainly don't want to bring in foreign strains of honey bee which will mate with local bees and produce bad-tempered bees, and possibly bring in serious diseases and pests such as the Small Hive Beetle.

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