Beekeeping mentoring program.

Getting your first nucleus of bees can be very daunting and often new beekeepers find themselves quickly forgetting what they learned initially or simply unable to keep up with the bees themselves, often resulting in frustration, incorrect husbandry and swarming.

Mentoring can often be very beneficial to new beekeepers to support them in the early years of learning about bees and beekeeping practices. Having a supportive friend to discuss worries or challenges with can be reassuring. Ultimately it can influence whether someone continues to keep bees or abandons the craft.

At Herd & Hive we manage over 100+ hives across 7 apiaries and have considerable experience that could prove beneficial to a new or experienced beekeeper.

Our mentoring scheme will include an initial educational session with our demo hive setup, giving a full understanding of how a beehive works and what to expect in your beekeeping journey, followed by a visit to our apiary to provide a working knowledge of multiple hive setups and their varying conditions.

Subjects taught include :-

• Hive setup and kit evaluation
• Colony management
• Swarm prevention techniques
• Honey crop increases
• Colony disease identification and prevention

… and many other elements of your own working beehive

Ongoing direct mentoring is then offered via several group sessions held in Skipton throughout the year in our nursery apiary.. where we invite all prior mentees to come together and we host live beekeeping focusing on specific subjects. Several such events are held throughout the year.

Also included is access to our very own Herd & Hive support groupchat where you and other mentees can discuss anything bee related and gain the collective knowledge of other beekeepers to help troubleshoot your hive challenges, and get responses from our own head beekeeper. 

Note - own equipment required such as suit, smoker etc

New Starters to the program will be grouped together

 £175 per person

A £50 non-refundable deposit online to be paid then we will be in touch to discuss options & remaining payment to be taken. 

Please feel free to call Matthew our head beekeeper on 07719 200933 to discuss any queries.