Improve Your Beekeeping Skills
Brighton and Lewes Division beekeepers are keen to help our members to improve their knowledge and skills in a number of ways.
Gain knowledge and confidence by taking the BBKA exams. A flow chart of the training process can be found here.
For more details of these or other training and education events see the relevant page and/or contact Jude New, on Buzz (WhatsApp) or Brighton and Lewes Division Facebook page.
There is usually a small charge to cover administration, catering and stationary costs for all courses.
Introduction to beekeeping 2025-26
1. March 14th session 1 - will cover bee biology, how much does a bee see, what is honey, what do bees do in winter.
2. April 25th session 2 – bee diseases what they look like how to manage them what is notifiable and who to notify.
3. May 23rd session 3 - how to keep your bees watching for signs of swarming, how to increase your bees.< br>
4. June 13th session 4 – when to add supers.
5. July 25th session 5 – how to prepare for clearing supers and extraction.
6. August 15 session 6 – what to do after extraction to prepare the colonies for winter (yes winter!)
If you would like some literature to support your beekeeping either buy (or borrow from our Brighton and Lewes Beekeeping Library)
The Haynes Guide to Beekeeping
There are a series of BBKA special news editions
Here BBKA Resources - BBKA can only ship orders to UK residents | British Beekeepers Association
I will send you a programme for beginner session, when you complete this form.
If you any queries please do get in touch with me.
Study group for Honey Bee Health Certificate 2026
To encourage beekeepers who have been awarded the BBKA Basic Certificate and have at least three years of beekeeping experience to improve their understanding and practice of beekeeping.
A new study group for 2026 will start in January 2026. There will be a series of talks which will cover the Honey Bee Health Certificate syllabus followed by a practical work in the apiary, some theory and individual study to prepare for the assessment in the summer of 2026
Provisional dates for the online part of the course and apiary visits:
Online presentations
Jan 26th -apiary hygiene
Feb 23rd – brood diseases including foul brood
March 23rd – Adult bee diseases
April 20th – honeybee nutrition and poisoning
Apiary visits
April 18th - bee disease inspection – sampling for nosema
April 25th - bee disease inspection – awareness of current reporting of disease (foul brood, varroa) how to deal with other pests – mice, wood peckers, hornets using monitoring traps.
19/04 - comb exchange Hove _ shook swarm
26/04 – Grassroots Bailey comb exchange
This is a practical assessment suitable for members who wish to advance beyond their Basic Assessment.
This assessment aims to encourage beekeepers who have achieved the BBKA Basic Certificate and have at least three years of beekeeping experience to improve their understanding of the practice of beekeeping. The candidate will normally be conducted in May, June or July.
The assessment will take place
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- At a suitable apiary, not at the candidate’s apiary
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- Will last about one and a half hours
Candidates will be expected to be
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- Aware of current regulations and other statutory requirements as they affect pests and diseases concerned with beekeeping
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- And how a beekeeper should implement them
Mandatory tasks:
Brood disease inspection. If the queen is found, she should be reserved in a safe place.
The collection of a suitable sample of 30 bees for an adult bee disease inspection
One task from the following list:
Shook swarm as part of varroa control.
Bailey comb change for a weak colony.
Downloads: Syllabus Guidelines for Candidates Reading List
For more details of these or other training and education events please contact Jude New, on Buzz (WhatsApp) or Brighton and Lewes Division Facebook page.
There is usually a small charge to cover administration, catering and stationary costs for all courses.
I am happy for the study group to meet to work on the syllabus for the planned sessions. Registration for assessment with BBKA is not compulsory - the discussion and research will benefit your practice and could extend the lives of colonies you care for (JN, Apiary managers and others to deliver)
Small fee will be charged to cover use of a venue and admin which will include zoom meetings (5 -10 applicants would be enough for the course to run) There is a registration fee payable directly to BBKA if candidates wish to be assessed. Register interest with Jude.
Queen rearing 2026
These sessions will be open to all members of the division. New beekeepers will learn what to do when they find a queen cell in their hive and possibly pick up the skills to prevent a swarm and loosing half the colony and setting back honey production. Experienced beekeepers are welcome to come and share their queen rearing knowledge especially with reference to the rearing of locally adapted bees.
We will be arranging queen rearing at Hove and Grassroots apiary with Adrien at Hove and Jude in Hassocks mid-May, dates will be posted nearer the time and weather dependent. Participants who will be shown how to raise a queen cell in a nuc box, which they will provide with frames of foundation.
If there are any surplus queens raised, they will be available for one of our registered beginner beekeepers, or offered to our members at below market rate, after we have taken the nucs we needed to maintain B+L colonies.
Contact Adrien via Hove apiary WhatsApp to book a place or contact Jude.
Queen Rearing: MILLER METHOD
Look in files on Brighton and Lewes Division FB page or ask and Jude will put one another on WhatsApp for printing.
Basic Assessment 2026
Prepare at your own pace or register interest in joining a study group with Jude.
Any member of Brighton and Lewes who has kept bees for at least two seasons is eligible.
The course aims to provide new beekeepers with a goal which will give them a measure of their achievement in the basic skills and knowledge of the craft.
It is hoped that it will be a springboard from which to launch into the more demanding assessments, provides a nationally recognised certificate and badge and assessed by a BBKA registered Assessor and experienced beekeeper.
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- The candidates must be a full member of the BBKA.
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- To pass the candidates must achieve 50%
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- A credit will be awarded for a total mark of 75% or greater
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- A distinction will be awarded for a total mark of 90% or greater
The course will start in the apiary at the beginning of May 2026 (weather permitting) culminating in an assessment at the apiary in mid-July.
If you have joined the division recently you may have visited one of our apiaries, you may have heard of our Bee Safari or about the extraction day at Westdene in August 2026. You may have begun your beekeeping journey or be thinking of getting your first colony of bees in 2026.
This basic and informative course will start with an Introduction to Bee Keeping day £30.00 for the day
21st February 2026 The day will start at 10.30 am to 4.00 please bring a packed lunch. Hot drinks and home-made cakes and biscuits will be available all day.
You will meet our committee, some in person,
Our responsibilities as beekeepers and
Basics about how and where to keep bees responsibly and with minimum inconvenience to our neighbours.
There will be honey tasting.
Information about Yellow Legged Hornets and their impact on beekeepers and beekeeping.
Some information about beekeeping costs suppliers’ essential equipment and
Some hints and tips about setting up an apiary.
To register for the introduction day follow this link, then I will send you some joining instructions.
Our Beginner beekeeping course will start in March £60.00 per person There will be a mix of teaching time spent in the classroom at The Barn, Barn Rise, Westdene session one is in the afternoon only other sessions start at The Barn and finish at the apiary or vice versa.