'don't worry, bee happy' - bobby mcferrin

he two tutors for our introductory course on beekeeping are very friendly and welcoming, and they both know an enormous amount about bees. One is a university lecturer taking a more scientific approach, while the other has more practical experience.

There was something very refreshing about their unpolished style of delivery. They are enthusiastic practitioners rather than slick educators, so they made many mistakes that are rarely seen in these days of OFSTED inspections and quality control: the classroom was too small and poorly laid out, the slide projector was hard to reach in order to focus the images, some slides were wrongly labelled and the lecturer kept referring to topics for which there were no slides.

Yet somehow it didn't seem to matter. We were all fellow enthusisasts at different stages of experience rather than teachers and pupils.

In the afternoon, however, perhaps because we couldn't go to the apiary to see the bees, I became less tolerant. Indeed, some fundamental problems in the course began to emerge. I'd expected to leave the classroom with a simplified (possibly extremely simplified) overview of beekeeping, so that details, complications and exceptions could be added and understood later.

Instead, I left with a long list of questions. If it's best to get hold of a swarm in May, when the bees have the whole of the summer in which to build up a supply of honey, why is the course held in May? Shouldn't it have been a couple of months ago? Perhaps it's because there would have been little to see in the apiary in March. But does that mean that those who are thinking of starting should wait until next May? What do they do until then?

If using the honey is the main reason people start to keep bees, why was nothing said about how that's done? They said that some honey granulates immediately, and some, which has been at too high a temperature, will never granulate. Is that the same as 'set' and 'clear' honey? Neither has anything like what I think of as granules.

Perhaps it will all make sense once I've thought about it, or possibly it will slide into place next Saturday.

Tags: bees | beekeeping | honey | teachers | enthusiasts | questions