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Beekeeping Examinations Study Groups Gormanston Summer School |
The Education of Beekeepers
A list of links or information on where more details can be obtained. |
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Agricultural Colleges...
Some agricultural colleges may have their own beekeeping staff, but those that do not may
well have links with local beekeeping associations that will be happy to provide beekeeping
tuition. (In
the past many counties had County Beekeeping Instructors (CBIs) who
gave tuition at agricultural colleges. Some colleges are now
run commercially and seem to be more interested in making money
than delivering good quality tuition. From my own experience this can
lead to poor quality "lecturers" who are often quite inexperienced.
Some of these deliver presentations that are "straight out of the book"
rather than from years of experience and can lead to beekeepers,
especially beginners, being confused. Ask the tutor how long they have
kept bees and how many colonies they have. Personal experience in my
view is worth much more than a few qualifications. Roger Patterson)
BBKA...
The British Beekeepers Association
have a series of examinations that provide a framework for beekeeping knowledge,
however this lacks links to mainstream educational bodies and suffers from a lack
of recognition and credibility as a result.
Gormanston Summer School...
Run by the Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Associations (FIBKA), this can give practical
teaching to beginners and experts alike. A cascading series of qualifications
can be obtained that have academic recognition and backing. The document
Gormanston Aims and Facilities gives more
details. There is a page about
Gormanston on the
GBBG Website. This is a massive event
and has three streams of lectures a several streams of workshops. It has become so
important and so many documents have been written about it, that the Gormanston Summer
School now has it's own index page.
Beekeeping Conferences and Lecture Meetings...
Cambridge Beekeepers One Day Event... A good day out with food for thought and
meeting old acquaintances. BIBBA
run a high quality three day event, sometimes in conjunction with other
organisations. BIBBA also have a long history of workshop based
education, where they visit various regions. The events suit all
abilities and you can get tuition varying from simple things all
beekeepers can do to improve their bees to the more advanced techniques
of Morphometry, grafting and other breeding related subjects. There are
lecture streams at the BBKA Spring Convention and the
National Honey Show.
Midland and South Western is a two and a half day conference (Friday evening to Sunday) This rotates it's venues year by year to the various different counties involved. It is available on a residential or a 'day visitor' basis.
Local Associations...
There are beekeeping associations in most counties and many now have their own websites.
Links to Various Associations (some are
maintained well others may seem a little derelict). More
Association Websites.
Friends or "Mentors"...
One to one tuition will get you learning the fastest, but you have to make sure
that your teacher (who may be willing to do this) also has the knowledge to impart.
The internet...
There are many beekeeping websites available... My aim with this one is to provide a
repository for information that has not been recorded elsewhere or is not very accessible.
Much of the knowledge that is on this website was gained whilst I was the proprietor of
APEX ENTERPRISES during which time I conducted about
12,000 hours of research. Inevitably there are duplications of things that are dealt with
elsewhere and there may be a few mistakes, but in general you will find information that
has been tested and proven (or if it is conjecture, it will have a note indicating so).
There are also internet based discussion groups, the page Newsgroups gives information on many such groups and how to join them.
Information Exposure...
Although this is a website that I have generated... If you have information about bees or
beekeeping, that you think needs publishing...
Email Me!
If I agree that the information needs to reach a wider public, I will produce a page and
slot it into this website (full credit will be given to the originator for both text and images).
Books...
Electronic means are not exhaustive, there is much information that is
still only available as "words on paper". The
Beekeeping Book List that I have produced is
as up to date as any and I will add items from time to time as they are published.
Magazine Articles...
There are various articles written by others and some that I have
written myself that can be accessed at
Beekeeping Articles, If I write an
article for a magazine, that magazine only has rights to 'first publication' and
I will not allow others to apply copyright to articles that I have written.
Anything that I write is copyright free and may be copied and disseminated freely.
There is a program of teaching being developed in Irish schools by Sr. Catherine Duffy. It was hoped that this would be duplicated in USA, but so far this has not happened.
