New Beekeepers Start Here... Beginning in Beekeeping

This beekeeping beginners page has links to various beekeeping organisations and websites as well as a few useful pages to whet the beginner's appetite for what is a wonderful hobby. Although there is a great deal of information about beekeeping within the pages of this website, it probably does not address beginner's questions in an adequate fashion. If you have come here as a 'would be' beekeeper or a 'newbie' beekeeper you may find many of these pages confusing. If this is the case please visit Graham Law's excellent website, which has answers specifically tailored for beginners. When you have a little knowledge 'under your belt' you will be in a better position to understand some of the relatively complicated aspects of bees and beekeeping that some of the pages on this website attempt to address.

The links down the left hand side are organised into groups, each of which deserve a little explanation...

Beginner Resources

Graham and Annie Law have pursued experiments with bees and have done much for beekeeping education. Graham's first FAQ has proved so valuable that it has been copied many times. The second link in this group is to the beekeeping association that Graham, Annie and myself all belong. The Leicestershire and Rutland Beekeepers Association has a long history of involvement in beekeeping education and runs training courses at our 'Brooksby Bee Yard' apiary. The FAQs listed on the 'Bee FAQ Pages' link, cover various aspects of beekeeping.

Regional Associations

Individual beekeeping associations are locally organised, but may also belong to an 'umbrella' regional or national association, The Central Association of Beekeepers is a little different, but falls best into this category. Council of National Beekeeping Associations is a forum incorporating the Beekeeping Organisations of the following Countries... England, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Scotland, Ulster, and Wales. Bee Farmers Association is for those members with more than 40 hives.

Breeding Groups

Those mentioned are all exponents of breeding expertise specialising in the improvement of Apis mellifera mellifera type honey bees.

Large Bee Websites

Are websites similar in scale to this one, all of us strive to provide information on beekeeping methods and techniques that is as 'up to date' as possible.

Resources in this Website

This group was placed here due to various requests during the early days of constructing this website. The assembly of frames and frame wiring pages were included as they are fundamental to successful beekeeping, but are so often done wrongly by beginners and experienced beekeepers alike.