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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.
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, 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, whilst Gormanston 2000
(A personal View), along with similar documents from subsequent years...
(2001),
(2002),
(2003),
(2004),
(2005),
(2006),
(2007),
(2008),
give my personal accounts and reviews of the events year by year. 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
bienially every "even" year. BIBBA also have a long history of workshop based
education, where they visit various regions and you can get hands on training in Morphometry,
grafting and all sorts of other breeding related subjects. There are lecture streams at the
"Spring Convention" (follow BBKA link) 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, for instance Derbyshire in 2005 and Leicestershire in 2006. Worcestershire is the host County for the Convention in 2007 and has a series of lectures and workshops running from Friday August 31st to Sunday September 2nd. It will be held at the University of Worcester, and 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 is a specialist group that deals with the instrumental insemination of honey bees and also develops insemination methods and equipment. This is known as BIIG (Bee Instrumental Insemination Group) and it has it's own website www.biig.co.uk this group puts on training days and has stands at the Welsh convention, BBKA Spring Convention and the National Honey Show.
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).
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.
