A weekend introduction to natural beekeeping
As we enter the 8th year of caring for our honeybees at Embercombe, I am noticing a shift towards even greater attention to putting the bees first.
On these weekend courses, Jessie and I would love to welcome you to the beautiful place that is Embercombe and for you to spend the days immersed in learning about the principles and practices of natural beekeeping whilst going deeper in exploring what role you, as a budding beekeeper, can play in their care.
As well as looking at the principles behind bee first approaches, we will share the basics about bees and their natural life-cycles. If we are to offer the bees full support in their journey back to health and resilience, then it is important to learn as much as we can about them and their care if we intend to keep them. This knowledge is important in being able to make informed decisions in conjunction with the approach to put the bees needs ahead of human wants and needs.
Over the weekend we will spend as much time with the bees as we can whilst still offering a practical, knowledge based teaching. Rather than leave with a dogmatic approach to beekeeping, we hope to support you to make decisions that respect your own level of understanding and knowledge whilst considering what it is that the bees need to thrive. This naturally involves us considering our own relationship with these creatures, with nature and with each other.
We will be sharing our experience with keeping bees in different types of hives – topbars and framed hives. Each type of hive has its own pros and cons and we understand that the box that we keep the bees in is not as important as the attitude we adopt, and the decisions we take, in our approach to beekeeping.
If you would like to join us for one of our beekeeping courses, you can find more details here.