Hampshire Beekeepers Association Queen Rearing Course 2026

Back by popular demand, learn how to raise your own queen bees like a pro at our queen rearing course.

Welcome to the HBA Queen Rearing Course!

The course is scheduled for two consecutive days, the 16th and 17th of May. It adheres to the curriculum of Sean Stevenson's BBKA course and targets reasonably experienced beekeepers who wish to establish or expand their own or their association's queen rearing.

The number of participants is limited to 20. There are 4 tutors which will enhance the experience of each participant. Whilst all the theory of queen rearing will be covered during the two days it will also have a strong practical element. This is the third year the course has been held and it benefits from the experience gained last year. It is hoped those attending will form a group of Hampshire beekeepers eager to collaborate and exchange their queen rearing experiences through respective apiary visits.

The course will cover;

• Queen and colony selection.
• Queen mating requirements.
• Using cell starter and cell builder colonies.
• Various Queen cell production methods( Miller,Hopkins etc)
• Hands on experience of larval grafting, cell punch techniques and the Nicot system.
• Setting up of Mini mating Nucs and minimizing the problems of this approach.
• Queen introduction strategies.
• Guidance on some of the logistical issues when establishing Queen rearing and nucleus colony production within a club apiary.

Joining instrcutions will be forwarded to all attendees closer the time, this is so the location of apiaries are not advertised on Eventbrite and they remain secure. The course will be close to Fareham.