Sara, a member of the Ealing & District Bee Keeping Association, the London Bee Keepers Association and the British Bee Keeping Association, invites you to join her on her weekly hive inspection in her urban back garden…

See here for our Saturday sessions

You will be welcomed with drinks and home-made honey & oat cookies then introduced to the joys of keeping bees! Our bee keeping began with our first training course at River Cottage in Dorset in May 2009. We’ve had honey bees here at Hen Corner since August 2011 and were delighted to win First Prize for our London Honey at the National Honey Show in October 2012 followed by a silver cup in 2015 and an armful of awards in 2016. More recently, in 2022 we were awarded a coveted Great Taste Award for our Brentford Honey.

We are pleased to bring you this London bee keeping course for beginners.

Our time together will give a good introduction to urban bee keeping. You will learn about the bees, the role of the beekeeper, different types of bee hive (Omlet Beehaus, National, Poly Nuc) and much more.

Our day will include:

Understanding the life cycle of the honey bee and castes of the colony
Join Sara to inspect a hive
Discovering the secret life of bees whilst behind the glass of an Observation Hive
Lunch together
Recognising the roles and responsibilities of the bee keeper throughout the year
Whilst wearing a full smock and veil, each delegate will have the opportunity to inspect a frame of bees at the Beehaus and get a taster of what it would be like to keep bees yourself
Make frames for the bees to raise their next generation / Harvest honey
We finish our time together with a Honey Tasting and all delegates are forwarded The Omlet Guide to Keeping Bees (online version).

If you decide that bee keeping is for you, we recommend that you link up with your local bee keeping association and consider doing the British Bee Keeping Association Basic Assessment Course.

‘The interactive nature of what we were doing made the course all the more memorable and fascinating.’ Natalie B, Heart (Four Counties) Breakfast Show Host.

To find out a bit more about Sara and Hen Corner please see here, and as you prepare for your course you may find some of our short films interesting.

Full Day Bee Keeping - Midweek