For those of you who have been keeping bees for at least one or two years and are reasonably confident in handling a colony now is the time to consider taking the Basic assessment. This is an oral and practical assessment carried out by an assessor on behalf of the BBKA and held in a local apiary. It confirms that you have reached an appropriate standard. A bit like passing the driving test. If you have done one of Julian’s courses you will have covered most of the knowledge needed for the assessment.

As previously announced in the newsletter, our chairman, Julian Audsley is intending to lead a coaching session for anyone interested to be assessed for the BBKA’s basic beekeeping certificate. We are going to run a number of sessions to cover the syllabus in evenings 7.00 or 7.30. We missed the original suggested dates, so Julian needs to find the most popular dates, starting on either April Wed 10, Thur 11, Fri 12 Tues 15, Wed 16, Thur 17 or Fri 18. If you want to take part please email, to tell us which days you can and cannot do and we will pick a day that most can go on.

You could also prepare for this yourself and download the application form and syllabus from the BBKA web site, which is then signed by one of the committee and sent off with a fee.