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…

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.

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
• Discovering the secret life of bees whilst behind the glass of an Observation Hive
• Recognising the roles and responsibilities of the bee keeper throughout the year
• Making frames for the bees to raise their next generation
• Lunch together
• Harvesting some honey (hopefully)
• Then 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

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.