Beekeeping exams

WBKA Basic Assessment certificate

WBKA Basic Assessment certificate

Are you serious about bees and beekeeping?

Have you completed an Introduction to Beekeeping course?

Have you kept your own bees for a couple of years, attended beekeeping lecture meetings and apiary sessions, and read widely on beekeeping?

If so, why not consider taking the Welsh Beekeepers’ Association Basic Assessment. 

Five members of Conwy BK recently took the Basic Assessment. They all passed with flying colours, including one with only a year’s beekeeping experience. We arranged a pre-assessment informal apiary meeting at our apiary at Tal y Cafn, where candidates compared and shared their beekeeping methods.

We also held a very useful Healthy Bees Awareness Session at Tal y Cafn Apiary for the candidates, with Jonathan Garratt, our local Seasonal Bee Inspector. The Assessments were done by Wally and Jenny Shaw at the Anglesey BKA Apiary.  (We assess Anglesey BKA members at Tal y Cafn). Basic Assessments are done in June or July.

The Basic Assessment consists of…

  1. Making up a deep British Standard frame of foundation, supplied by the candidate.  Bring your own tools.
  2. Opening up a hive of bees, handling combs of bees with confidence, examining and describing a colony of bees, answering questions, and closing the hive.
  3. A question and answer session, covering any aspect of the syllabus.  Most candidates find the Pests and Diseases section the most testing, and this requires serious study.

Candidates are assessed by an experienced member of another BKA. The pass mark is 50%.  Candidates should provide their own clean protective clothing and their own smoker, hive tool, uncapping fork etc, and a suitable container for a sample of bees.
We suggest you bring a container for bits of brace comb, and one for smoker fuel and a good toolbox, not an old plastic carrier bag.  Valuable points are at stake here.

Conwy Beekeepers’ members should contact us for support, if they wish to take the Basic Assessment.   Email secretary@conwybeekeepers.org.uk

The next step

You’ve passed the Basic, you’ve had a few more years with the bees, you’re passionate about beekeeping,  you love talking about your bees to anyone who will listen, and you are at risk of becoming a beekeeping anorak.

Now is the time to tackle the BBKA Modules!

Modules

1 – Honey bee management
2 – Honey bee products and forage
3 – Honey bee Pests, Diseases and Poisoning
5 – Honey bee Biology
6 – Honey bee Behaviour
7 – Selection and Breeding of Honey bees
8 – Honey bee Health, Management and History

Module 4 has been discontinued.

The module exams are 90-minute written exams.  Most candidates start with modules 1 and 2. The pass mark for the modules is 60%.

The Modules can be taken at Rowen Memorial Hall, Conwy Valley LL32 8YA, and at other venues in Wales.   

Dates for ALL MODULES:   
14th November 2020 has been cancelled.
20th March 2021 and 30th November 2021 at 10am.
Closing dates for applications 10th February and 30th September

Useful information

Preparing for the modules

Make no mistake, the modules are a big step up from the Basic. They require commitment and serious study over several years.  Working to a deadline will certainly increase your beekeeping knowledge quickly.  We will put local candidates in touch with each other, and suggest that they form self-help groups, to work through past exam papers and share their knowledge.

We encourage candidates to take advantage of any opportunity to increase their beekeeping experience and know-how, by attending short courses, beekeeping conventions and lecture meetings, helping with instructing at our apiary meetings, and assessing Basic candidates.

One of our members gained a Distinction in Module 5, Honey bee Biology in 2019.

Peter McFadden, Secretary, Conwy BK.
Updated July 2020

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