WBKA Basic Assessment certificate
Are you serious about bees and beekeeping?
Have you completed an Introduction to Beekeeping course?
Have you kept bees for at least a couple of years, attended beekeeping talks and apiary sessions, and read widely on beekeeping?
If so, you should consider taking the Welsh Beekeepers’ Association Basic Assessment.
Click here for details and application form.
We can arrange pre-assessment informal apiary sessions at the BeesWales Apiary near Tal y Cafn, where candidates can compare and share their beekeeping methods.
Basic Assessments are done in June or July. Conwy BK candidates are assessed by an assessor from another BKA, at BeesWales Apiary or at Anglesey BKA Apiary. Contact us for directions.
The Basic Assessment consists of…
- Making up a deep British Standard frame of foundation, supplied by the candidate. Bring your own tools. We will provide a bench.
- 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.
- 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 should provide their own clean protective clothing and their own smoker, hive tool, uncapping fork etc, and a honey jar and lid for a sample of bees.
Bring a bucket and lid for bits of brace comb (labelled Wax) and one for smoker fuel and a good toolbox, not an old plastic carrier bag. Valuable points are at stake here!
Useful information Mid Bucks BKA Basic Assessment Study Notes.
Password is mbbka
Conwy Beekeepers’ members should contact us for support.
Email secretary@conwybeekeepers.org.uk
The next step
You’ve passed the Basic, you’ve had a few more years with the bees, you are passionate about beekeeping, you love talking about your bees to anyone who will listen, and you are at risk of becoming obsessive.
Now is the time to tackle the BBKA Modules!
See https://wbka.com/2022/01/06/bbka-module-exams/
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.
Useful information
- Mid Bucks BKA study notes Well recommended. Password is mbbka
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 members to take advantage of any opportunity to increase their beekeeping experience and know-how, by attending short courses, beekeeping conventions and talks, instructing at our apiary meetings, and assessing Basic candidates.
Peter McFadden, Secretary, Conwy Beekeepers.
Updated June 2025