Advanced training for beekeepers
Building skills and confidence. Making the transition from novice to competent beekeeper.
Opening horizons and de-mystifying the craft of beekeeping.
Encouraging and developing ‘thinking beekeepers’.
Talks - in person and online
Dan Basterfield regularly gives popular talks and lectures on practical and thought-provoking beekeeping topics. He has spoken across the UK and Ireland, from local association meetings to national and international conferences.
Download our list of 30 different topics, and use our online calendar tool to easily check availability and book the talk you want on your preferred date and time.
Short courses - on hold due to new book
Following the success of Using Apideas, we have been working on another beekeeping book. It will be presented in the same style: a practical manual for an interesting aspect of beekeeping, lots of colour photos and illustrations, and lots tips gained from experience.
To help us complete this new book, we will be spending the busy beekeeping months this season setting up, managing, and photographing multiple specific colony scenarios. Unfortunately this means we won’t be able to run the courses in tandem during 2026, although you can still read the details of the courses we would normally offer here.
As yet we are keeping the title strictly to ourselves, but if you like our courses and talks you’ll enjoy the new book! Join our mailing list to be amongst the first to hear about it when we publish.
Award-winning book - Using Apideas
Queen raising is one of the most rewarding aspects of beekeeping, allowing beekeepers to propagate the desirable characteristics of their best colonies throughout their apiaries. Father and son commercial beekeepers Ken and Dan Basterfield, both holders of the National Diploma in Beekeeping, have been using Apideas to raise their own queens for forty years.
Here they present the tips and techniques that have evolved with their working practices. This book is for anyone who would like to use Apidea (or similar) mini polystyrene mating nucs to produce mated queens. Whether you are thinking of ten or a hundred Apideas, the principles and practices covered here will scale up accordingly.
Available to purchase online as a softback or hardback, from £25.
Awarded a Silver Medal at Apimondia 2023 in Chile.