Talks
Talks for beekeeping groups and events
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. He is available to give talks to your beekeeping group, either in person or online.
The only father and son team to ever have been awarded the National Diploma in Beekeeping (the highest UK qualification), Dan and his father Ken run around 120 colonies commercially together, based at Blackbury Honey Farm in Devon. They set up Advanced Beekeeping Courses in 2020 to offer practical and hands-on tuition for beekeepers with 3-5 years of experience, using the purpose built teaching and laboratory facilities at Blackbury Honey Farm.
Click on the link to the right to download the list of talks, which details 30 different topics.
Arranging a talk
Evening talks are generally from 7:30pm – 9pm on a weekday and can be done in-person or online, e.g. by Zoom, Teams, etc. We offer evening talks outside of the beekeeping season, i.e. September – April. Daytime talks in person (e.g. at a conference or AGM) or online can be booked for morning or afternoon at weekends, and can be reserved year-round.
The reservation system below is linked to our calendar and allows you to directly check and reserve availability for evening or weekend talks. Not only does this save a lot of to-and-fro with emails, but more importantly, emails can get overlooked in the busy beekeeping months of May – July when many requests for talks come in. This online system allows you to make a reservation in our calendar for your chosen topic and emails you and them immediately for confirmation.
You can requestany topic on this list, or if you have a particular topic in mind that is not listed, you can add details and they will discuss this with you. We enjoy putting together new talks around interesting topics, so do not be afraid to ask!
Costs
A daytime or evening talk online (Zoom, Teams, etc.) is £100.
An evening talk in person is £150 plus return mileage from EX24 6JF at 50p/mile.
A daytime event (two talks) in person is £260 plus return mileage from EX24 6JF at 50p/mile.
If your venue for a daytime or evening talk is more than an hour and a half away from Blackbury Honey Farm, we would ask that you arrange accommodation to ease the travelling. Click here to go to Google Maps to check distance from us to your venue.
Online talks
We have been running talks and classes online using various platforms since 2020, and have fast internet connections to provide clear and crisp presentations.
You would set up and host the online meeting, publicise the event, and manage attendees, providing Dan with a link to join. Most evening talks start at 7:30pm; Dan would join just after 7pm to check sound, video, etc.
We ask that talks are not recorded and circulated outside of your beekeeping group.