Microscopy for Beekeepers

This course is fully booked on this date but you can join the waiting list (by scrollling to the bottom of the page) in case space becomes available or it is run on another date.

Thank you for your interest in this course. There are places still available on the course but unfortunately the accommodation in the Centre is now fully booked. If you would consider attending as a non-resident, staying in a local B&B, please follow to this link for a list of local B&Bs in the Flatford area. If one of the providers has availability for you, please contact us to reserve your place on the course and then confirm with the B&B.

This practical weekend course explores a number of aspects of beekeeping which require the use of low and high power microscope techniques. These include looking at flower morphology in relation to pollination and preparing microscope slides of honey bee exoskeletons and of pollen from flowers, pollen loads and honey.

There will be practice in dissecting the honey bee and looking for evidence of specific diseases and parasites such as Nosema apis and Acarapis woodi.

The course will happily cater for those unaccustomed to using a microscope and is particularly useful for anyone intending to take the microscopy examination of the British Beekeepers' Association.

John Cowan holds the National Diploma in Beekeeping and is a past member of the Examination Board of the British Beekeepers' Association.

He regularly leads two annual weekends at Flatford Mill, possibly the only residential courses of this type in the UK.

‘John very helpful, couldn’t have been better’. Course participant May 2011.

Further Information

This course is now historical and therefore no bookings can be taken.