Matt taught 6 practical sessions to beekeeping students over the summer. These sessions were the second phase of the beginner course run by Harrogate and Ripon Beekeepers Association. After learning the theory in phase one, students head outside to put their knowledge to the test!
You can read about the theory lessons in ‘Matt the teacher: classroom edition‘.
The practical sessions were held at HRBKA’s apiary in Harlow Carr. It’s a relatively new beekeeping site that opened on World Bee Day 2022 and it’s the result of a mutually beneficial collaboration between HRBKA and the Royal Horticultural Society. If you’re curious, read this short news article about the grand opening and Betsy the Bee!
Matt’s role as teacher was to guide 2 students through hive inspections and make sure they know what to do when they have to take care of their own colonies! This means being able to recognise various things around the hive:
- queen status
- brood of all stages
- level of food stores
- space available for the colony
- signs of disease
The students were also taught about the all-important skill of keeping accurate records of every inspection.
When demonstrating a disease inspection, Matt noticed that a few colonies were struggling. He found evidence of:
Sacbrood
This is a common virus that initially infects adult bees and is transmitted to larvae either from nurse bees who are feeding them or from the queen who is laying contaminated eggs. In adults, the virus is asymptomatic. In larvae, it kills. Death occurs because the larva cannot shed their skin to progress to the next life stage and instead their body fills up with fluid.
Chalkbrood
This common virus most frequently occurs in relatively cold and wet springs and autumns. Again, it is fatal to larvae rather than adult bees. Once the larva is infected, fungal spores spread throughout their body until the baby bee dies. When larvae are killed this way, their dead bodies look like miniature sticks of chalk.
Matt did two things. First, he took the opportunity to discuss with his students the problems these bees were facing and how beekeepers can intervene to help them. Second, he became the temporary apiary manager for Harrogate and Ripon Beekeepers Association! Read more about this in Matt’s Diary: July 2025.
Seeing the bees in distress was a cause for worry, but he also had a cause for relief by the end of the course: the beginners made it through all 6 sessions with only a couple of stings and no one went into anaphylactic shock! Dealing with that was one fear Matt did not want to confront.
Ironically, one of the students who got stung was wearing “bee-proof gloves”. Don’t trust every marketing claim you read! Not only did these gloves fail to protect the wearer against bee stings, but they were also black. Dark colours are perceived as threats by bees, so you’re much more likely to provoke the bees into stinging you! Beekeepers should always wear light and bright colours.
The 6 sessions were a success. Matt was able to watch his students grow in confidence as the course progressed and, even by the halfway mark, the students had noticeably improved when handling the bees. Matt was so proud!
He won’t be seeing the beginners again until the new year. It’s a long wait, but that just means they’ll have plenty of time to amass exciting stories to tell Matt about their journey with their own bees.
