Background to Beekeeping: Start with Why!
What you'll learn
- Explain the surprising multiple benefits of beekeeping
- Explain the history and current status of world bees and beekeeping
- Explain the broad approaches to beekeeping
- Encourage you to make your beekeeping unique to your particular skills and interests
- Give an overview of world production and trade in honey
- Decide if beekeeping is something you want to start
- Give the first key step on your journey to becoming a successful beekeeper
Requirements
- You need to be able to use a computer at beginner level to view the course content
- No beekeeping experience necessary - just your interest in bees and beekeeping!
Description
Take this course as one of your first courses in beekeeping and it will set you on the right path for years to come. Beekeeping has very many benefits/potential benefits. Established beekeepers may not even be aware of all the benefits they, their family and community are getting from their beekeeping hobby or enterprise. This course will give you an excellent overview of the history and current state of bees and beekeeping around the world, the honey trade, why you should get into beekeeping, how you can benefit personally from beekeeping and how your local community and the planet will thank you as well. The course will give you the WHY of beekeeping which is essential before you get lost in the detail of the HOW.
Remember reasons always come first and once you understand why you should start beekeeping you will figure out the how. Having a thorough understanding of the WHY of beekeeping is absolutely essential to your success as a beekeeper. The course ends by giving you a key step on the road to learning the HOW of beekeeping appropriate to where you live in the world.
The course will also help you to decide how you want to approach beekeeping in your particular context and how you might bring your own unique skills and interests to beekeeping to make it your very own.
In developing this course I draw on a lifetime of beekeeping experience in Ireland and in Africa.
In addition to other resources and links included with the course there are two free downloadable beekeeping books (PDF format) written by the course creator for your further reference.
The course has been revised and updated for 2021.
Who this course is for:
- Anyone interested in learning about bees and beekeeping
- Anyone interested in having a better understanding of the honey trade
- Anyone interested in understanding the benefits of bees and beekeeping
- Anyone interested in starting a small scale beekeeping enterprise
- Anyone wondering if beekeeping is a good hobby to start
- Existing beekeepers who want to broaden their understanding of beekeeping
Course content
- Preview06:28
- 14:39A little bit about Bees
- 3 questionsIntroduce yourself
- Preview12:49
- 10:22What can we do to help bees?
- 16:08Why keep bees? Part 1
- 22:57Why keep bees? Part 2
- 06:16Case Study: My own beekeeping Journey
- 11:37Broad approaches to beekeeping
- 11:24History of beekeeping
- 10:55The honey trade - an overview
- 14:02Bee stings
Instructor
![Thomas Carroll, PhD](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.3 Instructor Rating
- 538 Reviews
- 13,158 Students
- 5 Courses
I grew up on a farm in the midlands of Ireland and while there I developed a passion for bees and beekeeping at a young age. That passion for bees led me to work on beekeeping development in East Africa for over 20 years. I currently keep bees in both Ireland and Kenya.
Another passion of mine is personal development and psychology and I teach two related courses - one on reinventing yourself and making positive changes to your life and the other on goal setting.
My latest course is on technology and the skills we need to survive and thrive in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
I hold qualifications in business and agriculture, up to PhD level.