Philip Chandler

Natural Beekeeping

£95.00
£95.00
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Philip Chandler, author of The Barefoot Beekeeper, introduces you to natural beekeeping — a sustainable, chemical-free approach that focuses on keeping bees for their own sake, with no heavy lifting and no expensive conventional equipment.

Philip shows you how to make everything you need from recycled materials and simple tools, including a top bar hive. You'll learn about the role of bees, the impact of agriculture on bee populations, the lifecycle of honeybees, and how to nurture a healthy colony.

Suitable for all levels — from gardeners curious about attracting bees to experienced beekeepers wanting to adopt more sustainable techniques. Includes 4 on-demand video lessons, lifetime access, downloadable notes, practical beekeeping projects, and a small interactive online classroom.

Philip Chandler, author of 'The Barefoot Beekeeper' introduces you to natural beekeeping, including the theory and practical techniques for a sustainable, organic approach to cultivating Bee bee colonies.

The course focuses on keeping bees for their own sake, rather than simply for the products of their labour. (Although if there is a surplus of honey, we will be pleased to have some for ourselves!)

A revolutionary beekeeping course about sustainable, chemical-free, 'natural' beekeeping, with no heavy lifting. Philip shows you how you can make everything you need, using recycled materials and simple tools.

If you are already a keen gardener, you may have considered the idea of having a beehive or two in your garden, but been put off by the cost and complications of conventional beekeeping equipment. Philip will show you how keeping bees can be much easier than you think, while costing much less than you think, especially if you can do simple woodwork yourself.

You'll learn:

  • about the role of bees and impact of agriculture
  • how to make and use a top bar hive
  • about the lifecycle of honeybees
  • nurturing your bee colony

The course includes:

  • 4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Philip Chandler
  • lifetime access to the videos, notes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical beekeeping projects
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom - chat online to students from around the world and share your creative ideas

Time to complete the natural beekeeping course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 12 hours 20 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lessons: 1 hour 20 minutes in total
  • Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
  • Your planting design projects: at least 2 hours per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson

You'll need:

Philip will teach you how to make a home for your bees using recycled materials and your tool box - you will need some basic woodwork skills.

This course is suitable for all levels - including gardeners interested in attracting bees into their garden and experienced beekeepers looking to learn sustainable beekeeping techniques.

Ready to get started?

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Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.
Lessons

What You’ll Learn

Explore the lessons and topics covered across the course.

Before considering 'keeping' bees, we take a look at their world, their life-cycle and how we can work with them to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship.
We consider the relationship between bees and flowering plants and their importance for pollination. We will also look at the type of beehives recommended for 'natural beekeeping', and consider ways in which you can take sensible precautions when locating hives and handling bees.
We will examine how a top bar beehive works, and how best to use it to supervise bees, while minimizing our interference in their lives. We will also consider how to obtain bees and persuade them to live in the hives we provide them.
Having introduced bees to their new home, we look at hive management and how to provide optimum conditions in which they can thrive, while learning as much as possible about their natural behaviour with a view to improving our understanding of them.
COURSE TUTOR

Philip Chandler

Hello I'm Philip Chandler. My early working life was spent mainly in printing, publishing, marketing and training.

I took up beekeeping at the turn of the century, having campaigned against GM crops for several years and concluding that bees were a lot more important than most people realized.

Conventional beekeeping seemed too mechanistic and bound up in Victorian attitudes towards nature, so I developed my own system based on top bar hives. A year spent working in commercial beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey convinced me that 'natural' beekeeping was the way to go. In 2005 I was awarded Advanced Certification by the National Diploma of Beekeeping Board.

Having further developed my hive and techniques, I wrote The Barefoot Beekeeper in 2007 as a challenge to conventional beekeeping, and to put my case for reform. Since then, around 10,000 people have bought my book and many of them have adopted top bar hives and natural beekeeping methods. Nowadays I spend my time studying, teaching and writing. My aim is to teach others to observe for themselves and to learn from the bees, rather than from me.

Learning about beekeeping from books or distance learning can give us a broad understanding of their nature and behaviour, but of course there is a need to deepen that theoretical knowledge by practical, hands-on bee-handling.

Many local beekeepers' associations provide open sessions for beginners to experience bees at first hand, and may also provide training courses. These tend to focus on the conventional, commercially-derived approach to beekeeping, and while attitudes are beginning to change in some places, you are unlikely to find a great deal of sympathy for top bar hives or natural beekeeping.

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Reviews

What Learners Say

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5.00

“It is extremely beneficial to have feedback on your own understanding of the topics and to have input on the detail required in an answer. Learning with Experts has been a really good experience.”

Bronwyn
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“Outstanding content - I have gone back into the course videos many times and had many hours worth of incredible insight even before doing the assignments, which have forced me to really think about the experts' guidance.”

David
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“The course has given me lots of tips and ideas. It was helpful being able to speak to others in the class about assignments and the feedback from the expert was very inspiring and has given me the confidence to try new things in my own garden.”

Helen
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“I would not hesitate to recommend Learning with Experts for the RHS Level 2 Certificate. They provided thorough, comprehensive study materials alongside each individual video lesson presented by highly regarded experts in the field of horticulture, who are also engaging communicators."

Amanda
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