Davewiththebees Courses
I am a qualified trainer having gained a 7302 certificate for Adult Education in 2005. I taught in my local division of BBKA for several years where circa 24 students attend 8 weekly evening sessions.
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I offer 'In Person' course for beginners; Two day intensive courses during the spring -- summer season Each course comes with an invitation to join a WhatsApp group with your fellow students and instructor(s) to allow for post-course Q&A and continued chat on the groups progress, challenges and successes. Ongoing support is all part of the service!
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I have been running my two-day intensive courses since 2014 and have built a fair reputation in that time. Please have a look at my video testimonials, there's a button at the head of the home page, and there are also written testimonials both on this site and the more recent addition of google reviews.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Intensive Beekeeping Course for Beginners
These are 2 day introduction courses for novice beekeepers. This intensive course will provide you with a broad base of information on the many aspects of keeping bees and crucially you will learn the hands-on skills of hive manipulation as this is a spring/summer course with much of the learn on live hives. We use every second of this course and limit the intake to ensure a good tutor/student ratio to maximise your learning. These courses run on Thursday/Friday or Saturday/Sunday.
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You will leave this course with sufficient knowledge, and the all important handling confidence to commence keeping your own bees. Details of trusted suppliers of kit, and nucs of bees to start you on your journey are all provided for you. And then there's a WhatsApp group where you can seek ongoing advice and communicate with your fellow students on trials, tribulations or just to chat, all part of the package.
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Have a look to see what previous students had to say about this course
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Very few 2025 dates remaining.
2025 dates; Thur+Fri Sat+Sun
June 26-27
July 3-4 12-13, 17-18, 19-20, 24-25, 26-27
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The dates in green are confirmed, those in black are all proposed dates and are subject to confirmation once sufficient students have joined, red is course full. Place your reservation early, if you leave it until the course goes green you may miss out as there will be limited space at that point. If none of the dates are suitable for you, please mail in with your preferred dates. We will list them here and hopefully others will join them.
​Location is Guildford, and this course includes lunch both days and limitless coffee, tea, etc.
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Cost £285.00 per person
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Practical Hive Manipulation Sessions
These sessions are available to students recently completing the two day Introduction course. Quite often students leave feeling confident about handling bees, but any time lapse between the course and their purchase of bees may call for a little more supervised hive manipulation. This is all about building your confidence back up. Some can manage with a couple of hours, some four, others more. I simply offer one hour Saturday sessions which are available approx early May through to August, and you govern your own spend to suit your confidence need. Max 2 students per session
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Cost £18.00 per person
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Course & Meet the Bee Event Booking Terms & Conditions
​​Standard booking Terms and Conditions.
By placing an order you are agreeing with these terms and conditions.
You will not be invoiced until your place is confirmed*.
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Payment must be made in full to validate your booking within 28 days of receipt of the invoice or your booking may be cancelled. This is reduced to payment on receipt of an invoice where a booking in made with less than 28 days prior to course commencement date.
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Refund. In the event that there is need for you to cancel your booking you must give more than 28 days notice in order to receive a refund of your event or course fees. Event and course fees are non-refundable where notice of cancellation is less than 28 days. Course fees are charged for the full course so should you arrive late for, or not be able to attend any part of your course for any reason you will not be able to seek any partial refund.
There may be occasion you are not able to attend your booking and wish to transfer to another advertised date. If capacity on the alternative date is available, your transfer to that date will be made provided notice given is greater than 7 days prior to the commencement of your original booking.
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Postponements. Adverse weather can interrupt winter courses. In the event of adverse weather, we will monitor the weather conditions frequently and if it is apparent that roads may become impassable or high winds are likely to present a risk, you will be notified of closure two hours before the lesson start time via email. If you cannot receive email on your mobile device you should ensure you have informed us and that you have given us of your phone number so we can additionally advise you by SMS. In the event of a closure the course will resume the next week, and so on. Students should factor the risk of over-run when booking holidays etc close to the planned course end date.
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Prize certificates for a course or meet the bee experience obtained via a raffle or tombola carry a zero cash redemption value. It is important to note that prize certificates can be transferred to another person, but the original certificate must be surrendered to claim.
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* 'Open Bookings' and all other purchases made by third parties in relation to Gift Vouchers are subject to a full refund should the chosen course does not run for any reason