BBKA Basic Assessment
“You Look Nervous”
I took the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) Basic Assessment in July. It was tougher than I had presumed. I wish I had been available to attend the preparation session the weekend before.
Despite some last minute revision the night before, the assessment didn’t start well.
I assumed, wrongly, that there would be a beekeeping suit and gloves for me at the apiary. The assessor handed me a very thin, half-suit, and some nitrile, surgical gloves. He commented “you look nervous”. Too right. I was wearing a very thin, half-suit, some nitrile, surgical gloves and I was about to inspect some bees! My recent experiences of bees was of the aggressive kind and I had only used leather gloves to-date and I preferred a full suit. I gave half-suits to my guest beekeepers!
A Disease Inspection Assessment
I was happy to be able to spot eggs and tell the difference between a drone and a worker bee so I was a bit stunned when he announced we were going to do a “disease inspection” as part of the assessment. Hmmmm. Not my strong point! In fact, a very, very weak point as I had no experience of disease and I learn through experience. I’m not advocating learning through experience as it has it’s downfalls, often ending up with the loss of a colony, and I took his point that I needed to know what these diseases looked like in advance of them occurring.
I struggled through the assessment. I noted the brood was a bit ragged with holes and suggested a foul brood. He pointed out the hive would be in quarantine if it had a foul brood. I spotted some chalk brood – phew. I was shakey on the causes and differences between American and European Foul Brood. I’m not going to embarrass myself further, but it highlighted massive gaps in my inherent knowledge.
I’m not sure if this was the purpose, but I learnt quite a lot during the assessment and have since read more on diseases and committed images and symptoms to memory.
I then spent 15 minutes quizzing him on beekeeping (when to remove supers, varroa treatments, etc.) but was aware that he had someone else to assess after me. He repeated that I had been nervous with the bees. OK – I got it the first time. If I did my assessment today he’d find an even more twitchy beekeeper due to my subsequent experience with Aggressive Bees.
Beekeeping Royalty?
As we were finishing, an older gentleman popped his head round the corner and said “he’s ready, should he come in?”. I was a bit confused. Who was this person who waited in the car? Was it royalty? Lord Berkeley, perhaps? A few minutes later an eight year-old (yes eight, not eighty), fully-kitted beekeeper popped his head round the corner. He didn’t look at all nervous. If not bee royalty, he is already probably already more of a beeman than me!
Did I Pass?
It took about 5 weeks to get the result ……….. I passed. Phew.
Read More
- Post: Aggressive Bees
- External link to BBKA Basic Assessment
- Key material to swot up on: How-To Guides (includes pages on disease)
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Well done, dude!
Well done.