Beekeeping Workshop with Dancing Bees - 2nd August 10am-12 30pm

We are excited to welcome Steve from Estelle Hives who will be hosting Beekeeping workshops here at Falconhurst. Steve is the mastermind behind The Dancing Bees honey, whose hives can be found in apiaries here on the Falconhurst Estate as well as other locations across Kent, Sussex and Surrey.

As well as honey, Steve produces beeswax products from candles to lip balms, and raises his own colonies of varroa resistant bees that don't require miticide treatment for the varroa mite. He's passionate about native and locally-adapted bees that are resistant to varroa, believing this is the sustainable way forward for UK beekeeping.

About the day: So you are thinking about becoming a beekeeper, have just started beekeeping and want to know more, or just want to learn more about honey bees? This is the perfect experience day for you. Steve will talk about the importance of honey bees and their place among UK pollinators, show you the kit that beekeepers use to manage colonies, run through a beekeeping year and the lifecycle of honey bees, talk about honey and its extraction, before heading down to the hives here at Falconhurst to take a look inside. You'll see how the hive works and hopefully meet the queen! Steve will also run through some of the key considerations of becoming a beekeeper and some of the early problem you might encounter and how to solve them.

It's a fully interactive day, and while we will provide bee suits for the hive visit, we'd ask you to bring along a pair of clean marigold or latex gloves and some clean boots.