Earlier this year I enrolled on a beginners' beekeeping course with the Leeds Beekeepers' Association (LBKA) and took the 6 week course in May/June.

I was pleased when instead of starting off in a classroom and learning the 'life of the honey bee' the first thing we did on the first Wednesday evening was get into beekeeping clothing and watch our tutor open a hive for inspection.

In fact the (one evening a week) course was almost entirely practical and only on one rainy Wednesday did we sit and learn about bees from handouts and DEFRA publications.

I would highly recommend anyone thinking of keeping bees to do a short practical course like this first. For a start you find out immediately whether standing in your hat and veil with hundreds of bees flying round you is something you're comfortable with. Second, if you get stung (and yes eventually you will and yes I did!) you find out whether you're allergic. This may be a drastic way to discover it if you are though! Third, you very quickly get a feel for what the beekeeper actually DOES as opposed to learning the (admittedly interesting) facts about the life of bees and how a colony operates. There's time for all that later when you understand the basics in my opinion.

At the end of the course, the LBKA had nucleus colonies available for beginners to buy. One of the great things about how they run this course is that they let you keep your bees at the Temple Newsam apiary until you are confident in what you are doing and want to take them home. The apiary (and the invaluable little shop they run) is open every Wednesday evening in spring and summer and there are plenty of seasoned experienced beekeepers around to help out the newcomers.

The rest of this article covers the basics that I have learnt that may be useful to people thinking of starting beekeeping. If any of the following is incorrect I'm very happy to be corrected. All errors are my own!

The colony is the 'group' of bees which live with a single queen. (There are times when this isn't quite true when the colony is undergoing supersedure from one queen to another).

A colony is made up of a queen bee, some drone bees and thousands of worker bees. Each of these three types looks different and one of the first things you should do is learn how to spot the difference.

The queen bee is larger, with a much larger elongated abdomen. Drones are smaller than the queen and have squared-off more furry abdomens. Workers are the smallest with pointed abdomens.Beekeepers often 'mark' the queen with a dot of paint so she can be spotted easily. Being able to check the queen is still there and laying eggs is one of the most important tasks a beekeeper needs to perform each week and it helps to speed things up if she can be easily found.

The queen lives for around 3-5 years and lays eggs throughout this time. Her other important function is to keep the colony together which she does by emitting pheremones that the other bees in the colony recognise. Drones are created each year but are kicked out of the hive and die as the colony prepares to over-winter each year. The only function drones serve is to mate with queens each spring. Workers do all the work - tending the young, cleaning the hive, collecting pollen and nectar and producing wax, honey and propolis. Each worker lives around 6 weeks. The first 3 weeks they do not fly, performing hive-based tasks. For the second 3 weeks they fly out gathering nectar and pollen.

When a new virigin queen emerges in a colony she must mate with drones within about four weeks. Mating occurs in flight and a queen will mate with multiple drones and gather sperm from all of them. She then stores this sperm for the rest of her life (she will not mate again). When the queen lays eggs she will either lay eggs fertilised with this stored sperm, which develop into worker bees or unfertilised eggs which will develop into drones. Fertilised eggs are laid in the cells within the brood area of the hive. These cells are the smallest of the cells in the brood. Drone cells are larger than worker cells. The queen will recognise that the cell is larger and lay unfertilised eggs here.

New queens are formed from normal fertilised worker eggs that the bees feed more royal jelly to when they recognise a need to make a new queen.

The brood itself (the area where the eggs are laid and bees are raised) forms a spherical or rugby ball shaped area within the hive. Outside of the cells in which eggs are laid, the bees store pollen which is used to feed the brood. Outside of this area they store the nectar which they turn over time (by adding enzymes and by evaporation) into honey. The honey is the bees own food store which they need to see them through winter. If you want to take the honey then you need to make sure they make enough for you and for themselves, or you need to feed them sugar syrup to make up for the honey you take.

The hive is a manmade structure in which a colony of bees live. There are many different types of hive, varying in size and structure but essentially they all consist of a 'brood box' where the queen lays eggs and one or more honey 'supers' - additional boxes on top (or under) the brood box where the bees create and store honey. In between the brood box and the honey supers you put a queen excluder - this is a mesh which the workers can get through but the queen cannot (as she is too large). This ensures that no eggs are laid in the comb in the honey supers, so all you get is honey.

Inside the hive, there are a number of 'frames' hanging vertically. A frame is where the wax honeycomb structure is built in which eggs are laid, pollen is stored and honey is made. Typically a beekeeper will help the bees start off the honeycomb by providing a sheet of wax foundation in the frame. This is a thin sheet of wax imprinted with a honeycomb shape which encourages them to build out a neat comb.

A nucleus colony (or 'nuc') is a start-up colony produced by a beekeeper, with a new laying queen. Typically this would be just a few frames of brood and a few thousand bees. Once you have a nuc you transfer the frames to a full sized hive and add frames each side for the colony to expand into.

To start beekeeping there are a few basic things you'll need besides the hive.

Number one is some beekeeping clothing. This consists of at least a hat and veil but I'd recommend a full bee suit. I wear my full suit with the legs tucked into ordinary wellies. This stops any bees on the ground crawling up inside the legs.

You'll also need some gloves. Lots of seasoned beekeepers don't bother with gloves but I'd say as a beginner you should. You can buy gloves with long gauntlets to wear over your beesuit's sleeves but you could get away with heavy duty Marigolds.

You will need a smoker, smoker fuel, a hive tool and a feeder. The smoker is used to subdue the hive when you inspect it. (Read elsewhere on why smoke subdues them.. something to do with them thinking the hive is in danger of fire so they rush to extract all their honey in preparation for swarming). The hive tool is a simple metal tool which helps you ease the frames off the hive and serves various other useful purposes. The feeder ensures you can supply the bees with sugar syrup feed if they have not made enough honey to see them through the winter (or you have stolen it all!).

Your choice of hive will depend on lots of factors. If you want it to look 'traditional' and don't mind the drawbacks (harder to dismantle and put back together on each weekly inspection) then get a WBC. Most people in England use a National hive. Having the one most people in your vicinity use is a bonus if you need to borrow or transfer frames as different types of hive are different sizes.

Bear in mind also that you will probably very soon need a second hive. A second hive is essential if your colony is about to swarm and you don't really want to have to acquire one in an emergency when half your colony is on the verge of disppearing!

The main task a beekeeper has during the season (usually from April to October but depending on the weather) is to perform a weekly hive inspection. This consists of opening the hive and examining the frames looking for certain conditions.

First you need to check that the queen is still alive and laying eggs. If you can see the queen that's a good start! However sometimes she may be hard to spot (covered up by other bees). Even if you can't see her, the presence of eggs and grubs is a good indication that she was in good health a few days ago.

Second you need to check for signs that the colony may be about to swarm (See swarming below). If queen cells have been constructed (these are oval chambers protruding from the main comb in the brood area) and there are eggs or grubs in them then the colony is preparing to swarm and you need to take action.Sometimes the bees make 'play' queen cells so having just empty queen cells is not a worry. (As long as you check for this every seven days you should be able to prevent and/or manage the swarm. The 'seven days' rule is due to the life cycle of the egg to grub to bee process).

Third you need to check for pests and diseases.The main pest to worry about is the varroa mite. Left unchecked an infestation of varroa can kill your colony although a low level can be lived with. The main diseases to worry about are European Foul Brood (EFB) and Amercian Foul Brood (AFB). Both of these are notifable diseases to the Bee Unit and need to be dealt with immediately.

Swarming is when half of your colony splits off and forms a new colony. You really don't want this to happen (certainly not in an uncontrolled way) as it reduces the strength of your colony and you will get less honey!

The colony might swarm for a number of reasons. If the queen is getting old or if the colony is getting crowded and there is no more room for growth or storage, then a new queen will be formed and the old queen will take half the colony (the flying workers) elsewhere leaving the non-flying workers (i.e. those less than 3 weeks old) with the new queen.

Recognising the signs of an imminent swarm is one of the weekly tasks a beekeeper should perform and managing the swarm will enable you to retain all of your bees.

Techniques for managing a swarming situation are well documented elsewhere. One of the best explanations I've seen is the graphic in the book "Bees at the bottom of the garden' by Alan Campion. (This actually is a great book all round for a beginner - just the right amount of information). As a beginner I would recommend making friends with local beekeepers and getting their help (at least for the first time).

If your colony has built up enough spare honey stores, come the end of the season, you can take the frames in the honey supers and extract the honey. Unless you are wanting to extract whole comb, this is achieved by putting the frames into a centrifrugal extractor. These can be bought but you can also borrow or hire them from your local beekeeping association. The honey comes out of the comb and then the frames and comb can be put back into the hive for re-use.

1. You can move a hive 3 feet or 3 miles but moving it anywhere in between, your bees will return to where the hive was before (and you will lose your flying bees). If you need to move a hive a distance between 3 feet and 3 miles you need to do it in at least two stages i.e. move it more than 3 miles away from where it is and where its going to and then move to its final position, or move it in small 3 feet stages to where it needs to go.

2. The speed at which honey crystallizes depends on the type of nectar the bees have predominantly collected. Rape flower honey sets very quickly and is hard to extract so if you live near farms which grow rape you need to be aware.

3. Honey which has too high a water content will ferment. You need to make sure you extract only the honey from comb which the bees have 'capped' with wax as they will cap it once its reached the correct water content. Honey which ferments in the jar will not taste very nice.