Beekeeping courses

The Government of British Columbia offers an introductory beekeeping course along with an advanced Bee Master course.

Introduction to Beekeeping

Webinar format

This course is offered for free and is open to anyone. It covers a full range of topics related to bee biology, beekeeping management, disease diagnosis and controls.

The course involves four webinar sessions on consecutive Saturday mornings from 9:00 - 11:30am Pacific time. Prior to each session, registrants will receive an email with suggested reading materials and references. 

If you wish to be notified when course details and registration become available, please submit an email with your name, email address and location to Paul.vanwestendorp@gov.bc.ca or MarieJulie.Hughes@gov.bc.ca.

Bee Master course

The Bee Master course has been postponed indefinitely. When new dates have been set, an announcement will be made.

The Bee Master course was offered every other year in February. This course was intended for beekeepers with extensive experience who wish to learn more about apiculture research and science. Note that this course did not address beekeeping management and was therefore not recommended for beginner beekeepers.

The course was an intense one-week course held at UBC. Lectures were presented daily by invited researchers and speakers from Canada and United States. An optional 3-hour written exam was offered at the end of the course and upon successful completion, a Bee Master Certificate was issued. 

The biennial Bee Master course was first developed and introduced by the provincial Ministry of Agriculture in the mid-1950s, and is the oldest advanced beekeeping course in North America.