Beginners

Beekeeping for Beginners Course 2027

East Devon Branch of Devon Beekeepers’ Association
Full tuition, practical experience and support to help you get started.

Participants will be taken through the beekeeping fundamentals at our ‘Bee Shed’ at Hunthay near Axminster prior to the active season, which begins in April. Practical tuition under expert guidance will follow, allowing you to apply the theory to live bees.

Experience and instruction in our club apiary will put you in the best position to develop your skills and knowledge.

Included in the fee are:

• Your subscription to Devon Beekeepers’ Association,
• Your subscription to the national organisation, British Beekeepers’ Association.

Further benefits include:

• insurance,
• use of club equipment and facilities,
• attendance at events, talks and advice sessions,
• access to equipment sales when available,
• the club library,
• local newsletters.

We offer the Haynes Beekeeping Manual at a discounted price. Our course is closely linked to this and it’s a good resource for your future beekeeping.

If you would like to be emailed the syllabus (when available), plus a subscription form, please send your details to membership@edbk.co.uk. Places are limited and will be reserved in order of date of application. Your place will then be confirmed upon receipt of your subscription.

Please note: When it comes to the theory part of our Beginners course held in the classroom, we ask that Junior members need to have started secondary school in order to assimilate and understand the material presented.

Please address any concerns about the course to: membership@edbk.co.uk, who will be happy to answer any questions.

The Cake Baking Competition 2026

With each new group of beginners we hold an informal competition to bake a Honey Cake, to be judged as if it were entered into the Baking Section at a local Honey Show.

Baking a Honey Cake provides a challenge, even to experienced cooks, as the inclusion of honey tends to make the cake darken very easily. The cakes should be make as follows:

Ingredients

5 oz /140g butter
6 oz /170g clear honey
4 oz / 110g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
7 oz / 200g self raising flour
1 tablespoon water or milk

Method

• Place butter, sugar, honey and water into a saucepan and heat until the fat has melted, stirring all the time.
• Remove the pan from the heat and allow contents to cool to blood temperature.
• Gradually beat in the eggs.
• Add sieved flour and mix until smooth. Do not over-mix.
• Pour the mixture into a greased and lined 7″- 8″ round cake tin (175-200mm) and bake for about 1 hour until risen and firm to the touch. As a guide, oven temperature 350°F/Mark 4/180°C.

Tips

Stick to the schedule. Ignore the temptation to spice it up with raisins, icing, ginger or whatever.

Honey browns quicker than sugar. Useful for browning, say chicken wings but, it can soon appear dark-verging-on-burnt.

Honey contains water, typically c. 17-18%, so be cautious about making the mixture too wet.

Honey cooks quite slowly, so try to make sure it is cooked through, but not dry or burnt. You cannot take out a section to see. The Judges will do that.

Cracking is not fatal. Taste and aroma outweigh minor cracks, but a ‘smiling’ cake will lose to a perfect top if other factors are equal.

A honey cake should taste and smell of honey. A stronger flavoured honey (usually that means a darker honey) imparts more ‘kick’ to the cake than a light honey, but some can be a bit too strong when cooked. Heather imparts a good, strong flavour, but is not easy to find outside heather areas and is quite expensive. You may use any honey and make as many trial cakes as you wish.

We are not responsible for your figure!

And the winners are…

Thanks to our Honey Judges Wendy and Helen. It’s a tough job, having to taste all those cakes!