Bees, Apiculture and Pollination

The course is a 5 week course beginning in early may and consists of lectures with weekly excursions in beekeeping and wild bee identification (catch and release).

Learning outcomes:

• Describe the fundamentals of beekeeping and the management practices associated with keeping honeybees healthy and productive.
• Understand the importance of insect mediated pollination and the importance of bees as beneficial insects involved in food production and ecosystem sustainability.
• Understand the conservation issues concerning wild bees and discuss the different threats facing honeybees compared to wild bees.
• Interpret and communicate scientific literature on topics relating to bees in both a written essay and through an oral presentation.
• Describe the ecological importance of social insects and the various social organization across different groups of bee.
• Understand the genetic relationship between individuals, the sex determination system, and how this affects the evolution of sociality in bees.
• Master the use of keys for species determination of insects and be able to identify bees to family groups and some to the species level.