INTRODUCTION TO BEES NOT BEEKEEPING

I am very careful about leaving bad reviews however in this case I felt it right that others be forewarned. My husband and I attended a full day urban beekeeping course. The course was pricey but promised to teach us all we needed to know to get us started with our own hive - we decided to go for it. Unfortunately from the very start organisation was lacking and our day proceeded to go downhill:

- we were given incorrect instructions on where to meet, resulting in 30 minutes wasted.

- there was no projector (the instructors son had borrowed it) meaning the whole class spent the morning trying to view a tiny laptop screen.

- a full morning was spent on very basic honeybee information, all of which I could easily have found via Google. The instructors knowledge was shaky, the two instructors contradicted each other on important points and were unable to answer direct questions regarding methods to increase yield and other important subjects.

- lunch was delicious however after lunch and now half way through our day we expected to finally get to the practical stuff - and hopefully see some bees! Instead we remained in the classroom where one of the instructors spent well over an hour speaking about subjects with absolutely no relation to our competency in urban beekeeping. It was simply an hour listening to self indulgent ramblings and jokes.

- we spent around an hour of the day actually at the hives. This course is not cheap and even more importantly we resented our time being wasted - beekeeping and the protection of honeybees is so important and a course like this will likely do more harm than good. We certainly did not leave with much more knowledge than before and would not be in a position to host our own hive without attending another properly hosted course.

We wrote to the instructors twice with the constructive criticism laid out above. It's now been six weeks and we've still not received any type of response despite chasing up. To treat customers like this is both unprofessional and *********. Please save your rand and find another course where the instructors are truly passionate and can guide you down the path to saving our bees. This course will only disappoint.