Who are we?
Introducing the Teachers on your Beekeeping Course:
Hi. My name is Mark Prichard and my wife, Kym Prichard, and I have been running Beekeeping Courses together since 2009.
I have been keeping bees on and off since 1979.
I have a Masters Degree in Education.
I have taught Beekeeping on Adult Education courses at Cumbria University.
We have a fluctuating number of hives, depending on the weather and other acts of God - but at present I have about 20.
I am on the Committee of the Hexham Beekeepers Association and produce their quarterly Newsletter, The Honey Press for them.
We also give advice to farmers on how to make their land more "Bee Friendly."
We enjoy the constant challenge beekeeping gives us and we hope we can transmit that to others.
For generic questions on beekeeping ask us a question here. For Further information and more photos, see Beekeeping Courses North's Facebook page.
My name is Kym Prichard. Mark and I run these beekeeping courses together.
I have been keeping bees for the last 8 years and I have experience teaching in various scenarios too. I am on the committee of the Hexham Beekeepers Assn and with Mark produce our newsletter, 'The Honey Press'. I have got a degree in molecular biology and a Post Graduate degree from the University of Adelaide, Australia in Environmental Studies. I have developed and adapted all my knowledge in this field of work to be in a position to advise farmers and landowners on how to make their land more bee-friendly, or "Bee Supportive". Our consultancy agency is working to help to return the countryside to what it was before the sad side effects of intensive farming, monoculture, the indiscriminate use of herbicides and pesticides and so on. These actions have changed the land and our landscape which we love. Our ultimate aim is to bring back bee forage, see the flower-bearing trees and wildflowers return and in the numbers they once enjoyed, and of course to see the return of the feral bee (which is all but extinct), and to give it a new lease of life! We do this by giving advice on the selection of trees, bushes, hedges and wildflowers to be planted, where and how to do so and thus to strategically, create forage for honey bees from early spring to late autumn.