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Beekeeper
Apiarist, apiculturist
Beekeepers manage colonies of honeybees kept in hives to produce honey, beeswax and royal jelly.
Average salary (a year)
£0
Starter
£0
Experienced
Typical hours (a week)
37.0 to 42.0 hours
variable
Work Hours
freelance / self-employed
managing your own hours
How to become
Explore the different ways to get into this role
You can get into this job through:a college course; starting as a hobby and learning on the job
College
You could do a college course, which would teach you some of the skills you need to get into beekeeping.
There are short introductory courses for beginners as well as ones that lead to a qualification, like the Level 1 Award in Introduction to Beekeeping.
Entry requirements
There are no set entry requirements for this route.
    Other Routes
    You can keep bees as a hobby and learn how to successfully set up and manage healthy colonies of honeybees.
    You can also join a beekeeping group where you'll learn from experienced beekeepers, and work towards qualifications offered by The British Beekeepers Association.
    More Information
    Further Information
    You can find out more about becoming a beekeeper through The British Beekeepers Association and the National Bee Unit.
    What it takes
    Find out what skills you’ll use in this role
    Skills and knowledge
    You'll need:
      Observation and recording skills
      Knowledge of biology
      The ability to work on your own
      To be thorough and pay attention to detail
      The ability to work well with your hands
      Thinking and reasoning skills
      Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
      The ability to operate and control equipment
    Digital Skills Level
    to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
    What you will do
    Discover the day-to-day tasks you’ll do in this role
    Day to day tasks
    As a beekeeper, you'll
    build, inspect or repair hives, introduce a new colony or look after an existing one, check the health of your bees, treat your hive and bees to fight disease and pests, breed queen bees and set up smaller, starter colonies, collect honey from hives, prepare and bottle honey, market honey and products like beeswax, mentor or train new beekeepers
    Working environment
    You could work on a farm or at a bee yard.
    You may need to wear protective clothing.
    Your working environment may be outdoors in all weathers.
    Career Path & Progression
    Look at progression in this role and similar opportunities
    You could move into training or commercial bee farming and develop more hives over a wider area.
    With qualifications in science, you could work in crop production and pollination research.
    Job profile data provided by The National Careers Service.
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