Beekeeper
Beekeepers manage colonies of honeybees kept in hives to produce honey, beeswax and royal jelly.
Working Hours
37–42
hours per week
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
Skills needed
- 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
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
How to get into this role
You can get into this job through:
- a college course
- starting as a hobby and learning on the job
Career progression
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.