Definition: Beekeeper Job Description

What are the missions of the Beekeeper? What training courses to follow to exercise this profession? What are his outlets and his salary? The answers are provided to you by this Beekeeper job description.

Beekeeper profession

Honey bee specialist, become a beekeeper cannot be improvised. Find out more about this profession if you are considering retraining as a beekeeper: profession, training, salary, developments.

What is a Beekeeper?

When we think of beekeeping profession, we immediately imagine the breeder specializing in harvesting honey. However, its role does not stop there since it is also in charge of ensuring the survival of bees as well as their development.

Harvesting honey, wax, royal jelly, pollen or propolis is also used to make by-products such as wax, pollen, royal jelly, honey candies, candles, mead, beauty cream, etc.

To do this, he sets up his apiary to optimize the work of his bees and provide them with a healthy habitat. With the excessive use of pesticides and other deadly products for bees, the beekeeper is therefore indispensable for them.

L’beekeeper also takes care of the development of its colonies by monitoring the laying and adjusting the size of its apiary.

Missions of the Beekeeper

• Raise your bees and protect them;
• Place your beehives;
• Maintain beehives and harvesting equipment;
• Make sure the bees have enough food;
• Monitor the health of the colonies;
• Carry out the harvests;
• Treat the collected honey;
• Sell ​​honey and derived products;

Qualities to become a beekeeper

A beekeeper is above all a craftsman and requires a great passion for bees and nature.

This difficult profession requires patience, perseverance and courage to face the hazards.

Getting into this profession also requires a certain investment since the professional must own or rent the space necessary for the installation of his apiaries, equipment suitable for harvesting, bee colonies, beehives.

Furthermore, be a beekeeper cannot be improvised. You have to acquire a lot of knowledge and precise know-how to breed bees in the best way: bee biology, pathologies, natural cycles…

Generally working on his own, he must have significant management and accounting skills to run his business.

Finally, the beekeeper must sell his crops and for that, have a sense of contact and a commercial spirit.

Training to become a beekeeper

For become a beekeeper, no specific diploma is required. Nevertheless, it is a manual trade that takes practice. It is therefore more than advisable to start your career with a training with an experienced beekeeper to acquire the techniques essential for a safe and healthy practice.

But some qualifications are a plus:

• BP REA – farm manager with beekeeping option which is aimed at people over 18 with a baccalaureate level,
• Beekeeper title (registered with the RNCP),
• Bac for CGEA (running and managing the farm)+additional training in beekeeping,
• CS apiculture – Certificate of Specialization (level 4) beekeeping, open since 2017.

Training is provided in CFA (apprenticeship training center) or in CFPPA (vocational training and agricultural promotion center).

Salary of a beekeeper

The beekeeping profession primarily independent, his income varies according to the number of hives, production and sale (the MSA requires a minimum of 400 hives).

In addition, it is a seasonal profession: honey is generally sold from August to February, then comes the season when we devote ourselves to its exploitation.

Salaried beekeepers receive remuneration equivalent to the minimum wage in general.

Where does he practice?

To be able to live on beekeeping profession, it is essential to have a fairly large farm. This is why to obtain an income close to the minimum wage, the MSA requires a minimum of 400 beehives. Alone or in a team, the beekeeper works outdoors if he takes care of the hives or indoors when he is potting or maintaining the equipment.

What are the possible evolutions?

With an increasing consumption of honey, the French are among the biggest consumers. In France, around 8,000 professional and amateur beekeepers share nearly a million beehives. There is no real career development apart from being self-employed.