HONEYBEES are in trouble.

Slimmer and sleeker than their plump, furry cousin the wild bumblebee, itself suffering a devastating population decline, honeybees are less affected by industrial agriculture and pesticides, and more by the spread of parasitic mites.

There are 24 species of bumblebee in this country but only one strain of honeybee - Apis mellifera. These insects, almost wasp-like in appearance, are the kind kept by beekeepers. Their decline has sparked a national resurgence in beekeeping, which is now being practised across the country, from rural communities to the rooftops of London.

For those in Ryedale looking for a doorway into the realm of "apiculture", Ryedale Beekeepers Association (RBKA) run an annual beekeeping for beginners course, which starts this month and runs for six weeks.

The course is self-contained and all-encompassing. It covers everything from bee anatomies and life cycles, to a history of beekeeping, colony management, pests and diseases and practical sessions.

It is run by Dr Rhona Sutherland, 65, who lives with her husband John in Oswaldkirk in the Howardian Hills. She is a retired biology teacher who taught at Pocklington for a few years, and before that in schools in Kenya and Nepal.

"I've kept bees for six years," she says, though she's been a member of the RBKA for a couple of years longer.

"We didn't want to jump right in, as it's a bit daunting. But my uncle kept bees when I was a child, and my granny who I never knew, and her mum kept bees. So there's a tradition of beekeeping."

She was left £500 by a good friend, and bought some second-hand equipment. "We did courses like this, faffed about for two years finding out about them, and then finally gave it a go."

At the foot of her leafy garden, there are now two waist-height, cuboid boxes, comprised of several layers of wooden trays. They are modest dwellings, yet each one houses between 30,000 to 60,000 individual bees.

Bee society is pleasingly structured. There are the drones; they're the males, stingerless wimps whose primary role is to mate with the Queen. Then there are the workers; infertile females who do a wide range of work from foraging to cleaning to protecting the hive. Finally there is the Queen herself, literally the mother of them all.

Interestingly, she imparts her temperament to her extended family. An aggressive Queen will beget an aggressive colony. Rhona says a beekeeper will try to deal with this. When they don't like the bee head of state, beekeepers, in effect, foment a coup. "If you've got a hive that's a bit nasty then you'd generally try and change the Queen in some way, or hope they swarm, because she's always going to have bees with that characteristic.

"Beekeepers aim to get nice, quiet, calm bees, and they do that by choosing the calmest colony and trying to breed from that."

The bees themselves are sophisticated. They use a "waggle dance" to communicate, passing on information about the locations of flowers. They will travel up to three miles to forage. And there seems to be an element of intransigence to these little creatures.

"The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams," wrote Henry David Thoreau. They are, at root, wild animals. "Beekeepers discuss and talk endlessly about what you should do, and what you shouldn't do," says Rhona, "but you just have to see what works. Bees survive despite you." She says there is a colony of feral honeybees living in a nearby church.

How often is she stung? Not so much now. "When I first started I got stung a few times, and once you've been stung, you don't want to get stung again. The quieter and the more organised you are, the less riled they get."

She once inadvertently left her hood unzipped after popping inside to answer the telephone. When she went back out to the bees, six of them got inside the hood and stung her across her face. She is careful not to make the same mistake again - not getting stung seems to be a skill that comes with experience. "Older beekeepers sometimes don't even wear a veil", she says.

Those new to beekeeping should take care, however. Some people have allergies; a bee sting may lead to anaphylactic shock. Some start off fine but get more allergic as they get older.

Beekeeping is more accessible and democratic than one might expect. "Anyone with an interest can join," Rhona says. "You don't need the equipment, you can just go and find out more about bees." It's not even necessary to have your own garden, as the hives can be placed in a variety of places. Some Ryedale beekeepers move their hives onto the moors during the summer. The bees forage on the heather, which creates a distinctive honey. Different flowers produce honeys with different qualities. Rhona produces several jars of homemade honey. A jar of pale, dense honey was made when the bees were foraging in the rape field, she says. A warmer coloured honey was made from wildflowers.

Apiculture results in a number of different products. As well as honey, apiculturists make candles from beeswax. Then there is propolis, a reddish resin that the bees use to reinforce their hives. This has been used in "traditional medicines" for thousands of years.

Parasites remain an issue with beekeepers across the country. "We've all got varroa mite now," Rhona explains. "It was found in Devon in 1992. They suck the blood of the bee pupae." As well as varroa, new dangers lurk on the horizon. Beekeepers are concerned about invasive animals such as Asian hornets and small hive beetles. "Asian hornets are in France," Rhona says. "So they're on the march and they can cause considerable problems. They're nasty things. They patrol outside the hives and kill the bees as they come in."

All this suggests that we need beekeepers now more than ever. Interest in the Beekeepers for Beginners course for this year has been strong, and places are almost full. But the association, which has 56 members, plan to run the same course next year for budding beekeepers. "There's a lot of interest," says Rhona. "People phone up and say, 'I'm not sure I want to keep them but can I come anyway?' The more people who know about bees the better really."

For more information on RBKA, go to ryedalebees.co.uk