BBKA holds old dears to ransom!

[Poly Hive]

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/beekeeping/polyhive/



PH

Link fixed,Admin

 

[roche]

PH, the link doesn't work...

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/beekeepin...ew=true&preview_id=1&preview_nonce=ae57f593c9

PH

 

[Poly Hive]

Hmm does for me. May be a cookie on mine?

PH

The blog....


Hive Sponsorship

I have kicked this off as I had to laugh this morning.

Would you buy a jar of honey for £29-50 plus three sheets of paper and some other bumph?

Well some are.

I have to wonder at the credulity of some and this with the connivance of two respected organisations. I thought SAGA really had more sense but perhaps they are more of a sales organisation these days as having turned the magic 50 corner I checked them out for insurance and was very glad I was sitting down when I saw the quotes.

Sponsor a hive indeed. I was approached by the WI to sponsor a hive. Lovely lady phoned me up and offered said sponsorship. Could they come and visit it? I immediately thought of the cost of a dozen beesuits at £100 a go, and replied umm not really. Effectively end of conversation.

Beekeeping is very much on the up and up at the moment with thousands of people learning their way round the wonderful world of the hive.

Sadly it seems rip off Britain is alive and well too.

Yes there are lots of issues with the bees and they are by no means out of trouble and will not be until a practical cure for the parasite Varroa is found but please please do not waste your money on “Sponsoring a hive”. If you have that kind of cash to spare how about sponsor a child in Kenya instead.

Poly Hive (15 colonies, 25 Nucs, 23 years experience)

 

[Adam]

Let's be clear John, the BBKA does accept £17500 per year for endorsement of pesticides. That is absolute fact, not unfounded accusation.

So why the insinuation it comes in the form of backhanders?


More generally, this thread uses some incredibly emotive language - just look at the title "BBKA holds old dears to ransom".

If people want to sponsor a hive, why not. Any why shouldn't the BBKA lead that out. If it didn't raise revenue why would they bother? There is no ransom about it. Really, if you are all such pro-active beekeepers why do you have to spend so much time pouring scorn on other organisations. The constant derogatory comments do nothing to promote your forum. The people in life who spend the most time attacking others are normally the ones that have a weaker position. Why can't you simply acknowledge the BBKA is the larger organisation. Nobody here cares. No doubt nobody at the BBKA cares either. I often wonder how much good could be done if the people who spend/invest so much time attacking something could be diverted to doing something creative or beneficial. E.g. instead of 100 people writing a 10 minute posting attacking the BBKA, they all clubbed together to.... write a good beginners guide.....or did a proper, well referenced summary of some latest research or other.....or provided a photographic step-by-step guide to an artificial swarm. These things are positive, and you would be providing a service the BBKA has yet to offer.

I'm struggling to work out what everybody is so upset about.

We, as a club, offer a "sponsor a hive" opportunity. In fact if you type that exact term into google, we are the #1 hit, well above the BBKA. In exchange for purchase of a hive, you can come and see it, get some honey from it, you get your name engraved into a plate which is attached to it. Every opportunity for sponsorship is different.

Adam

 

[BKF Admin]

It must be raining all over the uk today

 

[Queens59]

 

[hoomin_erra]

It's sunny in Edinburgh.

 

[Poly Hive]

I think and have said that £29 is a rip off.

Mind you SAGA are a rip off too so they are well met.

so is my Individual membership.

I get fed up with being and seeing ripoffs in the UK.

Yes it is raining but I cannot touch the hives by reason of queens in mid intro.

PH

 

[Queens59]

I must admit as a newbee I thought the BKA was 'the way to do it' - having said that...my £39.50 got me precisely 1 sheet of A4 paper...imagine buying a ream!!

 

[Hivemaker.]

If they can find enough people(idiots) to sponsor a hive in return for next to nothing,which they obviously can,then best of luck to em....nobody being forced to pay is there.....gun to there head type of threats.

 

[Poly Hive]

Us "oldies" which are SAGA'S client group are supposed to be vulnerable and need protection which is why I suppose a certain outfit over charges for insurance whilst taking the moral high ground of looking after the old dears.

My behind they are.

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

I cant say anything bad today about the BBKA.

Because I am a 2010/2011 member !!

I never asked to be a member or paid for the priviledge.
That nice Mr Ripley just sent me through the registration card with a nice welcome letter..

 

[Hivemaker.]

Admin.......did it come in a fat brown envelope.....lol.

 

[Brosville]

"I'm struggling to work out what everybody is so upset about"

let me explain gently, and I hope, succinctly..... any "independent" organisation which accepts funding from a commercial body of any sort has to be incredibly careful lest they lay themselves open to accusations of favouritism, or that their independence has been "bought" in some way.
Certain of the BBKA took it upon themselves to accept funding from pesticide companies in return for allowing them to brand some of their products as "bee friendly" - sadly they didn't think that the vast majority of members should even know about it, and it wasn't until an eagle-eyed member started asking awkward questions that it was brought into the light....... since that time the organisation has received a lot of flak over the fact the deal was done, the way in which it was done, the way in which it was hushed up (by censoring forums etc), and several people left or refused to join the association as a result........
Hence it is entirely reasonable that any further fundraising efforts by such an association will be viewed with a jaundiced eye by some of us who wouldn't go near it until it's been reconstituted...........
I'm "old school" (very old, circa the middle ages) and still do things "on principle", and when offered the choice of membership of my local association which included membership of the BBKA (with no option not to be), I told them to swivel on it.......... as I will not have my name or support counted for such an organisation.

Me? - I've just given the first of a series of talks locally (for which I neither accepted nor sought any payment) on what's becoming known as "Natural Beekeeping", have put up a forum to act as a free meeting point for those in Sussex interested in going that route, and wouldn't dream of accepting funding/sponsorship from any company, negativity where it's due, but balanced with the positive side......

 

[Rosti]

I cant say anything bad today about the BBKA.

Because I am a 2010/2011 member !!

I never asked to be a member or paid for the priviledge.
That nice Mr Ripley just sent me through the registration card with a nice welcome letter..

Blimey! Mark my words, before you know what is happening Finman will have his peerage!

 

[birchdale]

Same old, same old comments!

Get a grip, ALL companies want our ££ and have numerous strategies to prise those hard earned pennies from us.
It is everyones own decision whether to spend money.

Give the BBKA a break or get out a bit more.

 

[taff..]

just for context Brosville, how long have you been beekeeping? and for how long were you a member of the BBKA?

 

[roche]

Same old, same old comments!

Get a grip, ALL companies want our ££ and have numerous strategies to prise those hard earned pennies from us.
It is everyones own decision whether to spend money.

Give the BBKA a break or get out a bit more.

The BBKA is a charity, not a company. I expect it to behave in an ethical manner, and in accordance with its constitution, neither of which it is. I don't see why that sort of behaviour deserves a break.

 

[keithgrimes]

One thing that seems to have been missed is that the BBKA website specifically states that the Adopt a Hive scheme is to raise money for honey bee research and education. I suppose they're lying about that too Brosville?

 

[Brosville]

I have never been a member of the BBKA, nor of the BNP, the TonTon Macoute the Brownies or the provisional wing of the WI..........
As for "time" - how long precisely would YOU deem necessary to read up and investigate an organisation that is asking for your support/money?
(I've deliberately sidestepped the transparently silly question that is designed to belittle my ability/reasoning to decide not to be 100% in support of an organisation that has behaved in a scurrilous manner)
As for studying/keeping bees, around 3 years, sufficient time to have taken a degree in the subject, and around 35 months longer than anyone with a modicum of intelligence needs to smell a rat! (I also learn VERY fast!)

"honey bee research" - all depends what you mean by that - if it's totally unbiased research into the problems of bees, I have no problems, sadly much research in recent years that has anything to do with a certain association has deliberately and markedly avoided even the possibility that pesticides could have the slightest thing to do with it............... (obviously no connection with any sponsorship deals........)