countryfile

[Griff]

Completely agree.I spend most of the program saying WHY DON'T THEY STICK TO ONE TOPIC AT A TIME much to my wife's annoyance

 

[Springer]

Exactly what happens in our house Griff, wife gets mad with me and I end up in the kennel ! Does it matter she says?............. "YES".
Still hate Country Mix Up........... File, that is, lol, but in a better mood today, off the workshop.

 

[enrico]

Get good money for pollinating hives on crops. Don't scoff, every bit helps!!!

 

[hallshoney]

Re Bees in decline

I think this is more to do with the official opinion of the bbka to get new beekeepers to start up than what is really happening in the countryside.

 

[oliver90owner]

Bees in decline?

Take all the beekeepers (and their managed colonies) out of the equation and see what you find then. Bees, like an awful lot of our fauna are in decline.

RAB

 

[peteinwilts]

I meant bees are not in decline at all....

Countryfile said it was down over a 20 year period. I have not been into bees for that long, so cannot comment...

However, I know quite a few farmers, or know people who know farmers, and it is programs and snippets like this that have them coming to me asking for me to set up apiary's on their land.... it is becuase of this I have more sites than bees.

Even if the facts are a little distorted, I certainly can't complain.

 

[louiseww]

Very interesting about how SWW "Clean Sweep" to clean up our miles of tourist coastline, has NOT worked, bathing waters are still being polluted with raw sewage, and this is costing us in the SW a small fortune... and is going to do so for many years to come!

Water cost more than runny honey down here, about time the rest of the country chipped in a few £££

Usual crap about bees as well....... Countryfile sucks!

Agree - but the best bit is the weather forecast for the week which is always ten minutes from the end!
Louise

 

[Nopants]

I doint think Bees are indecline. Its more a case of Old time Bee keepers that have been declining and retiring, not moving with the times to combat varoa. Most associations have good numbers now of new beeks coming in to the hobby but less experienced Beekeepers willing to pass on information. I have now joined two associations to enable me to get as much experience and grow with the hobby. I now have 9 colonies and have learnt from mistakes made than from any real mentoring which is still lacking in some areas.

 

[fox403]

agree with rab we have less countryside than we had 20 years ago ponds are drained very little wild flower meadows up in north-east not sure how there could be an increase how many wild colony of bees do we know about very few, maybe a increase in new bee keepers has helped who knows!

 

[RoseCottage]

Actually bees are in decline but there a great number of bee species rather than honey bees. For sure beekeepers are an expanding species but many of the solitary bees are suffering the ever decline of wild habitat.


The other issue is media ignorance...the media show pictures of bombus and talk of honey bees. Confusion from ignorance...leads to cynical beekeepers.

Sam

 

[Chris B]

"Honey bee numbers have halved in the last 20 years"

This is a total distortion of a study done by the University of Reading that measured the number of bees managed by beekeepers between 1985 and 2005. Not surprisingly the number of beekeepers halved and therefore the number of colonies counted halved too.

Are Countryfile deliberately spinning the truth or are they just lazy plagiarists? Either way it doesn't put them in a good light.

Funnily enough BBKA membership reached a low of around 8000 in 2005 and now it's well over 20000 and growing fast. It doesn't take much imagination to see we've probably exceeded the 1985 bee population. "Honeybee numbers have more than doubled" in the last 6 years is not the headline some people want published for some reason.

 

[BobsBees]

1st Hive

As no-one has mentioned it yet I will.
When they took the strip of tape off the entrance of the first hive after they arrived at the site, there was a distinct lack of bees flying!
Unlike when they did the second hive all hell let loose, like I would expect.
If the Beekeeper was in fact a Pro then he did not do his homework before setting up in front of the cameras. I would have been very embarassed to show this on National TV.
Anyone else notice this?
Bob.

 

[VEG]

I have had the same happen when I have moved hives. One hive poured out the other came out slowly both hives were on a par so no reason behind it.

 

[For want of a better word]

Just out of shot was the director with a large pole he had just given the second hive a good thwack with.......... for more impressive action!

 

[Chris B]

I have had the same happen when I have moved hives. One hive poured out the other came out slowly both hives were on a par so no reason behind it.

You can't read too much into it.

 

[Beezer]

"Honey bee numbers have halved in the last 20 years"

Funnily enough BBKA membership reached a low of around 8000 in 2005 and now it's well over 20000 and growing fast. It doesn't take much imagination to see we've probably exceeded the 1985 bee population.

I never hear anybody mention that worthy publication BeeCraft, which seems odd.

 

[psafloyd]

Is it good, then? Still thinking about a sub, but they wouldn't entertain a joint print and online sub (they wantedntwo subs), so I put it on the back burner.

 

[pipewrench36]

Do all "professional" bee farmers treat their girls with the same disregard as the guy on 'Country vile' ? He had a look, said, "yes there's some Varroa damage", and then put it all back. No sugar dusting, checking Varroa count or any thing else. I have come across this situation before.

 

[oliver90owner]

"professional" and sugar dusting

These two items would just simply not go together!

Apart from sugar dusting being a waste of time effort and expense, there would be little they could do in a few minutes TV clip, surely?

I would think that was just a way to advertise the varroa problem to those who still don't seem to expect it in their colonies.

RAB

 

[Headnavigator]

Is it good, then? Still thinking about a sub, but they wouldn't entertain a joint print and online sub (they wantedntwo subs), so I put it on the back burner.

You can get joint print and online for one year (as I did) but not the two-year reduction, however I queried this and they are looking at it.