Spring conference

[666bees]

Thinking of going to look at the different equipement available to buy, are the trade stands only there on the Saturday and how good is it.

 

[hedgerow pete]

righty ho, another new bee for the scum,

right the way it works is once the gates have been opened we all stand outside the front doors for two hours putting on our protective equipment, i am going this year in a suit of armour with an electric cattle prod and a mace ball( the metal ones not the smelly one!!)

then they open the doors and we all walk in nice and quietly , where as i will charge forward swinging the chain and ball, stomping ontop of other beeks, throwing small childern and woman behind me as i go, untill i get to my stands to buy stuff, i will then start to cattle prod every one in front of me untill i am at the front of the que in which case i will buy every thing in sight whever or not i need it.

if we do meet up there it will only be by accident as i trample you under foot, love pete

now the jokes over lets see what realy happens.

onn the friday night roughly 30 pallets of SECOND QUALITY frames will be brought into the show area to the stands, i think its roughly £35 for fifty frames but the others who brought last year will say more. and they are sold on a first come first served basis, so everyone piles in grabs what they can dumps it into the back of the car and then everyone calms down again.

now that the frame business is out of the way the show proper starts, why they dont sell the frames off the back of the lorry trailers i never know, as it would stop alot of the agro.

the rest of the stands are brilliant as you can go to the show and see almost every sort of equipment for bees and you can then exaimine it and work out if its what you want to buy, jackets can be tried on before purchasing to make sure they fit properly.

many times i have gone there to buy a certain item and then once seen it thought no thanks, also its great to see other beekeepers and to socialise, bring a flask as the tea and coffee is at rip off prices tho, £1.40 two years ago for a tea.

 

[george]

I am sure Pete meant to type 'scrum' ! He is not name calling ..

The rest of it paints a rosy picture though does'nt it?

And yes , the tea is poor and overpriced .
G

 

[hedgerow pete]

yep sorry i did mean SCRUM, i never ever use swear words even in full rant. ADMIN, when you read this can you re edit it for me so its clean again.

there is one point i forgot to mention and thats whever to use second or first quality frames, me personaly i love and only use firsts for all my brood frames as they get so much use and use seconds when i can in the supers. but if you work it this way as i do!!!!

i only go to the spring SCRUM every two years as it cost £20 to get in, now whilst i am there i make sure that i have enough pocket money ( dont tell the wife, honestly love i only have £30 on me!!!) in that way what i do buy is discounted/delivered free to the show so i collect it without the postage charges so i do at least save the £20 i spent getting in.

but that is because i am so local to it and MUMS cafe/home/toilet stop/house is not far and stoneleigh is part of my old stomping ground so i dont realy allow the costs of the petrol, which i should

 

[Hombre]

I was under the impression that you stewarded the last two years Pete. Might explain how I never saw you there last year, but I was busy.

 

[beebreeder]

If You choose the right year and watch the website there are also some excellent lectures to be had all in the admission price, except microscopy and queen rearing I think, I go based on who is speaking not on who is selling
kev

 

[Poly Hive]

I think that could be rephrased as there are some lectures to be had,......

IF you can figure out how to book one. Bamboozles me.

PH

 

[hedgerow pete]

I offer to steward every year but it is only when they have a use/ lack of staff that you get the job for the day, i only do saturday, also it saves me £20 buying a ticket and it also means that for every hour you only normal work 40 mins of it,

plus you get a free lunch and i am anyones for a free nosh

it is a every other year thing many because apart from frames and wax i do not need to get much else stock. some times i go with a new beekeeper to explain whats in front of them or to show how stuff is designed to work but does not in real life