Starting a new Bee Association BBKA advice please

[pargyle]

.

Or do we assume that everyone in the insurance industry is nice and reasonable and applies common sense to their policies (as you would have us believe). OR do they behave as Saga did and look for any loophole to increase the premium until some bad publicity was about to descent on them.

Far from it ... but ... in my experience if you challenge stupidity or something that you think is unreasonable (and persist !) then eventually you will find that they will crumble .. or .. you take your business elsewhere... or you take them to court.

In the eyes of the Taxman a 'business' is something that endeavours to consistently make a profit (it's a bit more complicated than that but condensed into a few words you will get the gist) - you try claiming back losses against tax paid on other income from a 'business' that continually makes a loss every year. You'll soon see what they consider to be a 'business'.

I don't know many beekeepers that actually make an annual profit from their beekeeping .. at best you break even ... most years it's an expensive hobby. So if you are selling honey and simply offsetting it against the costs of keeping your bees then it ain't a 'business'.

If you do make a profit it still doesn't have to be a 'business' .. you can declare the profits on a tax return as additional income and be perfectly legal without having the inconvenience of having a 'business'. Obviously, keeping records is important in this situation ... just simple income and expenditure .. in case the taxman comes looking.

So ... if your insurance company is starting to look at whether your granny, who knits a couple of hats for a neighbour's kids and charges them a couple of quid for making them, is 'running a business' and should have business premises insurance - then they are living in cloud cuckoo land. It's about as daft as them wanting to charge a beekeeper £350 for selling a few jars of honey .. forgive the pun ... it will never stick in the eyes of the law.

I personally think that the point at which beekeeping could become a 'business' is the 40 Hive point - where you can elect to join the Bee Farmers Association, where the BBKA Bee Disease Insurance no longer is valid and where - once your equipment is paid for and if you are organised and efficient with your hive management, travelling costs, marketing and a zillion other things that add to your costs ... you might just make a small profit in a good year. At that point you will almost certainly need a dedicated place within your premises to store equipment, honey and process the products of your hives ... once you have a dedicated area in your home then I could well see how this would constitute using your home as 'business premises' .. more so if you were inviting passing trade to attend and make sales.

I accept that this has never been tested in Court .. but if it ever were (and I really don't think that it would ever get that far !!) I reckon any lawyer would look at that as a good starting point.

But ... as you have pointed out ... and I actually agree with .. you should read the terms of your insurance policy, you should check what you put on the proposal form and as a precaution keep records of your beekeeping sales and expenditure to justify your situation to ANY organisation that seeks to classify your hobby as a business and demand money from you.

As I said earlier ... it's JUST COMMON SENSE .... enough. They are your bees and your home ... that's the last word from me (I can hear the sighs of relief from down here on the Costa del Fareham !!)....

We seem to have digressed far from the original post and for that I apologise for prolonging the saga of SAGA ...

Back to the original OP ...How would you start a Beekeeping Group ?...

Frankly, having served many organisations as committee member and in other positions ... I wouldn't ! It's often a thankless task that falls to a few willing horses who get flogged to death by the people who want all the benefits but will share none of the responsibility or work involved. Jaded moi ??? Never !

Just meet up in a pub for a drink and a chat on a regular basis, have no formal list of members, document nothing, collect no fees, organise nothing, email nobody, write to nobody, phone nobody, commit to nothing, in fact DO NOTHING. Just have a regular place and time which, if people want to attend - they can do - if they don't that's fine. Save yourself a lot of grief ... unless you are a masochist ... ?