Vanishing numbers.

[peter genders]

Has anyone else noted the decline in numbers on the forum most ever 1935 today 11.15 49 our local soceities honey show was poor to say the least i know winter is close any reasons or maybe lack of topics.

 

[Amari]

Bit of both.

 

[For want of a better word]

Six of one... half a dozen of the other....???

 

[victor meldrew]

Haaf un hahf!
VM


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[Norfolk]

I was admin on another (non beek) forum funnily enough using V bulletin as well.
There is a hack that some folks do when they start up to pad the membership numbers and max online stats accordingly.
Mainly done to attract advertisers as I understood it.
Maybe something similar was/is in operation at start-up here too.

Not having a dig as it's totally understandable, just stating a fact.

"There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up"

 

[alanf]

Has anyone else noted the decline in numbers on the forum most ever 1935 today 11.15 49 our local soceities honey show was poor to say the least i know winter is close any reasons or maybe lack of topics.

I wouldn't take the "most ever" as meaning real people. Software does not always distinguish between real numbers and probes from automated sources (Google, Archive.org etc). Even if you could count "real people" it would peak when bees are in the news and the discussion here turns up in search results.

As for beekeeper numbers in general, there is evidence of fewer new starters, locally the peak numbers of applications to local associations' beginners' courses was 2 or 3 years ago. Major suppliers report a peak in trade a few years back, although actual numbers are always going to be confidential. There was a survey of ex members in the BBKA News so they are obviously aware of the trend. Although the report concentrated on the self-selecting respondents to a survey and left out an analysis of actual turnover. I read somewhere that the majority of new beekeeping members left after 3 years; that would actually be quite a long time, many organisations have a "churn" that peaks after the first year.

Purely anecdotal, but I do think that those who have taken up beekeeping over recent years have a greater variety of motives than long standing beekeepers. "Helping the bees" probably features. One of the effects of the variety is that showing is further down the list than it might have been in the past. I support the local show but it's really only "to make up the numbers".

 

[Luminos]

Has anyone else noted the decline in numbers on the forum most ever 1935 today 11.15 49 our local soceities honey show was poor to say the least i know winter is close any reasons or maybe lack of topics.

I can't imagine why this would be...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

our local soceities honey show was poor to say the least

Just because John Beynon's mead beat your's to second place!
With the show, I think a lot was down to the fact that we had to postpone for a week. A few did apologise but they had other commitments.

 

[Dishmop]

Fingers too cold to use the smart phone.

 

[peter genders]

Just because John Beynon's mead beat your's to second place!
With the show, I think a lot was down to the fact that we had to postpone for a week. A few did apologise but they had other commitments.

Thats show business emyr well done john the same 2 brews as last year different result to last year same judge and no iam not saying she has had to much to drink in the last year but that is stats for you.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Has anyone else noted the decline in numbers on the forum most ever 1935 today 11.15 49 our local soceities honey show was poor to say the least i know winter is close any reasons or maybe lack of topics.

it gets even lower in January .see this 2011 thread

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8583&highlight=robot

 

[BeeJayBee]

Has anyone else noted the decline in numbers on the forum most ever 1935 today 11.15 49 our local soceities honey show was poor to say the least i know winter is close any reasons or maybe lack of topics.

Most users ever online was 1,935, 6th August 2012 at 12:34 AM
With the record number online at 12:34 AM (half past midnight-ish) it'll have been the search engine bots in their hundreds, happens sometimes with no real reason. Makes a mess of the site stats though!

 

[MuswellMetro]

Most users ever online was 1,935, 6th August 2012 at 12:34 AM
With the record number online at 12:34 AM (half past midnight-ish) it'll have been the search engine bots in their hundreds, happens sometimes with no real reason. Makes a mess of the site stats though!

there was a duplicate mirror image of site, that replicating the forum under another name about that time, assume just phising info

 

[BKF Admin]

That number for most users online was for a search engine reading pages and splitting itself.

The number of forum users is up year on year when you look back at the same day 12 months before.

 

[Dishmop]

Dont forget to take into account that the blocking of IP addresses also stop people being on-line, other than those that a forum is trying to block, as IP addresses are not specific to an idividual user.

 

[Nige.Coll]

beekeeping seems to be in rapid decline in a lot of areas.
most of the people that know i started it as a hobby ask why then think i am mad.(they knew i wasn't right in the head anyway)

too many i have spoken to have no idea what bees do, if they see them in their houses or buzzing around they reach for a spray can.

maybe DEFRA should use some of the 10 million they spent on research into varroa and diseases to help the nations beeks.

research needs to be done but some money spent helping beekeepers in the country would also help the bees as most seem to manage their bees well.
a few thousand pounds would make a huge difference to most beekeeping associations.

beefarmers in this country are at an all time low i read somewhere.
not many want to do it because it isn't a high profit business here.
they offer subsidies to the farming industry but nothing seems to be given to beefarmers . well nothing i can find anyway please correct me if i am wrong.

DEFRA seem to be in a bit of a flap about decline in natural pollinators getting farmers to change their practises and increase the headlands and reinstate hedges etc surely offering some incentive to beekeepers and beefarmers would be a good move to increasing pollinators .

sry if i went a little off topic.

 

[victor meldrew]

My own area has seen a rise in beekeeper numbers ,reflected in the year on year increase of membership in our local branches .
I have witnessed a large increase of Beekeepers /colonies in my immediate area to the point where forage is becoming scarce !
If this is happening country wide (which I believe) then it's no wonder the commercial guys are finding it hard .
If they concentrate on bee breeding they are are only compounding the situation?
Such has been the success of "The Save The Bee" campaign , that London has had to resort to campaigning for increased forage plants to be actively encouraged/planted by local authorities or indeed anyone with a garden ,window box etc to be pro-active!
Declining numbers? Where?
VM


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[steve1958]

Forum Colapse Disorder

 

[Hivemaker.]

My own area has seen a rise in beekeeper numbers ,reflected in the year on year increase of membership in our local branches .
I have witnessed a large increase of Beekeepers /colonies in my immediate area to the point where forage is becoming scarce !
If this is happening country wide (which I believe) then it's no wonder the commercial guys are finding it hard .
If they concentrate on bee breeding they are are only compounding the situation?
Such has been the success of "The Save The Bee" campaign , that London has had to resort to campaigning for increased forage plants to be actively encouraged/planted by local authorities or indeed anyone with a garden ,window box etc to be pro-active!
Declining numbers? Where?
VM
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There has been a big increase in the numbers over the last few years,without doubt, perhaps beekeeping has become just too easy, and the bees, and us, need something new to reduce the numbers(new challenge), varroa did the job for a while, neonics have only helped the increase, maybe increased use of the foliar sprays will help to reduce the numbers a bit, but another kind of natural bee pest may be more effective in reducing the numbers.

 

[Cazza]

My own area has seen a rise in beekeeper numbers ,reflected in the year on year increase of membership in our local branches .
I have witnessed a large increase of Beekeepers /colonies in my immediate area to the point where forage is becoming scarce !
If this is happening country wide (which I believe) then it's no wonder the commercial guys are finding it hard .

Declining numbers? Where?
VM


Not in my neck of the woods. If I meet anyone local who is thinking of "dabbling" in beekeeping I try my best to make them think very hard about what they are thinking of taking on. Then only the keen ones will go any further. Most people seem to only have a romantic notion of lovely fluffy bees down the garden. I'm just starting to feel protective about "my" forage area which has never been the case in the past
Cazza