What does your local Association do that you enjoy?

[Heather]

Brighton & Lewes must be doing something right.. had some come from other Divisions nearby to join us.
We meet fortnightly in Summer. Beginners come to the apiary meetings early and we open hives for them and teach.. before the experts arrive. and we usually finish off the Summer season with a BBQ (no hives opened, but ideas fly around instead)
Meet once a month in Winter and this year had a good talk on mead making one night, where we made own starter demis up, and sampled different varieties of mature meads.
Had a great talk on the many uses of Nucs..Microscopy.. next talk is about forage, flora and how we can help.
Always a travelling library available at these meetings for bee books to be borrowed.

 

[Vortex]

We have different summer and winter schedules.
The last 2 years the summer schedule(April to September) has been the 2nd and last Wednesday of the month - pub meet.
The winter schedule (October to March) is varied, one is AGM and Q&A, Christmas Social and Quiz(not necessarily bee related) and the others are invited guest speakers on various bee related topics.
Mostly in the spring one of our members runs a "Skep talk" a half hour pre-meeting aimed at beginners coving a basic topic, swarm control, comb change etc.
We also have an apiary where we hold a mixture of "Closed" - limited member attendance supervised by a senior bee-keeper and "open" - attendance by anyone including those looking to take up the hobby sessions during the season (April through September).
We're currently in the process of refurbishing a porta-cabin as a teaching/extraction facility.
We also have a newsletter distributed by the secretary and an open invitation for anybody wanting to get involved in running the association to just notify the committee, most of which(including myself) have only been elected in the last couple of years.

 

[Brian Bush]

I attended a meeting of a small group of beekeepers last evening. They are in an area that overlaps two of the Buckinghamshire Associations but are a little out on a limb from both. Most of this group are members of MBBKA or NBBKA. The speaker was this forums very own B+. The 20 odd members were really enthralled by his talk on breeding better bees. Questioning went on for 3/4 hour after the talk. Well done B+ and well done Buckingham and District Beekeepers.

 

[B+.]

I attended a meeting of a small group of beekeepers last evening. They are in an area that overlaps two of the Buckinghamshire Associations but are a little out on a limb from both. Most of this group are members of MBBKA or NBBKA. The speaker was this forums very own B+. The 20 odd members were really enthralled by his talk on breeding better bees. Questioning went on for 3/4 hour after the talk. Well done B+ and well done Buckingham and District Beekeepers.

Thanks Brian
I tried to skim across the top of the subject and not go too deeply into the theory for those who were new to beekeeping so I hope I pitched it right. It was difficult to keep to the alloted time, especially with so many questions. They were a very enthusiastic group!

 

[daroco]

Have you offered your talk to Beds or North Herts? I’d have thought it would go down pretty well

 

[B+.]

Have you offered your talk to Beds or North Herts? I’d have thought it would go down pretty well

Not directly. I was specifically invited by the Buckingham and District group to speak. There were a few Beds members there too though
If you are going to the agm, you may have noticed that I proposed the formation of a breeding group to be discussed at the agm

 

[B+.]

Many thanks to Danbee for his presentation at todays agm (BedsBKA).

 

[Curly green fingers]

At our last meeting Ludlow beeks have 70 hives 6 miles away and are embarking on a breeding program and I have volunteered my service's in fact I'm very excited to learn
More about a hobby that is slowly taking over the gardening.. And growing plants is my life!

Time to get my feet wet this year!

 

[For want of a better word]

The Eden Project BIBBA event last weekend was fantastic... brilliant to meet so many of fellow beekeepers from across the UK and to discuss how the breeding groups, established and setting up for this season alike, are getting ready to breed our native bee at a localised level.
Well done Essex a particularly active bee breeding program and bringing in positive results in a difficult area.

 

[B+.]

At our last meeting Ludlow beeks have 70 hives 6 miles away and are embarking on a breeding program and I have volunteered my service's in fact I'm very excited to learn
More about a hobby that is slowly taking over the gardening.. And growing plants is my life!

Time to get my feet wet this year!

It seems to be the time of year for discussions about breeding activities. My local Association (Bedfordshire) approved my proposal yesterday to form an independent breeding group within our association (https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=619874&postcount=122)
This followed a presentation by Norman Carreck last December and will test, select and propage stock in accordance with the Coloss protocols (http://www.coloss.org/2018/01/17/st...aring-and-selection-of-apis-mellifera-queens/) as recommended by Mr Carreck.

 

[For want of a better word]

See my post today on .. Breeding Groups re Norman Carreck at EDEN

 

[charlievictorbravo]

We've noticed at our CBKA group that the Apiary meetings were attended almost exclusively by inexperienced beekeepers - we were providing nothing for the more experienced member. At the AGM, it was suggested that we might try to use the apiary to teach experienced beekeepers some more interesting techniques.

When asked if they would attend apiary meetings on queen-rearing, two thirds of our members said they were interested in such an initiative. We've sounded out one of our local bee breeders who has accepted the challenge of coming up with a programme for this summer, so we'll see if a show-of-hands translates into apiary attendance.

CVB