BBKA Forum

British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • It's never too early to start hefting..

  • Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
 #2264  by Chrisbarlow
 08 Mar 2019, 18:12
A quick reminder here about Spring starvations from sunny and apparently warm Scotland

https://theapiarist.org/spring-starvation/

I can totally agree with the bloger as I am in exactly the same position.
 #2272  by MickBBKA
 10 Mar 2019, 01:29
Our bees are munching their way through stores at a massive rate at the moment, but it snowed today.
Its a real challenge for keepers here to get the balance right and the spring flow is hard to judge and easy to miss, then there is no fabled ' main flow ' after June.

I often feel we here in Teesside should be members of the SBA, we have more in common than the southern mantra of the BBKA and it more represents my beekeeping year that is ignored by the BBKA.
I was in Aylesbury 3 weeks ago and it looked like May here.
The BBKA need to reflect a more national view in my opinion.
Newport is 4 1/2 hours south of me. Its about time there was a national meeting in Leeds or York or even Newcastle. Why do we always have to travel ?

Sorry for mixing up threads but it all ties in.

Cheers, Mick.
 #2274  by Jim Norfolk
 10 Mar 2019, 10:29
Mick, Google maps gives:

Teesside to Harper Adams 186 miles; 3 hours and 7 minutes
Chichester West Sussex (where I used to keep bees) to HA 205 miles; 3 hours 22 minutes
North Norfolk coast ( where I now keep bees) to HA 215 miles; 3 hours 53 minutes

Looking at the extremes:

Berwick on Tweed to HA 258 miles ; 4 hours 49 mins
Penzance to HA 302 miles; 4 hours 50 minutes
Pembroke to HA 161 miles; 3 hours 40 minutes
Carlisle to HA 174 miles; 3 hours
Dover to HA 246 miles; 4 hours 31 mins.

That suggests Harper Adams is about in the middle for beekeepers in England and Wales.

Those are the current figures and I accept that in heavy traffic it could take way longer particularly from the north.
 #2276  by AdamD
 10 Mar 2019, 11:08
I checked a couple of small hives yesterday in the wind and they had certainly eaten through stores in recent weeks. I also found one hive that had tipped over in the recent winds - although a muntjac deer is a possibility as there are loads of them about. Luckily the nuc with super was strapped together and they seem to be a bit shaken but otherwise OK - I hope.
 #2296  by Chrisbarlow
 10 Mar 2019, 13:00
I do think moving the BBKA Spring conference around is a good idea . Why not have it in Newcastle one year and Cardiff another.
 #2307  by Jim Norfolk
 11 Mar 2019, 08:39
Mick I doubt it was ever held in the north. The history of the BBKA is that it started in London and expanded outwards as other associations joined. It would be a good idea to move the convention round the country so people who can't make the long journey and wish to make a day trip can attend. I went to the National Honey Show as a day trip when I lived down south. It does mean that some years it would be in Taunton or Exeter giving you folks in the north one hell of a treck to attend. Still I expect those keen enough would make the journey.

To change the venue first persuade your local association to put forward a proposition to the next ADM then get as many associations on board as possible. Good luck.
 #2310  by Patrick
 11 Mar 2019, 14:04
A national meeting in Taunton sounds a great idea Jim, just down the road. Sign me up mate! :D

Harper Adams is further from me than it is from Teeside tbh. Its an interesting analysis.

But I do get Mick's point. Sharing the mileage pain equally between the really committed travellers is not the only point - there is also the potential difference in composition of attendees. Putting something on locally occasionally (wherever it is held) might well encourage normal non-attenders to give it a go that year at least, whereas normally the vast majority of members simply never go to anything. It might also bring it into realistic scope for once for those whom the cost of a long trip and maybe associated accommodation etc is simply not justifiable.
 #2314  by MickBBKA
 11 Mar 2019, 23:47
I attended the Nat honey show 2 years ago and I would never go again in its present location. I did it as a one off. It cost us about £600. That is not acceptable for a national event on a annual basis and to be honest the Great Yorkshire Show was just as good if not better. It needs to travel the nation. Ancient Kings and Queens understood this.