.

Importation of honeybees from Southern ItalyYou may read or receive information advertising the exportation of honeybee colonies from Southern Italy into the UK. The advertisement makes reference to the fact that the bees will be exported with a health certificate. We have asked the UK authorities what special measures they intend to take to ensure that the bees exported from Italy will not pose a health risk to the UK honeybee population in view of the occurrence of Small Hive Beetle in parts of Southern Italy.

Swarm Collection

Swarm Collection 2015We are preparing for the forthcoming swarm season in a number of

ways, to improve the public experience as well as that of our

beekeeper members.

This year there will be video footage of a swarm on the BBKA

website (www.bbka.org.uk), and prioritising the honeybee over

solitary bees and bumblebees will hopefully eliminate the

extraordinary number of bumblebee calls we receive throughout the

season.

We have requested the swarm collectors and co-ordinators listings

from Area Associations and the deadline is imminent. Please note

that those who are on the list should make themselves familiar with

the Swarm Collectors Protocol and, if so desired, should download

a copy of the Swarm Collectors Disclaimer from the the Insurance

zone of the BBKA website Members' Area.

It is vital that Associations make their Swarm Collector returns by

the deadline to ensure that the database can be loaded in plenty of

time for the season.

BBKA member e-newsletter covering the latest news, initiatives, opportunities, outcomes and policies

View this email in your browser

Spring Convention 2015

As this key event in the BBKA – and indeed beekeeping – calendar

approaches, now is the time to visit the BBKA website to buy your

entry wristbands and book courses, accommodation and meals.

A number of courses are already sold out, particularly the smaller

specialist workshops, but many places are still available. More than

30 lectures are on offer over the three-day event and we welcome

15 new lecturers to the faculty put together by Norman Carreck.

The lectures are open with plenty of capacity, augmented by CCTV

relay to nearby rooms for the RFA and Teaching Block lecture

halls.

Accommodation is plentiful and places are still on offer at the

dinners. Add to this the trade exhibition open on Friday and

Saturday, with all the key traders and bargains to tempt you, the

weekend is set to keep you fully entertained. ‘Buy now while

stocks last’ goes the saying – book your entry tickets now and you

can still enjoy the ‘in advance’ price. Visit the website for details

and to book!

Special Offers

WINE – Last year we partnered with PlanetBee Wines to raise

funds for the BBKA. The Planet Bee Chenin Blanc, a very dry white,

is made by award-winning Christiaan Groenewold and is available

by the glass or bottle at All Bar One and selected Mitchell & Butler

restaurants and bars. For every bottle sold, 50p is donated straight

to the BBKA via the Friends of the Honey Bee fundraising scheme.

We have negotiated a special deal with the distributor Morgenrot for

members to buy this special wine by the case. Ideal as a club buy

for raffles, Harvest Suppers, and great for Christmas presents –

why not buy a case and benefit from the greatly reduced member

price? At just £96 for 12 bottles, including delivery, each bottle is

only £8. To place your order, please complete the order form

available in the Members' Area of the BBKA website

(www.bbka.org.uk).

BULBS FOR BEES – We will be stocking summer flowering

PlanetBee Wines

Wasp Trap

2015 DIARY DATESMarch13: Spray Liason deadline20-22: Edible Garden Show

bulbs this season, and this gives you an opportunity too. Whether

you want flowers for your apiary or for your work with schools or

other community groups, or if you want to generate funds for your

local branch at forthcoming events or for your own garden, the

special bee mixture is perfect. A jute bag of 80 summer flowering

bulbs has a retail price of £14.95; you can order 10 bags for £100

(£10 each), 25 bags for £200 (£8 each) or 50 bags for £300 (£6.25

each). Order by 30th March, all prices subject to delivery charges.

WASP TRAPS – BBKA has exclusivity on the sale of the VASO

Wasp Trap: A simple click on / click off adaptation to turn any 1kg

jar into a simple and sturdy wasp trap for use around your apiary or

garden. We now have these available to you at bulk prices – an

excellent opportunity for associations to buy together and benefit

from preferential rates, or to use within your own apiary and share

with friends.

Opportunities: Sites for Hives

Belectric Solar Ltd have new opportunities for BBKA Member

Associations and Individuals. If you are seeking a new association

apiary for training, queen rearing, or quarantine, or a members’ out

apiary, then a Belectric Solar Farm could be the answer.

 

All solar farms offered by Belectric provide secure sites, long

tenancies (25 years) and are planted to provide a long flowering

time. As a BBKA Corporate member, Belectric is committed to

supporting honeybees and beekeepers; by the end of March 2015

they will have planted in excess of 500 acres of their solar farms for

honeybees:

Landmead Solar Farm: Land at Landmead Farm, East

Hanney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5PA

Turweston Solar Farm: Turweston Airfield, Turweston,

Bucks, NN13 5TD

Atherstone Solar Farm: Grendon House Farm, Atherstone,

Warwickshire, CV9 3DT

Southam Solar Farm: Elms Farm, Plough Lane, Bishop’s

Itchington, Southam, Warwickshire, CV47 1QG

Paddock Wood: Park Farm, Queen Street, Paddock

Wood, Kent, TN12 6NS

28: NE Beekeepers Conference28: EC MeetingApril 3-6: Easter weekend17-19: Spring ConventionMay 9: EC Meeting11: Special ADM Paper distributionJune11-14: Gardener's World Live20: Special ADM, Warks30-5 July: RHS Hampton Court July 22-26: RHS Tatton Park25: EC MeetingAugust31: Bank HolidaySeptember12: BBKA Forum, NBC30: Capitation deadlineOctober25-31: National Honey Week29-31: National Honey ShowNovember14: EC MeetingDecember5: Chairman's Day

HELP -Photo Request: bees with unmarked queen

Can you help Chichester Beekeepers create a buzz for kids, by providing a life-size photo of a frame

Why not take advantage either as an Association or Individual? To

register your interest or request more information, email us at the

BBKA.

LUTTERWORTH - Opportunities for beekeepers are available at

the  Gazeley Lutterworth  site, if you are interested in this please

send an email and a site visit can be arranged.

NATIONAL GRID - Further sites will be available in 2015 on

National Grid Sites and these will be posted on the BBKA

www.pollinationdating.com from April 2015, so keep checking the

site for latest additions and information.

THANK YOUTo everyone who has supported our Corporate Members and Partners through talks, demonstrations, show attendance and school activities. Your support is very much appreciated.Jane Moseley, BBKA General Secretary & Operations Director

Corporate News – 

Fundraising Update

With the SDM taking up the majority of my time in the first

quarter of BBKA's financial year the pressure is on to

achieve in 2015. Here's an update on who is doing what, and

who is new among the BBKA Corporate Members.

BeeGood joined us this year as a corporate member, offering

members a discount on all products bought via their website.

BeeGood was founded by a BBKA member, and made from

100% British hive produce, these are products that you can

affordably enjoy. For the discount code please check out the

Members' Area benefits page.

Gazeley have completed their specially designed apiary at

the Waitrose distribution depot at the Milton Keynes site. I

am pleased to report that North Bucks BKA have visited the

of bees with an unmarked queen? The group wants to do a ‘Where’s Wally?’ style game at fairs and events, so they need a photo that children can identify the unmarked queen in. If you can help, please email Nicky Morris.

JAPANESE BEEKEEPER

If so, Graham Read - Scout leader, and UK Beekeeper, member of BBKA (via Fleet and District Beekeepers Association) would like to make contact with them.  wants to put on a beekeeping display at this Jamboree in July/August in Japan. He has asked whether we have any contacts with beekeepers in Southern Japan. Please email Graham direct.

Hives at Nat Grid site Pentir – photo by Yavuz Akol

site and will be transferring bees there this Spring, so look

out for updates and information on this new scheme.

Long-term relationships have also been built with PlanetBee Wines, which will be available in a further 200 outlets this

Spring. PlanetBee cider will remain available from all

Oddbins branches. The cider is made by Tom Oliver, in

Herefordshire, who scooped Best in Show at the Three

Counties Cider Show. 'It has been bottled specially for

Oddbins. It is a rich, cider made in a traditional style from

fantastic quality fruit producing a cider a great intensity and

depth.'

Be Mighty Fine is a new partner of the BBKA via Friends of

the Honey Bee. As a chocolatier with a difference, Be Mighty

Fine is partnering with BBKA on the sale of the Dipped

Honey Comb, soon to be available via the BBKA Shop, The

Pollen Basket. So why not sweeten up someone's day – or

your own – and give it a whirl? It is truly delicious.

Joules clothing company has partnered with us again for

2015 due to the popularity of their bee wellies in 2014. A

donation of profit from the sale of their specially designed

Bee Wellies comes to the BBKA via Friends of the Honey

Bee. 

We welcome National Grid as a Corporate Member. National

Grid has been offering members secure sites for hives since August

2013, and we are pleased to announce that owing to the success of

this activity the company is now a BBKA Corporate Member. And

because the scheme was introduced so successfully, National Grid

will be releasing more sites throughout 2015. We will share more

information with you soon. In the meantime, if you are interested

in an out apiary and you know of a National Grid site in your area,

please email us with your contact information and the site location.

Suttons Seeds continue to support the BBKA, making a donation

via its Wildlife Sanctuary Seed collection. We thank them for their

continued support.

Belectric Solar Farm

Baratts School Talk

BBKA Literature OrdersAs the busy bee season approaches, so do the demands for beekeepers to attend events, from county shows to local fetes and talks. BBKA literature is always in high demand, and we’re happy to provide it to you with a postage and packing fee. However, like everyone else we need to reduce our costs. To help us to do this we would like to know your order requirements in advance so that we do less reprinting throughout the year. If you order your event literature by 25th March,

Broomley Bees

The project began when a small group of enthusiastic bee keeping

and bee loving parents initially came together to encourage

understanding, participation and ultimately appreciation of the

importance of honeybees. Our initial aim was to give children,

teachers and parents at our local school the chance to get to know

the exciting world of bees through interacting with a real hive. We

fundraised, begged and borrowed and soon had our own hive of

bees, sited at a nearby National Trust property, mini-suits for the

children and were starting our first trips to explore first-hand what

the bees were up to.

Before long, the project was blossoming and new members were

able to transform an abandoned corner of the school yard into a

blooming bee forage garden. At the same time, the project funded

the training of four teachers on a local beekeeping course to ensure

the sustainability of the project. In between hive visits we held bee

art and activity days at the school where children dressed in black

and yellow bee costumes, learnt a special variation of the waggle

dance, and made beeswax candles and honey hand cream,

amongst other things. The links to the National Curriculum,

important to enabling the project a viable place in the school day,

proved numerous.

Alongside the chance to weigh and measure their own honey,

children could write stories and poems and make models of bees

and their hives. We ended the school year with a bee festival to

celebrate our project and the fact that bees at Broomley are

certainly loved by many!

Honeybee health initiatives award launched by Vita

Beekeeping associations across the world are invited to enter a

new Vita award for honeybee health initiatives.

The Vita Bee Initiative Awards will highlight the vital work of

voluntary beekeeping groups to combat the ongoing health threats

to honeybees and publicise good practice for the benefit of other

beekeepers.

Winners of the Award will receive trophies and equipment such as

microscopes to a value of €250 to help them in maintaining healthy

honeybee colonies. Entrants will also receive a limited edition

you can collect it at the Spring Convention for free. If you order for delivery before 25th March, the literature will still be free but you will need to pay the postage and packing costs. All orders placed after 25th March will be charged at £5 plus postage and packing. You can download the order form on the BBKA website - Members Area - Information for Beekeepers

Joules' Bee Wellies new designs for 2015!

Urban Beekeeping Video

A short video from Wolf Ollins about their motivation for keeping bees in London.

booklet highlighting the best projects. Many projects will also be

publicised online for the benefit of beekeeping communities across

the world.

For more details, please see the website.

Opportunity Knocks - Course in a Case (CiC)There is an opportunity to acquire Yellow, Red &

Green CiC content at a greatly reduced price - £40!

For information on content, availability & to arrange

collection at the Spring Convention, please contact: 

Julie Slegg Last Orders 2nd April 2015. 

ApologyThe story in the last issue of the Worker Bee linking the

Yorkshire Beekeepers with a Beekeeping Centre on the

Great Yorkshire Showground was incorrect. The building in

question is a Hives and Honey Show Pavilion. The YBKA

made no contribution to this Pavilion, which was erected and

is owned by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.

Click here

Beautiful Necklaces & Self Storage Support the HoneybeeJewellery company Henryka is supporting Friends of the Honeybee by donating £1 from the sale of every Bumble Bee Necklace, worth £15.00. Friends can buy the necklace at a discount – find out more and become a Friend too.Attic Storage has a facility surrounded by wildflowers, and has decided to help us spread the word about planting for pollinators. The company, based in London, is donating £1 per ‘move-in’ to Friends of the Honeybee.

BeeGYM Update

The project is alive and well, opening the idea out to the beekeeping world has changed everything and led to alterations and new ideas. Feedback from beekeepers in 2014 led to some subtle but important changes in

Share Your Bee Photographs on the BBKA

Website in the Online Gallery

and finally, everyone is talking about....The Flow HiveAnother hive invention with a difference, designed by Stuart and Cedar Anderson, a father-and-son beekeeper team in Australia. Their Flow Hive lets beekeepers harvest honey from their hives without disturbing the bees inside.

The clever invention works by providing the bees with a

partially-completed wall of honeycomb cells that they then

complete with their own wax. After they fill these cells with

honey and cap them with wax, the beekeeper can open the

other end, allowing the honey to flow out into a tap, without

ever disturbing the bees. The bees simply reopen the cells

the make up of the Bee GYM, this then produced the best results so far in the project!For more information contact: Stuart or check out the BeeGym blog

Mothers Day Gift Inspiration

at the BBKA websshop

Contribute & ShareTo include articles of interest about your association and your local activities and initiatives with fellow members please send them by email.

and fill them up again.

Whether or not this would be any good in the UK climate

who knows. Find out more at honeyflow.com.

N.B. - this editorial does not endorse the Flow Hive

Copyright © 2015 British Beekeepers Association*, All rights reserved.As an Area Association Secretary you have agreed to receive information from the BBKA and share with your wider membership.

Our mailing address is:British Beekeepers Association National Beekeeping CentreStoneleigh ParkKenilworth, Warwickshire CV8 2LG United Kingdom

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