National Honey Show – Weybridge, Surrey 29th to 31st October 2009
Are you new to beekeeping? Would you like to see what honey, combs, wax and mead should really look like? The National Honey Show is the ‘gold standard’ honey show - the equivalent of Wimbledon for tennis players. There are almost 250 classes and beekeepers come from all over the world to enter so it is truly an international show.
Walking around the displays is an education in itself. A full programme of workshops and lectures will run during the show and there will be a wide selection of trade stands with lots of equipment and books to buy. If you are in your first year of beekeeping you can get in free! Your association secretary must apply for this on your behalf to the NHS General Secretary before the end of July. Contact the Rev. HF Capener, 1 Baldric Road, Folkestone , CT20 2NR. Email showsec@zbee.com
If you have already had success at your local or county show, why not enter some of the classes? Many counties have their own classes within the show – or you can put yourself up against the experts in the open classes to see how you measure up. As you do your extracting, why not keep that perfect frame aside? A little planning now will give you lots of potential show entries.
The 2009 schedule of classes and entry application is available from the membership secretary, Sandra Rickwood. Please telephone her for a copy on 020 33 55 8716 and leave your name and address after the recorded message. It will soon be available on the National Honey Show website www.honeyshow.co.uk where you can also find lots of interesting information about the show.
The show is at St Georges College, Woburn Hill, Weybridge, Surrey, KT15 2QS (follow the A317 from junction 11 of the M25) on Thursday 29(2.00pm to 6pm) Friday 30 (9.30am to 6pm) and Saturday 31 October (9.30am to 4.45pm).
Admission for non-members is £12 but you can become a member of the National Honey Show for £10 (or £11 via PayPal) and then entry is free for all three days. Accompanied children of 16 years and under are free and additional family members over 16 years living at the same address can come in for £5 each. On Saturday admission after 12 noon is £5 for everyone. You can join at the door or by contacting the membership secretary, Mrs Sandra Rickwood, 19 Kenwood Drive, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, KT12 5AU. Alternatively, email srhoneyshow@googlemail.com or telephone 020 3355 8716 and leave a message.
Surrey Beekeepers Association - Kingston Division
Annual General Meeting
Jim and Denise Harries are very kindly hosting the AGM at their house on 14th November.
The business part will commence at 7 pm and will be followed by a meal. This is more of a social gathering, partners are invited and very sadly will be an opportunity to say goodbye to Denise and Jim and wish them well on their move to Spain.
Please could you let email them if you are coming and indicate if you are bringing a salad or a dessert.
"SOS Honey Bees" Womens Institute AGM 3 June 2009
The Women's Institute asked the British Beekeepers Association to attend their AGM and address the motion “SOS Honey Bees”. Tim Lovett the President of the BBKA took up the challenge and the following is his address, it gives a good account of the present position of the BBKA and the government.
Madam Chairman, members of the WI, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today, but even more so for all your hard work in successfully bringing the SOS Honey Bees resolution onto the agenda for today’s AGM.
I am going to look at the resolution in three parts and ask if it is still relevant in the light of the recent announcements by Government on research funding?
Firstly the resolution states that ‘honey bees play a vital role in the pollination of food crops and in the environment’
Of this there is no doubt. It’s not about honey, wonderful and health-giving though it may be - it’s the honey bee’s role as a pollinator on which we and wild animals depend. The honey bee is the principal pollinator of agricultural crops, brightening and improving our diet, being said to be responsible for one third of the food we eat. It has a particular role in pollinating early flowering plants such as top fruits like apples and pears, because it over-winters in large numbers. The honey bee is already out there working for us whilst other important pollinators such as the bumble bee are scarce, still getting their nests established for the new season. If we lose the honey bee it is simply not tenable to suggest that other pollinators will fill its ecological niche - not in our lifetime anyway!
Defra has identified the value of honey bee pollination to the agricultural economy of this country based on ten key crops at £165 million, a figure which has recently been revised up to £200 million per annum. None of this money goes to beekeepers!
Madam Chairman I submit that the vital role of the honey bee is established!
Let us now turn to the resolution’s second premise, namely ‘the concerns about the accelerating decline in the UK honey bee population’.
Winter colony losses Have risen from the typical 5 - 10% of earlier years to 20% in 2006-07 reaching a potentially catastrophic 30% in 2007-08. Clearly, these year on year losses cannot be sustained.
The first seismic tremor of these losses was felt this winter as UK honey ran out in the shops around Christmas, reflecting the 50% reduction in the honey harvest. As yet we have seen no measurable effect on pollination, but can we take the risk?
But what is the cause of the decline: climate change, genetically modified organisms, pesticides, habitat loss, plain bad weather or pests and diseases? It’s probably a number of these factors acting in concert but the ‘smart money’ is on pests and diseases.
The infamous blood sucking varroa mite and the viruses it carries has devastated colonies all over the world and must be a major factor in these increased losses. But in truth we simply don’t know what the causes are and current treatments are inadequate. We need to find out what is happening and the steps to take. More research is thus essential.
In January, the BBKA published its document ‘Honey Bee Health Research Concepts’ detailing 30 research projects to confront bee health problems and fill gaps in our knowledge. The estimated cost of the proposed work is £8+ million over five years. Over those same five years, honey bees will contribute £1 billion to the agricultural economy. The BBKA document will help ensure that researchers hit the ground running as and when the funding comes on stream.
Finally the resolution ‘urges HM Government to increase funding for research into bee health’.
Well isn’t that just what they’ve done, so making the resolution redundant? Absolutely not!
Our sustained media campaign during 2008, with huge public support generated a 142,000 signature petition which we presented to Government last November.
Hilary Benn the Environment Secretary announced, the first £2 million tranche of funding for ‘bee health’ research in late January 2009. This was followed by further good news when in April he announced an additional £8 million from a group of other funders to bring the total to ‘up to £10 million to tackle bee and pollinator decline’.
So why aren’t beekeepers satisfied with what looks like amazingly good news? The problem is two-fold.
Firstly, you will have observed the subtle shift from ‘honey bee health’ to ‘bee and pollinator decline’ in the announcements. Our concern is that there will simply not be sufficient funds available to deal with the woes of all pollinators which includes bumble bees, hover flies, moths and butterflies. Much important work on honey bee health will inevitably remain unfunded.
Now I fully appreciate the importance of other pollinators but the BBKA has put forward an £8+ million programme specific to honey bee health.
I feel a like a man who has campaigned for prostate cancer but the Government has decided to make a donation to fund general cancer research! - worthy but not on target.
Secondly, since the publication of ‘Research Concepts’ detailing the work needed to save honey bees, Defra has failed to engage in any, let alone serious discussion of these proposals. This must take place and beekeepers must have a voice in the funding group if the right priorities are to be identified and the most relevant projects urgently commissioned.
Madam Chairman, there is much campaigning still to be done and the WI membership can play an important part in this, bringing pressure to bear on the Government to find the extra money needed if all pollinators are to be investigated. Taking on the role of Honey Bee Ambassadors, members can campaign locally to help broaden awareness of honey bees in the community. They can lean on local authorities to be more ‘bee friendly’ by allowing bee hives on allotments, providing land for apiaries and ensuring pollen and nectar rich trees are planted in streets and open spaces. The gardeners amongst you can do your bit through ‘bee friendly’ planting and of course the BBKA’s member Associations will be delighted to welcome those of you who wish to take up beekeeping.
The WI has sent out an SOS; I urge the membership to vote in favour of the resolution and the campaign that will surely follow.
Thank you.
Swarms of 'nanobees' found to kill cancers
The Telegraph, 10 August 2009
Microscopic "nanobees" that literally sting tumours to death have been successfully used to fight cancer by researchers in America.
The US scientists unleashed swarms of the tiny artificial particles on human breast and skin tumours in mice.
Read the full article here
Tidy-up Day at the Apiary - 14 November, 10.00am
This is the day when we concentrate on the place where our bees live. There are lots of jobs to be done and by the end of the session the apiary will look as though it’s had a spring clean in the middle of November. And the bees will love it too!
Still no cash for vital honeybee work
South East Farmer – August 2009
Despite all the government money thrown at bee research since the start of this year, vital work on honeybees remains unfunded.
Earlier this year, the government announced that £4.3 million would be spent on bee health. Then another £10 million arrived, courtesy of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s (BBSRC) pollinating insects project.
Read the full article here
Perspective please on bees and pesticides
From the NFU Horticulture Newsletter, May 2009
Anyone who has been reading, listening to or watching the media coverage of the problems faced by our honey bees would be forgiven for thinking that the cause of all honey bee health problems is a simple and obvious one – pesticides.
However, you may or may not be surprised to learn that the media coverage, or indeed action of certain retailers and single-interest groups, which has led to this way of thinking, has little to do with reality and fact.
Read the full article here
At the end of the 2009 season
The culmination of any season is the harvesting of the honey crop and the appraisal of how your hive/s have done. This year promised to be a good year, it was going to make up for the miserable year we had last year when the rain in July washed away our hopes of a pollen flow from the lime trees. But as we all now know the forecasters got it wrong and summer has been wet and windy, neither weather conditions favourable to our foraging bees. My hive only produced one supper of honey, half of the amount the bees’ harvested last year. The poor harvest is nationwide, talking to a beekeeper in Lincolnshire who has six hives, he is not expecting to harvest any honey at all this season. Let’s hope next year brings better weather.
Unfortunately EFB has not gone from us completely, the inspectors have found the disease in two of our members’ home hives. Once again hygiene is the key to maintaining healthy hives and although we have been repeating ourselves a lot this year, we must keep to the strict guidelines that the Apiary Management Team have laid out when inspecting our hives if we are to keep disease free. We must not have another bonfire of frames like the one we had at the beginning of this season. It certainly did a lot towards curing EFB at the apiary but it was bitter medicine.
Kingston club is a division of the Surrey Beekeepers Association, a charitable organisation, and as such has certain obligations. One of these is that SBKA has to fulfil an educational obligation, this we carried out by training new beekeepers each year and by giving talks to various organisation as they are requested. Avis, David and John have been to various groups in the past months and the club is considering how we can expand this side of our activities. We shall be putting together some light, portable exhibition boards for taking to shows and also either putting together or purchasing a demonstration hive. If you have any experience of talking to groups or organisations and would like to talk about beekeeping please contact Avis as I’m sure the club would value you help.
This edition of Bee News has several articles about bees and pesticides, there seems to have been a lot of activity in the farming press on this subject, much of it voicing sceptical views about the effect modern pesticides have on bees. I’ve read a lot in recent months about these pesticides and most of it paints a gloomy picture presenting the pesticide companies as the perpetrators of a chemical assault on bees. However farmers are under increasing pressure to produce more and more food and are using everything they can to achieve this. It seems that they want to have concrete evidence before they will stop using any pesticide, and so far this evidence is not there.
The publicity machine rolls on and bees are now regularly in the news, the guardian has had two full page articles recently on aspects of beekeeping and we’ve recently been informed of the Country Life magazine’s list of the top 100 people who have influence in the countryside. The Queen is at number one, naturally, and at number 25 is the President of the British Beekeepers Association, Tim Lovett, well-done Tim.
On the book front I’ve just been given The Hive. The story of the honeybee and us by Bee Wilson, a fascinating account of the history of beekeeping. Did you know that Alexander the Great’s body was brought home preserved in a vat of honey or that the queen bee was thought to be the king bee until 1740s.
Thank you to all the members who have sent in articles, I’ve had so many that I’m sure I’ve missed some. If you see that your article is missing please email me and I’ll do my best to place it in the next Bee News. This edition is full of rather serious articles on the problems facing beekeepers - does anyone know any jokes about bees and beekeeping?
Dave Priest, Editor
