A reminder that memberships are now due for 2011 – click here to download the membership form.

Membership of the Association starts at £15 a year and we are now taking applications for 2011.

Your membership fee is used to:

• Support the Welsh Beekeepers’ Association (WBKA) which represents beekeepers in Wales at the national level with the Welsh Assembly and runs national events for example the Annual Convention and Conference.  The WBKA also negotiate product and third party liability insurance for our members.
• Provide insurance through Bee Diseases Insurance towards replacement costs following Ministry Bee Inspector’s confirmation of certain notifiable diseases and a resulting destruction order.  These destructions, while a last resort, have kept diseases at a minimal level over the years and the compensation ensures that beekeepers are responsible in reporting suspected infections.
• Run Pembrokeshire Beekeepers’ Association itself less than £5 is retained which we use to run the Association’s training apiary, book rooms for meetings, send newsletters to members and maintain the websites.

So, whether you keep bees or not, please help support beekeeping in Pembrokeshire and Wales by joining our Association.

Download the membership form here and send it with your membership fee to the membership secretary – full details are on the form of how to do this.

Please note that the PBKA Annual General Meeting will be held at Haverfordwest Cricket Club on 20th January 2011 at 7.30pm.

This is the main meeting of the year for your association and it is important that all members make every effort to attend.

So we hope to see you there!

Report in the Guardian October 24 2010 on research by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London demonstrating that the insects learn to fly the shortest route between flowers discovered in random order, effectively solving the “travelling salesman problem”.

In the Independent October 30 Christopher Hirst reported on why Beekeeping is Booming using information from the British Beekeepers’ Association read it here.