Stories of Interest

Queen Rearing Webinar

apiarymanager Education & Training, Stories of Interest, Training, WBKA

The next WBKA webinar will be on TUESDAY 23rd May at 7.30pm when the subject will be Queen Rearing with Miriam Knight.  Due to speaker availability, this is a change from our monthly webinar being on a Thursday.  We do hope that you will

 

Register now!

Miriam accidentally acquired bees 28 years ago at a time when it was common to import queens. Testing them in her small, dark colonies, it became evident to Miriam that there was more to local adaptation and colony success.
When she finished her role as a headteacher, she had more time to delve into her hobby and join in with the activities of Gwent Beekeepers. She is passionate about providing quality learning opportunities and raising the standards of learning experiences for beginners. With her Gwent colleagues, she produces forty or more colonies for new beekeepers each year using local queens.
Join us to learn more about the methods used by Miriam to rear these successful locally adapted queens.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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National Honey Monitoring Scheme

apiarymanager Stories of Interest

I am writing on behalf of the National Honey Monitoring Scheme. We are a citizen science project based at the UK Centre of Ecology & Hydrology working with beekeepers from all over the UK to collect honey samples for pollen and pesticide analysis. The pollen analysis is to find out what honeybees are feeding on and whether this changes through time, between regions or according to land use surrounding the hive. The pesticide analysis is to find out what pesticides honeybees are exposed to while they are foraging – whether these are pesticides that are currently in use or banned pesticides persisting in our environment – and whether these pesticides have an effect on the health and longevity of hives.

I am getting in touch because for this year’s sample collection we would love to have an equal representation of beekeepers taking part from all over the UK. In previous years, participation has been heavily biased towards the South East and South West regions of England and have dropped off the further north we go.  In previous years there have been few samples from Wales and we are hoping that more Welsh Beekeeper will send us samples in the future.

Our website is https://honey-monitoring.ac.uk/ and if beekeepers do wish to participate, they can click the “Taking Part” link to create an account and request a sampling pack.

Dr Jennifer Shelton

Molecular Ecologist

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Excellent apiary meeting!

apiarymanager PBKA, PBKA Apiary, Scolton Beekeeping Centre, Starting Beekeeping, Stories of Interest, Training

A great turnout this afternoon at the second apiary meeting of the season.

We were delighted to welcome all those budding beekeepers, who attended last weekends’ beginners course and decided that they wanted to get some ‘hands on’ experience. It looks like we are going to have a busy season……bring it on!!🐝