On the Saturday of the show, we have a special programme of lectures aimed at those in the early years of, or thinking about keeping bees.
Giving the bees a good start to the year; the honey harvest and compliance with legal requirements; understanding both swarming and bee temperament are essential topics for success.
Jim Ryan starts at 9.30am with “Producing drawn comb to improve your beekeeping”.
Jim started helping his grandfather with his bees when he was eight years old. In 1983 he decided to become a beekeeper and did a beginners course and started his own adventure into beekeeping. In 1989 he qualified as a lecturer and since then has lectured to beekeepers in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Over the years he has kept up to 75 colonies, but has reduced that to about 25/30 at present. For ten years he wrote a monthly column called Hints to Beginners in An Beachaire (The Irish Beekeeper) and later edited the magazine for twelve years. He was National president of FIBKA from 1994-96 and Chair of Galtee Bee Breeders Association for about ten years.
His lecture will cover how to get your bees to draw comb for use in your beekeeping. Drawn comb is of much greater benefit to bees than foundation as it is available to the queen to lay in immediately and is available to the bees to store pollen and nectar. This is especially so during the spring as it helps the colony develop much better and quicker. Drawn comb is also useful for making nucs (small, starter colonies of honey bees) during the active season and also for replacing old combs that have reached the end of their useful life. How to get the bees to do it? When to get them to do it? How much drawn comb do you need/ How best to use your drawn comb.
In his lecture “Essential Honey” at 11.15am, Andy Pedley will talk about honey – its physical and chemical properties and why these are important when extracting and packing it; he ‘ll go through the harvesting process from taking the supers off the hive, through to sale, including labelling and cut comb, including the hygiene and legal requirements.
Andy started keeping bees in 1991, and is currently the Teaching Apiary Manager for Oxfordshire Bee Keepers’ Association, with 12 hives there and eight of his own in two out apiaries.
Andy is also a (now retired) Environmental Health Officer who qualified in 1976. In 2009 BeeCraft published his articles “from Hive to Honeypot” about the journey that honey takes to our customers table, and the legal requirements that applied. This became an interest, and over the following years he has researched more, published other articles on this and related topics, and published “Food Safety for Bee Keepers” (pub. Northern Bee Books). He’s delivered countless webinars and talks to Associations as well as workshops at the Spring Convention and the National Honey Show.
In this talk, Andy will explore the honey harvest, and how it needs to be handled to comply with the various legal requirements.
At 1.15pm Lynfa Davies talks about “Swarming – understanding what’s happening and how to react”.
Lynfa Davies
Lynfa lives near Aberystwyth in mid Wales and has kept bees for 20 years with her husband, Rob. She is a Master Beekeeper and in 2019 was awarded the National Diploma in Beekeeping. Lynfa has 30 colonies which she manages for honey production and for the joy of looking after bees! She raises her own queens and uses these to produce nucleus colonies and to replace her own stock. She is also actively involved in training beekeepers at all levels and regularly gives talks and writes articles for the beekeeping press.
Outside beekeeping, Lynfa works for Mentera providing support and advice for farmers in Wales. She brings her expertise on insects to this work promoting the value of biodiverse ecosystems in a farmed landscape. In addition, Lynfa has written an online training resource called the Healthy Bees Academy which is funded by the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
In her lecture, Lynfa will talk about the process of swarming being fundamental to the honey bee colony as this is their way of reproducing. However, to the beekeeper and the general public it can be frustrating and stressful! This talk will outline what is happening in the colony as it leads up to the swarming event because if we understand this then we have a better chance of managing it. We will also look at some simple management strategies to control the process with the aim of preventing the loss of our bees and even using the event to our advantage.
The final lecture in the programme will be at 2.30pm when Roger Patterson will talk about “Honey Bee Temperament“.
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Roger started beekeeping in 1963 and since then has handled many colonies in different locations and conditions. He manages a total of 80-100 colonies of locally adapted bees in both the teaching apiary of Wisborough Green BKA, where he is the apiary manager, and his own apiaries. He is a keen advocate of bee improvement and ruthlessly replaces queens in colonies with undesirable characteristics, especially bad temper.
Roger is BIBBA President and Lead Trustee for Education, past BBKA trustee and BDI vice-president. He is author of 5 books and owns Dave Cushman’s website. He features in several BIBBA videos, where, with his much appreciated down to earth approach, he encourages improvement in bees and the knowledge and skills of beekeepers.
Honey bees have evolved with a sting for a reason, with some being more eager to use it than others, but bees can be docile, as can be seen in Live@theHive, where I handle my own bees. Different words and terms are used to describe the temperament of bees, some descriptive, some alarmist, but we have to deal with our bees, whatever their temper, so the topic is relevant to all beekeepers and often their families and neighbours.
In this new presentation for the National Honey Show, Roger will discuss some of his experiences of temperament that have been gleaned from over 60 years of handling many thousands of colonies, both here and abroad, where he has experienced the extremes of handling bees all day with no more than accidental stings, to colonies I have quickly closed down and walked away from. Colonies that are unpleasant to handle take the enjoyment out of the craft, making inspections longer, so stressing the bees, which can cause other problems.
In this wide ranging practical talk he will discuss some of the reasons for good or bad temper, offer suggestions to help reduce aggression and deal with colonies that are unpleasant to handle
