Bee Conference and Blossom

This weekend was the 2010 British Bee Keepers Associated (BBKA) spring convention. I attended on the Friday and the Saturday. On Friday I went with my wife and attended 3 lectures (1) All you need to know about honeybee viruses - Declan Schroeder (2) Queens and things - Gerry Collins (3) Bee’s eye view of beekeeping - Andy Willis.

All were interesting, my wife and I both enjoyed the last 2 more as some of the information in the first lecture was very technical and some did go over our heads, especially when he showed the attendees genetic markers of certain virus.

On the Saturday the conference was a open to the public. I was meant to attend a lecture on 12 months of forage by Andy Willis but missed it. I did buy my wife and daughter a bee suit and now they can join me at the hive, we also bought 2 new hives. In fact my daughter join me on the Sunday morning in her new bee suit, and she seems to have enjoyed it. I now have three othrt local kids wanting to come with me and check out the bees.

We also met lots of people and got a chance to talk to various people and organisations. I meet a chap who was interested in antique bee hives and had made a reproduction of one that looked like a dovecot house. It was great and something I'd love to have in the garden. However the cost of this type of hive because its hand made would be exorbitant.

My wife met people from Omlet the chicken coupe people who also make plastic Darlington bee hives. My wife is now thinking of getting a couple of chickens for the garden. Its something we have been looking at for a while, and it looks like we are going to get things moving. We have an acquaintance who is also a bee keeper and has 2 Omlet chicken products. I went to visit her on Sunday and looked at her chicken coop. She is coming on Tuesday afternoon to look at our garden to see where a chicken coop would be best located.I did see a dartlington hive made of wood, and talked to a couple of people from my local bee group about the hive and they were all against it saying that they had one previously at Sutton Park apiary and it was difficult to manage etc. I did like it and it would have been ideal in the orchard as it would be difficult to move etc.

My wife has also bought some new plants for the bees following one of the lectures and a small chestnut tree, all the plants we bought will provid nectar and pollen for the bees.On Sunday we went to the Orchard and collected more manure for the compost and put more compost around the trees. We also checked the bees with my daughter. On Sunday I sow my first butterfly this year and some large caterpillars.
We also have lots of blossom on the plum trees, which look great, I haven't seen many bees around the blossom yet though.