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Thread: Scottish Native Honeybee Society

  1. #31
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    Gavin on the BBC iplayer scroll to 19:20 you'll need to be quick it expires 2pm 1/4/17.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...-news-31032017
    Here's a new link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39466380
    Last edited by lindsay s; 01-04-2017 at 10:56 PM.

  2. #32
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    How did your meeting go I am just curious. Was there enthusiasm for setting it up and were there any objections.

  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greengage View Post
    How did your meeting go I am just curious. Was there enthusiasm for setting it up and were there any objections.
    I am sure a larger report will be posted here soon but in the meantime....

    Membership stands at about 105 so far and 75 of them made the trip to the launch day

    It went really well and I think it was a great start for the fledgling society. I was actually surprised at the consensus and the level of commitment of folk attending. I think the biggest disagreement was if "chair" or "president" is the better title !

    Lots of skillful beekeepers and queen rearing chat as well and a fantastic series of talks including by Director of Science at the RZSS, Iain Valentine, comparing bees with panda conservation.

    All in all a good start - some lovely letters of support from BIBBA, NIHBS, Morna Stoakley and member 101 - Prof Tom Seeley !
    Last edited by gavin; 04-04-2017 at 08:52 AM.

  4. #34
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    Well done that means there will probably be lots of chatter on here. I know Jon is on here from NIHBS but there is no forum on line that I am aware of where people gossip about beekeeping over here. Except for Facebook but its not great for sensible info.

  5. #35
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greengage View Post
    Well done that means there will probably be lots of chatter on here. I know Jon is on here from NIHBS but there is no forum on line that I am aware of where people gossip about beekeeping over here. Except for Facebook but its not great for sensible info.
    I think that we've simply been too busy for much chatter yet, and there has been a need for quite a bit of private chatter too. Plus perhaps a reticence to use an SBA forum for the business of a non-SBA (but SBA-friendly) society.

    However, GG (other GG) was right. It went very well. Loads of interest, great enthusiasm, just the right attitude. The collaborative decision making seemed to go OK, we have an excellent young volunteer to be secretary, and the speakers were excellent. Shouldn't be long now until we get the barriers put up and can force everyone to keep only Amm (just a wee tease there for C4U ....). No, there was a mature attitude to these issues expressed from the floor and no-one arguing against. The big issues are the availability of stock, locating the remaining (genetically) unpolluted reservoirs of native bee genetics, agreeing just what constitutes a native honey bee (and whether we have to call them Black Bees), and, most importantly of all, as GG said, whether the corpulent guy with the bow tie should be called President or Chair.

    As far as Irish bee babbles goes, other than Facebook the (Yahoo) Irish List was one of the better ones in its day but it has fallen into disuse.

    Here are a couple of pics from Ewan's Twitter feed, https://twitter.com/snhbsociety




  6. #36

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    Would it be too overly gushing to say I found the launch day of SNHBS inspiring?! Ach well who cares?! To have 70+ enthusiasts in a room (of an initial 100+ membership) with a common aim to do something positive was a beautiful thing. It's long been my dream that we could create such an organisation in Scotland and now we've done it. I say we but I was more involved at the initial idea stage and the real work was done by Gavin, Jeff, Kate, Ewan, Emma etc etc. Many thanks guys.

    The day was a great opportunity for networking as well and it looks like a wee group of AMM enthusiasts (including myself) are going to be doing some practical work together here in Strathspey/Speyside.

    Hopefully the start of great things!

  7. #37
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    Inspiring yes.

    I wonder how many on here have worked with Carniolians?

    I ask as for the last ten years or so it has been my bee of choice and a pure delight to work with. Smoker fuel? Not got any and not used it for years. Honey? Best crop 230 lbs from a double brood Nat. Err.... comb honey that is.... So.

    The above is the result of careful breeding and I will take the bull by the horns and say due to Hitler the breeding started as I have been told in the past. Something that is usually glossed over but hey facts are awkward things if indeed that is true.

    If we could breed an Amm to that quality would that not be a wonderful thing?

    I was wondering during one of the presentations could we not do a lot with eggs? Saves a lot of faffing around??????????????????????

    Further there is now a need for a forum on the society site so that people and groups can communicate with out abusing the hospitality of here and else where. Also FB is very useful at times. And Free....!!!

    PH
    Last edited by Poly Hive; 07-04-2017 at 10:16 PM.

  8. #38

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    I think one of the points of the whole exercise for me PH will be that we can finally give the breeding attention to AMM that other strains have already had applied to them for a long time. I see no reason why in time we won't be able to have AMMs as good as we all want. It just needs the concerted effort to be put in and for us all to be pulling in the same direction. I'm not naive enough to think it's going to be easy or simple but we have to make a start somewhere and I think last Saturday was that.

    "Putting my money where my mouth is" has led to the beginnings of our wee group here in Strathspey/Speyside. Not sure I'd have the time to support a dedicated forum for SNHBS. The FB group has a bit of activity and hopefully we'll be allowed to continue on here.

    Re eggs - the only time I had eggs posted to me was a disaster. No larvae hatched. No reason we couldn't be sending virgin queens around the country for the cost of postage as there's not a massive amount of work in producing them. But then we have the mish mash drone population to worry about. Andrew has some keen observations re apiary vicinity mating which are very interesting. Is it something you came across much with Bernard's colonies?

  9. #39
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    Early morning syndrome here. Sorry not sure what the question is?

    PH

  10. #40
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poly Hive View Post
    If we could breed an Amm to that quality would that not be a wonderful thing?
    You're definitely right about that. The biggest issue will be getting a seriously talented bee breeder to work on the matter alongside the multitude of groups which are now becoming established. I may be treading on thin ice here (might even have to change my user name to itld as it feels a bit like doing just that!!! ) but I think that there's a huge difference between the early days of establishing self sustaining Amm populations and actually breeding lines of bees which are on a par with the German/Austrian carnica or some of the buckfast lines.
    Last edited by prakel; 08-04-2017 at 03:38 PM.

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