Results 1 to 10 of 36

Thread: Avid Beekeeper Visiting Scotland

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Junior Member brushwoodnursery's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Athens, Georgia, USA
    Posts
    15

    Default Avid Beekeeper Visiting Scotland

    Hello and thank you for letting me participate! My daughter and I will be visiting Edinburgh and Fife from 6 July to 13 July of 2018. I am an avid beekeeper and may even have my Georgia Master Beekeepers Certificate completed by then (must pass exam in May!). I would like very much to learn about beekeeping in Scotland. Certainly, there are interesting differences in hardware, climate and forage. I have already reached out to the Edinburgh Beekeepers and have a positive response for a visit with a member. I also hope to see more and possibly write an article for a magazine back here in the United States. The current schedule puts us near St Andrews in Fife with a free afternoon and evening on 12 July. There are some other free times in our schedule as well. Yes, that's quite far in the future but worth mentioning in case we're lucky enough to be there when an event is taking place.
    Also, I am an experienced lecturer and would be happy to share about beekeeping in the southeastern United States with a PowerPoint presentation and honey samples (I'm allowed to bring up to 2kg!). Public service is part of our mandate; even when it's on the other side of the Atlantic!

  2. #2
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Hello! There are active beekeeping associations in both Edinburgh and Fife so I'm sure that you'll get to meet up with some of them. I have bees in Fife and would be delighted to see you but July is my main bee shifting season (to the hills for the two types of heather honey) so I'll not make a firm promise until nearer the time.

    It would be worthwhile asking Janice at the Fife Beekeepers Association. Her contact details are at the main Scottish Beekeepers Association site:
    http://www.scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/

    Go to 'About' then 'Affiliated Beekeeping Organisations', bring up the map and you'll find her details when you click the pin near St Andrews.

    Over the winter months most associations, including Fife, have evening indoor meetings once a month. In the summer we get together mostly on Saturdays for occasional apiary visits and displaying at shows. Fife Beekeepers Association and its sister organisation Dunfermline and West Fife Beekeepers Association do tend to have a fairly full summer programme.

    Hope that helps!

    G.

  3. #3
    Junior Member brushwoodnursery's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Athens, Georgia, USA
    Posts
    15

    Default

    Thank you. I will reach out to her! I was wondering if there was shifting done in Scotland. I move some hives to the mountains in July for Sourwood; famous for delicious flavor and a terrible name.

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Scottish Borders
    Posts
    439

    Default

    Those who are migratory usually move from home to OSR (cannola) then to an intermediate site for summer then in mid to late July to the moors for heather.

    I am too far south for your purposes but I hope you have a lovely visit. Please be aware that it is not distance in Scotland it is the time taken to travel that distance.

    PH

  5. #5
    Junior Member brushwoodnursery's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Athens, Georgia, USA
    Posts
    15

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Poly Hive View Post
    Those who are migratory usually move from home to OSR (cannola) then to an intermediate site for summer then in mid to late July to the moors for heather.

    I am too far south for your purposes but I hope you have a lovely visit. Please be aware that it is not distance in Scotland it is the time taken to travel that distance.

    PH
    Thanks, PH. We've never been to Scotland and are sure we will enjoy it! I was raised in a small state (Maryland) and am still surprised by the size and distances here in Georgia (about twice the size of Scotland). This isn't even one of the really big states.
    For most of our journey, we will be with a group (International Clematis Society) on a bus so I don't have to worry about tiny roads or driving on the wrong side by mistake!

    I'm curious: Is there paid pollination in Scotland like we have for Almonds and other crops here? Or, is migration strictly for varietal honey?

  6. #6
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Scottish Borders
    Posts
    439

    Default

    Basically no there is not. There was word some years ago about some payments being made for field strawberries but I personally have never spoken to anyone who got it.

    There is some paid pollination in the South of England for commercial orchards in particular apples but nothing like there used to be 30 years ago as so many orchards were grubbed out.

    Effectively migration is mainly for as you say varieties and especially Heather is it is highly sought after and carries a nice price premium.

    PH

  7. #7
    Junior Member brushwoodnursery's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Athens, Georgia, USA
    Posts
    15

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    Hello! There are active beekeeping associations in both Edinburgh and Fife so I'm sure that you'll get to meet up with some of them...
    ...
    Hope that helps!

    G.
    Gavin,
    Thanks so much for your generosity and helping to put this together! It was an excellent visit in both Edinburgh and Fife. I learned a lot and will have plenty to share with beeks back home. I may even let them taste the honey.

  8. #8
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by brushwoodnursery View Post
    Gavin,
    Thanks so much for your generosity and helping to put this together! It was an excellent visit in both Edinburgh and Fife. I learned a lot and will have plenty to share with beeks back home. I may even let them taste the honey.
    Hi Dan

    It was great to meet you - and your daughter. Hope the trip to Paris went well. All I did was to give you contact details so it was great that the local associations were so welcoming. A great talk and that was an amazing range of honeys you brought. Very interesting and instructive, and I also learned a new way to do honey tasting which I'll probably use on a market stall. It is time to move on from plastic spoons to wooden toothpicks! The other advantage is that you use a very small amount of honey each time so these 1.5 oz jars last a long time (and the jars you took home may last forever!).

    G.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Aberdeenshire, on top of a wind-swept and exposed hill.
    Posts
    1,190

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    ... Very interesting and instructive, and I also learned a new way to do honey tasting which I'll probably use on a market stall. It is time to move on from plastic spoons to wooden toothpicks! The other advantage is that you use a very small amount of honey each time so these 1.5 oz jars last a long time (and the jars you took home may last forever!).

    G.
    Can I ask about this new way, Gavin? Is it just an environmentally-friendly swapping of plastic for wood - or is there more to it?
    Kitta

  10. #10
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Flat wooden toothpicks. Dip, twirl, taste. At the Dundee Flower Show and other occasions I've used plastic spoons and then washed them for the next time or the next day at the Dundee show (and sifted out the unwashable ones with lipstick on and the split ones). Much easier to use disposable wooden toothpicks. I see them at £10 for 2,500.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •