The Co-op's new initiative
On the Home page I've added an article on the Co-op's press release yesterday, and given the comments of our own Alan Teale. Alan sounded a note of caution, as did John Chapple of the London beekeepers on BBC One's Breakfast programme yesterday. Do we need to encourage more urban beekeepers? Are Bee Hauses the way to go? What is the plural of Bee Haus anyway?!
G.
What worries me south of the border, given the lack of any comment from either side about why they're persuing this with Omlet rather than local or national beekeeping associations is that I feel they run the risk of effectively creating a separate "association" of beekeepers, using their own type of hives and that if things start to go wrong, it'll be the local associations suddenly inundated with inexperienced beekeepers looking for help.
Granted I'm not in an area currently being targetted by the co-op, and while I admire them for encouraging people to stick hives on their own land I do have to wonder just how acute the shortage of urban beekeepers really is and question the wisdom of taking a blunderbuss approach and sticking these beehives all over the place. If nothing else, how about some consideration for those of us who're already here? On our allotment here there are already 4 beekeepers and 8 working colonies, there are at least 6 other people that I know about who also want to put hives on this site. The council here has probably put a bit of a kibosh on allotment beekeeping by insisting that people must be members of the local association AND must hold the BBKA basic certificate. The schemes themselves look like they're being run with the support of the council I guess, but I do still wonder how good an idea it is to flood an allotment with bees in the hands of very inexperienced beekeepers.
How does the scheme sit with you guys north of the border?
I get the impression that you've much more control over what sorts of bees end up in your colonies and I do wonder how well scattering potentially hundreds of new hives with bees of unknown origin around the place is likely to go down?
Like the Titanic, if they try that sort of caper here. I suspect the bees won't survive long-term but will last just long enough to pass on whatever diseases and pests they carry to the local bee population.Originally Posted by Nellie
Hi Nellie
I'll have to reserve judgement on the type of bees as I've no idea of the detail of their plans. As they have supported native bee research they may know what they are doing. Bee Hauses though?! As you know, Scots generally don't have more money than sense (I suspect that it is often the money that we're short of rather than having a surfeit of sense) and so I doubt that BHs were sold in any numbers here. Why (try to) start a trend in expensive plastic hives? Doesn't seem particularly ethical to me.
I might know more after speaking to folk at a meeting tomorrow.
best wishes
Gavin
Like the bees traded over the internet and dispatched to ... Aberdeenshire, Wester Ross, Shetland, Lewis .... and many other places by just one southern supplier of nucs with imported Carniolan queens.
Just to repeat: I don't know what the Co-op have in mind here. They may have thought about this.
G.
The bit on funding research into AMM/Native Black Bees was omitted from articles down south, so i do hope the left hand knows what the right is doing. Generally I've got a lot of time for the Co-op and I'd really like to think that it's been thought through properly even if I do think the link up with omlet is an excercise in marketing over what's actually best for new beekeepers. I think in many respects its the silence from the National Associations that troubles me.
I try very hard not to jump on the bash Omlet bandwagon, but their marketing does very much annoy me and reading the issues currently with the design/build quality of the thing especially when they claim it makes beekeeping easy does get me a little hot under the collar (they are selling frames and foundation for less than Thornes though, so they might not be all bad).
To be fair, if you buy two hives and two supers then the price isn't that much different between a Beehaus and a traditional wooden hive. I did have a quick google to try and figure out how you undertake swarm control in a Dartington/beehaus but I turned up a blank, I can only surmise it involves you turning the entire hive 180 degrees.
I'm more intruiged as to the suitability of 14x12 sized broodboxes that far North.
Just had a look at the beehaus website. Seems like a good design but I wouldn't want one personally. Would go nicely with an urban egglu (if that's how it's spelled) containing two designer hens. I suppose you'd have to have designer bees. Maybe little jewels on the queen's back instead of a painted spot? Like the bejewelled fish of Pompeii.
Seriously, they don't seem to be terribly realistic about what happens when you deprive the bees of their hard-won winter stores. They are not going to be laid back and sweet natured about it. Pity the neighbours trying to have a BBQ next door with a bunch of annoyed bees around. Or the fact that bees will increase then swarm ... another £500 for a second hive maybe?
Still, I'm happy to wait and see what happens ... just so long as nobody thinks it's a good idea to import bees from varroa-infested places to varroa-free ones, in whatever type of hive.
Hi Nellie
Alan is the SBA president and you can see the doubts in his mind in the Herald piece. I don't think that we were approached by the Co-op, but I don't know everything. Given their hard line on pesticides you could imagine that they would shy away from BBKA.
G.
Absolutely understand them not wanting to go to the BBKA given the difference of opinion on that front, amongst others, but the SBA isn't tainted with that partnership so it seems more than a little odd to me that the Co-op would plough into Scotland, go to the trouble of getting the council on board and possibly have completely ignored the national if not also the local Beekeeping association for that area.
Perhaps in some respects though it's that us existing lot aren't the target of the campaign so that's why they've gone elsewhere. There is still a nagging doubt thought that it's a campaign born of good intention and, being cynical, shifting a product that isn't selling very well rather than actually attempting to do something effective.
Bee Häuser. At the very least they are raising awareness which is a good thing.
IMHO Omlets are
over priced, difficult to recycle & have issues with humidity..
I would worry about inexperienced beekeepers not treating varroa correctly or recognising diseases. Due to the risks of spreading both, association membership should maybe obligatory.
The Dutch model of apprenticeship appeals to me.
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