Meetings 2010

YABeeP is primarily about providing peer support to like minded individuals, families and groups who want to encourage or keep bees – this includes honey, bumble and solitary bees. Consequently, during the bee season (March to October) we try to meet monthly to provide a focus for us to do this.

Please note: The 2010 series of meetings has now ended. The 2011 meetings will begin in February or March, still to be arranged. Once agreed they will be published here.

2010 Programme:

• February  13th - Meeting - a pre-season planning meeting for members who joined in 2009. New members are encouraged to come to the March date when we kick-off the 2010 season.
  
• March 13th - 10:30 am Meeting - Introduction to Sustainable Bee Keeping.March  27th - Workshop - Horizontal hive building practical day.
• April  10th - Meeting - Planting for bees; Pheromones and their importance to sustainable bee keepers. 
• May  15th - Meeting - Inspecting a horizontal hive - Gareth John; Monitoring for Varroa & Nosema - Nick Delaney; Swarms & populating your hive - Robin; Bumble bee rescue; 
• May  22nd - Workshop - Warré hive building practical day.  Sorry, this has been cancelled.
• June  19th - Meeting - Shortened meeting as it will be followed by a BYO Barbecue lunch
• July  17th - Meeting - More member's stories; horizontal hive inspection 
• September 18th - Meeting - Winter preparations & the need to feed

• October  16th - Meeting

If you wish to join us at one of these meetings we'd love to see you - please email YABeeP@googlemail.com to let us know who you are, how many will attend and for directions. We hope to hear from you.

Why do we meet?
Meetings allow us to:

• Welcome new members to learn about our aims and principles and decide whether they wish join us,
• Provide an environment for those already on board to network with each other to expand their own knowledge, ask questions and share new ideas and thoughts on helping bees,
• Provide an opportunity to get hands on with bees (dependant on weather of course) and see into a working hive
• Allow us to meet socially and have the occasional BBQ, picnics, etc., after all life’s not all about bees.

Where do we meet?
Meetings mostly take place in the Yatton area as this is central to our patch, however, we may occasionally meet at a members home elsewhere. The venue details and a map are emailed to members the week before each meeting.

When do we meet?
For 2010 we will be continuing to meet on Saturdays as this was the day favoured by most. All meetings start at 10:30am unless marked otherwise above.

New for 2010
Most would agree that the strength of YABeeP meetings lies in its informal nature; we don't instruct our members or provide formal training courses – remember we are a peer support group! However, this year we plan to have short 10/15 minute themed talks at our meetings, mostly given by our members but occasionally bringing in a local(ish) expert.

Workshops

In addition to our monthly meetings we also hold hive building workshops as demand dictates. These tend to be all day affairs which allow members to build their own hives for honey bees or  homes for bumbles and solitary bees. As well as being highly productive – you should expect to complete your project within the day - the workshops held to date have all been great social events!