2012 Meeting Dates

YABeeP aims to provide peer support to individuals and families who want to encourage both wild and honey bees and maybe keep bees themselves. We advocate using bee-friendly natural bee-keeping methods. Where our members keep honeybees they do so primarily for the benefit of the bees themselves, not in order to exploit them for forced honey production or personal profit¹.

For 2012 we will continue to hold our informal meetings at 10:30am on the second Saturday of each month during the bee season - March to October. Meetings last about 2 hours and, weather permitting, usually include a chance to see bees in action:-

2012 Dates:

• March 10th - Meeting - Download note of meeting here - LINK
• April 14th - Meeting 10:30 - Please note,this meeting is specifically for those new to natural beekeeping or wanting to start keeping honeybees. We will talk about the life cycle of the bee and what they need for healthy survival then overlay on this the various beekeeping methodologies. This will help you make an informed choice of the management regime and hive types most suited to your aspirations.
• April 28th - Warré hive building workshop (all day). Members who have booked a space will be able to build a hive. However, the day is open to all members who want to drop in and join the fun or see the build so they can do their own.  
• May 12th - Meeting - This month's topic is "Getting your bees" - followed by solitary bee box workshop
• June 9th - Meeting followed by Barbecue picnic lunch.  - This month's topic is "Protection & equipment"
• July 14th - Meeting 
• August 11th - Meeting NB - the August meeting has been cancelled as it clashes with the Natural Beekeeping Conference and many members will be away. See you in September.
• September 8th - Meeting
• October 13th - Meeting

If you wish to join one of these meetings we'd love to see you - please email YABeeP@googlemail.com or tel: 01934 876275 to let us know who you are, how many will attend and to get directions to the meeting. 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 to network with each other to expand our 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/bee box;
• meet socially and enjoy the occasional BBQ, picnic, etc., after all life’s not all about bees.

Where do we meet?

Meetings take place in the Yatton area as this is central to our North Somerset patch, either in a local home or a local venue. The venue details and a map are emailed to members the week before each meeting.

... or in the Library

We meet outside......

Meeting format

YABeeP believes in holding informal meetings; we don't instruct our members or provide formal training courses but use a 'learning through doing with support' philosophy. Meetings are used to provide peer support and help for those new to bees as well as share experiences and learning amongst those who already keep them. We also often have short themed talks at our meetings, mostly given by our own members (volunteers always needed!) but occasionally bringing in a local(ish) expert. Weather permitting, we also use meetings to let members get up close and personal with bees and experience the workings of the various bee homes we use.

Workshops

In addition to our monthly meetings we also arrange practical workshops as demand dictates. These tend to be half or 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! These workshops will be listed in the Dates section above in green when arranged.

A full day's Hive Building Workshop.......
(click to enlarge)

......or a 2 hour Solitary Bee home gathering.

Training Days
Where demand dictates we also arrange small group training days using guest trainers with expertise in their field, a small charge is made for these to pay for the speakers. For 2012 our good friend Gareth John has again agreed to provide workshops on Kenyan hive manipulations. These will be published to members as and when arranged.

Gareth John's 'How to Split a Horizontal Hive' training day 2010

Robin Morris


¹For a fuller explanation of what we mean by bee-freindly 'natural beekeeping' see this page.

9 April 2011 - Meeting Note

Found on Bee Safari
Church wall bee/cuckoo/parasite?
(click to enlarge)

Our second meeting of the season with 25 attending and what a great one it was thanks to a brilliant talk by Simon (see below) and glorious weather. Yet again we started in the Yatton Library which sheltered us from the noise from the aircraft, bells and this time UV rays!

The following is an outline of what we discussed for those who missed it and a recap for those who came and lust for more!:-

News, Update & Gossip

• Somerset BKA are hosting a talk "The Honey Bee Colony as a Superorganism and Why it Matters to Beekeepers" - Professor Keith S Delaplane, University of Georgia – 13 April 2011 at The Theatre at Hazlegrove School , Sparkford (off the A303) - there is no charge or requirement to book! Info' link
• 29 April – Juley is holding a 'Not the Royal Wedding and not a Street Party' day in her field - all YABeePers are invited
• The Kingsdown feral bee group's Bristol Bee Day is 21 May 3-5 in St Matthews Church – they looking for good speakers. [Though following Simon's talk below I think we have their man!]
• 1st National Natural Beekeeping Conference – Fri 5th to Sun 7 Aug, Worcestershire £160 - Book here
• Thanks to Steve St Werburgs City Farm are also going to have some natural hives - well done Steve.
• Phil Chandler of The Natural Beekeeping Network and Biobees website is offering a local 1 day training course day or evening at £25 per head. All that is needed is a site with 2 hTBHs of two nearby sites. ACTION:  If anyone is interested in doing this and/or hosting please contact YABeeP. A volunteer coordinator would also be welcome.

Wild Bees - and more.....

Carlo Montesanti of the Bee Guardian Foundation had been due to speak. Unfortunately he had to postpone last minute and fly to Sicily to attend an family crisis. What to do? so at the last minute I approached our very own Simon Johnson who very gallantly agreed to step in and cover the subject - what a hero! Not only did Simon do this with next to no notice, but his resulting talk was brilliant, personable and presented with such genuine enthusiasm. 

Now which part is which?

Rather than list bee types and species Simon approached the subject using his small city garden and it's planting as the anchor for the talk. Not only did this put the bees in context but it allowed Simon to introduce relevant non-bees - we learned much about flys, wasps and other parasite, cuckoo and bee impersonating insects that can be attracted into our gardens. Having trained and studied as a Parasitologist Simon's love of his subject was clear - his enthusiasm sucked us all in, especially his horror tales about Alien and vampire insects - who knew the world surrounding the humble bee was so fascinating and scary?!!!

At any workshop
you get workers .......

It was so encouraging to learn how with some simple planting we an all help our bees and attract a whole world of insects as well. Simon has kindly supplied his list of plants which can be downloaded here as a 55KB pdf document "Simon Johnson flowers & wild bees" - thanks again Simon. My only regret from this engaging talk was that I didn't record it.

Getting Your Bees
Given we are on the verge of the swarming season (it's already started in Oxfordshire - 3 weeks ahead of schedule!) I ran through the ways and means of getting hold of bees including:

...and you get shirkers :-)

• collecting swarms; 
• catching swarms (bait boxes); 
• other beekeepers; 
• local associations; 
• commercial suppliers

This is outlined on our website here - I hope to update this again in the next few days.

Other planned subjects and AOB
Having reduced our booking of the library to 90 minutes the meeting ran out of time so the Kitting Yourself Out slot was postponed to the next meeting. We also agreed that we could individually cover the Member's Update slot at our networking session when we had gone across the road for the practical part of the meeting.

No other business was proposed so we adjourned to St Margarets for networking, coffee, a look at the bees and the...........

Part 2 - Solitary bee house workshop.

Gun-slinger John
the fastest gun in the (South) West

Those who wanted to were able to construct solitary bee houses and many thanks go to Ali for organising and supplying kit houses, Roy and John for the supply of tools, John for the logs and canes and everyone for joining in, pulling legs and covering our garden in sawdust - yet another fun and productive time! Get those homes up quick and watch those bees move in. I just hope that the exploding BBQ kept everyone on their toes.

Next meetings
Hive Building Workshop - Sat 30th April
Meeting - Sat 14th May -10:30
© Robin Morris - YABeeP

2011 Meeting Dates

YABeeP aims to provide peer support to individuals, families and groups who want to encourage wild bees and/or keep bees themselves using natural beekeeping methods – our interest is in honey, bumble and solitary bees.

In 2011 we will hold our informal meetings at 10:30am on the second Saturday of each month during the bee season - March to October. Meetings last about 2 hours and, weather permitting, usually include a chance to get hands-on with bees:-

2011 Dates:

• March 12th Meeting - Includes an introduction to natural beekeeping, winter review and introduction to the hive building workshop.
• April 9th Meeting - Don't miss this one as we have Carlo Montesanti from the Bee Guardian Foundation as our guest speaker talking on "Don't Call Me Honey : Bees the bigger picture". We will also cover 'Getting honeybees for your hive'. The meeting will be followed by........
• April 9th Workshop follows on from meeting - Build your own solitary bee house - practical & fun.
• April 30th all day workshop. Build your own honeybee hive - practical & fun. In 2011 we will be building Warré hives, adapted to allow for the easy introduction of framed bees for those buying their bees in nucs.
• May 14th Meeting - to include and 'Kitting yourself out'
• June 18th Meeting - to be followed by our annual BYO Barbecue/garden picnic lunch. NB: This meeting was originally 11th June but had to be moved - my apologies.
• July 9th Meeting - 10:30am Yatton Library 
• August 13th Meeting Due to holiday commitments we have decided to cancel the August meeting.
• September 10th Meeting
• October 8th Meeting

If you wish to join one of these meetings we'd love to see you - please email YABeeP@googlemail.com or tel: 01934 876275to let us know who you are, how many will attend and to get directions to the meeting. 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 to network with each other to expand our 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/bee box
• Allow us to meet socially and have the occasional BBQ, picnic, etc., after all life’s not all about bees.

Typical meeting

Where do we meet?

Meetings mostly take place in the Yatton area as this is central to our North Somerset 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.

Meeting format

YABeeP believes in holding informal meetings; we don't instruct our members or provide formal training courses but use a 'learning through doing with support' philosophy. Meetings are used to provide peer support and help for those new to bees. We also try to have short 10/15 minute themed talks at our meetings, mostly given by our own members (volunteers always needed!) but occasionally bringing in a local(ish) expert. Weather permitting, we also use meetings to let members get up close and personal with bees and experience the workings of the various bee homes we use.

Learn about hive types

Up close & personal with bees

Workshops

In addition to our monthly meetings we also hold practical 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! These workshops will be listed in the Dates section above in red when arranged.

Horizontal honeybee hive workshop - the fruit of our labours

Build a wild bee home
(photo © Simon Johnson)

page written by Robin Morris