BEE DISEASE INSURANCE
All colonies in an apiary must be insured. A colony is any hive having bees in it regardless of size, ie. an Apidea mating box, a nucleus, a swarm or a colony of four frames. If a claim is made and the beekeeper is found to be underinsured then the claim will be invalid and no payment will be made.
Premiums paid after March 31st will not be valid for 61 days after the payment is made.
Compensation rates are:
British Standard Brood £ 1.30 All other brood £ 2.00 British Standard shallow £ 1.20 All other shallows £ 1.60 Plastic £ 4.00 Wire excluder £11.00 Glass quilt £ 9.50 Crownboard £ 8.30 Queen bee £12.00 Saleable honey (30lb max) 80p per poundStrange that the BDI is still working in Imperial Measurement (Ed.)
SPRAY LIAISON
Last year the Council asked you to fill in a form giving the location of your hives in order that our Spray Officer, David CHAMBERS, to contact members if their bees were in an area to be sprayed or any other danger.
The responses were good but unfortunately they were sent to David's old address by mistake and have been lost. Would members please fill one in again?
BBKA SURVEY
NEW MEMBERS
We welcome more new members to our Association. We wish them every success in their endeavours.
Miss Louisa BELL, Mill Lane, COSSALL
Mr M MENDS, Stapleford Lane, TOTON
Mr Anthony SLINGER, Station Road, MISTERTON
NOTTINGHAM REGION WEBSITE
A web site is being developed for the Nottingham Region and hopefully this will be up and running by Christmas. Further details will be in the next edition of BEEMASTER. For technical reasons the font for the newsletter will have to be changed to a more common type. An abridged copy of the relevant BEEMASTER will be on the web site but all names and addresses will be removed before uploading.
Another web site will be available shortly for the Nottinghamshire Beekeepers' Association.
70th NATIONAL HONEY SHOW
The Editor
This year I decided to bite the bullet and go to the National Honey Show. There
is an excellent and cheap return bus service from Nottingham to London which
allowed me about four hours to see the show. I soon realised things were not as
I had been lead to believe when I saw a tatty board tied to a railing with binder
twine which indicated the venue. Once inside came the second shock. Instead of
the £4 entrance fee, announced in the beekeeping press and which had influenced
my decision to go to the show in the first place, I was asked for £6. Having
paid and entered I found that directions to the various locations indicated by
poor handwritten notices. This cannot be the NATIONAL Honey Show !
I then entered the hall containing the honey exhibits. There I found sterile
rows of uniform honey jars laid on racks with handwritten class labels. There is
more atmosphere on the moon than in this room . People visiting shows like to see
movement. Where were the people actually doing something - casting wax, making
candles, sewing their samplers? Attendants in white coats are off putting to most
people. And what is the purpose of these people - are they there to explain, to
enthuse or are they there as guardians?
However, one exhibit did catch my eye, beekeeping stamps, my high interest. I was
amazed to find that someone had had the nerve to enter, in the NATIONAL Honey Show,
first day cover of the St. Nevis beekeeping stamps that can be bought from any dealer
for about £2.50.
There was more life in the Trade Hall. Here I did find some people who had an obvious
purpose in being at the Show. I was able to share my interests with other beekeepers
and work out plans for publishing in 2001. To the delight of some customers I was
also able to do some book signing a la Geoffrey Archer.
My wife and I then decided to go for a cup of tea. We were charged more than we had
paid in the motorway restaurant coming down the M1.
On then to the computer exhibit. First go - no one there. Second go - no one there.
Third go - person demonstrating how clever he was in producing pictures of people at
the show. Very little to do with actual beekeeping and what a waste of opportunity.
I don't think I will go to the National Show again until the organisers find their way.
They had the cheek, in my opinion, to say in their introductory pamphlet that the
National Honey Show was the biggest and best in the whole world (sic). God help the
rest I say!
However, they did appeal for someone to help with the preparation and organising of
their publicity. I feel their first priority is to get a product to sell before they
open shop. I came away thankful that my guests could not in the end make it to the
show. I would have been embarrassed if they had done so.
