Avid Beekeeper Visiting Scotland

[brushwoodnursery]

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! :)

[gavin]

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.

[brushwoodnursery]

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.

[Poly Hive]

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

[brushwoodnursery]

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?

[Poly Hive]

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

[brushwoodnursery]

Looks as though I will be sharing about beekeeping with one of your groups! Please tell me, do you have much issue with small hive beetles? Wax moth? What are your other pressures and concerns? I'd like to be able to compare and want to have interesting information to share.

[Jon]

No small hive beetle in the UK yet

[gavin]

The top two issues are poor queen mating (we can go weeks without the right weather in summer) and Varroa. Yes, chalkbrood is an issue but we just tolerate it and change queens when we can. Foulbroods (both of them) are an issue and cause local concern from time to time. We're watching carefully to see how the Asian hornet invasion will go but it seems possible that both it and small hive beetle may be a lesser problem in our climate. Occasional viruses too including CBPV.

Don't let any of that put you off telling us about your problems and your beekeeping - we'd be really interested to hear! I'll be there at your talk in July more than likely. As long as I'm on top of my move to the heather and am not struggling to deal with the massive honey flow that month ;).

In Scotland, as in Ireland, there's more of an ethos of using local bees than elsewhere. Some of us are taking that to the point of trying to ensure the survival of the native type, the dark European honey bee. There has been a lot of mixing with other types over the years and, in recent decades, less of an effort to improve what we have here already.

[brushwoodnursery]

Gavin, I missed your reply. I'm glad to hear folks will be interested. I'll try to gather as much locally pertinent information; climate, flow, specific nectar sources. If my season goes right, I will have just moved some hives to the mountains for the Sourwood flow.

[brushwoodnursery]

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. ;)

[gavin]

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.

[Mellifera Crofter]

... 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

[gavin]

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.

[Thymallus]

Toothpicks!!!!
You Scots sure do live up to your reputation :)
I use wooden tea stirrers (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WOODEN-STIRRERS-COFFEE-TEA-178mm-7-1000-FOR-PAPER-CUPS-HOT-DRINKS-STICKS/222136267027?hash=item33b85a7113:g:gF0AAOSwZtlaGFf e), slightly bigger and about £4.50/1000. Extravagant lot us "Southerners"

[Kate Atchley]

Toothpicks!!!!
You Scots sure do live up to your reputation :)
I use wooden tea stirrers (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WOODEN-STIRRERS-COFFEE-TEA-178mm-7-1000-FOR-PAPER-CUPS-HOT-DRINKS-STICKS/222136267027?hash=item33b85a7113:g:gF0AAOSwZtlaGFf e), slightly bigger and about £4.50/1000. Extravagant lot us "Southerners"

Surely those are those same “flat wooden” toothpicks Gavin used! But us Scots could break them in half!


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[Thymallus]

Surely those are those same “flat wooden” toothpicks Gavin used! But us Scots could break them in half!

No, totally different. These guys are about 5 inches long, won't slip between your teeth and are not tapered.
Cutting them in half is a Yorkshire trait.....

[brushwoodnursery]

*chuckling*

[gavin]

On the flat sticks and honey tasting. A friend gave me a sample of those long sticks (and the Yorkshire bisected version) last winter. Oh dear, I seem to be joining in that neighbour-baiting activity. Anyway, I'm not convinced (yet). There is that taste of wood and a roughness on the tongue that isn't that attractive. Do you get softwood and birch versions of these flat sticks? Brushwoodnursery's toothpicks seemed so much nicer. The ones I've seen online ('Diamond') are made from birchwood.

[fatshark]

I use plastic disposable hot drink stirrers, not teaspoons, as I also think the wooden sticks (I've tried) feel a bit furry on the tongue. Perhaps not so environmentally friendly (though that's not a given - paper bags vs plastic bags favours the latter from energy in for production/distribution and recycling) but they are recyclable. They're big enough to get the 'taste' but not so big that a jar of honey disappears in minutes. One downside is that they're too flexible to use with set honey.

[Thymallus]

I have both out on my stall and the wooden ones are used more frequently than the plastic ones. So when the last plastic have gone I'll be all wood..... The customer is always right......and being an atypical Yorkshire-man I stopped cutting them in half as I was contaminating them by extra handling.
As Fatshark points out you can't easily sample cut comb with the plastic stirrer's and I find lining them all up the right way round to put into my sample pot is a faff.

[brushwoodnursery]

Gavin,
At the inspections while I was over there, insurance was mentioned. Is it usually obtained through the Associations or clubs? I failed to ask what it covered and how popular it is. Online references indicate it's for loss if hives must be destroyed due to disease. Anything else like liability? Do most beekeepers obtain it? (It's for a presentation I'm putting together)
Also, did anyone take pictures while I was speaking? I'd be grateful if they would share them with me.

[brushwoodnursery]

OK, found my notes about insurance. All set there. I'd still love a pic or two if any turn up.

[gavin]

Sorry, I've been up in the Angus glens, collecting ticks (apparently!).

Yes, two types come automatically with membership of the Scottish Beekeepers Association*. The compensation scheme, covered by a fund held by the SBA, for fire, theft, vandalism, destruction due to 'notifiable disease'. The insurance scheme, underwritten by a major company, for public and product liability. All for the £35 individuals pay for annual membership (and a host of other benefits of course). Just in case your notes weren't comprehensive :-) .

We have a different attitude to disease compared to what I read on US sites. Here we either welcome (most of us) or grudgingly accept (a minority) (folk resistant are very rare) the governmental inspection service and the regulations that require us to destroy (often, or sometimes shook swarm) any hives with confirmed foulbrood disease. The SBA compensation scheme helps that.

As for pics, I don't remember any at the lecture. Janice or Enid might know about the outdoor meeting.

* There is difference here from England (with Wales?) and Northern Ireland. We have separate membership of the national association and of local associations (which can, if they wish, affliliate to the SBA as an organisation but that doesn't mean its members are SBA members). The BBKA and the UBKA gather members largely from an additional fee which folk pay their local associations as part of their annual membership. I'm sure it is something to do with that extra 'K' they put in their acronym but can't quite fathom it. Over to the SBAi posters to sort that one ....

G.

[gavin]

Best I can do! With apologies to Mark at the SBA AGM. My, you *are* a large fellow!

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/danSBA.jpg

[brushwoodnursery]

Thank you, Gavin! -Dan

[gavin]

Thank you, Gavin! -Dan

You *did* spot that it was crudely Photoshopped (well, Gimped) I hope! Just checking .....

G :-)

[brushwoodnursery]

Oh, yes. Good for a morning laugh!

[brushwoodnursery]

If any do turn up, I'd be grateful.
And you're right about the opinion of regulatory officials over here. I don't understand it. My experience has been uniformly positive and I've had my share of difficult situations.

[gavin]

If any do turn up, I'd be grateful.


Janice and Enid don't recall any being taken unfortunately.

[brushwoodnursery]

OK, thanks for asking.

[gavin]

Never mind. You'll just have to tell your audiences that the guy you corresponded with on a forum turned out to look like this:


https://www.thekiltstore.com/images/100148-meninkilts-a3-ins.jpeg?maxheight=1200

.. and you were pleased to see the traditional dress used in their apiaries ..... (only in America!)

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8077/8441107984_6ecd3a3fb9_b.jpg


... plus you were surprised and pleased to see the age spectrum of the Fife beekeepers! (to be fair, the ones who turned up on a weekday)


http://tcya.archspm.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Group-Featured-1140x460.jpg

;)

[brushwoodnursery]

Great! (I'm definitely stealing the middle image)

[gavin]

Seriously (for a change) you might find some of the pictures in the gallery of the Fife Beekeepers website useful.

http://www.fifebeekeepers.co.uk/?page_id=56

Might be able to get higher resolution images for some of them.

[brushwoodnursery]

Thanks. I actually have images from the inspection in St Andrews. Here's a nice video of Enid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCZBxmLuHUs

[gavin]

Excellent!