** Bee Health Day in Aberdeen Tomorrow **

[gavin]

Apparently there are still places and they are still happy to take bookings - spread the word!

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An Invitation to Beekeepers in the Aberdeen and District area



The Scottish Government (SG),


Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA)


and Scottish Agricultural College (SAC)





are holding a





BEE HEALTH DAY





on Saturday 19th May 2012


from 9.30am – 5.15pm


at Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB21 9YA
(teas, coffees and lunch will be provided - PLEASE NOTIFY US OF ANY SPECIAL DIETARY REQUIREMENTS)





A full day of lectures and practical sessions covering: AFB, EFB and other Bee Diseases, Apiary Hygiene, a Shook Swarm demonstration and Integrated Pest Control





To book your place or for more information contact:
Alison Knox, P Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD
Tel: 0300 244 9836
Email: Alison.knox@scotland.gsi.gov.uk





Please note that there will be a cost of £25.00


(cheques should be made payable to “SAC”)





- With thanks to -


Aberdeen and District Beekeepers’ Association

[Calum]

hardly seems worth the bother unless it will be 110% about Neonicotinoid & CCD.
:p

[Jon]

Pesticide use and abuse is certainly relevant to bee health, maybe a few percent of the agenda as opposed to 100%
We have a well known bee inspector, Megan Seymour, coming over to NI next weekend to do a series of demonstrations on foulbrood detection.
On a bee health day I would want to hear a lot of stuff about varroa, foulbrood, the two nosemas, and nutrition.

[Neils]

We ran a similar session for our county association Spring Day school a few years back, it was very useful. We had the entire south west Bee unit guys come down to run sessions on pretty much everything disease related.

[Jon]

£25 for a full day event including lunch is damned good value.

[EmsE]

If its the same as the one they held in Edinburgh last year, it certainly is good value for money. It was an excellent course and so worth going to if you have the opportunity.

[gavin]

Can't promise, but if you are reading this late they may let you in if you turn up at the door waving a small amount of paper money. People of Aberdeen: you wouldn't want it known that you didn't come out for the sake of a miserly £25 would you?! The Edinburgh meeting certainly was good. I made the mistake of arriving right on time, but everyone was already seated and Steve had to make the quip about the late Gavin Ramsay ....

[Jimbo]

Would be good if they ran this course in Glasgow and the West

[gavin]

Presumably that is a bit of a hint, hint and it is quite likely that Alison will return to read this. Or lobby Phil Moss or Ian Craig and it will be done. Or Steve Sunderland. On the other hand the SASA event last July was well attended by Glasgow area beekeepers. If those Aberdonians don't turn out in numbers they might feel that it isn't worth the bother.

[drumgerry]

I'm sure a few of us from Moray would have headed over except for the fact that we have one of our monthly meetings today. I'd have been keen to attend for sure.

[gavin]

I wonder if anyone managed to reach it and has any report for us?

[Jimbo]

Still think it would be worth running this course in the West as we have a new west area rep in Mike Thornley from Helensburgh who is keen to promote SBA events, Neil Sanderson from Helensburgh who is the new chair of CABA and is promoting events in the Clyde area and me from Helensburgh who has been asked by Phil Moss to be on the SBA health committee. I know a number of beekeepers went to the Edinburgh event but that is only a fraction of the potential beekeepers in the West association.

[Stromnessbees]

Pesticide use and abuse is certainly relevant to bee health, maybe a few percent of the agenda as opposed to 100%


I was lucky enough to be able to attend this event.

It was very thorough on EFB and AFB, even showing live examples.

There was 0% mention of pesticides by the instructors though, which surprised me, especially as neonicotinoids make bees more susceptible to all sorts of diseases as they interfere with the grooming behaviour of the house bees.

I did have my excellent new book 'A Spring Without Bees, how Colony Collapse Disorder has Endangered Our Food Supply' by Michael Schacker with me, it raised quite a lot of interest amongst the other participants.

[Calum]

Did they at least talk about Wifi or bats? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA8YYK3rXIw).

No obvious attempt to steer this thread towards pesticides at all there.. Nice one.

[mazza]

I'm sure a few of us from Moray would have headed over except for the fact that we have one of our monthly meetings today. I'd have been keen to attend for sure.

Never fear... there is another event scheduled to be held in Inverness on Saturday the 9th June. Contact details to attend are the same as for the Aberdeen event:)