Programme 2020 (subject to change)
| Date | Venue | Speaker | Topic |
| Feb 5th | QMH | John Vendy | Natural Beekeeping Top Bar Bee Hive |
| March 4th | QMH | Jane Medwell | Swarm Catching |
| April 2nd | Bradwell VH | Graham Royle | Skyscraper Beekeeping |
| May 6th | QMH | Matthew Ingram | Australian Bee Farming and an insight into extracting honey for hobby and commercial beekeepers |
| July TBC | Lymestone Brewery | Helen Lawton | Tour of Brewery/hives+Lunch |
| Sept 2nd | Hanchurch VH | Clive & Shan Hudson | 12 years of Treatment Free Beekeeping – Our Experience |
| Oct 7th | QMH | M. Teasdale | Honey Show |
| Nov 4th | QMH | Pete Sutcliffe | |
| Dec 2nd | QMH | Vincent Smalley | A hive for all occassions? |
Jane Medwell - Positive Aspects of Swarming
From 7:00 for 7:30
At The Friends Meeting House
Miller Street, Newcastle under Lyme ST5 1QJ
'Positive Aspects of Swarming- catching them, housing them and using them'
Jane Medwell is a Master Beekeeper who “picked up” beekeeping from her mother and has passed it down to her son. She keeps bees in Warwickshire, where modern beekeeping is very different from the carefree practices of her childhood. She ran around 40 colonies for many years but now keeps only half a dozen colonies, and does a good deal of teaching, training and examining. She is Chairman of Warwick and Leamington Beekeepers.
Swarminess is a bee trait beekeepers once prized - but we are less keen now! At this time of year we are all thinking about swarm prevention. However, a certain number of swarms are inevitable and in this presentation, I will consider how we can catch them, keep them and make the very best of them. I will share my experience, and that of some of my colleagues and there will be a prize for the best swarm story on the evening!
Beekeeping for Beginners 2020
This course has been designed to give a detailed introduction to those attracted to this hobby.
From 10.00am until 5.00pm
At Wolfson Lecture Theatre
Keele University ST5 5BG
The one-day course will enable complete beginners to make a confident start, whilst enhancing the skills and knowledge of those who have started recently. (more…)
Matthew Ingram - My Journey into Bee Keeping
Australian Bee Farming and an insight into extracting honey for hobby and commercial beekeepers
From 7:00 for 7:30
At The Friends Meeting House
Miller Street, Newcastle under Lyme ST5 1QJ
Australian Bee Farming and an insight into extracting honey for hobby and commercial beekeepers.
From October 2019 to March 2020 I was fortunate enough to be able to work on a 1,800 hive bee farm in New South Wales, Australia. A large increase from my 80 hives back at home and a massive learning curve. I will talk about some of the biggest differences between Australian and British beekeeping as well as some of the practices I learnt and will be using with my own bees.
Honey extracting is a love it or hate it part of beekeeping, usually the first few times harvesting your own honey is exciting but the sticky mess left behind can soon leave you feeling like extracting is a chore rather than something to enjoy.
I will talk you through my progression from a hobby beekeeper to a commercial setup and what equipment I have learned to be invaluable along the way. As well as mistakes I’ve made (Because we all make them) so that hopefully you can learn from them.
As well as extracting the honey food hygiene and best practices are also an important part and so I will touch on these from my own experience of dealing with both Environmental Health and Trading Standards.
