Broads Authority funding helps train beekeepers
Beekeeping workshop Sunday 9 May 2pm, Barsham.
Waveney Beekeepers’ Group (WBG) has been given grants by the Broads Authority and Suffolk County Council to establish an educational apiary at its base near Bungay to help increase interest in bees.
The money - £5,000 from the Broads Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund and £1,000 from the locality budget of Bungay County Councillor David Ritchie - will be used to buy equipment for a ten hive apiary at the Grange Farm Centre in Barsham.
Once established later this summer the apiary will be used to provide educational 'taster' sessions for members of the public and schoolchildren, to train up to 30 new beekeepers a year and to raise ‘starter’ colonies of bees for novice beekeepers. The apiary will also function as an ongoing training facility for WBG’s growing membership and any surplus bees will be made available to members who have lost colonies.
Over the last 100 years, in the UK alone, there has been a 75% reduction in the number of bee colonies - from 1 million down to 250,000. Colony losses in England since 1985 have averaged 11% and there has been an alarming 30% decline in the number of British beekeepers during this period. There are now only 44,000 beekeepers in the UK, 99.5% of them amateurs, each with an average of six hives.
A combination of pests (notably the varroa mite), disease, pathogens, pesticides, stress and poor management has decimated colonies worldwide. Colony Collapse Disorder, which has led to the loss of over 35% of honey bees in the USA, is also a very real danger for European beekeepers.
The pollination of UK food crops by honey bees is currently valued by the Government at £200 million per annum. That’s a hundred times more than is spent on bee research in a normal year.
Many people are genuinely concerned at the decline and an encouraging number have expressed an interest in keeping bees - or just learning more about them.
WBG’s new training apiary will help meet some of this demand. It will be used to train individuals and members of community groups such as the Bungay Community Bees project. It will also be used to host school visits and public open days.
Bob Spruce, WBG’s Chairman, said: “I started keeping bees when I was 13 years old; but that was over 50 years ago. A lot has happened since then and we desperately need to encourage more people to take up the craft - particularly young people. If we don’t agriculture will suffer, the environment will be seriously affected and local honey may become a thing of the past”.
WBG is holding a workshop for anyone interested in taking up beekeeping at the Grange Farm Centre, Barsham on Sunday May 9 at 2.00 pm. An eight week practical evening course for aspiring beekeepers begins on May 19 and there are still places available. Contact Bob Spruce on 01508 492963 for details of both events.
WBG has existed for 24 years. It is a branch of the Suffolk Beekeepers’ Association and is affiliated to the British Beekeepers’ Association. Its 110+ members are spread across an area of Norfolk and Suffolk stretching from Bacton in the north to Halesworth in the south.
PICTURE CAPTION: Waveney Beekeepers in a training session.
For further information contact: Bob Spruce, WBG Chairman, on 01508 492963; Nigel Dark, WBG, on 01379 668048; or Hilary Franzen, Broads Authority Press Officer, on 01603 610734.
04/05/10
