Newbattle Beekeepers Association

Scottish Beekeepers Association

Annual Beekeeping Convention 

The Annual Convention will be held a Baldragon Academy in Dundee on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th September co-hosted by Baldragon Beekeepers' Association.

The theme this year is Healthy Bees. The speakers are Caishlan Sweeney, Kirsty Stainton and Lynda Davies.

There will be the usual trade area and raffle. Tickets are on sale now at £30 each or £15 for students and juniors

Buy Your Tickets Here

Tickets are on sale for the Bees For Development "Bee Garden Party" on 14 June, to be held in the private gardens of Marlborough House by kind permission of HM The King.

The party will be hosted by Martha Kearney, and Gyles Brandreth will be the auctioneer.

For Tickets and Information

Find out More Here

The Scottish Beekeepers Association  AGM was held today at the Loch Leven Campus, Muirs, Kinross. A small number of Newbattle Beekeepers Association members attended including Lorraine Aitken who received an award for her outstanding service to NBA over a number of years.

Lorraine with her award and below with the other award recipients including Matthew (standing far left)

Helen Nelson retired as General Secretary but was elected as a trustee as was Gino Jabbar. Our very good friend Matthew Richardson was elected President. We are looking forward to welcoming Matthew to Newbattle on 10 June when he will be part of the Scottish Beekeepers Association team of examiners for the Basic Beekeeper Examination. 

Synopsis : A few tips and tricks for first inspections; what to do (and what not to do) about brace comb, supering and queen reintroduction. Introduction The on again, off again, Spring this year has finally decided it wants to be here, rather than somewhere a lot further South. After an unseasonably warm February, March […] Read more of this post

It was all hands to the deck on Saturday when fourteen members joined the work party to prepare equipment, garden, apiary and cottage for the new season of beekeeping.

Hive parts were painted, cleaned and sorted. The seeds were planted in the raised planting beds and the garden and apiary were made tidy. The steam cleaner worked overtime in the first stage of cleaning wooden hive parts that were then scrubbed by the cleaning team using a soda crystal wash 

Jonathan & Ross painting hive parts

Zander, Lorraine and camera shy Keith  scrubbing crown boards & queen excluders

Helen C and Val working in the raised garden beds 

Earth Day, on April 22nd, marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. This celebration of eco-consciousness takes place across the globe with over 190 countries taking part.

From parades, to parties, protests to clean-ups and rallies there are many ways to show your support for a sustainable future. Or we can simply take a moment to rethink our daily habits and rituals, and make a small step-change to do a little more. 

View the official Earthday website here

Dr Hannah Sampson says air pollution's impact on bees could have a knock on effect for humans.

Read more by clicking on the link to take you to the BBC website

BBC - Leicestershire

Could the honey bee help in the fight against infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics?

Find out more by clicking on the link bellow:

I called into the Apiary Cottage on Saturday and was able to turn on a light in every room!

There are also power sockets a plenty, all thanks to Ian Evans who organised the installation of the wiring and the fittings. I believe he was ably assisted by Colin MacKenzie and maybe an electrician. It has been a long time in coming but now that we have security of tenure on the cottage we can finally go ahead with the improvements that are planned.

Watch this space for updates!

Synopsis : Where should bait hives be located to capture your own lost swarms? Can you omit the old brood frame and still make the bait hive attractive? Introduction Social media can be seriously misleading for beekeepers. For months now it seems like I’ve been reading about boxes bulging with bees, third supers being added, […]

Read more of this post