A.G.M. 25^th March 2009

Chairman’s Report

 I start the meeting on not such a good note; three of our committee members, Chris Richmond, Rowena Ditchfield and Richard Thomas have resigned during the year due to work commitments. We all thank these members for their valuable contributions to OBKA.

 The year 2008 will go on record as the second consecutive year of bad foraging weather with the honey crop at least 50% down on an average year; this coupled with the worst recorded outbreaks of foul brood disease in Oxfordshire for 10 years with a total of 97 cases discovered, 34 of which were AFB.   We are also concerned about the number of colonies seen to have 2 or even 3 queens at the same time and colonies with unmated queens.

 Winter lectures covered subjects such as control of varroa, Albanian beekeeping, queens and strains and an enjoyable private tour of the Museum of Natural History in Oxford. We also conducted a total of 6 demonstrations in members’ apiaries as well as the Teaching Apiary. Public exhibitions include Thame Show and Cotswold Wildlife Park. Our thanks go to Camilla and Clendon Daukes for arranging such a programme.

 The Teaching Apiary was well used this year with 22 students enlisting for the beginners’ course, 18 of whom received a certificate for completing over 70% of the course. Due to my hospitalisation our thanks go to Martin Seth Smith for organising the course and for recruiting Terry Thomas and John Harris as teachers who all did a wonderful job. The last meeting this year held at this apiary ended in disaster “ bee-wise “ when EFB was discovered in one colony. This colony was destroyed that evening. We have a standstill order on the apiary but hope that the action taken will permit the order to be lifted at the first DEFRA inspection in 2009. We have a contingency plan in operation for the teaching to continue in 2009 should EFB be found. Please remember that routine inspections by DEFRA will not now be taking place; there has to be “cause” to make an inspection visit, i.e., that notifiable disease is in your area. So if you suspect that all is not well in your colonies do get in touch with your local bee inspector. Finally, there are always jobs to do in the bee garden next to the teaching apiary and everyone is welcome; don’t just leave it to the dedicated group to whom we give our hearty thanks.

   Our Honey Show has a new secretary namely Michael Rose, He organised a splendid show with an increase in exhibits from the previous year. All exhibitors were given a pat on the back by the show judge, Martin Buckle, commenting on the high standard of the exhibits. We congratulate Mike for all his hard work both at the show and all the follow up work placed on our website

 Your support to the BBKA research funding project hammering the government for more money to be spent on bee research was successful. Let us hope that the money is put to the right project and find the answer to why our bees are so much in decline. We may also find out -- do mesh floors really work?--whether putting your bees on new comb each year is a good thing?--- does shook swarm really eradicate EFB in that hive?—one thing for certain is that it puts the bees under a lot of stress.

 Last but not least, thankyou once again to Camilla and Clendon for providing this years venue for the AGM. A big thankyou to all our committee members and helpers for their continued support and contributions throughout the year.

 Ian James   Chairman.