Notes from SKBA Meeting 1st Feb 2023

Apologies from Bredagh, Jane and Pat (Murphy).  17 people attended including 5 beginners.

Our Chair, Louis opened the meeting by welcoming all and thanking the Outgoing and Incoming Committee for all their hard work, particularly on the new website.

Loretta – the website change was difficult and took longer than we thought but now it is working. 

Club Membership lasts for 1 year. The new ‘Subscription’ type of membership means it will automatically renew on the same date the following year.  This is a problem because we are expected to have a list of all our members and to pay IBA (who look after our Insurance etc.,) by the first week in Jan each year.  

To resolve this issue we will change the date subscriptions end to Dec 15th 2023, which means payments for next year will be received in good time.  All were in favour of this once-off technical fix. IF anyone does not want to renew their membership they just need to contact the club and it will be cancelled/refunded.

Voy Tek (Wojciech) has some experience in websites and has offered to help with ours, an offer for which we are very grateful. LN will email him details.

Before Covid we used to have a cup of tea/coffee & biscuits after the meetings so members could chat – Kieran will ask for a volunteer to look after that in his next Newsletter. Please also send any other news items to Kieran.

The YouTube video of Professor Grace McCormack at the London Honey Show was then shown and enjoyed by all.  Bredagh could you please email the link to ALL so they can watch again or those who did not make it to the meeting can see it. 

Colette asked what type of honey bee we keep in SKBA – John (Little) stated we have the native Irish black bee, Apis mellifera mellifera and SKBA is a Conservation Area for the native honey bee.

Members were reminded about the beginners course and that those who paid for the course last year can come back foc this year.  

Karen said we should let beginners know that there are ‘other’ ways to look after bees e.g. ‘natural’ methods etc.,  Agreed that we should provide all information and let beginners choose their own method.  We should include more discussion on this at a future meeting. Pat has a new hive ‘entrance’ he will share. 

{Perhaps a meeting should be titled “I do it My Way” where anyone can share their methods with the room, but with a 10 minute time limit each?}