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2024-10-31-accounts

The Lancashire and North West Beekeepers Association

Affiliated to the British Beekeepers Association Lancashire and North West B.K.A

(Founded 1882. Reconstructed separately 1899) Registered Charity No 506167

Handbook and annual reports 2023-4

Contents

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ....................................................................................................2 Officers of the Association ....................................................................................................3 Reports 2024 ..........................................................................................................................4 Chairs report .......................................................................................................................4 Secretary report ...................................................................................................................5 Trophy Officer .....................................................................................................................6 Hon Treasurer Consolidated Accounts ....................................................................................7 Honorary Treasurer’s Statement of Accounts ..........................................................................8 Hon Examinations Secretary Report .......................................................................................9 Honey Show Report............................................................................................................ 10 Branch Annual Reports ........................................................................................................... 12 Blackpool and Fylde............................................................................................................ 13 East Lancashire .................................................................................................................. 14 Lancaster .......................................................................................................................... 16 Liverpool and District.......................................................................................................... 17 Oldham & District .............................................................................................................. 18 Ormskirk and Croston ......................................................................................................... 19 Preston and District ............................................................................................................ 22 Southport and District ........................................................................................................ 23 Northern Region Bee Unit Report ............................................................................................ 25

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE

Status Registered Charity Number 506167

Patrons None

President Martin Smith

General Secretary Mrs Jan Blanthorn-Hazell Independent Examiner (audit) Mr Conor Edwards

The Association’s Bank: Metro Bank Trustees:

President Mr. Martin Smith; Chairperson Mrs Viki Cuthbertson Treasurer Mr Ian Bickerstaffe General Secretary Mrs Jan Blanthorn-Hazell

Objectives of the Society:

The primary Objectives of the charity are: To promote and further the craft of beekeeping

To advance the education of the public in the importance of bees in the environment and the

economy.

Officers of the Association

President - Mr Martin Smith

Chair - Mrs Viki Cuthbertson

Vice - Chair - Mr Michael Gardner Hon Gen Sec - Mrs Jan Blanthorn-Hazell

Hon Treasurer - Mr Ian Bickerstaffe

Hon Convention Officer - Mrs Liane Doree

Hon Handbook Sec. - Ms Diane Drinkwater Hon Honey Show Officer -Mrs Elaine Hargreaves

Hon Webmaster - Mr Mark Oakley

Hon Education co-ordinator - Mrs Viki Cuthbertson

Hon Examinations Officer - Mrs Robina Johnstone

Hon Examiner of Accounts incoming – Mr Conor Edwards Disease Liaison Officer - Miss Caroline Coughlin

Beecraft Rep & Trophies Officer- Mrs Jan Blanthorn Hazell

BDI Rep - Mr Martin Smith*

ADM Rep -Mr Dave Heaton

Reports 2024

Chairs report

This has been my first year as Chair of LNWBKA, and it has been interesting and enjoyable learning about the organisation from the inside, and meeting more of my fellow beekeepers from around the county. So my first “Thank you” is to all the members of the Association for electing me as Chair.

2024 was very mixed weather wise, a wet spring, followed by a cloudy summer. However, this seemed to suit my bees and I had a bumper honey harvest - I hope all our members were as lucky.

The Association, as always, has had a busy year at all levels, with a successful county Spring Convention and County Honey Show, Thanks go to Liane Doree and Elaine Hargreaves for all their hard work ensuring these events went so smoothly. I must also mention all our Branches, who run varied programmes of lectures and practicals all year round, maintain training apiarys and teach new beekeepers the ropes. So Thanks to all their Branch Officers, without whom the Association would not function.

Education continues to be a valued resource for our members and thanks go to the Branch Education Secretaries, and to all those running Beginners, Basic and higher practical sessions, and to the tutors working with students studying to pass Module exams. Not forgetting our hard working Exam Secretary, who organises the exams and liaises with National. My congratulations go to everyone who passed an exam or assessment this year - everything you learn helps to improve your beekeeping.

Thanks must also go to every member of Central Council, who turn out for meetings, make decisions, manage the finances, represent us on other bodies and support the Association and each other in very many ways.

Finally, congratulations go to Rocco Croft-Senior, one of our junior members, who was part of the England team at the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers. I’m very pleased that the Association was able to provided some sponsorship for Rocco for his amazing trip (see March 25 BBKA News). The team came a very creditable 5th.

Viki Cuthbertson

Secretary report

It’s been a sharp learning curve as the new secretary and I am still finding things arise that should be written in “The Great Secretary’s Handbook” somewhere, but I have yet to find it! So I am happy to apologise for the many errors along the way and hope that next year will be smoother. We now have a WhatsApp group set up for the branch secretaries and myself following the suggestion by MG at our last meeting. The feedback from the secretaries is very positive with easy communication and information sharing already showing excellent results. We are thinking of ways to improve creating emails via Google docs/PDFs, email addresses and how to create a to do list for secretaries to serve as reminders for the infrequent events and for essential tasks that haven’t been passed on from retiring secretaries. It has been restricted to secretaries only and I will be reaching out to membership secretaries for their opinion on a WhatsApp group for their role. Jan Blanthorn-Hazell

Trophy Officer

The repairs are being carried out on one trophy from the Honey Show which although awarded was found to be cracked and therefore kept back. Thankfully Ian Sturgess has been very patient as the old enamel base was costed at £300 to replace and the engraver suggested a woodturner to carve a wooden base instead but this also proved expensive. We are lucky to have our very own woodturner in Chris Carey at Preston branch who is very kindly working on this as we speak. Once it is turned the engraving band can be replaced and all the names moved across. We hope to have this completed soon so Ian can enjoy some time with the trophy before it must be returned for the next show. Jan Blanthorn-Hazell

Hon Treasurer Consolidated Accounts £21259.W cap1•￿ £21.(W.Nl £0.00 Bank IntW•bt £135 58 £1.499.50 con￿￿ £0.00 £1.824 32 £0 £467.50 £O.C#J Tax Refur#Js frryn HIARC £11.479.30 £35.W EducJn £141 ￿ SurKJry £0 CIJ R¢￿ Hin £56 C¥) £19.955.00 £1.628.C t1,984.21 £1.205.24 £216.C(s £412.00 £611. £11.479.30 £1S2 37 FJJbsK £1.615 81 I￿￿1)•r8 £ICQ.(KI £829 80 EryravwJ £133 CJ) SuThJry £i.W W Ex¥r £0 (K) kjmui ClwgoB) £164.60 £1,Oc￿.(￿ £o.(wJ £23I90A8 Totsl £0 CQ Wtb £3&711a6 £107.20 C8gh Br• £16.W 89 Opermw W ba• £15.358.59 £15.358.$9 Ckw ￿nk £12.138.86 £11A7&09 to 00 ￿ue £153￿• £0 00 c4 113U6 £oco £16.67&09 £12.138A6 £60.860.21 Sn•d 8nod </IPwl ii/J/dC. D•t•

Honorary Treasurer’s Statement of Accounts

I have attached copies of the Consolidated Accounts for the year to 31st October 2024. I have also included for information the County accounts for the same period. Some points to note as follows:

Income

  1. Increased by £14.5k during the year mainly as a result of the Gift Aid refunds (see below) 2. Subscriptions increased by £3.3k

  2. Interest – small increase as branches begin to utilize deposit accounts

  3. Apiary income includes Treatments, so similar year on year

  4. Sales to members reduced by £3.3k

Expenditure

  1. A slight reduction of £1.5k year on year.

  2. Capitation and BDI similar year on year.

  3. Honey Show expenditure increase includes some apiary costs – correcting for some identified mis postings after the reviews would reduce the costs by £667.

  4. Subs & Donations made during the year include:

  5. a. County - BBKA Yellow Legged Hornet Fund £1,000 b. County - Rocco Croft-Senior YBA Trip £500 c. Lancaster – Friends of Mawson Garden Silverdale £2,002 5. Education – full year effect of subsidising exams £1,000

  6. Purchases for resale reduction in line with sales

Gift Aid Submissions

  1. Submissions to HMRC were made for the tax years 22/23 and 23/24. This brings us up to date. a. Tax Year 22/23 - £21,957 – refund £5,489

  2. b. Tax Year 23/24 - £23,959 – refund £5,990

  3. All funds have been distributed to the branches.

  4. Submission of the 24/25 Gift Aid Return will be made in April. Financial position

  5. The Association has bank balances of £116,649 and stock/cash balances of £9,459 at the end of the period totaling £126,078. An increase of £12,227 over the year. This increase can be mainly attributed to the Gift Aid refunds.

  6. The bank surplus is growing, and efforts should be made to utilize the funds in line with the objectives of the charity. Closing balances have moved from £90k in 2021 without any stock to the current gross total of £126k.

Hon Examinations Secretary Report

BBKA CERTIFICATES – Distributed at LANCASHIRE SPRING CONVENTION 2025 PRESTON. On this occasion every Lancashire Branch had Members who had been awarded BBKA Certificates, a first in my experience. (2017 to present date)

Credit goes not only to the successful candidates, but also to Viki Cuthbertson and everyone else who give their time and commitment to educating our Members.

2 MICROSCOPY awards were made increasing the number of Lancs. Member who hold this Certificate from 7-9.

AWARDS for Members unable to attend (including the Leonard Ross Cup) were given to Branch Representatives for safe keeping and distribution.

APPLICATIONS TO DATE BASICS 2 MARCH 2025 MODULES 13 (10 Online 3In Person) GH 2 AH 4 SHOW JUDGE 1

BBKA ZOOM MEETING FOR EXAMINATION SECRETARIESTUESDAY 11th MARCH

I will report back to next CC and inform the Education Team of any significant developments in the meantime.

MODULE EXAMS SATURDAY 22nd MARCH 2025

All candidates have received information and instructions from the Exam Board Thanks to Ian Hinde who has kindly agreed to assist me with organisation and administration on the day.

THANKS AND A REQUEST.

Thank you to all Members involved in Practical and Module training who keep me informed of their Branches activities and candidate details Applications have been much easier to manage and it allows me to keep you up to date too.

This makes my role considerably easier, please continue!

Robina Johnstone Examination Secretary.

Honey Show Report

The Lancashire & North West Beekeepers’ Association Honey Show was held on 5th October 2024 at Walton le Dale High School, Bamber Bridge.

Once again, previous targets were met and exceeded, with 61 exhibitors (including 4 branches) entering 408 exhibits.

Our four judges, Tony Jefferson (Whitby), Sarah Haynes (Harrogate), and Dave & Bron Wright (Edinburgh), capably assisted by stewards Sue Lang (Bedford), Josephine Anderson (Hebden Bridge), Graham Curwen (Ormskirk & Croston BKA) and Chris Humphries (Lancaster BKA), gave the entries a thorough assessment.

As in previous years, the judges were impressed by the number, variety and overall quality of the exhibits.

Awards were well spread, with both newer and more experienced exhibitors winning in some very strong classes.

New for this year were the junior classes which were very well supported. The judges for these classes had some very hard decisions to make! We will definitely be scheduling junior classes again.

The Blue Ribbon for best exhibit in show was won by Liane Doree with her stunning entry in the Craft class.

The trophy for Highest Number of Points was won by David Neely and Judith Hayton.

4 branches (Preston, Ormskirk & Croston, Blackpool and Lancaster) entered the branch classes to compete for the E. McCormick President’s Branch Shield, awarded for the highest number of points accumulated across the three branch classes. It was won this year by Preston BKA.

Many congratulations to everyone who won an award.

This year, we had two speakers on different aspects of “Honey”.

The Barbara Roderick Memorial Lecture, entitled “The Truth About Honey”, was given by Lynne Ingram.

Our second speaker, Gino Jabbar, gave a presentation entitled “An Introduction to Honey Sensory Analysis”.

Although I was unable to attend these presentations, feedback was that, despite the technical hitches, they were interesting, informative and well received.

I would like to thank everyone who helped make the show a success: Our Judges: Tony, Sarah, Dave & Bron. Our Stewards: Sue, Chris, Josephine & Graham. Our Speakers: Lynne & Gino. Caroline who acted as scribe, bringer of food and sounding board. Chris & Tracy who helped before, during and after the show. Steve for being a gopher extraordinaire! Nicky who ably ran “front of house”.

Viki for hosting our speaker (& those who also offered but whose accommodation wasn’t required on this occasion).

Jan for relieving me of the burden of dealing with the trophies and helping clear up. And all those who helped in all sorts of different ways, both big and small. The help of each & every one of you is very much appreciated!

But mostly, I would like to thank all those who entered and staged so many fabulous exhibits – without you there would be no show!

Lancashire Honey Show is being recognised both as a good show with high quality exhibits, but also as a very friendly show – we should all be very proud of that.

We have set the bar high but hope to continue to grow & enjoy “our” show in the future. The 2025 show is to be held on Saturday 11th October at Myerscough College.

The schedule will be available in early summer, once finalised, but the classification will be very similar to previous years, so save the date & start thinking what you and/or your branch will be able to enter!

If you have any comments, thoughts or suggestions about the show or ideas for speakers, or if you want any guidance about showing, please contact me.

Elaine Hargreaves (Hon. Exhibitions Officer)

Branch Annual Reports

Each Branch provides an annual report for this handbook.

Branch Contact Details

Please visit the branch websites for up-to-date contact details and details on how to join

Lancashire and North West BKA https://www.lancashirebeekeepers.org.uk/

Blackpool and Fylde http://www.blackpoolbees.co.uk/ East Lancashire http://www.eastlancsbees.org.uk/ Lancaster http://www.lancaster-beekeepers.org.uk/ Liverpool and District http://www.liverpoolbeekeepers.co.uk/ Oldham & District http://www.odbka.org Ormskirk and Croston https://www.ormskirkbeekeepers.org.uk/ Preston and District http://www.prestonbka.org.uk/ Southport and District http://www.southportbeekeepers.co.uk/

Blackpool and Fylde

http://www.blackpoolbees.co.uk/

Looking Back on 2024 – A Year of Growth and New Beginnings

Despite some challenges in 2024, our branch has made great strides! While attendance at meetings was lower than we’d hoped and membership saw a slight decline, we’re pleased to report that we now have around 70 members and a revitalized committee, with new faces bringing fresh energy and ideas. This expanded team will help us spread the word about our activities and keep our branch thriving. One of our biggest successes was establishing a brand-new club apiary at a local school! Our Sunday morning apiary visits have become a fantastic way for members—especially new beekeepers—to connect, share knowledge, and support each other in managing our hives.

Our branch continues to make a strong impression at events. The Great Eccleston Show remains a highlight, drawing in 50,000 visitors over two days. Our stand always attracts plenty of interest, with our demonstration hive, honey sales, candle rolling, and more helping to educate the public about the vital role of bees and the benefits of local honey. Last year, we were proud to see our members succeed in the competition classes, bringing home well-earned awards!

Our Bee Awareness Day at Lytham Hall is another firm favourite, offering an engaging mix of educational talks, interactive activities, and fun for all ages. Plus, we continue to support local schools by giving talks, bringing along our demonstration hive, and using our specially designed PowerPoint presentation to introduce young minds to the world of beekeeping.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to launch an Introduction to Beekeeping Course at our new apiary. We hope this will become an annual event, helping to bring in new members and ensure the long-term success of our branch.

Lastly, we’re proud to have around 10 members listed as swarm collectors on the National Swarm Map, playing an important role in responsible beekeeping and conservation. Thank you to all our members for your continued support—we look forward to a buzzing year ahead!

East Lancashire http://www.eastlancsbees.org.uk/

ELBKA Chairman report November 2024

Welcome to East Lancashire branch of the BBKA Annual General Meeting (AGM).

I am pleased to report the Association has had another successful year and the Committee has provided support and guidance to our members, actively organising club meetings, educational support, apiary sessions at both Offshoots and Gawthorpe Hall, and our Honey Show. This has been noted in the reports circulated prior to the AGM on the 10th November via email.

Success story: Junior member Rocco Croft-Senior (12yrs) competed and won one of three places to represent the U.K. at the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers in Dubai. Where he will also attend the Rolls Royce Motor Cars apiary which opened on world bee day in 2021. For the members who don't know Rocco, he was featured on the front cover of the BBKA News 231 Aug/24. Both Club and County have also provided additional financial support to ensure Rocco has a wonderful experience. He has also agreed to hold a talk in 2025 and share his experience.

Education we had the largest number of passes, credits and distinctions recorded throughout the Associations in Lancashire. It's wonderful to see the BBKA values of sharing our knowledge with each other is clearly happening and is the combination of our mix of education. From Introductory courses, apiary sessions, online Zoom meetings and club meetings.

Membership has continued to increase and is currently at 203 up 78 over 5 years. We ask members to renew as soon as possible to allow administration be completed by the membership secretary. Apiary both locations have been popular with our members and continue to be well attended. The apiary leads have done an excellent job in making sure these sessions are safe and informative, and the colonies flourish, sometimes in difficult conditions. This year was no exception and to our surprise what is possibly a record harvest. Which has been shared between Offshoots, Gawthorpe, hive leads and foodbanks in Rossendale, Burnley & Clitheroe.

Beekeeping in our area We are able to report once more there have been no reports of AFB, EFB or Asian Hornets in our area.

Swarm Collectors Vici McLean coordinated the swarm collectors WhatsApp and we now have a group working together as a team

Website has been edited and updated, including adding a SSL certificate on our next renewal. Additional support and suggestions are planned for the year ahead.

New member Liaison Officer has provided positive feedback and highlighted how friendly, approachable and informative the members have interacted with one another.

Honey Show we were awarded a Blue Ribbon certificate for having over 100 entries at our local show in October and the show was another success including a talk by Julia Pigott, activities for children and the traditional pie & peas lunch. We also had success at the County Show. Local events:

St Thomas School, Barrowford: Climate Change, Ecofest 4th May Observation Hive and information about ELBKA talking to the general public.

Gawthorpe Hall, Padiham : Walled Garden open day to the general public, 5th October General

information about British bees, Hives, Bees Wax, Asian Hornet and how to get involved in Beekeeping. Darren Helliwell.

East Lancashire Chair

Other educational events:

The ELBKA school visit team visited three schools in the area and did activities with 30-50 Infant and junior children at each visit based around

• pollination – a pollination game, education about which foods come from plants requiring pollination and making seed bombs

• The honey bee colony and beekeeping – live bee observation hive, hive parts and frames

• Hive products – Tasting honey’s from around the world, information about wax and candle rolling. Talks to groups

A member has given a talk on beekeeping to two community groups

Gwen Walton. ELBKA secretary

Lancaster

http://www.lancaster-beekeepers.org.uk/

Lancaster Beekeepers have 77 members who participate in a range of activities the club provides and attends local shows including the Lancs and North West Honey show and national conventions. A member was on radio Lancashire talking about beekeeping, We run a beginners theory course via zoom and a practical course based at our apiary each year. In addition there are other training days throughout the year looking at disease, extraction, queen rearing techniques etc. We also attend festivals, museums and open days to promote the society and responsible beekeeping. We have one nominated swarm collector who assists the public. Members attend the Lancs and North West Honey show and attend other open day and talks as requested to schools and the public.

Liverpool and District

http://www.liverpoolbeekeepers.co.uk/

The Branch held 8 of the initially planned 10 monthly meetings this year, with a couple of speakers being re-arranged for different months within the Calander due to them apparently putting family first! We started the season in January with an inspirational insight into the live of a real Buckfast Monk, with David Prior regaling tales of mead and lazy days on the moors. An interactive meeting in February at the Ship & Mitre combined alcohol and Zoom to provide a detailed Asian Hornet update from a Kent beekeeper on the frontline and our own Education Officer, with a detailed analysis of identifying the hornet and its life cycle. March gave members the opportunity of learning from the wisdom of our retiring Treasurer to be truly Show ‘ready’ with tricks of the trade to make sure your presentation frame for extraction is pristine! April was the debut of your secretary into the realm of beekeeping tuition with a Beginners Guide to Swarm Control methods through a practical demonstration on real hives with pretend swarming bees? Luckily the mayhem was hopefully contained and didn’t cause a swarm of beekeepers to abscond from the demonstrations. As alluded to above, June gave the ideal opportunity to combine an Apiary branch meeting with the hive swaps required at Woolton. The military operation saw everything done and dusted before 4pm. The following month saw a move northward to the Rice Lane Apiary ably managed by our now retired manager. Once more our Education Officer stood in at the last minute to ensure the meeting went ahead when the booked speaker had to pull out. An essential and informative presentation was given upon diseases, pests and pathogens that we should all be familiar with and following the classroom seminar, a practical demonstration took place within the apiary itself so that actual and or potential problems could be identified or noted for further investigation. Practise makes perfect and only by looking and identifying brood and other diseases can you properly manage your colonies. August and October respectively saw the return of the renowned Karl Colyer and the fascinating Kirsty Williams. Both have decades of experience to share, and the room is silent as everyone present lapped up the anecdotes, tips and guidance provided. I am sure they will continue to be regularly requested speakers for forthcoming events.

As members will sadly be aware of the Rice Lane Apiary Manager stepping down. The committee has appointed a caretaker manager until the coming spring to enable the committee to fully assess the health of the colonies after over wintering and for the new manager to be able to fully assess whether the responsibility is manageable with their own apiary commitments. The former Manager was ably assisted by several members who regularly attended and helped. It is hoped this will continue, but this turn of events does highlight that the burden of weekly management of the apiaries is shouldered by a very small number of members and as with the branch meetings, greater involvement of all members would be an ideal and obvious solution to avoiding further problems arising.

The Branches Educational Officer has been extremely busy in running and teaching the beginners’ course and assisting those members who took the Basic BBKA qualification. There were also several talks given by him to promote beekeeping and the aims of the BBKA to local groups including the Women’s Institute, Allotment Society and local primary schools.

The dramatic increase in educational qualifications by members with the BBKA is producing greater ‘officially’ qualified members who will be reaping the rewards in their ability to carry out good bee husbandry and hopefully be able to pass their knowledge onto newer members and beginners alongside the guidance offered by the seasoned beekeepers. Coupled with the balance sheet containing new equipment for the branch’s use, 2025 should see a continuing and growing development and growth of the branch.

Oldham & District

http://www.odbka.org

Membership Trends

Membership levels remain steady but show signs of a potential decline as some members downsize or sell their apiaries due to health or financial reasons. New member inquiries have been limited, with few converting into active memberships.

Public Engagement

Over the past two years, there has been a notable increase in public inquiries, primarily concerning swarms, bumblebee, and wasp issues. Redirecting non-honey bee inquiries appropriately remains a priority. It is clear that the council's referral of honey bee concerns to our branch aligns with our role, and we have a responsibility to educate communities on honey bee welfare and actions for other pollinators.

Ormskirk and Croston

https://www.ormskirkbeekeepers.org.uk/

Ormskirk & Croston District Branch of L&NWBKA Branch Report Year ending 31st October 2024

Ormskirk and Croston branch have had a successful year as demonstrated by the activities and events described in this report.

Recruitment and Membership (Graham Hull) - Membership for the branch is 238 for the past year, which is an increase from 228 last year. The Introduction to Beekeeping course this season attracted 42 new members, all extremely enthusiastic. Of the 33 people who took the Introductory course in 2023, 18 (55%) became members in 2024.

Apiaries - Aughton, and Fir Tree Farm apiaries continue to be successful, and both the bees and the maintenance teams are working very well. Aughton sold 197 lbs of honey and Fir Tree Farm 263 lbs of honey.

Schedule of meetings - Monthly Branch meetings took place at Fir tree Farm Apiary during the summer and winter meetings at New Church House in Ormskirk. A number of highly informative talks were held by experts in various aspects of beekeeping. Executive committee meetings took place regularly through the year.

The Branch Honey Show - A successful day, organised by Graham Curwen, took place in Aughton Village Hall on the 7th of September. There were many entries by members in various categories.

Education – Several education events took place as follows: -

Swarm collection and Asian Hornet Coordinator - Graham Hull is our Swarm Collection Coordinator. We currently have 15 swarm collectors covering our district.

Graham Hull is also branch Asian Hornet Coordinator with the Asian Hornet team currently consisting of 18 people. Twenty-five members have completed the Asian Hornet exercise

Liaison with the public - In support of our charitable objectives and in accordance with BBKA policy to raise awareness of the importance of bees and beekeeping, members attended schools, other organizations.

Talks and demonstrations - Were given by members to organisations including: -

School visits - To raise awareness of the importance of bees several talks and demonstrations have taken place as follows:--

Outside events – Members supported the following events: -

Supporting other local charities – As follows: -

The branch provided Bright Park (a historic Trust and registered charity), Knotty Ash, Liverpool two free places on our beginner’s bee keeping course followed by 8 practical training sessions. In addition, a colony of honeybees was donated to the charity and ongoing support for construction of new hives was provided along with weekly maintenance of the colony.

Branch web site

The site, maintained by Graham Hull and Mark Oakley, continues to be a useful resource for members and interested parties. Information about our programme of events and contact details can be found at www.ormskirkbeekeepers.org.uk

The branch newsletter is published monthly keeping members up to date with bee keeping events, meeting information and education opportunities.

Thanks are due to our chairman for his direction and support, and to the many members who have played an active part in the activities of our Branch this season.

Vicki Hall

Branch Secretary October 2024

Preston and District

http://www.prestonbka.org.uk/

Preston and District Beekeeping Association Report 2025

We are a continually active club with 184 members and a thriving teaching apiary. This year we have 29 candidates on our Beginner’s Course who will go on to have practical experience at the teaching apiary under the guidance of a dedicated team of apiary inspectors.

We provide a mentoring service for new beekeepers and are currently mentoring 3 prison staff who will maintain beehives in local prisons.

Monthly meetings are well attended by our members and a variety of events and lectures take place. A new venture this year is “The Hive Lab”, which involves two of our members running microscopy courses at the local agricultural college where our teaching apiary is located.

Our popular Meet the Bees Taster Days are running again this year. These events encourage members of the public to find out more about our honey bees and take a look inside a hive.

In order to help our members we have a system of loaning out equipment and held our first ever equipment auction last year. This was a huge success.

Thirteen of our members are on the National Swarm Map System where members of the public can report swarms and our well maintained Facebook page and website provide information to members and the general public on the courses we run and current topics. Many of our members were also part of the Asian Hornet Watch.

The PBKA organises the Lancashire Spring Convention which is always a success and we attend country shows locally with our observation hive. Shows include Garstang Show, Fylde Steam and Vintage Show and Fylde Vintage Farm Show. Last year four of our members attended the National Honey Show in two categories.

Our members hold many talks locally on the importance of bees in the environment and to the economy in food production. We have given talks to the Young Farmers, Cubs, Brownies, the WI and schools.

We continue to thrive thanks to a dedicated committee who give their free time to improve our beekeeping skills and keep the public informed on current concerns such as the Asian Hornet and honey adulteration.

Kathryn Shield. PBKA Secretary.

Southport and District

http://www.southportbeekeepers.co.uk/

Southport and District Report

Despite the fairly mild winter of 2023, several of our members reported large colony losses. This year’s spring was cold and wet and the honey flow never really got going. As a result, many colonies were starving and needed feeding up until June; a few members whose hives were in the right condition at the right time managed to get a reasonable yield from the short summer flow, but for most members yields were significantly down, with some having the worst crop ever.

There were no reports of notifiable bee diseases in the Branch. Varroa levels were generally lower this year. Two reports of suspected Asian Hornets were received, these were both confirmed as queen wasps and were duly released.

The general public reported many more swarms than usual, some in very strange places – the top of a crane jib, inside a central heating boiler, and in a gas regulating valve box, all of which were safely recovered. 5 collected swarms were offered free of charge to members who were without or who had lost bees.

Branch meetings included many talks throughout the year, providing education for many members, including those from other branches. Chorley’s Angels provided a great demonstration focusing on how to use a defibrillator, CPR and anaphylactic shock reactions. Our County Yellow Legged Hornet Coordinator Dave Heaton provided an important update; a talk on honey showing was given by honey show judge John Goodwin; Fred Ayres gave a talk on alternative ways to keep bees; Dave Bonner spoke to members about swarming; and Diane Drinkwater, current Chair of the BBKA, covered why beekeepers give up in the first five years.

We held a Beekeeping Taster session at the beginning of September which was very well attended and together with other courses run by Diane Drinkwater this year helped to increase our public profile and raise funds.

Training sessions at the Branch Apiary included hive set-up, equipment, names of hive parts, record cards and a long discussion about diseases. In April John Bryan did a session on frame making for brood and super and in May Mike Lavelle came to demonstrate an artificial swarm.

This season we included the occasional Sunday morning session for flexibility in case of inclement weather, and also to give people the opportunity to attend if they weren’t available on a Saturday. The weather continued to be very hit and miss with lots of rain, so unfortunately a number of sessions had to be cancelled. Queen-rearing and mating hives were also interesting specialist sessions. The queens reared from these sessions came in very timely for some of the hives that were failing. We have also benefitted from receiving damaged bags of sugar from Tesco, who very kindly donate the unusable sugar to us in exchange for a few jars of honey.

This year has seen the introduction of AH teams and identifiers. We have around 4 identifiers. There has been a lot of AH communications and the introduction of an outreach officer for support. Some members participated in the AH monitoring event earlier in the year.

We had a number of people taking the basic assessment this year which is great and hopefully we can continue this next year.

This year S&DBK have launched a new website, logo, brochure and letterhead. The logo was adapted from the competition winner at the Southport Flower Show. The website also has a new Blog page,

Southport and District Bee Times, written by Diane Drinkwater as an overview of the beekeeping year. Membership 2024

The branch currently has 86 members, a significant increase since 2023 when we had only 59. Gift aid has now been received for both 2022/23 and 2023/24 subscriptions.

During 2024, we have also changed our bank account, we are still with Lloyds Bank but have now got a Treasurers Account.

Although the Flower Show did make a profit this year, as in previous years, we also spent money on

making the tent look more exciting for visitors, so overall we have made a small loss of £81.23. Many of the items invested in for 2024 will continue to be used going forward.

We had expenses for the Apiary this year, mainly due to vandalism, and we invested in replacing and adding to the library books. We also received donations of beekeeping suits from Winstanley College via Mike Stephenson and bees and hives from a member that was giving up beekeeping. Southport Flower Show 2024

A key outreach for Southport and District Beekeepers is the Southport Flower Show, the branch has had a relationship with the sow since the 1940’s. 2024 was a joint celebration, it was the 100 th Flower show and the BBKA’s 150 th Anniversary, the footfall was higher than ever, even with a very disappointing first day which was very wet and discouraged people from attending.

The show has over 50,000 visitors, and as this was a special year the branch made major changes to the presentation of the Bee, Bakery and Preserves Marquee and involvement of our membership Local schools were invited to enter our Future Beekeepers Art competition, details of which were circulated via our website, social media and Sefton Council. We had over two hundred and fifty entries from local schools, with some entries from as far away as Australia. There were two age groups for the competition, with winners in each of the groups. Our winners received their prizes from Diane Drinkwater, Chair of BBKA. The winning design of the older age group has been turned into the new logo for our branch by a local designer, who gave his services free of charge.

Members of several branches volunteered to help in the marquee. These amazing volunteers explained to visitors the various entries and exhibits, engaging, and encouraging everyone to learn more about bees and beekeeping.

Within the marquee we made significant changes to our signage and displayed the full set of Royle educational posters which brought lots of questions around beekeeping and created positive talking points. We had two bespoke displays modules made and this year they were used to give a comparison view of how beekeeping used to be and where we are now. There were displays of older equipment and photographs from archives which we were able to compare. These displays will have different themes each year.

Two observation hives, fully manned by our experienced members throughout the show, provided the opportunity to answer a lot of questions from the general public.

We were grateful for the loan of a WBC cedar hive with a copper roof as a show piece from our local bee supplier Simon the Beekeeper.

For younger visitors, who loved our pair of commissioned hand-crafted wicker bees flying high in the Marquee, we had specific displays of a bee’s lifecycle, some brochure for them and our candle making proved to be even more popular. We were also very busy at the honey tasting table with all the tasting samples provided by local beekeepers.

The live bee demonstrations, weather permitting, happened a number of times over the four days of the show. These gave people the opportunity to see a beekeeper looking inside a hive and observing bee behaviour while the beekeeper explained what he was doing and why. There were Q&A sessions after each, with our Joint-Chair John Bryan, after 40 years, handing over the reins to Vinny Greenall our apiary manager.

There were over sixty judged classes including, displays of honey, mead, wax cakes, candles, plants, flowers, photographs, bee equipment, artwork, cakes, and biscuits. There are some areas where we significantly need to improve the number of exhibitors, and we have plans in early stages to help in this area and encourage more members to enter.

The information leaflets received great feedback, and our up-and-coming taster day was very popular with people showing a continued interest in wanting to know how to help bees and what to plant to give them better sources of pollen and nectar. There was a great deal of concern about the overall welfare or all bees with children showing enthusiasm in learning more.

We also successfully improved our profile within the community: Vinny was interviewed by Radio Merseyside answering questions and talking about beekeeping, and we had photographer taking photographs of some of our members, these went on to be published in Lancashire Life magazine.

Northern Region Bee Unit Report

The National Bee Unit no longer publish their regional reports. Data is available on their website in the form of maps which shows the North West region is free of both European and American Foulbrood: https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/diseases-and-pests/reports-charts-and-maps/maps-2 More information about the Statutory Apiary Inspection programme can be found here: - - - - - - https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/about us/apiary inspection programme/the statutory apiary - - inspection programme 3/

Lancashlre and North West Beakggpovs Asso¢iation corn￿ld￿ Accounts to 31st October 2024 £31.611 £410 £0 £369 £10.673 £2.140 £13.899 £75 £1,824 É890 £11.479 £0 £1.129 Donoiion8 £0 Adverts £60 Interest £9.383 Ho￿Y Show3 £2,198 B.D.l. Exlra Hl¥eB £12,004 Edu(aion £13 Equipment £1.500 ConventKJn £1.080 Socia15 & Raffl8s £0 Tax RefjJThJs IGfft £1.898 Treatments £0 Newsletters £3.648 Aptary IrwNI £1,507 Sundry Incomè £0 Grants £851 Fundr81$ £0 capita￿On £18,375 Sales lo members £0 Funds Introduced £0 Postages £515 Prtrrting & Stalionory £20,906 B.B.KA Capitation £28 Insurance £12.933 Honey Sh £3.038 B.D.l. £5.476 Educathjn £1.653 Equipm8nt £1295 Convention £1.365 Socials Func £1.448 Room8 £910 Lectufgfs £2.193 Treatrn&nts £0 £21,096 £56 £15.527 £2.982 £5.680 £1,205 £483 £1.504 £970 i[1 £0 £412 £611 £0 £4.005 £1,419 £133 £1.627 £10,531 Éo £0 £11.948 £320 Honorarla £830 CLW Engrav. & Repotrs £0 Handbook £930 Subs & Donallons £221￿ Sundr188 £0 Book8 £1,298 Admwt Ind po5tsge £10.96d Aplary £0 88nk rtt8ry88 £0 Gift ald lo branches £18,568 pu￿8$85 for resa Funds transfe￿ed £0 £504 £15,099 £0 £80,999 Total Incon £H889 Totsl Exp•ndl￿r• £83A11 £7,849 OpordThJ Ca8hlSto¢k 8al8r £9.371 £9.371 Clo8lng Cg$lVStock Balance £9.459 £106,941 Openkng Bank B¥lancg £0 Lmprè88rted Cr £0 undeposlied fijnds £0 8lo¢k £114590 Totsl Assots £101,854 -£505 £3.131 £101.854 ctosing Bank 8alarKo -£505 unpffjsented ¢1 £0 undepostted fund5 stock £110,720 Total A•￿ts £110,819 £0 £0 £113081 £126.078 £198,189 A•Mts + Incom• £209.389 £209,389 slgned lan Blckerntaffo Hon Tr￿urer Slgned Thoma8 Gont Independent Examln•r

Lancashire & North West BKA

126[th] AGM of the Lancashire & Northwest Beekeepers Association Saturday 8[th] March 2025

Honorary Treasurer’s Statement of Accounts

I have attached copies of the Consolidated Accounts for the year to 31[st] October 2024.

I have also included for information the County accounts for the same period.

Some points to note as follows:

Income

  1. Increased by £14.5k during the year mainly as a result of the Gift Aid refunds (see below)

  2. Subscriptions increased by £3.3k

  3. Interest – small increase as branches begin to utilize deposit accounts

  4. Apiary income includes Treatments, so similar year on year

  5. Sales to members reduced by £3.3k

Expenditure

  1. A slight reduction of £1.5k year on year.

  2. Capitation and BDI similar year on year.

  3. Honey Show expenditure increase includes some apiary costs – correcting for some identified mis postings after the reviews would reduce the costs by £667.

  4. Subs & Donations made during the year include:

  5. a. County - BBKA Yellow Legged Hornet Fund £1,000 b. County - Rocco Croft-Senior YBA Trip £500 c. Lancaster – Friends of Mawson Garden Silverdale £2,002

    1. Education – full year effect of subsidising exams £1,000

  7. Purchases for resale reduction in line with sales

Gift Aid Submissions

  1. Submissions to HMRC were made for the tax years 22/23 and 23/24. This brings us up to date.

  2. a. Tax Year 22/23 - £21,957 – refund £5,489

  3. b. Tax Year 23/24 - £23,959 – refund £5,990

  4. All funds have been distributed to the branches.

  5. Submission of the 24/25 Gift Aid Return will be made in April.

Financial position

  1. The Association has bank balances of £116,649 and stock/cash balances of £9,459 at the end of the period totaling £126,078. An increase of £12,227 over the year. This increase can be mainly attributed to the Gift Aid refunds.

  2. The bank surplus is growing, and efforts should be made to utilize the funds in line with the objectives of the charity. Closing balances have moved from £90k in 2021 without any stock to the current gross total of £126k.