News

Courses for SBA Module 3 and Basic Beekeeping Certificate

John Gifford is offering this year again a course for preparation for the SBA Module 3 exam and one for the Basic Beekeeping Certificate examination. The Module 3 course started on 1 February 2024 on Thursdays evening in Speybay Hall, the preparation course for the Basic Beekeeping Certificate examination will start around March 2024. Please contact John directly via email on <training.john@moraybeekeepers.co.uk> for details and to sign up for these courses.

 

Winter programme October 2023 – March 2024

Our next winter talks with the AGM is on  Wednesday 28 February in the Elgin Town Hall starting at 7pm, please attend and advertise to your beekeeping friends and family, non-members are welcome to attend our winter talks! We charge £2 on the door, tea/coffee and cake will be provided, and as usual we have a raffle. The topic this time is :  AGM followed by the talk Non-notifiable Diseases of Honeybees with Lorraine Johnstone (Bee Advisor at Scotland’s Rural College). Lorraine told us about foulbrood at the apiary on 27th August and will talk now about the non-notifiable diseases including the ever-increasing problem of Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus. Essential information for understanding and protecting your colonies’ health. No charge for this event.

The topics of our next talks are:

27 March: Bees in the Wild – Ann Chilcott (Scottish Expert Beemaster) will talk about her  fascinating observations about bees in the wild. She has been following the fortunes of local tree dwelling bees!

 

Introduction to Beekeeping Courses 2024

Please check our Courses page for next years Introduction to Beekeeping course offered under the lead of our highly knowledgeable John Gifford. This years courses had all been fully booked and we will restart our Introduction courses from May 2024. Please check details here.

Participants on the last Introduction course on 3/6/2023

 

Congratulations for passing the SBA Basic Beekeeping Certificate 2022 with “Distinction”!

We congratulate our three members Elaine Harding, Ricky Weston, and Andy Meynell, who did a brilliant job and all passed on Sat 9 July 2022 their SBA Basic Beekeeping Certificate with “Distintion”! Well done for all your hard work and to John Gifford who prepared and steered them through the theory for this exam. A big thank you also to the examiners Bryce and Elizabeth Reynard and Fred Millwood, all Scottish Expert Beemasters, who came to Birnie for the exams.

Elaine

Elaine & Liz/Bryce

Ricky

Ricky & Fred

Andy

Andy & Bryce

 

 

 

 

Sustainable Bees: Global Environmentalist, Sir Tim Smit, shares his thoughts on NatBIP

BIBBA is now taking forward their flagship National Bee Improvement Programme (NatBIP) into its next phase and, as part of this want to promote their message about native honey bees and bee improvement to a much wider audience.  Sir Tim Smit (from the Eden Project) offered to help to promote that message through this short video. Although he is not a beekeeper himself, he is an environmentalist of global standing and has been a long-standing supporter of our aims and objectives. He has helped to establish reserves for the
native honey bee at both the Eden Project and at the Lost Gardens of Helligan in Cornwall.
Link to the video

 

AFB/EFB Reminder – Scottish Bee Inspectorate

With the recent cases of AFB in the Edinburgh (1) and St Andrews (2) areas, the Scottish Government Bee Inpsectorate have issued a reminder to all Scottish beekeepers, which can be read in full by clicking here.

 


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Join Moray Beekeepers Association!

Moray Beekeepers Association was established in 1919. We are a growing number of mostly amateur beekeepers located in North East Scotland, with the association being based in Moray.

MBA exists to promote and foster an interest in the study, development and practice of beekeeping and to protect and conserve the future of the honeybee in Moray and Scotland.

Please join us and help to preserve and protect the honeybee!!

The cost to join us is very modest and the benefits are substantial! Further details can be found here

 

Honeybee Conservation Pack

“Honeybees are truly the gardener’s friend and are not the killer beast depicted in the cinema. If not for them
and the other species of bees, plant life would be reduced to mainly wind-pollinated grasses and trees, as
bees pollinate most of the flowering plants. Their value to food production is priceless as they pollinate many
of the crops grown worldwide…”
Interested in how you can help bees? We’ve produced a new, updated conservation pack to download.

For Association members only – Throughout the summer we carry out our seasonal management tasks on the colonies at Birnie. You are most welcome to come along and help out. Please get involved, your beekeeping association needs you!
Contact the secretary to get the detailed dates and times for these sessions.

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