EDUCATION OFFICER'S REPORT 2008

We have had another successful year in the County with good exam results and a Convention to report. We now have several branches running their own courses for beginners and a group working through the Modules. We have at least four people who are studying using the Correspondence course from the BBKA.

Our first Spring Convention took place at Merchant Taylor's Boys School in Crosby, Liverpool. We had two top class speakers in Celia Davis, author of 'The Honeybee Inside Out' This book won an Apimondia Gold Medal winner as the best book on beekeeping in the past 4 years, and in Ivor Davis, no relation, immediate past president of the BBKA. We had four excellent lectures which gave us all much to think about. Catering was again in house, ably run by Lucy Cuss a non beekeeping friend. We had an increase in numbers again to near 80 and due to the generosity of Merchant Taylor's we made a very healthy profit which I hope to plough back into Education during the coming season.

The introductory course for people interested in becoming beekeepers was successfully run at Rufford Hall in April by Ormskirk branch under Martin Smith and will take place on the weekend of April 4th/5th 2009. Some branches also ran courses for new people. In 2009 Blackburn, Lancaster and Liverpool branches are running beginners' courses. In addition Southport branch is running a new course, similar to the Ormskirk one, at Phytobotanica, Organic Lavender Farm, Rainford on the weekend of 24th/25th April 2009.

We ran a one day microscopy course on identifying disease, Acarine & Nosema. The course was led by John Charlton from Manchester Beekeepers. We had representatives from every branch and hope this will help each branch to become more proficient in identifying some of the problems facing beekeepers at this moment. The second microscopy course on pollen identification takes place in January, again led by John Charlton. We do hope to continue to offer educational activities to branches this coming year, including a queen rearing workshop in June led by Ray Dowson of Ormskirk already planned.

Our Spring Convention takes place on Saturday March 7th at The Forum, Ormskirk school, Ormskirk. The speakers are: Dr Dave Chandler who has been leading research on the use of fungi for controlling Varroa, John Drakes on the collection of honeybee venom and its use in Apitherapy and Martin Smith, Chairman if the BBKA. The fee remains the same as previous years and we will again be catering in-house.

As our membership grows I hope to provide more educational support to branches.

Barbara Roderick