Thursday
1st October
1930hrs

Virtual

Dan is probably our most experienced and certainly our most qualified member. He manages over 100 colonies and earns his living, in one way or another, from bees. Who better to explain how one can work efficiently to the benefit of both the bees and the beekeeper?

Thursday
5th November
1930hrs

Virtual

Branch AGM
President Hilary Kirkcaldie
+
“What I did during my lockdown”

The Business
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Jan Morse and others tell us about their activities.

Thursday
3rd December
1930hrs

Virtual

“From Start up to Kilnasaggart”. The O’Hagan Meadery – “Maximising your beekeeping income.”
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Discussion

Thomas O’Hagan is a recent Beekeeping Beginner and has gone from debutante to triple winner in the Great Taste awards, a National prize, in double quick time. Now a fully commercial operation with a range of products sold across the South West, it is an inspiring story and on our doorstep.
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Selling Experiences: what sells, which markets, prices, via retail vs personal

Saturday
12th December
1000hrs Note Time

Virtual

DBKA Business, followed by a most interesting, and alarming, talk on Honey Marketing and Fraud.

Thursday
7th January
1930hrs

Kilmington
Village Hall
OR
Virtual

Jo is President of the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeding Association, BIBBA, but is not only an advocate of native and near native, locally adapted bees he is also a bee farmer managing his colonies in Cornwall. He therefore knows the value of productive stock. With BIBBA promoting a nationwide Queen Improvement Programme, who better to discuss how to get the right genetic stock without resort to imports, and whether blackness matters.

Thursday
4th February
1930hrs

Kilmington
Village Hall
OR
Virtual

“Drone Congregation Areas”: a DARG Project
Presentation by Richard Simpson, Graham Kingham and Peter Weller.

Devon Apicultural Research Group: where do drones and queens go to mate and how do they behave when they get there? How do you even start to look? Sounds like a job for citizen science. Some interesting observations to explore.

Thursday
4th March
1930hrs

Kilmington
Village Hall
OR
Virtual

“Pollinator Landscaping, a Roadside Story?”
Talk by Leonardo Guber and Dan Field

Leonardo is Senior Ecologist with Highways England. Dan recently retired from the same organisation specialising in land acquisition, highway law, management training. Who better to lead us through the intricacies of road planning, building, with both human and animal users, particularly insects, in mind. A road is a linear wildflower meadow. Right?

Thursday
1st April
1930hrs

Kilmington
Village Hall
OR
Virtual

“Varroa: still a danger; still a chemical solution?”
Talk by Richard Ball

Richard is a retired National Bee Inspector and a national authority on the varroa mite. Daily monitoring the natural mite drop in his colonies in Colaton Raleigh he has an in-depth knowledge of varroa population dynamics as well as interesting solutions for chemical and non-chemical control.