Date/Time
Date(s) - Wed 03/12/2025
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Category(ies)

• County Seminar

 

by Zoom videoconference

1. Apologies for Absence
2. Minutes of the previous AGM 2024
3. Matters arising from the minutes
4. Chairman’s Welcome and Address
5. Secretary’s Report
6. Treasurer’s Report
7. Election of the Inspector of accounts: Neville Morton
8. County membership fees as recommended by the Executive Committee.

Proposal: To increase the fee from £2 to £3 for Registered and School Members only 

1. Local Association Reports
   1. High Wycombe and District Beekeepers’ Association
   2. North Bucks Beekeepers’ Association
   3. Mid Bucks Beekeepers’ Association
   4. Chalfonts Beekeepers’ Society
2. Election of treasurer: Nomination received for Phil Clarke
3. Re-Election of Officers and Executive members
   1. President – Bill Fisher
   2. Chairman – Jonathan Jones
   3. Secretary – Dorothie Jones
   4. Education – Helen Cave
4. Re-election of General Members
   1. Jonathan Matthews
   2. Rachael Hulme
5. Proposal of changes to the Constitution regarding Trustees

1)That the post of Vice Chair be abolished as there has not been an incumbent in recent

years.

2)That the Officers of the Committee, and the two Elected Members only act as

trustees of BCBKA.

1. AOB
2. Date and Venue for next meeting: Wednesday December 2nd 2026 at 7.00pm by videoconference.

 

To be followed by a talk at 7.30pm:-  

Dan Basterfield: Vertical Split Swarm Control

Dan holds the National Diploma in Beekeeping (NDB), is a BBKA Master Beekeeper, and is an examiner for the BBKA and NDB examinations. He is a regular lecturer around the UK on practical beekeeping topics. Daniel wrote some of the BBKA’s Course in a Case training courses, has contributed to the BBKA’s Liquid Gold and Swarming videos, and co-authored the BBKA’s Healthy Hive Guide book. He has just published Using Apideas, a manual for queen mating nucs. He is a member of the Bee Farmers Association, and has been a Trustee and Chairman of the International Bee Research Association (IBRA), and Chairman of the NDB Examination Board

Vertical split swarm control 

The ‘Pagden type’ of artificial swarm is well known and commonly used. In practice it requires a lot of spare equipment at precisely the time when equipment is most in demand. A vertical artificial swarm requires only an extra brood box and a modified crown board as a split board, and was a technique we learnt from Australian commercial beekeepers. This lecture also includes aspects of managing double brood box beehives – by having the extra brood box already in place in all colonies, swarm control is a quick and easy part of routine inspections.