The 2013 BBKA Spring Convention

[Tim1606]

Had a good weekend.
Went up on the Thursday night, good lectures, spent a lot.
Sally done five workshops and so i hardly saw her.
Celia Davis workshop on Sunday morning was excellent.

 

[Black Comb]

Yes I went to the pesticide and swarming lectures as well. The swarm one was very boring.
Ged Marshall's lecture was good,the best I heard.

Went to the 2 dinners, both OK. For the Saturday evening quiz night many of the traders gave generous raffle prizes, a bee suit, a ssteel settling tank (small) a full box of MAQ'S . Oh, and Th*rnes gave a £10 voucher.
I won nothing.

The microscopy courses I attended were excellent.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes I went to the pesticide and swarming lectures as well. The swarm one was very boring.
Ged Marshall's lecture was good,the best I heard.

Ged was very good - powerpoint used to show a few pictures and very little else (as it should be) and he quickly gained a rapport with the audience (he even tolerated the mobile phone which someone let ring and ring - probably pretending it wasn't theirs!)
Of the lectures I attended his and Margaret Thomas' stood out.
Frank Gellatly's disease recognition workshop is supposed to be good but I was too late to catch it (dawdling with Chris B) but i did catch him to apologise after - he's coming to do the same class in our BKA in a couple of months so hopefully I'll be home for that.

 

[susbees]

At the Kim Flotum lecture ended up sat next to Wally and Jenny Shaw so we chatted on for ages before and after the lecture about swarming and Americans!!

If that was the "Friday Flottum" then I was sat in the same row as Wally over the other side of the room. But forumers oddly enough look like all the others and there were blimmin' hundreds. So didn't see you! And, oddly, he didn't ask any questions...

 

[o.stjohn]

Slept in my car to save £90 on accommodation - didn't fancy staying in a room previously inhabited by an agric student! ;-)

Lectures were good, processes were much slicker. I did the 2 day Queen Rearing cse but with no brood to play with (bloomin' weather!) it wasn't as good as it might have been and, at £70, rather expensive.

Trade stands were great - got some good things such as a correx brood box for £7 and a large entrance feeder for £4. Plus the usual cheap frames etc from Thornes!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If that was the "Friday Flottum" then I was sat in the same row as Wally over the other side of the room.

Typical! - I was directly behind Wally chatting to Jenny before the lecture as Wally was deep in conversation with the person in the row in front of him, stayed behind after the lecture then to talk to him.

 

[YorkshireBees]

...
Did a bit of shopping for Veg, and it seemed a shame to waste all that empty space in the carrier bag so got some stuff for meself.
...

Very much appreciated as well

LOL at first I thought you had been VEGeatable shopping!

Glad everyone seems to have enjoyed it, it's a shame that it moved a bit further away for me as I attended the last one (and my 1st) before it moved to the new venue!

 

[Pete D]

I went along on the Friday afternoon after stopping at Chris B 'on the way' for a catch up. Met Jenkinsbrynmair at Chris too. My wife came along and thought the convention was very good, we attended a couple of lectures on Friday afternoon, Ged Marshalls was very good. Saturday was all about spending a few hours looking at the trade stands and although I said I didnt need anything I brought 1000 12oz jars as I thought the price was very good and 10 Paines poly nucs with ekes as I have been waiting to get them at the right price after missing the new year sales.
Thinking long term I will alternate the convention and the honey show and just do 1 per year.
Pete D

 

[Moggs]

Was able to attend on Saturday only, although I suspect that my deliberations alone may be responsible for a dearth of Western Red Cedar for a while.

Was able to park the car closer to the trade hall, an enormous benefit, as my sole reason for the visit was to stock up on bits. Suggestion for improvement for next year would be to allow the use of sack trucks and trolleys, through specified access points at the trade hall. I made myself unpopular with stewards by making use of the sack trucks provided by Eric's crew.

No great problems though and a pleasant day spent wandering around the traditional and more 'innovative' equipment on offer.

 

[DanBee]

Got back at about 10:30 last night after a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. The Sunday lecture/workshop programme was busy, very encouraging for the first year that it's been a formal day rather than 'overspill' workshops.

Best lecture I attended was Margaret Thomas' queen raising one - particularly as it worked well from the overflow room. Most disappointing lecture was Maryann Frazier talking about pesticides - too much data, too little context.

 

[bee82]

The convention was very good!!!

 

[Bee Island]

My first visit ... Great show easy to work out what was happening stewards great .. The workshops all booked as I decided to attend a bit late but all Lectures excellent I attended a good few and managed to get a ticket for them all as you could get one an hour before, worked like clock work.. If you did not get a ticket the overflow theatre worked very well I'm told.. Trade hall was great some great bargains available .. Worth the effort as I drove up from Kent looking forward to next year ! !

 

[ROACHMAN]

I went,

Had a row with M Mores over some equipment thay owe me.

Had some rude person push in front of me in the T's checkout queue

Had a road rage incident with a woman with a horse box who almost t boned me at a roundabout.

Got lost in the roadworks on the m6 at Birmingham

Other than that I had a great time although didnt have enough time to see it all in one day and attend all the luctures I wanted to see.

Roll on next year

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Had some rude person push in front of me in the T's checkout queue

I think they must have shipped them in specially - I was having a nice chat with the lady on the Belgosuc stall (Born and bred not far from me) When this woman just pushed in front of me and spouted out a list of what she wanted (just a couple of tubs of syrup and then demanded a discount as she was 'a good customer' - got her come uppance though as a man then pushed in front of her with a list of demands (I left at this point)
Thornes was the same - people just standing in front of the shelves having a chat and getting a bit uppity when asked to move so you could get something (fortunately I did an 'A' level in uppity - it's an essential qualification in my job!!)

 

[m100]

Went to far too many lectures, leaving not enough time to go round the stands in the 30 mins between talks. Got there early enough to get good parking spot and was able to buy bargains I didn't know I needed. But sure I missed loads at the trade stands. Noticeable absence of CWJ and National Bee Supplies.

Had already seen the Glyn Davies lecture a couple of years ago but didn't realise this until 10 mins in and thought it rude to leave early. It was worth seeing again. Not as impressed with the Maryann Frazier one as I expected to be, lots of content not relevant to Europe / UK. I cannot help but wonder if anyone who migrates bees in the USA has healthy disease free bees on clean combs that are not fed on HFCS, GM soya patties and antibiotics.

The BBKA missed IMHO a perfect opportunity to prominently air Dr Steve Martins research on the accidental introduction of Varroa and it's impact on DWV in Hawaii (despite being 'a local' it should have been the lead lecture)

I think the talks were better attended but the trade stand area seemed a lot quieter than last year.

 

[Black Comb]

National bee supplies were there. Had a chat with the owner about langstroths.

 

[susbees]

National bee supplies were there. Had a chat with the owner about langstroths.

And Wynne Jones delivered my attempted email pre-order with their usual speed, chat and kindness carriage-free Monday morning and significantly cheaper than Th0rnes. My favourite supplier (then M4isemore who swapped my pre-delivered (ordered Sat, delivered Monday, part-screw up on foundation in seconds without having to join the wax trading queue). Freeman, IBRA and Brunel all their usual jolly selves

Did I miss any suppliers? The Irish supplier who does the NHS, but knew they weren't coming last October.

 

[m100]

National bee supplies were there. Had a chat with the owner about langstroths.

Missed them, even looked at the stand plans over lunch and still couldn't find them. Found them now and guess I must have just walked by the tiny stand!

 

[Teemore]

Did anyone visit Swi3nty? Their recent adverts mention a "New" National Polyhive and I was wondering if they have done a redesign of what they had previously been offering?

 

[Black Comb]

I went on the stand but discussed the Lang nucs I bought last year when they stated the "slot" would allow it to accommodate national frames. Yeah right.
They "forgot" national frames have longer lugs than langs. so you either cut the end of the lugs or insert a piece of ply at the end and another further along from the slot. Not what I was expecting.
They were not interested as I have bought and paid for them.
Doubt if I will buy anything else off them.