Ulster conference now a key season opener


Intrigued by the news about bees in recent years, inspired to take a course by beekeeper Valentine Hodges, and delighted with the people they met at Killinchy BKA, Simona and Stephen Garret are now captivated by beekeeping. Aſter helping Valentine and Chris Hodges manage their bees last year, they passed their introductory exam (apparently Simona reminds anyone who wants to listen that she beat Stephen by two marks), are now about to sit their intermediate scientific course and feel ready to have their own bees. At the Ulster BKA Conference, they bought their first two hives (Nationals) to install at their home in Newtownards, Co Down. Here is their report on their first full bee conference.


First held 76 years ago, the Ulster Beekeeping Conference has grown very rapidly under the organising leadership of Susie and John Hill. In just 12 years, they have taken the event from one trade stand, acetate presentations and 60 beekeepers to the prestigious event it is today.


This year’s conference at Greenmount Agricultural College, Antrim, just half-an-hour’s drive from Belfast, atracted 567 visitors from all over the British Isles – as well as top international speakers. Forty beekeepers from Scotland and England made the trip across the Irish Sea and 187 travelled up from the Republic of Ireland. Ten leading beekeeping suppliers have also recognised the importance of the event and advance orders of equipment were boxed, named and neatly stacked ready for collection on the spacious Greenmount campus.


Although Susie and John have now stood down as lead organisers, they will remain on the organising commitee and succession planning has not been leſt to chance.


Next year’s event will be on 19–20 February at Greenmount College, Antrim. Watch www.ubka.org for details of what is now a key home-nations event in the beekeeping calendar.


We had atended the 2019 conference but had only managed a half-day, so this year we cleared our diaries, bought our tickets and were there from Friday aſternoon. We were immediately impressed by the welcome packs containing a lovely new hive tool, some useful leaflets and brochures all contained in a useful reusable shopping bag – perfect.


We listened with pleasure to Professor Tom Seeley, whom my husband has now nicknamed the Monty Don of the bee world, having seen his popularity and experienced his knowledge and accessible presentation on bee genetics and behaviour.


The only dilemma faced at the conference was trying to decide which talks and workshops to atend as there were so many great speakers and interesting topics to choose from.


We easily filled our day with Flemming Vejsnaes’s charismatic presentation on varroa management, and were introduced to an interesting method and tool to check for ‘clean bees’ and breeding for hygienic behaviour.


Aſter lunch we listened again to Professor Seeley present a talk about the dance language of honey bees in which he covered the history of the discovery of the language, the misconceptions along the way and his own experimental work.


Professor Deborah Delaney’s presentation on rearing good queens was very entertaining and informative, and finished off our day nicely.


We greatly enjoyed all the lectures and impressed that the content seemed to satisfy beekeepers with all levels of experience.


We also enjoyed the trade stands of bee equipment suppliers and the selection of books and information available. These brave souls had travelled miles by sea and road while Storm Dennis batered the country, so we felt lucky to have so many present with their vast array of wares.


We leſt the conference with a car full of bargains and lots of thoughts and inspiration for our own beekeeping journey.


Our thanks go to Susan and John Hill and their team for puting together a world-class event, to all the speakers, volunteers and suppliers and to Greenmount College, Antrim, for providing the fabulous venue.


We look forward to the 2021 conference now! Simona and Stephen Garret


14 Bee Craſt April 2020


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