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  • Top Tips for Over Wintering Bees

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #4889  by NigelP
 26 Sep 2019, 23:06
NigelP wrote:
26 Sep 2019, 22:24
Was very disappointed (to say the least) at the new BBKA mag. There it is on page 331 on an article on preparation for winter..."I use 4 matchsticks..........to help, create a chimney effect for efficient air circulation.

I can think of no advice that is so stupid and stressful to overwintering bees. Actually I'm furious that cretins like Gareth Morgan still believe and publish this total crap and that newcomers will pick it up, read it, and follow this really really bad advice. In a bad winter they will lose hives because of this almost criminal advice given in the official BBKA magazine......shall we say words escape me and if I ever meet him I shall be so in his face about this crap he has written he won't know what has hit him....
Rant over.

BBKA has totally lost the plot if they allow this rubbish to be published......
 #4891  by nealh
 27 Sep 2019, 13:28
My BBKA news arrived this morning and I too am shaking my head having not even finished reading the first article, it appears for some an open mesh floor is not enough. Yet the author goes on about key temperatures in the paragraph's above and how stores will be eaten in to with temps at 8c.
Why do some beek's fight against their bees rather then work with them ?
 #4892  by mikemadf
 27 Sep 2019, 14:15
"BBKA has totally lost the plot if they allow this rubbish to be published......"

I have been a member for 10 years.
They publish at least one article recommending matchsticks every year .. despite scierntific paper(s) showing it is rubbish.

So they either don't know or don't care...

I would miss the laugh I have every year when they decide to remain in the 1930s...if it was not so tragic.





(It is of course no laughing matter.)
 #4894  by Patrick
 27 Sep 2019, 15:00
Being so young and hip, I no longer use matchsticks and relied on four disposable lighters of course.

As these are single use plastics and therefore irresponsible to purchase, I will now have to consider four fire steels instead which at £10 a go will prove jolly expensive to equip the whole apiary..

I might just instead decide that matchsticks were a response to an age of universal use of solid floors and with the common use of open mesh floors are entirely superfluous. Phew, that was easy :D
 #4897  by AdamD
 27 Sep 2019, 19:23
I have written for the magazine and I think the main driver for the editor (as all editors) is to find enough articles to put between the front and rear pages. If you offer an article, it will often be published for that very reason. I don't believe that articles are vetted by a technical committee - unless anyone knows different??
 #4898  by AdamD
 27 Sep 2019, 19:31
It would be easy for the BBKA to add to their annual winter loss survey to find out how people prepared their bees for winter and how many died and under what circumstances.
 #4899  by Patrick
 27 Sep 2019, 22:16
Tbh disagreeing with an individuals stated way of keeping bees is one thing, disagreeing with the periodical printing it is another.

I will paint my colours to the mast and say I always enjoy reading the magazine and of course people say things with which I disagree - but that’s absolutely fine - because other times people mention things I had never even thought of.

Producing a magazine for a membership with as diverse a geographical, philosophical, social and experience range as the BBKA is always going to be a challenge. The BBKA has a reasonably high annual membership churn and there will always be a thirst for beginner level info. As we all know that advice is often based on basic geographically illiterate truisms that many of us have long come to question be it pagden swarm control, bee choice, hive choice use of matchsticks whatever.

I am sure the wish to print a range of membership opinions and thoughts will always include stuff even the editors personally might’ve disagreed with but short of causing actual harm, would we really want to read a censored membership mag reflecting one persons beekeeping opinions ? The days of Herrod-Hempsall are long behind us.

Compared to the wild tosh about honey bees in the wider media, a few points made I personally disagree with is but small beer. Peer reviewed scientific papers for professional researchers are all very well but if a bee mag stipulated all articles had to be subject to a bee thought police committee I doubt there would be more than one membership generated article a year. And who would those beekeeping Time Lords be?

Having once edited my local divisional newsletter for a decade I found that aside from a few bits nicked from other newsletters, I ended up writing most of the content every month and if you did ever think to “edit” a contribution it would be the last you recieved.

Personally I rather enjoy it when one author says do “x” on page three and a few pages on another says “y” in precisely the same circumstances! Confusing maybe but certainly reflects the reality of beekeeping advice! Let’s face it BBKA News is a monthly collation of individual diverse articles by those prepared to write and submit them, not a serialised manual of beekeeping.
 #4902  by Chrisbarlow
 28 Sep 2019, 10:31
I agree with you 100% Patrick. Beekeepers opinions are very diverse and should be reflected in the literature that we read. I currently edit a local newsletter, I take articles from all corners and never edit them , although I pass it to a third party for proof reading and they make appropriate modifications. Articles should represent all corners even when you disagree or believe they are just plain wrong.

As for matchsticks, a ridiculous idea, far two small, proper ventilation is achieved by a sticking a good piece of 3*2 under that crown board. Get a proper draft going through. :D