Gloucestershire Beekeepers Association – promoting and furthering the craft of beekeeping

A warm welcome to Gloucestershire Beekeepers Association – GBKA.

We are is a registered charity (no 263712) with the principal object of promoting and furthering the craft of beekeeping.

GBKA has been doing this for over 100 years and has members all over the county and from neighbouring counties.

About Gloucestershire Beekeepers Association

GBKA is a member organisation of the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), the national organisation that provides a wide range of services to beekeepers including insurance, information, newsletters, examination programmes and legal advice.

The seven Branches of GBKA support beekeepers in their area and run their own programmes of meetings, talks, and training sessions. GBKA members can attand the meetings of any Branch.

These are our Branches (to go to their own web site and find out more, click on the name):

Cheltenham and Gloucester

Cirencester and District

Dean Forest

Newent

North Cotswold

South Gloucestershire

Stroud .

For more about the Branches and GBKA membership go to the Joining GBKA page.

You can download a GBKA leaflet summarising the advantages of membership and listing the Branches here: GBKA Brochure

GBKA also takes part in the Midland and South West Counties Convention.

Latest News posts:

89th Midland & South Western Counties Convention

“Better Bees”

To be held at The Royal Agricultural University

Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 6JS

Friday 15th to Sunday 17th September 2017

Hosted by Gloucestershire Beekeepers Association

MSWCC Programme 2017

For more information go to http://www.mswcc.org.uk

Category: News

Asian Hornets

The Asian hornet is smaller than our native hornet and poses no greater risk to human health than a bee. However, they do pose a risk to honey bees because they will kill them when they need protein to feed their own larvae.

Asian hornets were found in the Tetbury area of Gloucestershire in September 2016. The National Bee Unit found and destroyed a nest, which they believe was the only one in the area.

Since Asian hornets are now established in France, even if there are no queens left in the Tetbury area there will inevitably be another arrival in the UK at some point.

Beekeepers should check for the presence of Asian hornets by putting out traps. On warm spring days, mated queen hornets may emerge from hibernation as early as February, and worker hornets will be on the wing throughout the beekeeping season, right up until November, so hanging out traps between these two dates is a useful monitoring tool. Sugary liquid bait should be used in the spring, and a fish-based bait is recommended in the late summer when hornets are looking for protein to feed their young.

Simple wasp traps will also catch European and Asian Hornets if the trap entrance is at least 12mm diameter.

The National Bee Unit web site has full information about Asian Hornets and how to deal with them, information on suitable traps, and links to articles and videos covering the experience with Asian Hornets in France. Please read their information here: NBU Asian Hornet page

Category: News

Bee Connected

BeeConnected is a system to notify beekeepers when a neighbouring farmer is applying insecticides to their crops.

Farmers and spray contractor are being encouraged to enter the details of when and where they are planning to spray an insecticide that may present a risk to bees, and a simple notification will be sent to neighbouring beekeepers registered with the system.

If you are a beekeeper, simply register at beeconnected.org.uk, enter the position of your hives on the easy-to- use mapping system, and you will receive notifications from registered farmers when they are planning to spray their crops at a proximity of your choosing up to 5km away.

Category: News

Helping Your Neighbour

This is a useful little document that beekeepers can pass on to their neighbour to put them at ease when they are going to open up their hives.

Dear Neighbour,

I am delighted to tell you that I now have a colony of bees at our house and wanted to let you know what that means and reassure you of any concerns you may have.

This is an A4 pamphlet that you can download and pass on to your neighbours if they are not understanding all the reasons why you have bees and why you need to look at them every so often.

download the leaflet

Category: News

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