There is a lot of debate in associations concerning the merits of registration of beekeepers. The BFA is in favour of registration, and believes that all responsible beekeepers should share our view. This item explains why we are in favour.

A report of our spring convention in 2008 at Harrogate, Yorkshire.
Almost fifty members and partners gathered at The Cairn Hotel in Harrogate for this years Spring Convention. The Cairn is a large Edwardian hotel which is being refurbished to its former glory, with a very spacious and comfortable lounge / reception area which fitted in a committee meeting on Friday afternoon very well, saving us the cost of hiring a room.

I have seen photos from the States of articulated lorries loaded with beehives being transported hundreds or thousands of miles to almonds or other crops; I have witnessed dozens of smaller lorries loaded with hundreds of hives returning to mainland Greece on the ferry from Thassos in September. We do not operate on that scale in the UK.

How many of us have thought how nice it would be to keep bees for a living? How many have seen the initial one or two hives escalate into ten, then twenty, then more? Me, for one! After a couple of years in the school beekeeping club, my interest lay dormant until almost twenty-five years ago when my eldest lad, then in his school beekeeping club, asked if he could have a beehive in the garden. Instead of saying “no” I said - in the best tradition of positive parenting, “We need to find out more about it.” We went to an open day at Sparsholt Agricultural College, and that was that. I now run something over one hundred colonies and call myself a bee farmer.