Calendar

July 4th 2.00 pm Apiary visit for new beekeepers, Orrin Bridge

July 15th 7.00 pm Betty & John Ramsay, Jamestown, Strathpeffer

August 1st 2.00 pm Apiary visit for new beekeepers, Orrin Bridge

August 6th Black Isle Show members will be in attendance with a display of beekeeping equipment, observation hive and a virtual hive.

August 19th 7.00 pm Pam & Roger Piercy, Culbokie

August 29th and 30th Inverness Beekeepers' Open Honey Show held at Inverness High School, Montague Row, Inverness. Honey Show schedule available from Pam Piercy.

September 5th 2.00 pm Apiary visit for new beekeepers, Orrin Bridge

September 12th Scottish Beekeepers' Association - Autumn Convention, Dewar Conference Centre, Perth, 08.45 - 17.10 £25 Further details can be found at; www.scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/news/html/events.html

October 2009 SBA Autumn Lecture Tour - Speaker is Clive de Bruyn.

Saturday or Sunday October 10th/11th Skye & Lochalsh BKA Broadford 7.30pm "Maintaining healthy bees"

October 13th Tuesday, Nairn BKA Cawdor Community Centre 7.30pm "Maintaing healthy colonies in spite of varroa"

We are a small group of amateur beekeepers based in the Dingwall area but serving the Black Isle northwards to Evanton/Alness in the east and westwards to the West Coast of Ross-shire where we have members.

We meet on the third Wednesday of the month and hold a series of apiary meetings throughout the summer and meet in the Tarradale Primary School, Muir of Ord during the winter. If you would like more information write to or e-mail our secretary . . . or just turn up at one of our meetings to learn more.

For further details of the Association the following e-mail address will reach the Secretary, Mrs. Pam Piercy.  beekeeping "at" tiscali.co.uk

No hobby is more fascinating or rewarding than beekeeping and nothing gives greater pleasure than eating one’s own very localised honey . . . honey that tastes as it should!

What better way of complementing your gardening and environmental skills than by becoming a beekeeper.

Have you ever wondered how bees make honey?

Did you know that honey bees are a very important part of the pollination process?

Throughout the centuries philosophers and naturalists have unfolded many strange and amazing facts about the bee colony and you may be surprised to learn that such a small creature has awakened so great an interest that more has been written about the bee than any other living creature apart from man himself.

Most current estimates indicate that wild bees in the UK have all but disappeared.  Similar declines in wild bee populations have also occurred world-wide.  Historically, of the 100 or so crops that feed the world, eighty percent were pollinated by wild bees.  This is no longer the case.  The demise of the wild bee population is attributable to habitat loss, pests, diseases and pesticide poisoning.

The honey bee is the major carrier of pollen for seeded fruits and just about anything that grows on a vine.  Which means everything from apples to courgettes, including the fruit and nuts eaten by birds and small mammals, need the help of bees.