BIPCo Committee Action Minutes – 28/05/2015
Agenda Item / Discussion / Action1. Apologies - / No Apologies
2. Present - / Nick B-G(Chair), Jo Widdicombe (JW), Darren Sheppard(DS), Rob Sheppard(RS), Anne Taylor(AT), Chris Rose(CR), John Chadwick(JC), Beverley B-G(Sec)
3. Minutes AGM / · Agreed that Minutes were a true record. To be approved at next AGM
· Society or Association? – Agreed that BipCo was an association
· BipCo as an official BIBBA Group. JW to pursue the matter via BIBBA Committee. Will mention at next meeting in Aug.
· Website – Jo will talk to Bob Black about keeping the website ‘fresh’ / Sec
JW
JW
4. New Items / · a. Bio-Security Day – Lostwithiel – Nick to chase up details and confirm date 20 or 21 Jun.
· b. Autumn apiary visit – Discussed visit to IOM, but thought too expensive. Discussion about North Wales. Suggested visit not just to one person but a few visits to spread load. Visit in September. JW to carry out further investigations.
· c. QR/Bee Breeding – no dates as yet
o CR asked whether BipCo had Cupkits, Nick replied it does not, but does have Jenter kit. Discussion then about keeping each other informed about queen cells and exchanging good queens (as potential breeding material) between members. This could be done on the website.
o Nick asked Chris to find out where the BipCo incubators were.
o Darren & Rob are going to do a video of the Hopkins Board being used. This will be forwarded to Jo to go on the website
o Andrew Brown is going to get some more DNA work done on some of our apiaries, by using a Swiss geneticist. Nick will coordinate BipCo input
o Tregantle – Aspiration to use Tregantle fort as a mating apiary for BipCo. Need to get more colonies (of good breeding stock) on to site.
· d. Bee Improvement Day 2016 – Late Jan early Feb. Try not to clash with CR shooting or Rugby. Ideas for speakers? Willy Robson? Date to be set before next Committee meeting. Improve advertising. PR for Bit of a Do. Flyers for Honey Fair
· e. Dates for forthcoming Committee meetings – Thurs 27th Aug @ Old Trelabe. End of November (DTBC). AGM Feb 2016.
· f. B4 – Swiss genetic scientist will do drone DNA sampling on selected BipCo colonies. JW/BG/CR/DL/RS/DS.
· g.SMARTBEES – JW briefed all about the European project. Follows on from Colony Loss work in Europe. Conclusions were that locally adapted bees consistently outperform imports. JW also said that BipCo was praised for the work we are already doing on bee improvement. He said this project would add purpose and provide a way forward for bee improvement. Nick asked about funding of equipment for the apiaries (12 colonies in each). Jo said that he would find out more and also investigate other ways of funding should European money not be available.
· h. Somerset Black Bees – BG said that now called the Somerset Black Bee Alliance. Jon Penton is the driving force behind the group. They want to start by using Cornish Black Bees. BG will ask if they want to come to Dobwalls. / B-G
JW
JW/B-G
All
CR
DS/RS/
JW
B-G
JW/JC/
B-G
JW/B-G
/CR/AT
Sec
JW/BG/CR/DL/RS/DS
JW/JC
BG
5. AOB / · a. Ideas for Dobwalls - BG asked the Committee for ideas for the next Bee Improvement Day
· b. Membership – AT reported 34 members and all paid.
· c. BipCo promotion – JW said he would write an article promoting BipCo
o Sending info out to groups & like-minded individuals
o Facebook
o RS described a drone excluding funnel. BG asked that he forward a diagram of the device to JW to include on the website / All
JW
Sec
RS/JW
6. DONM / · Dates for forthcoming Committee meetings – Thurs 27th Aug @ Old Trelabe at 1900.
· Next - End of November (DTBC).
· AGM Feb 2016. / All