Sara Robb
After leaving academic research in 2003, Sara began making honey soaps and beeswax creams. Formulating for nearly 20 years, Sara’s recipes are available in books (Dr Sara’s Honey Potions, Beauty & the Bees, Making and Selling Cosmetics: Honeycomb Cleansing Cream) and numerous journal articles (British Beekeeping Journal, Bee Craft, BBKA News, Bees for Development Journal).
Sara has a keen interest in teaching others to formulate cosmetics (running workshops at the British Beekeepers Association Spring Convention and The National Honey Show) and helping small producers by providing Cosmetic Product Safety Reports.
Sara’s workshop will introduce three new formulations. A demonstration will teach you to make an emollient enriched Calendula Facial Cleansing Bar, a Same-Day Soap (use it the day you make it). Attendees will make Honey Facial Serum with Hyaluronic Acid. This simple serum leaves your skin perfectly hydrated. The final product is a 2-in-1 formulation- the same recipe makes Honey Hand Cream and Beeswax Body Lotion simply by adjusting the amount of water. Quick CPSRs will be available for all three formulations.
Numbers are limited to 16 people at the workshop and there is a charge of £18 to attend.
Norman Carreck
Norman Carreck has been keeping bees for forty two years, and has been a bee research scientist for thirty one. He is a Master Beekeeper and obtained his NDB in 1996, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society in 2004, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2011. He has lectured about bees on all continents where bees are kept, has written many scientific papers, book chapters, conference contributions and popular articles, has edited several books and regularly appeared in the media in many countries. He is a director of Carreck Consultancy Ltd and Bee Publishing Ltd. and is based at the University of Sussex, UK.
100s of papers about honey bees are published every year. In this presentation Norman will talk about some of those that have caught his eye recently and the directions that bee research is going in the future.
Bob Smith
Bob has been keeping bees since the late 70’s, currently managing 9 colonies in 14×12 WBC’s, in 3 quite different apiaries. He was a Seasonal Bee Inspector for 6 years, is a holder of the NDB and the person with responsibility for education and training within the Medway Beekeepers Association. He is particularly involved in providing training opportunities for “Improver” beekeepers through both theoretical and practical handling courses.
Bob’s scientific training as an analytical chemist impacts his whole approach to beekeeping; experimentation and record-keeping are fundamental to chemistry and beekeeping!
Winter is coming – (the bees are getting fat!)
Most organisms seek (a) to survive and (b) to reproduce; honey bees are no different. Their survival problem is that for many months it is too cold to venture outside and even if they did, there are no supplies to be gathered in.
They address this problem by pre-stocking their winter larder and generating a set of “winter bees” with enhanced life-span. As beekeepers, we can help or hinder our bees in this crucial task and this talk will explore the several aspects that we need to address if our bees are to survive the winter and then expand strongly in spring, with reproduction on their minds!
Sean Stephenson
Sean is a Master Beekeeper, Chairman of Bucks BKA and, as a BBKA Assistant Moderator, a member of the BBKA Exam Board. He has supported beekeeping education in Buckinghamshire for many years, currently organising the Bucks Microscopy group, with over 40 members, as well as running microscopy days for the BBKA and other BKA Associations around the country.
Over the last two years Sean has run a live queen rearing course and live monthly colony inspections from his home apiary via Zoom. Recently he has supported the implementation of the online version of the BBKA module exams. Sean keeps over 30 colonies just over the Hertfordshire border in the Chilterns around Wendover.
Sean’s talk is entitled Drones’ Life and Behaviour. Drones are often viewed as an overhead to a colony whereas they are in fact critical to the wellbeing and balance of the colony. This talk looks at the colony drivers to produce drones and drone comb, examines drone biology and the mating process, highlights the overhead of drones on honey production and finally summarises how we use drones to help us read a colony.