SBKA Lecture Day - Saturday, February 16, 2019

Our 2019 annual Lecture Day will be held from 9.00am to 5.00pm on Saturday, February 16 at Edgar Hall, 8 Cary Court, Somerton Business Park, Somerton TA11 6SB 

Tickets: Tickets cost £5 and include light refreshments but not lunch.
They are available from Divisional Secretaries or by cheque from SBKA Treasurer Mrs C. Kennedy, Allways, West Shepton, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5UH
And online (plus 83p booking fee) through Eventbrite

​Programme for the day:
9.00am Coffee
9.30am Opening by Ken Tredgett, SBKA President
9.35am Paulo Mielgo Vita (Europe) Ltd; Varroa
10.40am Prof. Stephen Martin; Deformed wing virus update
11.40am Coffee
12.10pm Derek Mitchell; Old saws – myths and physics of hives
1.10pm Lunch
Simon Jones RBI and his team will be available to help with your queries about bee diseases
2.20pm Thanks and presentations
2.30pm Clare Densley; Romancing the Honey Bee
3.30pm Raffle and tea
4.00pm Prof. Stephen Martin; Asian Hornets
5.00pm CLOSE

Prof Stephen Martin, Chair in Social Entomology in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at Salford University, Manchester. Prior to that he spent 12 years
working at Sheffield University, seven years with the National Bee Unit and
seven years in Japan conducting research into hornets.
Stephen is best known for his work on the Varroa mite and its
association with viruses, especially the Deformed Wing Virus. His team
of researchers at Salford, funded in part by beekeepers, are using the
very latest molecular methods to read the genetic code of the DWV
virus. The aim is to understand why some honey bee colonies have
become naturally tolerant to Varroa and see if this information can
provide beekeepers with a long-term solution to the problem.
Derek Mitchell is a researcher into the differences in heat transfer between man
made and natural honey bee nests at Leeds University School of Mechanical
Engineering.
Derek’s fascination with honey bees over the last seven years, is that the deeper
you delve into how they exploit the physics of heat, the more impressive the
feats of honey bees becomes.
Clare Densley, Buckfast Abbey's Head Beekeeper, has been keeping bees since 1992 and spent two years as a seasonal bee inspector for Devon.
“Romancing the Honey bee” examines the role of Br Adam as a celebrity beekeeper and compares his work and philosophy with the current beekeeping practices at the Abbey. It rambles on to look at why honey bees have become celebrities of the insect world and how this is reflected in mythology, art and religion. Then we look at science and how research has informed us about how honey bees really function and keep strong. I am interested in our emotional and commercial relationship with bees. The final section throws open to discussion how we might work with the bees to resolve some of the problems we have presented them with over the last century.
Paulo Mielgo, Vita Bee Health’s technical manager, has beekeeping in his blood! His surname is similar to the Spanish word for honey (miel) and his father has managed 700 hives in Argentina. After gaining a degree from a veterinary college in Argentina, Paulo
worked in many countries including Italy and South America and previously worked for Vita’s South American partner, Apilab. His current role involves working with researchers and universities to help develop new honey bee health and nutrition products. Vita
researches, develops, manufacturers and markets a range of honeybee health treatments