Yes, an interesting year, what with the floods early on, then the whole pandemic thing, lockdown hair, masks and no communal beekeeping, holidays or parties.
The AGM in March was held via email, definitely a first for the club, then there was the rise of Zoom, with most activities happening on line, we had live discussions and a ‘lock down’ quiz, What would we do without the internet?
We were kept informed and supported by Stuart’s weekly ‘what’s on’ emails, phone mentoring and even some apiary visits to help out new and concerned members.
But, we missed out on a honey show for the first time in living memory, not to mention getting together for bee safaris, social events and our end of season BBQ.
Through all this, the bees just carried on regardless, doing what they do, collecting nectar and pollen, swarming and generally being bees.
The apiary team, all six of them backed up by a very efficient quartermaster, looked after the bees at Shugborough whilst we were away, and thanks to their sterling efforts we expect to have strong colonies and nucs going into next year.
Thank you to the members who came to help cut the grass and clean equipment over three weekends in October and as you can see from the pictures it made a very big difference. Then going into Autumn we ‘tuned’ in to the Stafford Bee Group who entertained and informed us with ‘Chas and Dave’ and Ben the bee inspector. There is still more to come next year so make sure you put the dates in your diary.
So what does 2021 hold for us I hear you ask?
The 2020 survey was well supported and we received some bouquets and brickbats in equal measure from you. The committee has read and studied all your replies and you will find them on the club website. A big thank you to Wendy and her team for all the work they did on the survey.
We know that some of our members have had covid or other debilitating illnesses this
year and we wish them all a speedy recovery back to good health.
In conclusion the committee wish you all a safe time over Christmas and on into 2021
and sincerely hope that we can all get back together doing what we enjoy most, namely working with the bees and talking bees and beekeeping, not to forget eating cake!
