News & Events
SWHBK Members' Meetings & Events
07/10/26 Dan Basterfield - 'Moving bees and small scale migration'
11/11/26 Paula Carnell - 'Beekeeping in the Cocos islands: why it matters to the UK and how it ties in with
spiritual beekeeping'
02/12/26 Christmas social for members, family and friends - location tbc
06/01/27 Claire Densley and Martin Hann - 'topic tbc' - on Zoom
Venue - all meetings take place at Boldre War Memorial Hall, Boldre, Lymington, SO41 5QG unless otherwise stated.
For all BBKA talks available on YouTube click here.
September 2026
Matt Somerville talk
Matt gave a really interesting talk about 'Making log hives and keeping bees naturally' on 2 September. Matt's focus is on making hives for healthier, more vigorous bees, which can thrive with minimal interference.
He brought some examples with him and showed how the bees lined the interior with propolis making the bark very smooth. As you would expect they are not light. If only most of us club members at enough space, trees/woodland to have our own log hive.
Looking forward to the return of Dan Basterfield to our next meeting on Wednesday 7 October.
Summer 2026
Busy few months
June's meeting proved as technology let us down so no speaker on Zoom. Instead we held a very useful 'Beekeepers Question Time'.
We had great exam success in July with 4 members passing the BBKA Basic Assessment, 2 achieved distinctions. A further 7 members passed the BBKA Honey Bee Health assessment. This was the first year the club had run this. Congratulations everyone.
The apiary has been busy - looking after the club's bees, providing hives for all the assessments, bees for the observation hives and honey for the outreach events and nucs for members. Thank you Philip and all members helping out at the apiary.
Our summer social proved to be very popular with many members joining the committee on a lovely summer's evening so we could sit outside. Lots of delicious food was brought, so much many of us took goodies back home with us. Thank you everyone who made it.
May 2026
Dylan Gussman talk
We had a fantastic turnout for Dylan Gussman's talk on 'Drone congregation areas'. His talk was fascinating and even included a video of a queen mating - amazing.
His enthusiasm came over and engaged us all. Who knew you needed a fishing rod to help find drone congregation areas and they could cover such a large area?
Some of the committee were talking about a field trip to find drone congregation areas in the New Forest. Perhaps next year...
