Wakefield and Pontefract Beekeepers: October Meeting - AGM

This Monday just gone was the WPBKA October meeting and also the AGM (annual general meeting). This meeting is more about the running of the association and less about the actual Beekeeping although it did include the yearly report from the regional Bee inspector. I can't remember all that was said in the report but the point was that this year has been the worst year for Beekeeping in living history with honey yields at a record low. My personnel yield being about 5 pounds of honey from 1 of my 2 hives, or an average of 2.5 pounds per hive, which is pretty diabolical!

There were a lot of statistics about the financial side of the association along with how the website is going. The committee members were all voted in again without change, except for the secretary who stood down this year and a new one was voted in. The last part of the meeting was a little more interesting; it was where the various awards were given out. Most of the awards went to familiar faces, there seems to be 3 or 4 people who always do well and a couple of people that do really well but the best part for me was when they called my name out to receive a trophy for winning the Novice class at the Emley Show! I believe my face may have gone a little red when called up as I wasn't expecting an award! Even better still was when the cup was being handed to me the presenter said that even though my entry was in the novice class it could have held up in the other classes! Something to think of for next year.

After the presentation of all the awards we stopped for a tea break and I got talking to a few people, mainly people congratulating me! One guy I was talking to (the same guy I bought the huge sack of sugar from last month) had one most of the awards again this year and I jokingly said to watch out as I now have the taste for winning awards and he seemed very positive about me entering more next year. He even said that if at any point I wanted any advice he would be glad to share all he knows with me, which is great to know seeing as though he wins so many awards. He always wins the mead classes so I asked him what kind of yeast he uses and I was surprised to hear that he uses regular bakers yeast like I have been using for my mead! The rest of the meeting was taken up with the raffle, I was not so lucky this month and didn't win anything.

First time I've seen my name engraved on a trophy!