# General beekeeping > Bee blether >  Bibba handbook

## Jon

Hands up who got their wee Bibba handbook in the post this morning.
I found one misprint already as the best known beekeeper in Orkney is listed as Mrs D. rather than Frau D.

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## gavin

Is Dave Cushman really a professor?  No reason why he shouldn't be of course, but if so he hides that under a bushel or similarly secure hiding place.

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## Jon

I see you have ditched your PHD as well.
One of the striking things is the number of members from the  south of Ireland, mainly Cork and Tipperary.
Must be the Galtee mafia.
Very few members in Ulster.
A lot of the regulars from this forum must be listed.

Is that you Grizzly (Adams) first on the list?
I see Jimbo there as well and goes without saying the Pattersons and the Roses of this world.

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## gavin

Hadn't noticed the dearth of Ulstermen, but that certainly applies to the Scots given that we have 10% of the population of GB.  Is that because folk are happy with the (partial) Amm-leanings of their own national and local associations?  Complacency?  A deficit of the collaborative spirit which is stronger in our southern bretheren?!

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## Neils

Ta for the reminder. Just adding to negative northern balance.  I don't suspect for a second that any of my bees could be considered "native" but I've been meaning to sort this out for a while.

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## Jon

Hi Nellie.
You don't have to have pure native bees to be a Bibba member. (although obviously it helps!)
That would probably rule out 90% of the membership.
The BI in bibba stands for bee improvement and that is based on using the best local stock available.
Roger Patterson may well want to comment on his strategy in West Sussex as the chance of maintaining pure AMM there has got to be close to zero.
A lot of the focus is on rearing your own queens and acquiring the skills to do that.

But obviously the best part is the secret handshake and learning the funny walk.

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## gavin

> But obviously the best part is the secret handshake and learning the funny walk.


And of course there is the beard aspect too.  These days, however, just a mildly expressed wish to grow one one day will suffice, you don't actually have to have one.

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## Neils

> Hi Nellie.
> You don't have to have pure native bees to be a Bibba member. (although obviously it helps!)
> That would probably rule out 90% of the membership.
> The BI in bibba stands for bee improvement and that is based on using the best local stock available.
> Roger Patterson may well want to comment on his strategy in West Sussex as the chance of maintaining pure AMM there has got to be close to zero.
> A lot of the focus is on rearing your own queens and acquiring the skills to do that.
> 
> But obviously the best part is the secret handshake and learning the funny walk.


That's what I'm most interested in (getting better at queen rearing). Again the chances of me being able to maintain any kind of "purity" around these parts is basically zero but I do want to continue to improve as a beekeeper, not all of my queens raised this year were entirely accidental but I'd like to be a bit more controlled around the whole affair in future.




> And of course there is the beard aspect too. These days, however, just a mildly expressed wish to grow one one day will suffice, you don't actually have to have one.


Will one of those monty python type jobs do?

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## gavin

> Will one of those monty python type jobs do?


Perfect!  Monty P are also good for the silly walk.

If anyone ever gives you hassle over that alleged Scottish granny and your use of SBAi, then simply donning one of those See-You-Jimmy hats should fix that too.

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## Jon

> .. alleged Scottish granny


There is legal precedent.
Tony Cascarino played 88 times for Ireland.




> Cascarino was born in England but represented the Republic of Ireland, qualifying through his Irish grandfather. However, he later revealed that his mother told him in 1996 that she was adopted and therefore no blood relative to the grandfather. Cascarino said in his autobiography: "I didn't qualify for Ireland. I was a fraud. A fake Irishman". However, through the adoption his mother gained the right to Irish citizenship and therefore he was indeed eligible.

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## Neils

All the stuff came through today. No white beard!  Shall write and complain.  The geographic split is *very* interesting not least around these parts, there were people I didn't expect to see as members but a few that I did kind of hope would appear on the list.

Don't worry, I'm not going to embark on another mission, got enough on my plate right now  :Wink:

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## beebreeder

My Handbook came Thursday, just an idea would it not have been more sense to have arranged everyone in counties as the idea is to help us all keep in touch with each other, other thing that it says in the front all email addresses are in there, and as  yet I have found not one single e mail
kev

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## Neils

Agree with you on that front, did consider entering all the information into a little db just to be able to do some more interesting stuff with it.  Might ask if they can give me a file of the information to save me having to type it all in.

Interested to hear your opinion on the representation of beekeepers in the south west within BIBBA. There are "names" in beekeeping round this neck of the woods that I didn't expect to see, but the general representation here is pretty shoddy.

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## beebreeder

I know a few people that used to be members but like many beekeepers they are carefull with their pennies and felt that the magazine and value for money had gone so they let their membership lapse, like all associations it goes through peaks and troughs going on a high at the moment with all the new interest in bees. There used to be an insemination group as well but I am not sue if it is still going. I dont know if e mail adresses were left out for a reason or just forgotten
regards all 
kev

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## Jimbo

Hi Beebreeder,

My impression of BIBBA was it went through a bad spell a few years ago but in the last few years it is on a high. I think it is due to the hard work and commitment of the committee they have at present. The insemination group seems to be quite.

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## Roger Patterson

As a member of BIBBA Committee I was also disappointed to see the handbook in that form. One of the problems is we are a totally amateur organisation relying on volunteers, and the result is we will occasionally get a few howlers. Let's not shoot anyone, but find out what went wrong and give more help and guidance next time. Like all committees there are some who work incredibly hard and others who may not, for whatever reason, and BIBBA is no different. You also get people with different abilities and mixes, and that can mean many things. 

As already mentioned BIBBA has gone through a bad patch, and in some respects hasn't moved for some time, but overall there are good signs that we are moving on, but it will take time.

We must remember we are all BIBBA, like the national BKAs, so the success or failure is actually in the hands of all the members, not just the ones elected at the AGM.

I'm always positive, and am looking forward to the future, so are my bees.

Roger Patterson

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## Jon

> I know a few people that used to be members but like many beekeepers they are carefull with their pennies and felt that the magazine and value for money had gone


I think the quarterly magazine is very good.
The real value is in the networking - setting up queen rearing groups with like minded individuals.
The downside of that is that it looks looks like you could fit the Bibba members from N. Ireland in a couple of taxis.

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## Rosie

> As a member of BIBBA Committee I was also disappointed to see the handbook in that form.


At least you've seen it Roger.  I am still waiting patiently for mine.

Rosie

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## Roger Patterson

Perhaps the postman couldn't find "Rosie"!!

Roger Patterson.

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## Rosie

Yes or perhaps it's gone to my other alias - I'll have to ask him.

Rosie

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## GRIZZLY

[.

Is that you Grizzly (Adams) first on the list?
I see Jimbo there as well and goes without saying the Pattersons and the Roses of this world.[/QUOTE]

Yes Jon thats me

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## GRIZZLY

> And of course there is the beard aspect too.  These days, however, just a mildly expressed wish to grow one one day will suffice, you don't actually have to have one.


I used to have one of those-recon I lost 20 years when I shaved it off.Trouble was tho nobody recognised me without it.

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