Talk – Ged Marshall Swarm Control

Ged Marshall* will tell us about swarm control.

There will also be a selection of books from the OBKA library available if people would like to borrow some winter reading.

Free for OBKA members, £2 donation for non-members.

*Ged started beekeeping when he was 15, spending a Summer working for a commercial (3,000 hive) operation in France. He got his first hives in the early ’80s and went full time in July 1989. Building up the business, focusing on bulk honey production and more recently, queen bee production. He has worked in France, Tenerife, Denmark and at Buckfast Abbey with Brother Adam to help improve his beekeeping. In February 2014 Ged was the first Bee Farmer in the country to be awarded with the status of ‘Master Bee Farmer’ having reached the highest level in the art, science and craft of bee farming accepted by the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers and the Bee Farmers Association of the United Kingdom. He has achieved professional recognition through the licentiateship of the City and Guilds of London Institute.

As well as this, Ged has served on the Bee Farmers Association committee for 12 years and in 2017 he was elected chairman of the board of directors. He worked on the Honey Working Party in Brussels, becoming vice-chairman of the group representing all European beekeepers in meetings with the EU Commission. He has also served on the Bee Health Advisory Panel run by the governments Ministry of Agriculture and, more recently, was a member of the Healthy Bees Plan set up by FERA (Food and Environmental Research Agency).