Great thread Tony!
This is what I have done, [member of the Edmonton beekeeping club], sure, have learned allot to get me going the last two years I'm in it but,... our local club, mostly made up of large scale operators, 50 to 2000 hives or more.

Me, a hobbyist, under 10 hives, [want to keep it that way] are not too many, or not attending this sort of club?

My personal desire is to find these small scale bee keepers, that have one thing in common like,....small scale decapping,
extraction, etc.
It seems, every time our club goes to see bee keepers, it's never in my interest, [but I'm still going] all large scale and can never apply this sort of thing at home.

My wish....small scale bee club, ...something like under 20 hives.
Well,..perhaps I'm asking for too much, any club is better then none.
Konrad

Konrad, Our club is rather small. We have about 20 members, out of which 8 to 10 regularly attend the meetings. One or two have 20 hives or more, a few of us have between 10 and 20, and many have 4 or less. I guess the hardest thing to do at the meetings is to strike a balance between what the new people will understand and what will be interesting enough to get the experienced people coming. Bee keeping videos seem to spark everyone's interest. Asking a seasoned beek to speak on a particular topic also helps. We've divided our meetings into Business followed by discussions,videos, demonstrations, etc, with time always set aside to just talk or ask questions. Someone brings a snack and we have coffee. We also ask people to bring a bee related item for our monthly raffle. As with any organization, it's often the few doing most of the work such as manning a booth at the local Aggie fair or giving a talk somewhere. We had a new slate of officers( I'm currently secretary)and we've tried to inject some enthusiasm into the club which seems to be working. We try to have an interesting monthly newsletter and have had some guest speakers. We've also gotten some local newspaper coverage and interest which has helped get us a few new members. We'll keep plugging along. One thing I've noticed about a small club is the sense of togetherness. For example, One member I'm friends with has an extractor, but isn't handy as far as building things. He lets me use his extractor and when I'm making something like triangular escape boards or varroa screens I always make a few for him. Another member has given me established nucs that he started. When he needs help to move a few hives he knows he can count on me. If someone needs a few sheets of foundation or something else in a pinch, a phone call or two will usually get it for them. Many of us sell our extra honey but there's not a sense of competition. We all have our own little base of customers and we all work together for the joy of keeping bees.

Very interesting. I love reading these exchanges. Please continue. Maybe, next year, once I gather drop or two of "in the trenches" experience [ :) ] I may also write a word or two. :) Who knows?

I hope your beeclub can post common experiences and other information on bee keeping that a Filipino like me in my country can learn from. I started bee keeping with apis cerana which is endemic to my country. I'm quite new to mellifera and I want to learn as much as i can.

I started a hobby beekeeper's group here, and immediately cut it loose to form its own leadership.

Hobby beekeepers often face the disdain of the more experienced or larger beekeepers. And they're more likely to successfully use high labor treatments like powdered sugar and have a lower winter loss than the experienced guys.

cc, Out here in our club we're all "hobby" or part-time beekeepers. SO, do you still have a group of backyard beekeepers going? There was an interesting article in one of the magazines that said calling ourselves hobby beekeepers makes it look like we aren't important or serious about it. Having only a hive or two or twenty has it's advantages. For the most part,you can wait for an ideal day to work your hives and you can take your time when your doing it. You have time to move slowly while working and can spend 1/2 hr just sitting there observing the bees going in and out. You have the time to brush off a few bees from the top of the open hive and gently place the covers on trying not to kill any.As with any other mass production, for the big guys, time is money, and I think a lot is lost in many ways. I think many small local operations are better than a few big ones, and believe this is true of anything including food and dairy farming, and manufacturing also.