In the second week of February 2023 the two COLOSS core groups Monitoring and B-RAP met again in person after two years with annual online workshops. Do you recognise the country and city from the group photos? Yes, we were in Warsaw, experiencing the Polish cold, were treated with excellent Polish food and even had time to explore Warsaw.
No worry, we worked also hard on the focus topics of the core groups. In the monitoring workshop updates of results and activities were presented, and the next round of the monitoring questionnaire was negotiated with determination and fervour. It was debated which additional focus questions are to be asked of the thousands of beekeepers all over Europe and the world in this year’s winter colony loss survey. Additional talks from participants demonstrated how detailed analyses can bring forward the monitoring analysis, e.g. when analysing winter losses on a detailed geographical scale.
The second half of the time was dedicated to the B-RAP workshop, the core group focusing on the knowledge transfer between research and beekeeping. First of all we discussed the survey results about the beekeepers’ needs and habits, when they search for information about beekeeping. The second focus was on structural analysis of beekeeping education systems, which is planned to be the topic of a future B-RAP survey. Again, talks connected our theoretical work with the practice, as they showed how knowledge transfer and communication happens in real beekeeping projects.
We thank our Polish hosts for their warm welcome and wonderful workshop organisation. None of us will forget the panoramic photo-sized coffee buffet loaded with small pastries or the atmospheric walk through the dark and wintery Royal Łazienki Garden.
