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PEEBLES-SHIRE BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION
Established 1919 .
Membership of the Peeblesshire Beekeepers Association costs £7.00 per year, and is open to all who are interested in bees and beekeeping. A series of winter lectures and summer apiary visits are arranged for members. __________________________________________________________
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IN MEMORY OF BERT YULE
Obituary
ANDREW ROBERT (BERT) YULE
Andrew Robert (Bert) Yule, of Kirkton Manor by Peebles, died on 8 th November, 2011, in his 98th year: dearly loved husband of the late Margaret (Bunty) Dalgleish and dear father of Drew.
Bert was a Borderer of the old school – he was a wonderful source of knowledge about the countryside and all its creatures, and a kind and generous neighbour to all. After his family, his first love was his bees – he brought them to the Manor Valley near Peebles when he came to work at Woodhouse Farm in the late 60s. He was generous in all things – he sent his honey to anyone in the Valley who was ill; he would help with troublesome colonies at the drop of a hat, and his home-made bee sheds were virtually a community resource for local beekeepers.
A condition of his employment was that if his bees needed him, then he could down tools immediately and go! He was an avid reader of anything to do with bees, and extremely knowledgeable on the techniques of beekeeping – but he also had an instinctive understanding of bees. He would speak of the gentle “native” bees that he had when he first started beekeeping – how it was seldom necessary to wear a veil or gloves; how he learnt beekeeping when skeps were still in use in some areas. His apiary had seen almost every kind of hive known to man, all abandoned by the time I knew him, in favour of Smiths.
While he was still able to get about, Bert was a familiar sight around Peebles – he never sat a driving test but did have a large blue tractor that he used for fetching his shopping! Even into his nineties he would still take his daily hillwalks of 5 miles or more, heralded by his faithful collie and by a piercing whistle from his hearing aid. His bees always managed to bring in a crop of honey, even in the poorest years, which he sold from house, leaving honey and an honesty box in the porch. Local charities and fairs also received donations of Bert's honey to help with their fundraising. He will be much missed in his valley, and by the Peeblesshire Beekeepers Association – he was a stalwart member for over 40 years.
AC.
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