ICYB at XXII. Congress Apislavia 2018 in Moscow

The XXII. Congress Apislavia took place in Moscow during 9th-13th September 2018. This federation brings together more than 20 beekeeping associations from Europe and Asia. The headquarters of Apislavia is in Bratislava and the current chairman is the president of the Slovak Beekeepers’ Union Ing. Ľudovít Gál. The congress takes place every two year. This year, the congress was organized by the team of the chairman of the Russian Union of beekeepers and beekeeping organizations of the country “Pčelovodstvo” Olga Chupakhina and the main sponsor was Agrobioprom. Detailed information on XXII. Congress Apislavia can be found at www.apislavia.ru.
We participated at this Congress as representatives of ICYB – International Center for Young Beekeepers, z.s.. The aim of our participation was to further expand the international cooperation of beekeeping youth. The congress was held at the Kremlin Downhill Palace. We had the honor to speak to 5000 beekeepers about our activities, especially about IMYB. The ceremony was followed by a spectacular performance by the Kremlin ballet ensemble, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Berjozka folk ensemble, and the children’s ballet and choir.
The second day, the ceremonial opening of the beekeeping exhibition took place at the exhibition center in Sokolnik. At the exhibition center, there were also lectures on beekeeping in the individual countries of Apislavia, the health status of bee colonies and their treatment, the quality of honey and bee products, and a separate block of lectures on apitherapy. Immediately after the opening ceremony, the organizers gave us enough space to hold a lecture to the participants of the Congress about our activities, and especially about the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers IMYB. During the Congress, we established contacts with many of the countries that promised to participate in our events in the future. We are delighted that we have been able to agree with the delegates of the various member states of Apislavia to hold national rounds of beekeeping competitions for young beekeepers in their countries. At the same time, we promised them our help in organizing these national rounds.
The beekeeping exhibition was also very interesting. Among the largest exhibitors were Agrobioprom and Lyson. We are very pleased that these companies are already supporting national teams in some countries to help them to participate in our IMYB events. We consider this support to be very important as we would like to be able to gain teams of young beekeepers from other countries. We would like to see 35 countries attending IMYB next year in Slovakia, and at least 50 countries a year later in Slovenia. We will keep you updated on our progress on our website.

Naďa and Jiří Píza