Bees are very much in the news again at the moment with a new TV series Bees, Butterflies and Blooms by Sarah Raven raising the profile of out pollinators. The National Trust is doing its bit by putting honey bee hives onto its properties. At Mottisfont they have produced some fabulous video to show what goes on in a hive. Mottisfont honey bees. I believe there are also three hives at the Vyne now and we will be appearing at the Orchard Day in September.Their blog can be found here |
Don't forget to check that your hives have sufficient stores to overwinter especially as the weather is mild. The bees may be tempted out to fly with no forage to reward their efforts. Also now is a good time to do an oxalic acid treatment before the queen comes back into lay. |
There are signs that wasps are starting to cause problems. Bee keepers do not deal with wasps so please do not ask us. Contact a commercial operative to deal with your problem. |
We have received a message from the National Bee Unit via our regional bee inspector that some colonies are struggling this year due to the dry weather. This is most likely to affect new colonies that are being established or colonies from which an early honey crop has been taken. A weak feed is reccomended for any colonies which are struggling.The message is attached below. |
Just to say thank you to all those people who have generously volunteered to collect swarms this year. New members please get in touch with me so the information we have is up to date if you are hoping to acquire some bees this year. |
There have been quite a few enquiries about bees in airbricks etc which are likely to be red mason bees and bees under patios which are likely to be mining bees.There is now some information on solitary bees on a new page on this website. They are all harmless. |
We were called out for our first swarm last week so please monitor your colonies carefully. The new system seems to be working quite well. If you need help with a swarm please try to contact the most local volunteer as we are trying to reduce both the volunteers time and the amount spent on fuel.There have been a number of calls due to solitary bees under patios so the swarm page is being amended with some extra information to reflect this. |
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I will be sending everyone an invitation to sign up for our members only pages shortly. As our website is hosted by Google you will need to have a gmail account as a form of ID. You do not need to use it for email if you don't wish to and it will not affect your current emails. It just provides you with a user ID to which I can assign permission to access the members only pages.
We hope to develop an active exchange of information of news and information. Members only will be allowed to view and post to these pages. New members hoping to buy a nuc or other items can ask for help from members before looking further afield. Don't foget to say what kind of hive you are planning to use as there is not much point arranging to buy a nuc with the wrong size frames.
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Just a reminder that if you would like to subscribe to Beekeepers Quarterly you get it at a reduced price of £16 (instead of £26) if you do it through the club. There are 4 issues during the year.There is a space on the membership form to do this via our membership secretary Sharon Woodman. Alternatively contact our secretary David Coppock.If you already subscribe at full rate they will rebate the difference. |
Beekeepers in need of bees who would like a swarm this year should contact Jenny and Eric by phone or send a mesage via the website here Similarly any experienced beekeepers who would be able to collect swarms (for redistribution) in areas not already covered by our team of volunteers please get in contact.See Honey Bee Swarms for current list Best wishes, Chris |
An excellent talk by Robin Dean on Pollination. Robin covered the role and problems encountered by honey bees, bumble bees and other pollinators. Good pollination rates increase yield as might be expected but research show it also improves the quality of fruit and an improvement in its keeping properties. He also explained how farmers and others could help insects by providing flowers for pollinators throughout the growing season. It was interesting to see estimates of the financial importance of pollinators, both generally and specifically as applied to apple production. Remember we need supply some questions for our 'Question Time' next month. Contact Laraine with your ideas. |
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Our Association has been asked to attend the above Fayre on Saturday 18 June from 2 pm until 4.30 pm. Sharon and I are going and would be very pleased if one or two other folk could join us - even if it is just for half an hour. We hope to take the observation hive and generally do a bit of PR stuff. Let us know if you can help - it is usually great fun!
Laraine Kuntze |
Pages have been added for members to have their say or ask questions.If you sign up for the rss feed you will receive an email when announcements are made. It's a good way to keep up to date with what is happening in the association.You won't be able to do this until I have given you authorisation. So please be patient if you haven't received yours yet, or contact me to get it sorted. Chris |
Copies of the last few years Newsletters are now available and fully searchable using 'Search this site' facilty |
The calendar is now live.It shows BDBKA events plus any others that have come to my attention.Please let me know of anything else that should be included. Thanks. Chris |
The feedback so far has been very positive.We'll look into the best way of managing discussions. We must add a bit more guidance for new/intending beekeepers.Does anyone want to write some articles? Chris |
I am just playing with this at the moment.It is one of three possible host sites . |