GBKA  Registered Charity Number : 1014600

WELCOME

last edited on 13/01/2008 19:20

Now linked to "Monmouthshire Greenweb"

click here for:-

  The Local Weather This week

I do hope that our members will support me and our "News Editor" with some suggestions, photographic and literary contributions. Visitors are most welcome.

Please join us and have a look around.

(comment from the webmaster) A well known aviator in Portugal recently drew my attention to the fact that the first published and recorded flight made by the Wright brothers, was published in a prominent Bee Journal of the day. 

Did you know That?   click here for more info

I believe that the local association was formed just after or during the First world war from 1914/1918., and in those days was called the Monmouthshire Bee Keepers Association.

My own interest relating to Bees stems from around 1939/40. When I was about 9 or 10 Years old. My father had a couple of those pretty hives shaped like an old cottage (WBC), which he kept in his orchards above the old brick works on Malpas Road. From time to time  I would be sent on the bus down to Malpas road where a Mr. Cocks had a little shoe shop. He was also an agent for one of the Bee Equipment manufacturers. There I would collect foundation and frames, and on one occasion during the war I recall I had to collect a quantity of "fondant" which was a special concession for Beekeepers.

 I have some fond and hilarious Stinging memories of that period.   For my Dad, protective clothing was nothing more than an old straw "boater" with some curtain net around it,  an old raincoat tied around the waist and wrists over a pair of old leather gloves. I frequently saw him doing an Irish jig without music. The bees were as clever then as mine are today in finding even the smallest crack in the armour. The most hilarious sight was seeing my Mother  running hell for leather up and down the garden path slapping at her hair (!0 seconds for the 100 yards was nothing) she was about to dive into the well in desperation, but with Dad shouting "put your head in a plum tree. She did,.......Result. five pulsating stings on her scalp.

I do recall also that the Head Master at Bryn-glass Secondary school was a keen Beekeeper, and I also  remember that the association used to meet in a room in the Westgate hotel, and often made visits to Lord Raglans house.  Shortly after the war, repeated vandalism  caused my dad to give up his Bees, so that my association also halted, for quite a long time . Perhaps one of our older members will fill in the missing years to date, and assist us to trace the history of the association.

Whilst the domains gbka.co.uk & gbka .org .uk are owned by G Cole.  The web pages under these domains are published for  the Gwent Beekeepers association and its members ,  in order to publicise our association's news, aims, activities, and the art of beekeeping.