GBKA Registered 
Charity Number : 1014600
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GBKA Registered
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Your Web Master and News Editor would like to wish all our Beekeeping friends world wide a Very Joyous Christmas & a Prosperous & prolific New Year
The
warm weather which has kept the bees flying may have led to an intrusion into
the food stores. For a bit of exercise on Boxing Day go round and check your
colonies to see if they need candy. How
about a new smoker for Christmas. We
could all do with an extra hive tool. Wood
is a wonderful material, it can be obtained in all sizes and colours with many
differing properties, it is easily shaped with simple tools but is also
processed in mass production machinery, it can be easily joined with fastenings
or with glue or even just simple mechanical joints and relatively it is cheap.
Also in the course of time it returns to whence it came. But it has some
disadvantages, it expands and contracts with changing humidity, its surface is
porous so it collects dirt easily, it is not uniform with its variable grain or
knots, and it can succumb to rotting, especially in damp conditions. Dry rot
too! You
may ask what brought these thoughts on. Well I was sorting out my frames after
extraction and cleaning up the good ones, not a particularly easy or pleasant
job. All the frames were dirty to some extent, some damaged at the joints and
some the bees had tunnelled through. I think a good case can be made out for
being very ruthless with poor frames, certainly brood frames should be
completely replaced and in many cases this should be extended to super frames.
Now I know that it costs the beekeeper honey for the bees to draw out comb, and
bees seem to be encouraged by comb, and all the books say use comb if possible,
but does it really make sense when everything is taken into account, labour for
cleaning up is expensive, new frame materials are cheap, and the wax can be
recovered? Wood
for frames has served beekeepers well, but is it really the best material? I
could imagine a frame made from stainless steel sheet, formed to give a strong
but light section, grooved for the foundation, and spot welded at the corners
with wire for supporting the foundation built in. Very easy to clean, blow lamp
or boil them, narrow section so extra space for the bees to build, but the
tooling would not be cheap and frames would be bulky to transport. Some
years ago I brought some plastic foundation. It is still in the frames, a blue
"P" now rather faded on the top bar identifies them. The normal wood
frame is still there, not a pretty colour, but much more rigid than wood/wax
foundation frames of a similar age. The bees cannot tunnel through and it is
impervious to wax moth! But the wood side bars and bottom bars are not really
required, the plastic is plenty strong enough, though some form of spacing is
required so that the distance between the foundation can be maintained. Thought
would also have to be given to the stability of the whole in the extractor.
Development and tooling would be very costly, but virtually no work for the
beekeeper. No cracks and crevices in the wood to harbour disease, sterilisation
would not be difficult. It
seems to me that we are still using technology almost from the third world, with
apologies to Pam and colleagues working there. Is anyone in this country looking
at this area or shall we be leapfrogged in technology like we were in the motor
industry. May I
wish all the compliments of the season. Our bees should have a feast on the ivy
if we have a little sunshine, plenty of ivy but little sunshine. Dick Sadler, 28/11 /02, In a recent copy of
New Scientist there is a heading “Bees buzz elephants” which says that not
only do marauding elephants destroy crops and damage trees but in Kenya they
trample someone to death once every two weeks. One way of keeping them away from
trees is to put beehives in them because they don’t like bees and leave trees
alone if they are ‘occupied’. So they are proposing placing hives of Apis
mellifera africana (sic) in strategic positions round farms to protect them.
People could be at risk from the bees but that may be outweighed by the risk of
being killed by an elephant. Included with this
letter you will find a form to fill in for your subscription for the current
year (our association year runs from Nov 1st). Please do it now before you
either forget or lose the form. They can be delivered at the next meeting if you
want to save a stamp. I hope you all have a
delightful Christmas. The next letter will be January and February combined. Any
contributions gratefully received. Thank you to everyone who has contributed
over the last year, every little thing helps to make it more interesting.
Bridget The AGM was held on November 23rd at Goytre village hall. The minutes will be published later. There was a good number of members present and the business went smoothly. Probably the only thing that is of importance to you is the raising of the annual subscription to £16.50 to cover the increased capitation to BBKA. It also includes the compulsory insurance for up to two colonies that every member has to pay, whether or not they have any bees. Insurance of all other colonies has to be added on as before, don’t forget that if you are underinsured you are not covered at all. We welcome two new members to the GBKA committee, Meryl Whyte and Brian Harris. Meryl has agreed to take over charge of the library, so in future, after the next meeting, all requests for books to be brought to Goytre should be made to her, tel. no.01873 851731. If you have any requests for new books that you think we should purchase for the library please let Meryl know. A
Cheshire System of Beekeeping contd. What does this
system do for us? 1. It enables us to give ample room for breeding during the developing season. 2. It provides for a supply of new combs built in the right place at the right time. 3. Given a decent season it provides us with surplus honey and with a food chamber for the colony. 4. It provides us with good queens in an easily accessible chamber, raised under good conditions, and if in the selected colony helps us materially in producing a strain suitable to the district. 5. It very greatly reduces the risk of swarming. This system has been followed since 1922 and has always provided some surplus honey for the beekeeper and some honey for the foundation of a food chamber for the colony. In more than thirty years only seven known swarms have emerged. Christmas Prize Crossword Clues
Across 1 See 16 7 Apiary Manager takes
article to heather (5) 8 Bright or Orange we still
await them (7) 9 Scripture lesson goes back
and forth before gallery-just what bee stings do! (8) 10 Sounds like perfume for a
penny (4) 12 Southern elite released
when stung (6) 13 Set Len to sit cosily (6) 15
Bee chooses to bounce back (4) 16,1 Sanitary characteristic
keeps the hive clean (8,9) 18 Lite act made palpable
(7) 19 Papist around time
reverses to produce nurse (5) 20 Sour GI mixed with
prophet to become churchgoing (9) Clues
Down 1 Pear brat mixed to ensnare
a hive enemy (4,4) 2 Sackville-West makes
Apiguard (4) 3 It will happen in 2018
near your cent (3,9) 4 Take a chance on fright if
he tracks sire (4,3,5) 5 Insect scrutiniser could
be seasonal (3,9) 6 Chiral Archie describes
rigid organisation (12) 8 Predestination sounds like
church bazaar (4) 11 Nice sums make surface
tension phenomenon (8) 14 Physical education around
your abbreviated funeral conflagration (4) 17 A relative of 7 may remain without hesitation (4)
The prize will be awarded to
the first winning entry pulled from the hat on January 5, 2003. All entries should be
addressed to the editor. PS
I was instructed that ALL clues in this year’s puzzle should relate to
beekeeping. I didn’t have the time or wit to achieve this, though some do! Good
luck,
Rattus The Annual General Meeting was held as usual at Goytre where members of the committee were re-elected. Pam Gregory was awarded the June James Trophy for her enthusiastic support of beekeeping over the past few years. It is sad that Pam has resigned from her ministry position as inspector, but all at the meeting felt pleased that she is still around to enthuse us all with her knowledge and encouragement. Michael Badger, past president of the BBKA was due to talk to us, but due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to attend. We were really lucky that Pam Gregory could fill the gap at extremely short notice. Pam began by saying that she was now a free woman and not working for the ministry and consequently had travelled to Africa to help the people develop beekeeping in a sustainable manner. Her first slide showed the green hilly countryside on Cameroon. It comes as a surprise to see green hills in Africa as most of what we encounter on TV is either parched dry or flat pastures populated with animals. One of the problems in this part of Africa is the deforestation and consequent soil erosion. This is becoming a major problem. Teaching the people to keep bees encourages them to plant trees as a source of nectar for the bees. The people farm small plots of land where they grow maize along with beans, the latter providing nitrogen to the soil. There are two seasons in this part of the world namely wet and dry. The wet season is the growing time and is when the bees forage. Log hives are made from locally available materials namely bamboo, wood and straw. Any gaps are plugged with mud. The hives are hung high in trees, as ants are a real menace at ground level. Examining the bees presents difficulties due to their restless character, the height of the hive in the tree, and the lack of any protective clothing. This can be a hazardous venture especially when compared to how we keep bees. Because of the high temperatures during the day the hives are only ever opened in the early morning or evening. It was fascinating to see slides of these hives being made by the local people. Box hives were made with sloping straw roofs. These were based on top bar hives used in other parts of Africa where a flat roof is used. As the weather is much wetter in Cameroon the sloping roofs were necessary to keep the hive interior dry. Pam was delighted when designing a part of a hive to hear one of the villagers say “but if you do it this way……..”. Honey can be eaten or used medically, particularly to treat eye conditions, and the beeswax made into marketable products such as candles and beeswax. Although the people are extremely poor, they were happy and took a great pride in their appearance, dressing in bright coloured clothes and highly polished footwear. Slides of the people, their way of life and the work being done by organisations such as Bees Abroad has given a view into how much can be done with so little when the enthusiasm is there. Graham Loveridge. If anyone is
interested in taking any BBKA modules (—exams to be held on March 22nd, 2003)
John Verran is going to arrange ‘master classes’. Please let him know which
one(s) you are interested in telephone number, 01656 729699 or Verran@btinternet.com
Can anyone tell me? (clue—you
ALL know him) His identity will be revealed at the Christmas
meeting Happy Christmas everyone |
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.
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