GBKA Registered 
Charity Number : 1014600
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GBKA Registered
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The
apiary is going to be moved to a different site at Cefn Tilla, so some work will
need to be done. There will also be some new hives to be made to keep everything
in order for a teaching apiary. If
you would like to assist please phone Eric 01633
412617 Get
your frames and foundation ready so that you can make them up quickly when (or
before) they are needed. Make
certain your supers are clean and repaired and if necessary give them a coat of
cuprinol now so there is plenty of time for it to dry out. Have
a complete new hive standing by in case you need it, or part of it to replace
old and damaged equipment. Global warming seems to be one of the most popular subjects in the press and other media these days. I saw one report that the burning down of the forests by man some 8000 years ago was the reason for the melting of the ice caps covering a lot of this country and Europe some 12000 years ago. This is difficult to believe, it probably takes at least 1000 years after the ice has melted for any substantial forest to become established, let alone for it to be colonised by our long forgotten forebears; so the sequence must be that first the ice melts, then vegetation leading to forests must come with man following in the wake. Just a few thousand years are between them. On top of that the population of the world was just a small fraction of what it is today. Another report where the researcher was looking for an answer rather than speculating, was a scientist who was measuring the amount of light from the sun falling on a blackened plate and had found that it was decreasing by about 0.3% per year over the period 1958 to 1992. Now this method is particularly sensitive to light in the red and infra red end of the spectrum and the author, Gerald Stanhill, poses the question as to why this is happening. It seems to contradict the evidence we see all around us that we are in a period of global warming; for instance when was the Thames last frozen over in winter and why is there a much greater risk of skin cancer in man? My own utterly unscientific suggestion is that the sun is going through a period, one of either its long or shot term periodic changes, when its emission is changing and the wave lengths are moving from the infrared to the ultra violet end, but do not quote me!
Still perhaps its our obsession with the weather! Many of the usual early spring report of the "earliest" sighting of plants in flower or insect activity. One report of a bumble bee hitching a ride on the tube from Mill Hill to the west end of London. I do wonder what the bee thought when it arrived in the depths of the underground system? Just a few honey bees on the early spring heather on the 13th of January, though I doubt that the temperature was anywhere near the 15C that is suggested as the minimum temperature for bees to operate outside. Last summer seems to have suited these heathers, they are making a very good show. A collection of honey recipes in the News too, all seemed to work on the basis of adding a good tablespoon of Honey. I can recommend this, it improves the morning breakfast cereal greatly! I did like the statues of decorated figures carved from a solid tree trunk with the hive dug out of the back in the last issue of the Beekeepers quarterly. I have seen a colony installed in a plain tree trunk in the Forest, but there was no decoration on that. Inspection becomes a little more difficult though. But like Mrs Beaton, first obtain your tree trunk. |
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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