GBKA Registered 
Charity Number : 1014600
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GBKA Registered
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NB Please note the change in date for the March meeting. In your programmes it is advertised for the 10th, but Gordon cannot make it on that day so the talk has been brought forward to the 3rd March If
you have not paid your subscription and you wish to remain a member of this
association then do so NOW. Renewal forms were on the last sheet of the last
newsletter, if you have lost it phone/email me or Allison and we will send you
another. Heft
your hives to make sure they are not too light. If they are give the bees some
candy.
If you have not yet written to your MP/AM about this but do mean to, you may find it easier by email: Huw Edwards’ address is: edwards@parliament.uk David Davies’ address is: david.davies@wales.gov.uk Janet will send you some pointers on what needs to be said if you require help 01291 690331. In the November newsletter there were some key points to make, and I explained it a bit more in December. The last BBKA newsletter was full of it. Because the number of places in the Congress Theatre is limited please send your application back quickly. We have sent the enclosed letter out to our own members now but shortly there will be 300 more letters going out to other local beekeepers. We do not know what the response will be but it will be the first enrolled who get the places in the event of too many applying. IPM
Day - April 9th 2005 –
at the Congress Theatre, Cwmbran, Torfaen. 10.00am to 10.30am
Tea/Coffee available 10.30am to 11.30am
Introduction “Experience in the SW”
Richard Ball
NBU approach to resistant Varrroa
Mike Brown
Testing for resistance and the Beltsville T
John Verran 11.30am to 12.30am
Workshops - 2
x 25 minute sessions 12.30
to 1.30am
Lunch. OK to eat own packed
lunch in lounge or to venture
out to the shops.
Tea/Coffee available in the theatre. 1.30pm to 2.30pm
Workshops - 2
x 25 minute sessions 2.30pm to 3.00pm
Legality, Safety & Efficacy of Alternative
Treatments
James Morton
Apiguard Max
Watkins 3.00pm
Questions to panel. 3.30pm
Tea/coffee available. Workshops
- Folk will be divided into 4 groups to alternate around the 4 workshops.
Seating will be provided for each workshop.
The 4 workshops will be 1
Open mesh floors George
Kinman 2
Drone brood removal
John Verran 3
Queen trapping
Pam Gregory 4
Shook swarm
John Holden OUR SPEAKERSMike Brown
is the Head of the Bee Unit in York James Morton is the National Bee
Inspector for England and Wales John Verran
is the Welsh Regional Bee Inspector Richard Ball
is SBI for Devon where resistant mites have been present for several
years Pam Gregory
is a past Regional Bee Inspector for Wales. Now helping “Bees Abroad” George Kinman is our local
designer/engineer of open mesh floors.
(from John Holden) If you have been bothered by wasps recently then set traps for them in
the spring, then you will catch the queens before they begin to make their
nests. You can bait them with sausage ! ? ! ? Our resident vegetarians ask “will soya sausage do?” I’ll leave it for you to experiment with, I always use jam in water
with a squeeze of washing up liquid to lower the surface tension. Apparently they are too stupid to find their way out of traps so it is
not necessary to drown them. I’m not sure which is worse. Could it not be
considered cruel.. Or is there no such thing as cruelty to wasps? Site traps near hibernation spots—not in the apiary—you don’t want to encourage them to go there. Please note that the apiary meeting in the programme for April 9th will
NOT take place as everyone will be attending the IPM day in Cwmbran
Please let Allison know NOW if you wish to renew/begin a subscription
for Beekeepers Quarterly. If we do not have enough subs. we do not get the extraordinarily good deal of £14 instead of £24. Comment and this year I will
do everything just a little bit better than last year. In one of my former occupations I was a geneticist, so now as a member of the Genetical Society I receive their news journal. Someone is doing research into wild snapdragons in the Pyrenees. There are red-flowered ones and yellow-flowered ones which cross-pollinate to produce white, orange and striated hybrids. The question is why the zone between the two main colours is so narrow, ie why don’t they all become hybrids. An experiment was set up which demonstrated that the pollinators (bumblebees) found certain colours, eg orange, less attractive, leading to lower seed-set in these hybrids. The bees did not show strong colour constancy (between the red and yellow) so that was not the reason (If they did of course there would be no hybrids to begin with). We know that honey bees forage on a single sort of flower on each trip, but if they are on, say, heather do they differentiate between white and purple? I would never have thought so, they must be mainly guided by smell. I can’t think of another good bee plant of more than one colour or I would grow some and observe. Has anyone any thoughts on this? Bridget Helen Jackson
at Goytre Village Hall Helen Jackson works with Nicola for Bees for Development. She came to Goytre to tell us about what they spend their time doing and why. Their remit is to spread information. A great many of the beekeepers who they help live in countries where there are no books on beekeeping, no organisations for beekeepers and no opportunities for beekeepers to converse together even within their own country. Bees for Development answer about 2,500 enquiries each year from beekeepers from developing countries. They also publish a quarterly journal (Bees for Development Journal) which they send to 4,000 people. People want to know more about how they can make beekeeping improve their lives, and they need to be told about the benefits that bees confer on a community, they may not even realise that bees are responsible for pollination and that keeping bees can increase the yield of crops. Honey. Local honey always has great value but transportation is often a problem as are containers and labels. Presentation needs to be taught. Locally available clean receptacles need to be researched. Beeswax. Traditional beekeepers tend not to know the value of wax nor what to do with it. It is easy to explain how to warm it and clean it to make it into a valuable commodity. Equipment. Collecting the honey from traditional hives often destroys the colony. Simple movable comb hives can be made out of local materials. Safe smokers that do not start forest fires can also be made locally as can bee proof clothing. Bees for Development encourage local people to run workshops to train others, and they will provide charts and books to help. They will run training courses and they try to keep everyone aware of what is going on in the world. To do this they require funding which they raise from subscriptions and consultancy. The safari holidays which they run help to raise money and lead to valuable co-operation between groups of beekeepers. The Bees for Development Journal is an interesting read for all of us. Apart from the fascinating helpful hints about keeping bees other than Apis mellifera, there are notes on honey issues that affect the whole world. They have local people reporting from many different countries and tips on how to deal with local problems (eg honey badgers). There are also book reviews and the dates and details of Courses and meetings that will happen in the next few months. Their next safari will be to Trinidad and Tobago, it is listed in our “Forthcoming Events” with a contact phone number, if you think you might be interested give them a call and find out more about it. Bridget Christmas
Crossword Puzzle solution
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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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