GBKA  Registered Charity Number : 1014600

  Are You Doing This?

Feeding should be complete, and the hives so heavy that you can’t heft them. Nevertheless put rocks on the roofs to weight them even more. If you have an out apiary that you can’t get to everyday it is a good idea to strap the hive together or onto its stand in case of gales.

Bees need plenty of ventilation during the winter, they don’t like damp. Take out the entrance blocks if  they are not on varroa floors and attach mouse guards.

*AGM

Prof. Robert Pickard is a speaker of  great merit, whose highly instructive and amusing loquacity in previous Honey Shows has created the need for a repeat performance to placate the masses who could not fit into the hall for his first oration.

Do not miss the chance to hear him.

Annual Dinner at Bush House

We had a very pleasant evening at Bush House in Usk. The meal went without any hitches and everyone seemed pleased with their choice of food. I thought the chef had  put together an excellent menu, quite varied and something for all tastes.

Although we all enjoy meeting each other for a meal once a year, and judged by the amount of chatter you’d think it was the only time in the year that we do meet, I think it is a pity that some of our newer members don’t choose to join in and get to know us better. Following on from this is the problem of new members for the committee. Enclosed with this newsletter is a slip inviting nominations. Don’t be shy if you wish to nominate yourself. Bring your filled in slip to the AGM or hand it to anyone who is going

IBRA

IBRA was founded by Eva Crane with the role of ‘the advancement of the science of apiology’. This was achieved by searching, abstracting and supplying research information, in the process of which they acquired a comprehensive library and many historically interesting bee artefacts. Unfortunately the literary searches are extremely labour intensive and they have nowhere to display the ‘museum’. In these days of IT and databases a lot of the work they have been doing can be done more cheaply by other means. Therefore their Council have decided to make radical changes. They will become ‘a grant-giving trust that facilitates the collection, publication and dissemination of information about bees and beekeeping.’ The library is going to be moved to The National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth and will be accessible to everyone. A database of digital photographs of the entire museum collection is being made and will be available on a series of CDs. The museum will be loaned to the International Beekeeping Centre at Eeklo in Belgium, and will be on display there. They will no longer be publishing Apicultural Abstracts.

IBRA will still be based in Cardiff, and we wish them well in their future activities.

Comment

I was very thrilled at the honey show to actually meet Robin Dartington himself. He has become such a well-used name in this house that I had sort of assumed that he was ‘historical’. There were two of his hives on display, beautifully painted but without some of the refinements of my long hive.   You can buy kits from Stamfordham and the information leaflet says that it takes a competent wood worker only two days and a lot of space to put one together. His models actually have little supers that fit on top of the main body with wooden queen excluders to fit. The idea is that there is no heavy lifting.

 I spent a long time admiring some beautiful garments made in Nepal out of spun nettle fibre. Nothing to do with bees but intriguing. Of course aeroplanes are also nothing to do with beekeeping. If you have not yet experienced the Honey Show in its new location you will be unaware of the overpowering presence of these weapons of mass destruction in this monument to glorify them. The lectures (nice lecture theatre) and the actual honey show were just inside the entrance on the left. But to get to the trade show, which some people might have failed to find depending on how fascinating/excruciating they found the flying things, one had to weave through a gigantic hall following signs indicating ‘Honey for Sale’. There were some trade stands noticeable by their absence, which was a pity. I had hoped to purchase some Exomite, having failed to get to the Wye Valley meeting last month when Clive Newitt was talking. Instead I bought some oxalic acid.

My bees are still flying well. If we get a warm enough day I intend to take a peep inside. Oxalic acid treatment only works well when there is no brood, November is the month I have seen suggested.   Bridget

Equipment for sale

6 Nationals, secondhand, complete with one super.

Stainless steel extractor

Packs of wax foundation

‘Rowse Miller’ feeder

Smoker,

hive tool

other odds and ends.

If you are interested please phone Diane Williams

01874 731290  This is in

Llangynidr, Crickhowell.

View the equipment before agreeing  prices

Prize winner

George won top prize at the Honey Show with his video about how to make his hive barrow.

WELL DONE !!

Sugar Hazard Warning

Sue Bentley reports: There is some Silver Spoon sugar on the market, sold in very ordinary white packets with blue and red writing, like all granulated sugar, but underneath the Granulated Sugar label it says in pale blue copperplate ‘Light’’.  Those of you who have ever been in the position of counting the calories they consume will doubtless recognize this term as indicating  low calorific content but anyone else may not realise the significance. This sugar has added sweeteners and contains 25% less calories than normal sugar. Bees require calories to feed them over the winter, it is probably a Bad Thing to give them calorie reduced nonsense.

A Trip To The National Honey Show

This started with a letter from Chris Harries in our News Letter for interested parties to travel by coach to the show.  I had already logged my intention to go but it turned out that there was insufficient interest to support even a mini bus, however Chris had a volunteer car driver and with himself, me and another colleague we were all set to go.

I must say I was not looking forward to four up in a small two door car but it turned out to be a pleasurable part of the day.  Talking over several bee subjects passed the time well and even though we took the North exit off the M25 instead of the South onto the M1, the short detour still left our total journey time to two and half hours.

The show was smaller than I expected and the separate site for the trade stands did not help.  The show organisers had made improvements since last year but I think there are more needed.  The lecture facilities were excellent, I only went to one but Mr Clive De Bruyn was a little below par. Visitors numbers to the show were difficult to assess because, between the two sites we were intermingled with visitors to the Museum, which incidentally means that one had automatic entry to that part of the facility.  Museum visitors were not allowed into the honey show, may be by making a small transfer charge an opportunity to fly the beekeeping flag was missed.  Any way there is no substitute for public interest and lets hope for better things next year.

For non beekeeping members of a coach party there is easy access to a tube station adjacent to the show and a zone four all day off peak ticket will take you to Tottenham Court Road at the east end of Oxford Street or even shorter, to Camden Town and the Market.

The Return trip took a bit longer but we tried an alternate route, heading for the M4 via the North  Circular road.  I think it was shorter in distance but the traffic was horrendous and it took fifty-five minutes to get to the M4.

Still, overall a good day.

George Kinman

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