GBKA  Registered Charity Number : 1014600

WATCH THIS SPACE

Are You Doing This?

Check your hives regularly after wind.

Check for food. The warm weather means that the season.bees have been out flying but as there is nothing coming in they will be using up their stores.

Begin to think ahead for what you need next

Check that wax moth hasn’t depleted the frames you thought you had.

Members

Please note the extra meeting in the apiary on Feb 3rd

If you have not yet paid your subscription for this year then please pay it now if you want to remain a member of the association.

Comment.

For a January newsletter there seems to be rather a lot going on, you just cannot relax with beekeeping. I hope you make a point of coming to the apiary on the 3rd of February if you possibly can.  I used oxalic acid last year and was surprised how easy it was AND how effective. And I didn’t lose any colonies either. It will be interesting to watch John doing it as a ‘professional’. Also think hard about subscribing to Beekeepers Quarterly. It is a very interesting magazine and coming only every quarter doesn’t seem to overwhelm as much as the more frequent ones. A very improving event to attend is the BBKA convention at Stoneleigh. It is rather a long drive which is why we wondered whether a bus would encourage more people to go. If you have never been it could be worth just having a look. This is a list of repetitions but please, if you have not yet paid your sub. but wish to remain a member do it now.

Bridget

Stoneleigh  Saturday 21 April 2007

The British Beekeepers Association hold a Spring lecture Convention and Exhibition at Stoneleigh (Warwickshire) every year. It is a wonderful opportunity to see all the trade suppliers together under one roof with every sort of equipment you can imagine. There are also erudite lectures and practical demonstrations. We are thinking of organising a minibus to take a group there, and would like to encourage members who have never been to try it for once.

If you are interested (even vaguely) please would you let Janet know so that we know whether the idea is worth pursuing. Tel 01291 690331

Bees for Development Charity                                      Advisers and Trustees Wanted

Bees for Development Trust is a registered charity (UK No 1078803) dedicated to alleviating poverty worldwide through the craft of beekeeping.  We do this by supporting Bees for Development to maintain a sharing and learning network, to disseminate information, and implement research and development projects.  Our focus is on sustainability, recognising the value of local knowledge, and assisting beekeepers to create greater income from their work.

Bees for Development Trust is seeking new advisers and/or trustees, and invites enquiries from people with legal expertise, skills in media or PR, finance or fundraising.  Above all, we would like to hear from anyone who shares our philosophy and has enthusiasm and time to join a team that is committed to making a difference for poor and marginalised beekeeping communities around the world.

Bees for Development operates from offices near Monmouth, where quarterly Trust meetings are held.  Advisers and trustees are all volunteers and do not receive any payment for their work in support of the Charity.

For more information about our work, please visit our website www.beesfordevelopment.org.  If you think you might be interested to support the work of the Charity, please email trust@beesfordevelopment.org, or phone 01600 713648.

Fondant Supplies

How to make your own.

Here is a recipe given to me by Mary Laxton. It was given to the Laxtons by John Amory—the CBI based at Usk College in the mid-sixties—and they have used it ever since.

Candy Recipe

5lbs. Sugar

1pint of water

1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar

The mass ingredients should be heated slowly until dissolved and then boil briskly for 3 minutes.

Method of cooling.

Into the sink containing a little water, say 4 inches, the pan should be immersed and stirred very quickly. When the candy begins to cloud it may be poured into moulds. Pyrex dishes are very good, but 250g margarine containers are ideal. Half this amount is sufficient for three of the latter containers.

Beginners Course

Please will you consider helping to run this course.

It is now in its sixth year and some of the original teachers are getting tired. If you could spare an evening then come along and ‘shadow’ one of the lessons so that you can see how easy it is to do. Then you will think of yourself as an understudy and will feel confident about taking over when necessary. It is always nice to have another beekeeper in the hall to help distribute bits of paper and help answer all the questions.

The sessions start on Jan 30th, every Tuesday until March 27th in Pontypool, 7.00 to 9.00

Please tel John Holden: 01873 831273

PAM at Goytre

                                Pam Gregory came to talk to us on a wild and windy day in January.  Pam was a bee inspector for more than 22 years, and of course she kept bees before then and still keeps them now. So she has a bottomless fund of stories about other weird and wonderful beekeepers. At the start of her talk she pointed out that man has had a very long association with bees, they occur in many ancient myths and traditions and are generally  connected with regeneration and rebirth. And although there was a time in the dark ages when it was thought that the colony was headed by a king rather than a queen, the early scholars eg in the Georgics knew that the head of the hive was a queen.

Pam ended her talk with a poem:

I eat my peas with honey

I’ve done it all my life

It makes the peas taste funny

But it keeps them on the knife.

Anon.

December Meeting at Goytre

Unfortunately our speaker was ill but Les nobly stepped into the breach and spent a (happy?) day immersed in his slides. He appeared triumphant with a wonderful selection of beekeeping slides. The topics ranged from Apis dorsata in India to Eva Crane in Trinidad, Apimondia 1983 and of course top bar hives and other things on Kenya.

We are fortunate to have such a well travelled beekeeper in our midst to keep us so well informed. We could also map the  hardware acquisitions as the shots became more and more professional.

Thank you Les.

Here is a log hive photographed by Les  

Christmas Crossword Puzzle Solution

This year’s prizewinner was Peter Hayward.

Thank you to all those who sent in their solutions, may you have better luck next year.

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.