April Newsletter

Dear Members

Once again it’s time to wish you all a very Happy Easter and let’s hope the weather will be kind to us. It’s been very good just lately hasn’t it? Dave and Rich have been doing the preparatory work for our new conservatory and we’ve been lucky so far. Dave and I will be back at the Auction this year doing our usual things so hope to see as many of you as possible there on the 5^th. If anyone could give us just an hour on Sat 4^th at 1.0pm just to help us sweep the shed out, arrange trailers into position etc we would be very grateful. Please contact Suzanne or me.

We have even more new members!

Mr Paul Ellis from Gladestry

Mr Richard Kelly and Ms Kate Smith from Dilwyn

Bob and Pam Mendy from Old Radnor

Andrew and Babs Strangeway from Lyonshall

David Curd from Weobley.

We are also pleased to welcome back two previous members who have re-joined us:-

John Childs from Westhope

Martin Price from Penybont

We are very pleased to welcome them all to the Association and hope to meet them very soon.

Format is the same as usual- the club has 10% commission on sales. Do come along, there are usually lots of bargains to be had. Goods can be brought in between 2-4.0p.m. on Saturday 4th and on the morning of the sale between 10.0-12.0noon. If you have anything to sell and have problems with Transport contact us or any committee member. Please make sure anything you bring is clean and in a reasonable condition as we have been let down a little in the past with goods complete with dead bees, cobwebs etc and it does bring the standard down.

Lower Newton Farm is on the A4112 Brecon to Leominster road. (0S ref SO346498 (Sheet 148). The access to the farm is directly opposite the entrance to Kinnersley Castle, on the right coming from Leominster direction and on the left going towards Leominster.

It may have seemed a long way away but it is here again now!

April 17^th, 18^th, 19^th. Always worth a visit

N.B. Please note that this year the course is again run over 2 weekends rather than 5 Sundays. Class 1&2 are May 9/10and Class 3&4 are May 16/17. It’s that time again! We have had such a lot of interest again in the courses and we have had to close now.

This is a very well supported day locally and an ideal place to stock up on your summer plants. Dan will be there with his trees and the Wye Valley Stand will be there too. Events are staged at Dorstone Hall, Dorstone Church and the Playing Field. For more info please ring Bryn Brooks on 01981 550260.

June

Our Beekeeping Display and Stand was at Maylord Orchard as last year. Our thanks go to David Bannister for erecting the stand with us and manning the stand most of the day and to Jane Matthews who came to help in the afternoon and helped us pack it all away. Val and Jim came mid-morning and Ian Hydes came on his usual lunch-time stint to allow us to go and get some lunch.

We had a lot of interest shown and gave out several course applications etc. We were also able to bring other beekeepers up to date and give them the Ministry varroa books etc.. We must thank Val and Jim for obtaining more posters, getting them laminated and supplying more photos etc and material for the display board. This is very important as it is our link with the general public at these events and we need to maintain a professional display.

The trip this year was going to be to Bourton on the Water paying for coach only so that it could be a cheaper or dearer day according to where you wanted to go. At the last committee meeting it was decided that because so few of the members supported it (usually about 25-30% seats) that it wasn’t feasible for the club to run it for so many non-members. If you have any thoughts about this please contact me or Suzanne with your feelings, or talk to us at the Auction. I know it will disappoint our small core of loyal members who come along every year. It may be that I will run it anyway independently from the club with any profits going to Charity, maybe Acorns Childrens’ Hospice. I need to know if anyone would like a form when I do them etc.

June

It would seem that most bees in this area have come through the winter quite well, after the previous two years it is very welcome. However do not be too quick to judge; we still have time left for things to go wrong. In the past we have seen many colonies die in the next two months mainly due to what we used to call spring dwindling- in other words failure to make progress. Many people have checked their bees five or six weeks ago and gone back some time later only to find the bees in a worse state than before. When you have nice new young bees present and plenty of pollen everything should be okay. Now this brings me to the next thought many keepers practice feeding in the spring with the hope of getting the bees nice and strong. This practice is not widely condoned; it will bring your bees out of step with the season. We have seen this many times over the years. Of course this does not mean to say you should not feed if your bees are short of food but if you have fed properly in the autumn there should be no need to practice this kind of thing. We should leave our bees to do what they do naturally and develop with the season. It is a well known fact that we as beekeepers are in danger of interfering with the natural balance by introducing various antibiotics and treatments of one kind or another. This is not the right way to go, in my opinion we are in danger of over medication. Of course when you have established you have a problem by all means treat in the appropriate manner. The key here is to establish first what the problem is. Now some would argue that trying to prop up bees that are sick is the wrong thing to do. How often have you heard one beekeeper or another say ‘oh I united that poor stock with a strong one.’ Personally I would prefer beekeepers to breed up from good colonies. I remember a conversation I had with Karl, I think we reached the conclusion that it was a dangerous practice. In some cases you simply to do not know what is wrong and to unite with a good colony you may be introducing something undesirable into that good stock. Of course if it is simply Queen failure or something which is very obvious and no danger then this is quite an acceptable practice. My motto is be very careful when carrying out this practice. Now what about that stock that died out? If you come across this kind of scenario what should you do? The first and most important thing is to close the entrance block to prevent other bees entry then establish if possible the cause of death. Do not allow other colonies to rob this one out, it is a method of transferring problems. If it is possible to establish cause of death then you might consider sterilising the comb. It goes without saying if it is one of the brood diseases it is better to incinerate, scorch and clean the hive thoroughly. Now what about examination? It is good practice to set aside time to examine thoroughly for the presence of disease. I personally like to do this before any equipment is added then should you be unfortunate in finding disease you will not have piles of equipment on your bees. Remember if you have marked your supers when you removed them you will know which bees they came off or indeed the site where they were kept. This may seem over zealous but it is well worth while; also another point to remember is when you are in the process of doing pollination work you should keep a movement record of where the bees came from and where they go to. This is very simple but very important. Should you come into contact with disease it is very helpful from the point of traceability. The best of luck for the coming season

Dave

If you are interested in a site in a small orchard at Orcop please contact:-

There may be a few of them about soon. If you are looking for a swarm then please let me know as obviously we are the first people who are contacted when swarms appear. Even if you do not really want a swarm would you be willing to help members of the public by removing one in your area. If so, again please let me know.