Dear Members

On behalf of the Officers and Committee Dave and I would like to wish you all a Happy Easter. Thank you everyone who has sent cards and good wishes to Dave for his by-pass op but he hasn’t had it yet!! We went to Birmingham for his pre-op tests etc and they said there was a problem and the first operating slot they could now offer was the 6^th April !! It’s disgusting when someone is all psyched up to get it done and then you’re let down like that. So now you know what Dave will be up to (hopefully) on the day of the auction.

June.

If any of you have sent e-mails to us for anything and had no reply it is because we have not had any e-mail facilities for 2 weeks! They keep messing us about and it’s so frustrating!

There are still some outstanding! Please note we have a new Treasurer so they should be sent to Dan Wenczek, Hopleys, Bearwood, Pembridge HR6 9EQ.

NB The cut off date to notify BBKA of membership details is the 15^th March. This enables BBKA to send membership cards with the April BBKA News. So, please if you haven’t sent Dan your sub. please do so now!.

Beekeeping Display and Stand at Maylord Orchard as last year. If anyone has anything of interest to bring along or can come and relieve committee members for rest stops it would be appreciated. If you would be prepared to come and help us set up/ take down stand etc please give Val a ring.

Saturday March 29th- Welsh Beekeepers’ Convention at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells.

This is always worth a visit- there are lectures by various speakers, trade stands and of course the opportunity to meet

beekeepers from neighbouring areas. The lunches are very good too!

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 2-5.0p.m. on Saturday 5th and on the morning of the sale between 10.00-12.00pm. 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.

It may seem a long way away but it isn’t- now is the time to look out any surplus equipment you have and put it out ready.

As you will have seen neither Dave nor I will be at the Auction this year. The Auctioneers will be Geoff Dutson as usual, and Bryn Brooks from Dorstone.

April 18^th, 19^th, 20^th. Always worth a visit.

It was gratifying to see a good turn out again.

The following officers were elected:-

Chairman- David Bannister

Vice-Chairman- Bryn Brooks

Secretary- Mrs Suzanne Wenczek

Treasurer- Mr Dan Wenczek

Librarian- Dave Williams

Newsletter Editors- June and Dave Williams

Committee: Rosie Bashford, Ian Hydes, John Stevens, Val Vivian-Griffiths, June Williams

Catering: Gill Jones, Val Vivian-Griffiths, June Williams

Auditor: Jim Vivian- Griffiths.

As you can see we have a new Chairman, Vice-Chairman and a new Treasurer. Jim Vivian-Griffiths was thanked for all his hard work over the last few years. Dan lives with wife Suzanne, our secretary and their lovely little daughter, Lois.

The sub. for 2009 has been frozen and will stay at £22.50 for full membership. This is in spite of the BBKA Capitation fee rising to £14 in October 2008!

We are going to hold our meetings at Madley Village Hall for the next twelve months at least as it appears to be more central to our members than Hampton Bishop.

We are also going to hold the AGM in the morning instead of the afternoon next year. This is to avoid clashing with the Rugby World Cup.

Just to get you in the mood for the new season!

There may be a lot 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.

By the time you receive these notes this season will soon be well under way. If you have not already done so, you should be checking your bees for food etc. This is the time of year when things start to happen. It's far too early to do any real beekeeping because the weather will not be warm enough to do any real work. However you can heft the hives to check for weight. You should do this almost as a routine at this time of the year. Now what about treating your bees for varroa? You should consider counting mites to establish whether you have a build up or not. This is not a very difficult job to do. You will all have been told about the importance of establishing the amount of mites in your hives and the subsequent consequences of not doing anything about it. If you are unlucky enough to have a large infestation you should commence treating immediately to redress the situation. Now what else can you do at this time of year? Are you going to continue using the same treatment for this? I hope sincerely you will have taken on board the necessary steps to help in combating mite resistance. I cannot stress the importance of this too much. It is well worth you considering an alternative treatment. With all this time being spent on this do not lose sight of the other brood diseases which you may come into contact with from time to time. Now I am going to repeat myself again; there is absolutely no disgrace in anybody getting disease. It is a natural phenomenon which happens in bees and the real problem is man and his inability to deal with this in a grown up manner; please please do not feel embarrassed! We have toiled for years with an outdated and unrealistic way of dealing with this type of thing. I have spoken many times before on this subject. We are our own worst enemies in this respect. Who ever heard of bees being subject to an Official Secrets Act. How absurd this is. It does nothing to eradicate or help; all it does is hinder. It is no good learning of an outbreak six months later. To be effective and helpful we need to know straight away. There is nothing radical in this approach it is basic common sense. There now I have had my moan; let us get down to the basics of enjoying our beekeeping. There are lots of areas from which a beekeeper can derive a great deal of pleasure- from pollen identification, microscopy, wax etc which are far more interesting and indeed breeding bees. Their basic management never ceases to create enjoyment for me at this time of year.

Colony Collapse Disorder.

There are many theories as to the cause of this. There seems to be a ground swell of opinion that it might be cause by the new strain of nosema. With this in mind if your bees die in early spring from no apparent reason, it may be a good idea to collect a sample to be put under the microscope. Fresh bees are best for this purpose. This may be a red herring; watch for future developments in this area. There is no doubt we have all been experiencing losses, which brings me to the question of treatment. I have never treated for this and I personally do not think it is a wise plan to commence treatment without first establishing you have a need in the first place. There are those who blanket treat every year for this problem. I personally feel this is a bad step. Any form of medication will be less effective if used in this way.

P.S. There is a very interesting article in the Bee Craft this month about breeding varroa resistant bees, which I feel is worth having a good look at.

P.P.S. It is becoming more apparent that heavy unexplained losses are possibly due to Nosema. More about that next month.