May Newsletter

Dear Members

Dave is home after a successful op. Thanks to all of you who have rung him, sent cards etc. We hope to be seeing you all soon.

Directions from Kington:
 As above on A44, but turn right at the New Inn in Pembridge past the Butter Market.
 Please telephone if you would like directions from other places (01544) 388302.

Editor’s note:

Although Suzanne & Dan had two hives unfortunately they are down to one now, so they are stressing that you won’t see a lot of hives but the one left is ok. This is still a lovely venue and you can all commiserate with each other over the fairly considerable losses that are being reported.

N.B. Please note that this year the course is again run over 2 weekends rather than 5 Sundays. Class 1&2 are May 10/11and

Class 3&4 are May 17/18. It’s that time

again! We have quite a lot of interest again

in the courses. Sometimes we have established beekeepers do the course to bring themselves up to date. If you would

like to come either ring me or Suzanne or just turn up on the day.

Details next month- just mark the date!

Despite the forecast of snow, the weather held fair for the annual auction of beekeeping equipment on Sunday 6^th April at Lower Newton Farm, Kinnersley. Many of the lots had arrived on the Saturday and the Committee were pleased to see a good variety of equipment, particularly of small items for sale. It was a great opportunity to stock up on additional honey buckets, jars and other equipment for extracting time.

Val, Gill and the catering committee tempted us all with lovely cakes and sandwiches before Geoff Dutson and Bryn Brookes started the auction and the bidding took off in earnest. We had 26 registered bidders, many of whom had travelled considerable distances and the bidding was brisk with plenty of bargains to be had. By the end of the day, we had made £875.20 of auction sales, which although less than previous year, reflects the fact that we had many items of smaller value.

Our thanks go to Mike Townsend who had very kindly donated his father’s prize winning wax cake to the Wye Valley Beekeepers’ Association for sale which brought the total commission to the Association for sales to £91.57. Catering sales came to £50 and we also received a donation of £24 from one of our regular bidders, Mr Moreton of Shrewsbury. Although our thoughts were often with Dave and June, it was a very enjoyable day and hopefully many of our members are now fully equipped for the beekeeping season ahead! We would like to thank everyone who helped out with the auction, particularly our exemplary auctioneers and catering committee, who kept us going through the day.

WVBKA has received a BACS credit of £1610.33 for the gift aid refund.

We have to thank our previous Treasurer Jim Vivian-Griffiths who spent so much time and effort trying to get this money that we were due. It involved sending all the forms back again as the tax office weren’t satisfied with some details. However it was well worth it so thank you Jim.

This is a considerable amount of money and we are asking if any member has got any sensible suggestions about what the club could use it for (personally I think the Newsletter Editor should be sent to New Zealand on a fact finding mission! No? Oh well!)

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.

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.

Where has the nice early Spring gone this year? Those of you who have large colonies must watch the food situation. One or two of you may be surprised to find some of your bees smaller than when you last looked at them, this is quite normal. At this time of the year one would expect the old bees to die. This state of affairs seems to surprise some beekeepers but I can assure you that it is quite normal. The bees do not seem to have taken much advantage of the rape yet, never mind, there is plenty of time left. Don't forget to take your treatment out before the honey flow. We are approaching a good time of year (hopefully) to get some nice drawn combs so don't forget to put some clean frames and foundation on your bees if you would like to get some. Have you examined your bees for disease this year? If you have not done so it would be a wise plan to set aside some time to carry out the this task. This is quite a simple task to accomplish if you go about it in the right manner. When you are looking for brood diseases the best plan is to clear your mind of all other tasks and concentrate on that alone. Once you have built your confidence up it will become second nature to do this at least once a year. Beekeeping has undergone quite some change in the last few years, indeed even diagnosing disease. We now have some tools that an ordinary beekeeper can use to detect if he has disease or not. It will become more widely available as time goes on. They are aids to beekeeping and if used in the right circumstances it will be a very useful tool. However one should not rely totally on science to get you off the hook; you should be competent at recognising healthy brood What I am saying is you should train yourself by looking at healthy brood, then diseased brood will stand out like a sore thumb, but you must be looking for abnormalities for it to register. What other steps can you take to help in this quest of keeping your bees healthy? Well simple communication with other beekeepers in your area will help. What better plan can there be to stop the spread of disease if you let your neighbours know straight away. Remember these are naturally occurring in bees and it is only fools who think otherwise.

Electronic Mail If you would like to receive your newsletters by e-mail then please contact us. Obviously you will get it quicker and it saves the club postage.

dj.gva@zen.co.uk