Bromley
Bee News Monthly Update
Published by the Bromley Beekeepers |
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Welcome
to the December 2002 issue of Bromley News.
Attendance to the branch annual general meeting was encouraging and members had their say in the running of the branch. The Hon. Treasurer’s report was well received showing membership slowly increasing each year. Membership to the branch including associate members now stands at 74. Between the membership we own 344 hives for the season ending 2002, this figure has remand static +/- 10 hives over the last 4 years. All officers re-stood for election and were re-elected for another year. National Honey Show. Later in this newsletter we have a report on the 2002 National Honey Show by new members Janie and David Edwards. We now have two NATIONAL heroes; Tom Winks and Peter Bashford, congratulation to both for winning an impressive number of awards and cups. If you missed the National this year you can look at the photographs and download the results and awards from the National Honey Show website URL: http://www.honeyshow.co.uk Internet
News
Season’s greetings to our members from the branch officers. We wish you a prosperous New Year and a good beekeeping season for 2003. Steven
Turner
A Visit to the National Honey Show, November 2002 We are novice beekeepers who started this Spring with the encouragement of Steven Turner's 'Bees in Gardens' scheme. We entered the Bromley & Orpington Show in September and, to our great surprise and pleasure, won two Firsts and a Third Prize. Our egos thus inflated, we decided to enter the National. We had not realised that the Show is physically put together by members of the Kent Bee Keepers Association, mostly friends from the Bromley Branch. Since he was going up to Kensington every day of the week before the Show, Steve kindly took our entries (5 classes) with him. On Saturday 16th November we arrived at the Show mid-afternoon. Kensington Town Hall is an impressive, modern building with three floors in use. Show entries were arranged on the lower and ground floors, with the jars of honey well set out on tiered stands. The ceilings are studded with hundreds of spotlights which showed the clarity of the honey well and made the glass jars sparkle. The main Hall was devoted to stands from commercial exhibitors, academic and government research departments and craftspeople. They had obviously gone to a great deal of trouble over their exhibits, and the overall effect was colourful and lively. We found a few nice Christmas presents and chatted to some of the exhibitors who were friendly and helpful, though after three days' work some were looking forward to the long drive home! Our
daughter Lucy (10) and her friend Becky enjoyed the Show and were
interested to note a significant number of gentlemen with large woolly
beards. We wondered whether this was a consequence of many years'
beekeeping.
Apiary
News On the subject of the meeting I missed, I was pleased to hear it all went well, with Tony Ashby ably doing the honours. I suppose the next thing will be seeing his name in County Notices demonstrating around Kent. Well done Tony. I've not been able to download the pictures on my computer as since I loaded an Anti Virus programme I've been unable to dial up my server. With my absence from the apiary I have neglected feeding the small stocks which need regular attention, let's hope they have enough stores to keep them going. At this time of the year demands on stores is not particularly heavy, but in the new year when brood rearing starts to speed up it can be quite a different story. With the terrible weather we have had of late one wonders what next Sunday’s meeting will bring, but by the time you read this we will know the answer. The Sunday meeting on the 5th of January is one of our highlights on the calendar when we start off the New Year with our BBQ and mulled wine - an event not to be missed. Bring your spouse and family as there will be no beekeeping but plenty of time to get acquainted. I take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and of course a wonderful year of Beekeeping in 2003. Peter
Springall Diary
Dates Sunday
5th January 11.45am Sunday
2nd February 2003 11.45am Sunday
2nd March 2003 11.45am For
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