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Cover
pictures from the April winter evening lecture at the club house.
Welcome
to the May 2002 issue of Bromley News.
This season my bees are well advanced, two hives have attempted to
swarm, I chose to split them to make up some extra stocks, I had a
number of empty hives and so was able to deal with the swarming urges
this way. You can always unite stocks at the end of the season and
select the best queens for next year.
I thought
the April evening lecture given by Barbara Dalby "Cooking with
honey using a microwave" was brilliant, Barbara proved that you
can do three things at the same time without burning the supper! Barbara
has written a "Nutshell" about microwave cooking with honey
published by Northern Bee Books at £1.50 inc. p&p.
This
year’s BBKA Spring convention at Stoneleigh was very exciting, I’ve
heard that over 16,000 beekeepers came through the door which is an
incredible number. Some beekeeping suppliers sold out before lunch
time. I was promoting the new Apis-UK beekeeping newsletter on the
Beedata stand by handing out FREE pens and 10% discount vouchers for
shopping online. This gave me an opportunity to talk to a lot of other
beekeepers from around the country which was great fun.
Apis-UK is a FREE web beekeeping newsletter/magazine edited by David
Cramp in Spain of which I’m the web editor.
I treated myself to a huge Skep and a bumble bee nest box and three
Langstroth framed queen excluders plus a full bee suit from BBWEAR
which I will be modelling at the next apiary meeting!
Steven Turner
Honey Wanted
We are looking for more local beekeepers to sell their honey at our
markets. Local honey really sells well at our markets and we offer
low fees to beekeepers. We have markets in Blackheath, Peckham and
East London as well as markets in other parts of London. Please could
you see if any of your members are interested in this proposal. Thanks.
Mark Handley, London Farmers' Markets, 6 St Paul Street London N1
7AB Tel: 020-7704-9659 Fax: 020-7359-1938 Email: info@lfm.org.uk
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Varroa
seen in decapped Drone Brood photograph © Tom Winks
This is a small account of what Barry & I did when Clive
& Peter were on bee tour. It was a good turn out on Sunday,
we only opened the members hives at the back, the first hive had a
good stock of bees with a lot of brood, but when I cut off some drone
cells we found lots of varroa on the drones. The next hive had only
a hand full of bees, but had some brood. We looked at the swarm installed
on Good Friday, we found lots of eggs and lovely new white wax.
Peter
Bashford
Internet News
The Oxford Bee Company Ltd supply Ladybird, Red Mason bee nest
and Bumblebee nest boxes. http://www.beedata.com/news/obcpressrelease.htm
Apis-UK the FREE beekeeping web magazine. Officially launching
at Stoneleigh 27th April. http://www.beedata.com/apis-uk/index.htm
Some hints on the art and mystery of Skep Making by Karl Showler
http://www.beedata.com/data2/skeps.html
UK beekeepers database of local honey producers
http://www.beedata.com/localhoney/
The kent Beekeepers Association http://www.kentbee.com/
Send the editor your favourite beekeeping website and description
and we will include a link next month.
A
Review of the 70th National Honey Show 2001 DVD
As a young, keen and enthusiastic beekeeper, I was quite disappointed
with this 50 minute poorly filmed amateur DVD of the 70th National
Honey Show 2001. The DVD informs its viewers of how honey, honey products
are judged and the benefits of general honey production. The biggest
criticism of the DVD is the poor lighting and sound quality, with
constant background noise, making it difficult to fully appreciate
this DVD. The poor lighting, makes it difficult to appreciate the
quality of some of the excellent entries. It was disappointing to
see the lack of young people in attendance at the show. Hopefully,
this will change in the future.
Despite the above criticisms, this DVD is still an informative and
enjoyable amateur video, which is a must for all those beekeepers
entering honey and honey products. To fully appreciate this DVD, I
would recommend attending this year's show.
Ed Thomas (Welsh Beekeeper & Biomedical Scientist)
The National Honey Show DVD can be played on any CDR compatible DVD
player or computer with DVD CDR software. Available for education
purposes FREE
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Apiary
News
Barbara Dalby gave the final lecture of the winter series. A most
excellent talk is was too. With everything to hand she demonstrated
Honey Cookery with the aid of her microwave in a most professional
manner and needless to say her efforts were much appreciated when
it came to the tea break. Thank you once again Barbara for a most
enjoyable talk.
The
first meeting of the summer season saw a good turnout and I am pleased
to say that there was plenty going on. All the stocks we looked at
were doing well but the highlight was Robin Spon-Smith's Nucleus Hive
in which we are rearing him a new queen. All appears to be going well
but it will be a week or two before we know how successful the exercise
has been.
The
queen we put in the mini nuc disappeared the following day and without
her support the rest of the bees returned to their old stock. You
can't win them all. A couple of days later Clive turned up with a
large swarm which we ran into the very weak club hive but since then
the weather has closed down and swarms seem to be taking a bit of
a rest, but no doubt it will all start again with a vengeance.
The
Stoneleigh Convention was once again well supported by Bromley Members.
Unfortunately Phil Reynolds was poorly and Peter Bashford who had
arranged to travel with him had to make his own arrangements. Fortunately
a good train service got him there from Croydon before us and he was
able to get a lift from Coventry Station with a group visiting another
exhibition on the
same site. I am told that there were 16,000 visitors to the show and
at the end of the day most of the traders had virtually sold out.
A good time had by all.
Our
meeting on the third Sunday of May the 19th coincides with the Open
Day at the allotments so no doubt some of the visitors will be joining
us as they did last year. Keep piling on those supers.
Peter
Springall
Diary
Dates
Saturday
11th May 2002 - West Sussex Beekeepers' Association Annual Bee
Market and Auction at Brinsbury Agricultural College, Pulborough.
Further details from the co-ordinator David Staples, 14, Northfield
Road, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 1QY (with SAE please) or phone 01903
539205
Sunday
19th May 2002 - Apiary meeting coincides with the “Open Day” at
the allotments.
12-14th
July 2002 - Kent County Bees & Honey Show at the Kent Agricultural
Show, Detling. Come and steward and see the show. Contact Jane Mannings,
1 Crowdleham House, Heaversham Road, Kemsing TN15 6NG Tel: 01732-763811
For
more information
Peter Springall 020-8690-3906 Mobile: 07779970104 E-Mail
Tom Winks Chairman 020-8777-3144
Clive Watson 020-8658-3786
Steven Turner (editor) 020-8698-0313 E-Mail
Visit our website www.kentbee.com/bromley
Advertising
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