KENT BEEKEEPERS`
ASSOCIATION
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You will all by now know of the death of Caryl Green after a long illness. She was the Vice-Chairman of the branch and, until her illness, the most regular attendee at the Apiary on a Saturday afternoon. When I became a member many years ago, she was one of the old hands at beekeeping and was very helpful to me. There are now very few, if any, of these old hands left. I am sure that you will join me in expressing our deep sympathy to Peter and the family. Her death and that of Marjorie earlier makes 2002 not a good year for the branch.
Hopefully the year 2003 will bring happier news. The first event is a working party at the Apiary on Saturday January 18th, if the weather is suitable. Following that is the joint meeting with Bromley at their headquarters on Tuesday January 21st at 7.30pm. Brian Palmer is coming to give a talk about his visit to Apimondia in South Africa. Brian is a very good speaker and I am sure he will be bringing some slides to illustrate the talk.
The Christmas Party was, as usual, a very happy event at Gordon and Jackie’s welcoming home. They had laid on entertainment in the form of quizzes of varying difficulty and those, coupled with the plentiful supply of food and drink, made the evening pass very quickly. Thanks are due to Gordon and Jackie and all the helpers, especially those helping with the food and drink.
My own bad news is that I have to give up beekeeping because of the state of my back. This means that I will be getting rid of all my equipment. At the moment I have three Jumbo Langstroth hives containing bees and all the associated clobber needed to run them and maybe one more. I would prefer to dispose of it as a job lot rather than sell off individual items, so if you know of anyone wanting to start off beekeeping, perhaps you could let them know.
With this newsletter you should receive a copy of the recently amended KBKA Bye-laws and Regulations.
James Morton has sent me an email requesting information about honey yields and prices for DEFRA statistics on food production. He did this last year as well, but I did not respond because I am a bit suspicious of government activities. However, if you feel that I should reply, please let me know and I will endeavour to try to collect the information.
Peter Burden has sent me the following extract from a Management Committee meeting held in January 1945 when apiary honey was being sold at 2/6 (12.5p) per pound!
“Members of the apiary committee have been in attendance at the apiary situated in the Goddington Sports Club ground, to give advice and to demonstrate. The demonstrations were attended by 51 visitors, although this figure is well below the total for last year the falling off in attendance coincided with the period during which unwelcome visitors from the continent were making their appearance.
Nevertheless, Mr.Clout the Bee Disease Officer was very impressed by the courage of the lady members of the branch, who continued to watch him manipulate whilst flying bombs were going overhead; such keenness we should be pleased to see from other branch members.”
Steven
Turner, who is the chap who looks after the Kentbee website, has asked
me to include two web sites on the newsletter, so I will be doing
that in future. The Kent site is www.kentbee.com
and our branch is www.kentbee.com/orpington.htm
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