Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells Branch

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Swarm on a Branch

If a swarm has arrived on your property and you need advice or help please refer to the Swarms page first and if you are convinced they are honey bees, contact our Swarm Co-ordinator, John Farrow below.

For other information about the Sevenoaks & Tunbridge Wells Branch please contact any of the following:

President
John Edwards-Winser Tel: 01959 522503
E-mail: oastbrook@yahoo.co.uk

Chairman
John Hendrie Tel: 01732 833894

Vice Chairman
Cliff. Hayward Tel: 01732 750885
E-mail: pbhayward9@hotmail.com

Publicity
Peter Hutton Tel: 07 941 375 589
E-mail: peter.hutton@btinternet.com

Secretary, Swarm Coordinator & Web Page Editor
John Farrow 01732 764248
E-mail: originalfarrows@btinternet.com

Treasurer & Membership Secretary
Richard Knight Tel: 01959 524488
E-mail: richard@serisine.co.uk

Newsletter Editor
Mary Staffurth Tel: 01732 462 931
E-mail: marystaffurth@yahoo.com

Barr Wood Apiary Manager
Bret McCulloch Tel: 01732 811 050
E-mail: bretmcculloch@tiscali.co.uk

Hilbert Road Apiary Manager
Ellen Montelius Tel:01892 532 190
E-mail: ellen@montelius.me.uk

Honey Show Secretary
Richard Rose Tel: 01892 653 863
E-mail: buzz.richard@uwclub.net

Librarian & Web Page Asst. Editor
Sarah Rapley Tel: 01732 761 441
E-mail: sarah@chartcorner.com

Announcements - Stop Press

Newly Arrived Swarm?

If you need advice or help with a newly arrived swarm simply click on the link below.

Link to Swarms page.

Beekeeping in June.

May has been an unusually quiet month for swarms but this long very cold start may mean the swarming season will start in earnest in June. Hopefully we will get some blue sky days for the flying bees to go foraging, which will make inspections easier, so here is a bullet list of things to do this month:

Continue with weekly inspections.
Practice marking (and clipping) drones.
Ensure sufficient supers for main honey flow.
Extract full supers.
Continue with prefered method of swarm control.
Check new queens have mated by looking for eggs.
Collect swarms (if you know how to) See Article under ‘Swarms’.
Monitor mite drop <10 day OK (~400)
In emergency dust with icing sugar or 1 tray of Apiguard for 2 weeks!

Swarm Request List 2013: Members only.

Swarm Collecting

If you are a new beekeeper and will be looking for bees to get started next year or have lost bees over the winter, we will be preparing a list of all the people who would take a swarm collected in 2013. We already have a list of 16 people, who have lost colonies during this extremely harsh spring and with all these colony losses, we hope there will be sufficient swarms to fulfil this demand!

We make a charge of £10 to cover our petrol money & time spent, which is nominal as it can take 1 to 2 hours & we may have to return later to capture the flying bees.

If you wish to go on this list for 2013, please send your details by email to me:

John Farrow [swarm co-ordinator] at: originalfarrows@btinternet.com with the following information:

Name, address, daytime & evening telephone numbers.

There are six of us who collect swarms in the Sevenoaks and T.Wells area; so I will circulate this list to them and the collector who is nearest you will contact you when they have a swarm available.

Swarms need to be housed as soon as possible, so if you are unavailable when we call we will move onto the next one on our list.

Branch Newsletter June 2013

Branch Newsletter June 2013 (222 KB)

Download Sevenoaks & T.Wells Branch Newsletter

Click on: 'This Month's Newsletter'

Bee Keeping for Improvers

Kent Science Resource Laboratory, Sittingbourne

Beekeeping for Improvers (521 KB)

Download to see details of Kent Science Resource Centre, Sittingbourne

Planned Courses for 2013:

Our aim this year will be to provide 2nd level and more advanced courses for beekeepers who have had bees for a few years. The programme includes courses aimed at supporting those putting themselves up for the important BBKA Basic Assessment and BBKA General Husbandry practicals. Additionally, rather than the rather random collection of courses on aspects of microscopy in beekeeping this year, in 2013 the plan is to offer a staged series of possibly 5 different courses from an introduction through to anatomy and dissection and pollen analysis.Some of the popular courses are to be repeated and some frequently requested courses are to be added in 2013.

All in all, we hope that there will be something for all of your second-level beekeepers as they strive to improve their knowledge and skills.

These courses will be found on the website: http://ksrcbees.org.uk/ Click on Improvers

Tales from the Beehive.

Daniel Marsh has been keeping bees since 2009 and started a Beekeeping Blog in June 2010. Download his 'Tales from the Beehive' to see how his beekeeping has progressed over the last 3 years, by clicking on: 'Daniel'

Neonicotinoid Insecticides David Ashton letter

Neonicotinoid Insecticides David Ashton letter (1.0 MB)

Download this pdf document on latest information on Neonicotinoid Insecticides

South East Annual Report 2012

South East Annual Report 2012 (489 KB)

Download Alan Bayham, Regional Bee Inspector's of the SE Region

Next Meetings

See Meetings and Events for all our Apiary meetings detailed in the 2013 programme.

Weald Memorial Hall

The 2013 indoor meetings start again in the Autumn on Tuesday 17th September 2013 at Weald Memorial Hall TN14 6PS. Use Google maps for directions and for their web page click on: 'Weald Hall'.

Beginners’ Courses

'Theory course for Beginners'.

John Hendrie ran an eight-week theory course from 17th January - 14th March 2013 at Tonbridge School, from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. If you missed this course but would be interested if there was another, contact John Hendrie for more information. To see the full details of the 8 sessions click on: 'Beginners Course'.