News
On March the 17th we held our AGM and we had a very good meeting with twelve members attending plus me. We welcomes two new members who are just starting beekeeping and we wish them well. The Officers were all re-elected and it was agreed that the subscriptions for next year would remain unchanged.
The summer meetings we agreed and the date are given here.
Matters discussed were, a method to get more exhibits from the Bishops Stortford Branch in the Herts County Show, contributions to the News Letter, News Letter distribution, a Bishops Stortford display stand to encourage new members, short 10 minute Study Subjects to be discussed at the summer meetings, Photos to be taken and used for an article in the local paper.
I hope members who came felt that it was a good meeting and I look forward to seeing you all at the next summer meeting on May 15th.
Alan Lewis
On Saturday, 15th May we hold our first summer meeting at Alan Lewis’s house, Bishops Stortford at 3pm and I hope everyone will come. (Please email bees@beelog.co.uk for directions.) Please remember to write down a study subject that you would like discussed at the next meeting. Paul has started a web site for our Bishops Stortford Division and I stand back in full admiration. I haven’t managed to master ‘Bees’ yet, let alone the net.
Alan Lewis
It was a warm sunny day for our first afternoon bee meeting of the year. I was delighted to see so many members at my house to look at the two hives that I kept in the garden. The first hive we looked at had a second brood chamber with undrawn frames in it, placed on top of the original four weeks ago, the theory being that the bees would draw out the new frames and the queen would then take up residence on the new frames. In practice things has not gone quite as planned and the bees were only slowly drawing out the new frames. When the old brood chamber was inspected it was found to be very strong over 7 frames, had a healthy looking queen who was promptly marked with Snopake and no queen cells could be seen. The second hive was healthy but not quite as developed as the first and the queen was seen. My thanks to everybody who brought cakes and helped with the tea. At the end of the afternoon we discussed our study subject which was:- my method of assembling, cleaning and sterilizing frames. (Photos here.)
Our next meeting is on the 19th June at Paul Cooper’s house in Albury. Chris West has volunteered to do our study subject on disease. Don’t forget to have a look at our Bishop’s Stortford web site set up by Paul.
Alan Lewis
Ten people braved the threat of rain and a chill in the air to come to my house to inspect three WBC hives. The bees in the first hive were very calm even though the new queen could not be found. The second hive had a stack of four supers and we spotted the small, black queen. The third hive had a new, large, brown queen that was laying well and she was promptly marked on her thorax. 120lbs of honey have already been taken from the three hives, with a lot more to come.
During post-inspection refreshments Chris West educated the group on the important subject of bee diseases. We learnt about American and European Foul Brood, Chalk Brood, Nosema and Varroa. This was appreciated by all and our thanks go to Chris for all of the research that went into the talk.
The next meeting will be in Widford on 17th July. Also, the date of our September meeting has been brought forward a week to 11th September to avoid a clash with the Herts County Honey Show.
The HBKA newsletter is now available to BS members by email. Send an email to bees@beelog.co.uk if you want to received it electronically.
Paul Cooper
In July we had a very good meeting at Susie Brickwood’s Apiary where we looked through her hive. The weather was kind to us and her bees behaved very well although she thought that they may be a little upset. Denis Osbourne, one of our new members, had his new hive in the same orchard and he opened up the brood box to show us a swarm that had been hived about six weeks ago which was very strong and had drawn out all the frames and was full of brood. The queen was spotted and it was seen easily as it was marked in white. It was therefore assumed that it was a prime swarm, so someone had lost half his honey! May I take this opportunity to thank John Mumford for supplying such a wonderful swarm to one of our new members. Denis was going to put a queen excluder and a super on to give the hive more room. Our thanks to Susie for entertaining us so well and for the lovely tea and cakes afterwards.
In August this month we went to Chris West’s house where he showed us his hive and told us that he had taken off 60 pounds of honey this year. The bees were very busy pulling out new comb in the super and the brood box had a great deal of sealed honey which Chris said he would leave on for the winter feed. The members were most impressed by the way in which he had positioned his hive, screening of the bees with trellis and fencing from other people. Chris and Edith gave us some lovely tea and cakes and lit the candles to keep the wasps away.
Our next meeting is on the 11th of September at Denis Osbourne’s House, Westbury, Bell Lane, Widford. I look forward to seeing you all, but please remember to bring your jars of honey etc to the meeting, so that I can collect them and exhibit them for you at the Annual County Honey Show.
Oonagh has very kindly agreed to give us a talk on Acarine, Nosema and Varroa control, monitoring and treatment methods, at 7.30 in the evening on the 17th November at my house, so I do hope you will all be able to come.
Alan Lewis