Tuesday 8 October 2013

Newsletter October 2013


Dear Beekeeper

I want to encourage you as a Registered member or an Associate member to enter something in our
Honey Show on the 19th October at Beech Grove, Nonington CT15 4HH.
If you don’t have honey to enter, you can still enter the confectionery classes with bought honey, and many of you are good at photography or other artistic pastimes.
Entry forms to Chris the Show Secretary by the 12th October.
NB Don’t bring your entries to Beech Grove till after 7:30 am on the day, but before 9:15am!
It opens to the public at 2:30 pm.


News of Don Overal
He is out of hospital, still quite breathless after water on his lungs, but under doctor’s orders. He reports that Roy Pearson kindly checked his bees at Alkham and they seem to be coping without any attention – maybe we look too much!

September’s meeting was full of autumn produce on the raffle stall:nuts, fruit, pickles, jams. Thank you!
The stores and mites were counted, thanks to all who helped; one hive had 45lbs of stores!
Varroa count was again low, so the colonies with the largest mite drop have been dosed with Hive Clean, hives 1 & 3.Elvin had an interesting method - to avoid winter isolation starvation, he moved all the brood to the front of the colony he was counting, and put the stores at the back. So the bees should be moving in the same direction to feed through the cold weather. I have copied this with my colonies.
The sale went well, most items snapped up quickly.


Diary dates for bee events can be found HERE

Courses can be found HERE

SUGAR for feeding: The cheapest sugar I have seen is from Farm Foods [near Morrisons in Dover] 75p a k.
Remember to keep records of all treatments used to assess their efficacy. 

HONEY STATS - Please Help!
Two important surveys, which are important for more detailed knowledge of how 2013 went for our bees. Please do both, they are quick to complete.
BBKA -http://www.smronlinesurveys.com/honey13.htm    [closes on the 18th October]
South East 2013 can be dowloaded from HERE and then emailed or posted to adresses on form.
Maggie