Wednesday 17 August 2016

Newsletter August 2016

Dear Beekeeper

Thanks so much to Aniela for hosting the July meeting – it started wet, but 40 or so of us still went through her lovely well-organised apiary, reporting findings back to her. The tasty contributions to the refreshments went well too & an impressive £159 was donated to the Kelly Turner cancer appeal. DDBKA members were very generous, including one personal contribution of £50.

Many people bought their Apiguard varroa treatment; another order has arrived, I have some reserved boxes here at my address at £1.60 per tray [2 needed per colony]. There is also enough left for 19 colonies; ring if you want some, any left will be at the August meeting. It is a thymol based product in trays which require a shallow eke to contain the first tray. Ekes are simply made at home with wood 40mm deep, to fit whichever sort of hive you own. The second tray goes on after 2 weeks.

Please remember you are legally required to fill in your Veterinary medicines card
DDBKA has ordered Ambrosia winter feed for bees as we did last year. It is a concentrated product; the bees take it down very quickly to store, rather than consuming immediately. A good colony needs a reserve of stores of 35 to 40 pounds weight to survive a winter.

Ambrosia comes in 12.5 kg plastic containers for £13 to members.

It will also be available at the meeting.

This is now the time to assess your bees, it is far better to go into winter with strong colonies than nursing along a nuc or weak hive which cannot build up enough supplies to last it through & is more vulnerable to wasps or robbing. So be practical, unite weaker colonies with the stronger ones, choose the best queen & eliminate the other.

The newspaper method of uniting is usually successful & quick.

In the spring your strong surviving unit can be split when the spring flow begins.

Jean Mozley has mated queens for sale if you need new blood for your colonies.07952 739795


Best wishes

Maggie