Chairman Letter – Jun 2017

Dear Kennet Beekeeper,

On Saturday 10 June at 10.00 am I am meant to be giving an Apiary demonstration of a shook swarm.
However Apiary manager David thinks, quit correctly, that none of the colonies are up to it as they are a bit weak. The problem with the Association colonies is that they get a lot of inspections and have not really built up as well as we would have hoped. However, on Saturday I will be helping by doing general inspections and if we just cannot find one of the Queens in a colony we will sieve the whole colony through a Queen excluder – so I guarantee there will be lot of bees about, so, if you arrive a bit late make sure you have your veil on!

Just to make sure you get it in your diary we have the Association’s summer Garden Party in my garden at Honeystreet from 12.30 on Saturday 15 July. I hope this will be a social and family event. Please bring something to drink and to put on the BBQ or if you are more adventurous you could make your own pizza and bake it in my new pizza oven. Full details will follow in my next letter.

Last week I was called four times about Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV) which seems to be very prominent this summer. If you do have shaking bees, and dead bees inside and outside the hive entrance, make sure the entrance of hive is facing slightly different directions from any neighbouring hives (to prevent drifting), and that there is plenty of room (the bees get this when congested by rubbing up against each other). The comb is not infected, it is the ill bees that pass it on. One way of helping is to find and cage the queen and then move the hive 50 metres or more away and shake all the bees up in the air – so that the well ones fly home and the ill ones land on the grass and it is too far for them to walk/crawl home. Return the empty hive back on the original site and release the Queen back into the broodbox – and just watch the flying bees return. CBPV is becoming a big problem and we know little about it.

Don’t forget you can hire the Association’s honey extractor full details on our website at https://www.kennet-beekeepers.co.uk/index.php/club-equipment/

And finally nothing about bees, but some of you may like to support Zoe Stiles, one of our members, will be ‘falling for cats’ and doing a tandem parachute jump with the Red Devils on the 8th of August 2017 to raise money for Cats Protection. She is paying the whole of the jump fee herself and so all the money raised will go to charity. If you would like to help raise money for Cats Protection go to her fundraising page – https://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Stiles. Good luck Zoe, you are brave to do this!

All best wishes to all members

Robert Carpenter Turner

Chairman Kennet Beekeepers

Tel: – 01672 852265    email:-  chairman@kennet-beekeepers.co.uk