Dear Kennet Beekeeper,
This Saturday 29 June the Canal and River Trust are holding a Discovery Day and myself and David Brown will be holding the fort for KBKA, presenting our KBKA honey stall. The stall will have both the observation hive and the selling of honey. I need to hear from you if you are able to help or if you have honey you wish us to sell for you. I have not seen any advertisements for this event, so we may or may not be inundated with people wanting to know about honey bees.
Wednesday 3rd July, at Bishops Cannings Village Hall SN10 2LA at 7.30 will be our second summer evening of informal Bee Chat. Richard Oliver will be giving a talk on “The detection of laying workers and drone laying queens and how to deal with them.” You will all experience this at some point, so it is a really important subject for all beekeepers, so I look forward to seeing you there.
Last Friday, David and I very carefully went through the Horton Road apiary and decided that as there were so many missing Queens we had better order some new ones. I ordered six with post office guaranteed delivery by 1.00 pm on Saturday.
Nothing appeared as they had been sent by the post office to Melksham instead of Marlborough. However, they did turn up safely on Monday and after I had given them a drink all looked well. David has now introduced them to several hives in the Horton Road apiary. No peeking please until David gives the OK, but hopefully we will see eggs when they are next inspected.
Jars, I have previously circulated details of an offer for Jars through Melksham BKA. But can I remind you that Diane of the Bee Depot will bring pre ordered jars to our next meeting on 3rd July for you. Diane is happy to supply small amounts (split or full boxes). To per-order give her a call on 07879 811967 or email diane.sleigh@thebeedepot.com
Swarms, I expect several members have now got more colonies than they have BDI (Bee Disease Insurance) cover. This is just a warning note that with the standard membership you get cover for three colonies and if you have more you will need to arrange for additional colony insurance. If you don’t your BDI will be invalid. This information is for your awareness.
Hope to see you on 3rd July, but don’t forget to let me know if you are able to help on 29 July.
With best wishes,
Robert Carpenter Turner
Chairman Kennet Beekeepers
Tel: – 01672 852265 email:- chairman@kennet-beekeepers.co.uk