Dear Kennet Beekeeper,
Our first evening of bee chat last month seemed to go rather well and to my surprise there were about 25 of us Bishops Cannings Village Hall for a lively and interesting evening on your favourite subject – your bees!
This coming Friday 6 July is the second evening of ‘Bee Chat’ and I shall be giving a talk about Varroa control. It will be the non PC version of my talk that I will be giving for the National Bee Unit at the Wiltshire Healthy Bees day on 1 September.
Don’t expect an exciting evening of talk of the vast amounts of honey we are all getting – just an evening talking about this invasive spices, Varroa destructor, that came to our country in 1992. In my opinion it is the biggest problem for beekeepers and we all have a lot to learn about it. So I hope that you can make it for 7.30 at Bishops Cannings Village Hall SN10 2LA.
Last Saturday we had our ‘Drone Congregation Hunt’ which I think the 22 people that came on the hunt, all hugely enjoyed. It was quite fascinating to walk across a field of field-beans and hear buzzing – I have heard it before but never knew I was entering a Drone Congregation area until Saturday. As we got to the centre of the area, more and more drones we attracted to our caged queen on the end of a fishing line. I attach a photo of 28 drone in hot pursuit of a yellow cage containing a Queen.
For those of you about to go on holiday I hope you take your beekeeping interests away with you and bring some extra knowledge back to Wiltshire to share with others at KBKA.
All best wishes to all members.
Robert Carpenter Turner
Chairman Kennet Beekeepers
Tel: – 01672 852265 email:- chairman@kennet-beekeepers.co.uk