Today’s star is the beloved bumblebee. This furry friend is common all over the UK, and there are 24 species across the nation. They normally nest in bird boxes, behind the fascia board and around the guttering in houses. Very important pollinators, they are harmless and not aggressive unless disturbed. SIZE DOES NOT MATTER in the bumblebee world, even in […]
We had a great Apiary Visit at Rob Coleman’s on Saturday 11th May – thank you, Rob! For those of you who missed it, we covered a host of topics: the Dartington hive (and how to use it for a Pagden variation); different bee breeds; marking queens; the experience of inspecting ‘feisty’ bees; simple queen increase using an apidea, a […]
We had a practical demonstration for this year’s beginners that had some honey to extract. The amount of honey varied from a few frames to two full supers, which is amazing when you think they only got their bees at the end of May! The end result:
Our most recent apiary visit was well attended with 19 members present with a high number of beginners. Nigel started with removing surplus honey and included a demonstration of the Sublimox vaporizer for varroa control as part of the preparation for overwintering bees, discussed feeding both autumn sugar solution and winter fondant.
The demonstration at Murton apiary was very well attended with about twenty members from beginners to very experienced Beekeepers. This despite the Royal wedding was a counter attraction. Martin passed around a couple of Horsley boards before opening up a hive. Neither of the colonies at Murton were in swarm mode with queen cells but we were shown how to […]
We had an amazing Honey Show this year, participation was up from last year and the quality of the entries was praised by the judge. Thanks to everyone that entered and congratulations to the winners!
A few snaps from our apiary visit on the 8th July 2017. We hold regular practical activities for members, they are a great opportunity to learn and share information about bees, beekeeping and good practices.
Our publicity officer Bruno Hannemann was invited for a quick chat about bees and beekeeping at Vale Radio, here is his interview in full:
If you are an experienced beekeeper, you might be interested in this course. This year it will be held for the first time in York, at Askham Bryan College. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/seasonal-management-york-tickets-30126791043
Many thanks to David Bough for hosting the apiary visit and for a very informative talk about swarm control. We also had the chance to see some of David’s set up and his process to melt wax from old comb. Very useful demonstration on how to clean old frames and use the blow torch to sterilise brood boxes and supers.