First Apiary Day
Saturday 25th April 2009 11.00 a.m. until 1.00 p.m.
We shall be setting up the new gazebo and getting ready for the beginners course. If there is time and weather is fair, a quick inspection of the bees might be in order. There will of course be refreshments and a chance to compare notes about bees over the winter. We hope that as many as possible will come and join in.
Beginners Course Start
Thursday 7th May will be the first meeting of the course. This will be linked to the apiary day on the Saturday (10th May 11.00 ) following, as always. We shall be welcoming over thirty interested people this year and members would be most welcome to come at 7.45 for the refreshments to talk to the new folk. Some of last year's course have shown interest in coming again and there would be no charge for that if you can use the book of notes again.
Bee Inspector
David Sutton is asking us to contact Justus with any details of hive loss over the winter. Justus' email is: j.klaar@csl.gov.uk or 01384 352 177
The details he needs are: Name; telephone number; Apiary site; number of colonies going into the winter and the number lost.
Justus may wish to come and take samples if he can get to you quickly and a dead hive should be closed to prevent other bees getting in. At the same time a long delay before you clean up the hive is not advisable either.
Feeders
Members have asked about getting new inner cups for white plastic feeders and it seems impossible to find any spares for sale. However if you care to brush up your soldering skills a replacement cup is not hard to make.
A cylinder is easily constructed from tin cut from a T/L syrup tin. The sizes are:
The cylinder of 81mm diameter, needing a strip 285mm long incl. folds. The cylinder should be 75mm tall. The edges of the sheet can be folded over and soldered to form the cylinder.
The circular top can be formed by cutting a larger circle of tin then cutting in V-shapes and bending the edge of the top to fit inside the cylinder. Solder the top in place. Hammerite is a good paint to complete the job.
Apiary News
Some bees have survived the winter, I'm glad to say. I am continually surprised at the differences in size of the stock after winter. There are many reasons to account for this of course such as disease, stores, queen mating and so on.
I would ask that anyone who has still got one of our nuke boxes that they return it, please.
