Westerham Branch Newsletter April 2019

Dear Fellow Beekeepers,

Here are details of our last spring meeting at Westerham Hall – an important one which will tie in with a ‘Natural Beekeeping afternoon’ in June. A big thank you to Steve Riley for presenting and
organising both events – and also to Diana Pickard, our secretary, for co- ordinating the March meeting at which a record number of beekeepers made Asian Hornet Monitoring Traps. And thanks too
to Carol Taylor who provided refreshments in March and Mark Edwards who will do the same this month. I also list below this year’s three apiary meetings – please note the dates and directions
and come if you can.

Good beekeeping!

Spring 2019 Meeting

Westerham Hall, Wednesday, April 24th, 7.30pm for 8pm

‘Varroa – should you treat the bees or let them adapt to survive’ – a presentation by Steve Riley, the Westerham Beekeepers’ education officer.

Steve writes: ‘A group of Westerham beekeepers decided to take a “chemical free” approach to varroa management. Based on scientific evidence and using brood breaks as a natural means of controlling the mite population, we don’t use any chemicals. We will share the basis of the techniques, the results so far, and our thoughts for the year ahead. We hope to be joined by Mike Cox, who has been a treatment-free beekeeper in Kent for over five years, having started keeping bees in 1995.

Spring and Summer 2019 Apiary Visits

Saturday, May 18th, from 2.30pm. Hosts Maciej (Mac) Matysiak with Lorri Woods; demonstrators Celia and David Rudland.

Mac keeps his bees in Apimaye, Turkish-designed Langstroth hives constructed from insulated double-skinned food-grade plastic. The meeting will be followed by a tea and discussion. If you are attending, please bring a contribution to the tea – cake, savoury, sandwiches, biscuits, and also a light folding chair.

For directions to Mac’s Oxted apiary please email our Secretary, Di Pickard, at westerhambeekeepers@gmail.com

Saturday, June 15th, from 2.30pm. ‘A Natural Beekeeping Afternoon’ – including treatment-free techniques, videos and the opportunity to talk to treatment-free beekeepers. Host Steve Riley.

For directions to Steve’s Oxted apiary please email our Secretary, Di Pickard, at westerhambeekeepers@gmail.com

Saturday, July 20th, from 2.30pm. Host Peter Cobley;

demonstrator TBA.

For directions to Peter’s Hever apiary please email our Secretary, Di Pickard, at westerhambeekeepers@gmail.com

Following the apiary meeting on May 18th, our demonstrators, Celia and David Rudland, are holding a Queen-Rearing Day, on Sunday, May 19th, 10.30am to 4pm

Celia writes: ‘Experience a variety of queen-rearing methods; primarily designed for the small scale/back-garden beekeeper, we look at simple methods of rearing good-quality queens. An expanded version of the queen rearing delivered at the Spring Convention in the last few years. Lunch and
refreshments provided.’ Location Whyteleafe teaching apiary.

Further details from www.eastsurreybees.co.uk; or 01883 622788 (office), 07798 915480 (mobile).

Westerham Branch Newsletter March 2019


Dear Fellow Beekeepers,

First, our warm thanks to Georgia (Gigi) Hennessy who spoke to us in February on solitary bees, and drew a very pleasing attendance, and to Robert Ambroziak for laying on the evening’s refreshments.

Here are details of our next two topical and significant evening events, each of which will, as usual, be accompanied by light refreshments (50p):

— Westerham Hall, Wednesday, March 27th, 7.30 pm for 8 pm —

Di Pickard will lead a hands-on session making Asian Hornet Monitoring Traps. (As a first step, see BBKA News, August 2018.) 

‘A practical session,’ Di writes, ‘along the lines of “Bee Peter”… Please email me (westerhambeekeepers@gmail.com) by Sunday, March 17th to confirm your attendance so we can get in enough materials. There’s room for flexibility, but it would help with planning if you can confirm. Instructions and materials will be provided. But, in true Blue Peter fashion, you will have to find something. So…

‘Please bring a plastic 2-litre soda or fizzy-water bottle, preferable one with ridged sides with a bottom section marginally larger than the middle (e.g., a green Waitrose Essential fizzy-water bottle). A stiff card or thin cardboard – save that cereal packet (to use as a template). And if you can also bring any of the following tools, that would be useful too: Sharp knife or scissors; Pliers; Stapler; Pop riveter and rivets; Sheet-metal cutters.

‘This will be a fun session where we can all help each other, so don’t panic if you haven’t got a Blue Peter badge for craft skills.’

 — Westerham Hall, Wednesday, April 24th, 7.30 pm for 8 pm —

‘Varroa – should you treat the bees or let them adapt to survive?’ – a presentation by Steve Riley, the WBKA’s education officer.
 
Steve writes: ‘A small group of WBKA beekeepers have decided to take a “chemical free” approach to varroa management. Based on scientific evidence and using brood breaks as a natural means of controlling mite population, we don’t use any chemicals. We will share the basis of the techniques, the results so far, and our thoughts for the year ahead. We hope to be joined by Mike Cox, who has been a treatment-free beekeeper in Kent for over five years, having started keeping bees in 1995.’

Directions for Westerham Hall: From the A25 in the centre of Westerham (by the Green), take the London Road towards Biggin Hill; turn first right into Quebec Avenue; the car park and Westerham Hall is on the right-hand side. OS Ref: 447542.


Details of our June and July apiary visits will be announced next month, but meanwhile – a renewed appeal – please give me a call (01959 565188) if you would kindly consider opening your open apiary on Saturday, May 18th.
 

And finally, Gigi Hennessy writes with some follow-up information on her talk: 

‘Thank you so much for inviting me, I had a really nice time. I’m glad people enjoyed it – and no problem about the screen, I think it was better without it anyway. The things I mentioned in my talk, so my podcast is called Planet PhD and it’s a podcast where each week we interview different PhD students or postdocs about their research and their lives in general. This has ranged from how we use big data in urban planning to (more relevant for your members) bees and wildflowers on farms. We also release every two weeks bee-themed episodes, so far we’ve done one on honey bees and I think our bumblebee episode will be out on Monday.

‘Our website is here: https://planetphdpod.wixsite.com/planetphd

‘And our podbean page (where you can download our episodes) is here: https://planetphd.podbean.com/

‘You can also find us on Spotify and Apple podcasts under the name Planet PhD. Our Twitter is @PlanetPhD and email is planetphdpod@gmail.com. Feel free to tweet us or email us any questions!

‘I also mentioned some of Dave Goulson’s work, I would recommend his book Sting in the Tail and his web page on bee-friendly flowers http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/goulsonlab/resources/flowers ‘

With good wishes,

Johnny

John Pym

WBKA events organiser