After the honey extraction on Sunday it seemed opportune to show some of the equipment available when your beekeeping gets a little more volume orientated. Click on the image above to see how it's done beyond the hobby scale.
Stories were circulating on several bee sites about the passing of Clive, author of "Practical Beekeeping" and well known from talks at conferences. Happily, not true it turns out. Like Mark Twain before him, reports of Clive de Bruyn's passing were greatly exaggerated. Expect any talks he's giving in the near future to be well attended, reserve a place early.
Annual disease inspection is this Saturday 20th June. Meet at Yeading Avenue, Orchard Grove, and Village Way at 9:00 with a view to starting work at 9:30, then all on to Hatch End in the afternoon. Bill and Odette at Orchard Grove, Jo and Brian at Village Way, Judy and Moira at Yeading Avenue. Hive owners should be there to hear about the health of their hives, other members to see the process and help in lifting would be appreciated.
Lots of calls at this time of year are about bumble bees. These bees are furry and make small nests every year then the queen hibernates over winter. Click on the picture for some frequently seen types.
This web site will be undergoing some server upgrades on Sunday 21th June from 11:00PM GMT. We don't expect any outage, but there could be some addressing or refresh issues over the following few hours.
The Spring 2015 edition of the Forager is out - unfortunately winter came and went without a Forager, and so nearly did spring. But seeing as it is only just starting to feel like summer here's the spring edition being delivered just in the nick of time and I hope you enjoy it. This is Anna's last one but she's handing the baton over to Rod Parker who will do a fantastic job of continuing this much loved magazine.
Swarming is well underway, and improving weather in June may see more. Make sure you don't lose half your colony with regular inspections and swarm control, notes from recent session are available. Swarms are being collected, if members want to start or expand with a swarm, prepare your hive and get your name on the swarm list with Bill. There will almost certainly be swarms for all members who want them in the next month or so.
Local beekeepers in Harrow often have honey for sale but finding them is a bit hit and miss. There are some regular shows such as the May Day coming up at Headstone Manor and the annual show but otherwise it's who you might know or see if you come along to the apiary on a Sunday. There's a new link to the top left where you can see a video made by Robert Curati and a list of beekeepers who usually have some honey for sale.
