newsletter june 2017 - kemnay community bee group june royal highland show ingleston, edinburgh...
TRANSCRIPT
Newsletter June 2017
Dear All,
We hope you are all having a successful year on the Oil Seed
Rape. The Monymusk Beekeepers have had a bumper crop
and it is proving to be very fine honey. The rape is now
almost completely green so supers must be removed and
extracted quickly to prevent crystallization in the comb.
The Committee met in the Portacabin on 2nd May for regular
business. The minutes are summarised on page 4.
Members have been busy promoting Bees and Beekeeping at
BA Country Stores Spring Fayre and Kemnay Academy.
KCBG will be represented at the Castle Fraser Steam Fair on
Saturday 20th June by Norman and Maureen and on Sunday
21st by Angela and Gladys. There will be a demo hive,
Maureen’s products, Gladys’ honey tablet, fridge magnets and
badges for sale and a hamper raffle, as well as the usual
posters and leaflets.
If anyone has honey available for sale on the stall please
contact Maureen. The usual sale price is £6 with £1 taken in
‘commission’ for club funds.
Sunday 4th June:
Dividing colonies and
making nucs.
Apiary 10.30am
Thursday 15th June:
OSR honey.
Apiary 7pm
There will be a charge of £2 to
cover running costs and
refreshments.
Saturday 3rd June
At the Hive Door—Anne Chilcott, 2-4pm Kinellar Community Hall,
Blackburn AB21 0JQ
Saturday 17th June
ADBKA Conference 9.30-4pm
Kinellar Community Hall,
Blackburn AB21 0JQ
22-25th June
Royal Highland show
Ingleston, Edinburgh
ADBKA Events
Meetings
Contact us: [email protected]
Website: www.kemnaybees.org [email protected]
David Fraser, President of Kintore and District Rotary, visited KCBG
Apiary and presented a cheque for £100 on Sunday 7th May. In
return Sonya presented a jar of Alan’s honey. David expressed
interest in arranging a visit for other members of the Rotary at a
later date.
Saturday, 17 June 9.30am – 4pm
Kinellar Community Hall, Blackburn AB21 0JQ
Better Bees Introduction by Gavin Ramsay (Chair of Scottish Native Honey Bee Society and SBA Bee Health and Science Officer).
Eoghan Mac Giolla Coda Irish Native Honeybee Society:
The Native Black Bee: Its evolution and characteristics
How you can improve your stocks
Margaret Murdin Chair of BBKA:
Understanding the Queen Selecting the right
qualities in our bees
Downloads:
ADBKA Conference 2017 programme and speakers’ biographies
Booking form (Word or PDF)
Members: £15
Non-members: £20
Minutes of SBA Trustees Meeting held on 20th
May
Download Minutes
Download Area Rep Job Description
ADBKA Conference
Contact us: [email protected]
Website: www.kemnaybees.org
BA STORES COUNTRY FAYRE
KCBG was represented at BA Country Stores on Saturday 20th May by Norman, Maureen and Lorraine and on Sunday 21st by Angela and Lorraine. Despite poor attendance due to the bad weather, Norman and Maureen managed to sell most of the hamper raffle squares, all of Gladys’ honey tablet and give out lots of leaflets.
Maureen’s products sold well, as did Alan’s honey and the bee badges and fridge magnets made by Gladys.
There was a lot of interest in the empty hive Norman took along to demonstrate and the children enjoyed trying on the beesuits Lorraine had borrowed for the occasion.
Angela and Lorraine sold the remaining raffle squares on Sunday along with more products.
The winner of the hamper was Brian Donald.
Just over £100 was raised for Club funds.
Lead Tutor: Tony Harris NDB
INTERMEDIATE HANDLING
COURSE 10/11th June, Edinburgh
(SASA/EMBA Apiary)
This course covers: apiary safety, workspace management, tools and hive manipulations, queen finding and handling, working efficiently with large and/or difficult colonies, disease inspection and colony destruction.
ADVANCED COLONY
MANIPULATIONS 8/9th July, Elgin
The Advanced Colony Manipulations course is a follow on from the handling course covering nucleus making, feeding bees, shook swarm, uniting colonies, bailey comb change, artificial swarm, queen introduction, progressive comb change and ethanoic acid fumigation. The £120 course fee includes lunch, tea, and coffee and a detailed hand-out of the techniques employed. Numbers are limited. To check for available places, contact Alan Riach, 07702436612 e-mail: [email protected]
SBA COURSES
Contact us: [email protected]
Website: www.kemnaybees.org
SCHOOL VISIT—KEMNAY ACADEMY
Sonya, Lorraine and Dave attended the Kemnay Academy Learning for Sustainability Event on Monday 22nd May and gave an Introduction to Bees and Beekeeping to S2 pupils and staff.
Sonya presented slides from the recent film “Bee Movie” and talked through the very large number of inaccuracies in the film content, mostly relating to how the male (drone) bees were supposedly the stars of the show. Many of the students who had seen the film were totally unaware of the real facts and found Sonya’s presentation very interesting and informative. Sonya followed this by showing the Beecraft BKids slide set “Belinda’s Story” which describes the honey bee life cycle. For those interested the link is in the May 2017 newsletter.
Lorraine gave a presentation on pollen, an important source of protein for bees, using slides showing the amazing types, shapes and colours.
The youngsters also enjoyed trying on beesuits, learning about the components of a full size poly hive, tasting honey and watching live bees in the observation hive.
The observation hive, and the ability to get so close to these amazing creatures, was probably the highlight of a very enjoyable morning for all.
Committee Meeting—Summary of Minutes
BEE INSPECTORS
If you notice anything unusual in your Spring inspections the local Bee
Inspectors are here to help. For advice please email
Your query will be logged centrally and forwarded to the relevant
people.
Tel: 01467 626222—ask to be put in contact with either Kirsty
Sutherland or Nicola Cooper-Slorach.
Remove Oil Seed Rape
Honey as soon as possible
and extract into storage
tubs. Allow to set solid
before partially remelting
and creaming.
Check hives every 7 days
for signs of swarming:
congestion in brood box
and queen cells.
Provide more room for the
queen to lay using
Demaree method, artificial
swarming or making nucs.
Set up bait hives if not
done already.
Beware the June gap and
feed if necessary.
OSR pollen under the microscope
Meeting held at Dalmadilly Apiary on Tuesday 2nd May, 2017.
Matters arising:
Facebook – Nothing to report
Website – Looking very good
Funding
David Fraser, President of Kintore and District Rotary, to
present cheque for £100 on Sunday 7th May.
Tesco Bags of Help application submitted on 20th April 2017,
next round is July/August. It was noted that Kemnay Coop offer
funding.
Spending plans - £100 to be spent on junior bee suites
Events
BA Vintage Country Fair, 20th and 21st May
Saturday: Maureen and Norman; Sunday: Angela and Lorraine
Visit to Kemnay Academy, Monday 22nd May: Dave, Sonya and
Lorraine
Castle Fraser Steam Fair, 17th and 18th June
Saturday: Maureen and Norman; Sunday: Angela and Gladys
Portacabin Upgrade
Breedon – Contact for an update re replacement cabin (Dave)
Portacabin – Ian McCrorie has produced very comprehensive
drawings of the current arrangement of the portacabin which
could be very useful for future funding applications.
Investigate battery versus solar powered lighting (Dave)
AOB:
Wax foundation available for resale to members (£10 and £8 for
ten sheets of deep and shallow respectively) see Alan
Five gross of jars to be purchased by Alan for resale to members
(Alan)
Next Committee meeting: 7.30pm on Tuesday 25th July 2017 at
the Apiary, Dalmadilly
New beekeeper, Steve, uncapping his first frame of OSR honey ready for extraction.
Jobs for the month