- check out Paul Vickery's photos from this years Apairy Safari - here

September 2008 Newsletter

It is with sadness that we have learned of the recent death of Mr Julian Johnson.
Julian has been an Honorary Member of our branch for several years following his retirement as Bee Inspector covering our area. Julian died in a boating accident whilst sea-fishing in Scotland.
A card of condolence has been sent to his family from Swindon Beekeepers.
A memorial service will be held in Bampton, Oxon, at 3 pm on Friday 31st October.

Thanks to Paul and Sue for organising the Buckfast Day.
The weather was good and everyone enjoyed the day, whether touring the beekeeping facilities or wandering around the abbey. We were met by Dr Dhafer Behnam and his assistant Sarah. Dhafer gave a very detailed summary of beekeeping over his five years since arriving at Buckfast from Iraq. We were privileged to tour the apiary, queen rearing house and the honey processing department with running commentary. There was a lot of interest shown in the extraction area and the tour concluded with a glass of 6 year old mead sipped in the historic setting of Brother Adams empty honey storage tanks and the chance to admire Brother Adam’s certificates hanging in his office.
Some points of interest:
a) The number of hives has been increased from 200 to 400
b) Apiary sites are up from 9 to 16, all within 10 miles of the Abbey.
c) Breeding friendly bees is not high priority, producing honey is.
d) Brother Adam’s modified hives are being replaced with Langstroth.
e) Automatic machinery for uncapping and extraction has been installed.
f) Heather honey has not been produced for several years.

We had our display of beekeeping products/items for the three days (5th-7th Sept) of the first Swindon Garden Show. The weather was not ideal during the build-up to the first day and consequently, the site was rather muddy and low on visitors.
Ross had done some deep searching to gather enough members together to cover the 3 days.
It was the first event where we could show our virtual hive, which was very convenient for explaining the brood pattern in the hive and helped to complement the observation hive. Honey from Moredon Apiary, Highworth and Wroughton was sold along with wax polish and candle kits, with Joy drawing the younger audience into making candles.
The 2 Rons (Hoskins & Hill) managed to keep dry and warm up at the Stanton Apiary where they were ‘biting at the bit’ to explain/answer questions about queen rearing and the Stanton Apiary.
Thanks again to Ross for pulling it together, Paul for the initial contact, the 2 Rons, and our band of helpers, Sue & Clive Harris, John Goddard, Kathy Doyle, Joy & Dennis Simpson, David Birley, Liz Berry, John Pritchard, Ray Phillips and Mark Hayes.
We are always looking for new faces to help on these occasions to share the load and the knowledge.

A belated reminder that our Honey Show is on 25th September at the Haydon Wick Club.
Chris Jackson has agreed to be our judge this year following his very positive and informative approach to judging last year which we all enjoyed.
There’s still time to get some exhibits together but you’ll have to be quick. The more exhibits, the more we can learn from each others’ efforts.
I hope to see you there, even if it’s to learn for next year.

You may have noticed our revised logo.
I would like to thank one of our newer members Chris Moody who has given some considerably time and effort to produce this excellent bit of work.

Swindon Beekeepers Publicity

If you know of a local event or place that would benefit from a Swindon Beekeepers notice, send the details in an Email to Paul Vickery, our Publicity Officer (pdgvickery@aol.com).

Apiary Site

Risk Assessment update.
Ross has enquired with the BBKA whether they had a Risk Assessment format or template we could use but unfortunately the BBKA suggested using guideline documents from the website. We are now looking at producing our own template.

Bees Wax

We have a new member who would be interested in purchasing any bees wax you may wish to sell. Contact the Secretary Sue Harris for details.

2008/9 Meetings (Haydon Wick Club, Blunsdon Road, Swindon. SN25 1JD)
Meetings start at 7.30

25th September. It’s our Honey Show. Details attached.

30th October. AGM followed by “how to avoid bad tempered bees”.

27th November. Pollen and Bees, presentation by Dr Michael Keith-Lucas.

December. Our annual skittles night at the Haydon Wick Club.

January. Wax with Andrew Willis.

February. Skep making with Paul Abigal

March. Seasonal Bee Inspector

Other Events.

11th October. Wiltshire BKA Autumn Beekeepers Day,
At Netheravon, Nr Amesbury
This is the Wiltshire Honey Show with talks and displays.

Club Sweatshirts and Polo Shirts

We have available: Swindon Beekeepers motif sew-on badge, £7.00 each.
Sweatshirts and polo shirts with our motif, £15.00 each.

Order now, before Christmas to ensure you get your club top in your stocking.
Contact Dennis or Joy Simpson. (01793 854063).

Visit to Buckfast Abbey

On Saturday 30 August about a group of 40 had a most enjoyable day visiting Buckfast Abbey to look at their apiary and production facilities.

Some more pictures from the visit are in our photo gallery can be found here

A note about Buckfast.

The Buckfast apiaries are now under the management of Dr. Dhafer Behnam. Coming from Iraq with all the enthusiasm to proceed with beekeeping here, he is using the experience gained from running and breeding a large number of colonies in Baghdad. Besides his academic knowledge in natural science with a degree in medicine and specialization in skin diseases, he was also trained in Germany to manage honeybee pathology. His experience was boosted when he worked as a consultant for the FAO and WFP of the United Nations. The ongoing objective of bee breeding at the Abbey is to produce bees that are more resistant to diseases, especially to Varroa, and ultimately more productive.

The total number of hives in production currently is about 400 which are spread throughout the locality in 9 apiaries. Dhafer is in the process of changing from the use of Modified Dadant to Langstroth hives to enable better manipulation.

Annual Honey Show

Show Schedule

Two entries per class per member allowed.

Cups:

Best in Show,
Most Points
Novice: highest number of points from all classes (novice is person with less than 3 full years of keeping bees).
Best Cake

Cake recipe and instructions for

Honey & Lemon Drizzle Cake
Cake ingredients:
4 oz Butter or Margarine
6 oz Self raising Flour
6 oz caster sugar
2 Large eggs
Pinch of salt
4 Tablespoons of milk
Grated rind of 1 lemon

For the syrup:
3 tablespoons of honey and juice of 1 lemon.

Instructions:
Grease and line base of 2 lb loaf tin.
Heat oven to Gas 4 or 180 deg C

Throw all the cake ingredients into a bowl and beat well.
Pour into loaf tin and cook for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
Meanwhile, heat the honey and lemon juice together and simmer gently for a few minutes to make a syrup.
While the cake is still warm, make holes in the top with a skewer and pour the warm syrup over the top so that it disappears into the holes.
Reserve any “run off” syrup to pour again until it is all absorbed.

Notes

1.Should be shown in a British standard screw-top 1 lb (454g) honey jar. A set of grading glasses will be available for checking colour of jars of honey to be entered.

2.Shown in a clear, punted bottle using a cork stopper with a plastic flange.

3.Any product containing solvent does not require a hazard label but item should be labelled for identification. Container should be well filled.

4.The cake should be presented for judging on a white plate and on a white Doily (which can be home-made) and covered with cling film.

The cake may be shown and judged in class 8 and then transferred to class 10.

5.Photos may be mounted but should be unframed and should not exceed A5 dimensions (i.e. 14.7x21 cm) to include any margin.

Judge:
Chris Jackson, Melksham Beekeepers.

Registration of Entries
It will be helpful if entries are pre-booked with the Show Secretary, Sue Harris, by post, phone or email before the day of the show, although entries may be registered on the evening. Entries must be placed by 7.55pm so that judging may start at 8.00pm, so please arrive early enough to register, prepare and place your entries.

Second Set of Lessons

Due to the success of our first set of lessons during April / May and the continued interest level we decided to run a second. They started on Sat 7th June and will run for 4 weeks. A grand total of 18 people (across the 2 sets) have enjoyed both the theory and practical side of beekeeping.