Dear Member,

I know some of you attended the Tradex exhibition at Stoneleigh last month because I bumped into you, and hopefully some of you managed to attend some of the lectures. I unfortunately missed the lectures for several reasons, but I am sure both Margaret Murdin and Roger Patterson gave value for money. Do think about attending next year as it is a good opportunity to hear good speakers and see what is currently on offer in the beekeeping fraternity.

By the time you read this we should know the fate of our Warwickshire Beekeeping Association - hopefully a Chair and treasurer have been appointed and we can breathe a sigh of relief for another year. Don’t switch off completely however - think about getting more involved, perhaps with our local branch.

We are doing our best to educate and support prospective beekeepers and the public, but we do need more support from the general membership, particularly at the three or four annual public events where we have a stand devoted to beekeeping and where we sell honey and wax products. This is your opportunity to share some of the experience and knowledge you have gained about bees and beekeeping. Remember, even as a novice beekeeper, you know more than the average member of the public and the response and interest people show makes it very worthwhile. Rowan Moore is coordinating our events, so please let him know if you are interested in helping out.

We are still looking for someone to take on the task of programme secretary - arranging the speakers for the winter season. If you think you could help with this please let either Steve Brown or Cathy Moore know.

Several people have mentioned that they have lost their bees over the winter despite the bees having enough stores. It is easy for bees to become isolated from their stores in periods of very cold weather. I wondered if this is more likely to happen if frames are positioned the ‘warm’ way. From debris on the hive floor it often seems that the bees are located near the hive entrance and I wonder if they are less able to move back through the hive to the stores than with the frames the ‘cold’ way. If anyone has any observations on this, I would be interested to hear them.

As the cold weather has continued into Spring, I have noticed that many of the plants that started to prematurely come into flower in January, seem to have been held back by the cold weather in February and March, so hopefully as the weather warms up there will still be nectar blossom for the Spring build up of our colonies.

Tips for the month:

I know I talked about feeding 1:1 syrup last month, but I did make the proviso ‘if the weather improves consistently’, otherwise continue with the fondant. Beekeeping is all about judgement - think about what may be happening in the hive and what the weather is doing and try and match the two. Our weather is so unpredictable that it is difficult to say ‘in March do such and such’ - It can only ever be a guide!

I know many of you have taken a quick look in your hives on a warm day, but the advice to wait until the flowering currant (ribes sanguinium) is out, or you can go out in shirtsleeves, is still a good guide for when to start your proper weekly inspections. Sometimes the bees will apparently kill the queen if they are disturbed too early.

Before you put on your supers, there is still time to do a varroa treatment. Graham Royle mentioned in his talk that the shook swarm is a very effective way of treating the bees for varroa early in the year (when the OSR is out or the nectar flow is on). Do consider doing this rather extreme procedure as it is very effective in cutting down varroa, but if you do not have confidence, get someone to help you. Also if you have neighbours near your hives you may want to time your shook swarm when there is no one likely to be around as there will be many disturbed bees flying around.

Margaret Holdsworth