Welcome to the February 2025 Newsletter from Rugby Beekeepers

Welcome to the February newsletter from the committee.

We would like to start by sending our congratulations to Helen Rathbone for passing her BBKA Module One with a credit – well done. Module one covers a huge amount of subject matter and is probably one of the trickiest, and most useful, modules to study. We hope Helen’s success will encourage others to consider the BBKA Modules and if you join a study group it can be great fun learning together with others.

The Warwick and Leamington Spa branch are running a study group for the BBKA Basic Assessment and they have very kindly opened this up to all branches in Warwickshire. The Basic Assessment is a really useful way to demonstrate competence in managing a colony of bees, it is also often a requirement of allotment associations and local councils that you have this qualification before they will allow you to keep bees on land they control. You should have received an email from both Samantha Peckett, our Treasurer and Jane Nimmo, the Secretary to the Trustees of our charity, letting you know about this. If you didn’t receive the email you can catch up on its contents by visiting our website, https://rugbybeekepers.org and checking our blog (more on this later on).

Turning to the current weather, despite a few colder days and nights the temperatures overall have been holding up and snowdrops, crocus, willow catkins, aconites, hellebores and daffodils are all poking their heads up and coming into flower. Just what our bees need if the warmer days allow them to start flying. On February 1st London will be enjoying 1 hour and 15 minutes more daylight than on the first of January and Edinburgh 1 hour 33 minutes which means here in the Midlands we are just about between the two, so spring is on its way to Rugby.

Our website, https://rugbybeekeers.org was originally built and maintained by one of our members, Rowan Moore. He did a fantastic job keeping everything updated and looking good and the committee are eternally grateful for the work he did. However, Rowan moved away from the area sometime ago and despite carrying on looking after the site remotely, he eventually decided to hand it back to us to look after. The new site is now up and running and we hope to keep you updated with what we are doing via our blog. In addition, there are pages on basic beekeeping and information about who we are and what we do for prospective beekeepers who may wish to join us and take up beekeeping. Please have a look at the site and if you have anything you would like to contribute or notice any errors that need correcting please let us know.

One last item that needs a mention… The Rugby Beekeepers Association is one of eight associations that are a part of The Warwickshire Beekeepers Association, a registered charity. This means that as a part of a registered charity we are required to fulfil the aims and conditions of our charitable status. On the 5th of February 2025 we will be holding our AGM to which you are invited. We require at least 20% of our members to attend to ensure the meeting is quorate. As we currently have 65 paid up members who are eligible to vote we need at least 13 members to attend. An AGM is probably not the most exciting event to attend, so to make it more interesting, after the meeting, we have arranged for a speaker to give us a presentation. They are a commercial airline pilot and will be talking about what it’s like to sit in the big seat at the very front of the aircraft as you are in the back travelling towards your holiday destination. A talk not to be missed!

Things to consider in February

• Check hives for any evidence of rodent damage
• Heft your hives and feed accordingly- sadly we have had reports of colony losses already this year
• Close up any dead hives to prevent robbing, until you find time to clean the equipment thoroughly
• Should weather become ‘wild and windy ‘, strap the hives down, or use heavy building blocks on the rooves to reduce risk of damage
• Start making up new frames in preparation for the spring, but don’t fit the foundation yet, bees don’t like foundation that is a bit stale

Next Meeting As mentioned above, our next meeting is our AGM and will take place on Wednesday 6th of February. It will start at 7:30pm and will be held in the Sacred Heart Church Hall, Bilton.