Kingston Beekeepers

Supplier and manufacturer of National Hives and components......and an interesting website to boot!

Worth checking out.  -  http://www.peak-hives.co.uk/

National Honey Show – Weybridge, Surrey 29th to 31st October 2009

Are you new to beekeeping? Would you like to see what honey, combs, wax and mead should really look like? The National Honey Show is the ‘gold standard’ honey show - the equivalent of Wimbledon for tennis players. There are almost 250 classes and beekeepers come from all over the world to enter so it is truly an international show.

Walking around the displays is an education in itself. A full programme of workshops and lectures will run during the show and there will be a wide selection of trade stands with lots of equipment and books to buy. If you are in your first year of beekeeping you can get in free! Your association secretary must apply for this on your behalf to the NHS General Secretary before the end of July. Contact the Rev. HF Capener, 1 Baldric Road, Folkestone , CT20 2NR. Email showsec@zbee.com

If you have already had success at your local or county show, why not enter some of the classes? Many counties have their own classes within the show – or you can put yourself up against the experts in the open classes to see how you measure up. As you do your extracting, why not keep that perfect frame aside? A little planning now will give you lots of potential show entries.

The 2009 schedule of classes and entry application is available from the membership secretary, Sandra Rickwood. Please telephone her for a copy on 020 33 55 8716 and leave your name and address after the recorded message. It will soon be available on the National Honey Show website www.honeyshow.co.uk where you can also find lots of interesting information about the show.

The show is at St Georges College, Woburn Hill, Weybridge, Surrey, KT15 2QS (follow the A317 from junction 11 of the M25) on Thursday 29(2.00pm to 6pm) Friday 30 (9.30am to 6pm) and Saturday 31 October (9.30am to 4.45pm).

Admission for non-members is £12 but you can become a member of the National Honey Show for £10 (or £11 via PayPal) and then entry is free for all three days. Accompanied children of 16 years and under are free and additional family members over 16 years living at the same address can come in for £5 each. On Saturday admission after 12 noon is £5 for everyone. You can join at the door or by contacting the membership secretary, Mrs Sandra Rickwood, 19 Kenwood Drive, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, KT12 5AU. Alternatively, email srhoneyshow@googlemail.com or telephone 020 3355 8716 and leave a message.

Reigate Beekeepers still have some availability on two courses over the coming months:

Introduction to Beekeeping Course 2009 - Tuesday Evenings - Places Available

• Tutor David Rudland (Seasonal Bee Inspector)
• Starting on Tuesday 29 September 2009
• Meets at 7.30pm
• Runs for 10 weeks
• Held at Boxhill School, Mickleham.
• 2009 Course dates are: 29 September - 1 December 2009, weekly.

Introduction to Beekeeping Course 2010 - Monday Evenings - Places Available

• Tutor David Rudland (Seasonal Bee Inspector)
• Starting on Monday 11 January 2010
• Meets at 7.30pm
• Runs for 10 weeks
• Held at The Woodhatch Centre, Reigate.
• 2010 Course dates are: 11 January, 18 January, 25 January, 1 February, 8 February, 15 February, 22 February, 1 March, 8 March and 15th March 2010

You can read further details here

Saturday 8th August – 3pm start.

Partners are welcome to join us. Starting at 3pm when we will show people the hives and then the bbq itself will start at approximately 4pm.

The bbq is open to members, their family and friends. Please bring your own drinks. And please bring either a dessert or salad as a family (not each). There is a charge of £4 per head.

IMPORTANT! If you are coming please contact Avis so that she has an idea of numbers for catering.

Thanks go to Hazem Farag for the following photographs – all taken during May at the Apiary.

• 
  "There's an insect in my tea!"
  "That's the Vitamin Bee supplement."
• 
  Making Frames and Making Tea.

First the good news…

The shook swarm exercise on the 4 April was a success, with the help of three bee inspector we managed to move our bees from the brood boxes that they had over-wintered on and re-house them in clean, sterile, brood boxes. Avis and David posted the following as a thank you from the Apiary Management Team:

Thanks to everyone for making it such a good humoured, fun, efficient day. The underlying organisation was excellent, particularly the supply of food. We met most of you sneaking back yesterday (Sunday 5th) to make sure the bees are ok, but the apiary really does look unbelieveable tidy and cannot believe the amount of equipment in the shed that’s now clean!

Regards Avis and David

Thanks to John Legate’s forward planning, who enlisted the help of the digger after it had levelled the ground for the new car park, we had a large pit already dug for the incineration of the old frames. And the fire burnt for most of the day, not a pretty sight when you consider the amount of eggs and lava that were going up in smoke. But now we have to nurture our bees as they build their new hives. Alan Byham has already emailed the club, stressing the need to keep on top of feeding, to check frequently to ensure that your feeder is not empty and stop only when it is obvious that the bees are no longer taking the syrup down. Don’t be fooled by a few sunny days.

The following excerpt was taken from The Save Our Bees Campaign website. They are currently offering FREE bee friendly plant seeds when you register on their website.

Plant Bee friendly plants!

As part of the celebrations of National Science and Engineering Week 2009, we want you to help save our UK Bees by planting bee friendly plants across the country! This will make them healthier, helping them survive infection, changing weather patterns and more.

Billions of the UK's bees are dying from unknown causes. One in three honey bee colonies in the UK were lost last winter alone. The UK's bumblebees are also suffering because there aren't enough wild flowers for them.

All bees need our support. Bees are vitally important for everyone. In all, they are responsible for pollinating one-third of all the foods we eat!

The Save Our Bees Campaign – REGISTER HERE!

The Co-operative supermarket will prohibit the use of eight pesticides on its fresh produce from Wednesday, January 28 2009. The measure is part of a ten-point strategy designed to help reverse the rapid decline in the British bee population.

Read the full article

If you want to see exactly what the Co-op's ten-point strategy consists of then, you can read it here. I'm sure you will agree that this is great news in the continuing struggle to secure the future of honey bees and Beekeepers in Great Britain, not to mention other pollinating insects as well.

This article has been taken from The Guardian Web site, Sunday 18th January 2009.

Once more the National Farmers' Union – the lobby organisation for the people who grow our food – is fighting a ludicrous campaign against healthier food.

A recent vote in the European parliament will result in a ban on a clutch of pesticide products deemed "hazardous" to human health. Backed by the majority of member states as well as by MEPs, the new pesticide legislation aims to halve the number of toxic products used in farming by the year 2013.

Read the full article here