This is a quick reminder that the annual memberships are now due. Please remember that if you don’t renew you will no-longer be covered by the BBKA’s personal liability insurance and you will stop getting your copy of the BBKA magazine, as well as all the other membership benefits. If you want to renew and you … Continue reading →
The weather held out to give us a lovely warm evening for the first part of the Queen Raising Course yesterday. The course was very well attended and everyone found it an informative and enjoyable session. We discussed the theory of queen breeding, equipment, methods and selecting for desirable traits before getting stuck in ourselves: preparing … Continue reading →
The Nowton Park apiary will now be open to experienced beekeepers and novices alike, from 12:00 every Sunday. Please do come along to help out with the inspections, brush up on skills, share your experiences, get advice and meet up with fellow members for a chin-wag! Complete beginners and members of the public are also welcome … Continue reading →
Just a quick update to say that unfortunately it is looking like there will be too much rain to carry out normal inspections tomorrow, so the association apiary at Nowton Park will not be open. We look forward to seeing you all again next Sunday!
Continue reading →This year’s class were treated to their first experience of swarm collection on Sunday, as a small swarm dropped in while the members were arriving at the association apiary. Fortunately our Education Secretary and course leader, Jane, is supremely well versed in the bee keeping arts and was on hand to re-house the errant ladies in … Continue reading →
We had an interesting time at the weekend, a call out to a colony that we guess was a swarm from last year that had set up home inside the cavity for a street fire hydrant, one which is under the payment with a rectangular metal cover on top. We think someone had gone to open … Continue reading →
Kevin Thorn, our chairman, is a bee farmer and has created videos to explain his views and experiences on creating a small scale sustainable apiary, the introduction and first video can be found here.
Continue reading →In addition to being called out to collect swarms you will get asked about bees that have already made a home, where it’s not ideal! Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a few calls, we had the bees in a box which I posted about in a previous post which was a lovely prepackaged … Continue reading →
First Swarm capture of 2020 I only started keeping bees in 2019 and that year rescued a small wild nest in a hedge being drowned by rain and a bumblebee nest in a bird box that had to be relocated. I have read many books, watched many videos on easy and hard examples of swarm capture. … Continue reading →
