Beekeeping News
March 2013 - Minor Website Changes
You may have noticed a couple of changes to the navigation bar at the top of the screen, if you're a regular visitor - this was just to tidy a few items up, and hopefully make it a little easier for people to find what they're after.
Most noteable among the changes are the removal of the links to the Members' Forum - this saw very little activity, so has now been closed. If you're after a replacement, Beekeeping Forum is an excellent place - full of some very knowledgeable people!
The latest edition (Issue 65) of the KBKA Newsletter has been published.
Read it Here!
The National Bee Unit (NBU) End of Year report has been published, and is available to view below.
View the Report
We are proud to announce that the YDBKA is one of the first beekeeping groups in the UK to be offering online sign-up and membership! Of course, "offline" payments are still very welcome - we just want to give everyone the opportunity to join in the way that suits them best!
Join or Renew Now!
What a lovely couple of days we had at Great Comp! Thanks to everyone who attended, and thank you to all the members that helped out on the days - without your help, we never could have raised a brilliant £171 towards the development of our apiary!
Some brilliant photos from our stall at the Yalding Gardens Open Day on 30th June 2012.
See our photos here!
See some photos from a recent inspection attended by some of our members at the YDBKA Teaching Apiary.
See our photos here!
Thank you to everyone who came along, both members and the public alike. We extracted honey from some of the hives at our Teaching Apiary as the public watched, filtered it, jarred it, and sold it - all right in front of everyone's eyes!
We sold every last jar of honey we bottled - so thank you again everyone for your support.
Thank you to everyone who came along, and made our first Honey Bee Fayre such a success! With your help, we were able to raise a brilliant £1866!
See our photos here!
It is a very swarmy year - see some of the swarms collected by our members this year.
See our photos here!
Jordan Whitcombe, our youngest member recently appeared on BBC South East Today, to talk about his passion for beekeeping.
Watch it on YouTube here...
A colony lost - we investigate why. We also visit a swarm... in FEBRUARY!
See the galleries here...
Thank you to those of you who attended our very first AGM this January. We had a bit of an update on the Honey Bee Fayre and Auction, election of committee members, and a delicious cake, made by Polly to celebrate our 1st year!
See the galleries here...
Thank you to those of you who attended our very first AGM this January. We had a bit of an update on the Honey Bee Fayre and Auction, election of committee members, and a delicious cake, made by Polly to celebrate our 1st year!
Committee updates here...
Peter Bashford, wax, knitted bees and ladybirds are all subjects of new galleries recently uploaded - go and take a look!
See the galleries here...
December 2011 - NBU Newsletters Published
The National Bee Unit (NBU) have published three newsletters, which may be of interest to you.
End of Year Report - National
End of Year Report - South East
Honey Survey Results - South East
For our December meeting, we have arranged for Peter Bashford to pop in from the Bromley branch, to give a talk on "Preparing Wax".
See full details here...
Our first Christmas Meal at The Harrow in Hadlow was a real success - thank you to all of you who attended, and helped make the evening a truly enjoyable one!
See some pictures here...
All our dates for meetings have now been published online for the first half of 2012. Please also note the lack of meeting in November 2011, and the early December meeting - these are being combined so as not to fall too close to the YDBKA Christmas Meal, or Christmas itself.
See full details here...
October 2011 - Yalding Gardens Close
We have recently been informed by the Yalding Gardens that they have ceased trading with immediate effect. This is very unfortunate news, as I'm sure you will agree.
Most immediately, this causes a problem with the YDBKA Christmas Meal, which had been organised at the Gardens. We are currently working on a contingency, which we hope to send full details of shortly to all members.
See full details here...
September 2011 - New Galleries Now Online!
They have been a long time in the making, but both the Swarms 2011 gallery, and the eagerly anticipated Members Gallery are now online in the Gallery section.
I plan to keep the Members Gallery up-to-date throughout the year - so feel free to continue to submit your photos!
See full details here...
September 2011 - Bromley & Orpington Associations Honey Show 2011
The Bromley and Orpington Beekeepers Associations are holding their annual honey show on Saturday 17th September at Emmanuel Church, West Wickham.
The show opens to the public at 10am and admission is free.
As well as candle making, a raffle, home made refreshments and honey tasting this year the beekeepers are staging two free talks for would-be beekeepers who are thinking of taking up the hobby. The talks last for an hour and take place at 11.00am and 2.30pm, all are welcome.
See full details here...
Scientists are asking beekeepers for samples of honey to help fight antibiotic-resistant 'superbugs' such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile. Honey is known for its antiseptic properties, but its effects are known to vary greatly with the plants from which bees collect nectar and pollen. Researchers from the National Botanic Garden of Wales and the Welsh School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University will build up DNA profiles linking different honeys to the bacteria and diseases they can fight.
The bontanic garden already has DNA 'barcodes' of the Welsh flora, so can pinpoint which plants are the sources of the active ingredients in the honey, shortening the tedious process of screening chemicals in plants. They also hope to identify substances that help bees resist pests and diseases such as varroa mite.
Beekeepers are asked to send 200ml of honey and a list of plants growing nearby to : Jenny Hawkins, Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NBSee full details here...
During our time at the Great Comp Garden Show, we were approached by Bob, a retired beekeeper.
He liked the idea of what we were trying to do at our apiary, developing it into somewhere that learning and teaching could take place, and where we could encourage beekeeping to a whole new audience, and made us a fantastically generous offer!
See full details here...
The NDB have released dates for their upcoming short courses. There are a variety of subjects available, on a variety of dates.
Full details available via our Education page.
The YDBKA had a tent at Great Comp on the weekend of 13th/14th August, in an effort to raise some much needed funds for the association apiary.
It was a great day, and I think we really made a positive impact on all the visitors to Great Comp - who genuinely seemed to enjoy their visit to our tent!
See full details of our day, including pictures in the gallery.
August 2011 - Jeanette's Apiary Visit
The weather couldn't have been better for our visit to Jeanette's apiary on Saturday - a lovely afternoon was had by all - with much sharing of information, tips and laughter!
See our day in pictures in the gallery.
Varroa control is most effective when all the beekeepers in an area treat at the time time, as the varroa is erradicated in all the managed colonies in an area at once, giving it fewer places to 'hide'.
The YDBKA have managed to secure favourable pricing on ApiGuard treatment, if we can raise enough orders for a bulk-buy. Please see the Members Forum, within the Members Area for more information, and to paricipate.
Visit our Members Area here.
August 2011 - London Honey Festival
This is a free event being organised by 'Capital Bee', an organisation dedicated to promoting community beekeeping in London. They have extended invites to beekeepers from Kent to show their honey if they would like.
The event is open and free to anyone, beekeepers or the public.
More information on our events page, here.
As all the members who attended already know - this was a great day - it was great to see our new apiary finally with some actual bees flying around in it!
All our colonies are quite small at the moment, but they are growing fast!
See the photos from our first inspection here.
June 2011 - European Foul Brood Confirmed Nearby
We have been made aware of several outbreaks of European Foul Brood (EFB) in the surrounding areas. Outbreaks have been reported in East Malling, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Forest Row.
As yet, no outbreaks of American Foul Brood (AFB) have been reported in the area this year.
Please would ALL members, and anyone keeping bees be extra vigilant for signs of this notifiable disease.
If you suspect you might have it, DO NOT HESITATE - contact a bee inspector immediately. EFB is a legally notifiable disease - it does not have to mean destruction of your bees/hives - please be considerate to other beekeepers in your area, and notify the National Bee Unit (NBU) at once.
We've received a message from the High Weald Beekeepers Association with a tragic story, which should remind us all that horses and bees do not mix.
Read the full e-mail message from them here.
The necessary meetings have now taken place with the Kent Beekeepers Association, and it was agreed that the Yalding and District Beekeepers Association would become members of the KBKA with effect from 1st October 2011.
Panic not, existing members, this will not affect the running of our association - you can still expect the same from us as you have done up until now! More details nearer October.
The YDBKA, along with all other local associations have recently received a message from Alan Byham, the Regional Bee Inspector for the South East, containing a warning regarding possible low nectar stores in your colonies.
It is similar to our message last month, but if you'd like the "official" word, it can be found here.
Many congratulations to two of our members, Jordan Whitcombe and William English, who have just passed their BBKA "Basic Assessment" exam.
Well done both of you! This is a great achievement, especially in your first year of beekeeping!
May 2011 - Beware of Colony Starvation
Several beekeepers have remarked in recent weeks that their colonies are unusually light on stores for this time of the year - and some smaller colonies, especially nuclei could be in danger of starvation.
It is thought this is a result of the unusually good weather we've been having so early this year - that it may have brough the 'June Gap' forward.
We would recommend keeping a close eye on your bees, and their levels of stores, and perhaps consider feeding 1:1 syrup, if required.
Chris Morris, our Vice Chairman once again held his annual bee and equipment auction in Yalding - turn out was lower than usual, but it was a good chance to meet up with other beekeepers, and perhaps partake in the odd bid, and chat over a BBQ'd burger, all on a nice sunny afternoon (if a little windy!)
See some photos from the auction, here.
Thank you to James, one of our members, who has provided a few extra photos in the out apiary introduction gallery - very useful, especially seeing as "official photographer" forgot his camera on the first "official" visit !
You can see his additions in the original gallery, here.
May 2011 - SmartWater in use on bee hives
We hear on the big beekeeping grapevine that the SmartWater Trace product is now being used to mark bee hives in the North Derbyshire area. The local Community Safety Partnership have been able to fund "anti-theft" kits including individual supplies of SmartWater, to try and reduce the prevalence of hive thefts in the area.
Naturally, the YDBKA are already making enquires with the local Police forces in the area, to see if they might be able to support a similar project in this area.
You can see the newspaper clipping here.
With the swarming season well and truly upon us (albeit rather earlier than usual!), it was time to get the club apiary ready to accept some bees into some of those empty hives - a mass frame construction was called for!
See photos from the get-together here.
Apr 2011 - First Swarm of the Season!
Yes, it's true! The first swarm we've heard about this season was collected by our very own Chairman on 12th April!
All this lovely warm weather has had all our bees working very hard, and expanding at an incredible rate!
Could this be a record-breaker?
One of our members was recently called out to a building site, where he found a tree surgeon had felled a large, old hollowed-out tree, only to discover a large wild colony of bees called it home!
See some photos from the interesting call-out here.
We now have our very own E-Mailing List! We plan to send updates on Beekeeping News, as well as details of meetings, get togethers, and anything else we think you'll find interesting, straight into your Inbox! Join the List Now!
The Yalding and District Beekeepers Association is pleased to announce that we have managed to secure a local out apiary - please see here for more details, and here for our first couple of photographs.
Feb 2011 - Updated Guidance on Varroa and Small Hive Beetles
The National Bee Unit (NBU) have updated their guidance leaflets on Managing Varroa, and the Small Hive Beetle. For the good of their colonies, all beekeepers should make sure they are familiar with the latest guidance on the management and control of these pests.
Feb 2011 - Asian Hornet
The recent arrival into France of one of these invasive predatory hornets Vespa velutina nigrithorax was confirmed for the first time in Lot-et-Garonne in the South West in 2005, thought to have been imported in a consignment of pottery from China. It quickly established and has spread very quickly to many areas of France where it is reported to be causing many problems for both beekeepers and biodiversity in the country. The hornet can predate on colonies, causing significant harm.
All beekeepers should be on the look out for this hornet. Please notify the NBU immediately of any suspect hornets and send a sample to the laboratory for examination if possible.
More information on the Asian Hornet from the National Bee Unit
Feb 2011 - Small Hive Beetle
The Small Hive Beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida, is an invasive species originating from Africa which has proved to be a serious pest of honeybee hives in the USA and Australia. The SHB has been made notifiable within the European Community.
All beekeepers should be on the look out for this beetle. Please notify the NBU immediately of any suspect beetles and send a sample to the laboratory for examination if possible.
More information on the Small Hive Beetle from the National Bee Unit
Feb 2011 - We're Live !
Yes, the Yalding and District Beekeepers Association's website is now officially live - have a look around, and let us know what you think !