We are near neighbours. Just a stretch of water between us.
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We are near neighbours. Just a stretch of water between us.
Open invitation for Jon to come over the water and do some queen rearing here. There have been times when the weather is better over there and vice-versa better over here. By and large our weather is very similar.
Haven't heard of other losses in our ass'n so perhaps we've been lucky. We did supply everyone with O.A. at Christmas together with syringes etc and have spread the word about Apivar which most people have used so I think we're getting on top of varroa as an ass'n. We've had 16 of our members studying as a group for the SBA Beemaster part 1 so most of our " beginner" members are singing from the same hymn sheet. Our beginner / study group consists of absolute starters to people who have kept bees for up to 5 years. This year we've got a summer programme which sees us meeting at various apiaries etc. every two weeks ,meaning that we can follow up the winter theory with practical work for our study group and the rest of the membership. We suffer from not having an ass'n apiary but I'm working on our members to try and get across the benefits to our beginners e.t.c.
Some great photos of some of our rarer bee species. Have not read the accompanying study but agree with the habitat loss stuff.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...499953&index=9
posted by prakel on 09/05/12:
What a difference a year makes! Best try to be quieter in future.Quote:
Hi, I'm pretty new to this forum, and to be honest wasn't planning on making many/regular posts simply because it can become too much of a commitment -and on occassions even stressful- to write on these internet forums....
Some of us are worse!
Actually I do remember reading that post Prakel
Just had a heads-up from an old friend who owns a plot of land next to one of my apiaries to let me know that another local bee(less?)keeper has phoned him requesting permission to site a bait hive on his land! This is a man who started beekeeping with a dozen or so colonies about five years ago; been interesting to see his highly visible hives reducing in number each Spring.
My guess would be he does no varroa control.
Bait hives don't bother me as I clip my queens and check regularly.
Similar. I'm quite relaxed about people putting bait hives out just so long as there's nothing nasty lurking in them -although asking my friend (who's an ex, pre varroa, beekeeper) for permision was perhaps an own goal..... if the chap had come to me direct I could probably have been persuaded to GIVE him a nuc on the grounds that it's better to know what the genetics of his bees are rather than run the risk of him importing something less compatible from outside once the penny drops and he realizes that he's little chance of picking up a swarm from one of my hives.