WINTER IS COMING – OR IS IT?
We had a very interesting talk this month from David Bonner about honeybee democracy. As always, David stimulated a lot of discussion. The size of the optimum space for a colony
created a lot of interest, especially amongst the less-experienced beekeepers.
Everyone was moved by David’s stories about his Bees Abroad projects in Uganda. It was stunning to think that the project had literally helped people raise crops to the point of
avoiding starvation. It reminded us that we have suggested that all of us sign our Smile Amazon account to Bees Abroad. Many of us have already set that up, and others promised to
consider it. It would be wonderful if all beekeepers took this on.
Discussion outside the meeting about taking things on revolved around the Warwickshire lecture about honey fraud. How wonderful it would be if we all took a sample of supermarket
honey to Trading Standards on the same day! Will we see words turned into action?
Winter is coming – or is it? Six weeks ago, we had a talk about preparation for winter. Conversations have been around the bizarre weather and its effects on nature. We hear of
numerous examples of strange things at this time of year: wasps still around; cabbages with butterflies on them; berberis and rosemary have been in flower. Bees have been seen, still
flying, and to be bringing in pollen in the middle of November.
The question we asked ourselves is whether, next year, the meeting might be about the effects of weather changes and how we manage bees in a climate where they do not have a brood-free
period. Important questions included whether we will be able to use oxalic acid in the winter, and whether we should all follow one of our older members, who has not used chemicals for
years and utilised shook swarm as varroa control.
We were pleased to hear that, for the first time in a long while, two of our members won prizes at the National Honey Show.
Stephen Brown