WBKA Winter Talk – ‘Swarming’ by Wally Shaw

‘There is no doubt that swarm control is simultaneously the most important and the most difficult of colony management.’

Says Wally Shaw and most beekeepers can relate to this! So prepare for the season ahead by listening to our next county lecture.

Wally will give a more general talk about the wide topic of swarming and about how beekeeper management interacts with the colonies, rather than one that focuses on the nitty-gritty of the actual methods. This is based on the pragmatic view that most people would unable to implement the methods simple by just listening to a talk about them. However he has created two booklets written with the intention of the beekeeper being ably to take them hive-side as a crib sheet or aide memoir when they are still in the learning process and these will be available after the talk.

A bit more about Wally

My wife (Jenny) and I have been keeping bees for 35 years – a joint activity in which we are equal partners. We started beekeeping in order to provide pollination for a newly planted orchard. One hive grew into two, then four and eventually into over 50 in six apiaries. This escalation in number of colonies was mainly driven by a fascination with the honey bee. We are both ex-research ecologists and beekeeping has become a sort of second (unpaid) career.Apart from our initial colony, which was purchased from a local beekeeper, we have never purchased another colony or a queen but from the outset made our own by splitting hives or collecting swarms. We currently raise 25-40 nucs each year to supply new beekeepers with an initial colony. Over the years I have written two booklet on swarm control for WBKA and these were circulated free to all members. More recently I have written a book on the biology of swarming which was published by BeeCraft.

The lecture will be held on Zoom on Wednesday March 16 at 7.30 pm

You will need to register in advance, the registration link is in the Members pages.