Hon. Newsletter Editor:
Peter Edwards
E-mail: beekeepers@stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT

It is a great honour to have been appointed your president and I am very conscious that I am following a succession of most illustrious holders of the office over the past 70 years.  There are two reasons why the appointment is particularly pleasing to me - I have just completed my 50^th season of beekeeping and, more importantly, the association has enjoyed its most successful season for many years.  This is largely due to the hard work of all the other committee members who use their organisational and practical skills to such good effect.  On behalf of you all, I thank them most warmly.

With our bees safely tucked up for the winter, we can allow ourselves a period of relaxation before we face the challenges of 2006 - so I hope your Christmas will be a happy and a restful one.
Denis Keyte

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING FOR A GOOD CAUSE!

If you are an online-shopper, then you can give to a very good cause without spending any extra money this Christmas (in fact, it might even save you money!)  Just log on to www.buy.at/hivessavelives and you will be taken to a portal which gives access to over 80 major retailers, including Marks and Spencers, Amazon, John Lewis, Comet and BT.  Any purchase made will earn Hives Save Lives a small commission, but remember, you must access the retailers via www.buy.at/hivessavelives.  If you are looking for stocking fillers for bee lovers, then how about the small desk 'Bees and Beekeeping' calendar?  These are the size of a small CD case, and are available at just £3.50 each, or 3 for £10.  For £32.00, we will build a hive in Uganda to create an income for newly trained beekeepers.  A Christmas present with a difference and with a purpose, just let us know if you want to purchase a hive for a particular friend or relative, and we will provide a certificate in their name as 'proof of present!' Just contact Linda Whitby at Hives Save Lives on 01273 302586, email on lwhitby@hivessavelives.com, or write to P O Box 78, Saltdean, Brighton BN51 9AB.

BEEKEEPING COURSES

I have received the following from Martyn Cracknell:

‘I shall be running my beginners’ course again this year starting on Jan18th 2006...but the venue is different.  We will meet at Smite farm, the HQ for Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, at Hindlip near Worcester.  Details are on my website:

http://beekeepingcourse.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk ‘

Martyn has been Secretary and Chairman of Evesham Beekeepers, and is currently on the Worcestershire BKA County Executive Committee.  He is a graduate Botanist and Entomologist and lectured for many years at Pershore College of Horticulture.
Peter Edwards

 For those of you willing to travel the 35 or so miles to Hartpury College, just north of Gloucester., it is worth knowing that they run a variety of beekeeping courses.  There are two introductory courses.  One is 2 days in June, cost £90, the other 5 days in April or July, cost £160.  A 2 day follow-on course is available in April at £90.  One-day courses on going to the rape or heather, swarm control, disease control and queen rearing are available if there is sufficient demand.  Ring 01452 702132 or go to www.hartpury.ac.uk for exact details.
Mike Osborne

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Thirteen members attended the AGM this year.  Although this turnout is rather depressingly low, we can only hope that it indicates that the majority of members are reasonably happy with the way that the Association is run.

Our first task this year was to elect a new president and we were all delighted that Denis Keyte accepted the nomination; with 50 years of beekeeping experience and his outstanding record of service to the Association, he was the natural choice for the post and was elected unanimously.

Ron French decided to retire from the committee and we are all greatly indebted to him for his hard work in securing the lottery grant which has transformed the Association’s facilities.  We were pleased to welcome Kevin Roles to the committee to replace Ron.

In AOB, we discussed:

Mentors.  There is an urgent need for mentors to help new members.  We see the role as providing a point of contact, perhaps by telephone, rather than expecting mentors to visit beginners’ apiaries, but this would be for the mentor to decide; often it is more helpful for beginners to visit and work with established beekeepers as there may be more colonies to see.  It goes without saying that mentors must be reasonably competent and up-to-date, but we are not looking for qualifications.  If you feel that you could help then please contact Mike Osborne.

The ‘Millennium Project’.  In 1999 we started a project to create a record that would provide a snapshot of the Association at the millennium.  A considerable amount of good material was collected, but due to illness the project was not completed.  Denis Keyte has now bravely volunteered to oversee the completion of this project and it has been agreed that it will take the form of a booklet about the Association and its activities into the 21^st century.

Bee Breeding Group.  It was decided to keep this on a fairly informal basis at present.  We will circulate details of activities as the active season starts and then ask members who are interested in becoming involved to contact us.
Peter Edwards

NEW VARROA LEAFLET

The NBU has produced an excellent updated version of the booklet (36 pages) ‘Managing Varroa’.  These would be expensive to post to you, but our secretary, Mike Osborne, has copies available for collection.  Please ring him to arrange to collect your copy.

ST JAMES BEES

I collected a swarm on Thursday 26th May 2005 that issued from St. James Church, at Riddings, Derbyshire, The bees were all black without a trace of yellow, indications that they might be native bees.  After carrying out morphometry, these were found to be pure bred native honeybees with a cubital index of 1.56 and a discoidal shift of -2.27.

The swarm has now been set up in a hive and can be handled without veil or gloves; this is not the norm these days, although it was 150 years ago before imports of foreign bees took place.

I have dropped a letter into the houses around the church to appeal for information on any bee activity in the Riddings area.  By this I mean any swarms or evidence of bees being in residence in old trees or buildings, for I am convinced there are other colonies of bees like the ones in the roof space of St. James Church, these enter by the small grills set high up in the wall of the church on the south side.  There have been two colonies in the church roof space for about 25 years, apart from a gap of two years when they died out.  They were re-established when fresh swarms took up residence again.  I did get a swarm from these bees before they died out and they were almost identical to the swarm I collected recently, indications that there are probably other colonies like them in the area.

We are keen to obtain any further swarms of this strain of bee, which we will call St James, after the church, and that is why we have alerted local residents to let us know if they see swarms or bees in old buildings or trees.

We are raising queens from this colony and some of the mating nucs with these queens will be sited in the belfry of the church in an attempt to get them mated with drones in that area.  Other mating nucs with queens from this stock will be taken to our mating site.

Started cells from this colony have been given to the group from Brecon & Radnorshire and to Peter Edwards from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Albert Knight

(Albert is a leading figure in BIBBA and was, until recently, Breeding Groups Secretary, a position that he has had to relinquish due to failing eyesight.  More about these bees in a future newsletter.)
Peter Edwards

SKITTLES

Last December, reporting on our annual skittles match with Shipston, I noted that it would be our turn to win this year.  Well, we nearly blew it!  Our laid-back attitude allowed Shipston to win the first round and we had to concentrate a bit harder in the second round to clinch the match by just 3 points: Stratford 332 Shipston 329.  As usual, we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening with the usual excellent food served at the Lygon Arms.  Our thanks to Chris Boylan for organising the evening.
Peter Edwards

A GOOD USE FOR OLD BEEKEEPING MAGAZINES

Recent redecoration and re-organisation has left me without a home for a large pile of beekeeping magazines and I have been wondering what to do with them.  At the same time, I seem to have spent more than my fair share of time in waiting rooms recently and soon realised that the choice of reading material leaves much to be desired.  Here was a good home for some of the magazines!  I sorted out some copies of Bee Craft and the Beekeepers Quarterly ready to take on my next visits, but then realised that they could be used to recruit potential new members.  We have a flyer introducing our Association, giving information about our activities together with a brief history and contact details, so I taped one of these inside the front cover of each magazine and have distributed them to my doctor's, dentist's and hospital waiting rooms.  Of course, Sue had to point out that we might end up with even more geriatric or hypochondriac members!
I still have a large pile of magazines if anyone would like some (they will go into the recycling in a month or two) and I can print or email the flyer leaflet if you need some.
Peter Edwards