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

RON FRENCH

Ron's bees were not noted for their non-swarming behaviour!

It is with the deepest regret that I have to announce that Ron French was taken ill and died suddenly on Boxing Day.  There can be few people who take up beekeeping in their late seventies, but Ron was very active all of his life and was always ready for a new challenge.  Born in Stratford in 1923, Ron saw considerable active service during the war whilst still in his teens, serving with the Royal Artillery in North Africa and Italy.  He was blown up in a bren gun carrier, mortared and bombed by the Germans in Italy and even bombed by the Americans, so I imagine that a few bee stings would have been of little consequence to him!  Despite his wartime experiences and varying degrees of ill-health throughout his life, Ron was always cheerful and smiling and his fit appearance certainly belied his advancing years, perhaps due to his great love of the outdoor life including riding, swimming and camping.  Ron, with his wife Rhoda, enjoyed our apiary meetings and was always an enthusiastic participant in our beekeeping safaris and summer walks. After joining the Association, Ron was quickly recruited to the committee where the financial experience that he gained from his work in the insurance sector made him a most useful and respected colleague.  His final project, before leaving the committee at the last AGM, was the preparation of the successful bid for a lottery grant of £5000; our new building at the Association apiary, purchased with some of that grant, will serve as a permanent reminder of a good friend and colleague who will be greatly missed.   His report on the bid follows.  We offer our sincere condolences to Rhoda. Peter Edwards

THE LOTTERY GRANT - FINAL REPORT

During the course of the application for the grant it was impressed on me that it was essential that there should be no change in the articles ordered in the original application.  This is easier said than done when you realise that some of the items first listed were not as essential as first envisaged!  If any great change is required, permission must first be obtained from the Grant Officer.  We did change certain items, but replaced them with beekeeping equipment of similar use, so considered it best not to raise any questions before purchase.  We had to submit our final list of purchases and say how we had benefited from the grant.  This was done and great play was made of the publicity we obtained including local radio, the Coventry Telegraph and the Stratford Herald.  Much to my delight I have now heard that accounts have been accepted and the file closed.  Please enjoy the new facilities!
Ron French

THE BEST BEE

At our meeting on February 24, Terry Clare, Chairman of BIBBA (Bee Improvement & Bee Breeding Association) will give his new talk ‘The Best Bee’.  The talk is based on his own beekeeping experiences with different races of honeybees and Terry will explain why he considers that our native Dark Northern European honeybee is the best for the UK.

As well as talking about the work of BIBBA in general, Terry will be commenting on what can be done to ensure the wider acceptance of our native bee amongst beekeepers and has also agreed to offer us advice on the setting up of our breeding group.

BIBBA is a small organisation with few officers able to spare the time to lecture and offer advice.  We are therefore very fortunate to have been able to arrange this meeting with Terry and I would urge you all to attend – I am sure that you will not be disappointed and will learn a great deal.
Peter Edwards

AMAZING INDIA AGAIN

As some of you will know, the reason that this newsletter is late is that Sue and I have only just returned home after five weeks in India - which has rather more appeal than Stratford in January!  Unfortunately, the computer decided to throw a wobbly just before we went away and when we returned home it refused to boot up.  After around 50 attempts it eventually worked for long enough for me to download the 1000+ emails that were waiting and then it packed up completely!  Apparently one of the cooling fans had stopped working and this caused the power supply and the mother board to fail – just what I needed!  Repairs were quickly completed but now the newsletter is even later.
Peter Edwards

VARROA RESEARCH

Two papers published in the American Bee Journal caught my eye.

The first paper compared colonies headed by Russian queens with colonies headed by Italian queens, both for honey production and increase in varroa populations during the season.  In itself, this would have been an interesting study, but the researchers went further by investigating the effect on these colonies of putting them in either sunny or shaded apiaries, with either single strain or intermingled colonies, i.e. Italian sunny, Italian shaded, Russian sunny, Russian shaded, Mixed sunny, Mixed shaded.

The colonies in each of the six apiaries started the year with equal varroa loads and these were monitored as the season progressed.  There was a considerable amount of data given, but the results can be summarised as follows:

The Italians finished the season with higher varroa loads.

The Italian colonies in shaded apiaries had much higher varroa loads than the Italian colonies kept in sunny apiaries; many had brood showing Parasitic Mite Syndrome (PMS) and were near collapse.

The Russian colonies showed less difference between sun and shade, but still fared better in the sunny apiaries.

Russian colonies kept in the apiaries with Italian colonies had much higher mite loads than those kept in pure Russian apiaries.  However, the Italian colonies did not benefit from the presence of the Russian colonies.

The overall honey production was Russians 146lbs, Italian 126lbs.

The second paper looked at the efficiency of selected biopesticides and compared the results with Apistan.  I have summarised the methods and findings in the table below and they are certainly very encouraging in the search for alternative treatments to the 'hard' pesticides. They also show that some of these alternative treatments do not necessarily involve any more work than putting in strips.  However, it should be remembered that some may be temperature dependent and will only give these results if applied at the optimum time.

 Peter Edwards

ANNUAL DINNER

This was attended by 27 people at the Arrow Mill, Alcester, when we enjoyed an excellent meal and good company as usual. Thanks to Margaret and Denis Woodhams, particularly Denis's after dinner entertainment! For those that didn't make it make a note now to join us next year, as this is one occasion when we can all have a good natter, and not just about bees! 
Mike Osborne

HELP WANTED

The publication of a booklet about the association has been on the agenda since 1999, when it was suggested that a ‘millennium record’ should be produced.  Julia Seymour-Smith tackled the project enthusiastically, but it proved to be more than one person working single-handedly could manage.  At last year’s AGM, it was agreed that the project should be revived, and that I should edit contributions from other committee members and some of the considerable amount of material that Julia amassed.  (We are aware that many members supplied photos, etc, and these will be returned.)

If we are to succeed, progress must be made before we get involved in the busy beekeeping season.  Already some contributions have been received from colleagues, and I hope that the others who have been asked to help will respond soon.

There are two ways in which other members of the association may be able to help.  Many of you have already given information about yourselves and how you keep your bees, and it would be helpful if those who have joined us in the last five years or so could have a chat with me on 01564 792872.  The other appeal is for someone with the appropriate computer skills to help me to turn 24 A5 pages of text with a few photos into a small number of presentable booklets – it may not become a best seller!
Denis Keyte