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

Our summer walk, led by Denis Keyte, will take place on 17 July starting from the Greenway car park at Milcote (NOT Stratford!) at 6pm. After approximately 3 miles easy walking, we will drive to the Heart of England Vineyard on Welford Hill for a 20-minute tour and a 20-minute video presentation of a year's work in the vineyard. This will be followed by an excellent finger buffet with a glass of Heart of England wine. The cost will be £10 per head. Anyone not wishing to walk may join us at the vineyard at 8pm.

It is essential to book and pay in advance and bookings must be with me, accompanied by cash or cheque (made payable to P Edwards), by 10 July at the very latest - so do it now!

The vineyard has won a number of prestigious awards for their wines, which may be purchased on the night by the glass, bottle or case (which can be mixed). Prices are from a very reasonable £4.95 and the cheapest bottle is free if you buy a case. I can recommend them!
Peter Edwards

Due to an administrative error the June issue of Bee Craft was not sent to Stratford members and will now be included with the July issue. Very sorry for the delay and I hope the problem has now been resolved.
Will Spencer

A small number of us take bees to the heather moors at the end of July. If you would like to join us please contact me for details. The February 2004 newsletter gives some idea of what is involved.
Peter Edwards

Our beekeeping safari will take place on 24 July - itinerary enclosed with this mailing.

This is an ideal opportunity to have a look at other members' bees and to learn how to inspect for disease. Our Seasonal Bee Inspector, Richard Lindsey, will lead the day and will be available to answer all your questions.

Remember that you can join or leave the Safari at any point.
Peter Edwards

The Chairman has asked me to give a report on the June Apiary meeting which I attended, particularly to see Brian so that I could finalise the Lottery application* - never mind. I looked at previous reports and found very detailed and technical information, which is not within the compass of my attainment. I would probably confuse the issues even more.

I arrived at 2.15pm to find Kevin, Ann and John busy making supers. David Titcomb and the Chairman arrived and after a few asides got stuck into examining the hives with great energy and determination while I took notes as instructed.

The Chairman brought a lovely new blower, which he was anxious to demonstrate, and which was an effective weapon to clear the bees from the supers. It certainly had Kevin and I running for cover. To the small beekeeper a lovely toy, to the large beekeeper an essential tool when there isn't time to use a clearer board. I'm only glad I'm not a bee! The apiary is in good shape with large numbers of bees and some 15 supers of honey taken (some on Saturday) for extraction by David, which is a great credit to all involved.

All in all, a useful and enjoyable afternoon, carried out in fine weather.

(* Ron is currently working on an application for a Lottery grant to buy equipment for the Association apiary so that we can train and encourage new beekeepers more effectively. PE)

A warm welcome to Chris Wells of Mickleton who joined us in March and has already proved to be an active member, helping with work at the Association apiary. I am also pleased to report that there have been a number of enquiries about membership, some of which have come via the website.
Peter Edwards

During the late winter/early spring I noticed that my bees were suffering from dysentery. Probably a combination of a virus infection and a diet of rape honey. The number of bees dwindled quickly and did not pick up when the warmer weather arrived. I eventually opened the hive to find just few crawling bees. No sign of the queen or any brood. The combs were in a sorry state with mouldy pollen and slabs of 'sweating' honey. As I had already bought a new hive to replace the old one, I dumped the two brood boxes, with the floor and roof on top, on my garden rubbish heap ready for the tip on return from my holiday. My first job on my return was to cut the grass. Passing the rubbish heap I noticed a few bees. Lifting off the roof and floor I was greeted by a cloud of bees. Slamming the floor back on top I beat a hasty repeat. I then gathered together the new hive and combs, veiled up and went back to sort things out. A large prime swarm had moved in and was hard at work cleaning up the combs! The only bees I know of in the area live in the wall of the village church and have been there for over twenty-five years. Why have they not died out? Selecting the best six combs I transferred them to the new hive with five new combs. I then shook the rest of the bees off the other poor combs and removed them and the old hive from the area. Putting on the top cover and roof I left the bees to settle down.

They had been remarkably docile during the demolition of their home. The next day the bees were flying freely and throwing out large quantities of mouldy pollen pellets and wax debris. There's nothing like swarm for cleaning up poor comb! From Slum to Des Res - Happy Bees and Happy Beekeeper.
Geoffrey Bywaters

It has been said before, but is still as true as ever, that being Newsletter Editor often seems to mean being Newsletter Author! However, this month I am pleased to be able to publish items by Geoff Bywaters and Ron French. This is very helpful, especially at this time of the year when my workload rises dramatically. Perhaps you might like to contribute an article - but do be careful if you write about the weather …

Ideally, submissions would be by email, but I am happy to take typed copy as I can scan this in; hand-written script is my third choice!
Peter Edwards

I am pleased to report that we now have more people choosing to receive the newsletter by email than by post - a great saving for the Association, which helps to keep our subscription one of the lowest in the country.
Peter Edwards

We seem to be making a habit of getting wet recently. The weather for the Rural Skills Day held at Charlecote Park on 25 March was miserable (3 on my scale!) and we were grateful that our stand was in a large, dry marquee.

The purpose of the event was for young people to explore the many job and training opportunities within the rural sector, with practical workshops, displays, guided walks, a pig roast and careers seminars; it was organised by Connexions, The Learning & Skills Council and the National Trust.

We had decided in advance that it would perhaps be a little misleading to suggest that beekeeping could provide many well-paid career opportunities. There is very little chance of full-time paid work in this country and it is unlikely that many young people would have access to sufficient capital, or be able to acquire the necessary skills quickly enough to set up their own beekeeping business quickly. Even if they did, then the risks are fairly high with a business so dependent on the vagaries of the weather - arguably more so than with most other rural occupations. So we took the line that young people might want to consider beekeeping as a potential sideline to other rural work, e.g. thatching, hedge-laying, dry-stone walling etc. It was also a good opportunity to promote beekeeping and our Association to young people and to their teachers.

We set out our usual stall with equipment, leaflets (some on the career aspects), the BBKA 'Beekeeping in the Curriculum' pack and honey tasting and sales. The day was busy with plenty of questions - and plenty of honey tasted! Overall, whilst we may not have recruited any new members, we certainly promoted beekeeping and may have sown a few seeds.
Peter Edwards

The new labelling regulations, applicable from 1 August, have been covered thoroughly in the BBKA news. However, it may be worth mentioning a couple of points. Provided that your labels were legal under the 1976 regulations, there are two things that you must change. The first is to add a 'best before' date (assuming that you are not already showing one voluntarily) and the second is to add 'country of origin' information. Note that the country of origin can be EU or UK (but not England - as the UK is technically the 'member state') and my information is that it must be shown separately - not as part of your address. However, if in any doubt, it would be sensible to send a sample of your label to local Trading Standards as they have ultimate responsibility for interpreting the regulations.
Peter Edwards