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

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Have you paid your subscription yet?  Membership will lapse if unpaid by 31 December.  Note that the price of Bee Craft has been held this year, so it is now even better value.

SKITTLES - IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR THIS YEAR

In the past we have had some problems with meals being served very late, so this year Chris Boylan and I have agreed to try a new arrangement.

To try and speed up the food service the menu is restricted to four items from their Traditional Bar Menu dishes:

·         Home made Steak and Kidney Pie served with Peas, Chips or Jacket Potato £10.50;

·         8oz Gammon Steak served with Egg or Fresh Pineapple or Honeyed Pineapple, Mushrooms, Onion Rings and Minted Peas or Baked Beans £10.50;

·         Breaded Fillet of Plaice served with Fresh Lemon and Minted Peas £8.25;

·         Vegetarian:  Homemade Pasta Dish of the Day served with salad and crusty Bread or with Garlic Bread £9.95.

(NB. There is a choice between Salad, Chips or Jacket Potato with Butter or Sour Cream and Chive Dressing).

Please make your choices and let me know by 22 November at the very latest (phone or email).  We will make a spread sheet with everyone’s choice.  Copies will be made for each table.  Pay on the night at the Lygon Arms.
Peter Edwards

HONEY SHOW RESULTS 

There were only 39 entries for the honey show this year - the least for several years and about half our normal number. Mike Osborne won the Waldron Trophy for his entry in Class 2 and also won the Challenge Cup for the most points.  The Cookery Prize was awarded to Moira Osborne for her entry in Class 19. Ginny Crow had a Highly Commended for Class 6, and her 1st prize for mead was her first try at mead making. Mike Osborne

Mike with the Waldron Trophy and Challenge Cup

MOIRA OSBORNE'S PRIZE-WINNING HONEY/APRICOT CAKE

6oz margarine
2oz muscavado & 2oz. castor sugar mixed
8oz chopped apricots & 4oz. honey (heather preferred) mixed
3 eggs
1 oz ground almonds
8 oz self-raising flour

Cream the margarine and sugars.
Beat in eggs one at a time, adding a little flour with the last egg.
Mix half the flour with the ground almonds and fold in.
Add the remainder of the flour to the apricot/honey mix and fold in.
Put in a greased and lined 7" tin and bake at 150ºC for 1¼ hours (145ºC for a fan oven).

INSURANCE

One of the main benefits of membership of our Association is the insurance cover obtained.  Through the Association's membership of the BBKA our members are covered for both public liability and product liability.  The former is up to a limit of £5M for any one incident, with a £500 excess for claims relating to third party property. Product liability is also up to £5M.  This is for any one year and any one incident, and again there is a £500 excess for claims relating to property.  The Bee Diseases Insurance is to provide compensation for loss of bees and equipment destroyed by DEFRA as part of the control of notifiable foulbrood diseases.  This helps to encourage beekeepers to report such diseases -the rate of compensation being about 90% of 'as new' prices.  As members know from the membership form, two hives are covered automatically as part of the annual subscription, with an extra payment being required for further hives.  Such cover is only applicable from the day that the subscription is paid if subscriptions are paid on time and should therefore be an encouragement for prompt payment by members. Luckily American Foulbrood is relatively rare, but European Foulbrood has reared its head in the Stratford and neighbouring areas from time-to-time.  BDI Ltd also promotes beekeeping education and research into bee diseases.
Mike Osborne

REQUEENING HIVES WITHOUT FINDING THE QUEEN

It is said that hives can be requeened by running a virgin in at the entrance with plenty of smoke, provided that she has not been in contact with other bees.  This year we had ten spare virgins that had been hatched in an incubator, so we marked them and ran them into hives.  I have to report that only one survived!   It is possible to requeen by introducing a ripe queen cell, but then the resulting unmarked queen will not be positively identifiable.
Peter Edwards

NOSEMA CERANAE - A VERY RAPID KILLER

The Journal of Invertebrate Pathology Vol. 94, Issue 3, March 2007, reported on an experimental infection of bees with Nosema ceranae, which you may recall has recently been found in the western honeybee, Apis mellifera.  Nosema free honeybees were inoculated with 125,000 N. ceranae spores, isolated from heavily infected bees.

By day 3 post-infection, mature spores of N. ceranae were seen, suggesting that development was complete - and by day 8 post-infection all the bees were dead.  It seems that it can only be a matter of time before this will be yet another problem for us all!
Peter Edwards

 ‘WBC’ HIVES - £110 each

Each professionally made hive includes:

1 x Floor with feet
3 x Lifts, (one with porch)
1 x Roof (no wasp trap)
1 x brood box
1 x super box

These hives are NOT made from pine.

Call: 01896 850249 Email: caddon_hives@yahoo.co.uk

[NB Peter Birch has paid for the above advertisement.  Our acceptance does not imply that we endorse the product, as we have no way of checking it.  PE]