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

EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING & RULES

Our first indoor meeting in September starts with a short Extraordinary General Meeting to set the subscription rates for the coming year, but this year we have an additional item - to approve changes to our Association Rules.  Changes are necessary because of new BBKA membership categories which must be reflected in our own rules before we can set the subscriptions.  At the same time, the committee has taken this opportunity to review all of our rules, in order to remove some errors and ambiguities.  A copy of the proposed new rules is attached to this newsletter; changes and new items are shown in green.

We hope to keep the EGM as short as possible, as Jim Hopkins will then talk to us about Polystyrene v Wooden Hives.  He will also show us his equipment for cleaning frames, made from a modified wallpaper stripper.  Mike Osborne will also bring plastic frames for discussion; it should be an interesting evening after we have dealt with the rules!
Peter Edwards

ERRATUM

In August I said that I had put the twelfth super on a hive but I miscounted!  There were only ten; when we cleared it on 8 August to go to the heather, eight supers were full and there was some honey in the other two - a total summer crop of around 210lbs to add to the spring crop of about 5 supers.  It will be interesting to see how it fares on the heather.
Peter Edwards

 HONEY SHOW

Our Annual Honey Show will be held at Stratford College on Friday 12 October and will be judged this year by Peter Spencer; staging starts at 6.30pm.  If you have not won a class before, you can just pick your two best jars and enter the 'novice class' or, of course, you can enter other classes as well.  We are always short of entries for the photography class, so from now on look out for suitable subjects.  The schedule is attached to this newsletter; do read it very carefully as entries must comply strictly with the rules or they are rejected!

Here is some advice given by Bernard Diaper, judge at our 2006 Honey Show:

1. Avoid removing lids from jars just before the show as the aroma is lost and dust may get in.  A little honey on the inside of the lid is acceptable.

2. Skim any dust off the surface with jars that have been opened as soon as possible after the show, so that they are ready for re-showing.

3. Make sure that the outsides of the jars are clean.

4. Warm jars to avoid bubbles when filling, but do not present warm honey for show.

6. Bottom jar granulation is avoided by initially overfilling and then pouring off into another jar.

7. Avoid bits in creamed honey.  Jar edges can be tidied up with meths and lint.

8. For cut comb, the larger drone cells are preferred.
Mike Osborne

SUMMER WALK 2007

This year’s annual summer walk took place on Friday 10 August and was again organised by our President, Dennis Keyte, a keen rambler who must know most, if not all, of the footpaths around Warwickshire.  The walk was postponed from 20 July because of the weather; you will probably not need reminding that this was the day that the heavens opened, the rains came down and much of the surrounding countryside was submerged in water!

Because of the recent bad weather Denis changed the route and also the venue for our meal afterwards, so a group of members and wives met in the car park of the Three Horseshoes in Wixford on a beautiful evening.  We set off for our walk at a gentle pace - it was more of a stroll really - the most strenuous part of which was climbing over the stiles between the fields; I think there were six altogether.  Passing through part of the village of Broom it was evident that some of the properties had not escaped the flooding, because there were damaged household items on some of the drives.  We headed towards the river and, after walking along the road for a short while, turned right to follow the disused railway line back towards the village of Wixford.  Standing on the bridge with the River Arrow now well within its banks and looking towards The Fish Inn, it was hard to believe that only three weeks before the whole area resembled a lake and the water had flooded into the pub.  It was still impossible to buy food there, only drinks were available, hence the decision to change the venue.  The group split into two here with some walking along the road back to the Three Horseshoes; they were probably in need of a beer!

The rest of us crossed over the road, through the car-park of the Fish and carried on along the footpath which sloped gently upwards behind a row of mobile homes.  Again there was evidence of the properties having been flooded as there were various items outside drying off.  At the last residence the owner was watering his garden!  He said how lucky he felt because his was the only home in the row to escape the water.  It had been frightening as the river came up so fast and was within inches of his door.

We carried on up along the footpath, a little overgrown with nettles and thistles to the village church of St Milburga which dates back to the 12^th century.  It has a horse house in the grounds - the only one in the country.  Apparently the church never had its own priest; it shared with other local parishes and when the priest visited on horseback, his horse would be stabled in the horse house.  To reach the door of the church we had to walk under the branches of a huge old yew tree which had seen better days.  After looking around the inside of the church it was a short walk along the lane to the main road to reach the Three Horseshoes.

The others were already at the table waiting patiently for us to arrive.  There was a varied and interesting menu from which to choose our supper and we spent the rest of the evening eating, drinking and talking about various topics, including beekeeping!

A big thank you to Denis for organising another very enjoyable and successful summer walk in what has been a very eventful and unpredictable season.  I look forward to next year and another pleasant stroll around the Warwickshire countryside.
Sue Edwards

SUPERSEDURE CELLS - AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness… well, maybe not too many mists yet, but the well-laden fruit trees are a pleasant reminder of the wonderful weather that we had in April.  It is also the season of supersedure.

The big problem this year has been the number of new queens that have not mated properly.  They were produced during, or just before, the bad weather that we had from May until well into July.  Where the queens did not mate at all, then the colonies have collapsed and will now have perhaps a couple of frames of bees and probably some laying workers; the only thing to do with these is to shake out all the bees on to the ground (in case there is still a drone‑laying queen in the hive) and then double up the brood box on to a hive with a good queen.  Give the queen the run of both boxes and this will protect the combs from wax moths until it is possible to split the hive again, probably next spring.  The bees will beg their way into the nearest hive.

A rather more difficult situation occurs where the new queen has mated, but not with sufficient drones (queens need to mate with between 12 to 20 drones); these queens will become drone layers early in their life - but we cannot predict when that will be.  The tell‑tale sign is the odd cells of drone popping up in the middle of worker brood; the number of these gradually increases as the queen’s store of sperm runs out.  The dilemma for the beekeeper is to decide whether to simply kill the queen and unite the colony to another before it goes downhill, or to wait and hope that the queen is superseded during the autumn. 

I favour the latter, but if there has been no supersedure by the end of September and there is a significant amount of drone brood in worker cells then it is probably best to unite.

The important message now is: do not remove any queen cells that you find at this time of year!  They will be supersedure cells (usually built on the face of the comb rather than at the edge) and the bees are simply trying to replace an old or failing queen.  If you remove them then it is likely that the colony will die out during the winter as the old queen fails.

Incidentally, I notice that many colonies have still not thrown out their drones - a sure sign that all is not well with their queens and they are retaining the drones so that they can supersede this autumn.
Peter Edwards