Bee-Thoughtful-May-2020.Pdf
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Bee thoughtful Special Newsletter of the Halifax Beekeepers May 2020 Blimey! Where have all the people gone? 1 Bees under lockdown Welcome to the 1st edion of this special Halifax Beekeepers Associaon e-newsleer. It's no exaggeraon to say that this is a very, very strange, surreal and scary moment we are all living through. We have all had to deal with the lockdown in different ways, as business as usual has been suspended on so many levels. Nevertheless, our bees need beekeepers, even if it's just to prevent them swarming and disappearing over a neighbours hedge. So we all have to adapt. I for one will never be so profligate with nitrile gloves again. Collecve beekeeping is not on the cards at present: training courses, events, lectures and examinaons are all suspended. So we all have to rely more on our own resources and knowledge to get us through this beekeeping season. So hopefully, this newsleer can make a small contribuon to that process. We have a veritable melange of contributors, who have penned a few words, offered advice and shared some photos with you. The design and layout of the newsleer is Socially-distanced beekeeping by my younger brother, Clive. He gave up One beekeeper doing the inspecon, the other in the bushes beekeeping in the mid-1980s aer they tried taking notes to kill him. I have promised to reward his Seng up a new Apiary efforts by paying him in beer and honey. If you are seng up a new apiary this year, good signage can help keep the neighbours on board. Richard Searle, Editor 2 Old to new with new foundaon aer removing the old wire and Steaming frames scraping off any cocoons le on the edges. Spring E quipment focus by Elaine make it worth your while to set up Ran the steam through once Robinson the equipment. I collected wax more aer I'd cleaned & scraped it from 2 old brood boxes of wax all out, then cleaned the floor box I gave a Thorne Easi-steam it's combs, probably worth a few and filter tray, almost like new, first oung, to recycle a couple of frames of foundaon but clean & ready for the next user. boxes of old brood frames I'd sasfying to recycle rather than collected during autumn and Recycled sterilised combs, burn or throw away! Plus you can spring inspecons. HBKA 'bought' which can be fied with new retrieve old frames to then fit with the kit with Thornes vouchers won foundaon. new foundaon. The larger by our associaon, from the YBKA beekeeping suppliers such as A full 5 minute video is Basics iniave, for the most Basic Thornes have a wax for available on YouTube via the assessments entered by any foundaon exchange system. The Thornes website under the Easi- Yorkshire associaon, last wax isn't good enough quality to steam product entry, which gives a summer. make candles or wax blocks. step by step descripon how to The kit worked well. See use the equipment. If I could I dug a pit in the garden for the follow, you can! photos. All you need except for old bee cocoons that are le aer the Easi-steam kit which comes the wax is melted from the combs Members can hire this from HBKA with a naonal floor, and safely disposed of the syrup / equipment to borrow / use by roof and tray / filter, is an old hive water crud from the frames and contacng Elaine on 07734306895 stand, a bucket to collect the wax extracon process. Yuk, I don't or [email protected] to and slum-gum, plus ideally some want my bees anywhere near discuss how to pick up ulising insulaon to keep the heat in that! safe distancing precauons. You need a couple of brood I was also le with sterilised Elaine Robinson is Educaon boxes of old wax brood combs to brood combs that can be fied secretary, Halifax beekeepers. BKA Thornes Easi-steam comes ax and crud melted from the ld bee cocoons are le behind Hcomplete with steamer, Wsteam. Oin the brood box once the wax naonal brood box, floor and filter has melted, scoop this out & tray. You need to provide your own dispose of it in your compost heap hive stand, bucket and insulaon. or dig a pit in your garden and bury. 3 ld 'Honey' stores and water ax collected from the old ecycled sterilised combs, which Ocrud le in the bucket, aer Wbrood frames which can be Rcan be fied with new the wax solidifies on top overnight. collected and traded in for foundaon. The only way to dispose of this is foundaon with some of the major safely down an outside drain or in a beekeeping suppliers such as hole in the garden. NEVER feed this Thornes. or let bees have access to it. A 2019 Green Queen Time for a hive make-over Don't forget to order your marking Pens, 2020 is a Blue year. Bee-friendly paints to transform your hives (see page 5). 4 Old to new Flights of fancy or Rainbows of hope? No, creavity borne of necessity by Jenny, Wadsworth Bee and roofs which had been Group cleaned and sterilised but had Many of our hives became not been used over winter were saturated during the wet winter painted with non-toxic water months of 2019/2020. We found resistant paint. frames inside some supers and The colours - amazing what brood boxes with mould on them can be found in cellars and sheds and sadly two colonies of dead in "lock down". The results are bees. The excepon - a hive with disncve, upliing and much less penetrang damp - definitely more weather- had the roof exchanged for a resistant. painted one part way through the Super and brood frames have winter. been housed in these fresh boxes Our bee group decided to take when appropriate. acon. All brood boxes, supers The new owners of one of the Wadsworth Happy bees !!!!!!!!!! Bee Group painted hives move in The growing stack of painted supers and brood boxes A renovated Eat Natural/Arnia Hive 5 Old to new The EJ Taylor Nuc Box by Richard Searle review of their book called Taylorʼs of Welwyn. To the uniniated this is just an old box, but to those in the know, "Thomas Bates Blow was from a this is a piece of Beekeeping history. working class background and leading a life with lile direcon unl While aending my first he was befriended by a member of a Beekeeping aucon last year, I made leading Brish family: with his a bid for what I thought was on old patronage and much hard work, Nuc box and was successful in Thomas laid the foundaon of what secreng said item. was to become the largest business The box had a touch of in Europe supplying the requirements woodworm and I do appreciate that of beekeepers. some people pay a fortune to get This volume charts the history of supporng cast involving conflict, that type of look. Taylors of Welwyn, from its birth changes of ownership, fires, World The auconeer announced that through the challenging changes and wars, no inflaon, high inflaon, but this item was made by EJ Taylors an large expansion in the last two mostly about bees, beekeeping and old established firm, and those decades of the nineteenth century beekeepers and the vagaries that aending the aucon who would fit through to the company being put come with that fascinang mix." the tle of 'old mers' nodded into liquidaon aer more than a knowingly. century of trading. From zero to zero So aer compleng the I had sll no idea who they were. in three acts, with three leading men, restoraon we may just try use this changing scenery and a large Box for our bees even for short The Nuc box itself has an elegant while, for old mes' sake. sloping roof with a conical vent on the front along with a Taylors badge. It has an internal lid with mesh top with fixing screws and carrying handle. So I can only assume this was for transporng bees. Anyway, the box sat in our shed over winter. As we have all found out of late, we've a bit more spare me on our hands, so I thought I'd give it a renovaon. I have sanded it down, and discovered that the fings are made of brass. I've stabilised the rust on the internal mesh, and I'm now in the process of giving two coats of white bee paint. It's not faithful restoraon but one I hope preserves this piece of history. I menoned EJ Taylors in passing in an email to Jeremy Burbidge at Northern Bee Books, to which he responded 'Yes', he said 'we publish a book on them, they were the Thornes of the 20s. Had their own railway sidings!!' Northern Bees Books gives this 6 The EJ Taylor Nuc Box renovaon 7 On yer head son! By Roger Pool Sunday 3rd May. During most of the year the Beekeeping Gods punish our mistakes and shortcomings. Occasionally they allow the scales to p slightly in our favour. Today may have been one of those days. Inspecons have been delayed due to poor weather. Today I decided to look at the six colonies in my out apiary. The sun was out and all the colonies were very busy. The colonies are in a circle and I like to make my way round in the same order each me.