Sept & Oct 2025 - Apiary Report
Beekeeping has been very busy and alot has happened over the past two months.
At last weeks AGM, Robert Clifton-Holt was voted in as our Chair. He is already in full operational mode being diplomatic over our hut roof and the boundary fence.
Hilary Epps was voted in for events manager. She's in full swing arranging a venue for the Christmas meal.
The rest of us, are pleased that the season has virtually come to an end as it's been both busy and rewarding.
Joanne attended the last event on Friday with the observation hive at Great Chart Cubs and is plodding along on the membership front.
Katy is still in full swing on the markets for our honey sales and liaising with her opposite number in Germany for the exchange visit.
Steve is winding down over the yellow legged hornets along with his assistant Annie Brown.
With varroa treatment finished and liquid feeding coming to an end the colonies have reduced down in size and are well on their way for bedding down for winter. I'm going to wrap both the national hives and langstroth with green garden insulation, purchased from B and Q in a roll. Reduced entrances and mouse guards should now be in place.
The colonies are all a good size to overwinter. We lost the orange poly hive to robbing, both wasps and bees were involved. I found the dead queen on the landing board. Luckily it wasn't one of our breeder queens. I'm planning to replace this hive with an Abelo poly hive which has 12 frames against our orange hive of 10. We can also purchase frames which split in 2 which can be useful for nucs.
Apart from the poly national hive, I'm looking at 2 mini nucs from Abelo for over wintering queens about £75 each and a wooden 4 section mating hive about £150. Hive wise and equipment, I think thats all we need for next season. We are making a separate section for the mating hives next to the main apiary. Fenced in and will have a boarder with hedging.
The ivy is out along with plenty of other flowers, so there isn't a shortage of nectar and pollen for the late brood rearing. Im hoping it's going to last well into November as pollen patties do the job but they are only a substitute for food when nothing else is available. Some pollen patties we can feed all year round.
The introduction course was very successful. A different approach to the spring course.
1st week the theory was hands on and straight into a suit looking at bees!
2nd week, a talk by Richard on flow hives and then handling bees.
3rd week, Steve gave a talk on hornets and then participants paired up and did a hive inspection without myself or Joanne demonstrating.
4th week, honey extraction and making foundation from our wax press.
The feedback from the participants was good and I believe they enjoyed being thrown in the deep end!
We had a visit from Brabourne school. Very well behaved children and a delight to have at the apiary. They have their own bee suits.
Elizabeth, Joanne and myself went through the hives with them. Some very competent and handled the bees along with demonstrating to their classmates.
They gave us a donation which they raised from their tuck shop. Much appreciated. I believe the school is joining the club membership.
In the recent storm Amy our hut roof blew off. I was about a metre away. Landed half on the neighbours land. Need to replace the fence stakes and a couple of field maple trees for them.
Within 2 hours the shed roof was chopped into 4 sections and back on our land.
The roof will be repaired and replaced. Personally, I don't think it's going to be too expensive.
Thank you to every one who turned up in our hour of need and to those on Sunday who transferred everything from the storage shed to the stable.
Luckily, we took the marquee down on the Thursday before the winds.
November's meeting on 13th at 7pm - Jean Mosley, talking about queen rearing. Jean is a retired commercial beekeeper and this looks to be a great evening. The venue is Tesco Community Space Hythe Road Ashford TN24 0YE.
This weekend Dover Honey Show. I'm hoping to submit a few entries from the club.
Speaking to Sue from Dover last week, it may be a possibility for us along with Thanet to have a combined show in the future. It was only a one on one discussion at this moment. Perhaps it's worth exploring.
