Apiary Update – we need you!

We need help with inspecting and maintenance at our apiary throughout the season.  Any member who is willing to lend a hive tool during the season please contact David Cleave.

It’s a 2-way thing, especially if you only have a hive or two of your own; looking at the apiary bees and comparing them against your own, gives an added dimension to your management strategies at home.

In our first season last year, we were only building the colonies up from nucs or swarms, so we could run the Training course and end the year with a viable set of colonies.

This year we will be producing new combs, for replacement and colony splits (and possible swarms). I hope that we will be able to split our best colonies, then assess each colony’s characteristics, and ‘merge out’ the poorest ones.  Not exactly bee breeding yet, but we intend to finish the season with better colonies than we started.

So if you can commit a couple of Saturday am’s or pm’s during the season please let David know.    If you can’t do Saturdays then David can arrange alternative dates/times.

Please contact David Cleave at dandhcleeve@btinternet.com