Welwyn news - August 2012

by Peter Mathews

NEXT MEETING!
Look forward to seeing you tomorrow ie Tuesday 31st at The Waggoners, Ayot Green. Let me know if you want me to bring frames or foundation. I will also have my rota and tickets for Hatfield House.

SMALL HIVE BEETLE
On 8th August the Bishops Stortford Beekeepers Association is holding a talk by John Carr on the Small Hive Beetle.  This free talk is open to any member of HBKA.  The venue is Hopleys Plants in Much Hadham ( www.hopleys.co.uk) starting at 8pm. Space is limited so RSVP to Paul Cooper, propolis@me.com

NEXT APIARY MEETING
Saturday 4th at Knebworth Golf Club 10.30am.  Directions to the apiary are attached separately.
Hatfield House & Knebworth Country Shows—Help
We need lots of Honey and You!  Unless we hear otherwise, unsold produce from Knebworth will pass on to  Hatfield House.
Final details will be sent out to helpers for both events nearer the time.

KNEBWORTH COUNTRY SHOW
We need helpers and honey at the Knebworth Show with 3/4 people to set up our pitch on the Friday.
Contact, Peter Folge:-   the_beekeeper@hotmail.com

HATFIELD HOUSE COUNTRY SHOW
I now have tickets for Hatfield House. Please let me know your preferred days.  It will make things easier to get tickets to you sooner rather than later. This is a very enjoyable day and is highly recommended. This year we have more space which we will use for a display  covering bee diseases.
This year we are sharing the event with North Herts—so lots of new beekeepers to meet and swap tales. Our Herts BKA President this year is John Mumford from South East Herts. We look forward to meeting John and Jill on the Saturday.  We are also invited to drinks with Lord & Lady Salisbury at 6.30 pm on the Friday.
Contact :- petermathews@gmx.com

IN THE APIARY
A few weeks back I noticed that one of my hives had a single sealed queen cell bang centre in the middle of the frame. The location and time of year suggested this was a supercedure cell. So I decided to leave it be. Next visit, a week later I could not find the original queen, but I did find a beautiful new queen. The colony was still very strong, so am sure, or fairly sure, they did not swarm. Some days later I got a call from Nick to say that he had found, what could only be, the original queen in the grass about 20 m in front of the hive with a handful of attendant bees. So that’s what happened to her!  Am quite surprised that a queen with both wings clipped short could make it so far. My previous clipped escapees have never managed more than about a metre.

DIARY DATES
31st July, Tuesday -  Social and bee chat evening at The Waggoners, Ayot Green at 8.00 pm
Suggested we might go through the syllabus for the Basic Assessment ? Or, whatever.
Let me know if you want me to bring along frames or foundation. I will have tickets for Hatfield House
4th August, Saturday Apiary Meeting at 10.30am at our new apiary at Knebworth Golf Club
8th August Wednesday— Talk on The Small Hive Beetle (Bishops Stortford)
11,12th August— Knebworth House Country Show, — organiser Peter Folge, setting up on the 10th
17,18,19th August— Hatfield House Country Show — organiser Peter Mathews, dropping off on the 16th.

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