A few places have become available on the course taking place on Feb 25th.
This one day classroom course is an ideal introduction to beekeeping run by two experienced beekeepers from Pembrokeshire Beekeepers’ Association.
Included in the course fee of £35 are handouts and a CD with the slides used during the day for you to take away. This is your chance to decide if you want to find out more, ask questions and make contact with beekeepers in our county.
Click here for more details.
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Posted in Starting Beekeeping, Training
We have received this message which may be of interest. This information is reproduced in good faith and does not imply endorsement by Pembrokeshire Beekeepers’ Association.
“We are a long-established bee farm in West Wales and we are currently taking nuclei orders for spring and early summer this year.
We are currently producing around 400 five frame British Standard nuclei per season, all with home produced queens (reared in Wales). These are supplied throughout May, June and July, weather permitting. Early nuclei are supplied with previous autumn’s mated queens, later nuclei with current season queens. All nuclei are checked for queen rightness prior to sale and queens can be marked if required.
At present the nuclei [bees on frames - webmaster] are supplied in 5-frame ventilated correx boxes, suitable for transport.
We have been rearing our own bees and queens in mid Wales for over 35 years (since 1976) and have so far never had any incidence of either of the foul broods. All stock would be treated for Varroa and Nosema if necessary prior to sale and all colonies are regularly FERA inspected.
These bees are generally good tempered, quiet on the comb and suitable for beginners and with minimal smoke we are normally able to handle the bees without gloves.
The nuclei are priced at £140 each including the travelling box (10% deposit to secure order). Quantity discounts on this figure are available. These are collected prices (some Associations have placed bulk orders with us to benefit from bulk order discounts, and have found that arranging for a member to collect on behalf of the other members has been beneficial). We could arrange a mutually suitable collection point for a bulk order.
I would refer you to our website for information and contact details, www.bluegrasshoneyfarm.co.uk but should you have any other queries or would like to place an order then please do email me: bluegrasshoney@yahoo.co.uk It would also be helpful if you could supply your contact details in this email so that we can notify you about availability and collection dates.
Kind regards,
Gerard Worthington (retired bee inspector)
Blue Grass Honey Farm
Glas Teila
Lledrod
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 4HX”
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Posted in For Sale - Bees
With white granulated sugar becoming more expensive, many beekeepers are turning to specialist alternatives with Ambrosia Bee Food being very popular. The product is specially formulated for bees by its manufacturers in Germany, the sugar used comes from sugar beet apparently but which has been processed using enzymes to produce a feed which is very close to nectar, will not ferment or otherwise degrade and is highly acceptable to the bees.
Unlike many products sold for bees this one seems to work. Ricky Wilson uses it in his queen rearing colonies and reports good results with rapid colony buid up. He is also planning to obtain a bulk supply for sale, in smaller quantities, to members – will let you know more about this when we have details. Frank Gellatly also reported good results when we were discussing this after our AGM.
You can read more about the product in this helpful brochure from the manufacturer.
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Posted in Feeding Bees
According to this story on the BBC News website listening to what is going on the hive may help work out what is going on and, more importantly, assist with diagnosis of hive health or swarming. Interestingly enough this story appears in their Technology section and not Science/Environment. Also interesting, to me, is that the recorder is describes as being ‘about the size of an iPhone’ or an HTC Galaxy I guess, or almost any other smartphone but then Apple would have tried to sue – now you know it is a technology story, and it shows how we have moved on. In the old days it probably would have been described as being about the size of a pack of 20 cigarettes!
Will this story ever develop and appear again? Forgive me if I am cynical about this.
In the meantime we suggest you keep carrying out those inspections.
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Posted in Equipment
Meeting dates have been added to the website. Members can view them here or by going to Members using the menu above and following the link to Association Apiary.
Hope to see you there!
Paul Eades, Apiary Manager
p.s. If you are a member and don’t have the password follow this link.
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Posted in PBKA Apiary
