Just to advise that the next apiary meeting is this Sunday 9th August 2026 at the Woodland Apiary, Scolton Manor commencing at 2pm promptly.

Programme:

I was at Scolton apiary yesterday (Mon 3rd Aug) and realised I hadn’t given an update on our activities at our last training meeting. Apologies for that, and thanks firstly go to trainers on the day – John, Linda, Aisha and Lesley.

At that session, we consolidated super frames into full boxes, put wet supers above the crown boards on hives to encourage bees to clean them up, added frames of bees to an Abelo Mini plus nuc in order to introduce a mated queen and added entrance reducers to combat wasp attacks… As a bonus, we managed to mark another run in and now mated virgin queen and added a frame of eggs to a hive, which might still be queenless. At my visit yesterday, I introduced the queen to the mini nuc.

At next Sunday’s training session on 9th August, activities will include checking whether the introduction has been successful, we’ll put clearer boards on in order to remove the last few honey supers and determine whether the hive referred to above is actually queenless or not. In addition, we’ll have a discussion about Varroa treatments in general, following this up with adding treatments to the ‘non-supered’, Scolton hives. All welcome, and I look forward to seeing you at Scolton next Sunday.

BEGINNERS – Beginners are encouraged to attend! Please ensure you bring a bee suit (if you have one), sturdy footwear covering your ankles (i.e not Crocs!!), and suitable gloves, such as rubber Marigolds (e.g. not woollen gloves!)

If you do not have a bee suit (typically beginners/new members), then please advise us in good time if you can, as we have a limited number of bee suits available, which we can loan you for the session. N.B. You will need to bring your own boots and gloves as above however. It would be helpful if those people requiring a bee suit could arrive before 2pm in order to save time.

N.B. Apiary meetings are on Sundays, commencing promptly at 2pm, subject to weather conditions (please check the PBKA web page for any updates in that event