MINI TALKS & SOCIAL

Members are invited to a social evening of beekeeping talks over a few drinks at the Astwood Bank Social Club at 7.30 pm on Friday 19th April. Catch up with your fellow beekeepers and to listen to some fantastic speakers share their knowledge and experience on some really important topics. 

Our own Asian Hornet Alert Co-Ordinator, Jas Payne, will be talking about the threat posed by the invasive Asian Hornet and how you can play your part to help protect against their spread. Asian Hornets have spread quickly along the south coast of England and last year we received alerts in our area of sightings, which thankfully turned out to not to be Asian Hornets, but we need to be ready this year to protect our bees.  

Robin May is a beekeeper who uses the Flowhive system in North East Worcestershire. He will be talking about his personal experiences of using the system and we will conclude with a question and answer session about the system. Please come armed with questions for him!

Dave Lantsbery and Mike Bickerton will speak about small cell beekeeping, its advantages, and how it can be used in your apiary. 

We hope to see you there! 

Windmill Apiary Sessions

The Apiary meetings at the Avoncroft Windmill site are now being held on a weekly basis, subject to weather.

Any member who'd like to come and learn from some of the most experienced beekeepers in NEWBKA, or support them in their work, would be very welcome.

Please see the schedule below of the next set of meetings and the Session Leader:

Sunday 21 April   Tim Vivian
Sunday 28 April   Adam Lovick
Sunday 5 May   Chris Broad
Saturday 11 May   Dave Lantsbery
Saturday 18 May   John Gower
Saturday 25 May   Tim Vivian

We meet in the Avoncroft Museum car park at 10:30 am.

ANAPHYLAXIS - What To Do

For a timely reminder as we start the beekeeping season, please see the attached poster which advises what to do if someone with you experiences anaphylaxis.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S-H4a9VaAlEVw64vfcMcU2aJ3VSHz6WO/view?usp=sharing

Apiary Sessions

The Apiary sessions at the ORCHARD APIARY have started and it is hoped to run them each Tuesday from now on, subject to weather.  

We meet at 10:30am in the Avoncroft Car Park.  If you would like to attend on any particular week, please contact Alex Bignell to make sure that the session is being run.

The WINDMILL APIARY sessions should begin soon on Saturdays (or occasional Sunday).  More details to follow shortly!

BEE SOCIAL

Our next Social Meeting is on Monday 8th April from 7:30pm onwards, at the Bowling Green Inn, Shaw Lane, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove B60 4BH.   

Everyone is welcome - whether you are a member, or would just like to find out more about beekeeping.

What is the Basic Assessment Like?

Have you wondered what it's really like to take the BBKA Basic Assessment?   Have a look at Mike Richardson's account of his experience last year:

https://newbka.blogspot.com/p/taking-bbka-basic-assessment-with.html

And for some better news.....

A recent study by the University of Sussex provides an interesting insight into the ratio of wild versus managed honeybee colonies around the world - plus the implications for disease resistance:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/honey-bees-suprisingly-abundant-research-173056150.html