A quick reminder that the June meeting is at Vincent’s apiary in Ash on Saturday 4th June. Please let us know if you are coming (particularly if you need protective equipment). The best way is to phone Julian on 0776 183 9119
For the next few weeks, please contact Adrian Davis if you want to borrow the association’s honey extractor. You can email him (as web admin), from the contact form, or phone in the evenings on (01304) 366141. Stuart Andrews will resume coordination duties at the end of June.
As a reminder, there’s a charge of £5 for a 24hour loan. As we all tend to have honey to extract at the same time, we try to move it along to the next user every 48hrs.
In the month since we launched the new site, 26 people have registered, which is a great start, being about one-third of the total CBKA membership. The members’ forum has got off to a good start, with over 50 posts on 12 different topics, ranging from swarm lures to to plastic frame feeders. The forum is only as good as the questions posed, so please login and participate.
Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of the site. If you want to change your password, then you can change this easily. In the “Passwords etc” box shown on the home page, click “site admin”. On the site admin page, click “profile”, and scroll down to the new password fields. Don’t forget to click the “update profile” button, before you leave the page.
On the forum, you can post pictures, as well as words. You can also save a photo (known as an avatar), so that people more easily recognise you. To do this, navigate to the Forum page. Towards the top of that page is a button labelled “profile”. Click that, and then choose “Select your Avatar”. Scroll to “upload an avatar”, and click on the browse button to upload an image from your PC. Don’t forget to click the “update profile” button before you finish. If you have photos you’d like to show other people, you can attach them to a forum post, or email them to Adrian Davis, and I can put them in the website’s gallery.
If you haven’t signed up yet, then navigate to http://canterburybeekeepers.org.uk/, and register to join in the discussions! And if you are stuck, or have ideas to improve the site, you can send me an email from the “contact us” page.
On the 14th May we are going to hold a series of local meetings around the district with one of our more experienced members to lead the event at each location. The intention is to build local links between beekeepers and bring a meeting closer to home. If you are interested in hosting a meeting please let us know, either by phone, or email.
Colin Sawyer, an Ashford beekeeper, rang me to let you all know that he had three hives stolen last week. They were in the countryside and because vegetation had died down over winter were visible from the road. There were two double brood nationals and one single brood. They were home made from marine plywood which are easily identified by him. If you hear of anyone offering similar hives for sale please let Colin know. You will have received his phone number in an email from me (Julian).
Also a Sidcup beekeeper had twelve of his best colonies, including drone and queen breeders taken during the week. One apiary was virtually cleared out, the other nearby had three colonies taken. All were on Langstroths, all frames had the month and year written in red felt tip pen on the top bar. Only good colonies were taken, anything a bit iffy was left behind. This suggests that it was a beekeeper.
Those of us that have our hives in the open and accessible to the public should take this event very seriously. The reality is although most beekeepers try to help and support each other there will always be an exception. Our hives and particularly our bees are very valuable as anyone looking at the cost of bees from suppliers will realise.
To protect our hives the police will always advise you to put a very visible marking on objects to make them either unattractive to steal or difficult to hide their identity. To that end a large name or postcode on the side of the hive with a branding iron or router is a good idea. Also every frame should be marked – ideally when new with your name or postcode or phone no on the top with a black spirit marker which will soak into the softwood. These two measure may well deter and will certainly raise suspicions in anyone who sees them or who is offered them for sale. Also if your hives are painted a subdued grey or brown colour and hidden from view they are less likely to come to other people’s attention.
Let us hope that this is a one off but at the same time make sensible precautions.