Class of 2011 meeting

Tonight I went to Stoneleigh BBKA headquarters for the class of 2011 meeting.   Basically it was to discuss how we had all got on so far, what we thought of the introduction to beekeeping course and to set up classes for the Basic Assessment.  

It was really interesting to hear how everyone had got on and what problems people had over the year.
There had been quite a lot of Drone laying queens this year and people were worried about feeding their bees and varroa.

Some interesting discussions about honey processing too.  How to pasteurise honey to make it set with smaller crystals by heating it and then chilling it to make a smoother softer consistency.   Have to try that with some of the jars of Oil Seed Rape honey (OSR) which has set so rock solid in the jars that you can only get it out with a very sharp knife.

From what Roger was saying my feeder may be gunged up which may explain why the bees aren't feeding or some of Roger's bees are prefering sugar fondant to syrup.   I might try that instead and take all the syrup off now.  Need to phone Roger for some fondant.

Beeswax

So yesterday I finished cleaning and filtering the beeswax I have collected from the honey harvest.
Mostly cappings and some frames had to be melted because the honey had crystallised in the cells and melting is the only way to harvest the honey.

I have now several cakes of clean wax to exchange for new sheets of foundation at the wax exchange next spring convention.

varroa again

So I have been doing a varroa count on the hives for the last few days and Beatrice has a high varroa count even after the four week apiguard treatment back in August/September.  Today I decided to treat them with a new product called Varroagard a powder put on a plastic tray just inside the entrance of the hive.  The idea is that the bees walk through the powder and it encourages cleaning.  The powder has oxalic acid in it so it must have some effect on the mites too.  I took a tray of 75g of varroagard upto Beatrice hive took off the reduced entrance block so that I could push the tray in.  A huge erruption of bees poured out of the hive as I pushed the tray in so I was unable to replace the entrance block.
I'll have to go back at dusk and have another go because the wasps are still around and showing alot of interest in the hives.

This is also the hive that feels significantly lighter than the other two even though they have all had 4 gallons of sugar syrup.  So we will have to see how this goes.

Not the Honey show

I decided this year I would be brave and enter the club honey show.  I got my entry in on time and decided on entering three pots of honey,  one in the standard competition, one in the novice class and one in the cottager class (for those with only 2 or 3 hives).  I also decided to enter a photograph and a cake.

Now comes the rub - this week is the one the boys break up for half term and yesterday and tonight we have had parents evenings.  Tonight was Sam's and he also has to go to Stratford to a tutor on Thursday night so we divided our responsiblities and mine was parents evening.

I had not realised that tonight was the night of the honey show!  So my top of the class pretensions will have to wait to be dashed next year.  Just need to check whether I still need to pay my jar of honey entrance fee!