Harrogate and Ripon Beekeepers

The Annual General Meeting of the Harrogate and Ripon Beekeepers’ Association was held on Tuesday, 30th September, 2008.
There was quite a good attendance of over thirty members. The minutes of the previous AGM were approved and the business of the evening proceeded briskly.
The chairman summed up the activities of the year and wholeheartedly thanked all who had contributed in any way to a successful season. The Treasurer apologised for the final accounts not being available at the meeting but these are included with this edition of the Apiarist.

The most important motion was a proposition from the committee that “Any member whose subscription is overdue by more than three months shall cease to be a member.”  This was passed unanimously.

Honoraria were unchanged, as was the office of Auditor. Changes to the Officers and Committee may be seen on the inside front cover. After a break for home-made refreshments, the evening concluded with the President, Jeff Stephenson presenting the HRBKA Honey Show trophies and the BBKA examination certificates to the successful members.

The first meeting of the new beekeeping season was held in the Field Classroom on 15th October. About twenty members attended, to catch up on the gossip and swap horror stories about this year’s beekeeping. To give an air of formality, four people were asked to recount their personal experiences. They ranged from one year/one hive (Dagmar Leonard) to fifteen years/ lost count of the hives (me), beekeepers. Also speaking were Ian Butler and Jeff Gamberton, both moderately experienced and with the  three to six hives which seem to be typical of many beekeepers.
In all cases the stories were similar. Colonies lost overwinter, or weak in the spring.  Slow build-up in the cold weather. A little honey in May, which was all eaten (by the bees!) over the ‘summer’. Those who had balsam nearby found some honey coming in during August and September, but it was all desperately needed for winter stores, so the honey harvest this year was pathetic!
Dagmar’s colony was weak but constant TLC and copious feeding have built it up to overwintering proportions. They did not attempt to swarm We wish it well!
Ian and Jeff also kept their hives going all season. The stronger ones were taken to the association heather site in August. As the heather flowering this year was poor, they did well to obtain a little honey for themselves and some winter stores for the bees. They both had some swarming to contend with, though that has not been a major problem overall this year. Ian had made himself a very nice Horsley board and got to use it. Unfortunately the colony on top built up so quickly it decided to swarm again. Who says new queens never swarm!
Our (Judith and Mike) problems were the same as everyone else’s. We had some winter losses, but not above normal. We tried pollen patties on some colonies for the first time in spring. The bees loved them, but there is not much evidence that there was a huge difference in build up between them and the pattiless hives.
The stronger colonies on double brood boxes kept themselves going all season, but weaker ones and queen rearing nucs needed feeding all the time, using up any surplus stores frames we had.
Queen rearing was a mixed bag, with earlier mated queens doing quite well but many later reared queens becoming drone layers or being superceded. Many nucs did not build up well and we are going to try overwintering them over a ventilated split board on top of a strong colony, to provide extra warmth.
Our heather experience resulted in a whole twelve pounds of honey from each of five hives. Wow!

2008? Never has so much sugar been fed to so many bees by so many beekeepers!

The July meeting of the H&RBKA took the form of a ‘bee safari’ to a member’s apiary near Bishop Monkton. The afternoon was not ideal for opening hives, as bees are even more sensitive to this unseasonal summer weather than we are, but a hardy band of beekeepers waited out the rain and members and student beekeepers on the H&RBKA course were given the opportunity to open and inspect the hives between showers.

Three hives were opened, all of which had recently been re-queened, and it was good to see that the new queens had been accepted by their worker bee colleagues and there were eggs and brood in the frames, enough stores of honey for the bees to sit out these cold, wet days and that all looked healthy. Rain really did call a halt to proceedings at this point and the members retreated to their host’s wonderful cabin where hot tea and fabulous homemade cakes and biscuits were served.

Over the refreshments talk turned to preparing bees for the heather, a very important part of many local beekeepers year.  A strong colony of bees is required to make the most of the heather crop and this was a concern for some members whose colonies suffered during the winter months, were unable to benefit from the oil seed rape crop and are now challenged by the weather.  But hopefully many members will be able to make the most of this wonderful local resource and Mike Rowbottom, the H&RBKA Chairman, demonstrated the different methods and materials available for collecting and presenting heather honey. Weather and heather allowing there should be heather honey available for sale on the H&RBKA stand at the Autumn Flower Show.

All of the members attending the bee safari would like to thank Dave Bowes for his time and the opportunity to visit his apiary and especially his wife, mother and aunt for the delicious biscuits and cakes that were worth standing in the rain for!