What unbelievable weather! What a change from last year. The bees are loving it and the flowers are thriving on my property.
For all that I have still been feeding syrup and am popping down to Gordon’s to buy some bee patties to put in the bee burgers!
Why syrup at the moment? Because I simply do not trust our weather and the past experiences had in some districts, mine in particular!
I want to fatten them up for wintering over so they generate more heat at minus 6degC.
For the purists amongst you, I simply want to get the bee numbers up in each hive. I will be leaving a near full box of honey on each one with 4l of syrup to boot!
Come winter, they will have a Jeff Robinson insulating wrap around them. They are also perched on pedestals about
250 mm of the ground. The horses feed right up to, and under them, but never touch the hive. The bees don’t seem to mind!
They are in an open paddock and exposed to the frost and low cold mists, so, for the first time I got through last winter without problems.
WELL next Saturday is our field day, there is a full agenda and the changes are slowly taking take effect.
The committee is starting to see fruition of many hours of talking planning and arguing! They are all putting in amazing hours behind the scenes.
I shake my head in wonderment at their dedication to the club.
Beeline: Just confirmed they will be at our field day, so, get in your order as they will bring up stuff freight free on Saturday!
Working Bee: Was a great success and thank you so much to those who turned up. The hedge is gone, put through the chipper, a tedious, dusty operation. Followed by an equally backbreaking task of the physical removal of the remaining root system.
The toilet linings and vinyl floor covering layed, much wall sheeting done and the sewer connected. Really just the water and cubicles (M&F) to be completed. What terrific effort by the 14 members who turned up! Which reminds me, the paid up membership is now 175!.
Sewer Pipe: Would some of you bring along a good shovel and spend 15mins collectively filling in the sewer trench. With a number of hands it will make the work lighter and quick.
Great Deal! Kerry, our esteemed treasurer, is offering 200 Bayvarol Strips for Varroa treatments in packs of four (enough to treat one hive) $10.00 per pak, that’s $2.50 per strip available on the field day. This is a great opportunity on a first in first served bases.
Dinner Deal! Ara has made a fabulous offer to the club. They are offering a full sumptuous meal to members in their Vision Restaurant Thursday 13th May 6.30 p.m. at $ 45.00 per head. Bring your family!
Tap on this link: Visions Restaurant for choices of food: Ring David Spice (027 360 1398 or spiced28@gmail.com) for details the link will take you straight to the website where you can check the menus and food choices etc. BUT, the great news is that all monies will be donated by ARA to our club. Thanks committee man David!.
Queen raffle: Maggie James is offering a queen to raffle, the proceeds are being donated to the club. Thank you so much Maggie, this is a great help to much needed funds. .
Club Day Programme:
Hive cleaning on how to remove detritus carefully and safely. This is hands on.
Replacing dirty frames, putting in foundation in frames, general information on MPI pollen sampling and sprays.
Plus general information and hive inspections and other stuff.
Beeline Supplies will be back – if you’re needing any gear check out their website and get ready to pre-order.
As a club raffle fundraiser, drawn on the day, Maggie James has generously donated a caged mated laying queen. Good temperament, good brood pattern.
Available to members – Bayvarol strips in packs of four strips (enough to treat a two story hive) at $10.00 per pack. Available at club field day on a first come first served basis, Cash only on the day.
Dinner on Thursday 13th of May at Ara’s restaurant Visions a three course meal for $45.00 per person see Dave Spice for more details.
Thanks to those who helped at the Working Bee on the 20th Feb 2021 on behalf of the rest of the membership who were unable to come along; we’d like to acknowledge their valuable work on our behalf. We’re aware that not everyone can help on a Saturday but know that they contribute where they can in other ways.
Thanks to Dave and Irene for organising on the day.
And the heavy work done by others, including: Murray Baxendale, Paul, Jim and Veronica Robinson, Allen Paterson, Trevor Ingham, Lindsay Moir, Tony Gallop, Jeff Gibson.
| 10.30am | Welcome and Introductions – Health and Safety – Plan for the day New beekeepers will work on the nuc. |
| 11.00am | Opening and cleaning up the hives, embedding wax for new frames. |
| 12.00pm | Break for a light lunch and drink. |
| 1.00pm | Monthly To Do List for March and thanks to those who helped at the Club working bee. |
| 2.00pm | |
| 2.30pm | Pack up |
Thanks,
Jo
Yes, you can come and help your club.
Painting, love painting with a mission…bring a brush we’ve woodwork to paint.
Chipping the branches that have been cut down. We have to move them to make way for our new floral hedge – we must provide more food for the bees.
Your committee has spent $ 200.00 on hiring a chipper so let’s get together and make it pay. Bring your safety gear, earplugs, glasses, gloves whatever you need.
Toilets:
Wanted.. Vinyl flooring 3*3meters
Let Gordon know, we’d love your help with this.
Just come along when you can. All help is gratefully received. One hours or two adds up to a great contribution when we all get together. Please don’t let Gordon know that you can’t make it,
BUT if you want to know more about the working bee call Gordon 0275389568.
Working Bee Mon 9.00am 1st Feb
contact Gordon 027 538 9568
| 10.30am | Welcome and Introductions – Health and Safety – Plan for the day |
| 11.00am | Opening of the hives & Spinning your honey. |
| 12.00pm | Break for a light lunch and drink. |
| 1.00pm | Monthly To Do List & Notices |
| 2.00pm | |
| 2.30pm | Pack up |
Big thanks goes out to WSP (formerly Opus) for helping out at the bee club.
About WSP:
We are a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy that works across the building, transport, water and environment sectors
Our employer provides us with the ability to take one work day per year as special leave where we can undertake an activity to support the local community.
I was thinking that undertaking some work at the bee club might be an option for a group of us, the only firm requirement is that we have to undertake the day before the end of the year. I have had a chat with a couple of work colleagues today and have managed to muster up at least 5 of us so far (and can probably get a few more) who can provide some hard labour to complete a few jobs this side of Christmas – at this stage either Monday 21 or Tuesday 22nd December looks like the best option for us, just before we break up.
We could help by doing some builders work or painting on the toilets, digging the drain and/or plumbing and tiling, or whatever is needed.
We can also lay our hands on most of the tools as required and happy to chip in and focus on whatever is priority for the club ready for the field days in the new year.
What a great day for our final Field Day of the year! There was a great turn out of members new and old to enjoy all the activities in action on Saturday.
If you wanted to try your hand at opening a hive, or check if you were testing for varroa to industry standards you had your chance to have a go, and ask questions.
Jeff R showed us how best to cut comb honey from our frames. Lindsay’s hoistable swarm collector was pretty amazing for it’s ingenuity and value as a tool to collect swarms from difficult places.
Topping it off was having our ‘LIfe-Members’ Kevin Gates and Jeff Chandler cutting our Xmas cakes donated by Dave Spice. Thanks again to all our members for making our Xmas Field Day so much fun.
Keep safe and have a wonderful Christmas, watch that your bees have enough water and food over the break, yours, Jo Winter Vice-President’
This Saturday the 5th of Dec is our Xmas Field Day
Start time 10.30am
Here’s the Saturday’s Programme:
Bring something to eat to go with a BBQ, or something sweet for afterwards.
Looking forward to seeing everyone this Sat.
Great morning at the working bee today. Thank you everyone who came along, from our awesome builders and painters to the dogged tenacious gardeners who’ve weeded planted and dug over our new plots. Can’t wait to show off our work at the Xmas Field Day next Sat.
