I drove 40 miles to the SWBKF meeting held at Somerset BKA’s Taunton division clubhouse at Heatherton Park, a few miles south west of Taunton. I arrived 2 minutes later than the official 11am start but I wasn’t the last and our Chairlady, Anne Rowberry, didn’t open the meeting until 11.20. We have no Secretary as Kathy Lovegrove, who has done a wonderful job for the last 7 years, has retired, having given notice a year ago. Nobody has been found to replace her although John Lauwerys of Hampshire volunteered to take the minutes on this occasion. I did notice, however, that Kathy, who was sittin ..read more

At long last I’ve got a new driving licence! The DVLA refunded me what I’d paid for it so they must agree that they were incorrect in making me give up my old one. Now I can get to meetings and visit hives. Yesterday was the AGM of the Dorset BKA, held in Dorchester. The guest speaker was Richard Ball who spoke for an hour about DARG, what we’ve done over the years and our current project: assessing the latest version of the Bee Gym, a device that helps bees dislodge Varroa mites. Then came the cake break during which we could sample cakes, flapjacks and biscuits exhibiting the culinary skills ..read more

I’m just back from a social meeting of the Dorchester & Weymouth BKA at which about 30 expensive Asian Hornet traps were handed out to those who had ordered them. I’m told that a recipe for bait will be on our website tomorrow as Trappit, the bait that used to be handed out, seems no longer to be available. On Sunday there’s a meeting of DARG, the Devon Apicultural Research Group, at Buckfast Abbey’s bee shed. I hope to get there as I now have a driving licence again and my car is at a local garage for its MoT and for its battery and tyres to be recharged after being unused for 8 months. I ..read more

Last Sunday afternoon the Dorset BKA had an Asian Hornet teaching session at Sunninghill School in Dorchester. I am still (after several months!) awaiting my driving licence to be renewed but fortunately a friend from the next village was going and gave me a lift. We had been advised to bring a bottle to be provided with more Trappit, hornet bait but there wasn’t any! They have been trying without success to find a source. We were told how to make our own bait using fruit juice etc. I should have made a note of the recipe at the time but didn’t and have now forgotten it! If anybody has the rec ..read more

I’m gradually working my way through a massive book, almost 500 pages long! From 353 until the index at the end, though, it’s a list of all the literature cited, which I don’t think I’ll bother with. It’s called Honey Bee Biology written by Brian R. Johnson with a forward by Tom Seeley. The publisher is Princeton University Press. I’m learning so much stuff that I didn’t know, for example, there are over thirty sub-species of honey bees, Apis mellifera. I could name only about six! After the Introduction there are chapters on: Natural History, Systematics and Phylogenetics (a word new to me ..read more

This evening, still awaiting my new driving licence, I caught the train to Dorchester to attend a meeting of the BKA in the Colliton Club. The purpose was to update and educate us on the Asian hornet and the speaker was Mark White, a member of our Asian Hornet Action Team (AHAT) from east Dorset. He was supported in the back row by Kevin Pope, the recently retired Bee Inspector who has much experience in dealing with Asian hornets. There were about 40 of us present and I find it worrying that the average age was not a great deal younger than mine! Where are the young beekeepers? Mark, besides ..read more

It being a fine day with a blank diary I decided to walk the 5 miles to my hive at Hooke as I’m still without a driving licence. I wasn’t really expecting them to be alive as they were a small swarm that, the last time I walked there, about 6 weeks ago, was short of stores and completely broodless. Therefore I didn’t take veil and tools with me to save weight but put a pair of goggles in my pocket just in case. After a little over a mile, going up a long steep hill on the main road, the A356, a man in a van stopped and offered me a lift! I thought that happened only in Ireland! He is new to th ..read more

A couple of members of my family are holidaying in Dorset and spent much of the day with me ferrying me around the countryside visiting 5 hives on different sites. It’s the first time I’ve seen 4 of them for months as I’m currently without a driving licence. The 5th one is only about 4 miles from home so I walked there once, carrying veil and tools. As always, some are doing better than others and it looks as if I will be able to harvest some honey, but not a lot, when I get my driving licence back. I had a phone call this morning from the Surgery telling me that the GP has written to the DVLA ..read more

Apart from the weather, which has been all or nothing, a problem occurred at the end of May when I was involved in a car accident. The seat belt and air bag possibly saved my life but left me very bruised around the rib cage. This made it very difficult to bend forward to put my socks on or tie shoelaces etc and lifting heavy supers etc was impossible! That lasted for some weeks but then things got worse when the medics suggested that I might have had a mini-stroke, whether cause or result of the crash hasn’t been mentioned. The GP forbade me to drive and then I had a letter from the DVLA requ ..read more

I got up at crack of dawn and scroffed down half my breakfast before driving about 40 miles to Bridgwater where it didn’t take too long to find the Canalside Conference Centre. I’d been there before for their Asian Hornet day 3 years ago. I wasn’t the last to arrive as there’d been a motorway accident which held up traffic. I hadn’t travelled furthest as my friend Barbara from Cambridge was there but she’d stayed in an air B+B. There was a series of lectures and workshops throughout the day with some excellent powerpoint presentations. I wonder if they’ll be available on SBKA’s website? Try th ..read more