Newbattle Beekeepers Association

The National Bee Unit is asking  all beekeepers to please login to BeeBase and make a note of the total number of colonies they will be taking into the winter as of 1st November 2023. This task is quick and simple, just click here, login and fill in the short form. Even if you have no overwintering colonies this season it is still important to update your BeeBase record to reflect that. This survey will run until 31st December 2023.

Synopsis: Drones occupy age-related locations in the nest and exhibit coordinated periodic hyperactivity. How was this determined and do these insights help our beekeeping?

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View the Schedule

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Steve, a past guest speaker at Newbattle Beekeepers Association is the newly appointed editor of the Bee Farmer magazine

The magazine is the official journal of the Bee Farmers Association which is the voice of professional beekeeping in the UK. The association represents 450 bee farmer businesses. Find out more from their website:

beefarmers.co.uk

An abandoned cello rescued from a skip stands alone under a pergola in an orchard of a stately home on the outskirts of Nottingham. In an eccentric experiment, created by one of the world experts in honeybees, apiarist and physicist Prof. Martin Benscik has donated the instrument to 400,000 bees who now live very happily inside the cello.

Listen to the programme here

Synopsis: Hives of horror! Getting stung and not getting stung. How did the sting of bees evolve and why is it painful … and how often is it fatal?

Read the Full Post Here

The number of bees in the hive will be falling and will soon reach their overwintering numbers. These are known as winter bees. These bees can live for up to six months unlike summer bees with a six week life span.

You will see some dead bees outside the hive entrance but this is normal.  

An external check is all that is needed at this time of year but make sure the hive is weathertight, stable and that the roof is weighted or strapped-down

Follow the link to download the schedule & Entry Form

(Rules & Regulations and staging guidance can also be found)

Honey and Craft Show - 2023 - Schedule & Entry Form

Now that most of his beekeeping work for this season has finished, and his new book manuscript is off to the publishers Steve has started his Blog Posts again. In this one he reviews his 2023 Beekeeping Season

Read his Review in Full Here

Cooler and shorter days leaves less time for the critical final tidying of hives before winter. Remember to remove Apivar strips and check the stores. New winter jobs include wax extraction and (more) honey preparation.

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