Various organizations and authorities have differing 'start of year times', the Taxation year is 1st of April, the New year 1st of January, the New School Year is early September and so on, but beekeepers have 'now', yes now an indefinite date but round about mid September depending on when the last honey is removed from your hives. Beekeepers who do not take their colonies to the heather will have removed their honey by the end of August. There's then the uniting, feeding and possible treatment for varroa to consider but all the current years work will be complete by mid September. Their bees will not be touched again until the following spring (and there's a 'definite' date to ponder). However, those of us who go to the heather may not retrieve our bees until late September when much work still remains to be done. Conditions at this time for uniting and feeding, not to mention the treatment of varroa may not be good. It is particularly important to examine our bees for varroa and to treat if necessary, for bees laden with varroa are very unlikely to survive the winter. So in order to make a successful start to next year it is vitally important to ensure that all the end-of-year arrangements are completed before the end of September or the start of the ‘new year’.

What a summer this year has been. After a very promising start the weather just went from bad to worse until mid August when it picked considerably. My bees filled several supers with rape honey, only to eat most of it as the wet, cold weather arrived. The two colonies I sent to the borage obviously filled the supers and they also ate most of it later; how do I know? Each super had mostly foundation when they went to the borage but had drawn comb on their return, with a little honey (not borage) left in them when they came back in late August. Bees don’t draw foundation unless they have a use for it, so at some time it must have contained honey but they saw fit to use as the weather broke in mid summer. I know of beekeepers who’ve been feeding their bees during the summer though they say they had removed several kilo’s of honey in late spring. I see no point in that, bees survive and build up better living on honey than they do on sugar. I endeavor to get my bees into a fit state to work the heather; that is my ultimate goal, if I get any summer honey it’s a bonus. I want bees to increase in numbers during the summer so they can be united into strong ‘heather’ colonies. I went to see my bees on the heather after only two weeks of their being put there and I could not move a hive on my own as it was so heavy. They went there packed with bees, new queens and frames full of brood and the rest of the story speaks for itself.

Our summer meetings were good both from a beekeeping standpoint and socially, though the rain picked on Picton quite dramatically that night with a storm the likes of which none of us had ever seen before. Instead of opening up bees we had a comfortable chat in Bill and Judie’s kitchen ranging over a variety of topics. We thank all ours hosts for their kindness; a lot of effort goes into the preparation for such events. Our new beekeepers are the ones who gain most from these meetings but there is always something for everyone. The get-together afterwards is also useful for folks to get to know each other and to learn from the beekeeping chatter that follows. We can talk all we will at our evening meetings but there is nothing like the practical, hands on, bees buzzing experience of an outdoor meeting to teach people the basics of handling bees. Special thanks must go to Bill and Judy Wilkinson for their efforts at both organizing the Cleveland Show and for hosting the Judge for the night prior to the show. The show itself was a considerable success with many new beekeepers entering for the first time and winning prizes; many thanks to you all for your support. This is a good omen for the future, I feel certain this will encourage more folks to take part in the show next year. To help folks enter future shows there is to be a talk on Preparing Honey for Show next April, the last indoor meeting before the 2003 show. Note that the April meeting will be one week earlier than normal due to the Easter break clashing with our traditional date.

I have been asked to run a four week evening class (7-00 / 9-00pm) in Practical Beekeeping at Longfield School in Darlington, starting on the 26^th of September (this month). Anyone interested in attending should telephone the school on 01325 380815 to express an interest. I understand the school must have a minimum number of positively committed students before the class will be allowed to take off. The cost will be £15-00. Enrollment can be carried out on the opening night.

Our next meeting will be the AGM. Please bring any honey you have bought while on holiday abroad so that we can have a honey tasting evening after the formalities of the AGM have been settled. Do wrap a cover paper over the label so that we can have a guess at where the honey came from and what variety it is.

Now is the time to settle your bees down for their winter break. Unite any weak / small colonies, feed well if there is less than 25 kilo (50 lbs) of food in the brood chamber, ensure they are water proof and that they are not under dripping trees or in a frost pocket. If possible raise the hive at least 500mm (18 inches) off the ground and put a heavy stone on the lid to prevent it blowing away in the winter gales. A deep roof that comes well down the sides will help keep out some frosts and prevent the lid blowing away. Once your bees have been bedded down for winter little can be done during the next few months for the bees themselves. Now is the time to be cleaning any equipment and repairing damaged items. Take the plunge and throw out all old comb and worn out frames. Yet again this year I have seen far too many old grotty frames, laden with drone comb, riddled with holes, blackened with excessive use, or filled with old honey for comfort. Our bees will give of their best only if given the best opportunity to do so. Bees will produce a surplus of wax as well as honey and that wax is valuable. My solar wax extractor has been very busy this year, and I have once again exchanged rendered down wax for foundation so that I have more foundation than I can shake a stick at; you do not have to spend lots of money on foundation.

While talking about foundation, have you all read the article in the August issue of The Beekeepers Quarterly, page 31, referring to the use of foundation with a smaller cell size to control varroa. This is not by any means the first reference in recent times to the use of smaller cells in the fight against varroa but this article is particularly well explained. It seems that a small reduction in cell size from that in current use down to 4.9mm kept Varroa populations at such a low level that they didn’t need to use chemical controls anymore. I wonder if some foundation manufacturer could be persuaded to mould foundation with the smaller sized cells, for it must be worth a try. Varroa are known to prefer the larger drone bee cells to breed in for this gives them three extra days of drone metamorphosis in which to raise more varroa mites. There is no explanation as to why the smaller cells seem to work for the worker bee, metamorphosis takes just 21 days whatever the size of cell. I am looking forward to the next issue of BKQ for we are to be told of "some of the mechanisms that are thought to contribute to the success of small cell foundation" in controlling varroa.

During one of the summer meetings there seemed to be some confusion regarding just what Borage is and what it’s uses are. Some details were given in the YBKA Newsletters of June ’97 and June ’99 and I now have an update:-

The annual joint meeting of Northallerton, Richmond and Cleveland beekeepers takes place this year at Gilling near Richmond. Our speaker will be Mr. Jeremy Owen, Marketing & Finance Director of Vita (Europe) Ltd, the people who have developed Apistan and many other bee related products. The meeting will take place in Gilling Village Hall. To get to Gilling, travel to the A1 / A66 junction at Scotch Corner and follow the A66 westbound. After approximately two miles turn left for Gilling at a crossroads. The Village Hall is about ¾ of a mile down the hill on the left hand side. Car sharing should be possible. People intending to attend are requested to advise our secretary, Ian Brown, who will then advise the Richmond secretary.

The next Rachel Lowther Lecture will take place on Sunday morning the 6^th of October, (not the date shown in the CBKA programme) and as before will be in Wall Village Hall, just off the A68 west of Newcastle. The speaker will be Mrs. Margaret Thomas and her subject will be "Profitable Beekeeping". Coffee will be served from 11-00 o’clock and the lecture will begin at
11-30. Lunch will be provided and the cost is £6-00. Margaret Thomas is a well known and popular Beekeeping Lecturer and being a ‘disciple’ of Ted Hooper is both well informed, very interesting and entertaining. It has every promise of being an interesting morning. Will folks wishing to go please let me know so the I can advise the caterers. Car sharing should be possible.

With the demise of Hadrian Caravans as a source of Beekeeping supplies we now have John Wade, a new supplier, setting up in Longnewton, just west of Stockton. We wish him well and look forward to seeing him at our meetings. We have agreed that his advertisement will appear from now on in the Newsletter along with Alan Jeffersons.

Some of you may have already heard that Rob Wigin has been in hospital for the past five weeks and that he is very poorly. He has fallen and injured his leg so badly that he has had to have his foot amputated. Other complications set in while he was in hospital which have also made life more difficult for him. He is now making a slow recovery but is still in Intesive Care. As his wife, Gill, said to me "it’s like two steps forward and one back all the time". I am sure you will all join with me in wishing him well and looking forward to seeing him at our meetings once more.

Kindest regards to you all,
Bryan Hateley