There’s always exactly four weeks between the issue of the February and March Newsletters and yet it always seems to be an exceptionally short period. No sooner is one done and issued than the second one has to be ready; or at least it seems like that. I realised at the February meeting that the Newsletter is appreciated by some folks and even saved by others, and some-one even told me that it’s the Newsletter that holds the CBKA together. I’m humbled at the thought but above all realise that we must endeavour to keep it going just as long as possible. There’s little doubt that a Newsletter does give an organisation an identity. The new BBKA Newsletter is a good example. For many years it was nothing but a simple, very poor, news-sheet which said very little. As a result BBKA was regarded in the North as some remote outfit down in the smoke which received (and deserved) little or no attention up here. How things have changed; the Newsletter is now posted direct to us and it contains very much more information than ever before, some of it contributed by the members of local associations. Clearly some-one has seen fit to take hold of it and turn it into a meaningful Newspaper full of interesting articles which all CBKA members should find useful. I just wonder how long BBKA will be able to keep up this standard for with falling membership and increasing costs something will have to give soon. I see that the proposal to increase the capitation to be paid by affiliated associations by a third has been voted through and is perhaps needed since expenditure has increased by over 50% in the last five years even though the membership has fallen by 16%. There has been a slight increase in membership of 113 for the year 2000 - 2001.

I still receive copies of some of the various Yorkshire associations Newsletters; a legacy from when I was editing the YBKA Newsletter. They are mostly issued three or four time per year, but contain articles and information from several of their association members too. Why is it, I ask, that so few contributions are made to our newsletter by our members? Is it, like the article in BBKA News (February) that 'I’ll Do It Tomorrow' ?

And talking of change; what a change we have seen in the weather recently. Record high temperatures with hours of glorious sunshine have tempted our bees out on most days and they are bringing back huge loads off pollen. I think most of the pollen is from crocuses for they are a blaze of colour right now. It’s very early in the year for bees to be flying so freely and bringing in so much food. It will undoubtedly cause them to start brood rearing. Several folks still seem to be concerned about the number of bees being thrown out of the hive at the moment. As I have said before, our bees go into winter round about mid September/early October with more than 50,000 bees in the hive. By the end of March that number will have fallen to about 10,000, i.e. a loss in excess of 40,000 in six months and most of those will be lost during February/March. Our bees then build up rapidly from March onwards, providing we ensure the conditions within the hive are ‘right‘. Right means clean hives, no disease, and old grotty combs all being disposed of both from the brood box and the supers and replaced with clean foundation.

Sal Mancina is our new Librarian and he wishes to bring the book list up to date. He requests that all books still out on loan be returned so that he can do this. Please, if you have any of our books, or know anyone who has, can you arrange for them to be returned. Any book can then be borrowed later.

What a dismal turnout we had for the February meeting. It’s true that our scheduled speakers could not make it on the night, but they would have been very disappointed if they had been here. There’s a lot of effort goes into preparing a talk and if on the night there are very few folks to talk to our speakers are bound to ask themselves the question ‘ why did I bother?’ As it happens we filled in with two very interesting video’s that most folks had not seen before. We must thank Ian Brown for ‘hauling’ his video player and television from home to enable us to view them on the night. We must also thank Philip Staniland, for after chasing round to obtain a video for the night, he has offered the use of a portable self contained video and television for our use in the future. There are many very good honeybee related video films that I feel sure we could make use of in our future programmes. I have also been hearing of Associations videoing their summer meetings. These are then played back during the cold winter nights so that we can prove that we did get some warm weather, and to have a retrospective look at just how enjoyable beekeeping really is. I feel it’s a good idea and would like to see it go ahead, but what do you feel about it?

By the time you are reading this you will only have about three weeks to register for the YBKA Bishop Burton Conference and only two weeks to register for the one at Kirkley Hall. Do please try to support at least one of them, they are both run for the benefit of local beekeepers and considerable effort goes into the organisation behind each. The Bishop Burton Conference is to be held in the College at Beverley on Saturday the 12th of April. The lecturers will be Glyn Davis, Chairman of the BBKA; Bob Ogden from Devon BKA and Ian Molyneux the Regional Bees Inspector for Northumberland. There will also be bee related Trade Stands.
The cost for the day including meals is £27-00.
To find out more get in touch with Dudley Gue, ‘phone 01482 881288.

The Kirkley Conference is to be held at Kirkley Hall near Ponteland, Northumberland (very close to Newcastle airport) on the 5th of April. The lecturers are to be (your very own) Bryan Hateley talking about Observation Hives, with a hive being auctioned at the end of the day; Christer Seltorp talking about Over-wintering Bees and Small Scale Queen Rearing and Mike Brown of the National Bee Unit telling us how the NBU is `Working For You`. As well as Trade Stands there will be a very comprehensive Bee Plant sales stand.
The cost including meals on the day is £28-00.
To find our more please see me or contact Stuart Johnson by telephoning 0191 413 2672.

How many of you have read the article in the February issue of The Beekeepers Quarterly by Robin Dartington talking about his Dartington Hives? With many of us getting no younger and being less and less able to lift heavy weights any more, these hives must be given serious consideration. But even for people new to the ‘sport’, particularly if they are not planning to practice ‘migratory beekeeping’ they are surely worth looking at. With the Dartington Hive all the effort of beekeeping is practiced at a comfortable height with no brood boxes to keep lifting off and on each time the bees are opened. All the seasonal work is done at the same level with the colony expanding or contracting sideways during the season. To reduce the weight being lifted (7 kilos instead 14) supers of half the normal size (5 frames instead of 10) are used, (I had a lady say to me only last week that 'she can no longer lift a super full of honey'). There is little doubt that if I had been aware of such hives 30 years ago I may well be using them now. I have been in touch with Robin and I hope to have information available for you by the time of the next meeting.

The April meeting is to be about ‘Honey Preparation for showing’ and you are requested to bring a jar with you so that Peter Schollick can comment on it. Please remove any name label; just put some identification on the jar so that you know it is yours. We hope that as a result more of you will see fit to ‘have a go’ in the Cleveland Honey Show in July. Now is the time to be preparing some of your entries for, as some-one who has judged honey a few times, I can clearly say that it’s nearly always possible to detect the entries that have been prepared at the last minute.

Kindest regards to you all,
Bryan Hateley