I am having to make another early start on the Newsletter for we will be away for several days in November, sadly I shall miss the meeting. There’s little doubt though that Autumn has arrived with a bang, for at the moment it’s throwing it down with rain and hail all accompanied by a strong northerly wind. I haven’t seen my bees flying for two or three days now, though a wasps nest still has wasps flying (31st October) and visiting the ivy ‘tree’, but I feel they can’t last many more days. Watch out for the wasp queens hibernating under your hive lids; I even had one inside my gardening gloves yesterday, but fortunately I just managed to see it before putting them on. There’s no need to destroy them, just put them outside somewhere dry and let them get on with it, they only have two chances. I’ve said before that I believe wasps are very much maligned creatures, for it is said that one colony of wasps destroys 500,000 aphids in any summer, so they are essentially one of the gardeners best friends. Like honeybees, they do not normally sting unless provoked by waving arms about or general panicking though they do seem to have a much shorter fuse than bees and hence are more easily roused. A wasps nest is definitely a thing to leave alone particularly if it is in a place where its flight path does not clash with people or your pets. The wasps nest dies out late in the year and it should then be taken down and shown to children, for it is a wonderful work of nature and something they would normally never see. Wasps do become a nuisance at the end of the summer just as the fruit trees are at their best, but I have found that jam jars half full of water with a good spoonful of jam added and hung in the fruit trees attracts and drowns wasps by the thousand, (wasps can’t resist going for jam). It helps if the jar has a lid with a 10mm hole drilled in it, for once the wasps enter they seem to be unable get out again. I have mentioned in the past the presence of the larger hornets being seen here, yet in spite of the warm summer I have not seen one this year. Hornets are much larger than our normal wasps, more of an orange colour and not normally found this far north, but they have been in my garden in recent years, it seems odd that they were missing in this of all summers.

"Well that’s it (the AGM) over for another year". Those very words were heard soon after the end of last months meeting. I have to ask "why such a deprecating remark ?", for surely your association needs your attention at least once a year. We need your input for we can only do what you ask us to do. The Association is yours and the Committee are here to do what you want them to do, they are your servants. It’s for that reason that we ask you to give us your ideas of what you want us to do for you; what topics should we discuss; which speakers should we try to engage and of course which members should form the Management Committee. I feel last month’s AGM went very well and above all did not get bogged down in detail or drag on too long.
We must put on record our thanks to Vera for her four years as Chairman and trust that she can now sit back and relax a little in the full knowledge that over the years she has done her share for CBKA. Vera was presented with a garden plant as a token of our thanks for all her efforts on our behalf.
Our Management Team now comprise:
Roger Chappel         Chairman & Programme
Gill Hodgson         Vice Chairman
Ian Brown            Secretary & YBKA Delegate
Philip Staniland            Treasurer
Sal Mancina            Librarian & Web Master
Kevin Nelson            Purchasing Officer
Bill Wilkinson            Honey Show Secretary
Unal Metti            Equipment Hire
Bryan Hateley         Newsletter Editor & Visiting advisor
John Rider               Auditor

We must thank everyone of the ‘team’ for agreeing to help.
We must also thank all who have agreed to contribute towards the CBKA Programme for the year ahead, and to Roger for arranging and publishing it. Philip tells us that we have sufficient funds to enable us to keep the subscription the same for next year at £20-00 if paid before the end of November but £21-00 if paid later. The programmes will be issued shortly, so now is the time to sit down and mark your calendars with the appropriate dates so that we can have full attendance's at all future meetings. Make a special note of the dates of the Kirkley (3rd April) and Bishop Burton (17th April) Conferences, for they both need your support.

It was agreed that the YBKA will be asked to take up the matter of BBKA obtaining sponsorship from Agrochemical Companies for so called ‘bee friendly’ products during the November AGM to be held in York.

Our bees expect little of us at this time of the year; they’ve been fed, weak colonies have been united, crown boards lifted slightly and the entrances reduced. Few apiary sites are perfect and it pays to check that there are no overhanging tree branches to drip water onto the hives. If possible, make sure your hives are not in a frost pocket, try too to put them in a position where they can take advantage of the winter sunshine, though a hedge all round them helps to keep out biting winds. Bees in winter store faecal matter for several weeks in their rectum and a spell of warm sunshine enables them to fly and defecate, ensuring they can face a further period of confinement in cold weather. Snow covering hives is not a problem and should be left alone, though if the entrance becomes blocked scrape it clear to enable them to fly when the sun shines. Above all, do not walk too close to your hives in cold weather for this may disturb the bees causing them to break their winter cluster and many to die of cold.

Considering it was Guy Fawkes night there was a very good turnout to the joint lecture hosted this year by Northallerton and Thirsk BKA. Our speaker was no other than Mike Brown, head of the National Bee Unit. After first giving us a rundown on his own considerable beekeeping experience, he then went on to detail the work the NBU are doing on our behalf and it’s quite considerable. Beekeeper training, the field service, monitoring for the small hive beetle, residue monitoring in honey, pesticide toxicity, EFB research, workshops, lectures to mention but a few. But, he reminded us, the number one problem faced by beekeepers will always be varroa. Mike then went on to demonstrate the method of detecting varroa mites, immune to treatment with pyrethroids (Apistan & Bayvarol), and stressed the necessity of every beekeeper monitoring his bees at least once each year from now on. Testing kits are available from the NBU (I shall be handing them out and demonstrating their use again in March) and they request everyone to inform them of the results of their tests. It is clearly important for everyone to know the whereabouts of immune varroa and the NBU publish details of the spread of the problem on their website, http://www.csl.gov.uk/science/organ/environ/bee/resistance . Mike concluded by answering questions freely, finally stressing the importance of all beekeepers working together to maintain the health of our bees.

Judy Wilkinson is our quiz master for the Houghall quiz on the 3rd of December and she has sent me the following note; "May I make a small correction to your October newsletter? We don't need a team of three for the Houghall quiz; as last year, anyone who cares to come along is welcome to join the "team", or we can have more than one team." So we are looking forward to you all being there on the night. Car sharing should be possible.

The YBKA AGM was held on Saturday 8th of November. I could not attend and have not received much feed-back yet (it’s now the 9th). However, the subject of BBKA accepting handouts from the four chemical giants was raised and a note commenting on the situation was read to the meeting. I feel the matter could be raised as an ‘emergency resolution’ at the next BBKA meeting, but it was decided instead to discuss the subject again at the YBKA meeting in March.

Talking of meetings, our next one is the Christmas meeting when you are requested to bring a plate of something you like best, those annual delightful delicacies, to share with others. There will be a ‘beekeeping’ quiz and then a chance to get together and chat amongst ourselves.

After a stormy start to the month, the weather has now settled down and we look like getting several more days of Indian Summer. Our bees can be seen bringing home pollen, they may well be still feeding brood, young bees for the next rape crop.

Kindest regards to you all,
Bryan Hateley