Croydon Beekeeping Evening

I had been invited up to a society evening event on Friday 29th, I was still suffering from man flu but I was keen to meet a few local beekeepers and at the same time sign up for membership.


The talk was about breeding queen bees to improve temperment etc, but I think more importantly it was about using local bee stocks to try to strengthen the original British Bee "Dark European", I sort of understand the need, it's all about having bees suited to the local environment.


But I think for the next year of two, breeding queen bees other than in emergencies won't be on my agenda, that said it was an informative talk and I did pick up on a few things. Runners for one! Bees that run enmass during routine checks, must think about some cycle clips, don't fancy too many bees too far up the inside of my trousers! And also how useful the freezer is in dealing with varroa in drone cells.


I did begin to feel a little bit guilty about having put my name down for a nuc of Carniolan bees, (ok just realised I'd forgotten to mention that I had bought these two months ago, nothing like jumping in with two feet!)(won't get them until May/June), but the damage is done now and they are supposed to be good tempered which will be very important given where I have located my hive!

Classes Start

Managed to get to first evening of my course with BeesnBeans, despite a working meeting that ran on, trains misbehaving, every slow driver ever known to man and the makings of man flu, ok by now you might just be thinking I'm a grumpy old git, well I have my moments, it's an age thing so I am reliably informed, the kids have referred to me as Victor Meldrew from time to time! Now that would be interesting seeing how he would cope with bees?
Ok back to the course, I didn't take too many notes as I was told that full course notes would be emailed out later that evening, I have to say they are pretty comprehensive, so much so that ran out of ink! Plenty of reading for the train :). But did pick up a few good titbits of information on the evening, all in all worth all the hassle getting there.

Bees n kids!

And my childrens reaction? Well some years ago I wanted to get a goat and they threatened to leave home, so this time when I appeared in the lounge the reaction was "O my god, he's serious", there weren't any volunteers to flat sit when I go away :).

Bees n Me

OK, thought I would give this a go:), I've always been interested in bees from very young when my grandfather had a couple of hives that the grandchildren were never allowed near! Last year the plight of the Honey Bee was televised quite a bit and bees caught my imagination again. A book called simply "Beekeeping" by Andrew Davies and published in association with the National Trust was thrust into my hands and I was hooked. Next came a visit to a local beekeeping afternoon for beginers and there was no looking back:).
At this moment in time I have bought a flat packed hive off ebay, built it (in my lounge!) and put it out back to gauge my neighbours response, so far so good, all seem quite interested, maybe when forty thousand bees are in residence there might be a change of mind?:)