It is finally starting to look a bit like Spring, complete with regular April showers! However, the bees are out and about between the rain, and it is lovely to see the blossom blooming.

This month we will be attending the BBKA Spring Convention at Harper Adams University in Shropshire. We will have a full range of equipment to browse, but to avoid missing out pre-order online for collection. Don’t forget we will also be offering our wax exchange service. Please let us know how much wax you will be bringing.

Our friends over at Mantel Farm, in East Sussex, are offering Thorne customers 25% off their Beekeeping Courses. Their bee courses offer the chance to learn about the wild bees in your garden and the art of keeping honeybees responsibly. On their courses you will learn new skills in a friendly, relaxed environment. Courses are held in small groups, making use of their indoor and outdoor training areas, in and around their converted poultry barn.

USE DISCOUNT CODE: THORNE25% 

Equipment Focus

Coronation Honey Labels

Why not commemorate the Royal occasion with our new labels? The labels come in eight different shapes and sizes, plus matching tamper labels! Shop the entire range online now.

Special Offer

Organic All-in-One

£70  £59.50

These Diversity Bee Suits are certified organic. The cotton is grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertiliser. It is also guaranteed to be non-GMO. Organic cotton is the best choice for the soil, for the planet, for your comfort and for your bees. These organic suits are totally biodegradable. Bees are sensitive to smell and with these suits, there is no smell.

Available in Small, Medium, Large, XL and XXL.  Actual measurements are listed under the specification tab on our website.

Ask the Expert

When should I start monitoring for Asian Hornets?

If you want to be really thorough, you should be monitoring all year round, but that is not strictly necessary yet in the UK. As most of the sightings and nests that have been discovered in the UK have been in late summer, starting to monitor in springtime seems a sensible option. This way we might be able to prevent huge numbers of queens establishing new colonies in nests that are often hard to reach and dangerous to extinguish later in the year.

Asian Hornet (not to be confused with European Hornet) is an invasive pest that has decimated colonies across Europe. Although it has made its way into the UK over the last few years it has not yet established itself here. We really do not want them to set up home as they can destroy entire colonies of bees in a matter of hours and they reproduce very quickly. Worryingly, our close neighbours France and Jersey have had a particularly difficult time with Asian Hornets over the last few years.

Asian Hornets are characterised by:

• A body which is almost entirely dark except the 4th abdominal segment which is yellow
• Brown legs with yellow tips
• A head which is dark from above but orange from the front
• Dark antennae
• Workers up to 25mm long and queens up to 30mm
• Not active at night

People often mistake the European hornet for an Asian hornet but they really are not similar. European hornets tend to be bigger, yellow and brown with yellow antennae and yellow head, can be active at night and are generally loud. European hornets are a native species and pose little threat to our honeybee colonies.

One easy way to monitor for Asian Hornets without having to sit in your apiary watching your bees every day is to use the Vespa-Catch. This is a monitoring trap which uses a liquid lure to attract any Asian Hornets in the vicinity into the cup through holes in the cap. The design of the trap means that hornets caught inside cannot escape again. It must be checked regularly so that any insects caught in the trap that aren’t Asian Hornets can be let out. We use these traps here at Thorne and so far have not found that it traps honeybees – we do occasionally find moths or European hornets. You also need to be checking regularly of course because if you do catch an Asian Hornet, you will need to notify the authorities quickly. The trap is easy to set up: add the sachet of attractant to sugar and water and hang it on a tree or other support in the apiary.

Leave the trap up for three weeks in total but check regularly to make sure you are releasing any other insects - then replace the attractant solution and hang it back up in your apiary. If you think you have seen an Asian hornet, please notify the Great British Non-Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) immediately. In the first instance sightings should be reported through the free Asian Hornet Watch app. Other methods include using the NNSS online notification form.

Finally, you can send any suspect sightings to the Non-Native Species email address alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk . Where possible, a photo, the location of the sighting and a description of the insect seen should be included.

March

It has been rather wet here in Lincolnshire this March! We have made all kinds of marks on the soggy grass with the van, but that cannot be helped unfortunately. That said, on the few dry and sunny days we did have, we were able to get out and have a quick peek inside some of the hives.

Not unexpectedly, we found that the bees were rather hungry this month. After such a dry February and a big expansion of brood nests, the bees have not been able to get out of the hive to forage all that much this March, and so we have once again trudged up and down to deliver packs of fondant for the ones that needed it. We have not yet switched to syrup feed simply because temperatures have been fairly low and we don’t want to cause problems by giving a hungry colony food that they struggle to access in low temperatures. Fondant just sits over the holes in the crownboard and the bees can travel a short distance in order to reach it. As you can see from these pictures, this colony was particularly hungry! It is always amazing to see how the bees eat the fondant in a neat circle.

Another job this drizzly month has been to start filling up the brood boxes with frames in preparation for this year’s splits. We have tried to do a mix of drawn comb and foundation to give each colony the best start.

With the warmer weather due imminently, we are gearing up for an explosion of bee activity and lots of beekeeping!

This April's first Friday of the month 5.15 pm local UK time video release from our 2022 lecture programme is Roger Patterson's "“Beekeeping: Challenge what you are told”

The 2023 Schedule of Competitive Classes is now complete, and will be available to view on our website www.honeyshow.co.uk in early April. Members of the National Honey Show will be able to collect their Schedule at the BBKA Spring Convention. The National Honey Show stand will be located in the Not-for-Profit area of the Regional Food Academy at Harper Adams University. Any not collected will be posted to members afterwards.

The convention programme including details of lectures and workshops will be available as a separate booklet later in the year.

There are several new and interesting classes for the centenary, modelled on classes from early years of the show. These include A Shop Window Display – a fantastic project for collaboration; and A Decorative Design in Honeycomb, built by honey bees.  More details in the schedule and illustrations coming soon on our new ‘News’ site: honeyshow.info/blog/  These classes will make a stunning display at the show.

You are welcome, and in fact encouraged, to use our news and photos from the blog site in your association newsletters; and to share our social media posts to raise awareness and encourage interest in the show. 

 This year will be a spectacular celebration, and we look forward to seeing you there and sharing it with you.

Look forward to seeing you at the next show: 26th to 28th October 2023 at Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, UK.

Bees for Development - Bee Garden Party Fundraiser

The charity Bees for Development are organising a Bee Garden Party Fundraiser on Wednesday 14th June 2023, 4 – 7.30pm in the beautiful private gardens of Marlborough House on the Mall by kind permission of HM The King. To give you a flavour of our last event, which was attended by our President, HM The Queen Consort, please see our video here:

The party will be hosted by Martha Kearney and featuring a live auction hosted by Gyles Brandreth.

The silent auction features hundreds of bee postcards from artists, celebrities and media folk, while champagne, mead and honey cocktails will flow, all with a background of fabulous music, entertainment, displays and demonstrations. By celebrating all things bee, the event underscores the critical role that bees play in maintaining the environment.

Tickets will be available to purchase from 1 April 2023 - To purchase tickets to this unique fundraising event please visit www.bees.org

The Big Green Give - Beekeepers SAVE Forests

Bees for Development, the global charity that promotes beekeeping to combat poverty, build resilient livelihoods and benefit biodiversity will be taking part in The Big Green Give to raise funds protecting natural forests in Digya, Ghana. Deforestation and forest degradation is a big problem, the crisis is driven by charcoal production and wildfires which leads to a drastic loss of biodiversity. 

Whilst charcoal burning is driven by peoples need for income the loss of biodiversity is also lowering living standards and putting livelihoods at risk. People are locked into a downward spiral of environmental damage and increasing poverty. Beekeeping provides better returns than charcoal production, we are working to empower local people to switch from charcoal burning to honey production. When beekeepers can sell their honey, they will be motivated to plant and protect trees for their bees and prevent wildfires.
From 12 noon Thursday 20 April - Thursday 27 April every donation will be doubled: please make a note in your diary and help us if you can.

WIN – Two tickets to a Brentford FC Game

Bees for Development are celebrating 30 years of sustainable beekeeping, combatting poverty and building sustainable, resilient livelihoods around the World whilst protecting biodiversity – this month you have the chance to WIN two match day tickets to the end of season game at Brentford FC on Sunday 28th May 2023, kick off at 4.30pm plus signed Brentford FC football shirt. They are also known as ‘The Bees’, a professional football club in Brentford, West London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the highest tier of English football, having gained promotion via the playoffs at the end of the 2020–21 Championship season.

With special thanks to Brentford FC for donating this wonderful prize.

Venue – Gtech Community Stadium, Lionel Rd S, Brentford TW8 0RU.

This competition is live on 1 April 2023, closing on 30 April 2023, please sign up and donate to enter, Good luck!

- Jenny Handley and the team at Bees for Development

Book Review

‘Using Apideas’
By Dan Basterfield

Hardback £35.00

Softback £25.00
Available from Northern Bee Books and Advanced Beekeeping Courses, Blackberry Farm.

This book is a much needed addition to the compendium of beekeeping books. It not only covers a detailed description on how Apideas are constructed and maintained but also gives valuable
information on how to raise queens with these small and economic hives. It is clear from reading this book that Dan Basterfield has had a lot of experience using these devices and the book is full of hints on how to get the best results when rearing queens. I found the chapter on Recycling particularly useful. In every chapter there is a lot of advice about what to do if things don’t quite work as planned and this is where Dan’s practical experience really helps. Dan has been using Apideas for many years and the chapter on Maintenance describes how these nuc hives can be cleaned and stored over winter so that they remain durable and in good condition for many years.
Dan is a successful bee farmer and runs well known practical and theoretical courses on advanced beekeeping. He holds the NDB qualification and you can be sure that the science and practice behind this book is very well founded. Dan has used his logical approach to teaching in writing this book and included a number of practical aids to help with the overall queen rearing process. This book is not for the complete beginner but those that, after a few years, decide to raise their own queens and learn about one of the most interesting practices in beekeeping. I happily recommend this book to any beekeeper at this stage. I have not come across another book that gives a such a full critique of the Apidea and compares its features with other ‘mini nucs’. Follow the advice and directions in this book and your queen rearing should be successful from the first year. This book is very well produced and full of high quality photographs and diagrams to support the text. It is not a book that can be read once to gather all the information in it, rather, it is for your bookshelf so that it can be dipped into as a reminder for when you next decide to raise a few new queens.

Review by Dr Ivor Davis NDB - BBKA Past President

SPRING OPENING HOURS

Rand

Monday to Friday - 9am to 5:30pm

Saturday - 9am to 12pm

Windsor

Monday to Saturday - 10am to 5pm

Scotland

Monday to Friday - 9am to 5pm

Saturday - 9am to 12pm

Stockbridge

Tuesday to Friday - 9am to 5pm

Saturday - 9am to 4pm

Devon

Monday to Saturday - 10am to 5pm

22nd April (TRADE SHOW) - British Beekeeping Association Spring Convention - Harper Adams University, Shropshire, TF10 8NB

Friday 11th & Saturday 12th August - Thorne of Scotland Sale Days

Saturday 2nd September - Thorne of Windsor Sale Day

Saturday 16th September - Thorne of Stockbridge Sale Day

Saturday 23rd September - Thorne of Devon Sale Day

Saturday 7th October - Thorne Open and Sale Day at Lincolnshire Head Office & Factory

Thursday 26th - Saturday 28th October - National Honey Show - Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9AJ