May Roundup
Well what is there to say? May has been an extremely busy month. Our nucs have started being collected by excited new beekeepers and frames and wax are simply flying off the shelves. We are working all the hours we can to get your orders out to you as quickly as possible.
Equipment Focus………
This month we are just going to show a few gadgets that we sell to make your life in the apiary that much easier!
The ever-popular frame rest is available to fit all hives (apart from the WBC). Simply hook on the side of the brood body and hang up to two frames on the outside of the hive. Disturb the bees less and keep your hands free for those vital inspections.
What beekeepers wouldn’t want to make the process of cleaning and renewing their frames just that little easier? Our frame cleaner has a swan neck and long wooden handle to make cleaning out the grooves and wedges of top and side bars that little bit easier.
We always have such good intentions when putting our spare equipment away over the winter but who hasn’t, at some point, come to put on their excluder and found debris from the previous season? We have two different options for you to use when cleaning your wire excluders. The WE1 is all stainless steel, 140mm long and 58mm wide with sharp teeth to really clean those wires. The WE2 is longer with a wooden handle and will clean ten excluder slots at a time.
Ask our Expert
Our expert is having a month off this month – very busy with the bees! Instead we are going to show you how we produce our headed and personalised honey labels.
The label department usually gets busy towards the middle of July, as the main crop of honey is extracted and bottled. However this year it seems that there is a bumper crop of honey already and the demand for labels is already high.
Your honey labels are expertly printed by Harriet. She is also a beekeeper and has an excellent artistic eye. If the information you want on your label does not obviously fit in the prescribed fields then Harriet will normally find a way for you.
We use two main printers, a reel to reel system and a flatbed printer. The majority of our labels are printed on the reel to reel system. To give you an idea it takes approximately 10 minutes to print 1000 L1 labels, that includes the set up and print time. So on an average day, using both printers, Harriet can print up to 50000 labels!
Unique and Spectrum labels are printed on the flatbed printer. The number of different designs for these labels is enormous and we are constantly adding new designs to expand the range. Unique labels are getting more and more popular and take a little longer to setup and print. You send us a jpeg image and let us have the text and size for the label. Harriet creates a proof which it posted to you. We do not print your labels until you are completely happy with the design, colours and layout.
So why not give our personalised labels a try this year and make your honey really stand out!
Please email us at sales@thorne.co.uk if you have a question for our experts.
Bees for Development Update
Martha Kearney and Bill Turnbull invite you to this year’s Bee Garden Party 5-8pm on Thursday 29 June in the bee-planted gardens of Marlborough House, in London's Mall.
A fun evening focussed on all things-bees, with fabulous food and wine.
Star Auction run by Bill Turnbull
With kind permission from the household of HM The Queen, and in the presence of the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Scotland, all funds to support the Charity Bees for Development.
Tickets £50 available here Bee Garden Party or call 01600 714848.
Beekeeping groups and associations: please call us for special group rates!
National Honey Show News
Excellent value, admission only £20 for all three days.
This year’s Lectures: We have a superb programme of lectures lined up for this year’s show covering many interesting topics. For those thinking of taking up beekeeping, or are relatively new to the craft, Saturday offers a special series (just turn up) of lectures on interesting, useful topics of a practical nature relevant to newcomers, delivered by experienced, approachable beekeepers. Also there is a special item for beginners in our workshop programme, bookable from 1st September.
For both beginners and the more experienced alike with deeper interests the main lecture programme which runs across all three days is delivered by international scientists and experts on a variety of topics around the need for pollen, drones, well-mated queens, defence against wasps and many more … you can see this year’s full programme at http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/lectures-and-workshops.php . Better still, you can catch up on previous years’ lectures on the National Honey Show YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/nationalhoneyshow.
Our lecture video programme is hugely popular and generates great interest worldwide. We plan to keep the series going but funding these videos is a considerable challenge. To this end we need your help, please. If you can donate however small a contribution, this will enable us to fund our educational programme for 2017; and if everyone who enjoyed the videos donated just one £1, Euro, dollar or whatever, this would secure the programme into the foreseeable future.
https://mydonate.bt.com/donation/start.html?charity=189087
The National Honey Show, 26 to 28 October 2017, Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, KT10 9AJ www.honeyshow.co.uk
Upcoming Events
• Bee Garden Party, Marlborough house – Thursday 29th June.
• An Introduction to Beekeeping Course – Saturday 24th June at our factory at Rand in Lincolnshire
• Aspects of Queen Rearing Course – Saturday 8th July at our factory at Rand in Lincolnshire
• An Introduction to Bee and Insect Photography – Saturday 22nd July at our factory at Rand in Lincolnshire
