October Roundup
As I am writing this the weather has definitely turned and the air has a real winter feel about it. Our customers are finishing their Autumn varroa treatments and thoughts are turning to winter feeding and closing the hives down for the winter months.
Thoughts of winter didn’t seem to deter customers from thinking about their beekeeping equipment for next year. Our Rand Open and Sale Day dawned bright and sunny, if a tad windy, with the first customer claiming their place in the 3rds queue from about 6.30am! The one-off bargains and end of line items were very popular and were well picked over by the end of the day.
Many of you traded in your wax, enjoyed the factory tours, had a wander around the museum and picked up a sandwich or piece of cake in the restaurant. Tony Jefferson had standing room only in his talk – ‘Why never to destroy a good Queen cell’ - and we hope to do more talks at future sale days. We were also pleased to offer a ‘Beginners Area’ where our experts could answer all your questions and help novice beekeepers with anything they needed.
A huge thank you to all of our staff who worked on that day to make it such a success, and of course thank you to our customers, who turned out in their hundreds to take advantage of the special prices we had on offer.
Our final event of the year was the prestigious National Honey Show. We have been attending this show for at least 60 years and are so proud to support it and the work it does to promote beekeeping. There were over 2000 beekeeping related show entries. For more information have a read of the National Honey Show section of this newsletter.
We hope our stand, and the full range of equipment we exhibited, proved interesting to both novice and expert beekeepers alike. We also previewed a few new and upcoming items that we will have for sale very soon. The photo below show our stand just as we opened on Thursday.
We broke all records with our wax conversion and straight swap service, with our customers trading in almost two tonnes of British wax. We are the only supplier to provide premier wax back in exchange for the customer’s wax - we never mix our standard and premier grades together.
Equipment Focus………
After the success of our manual UniMel extractor we are pleased to now offer an electric version of this great little stainless steel machine. Normal price will be £300.
The extractor takes three frames of all sizes apart from 14”x12”, Dadant Deep, Langstroth Jumbo and Commercial Deep.
The extractor has a robust stainless steel cage with a two part plastic lid. The legs lift the extractor over 300mm from the ground.
We are also pleased to announce that the manual UniMel extractor and our 2 frame budget plastic extractor are also back in stock. Click here for a Youtube video showing how to load and operate the manual UniMel and here for a video showing how to load the plastic extractor.
To celebrate and launch these extractors we are having a special Extractor Sale which begins on Saturday 3rd November. The electric UniMel is only £250, manual UniMel is £120 and the plastic extractor is £70 for the duration of the sale only.
Also included in this sale are Vapmites at £30, 4Cs at £7.50 and MAQS 10 dose buckets (expiry date January 2019) at £35.
Online orders over £100 are carriage paid within the UK.
We are also pleased to introduce a couple of brand new products to our range.
The budget Queen rearing cupkit is a self contained cupkit designed for budding queen breeders or beekeepers who would like to experiment with Queen rearing. Priced at only £15 for the entire kit the product are NOT compatible with the Nicot or NB cupkits. The kit includes a plastic comb box, 10 hair roller cages, 100 brown cell cups, 10 cell bar blocks, 10 cell cup caps and full instructions.
We have been delighted with the response to our new flexible silicone foundation press - £40. The press is a pleasure to use and will produce foundation sheets with an accurate cell shape time after time.
Sheets will be half as thick again as commercially manufactured foundation, with 10 BS deep weighing approximately 750g. It will produce sheets up to size 430x220mm. An optional wooden pressure roller is available.
Ask our Expert
With Christmas fast approaching we thought it would be worth looking at some of our expert’s favourite books.
If you find yourself at a loss as to what to treat a beekeeper (or yourself) to, you could try one of the following books, both are excellent sources of information on bees from two different viewpoints.
The first is “The Honey Bee Inside Out” by Celia F Davis: this book covers the internal and external workings of the honeybee body. I have found it is not as heavy or specialist as HA Dade on “Anatomy and Dissection of the honeybee” or Stell on “Understanding Bee Anatomy”. This is a good read that explains the match between form and function. Why the shape of parts of the bee’s anatomy dictates how the bee behaves (or is it the other way around?), and will answer your questions such as how and why bees do their pre-flight check, and how they produce and use wax. Also, how and what they can communicate to each other.
The second is a follow up book again by Celia F Davis but this one is called “The Honey Bee Around & About”. This book covers how the bees fit into the wider environment, the various races of Apis mellifera , foraging (for nectar, water, propolis), how to select and breed specific traits, brood issues and diseases and the products of the hive.
If in doubt as to which to buy, start with Inside Out… Around & About is definitely the sequel.
Beekeeping Blog
October
This month there haven’t been quite so many jobs to do with the bees but that doesn’t mean to say that they haven’t been busy. On the few nice, warm, sunny days we had this month, there were plenty of bees active and flying at the hive entrance. On one of these warm days, I quickly checked on the hive I united last month with the Adapta Eke and mesh screen. I was pleasantly surprised to see frames of brood and eggs in the top box of a double brooded hive. There seemed to be plenty of bees so I am hoping this will stand it in good stead to make it through the winter.
Once again, the Asian hornet traps have been emptied, studied and refilled with attractant. Although (thankfully!) we have not caught any Asian hornets, these traps have proved very useful for catching the high volume of wasps we seem to have experienced this year. Fortunately, the wasp levels have dropped significantly over the last month, but we will continue to keep the traps out for the Asian hornet.
As the temperatures have now dropped, there will be a variety of animals trying to make beehives their new homes. Mice are one of these guilty culprits so here at Rand, mouseguards have now been attached to the front of all hives. This stops them getting into the warm hives and making a mess of the combs over winter. Mice can flatten their bodies to almost nothing but the round holes of the mouseguard are just too small for their skull to pass through.
Over the next month, our main priority will be to heft the hives and make sure each and every colony has enough food to get it through the winter.
If you require any more information, please send an email to Alexandra at sasha@thorne.co.uk who will be happy to help or call one of our sales team on 01673 858555.
Bees for Development Update
Bees for Development has been providing beekeeping information to hard-to-reach countries for 25 years, from Azerbaijan to Zambia. We have learned that the provision of training materials and information resources can make a real and lasting difference to the communities we serve. Knowing how to do something and knowing that it has worked for other people, is incredibly helpful for people in need. We recently heard from one of our readers in Burundi:
“I represent a group of Congolese refugees here in Kavumu camp in Burundi. We are interested in peace, development and the environment. Thank you for sending me Bees for Development Journal. We have started planting trees and flowers and have prioritised beekeeping as one the activities we can do while here in the camp”. Benjamin Barhambulira, August 2018.
It costs just £26 to sponsor a beekeeper in a developing country to receive Bees for Development Journal.
Save the dates
27 Nov – 4 Dec – The Big Give Christmas Challenge
During the special week 27 Nov - 4 Dec, your donations to Bees for Development will be doubled by The Big Give Christmas Challenge. Please save these dates and help us to reach our target to train beekeepers in the poorest areas of Ethiopia. If you are planning to support our work this Christmas, we ask you to Save the Date and donate during this period. Go to the Bees for Development website for more information.
11 – 21 Feb 2019 – Trinidad and Tobago Bee Safari
In February 2019 we are running our famous Bee Safari to Trinidad and Tobago with Gladstone Solomon, now in its 18th year! Starting the Safari adventure in Tobago with light bee activities to acclimatise yourself to the tropics and Caribbean life, you will journey on two islands, seeing the most interesting bees and visiting friendly beekeepers.
Stingless bees? Africanised bees? You will know all about them after the Trinidad & Tobago Bee Safari. Go to our website for details about this wonderful journey.
Wednesday 12 June 2019 – Bee Garden Party
You are invited to our unique summer evening hosted by Martha Kearney and Bill Turnbull in the bee-bordered gardens of Marlborough House, London. With fabulous food - provided for you by bees - wine and entertainment including a Star Auction. Go to Bees for Development website for more information.
Bees for Development 25th Birthday - November Giveaway
Our birthday giveaway prize for November is a BJ Sheriff Bee Farmer Hamper containing both practical and yummy goodies. Included in this bee themed set is a ‘Bee Farmer’ vest and hood, wildflower seed packets to attract bees to your garden and a Sheriff bee design lanyard. Thanks to BJ Sheriff you’ll receive also a beautiful 100% cotton tea towel with a bee skep, flowers and bees design to add a touch of brightness to any kitchen and some delicious honey and ginger biscuits.
To win this treat, just enter here.
National Honey Show News
The National Honey Show at the end of October was the best ever yet. We had bright autumn sunshine through those vast wall-to-wall windows which made the honey exhibits and tiered displays along that side of the hall sparkle and glow. The Class 16 tall, themed pyramids stole the show as usual, with first prize going to the Remembrance entry by the strong North Shropshire BKA team as shown in the photo.
Snippet of intel for next year: two of our supporters of the show who enter a lot of exhibits and walk off with a lot of the prizes will be joining the judging team, so not able to enter exhibit’s in to next year’s show. So now’s your chance to get planning, move in, and claim some of the kudos for yourself and your local association.
www.honeyshow.co.uk.
Save the dates for next year Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th October 2019, at Sandown Park Racecourse.
Upcoming Events
Extractor, Vapmite and 4C Sale Sat 3rd until Wed 7th November
Black Friday Sale Friday 23rd November
Winter Sale (starts online) Midnight Friday 28th December
