Monthly meeting April 2007

On Tuesday 17^th we had our second club meeting of 2007 at Hala Carr. The first meeting in March had been a general chat about things that had been developing for the club over the winter months. Roger welcomed 29 club members to the meeting. A selection of designs for the new club logo were circulated, and members were asked to choose their favourite. The new logo is now in use on the programme, and on the website. Richard W. then gave his secretaries report and an update on the decisions made at the last committee meeting. The RSPB at Leighton Moss have asked us to put on a static display on 12/13^th May. Erica has been in touch with them to organise this. Lancaster library want us to provide them with an unmanned display for 2 weeks in June. Ashton Hall nurseries are searching for a source of local honey from any member.

The new club nucleus scheme was then discussed. We have purchased 12 polystyrene nucleus hives. We will raise 6 nucs, which will be available for new beekeepers to purchase to get them started. 2 are being raised in the beginners apiary, so volunteers are needed to raise the other 4. The remaining 6 are available for purchase by club members. Contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you wish to help raise a beginners nuc or to buy one.

We can get a 10% discount if we have a joint subscription to Beecraft magazine of more than 10 members. Please let This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it know if you wish to join the group subscription scheme to take advantage of this discount. It doesn't matter when your subscription year starts.

As part of our lottery funded education programme, the film society are making a Beekeeeping film for the club. We need some Queen cells for them to film, and we need to film an artificial swarm, so if anyone can help over the next few weeks as the swarming season is under-way, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

 

Our speaker this month was our very own Vice-chairperson, Dennis, who talked about preparing honey and other hive products for showing. Dennis has been keeping bees for 50 years, and showing for 47 years. He is also a very experienced honey judge, so he was able to give us the benefit of his knowledge and experience by telling us a few tricks of the trade, outlining what the judges are looking for. He advised that good sound hive management will result in good honey.
He reminded us to read the schedule carefully and follow the directions. He then gave us plenty of tips of how to correctly prepare our honey for the show. He demonstrated the use of grading glasses for the light, medium and dark classes. He outlined his methods of straining honey and emphasised the correct weight must be in the jar.

He went on to give us useful advice about preparing for creamed honey and granulated honey classes with particular reference to temperatures. He chatted about viscosity and the use of a refractometer.

He then went on to talk about preparing wax for showing, starting right from the solar extractor. He went through his preparation process in detail step by step and showed us an 8oz block example of the final product. He moved on to talk about candle-making techniques. Clean wax, and the correct wick is important as the judge will light the candle and check that it burns well. He explained that there were very detailed judging criteria for a good candle. He demonstrated various moulds and how to use them. Finally he showed us how to apply the finishing touches to a perfect candle.

 

The next class Dennis talked to us about was the cut comb class. He reminded us that it was important to make sure the container was bee tight otherwise there could be a show tent full of bees as has happened in the past! Next he described how to show a good frame of honey ready for extraction. Finally he moved on to give us the benefit of some (probably not all, as he doesn't want too much competition!) of the tricks of showing a bottle of Mead well. He showed us how to use a vinometer. He finished off by offering us a taste of Mead from a bottle he had brought. It was rapidly consumed!

Roger then gave a vote of thanks to Dennis for such an interesting talk. He pointed out the considerable success that Dennis has achieved with his showing over the years, and agreed that we was very qualified to teach us about the subject. He thanked him for giving us some of the benefit of his experience.