We have got to that quiet time now when there is less going on in the apiary. This is the time when you can think of the year gone by and plan for the year ahead.
With that in mind I have place a page of photos taken over the past year under the Events tab.
I have also updated the For Sale page. Have a look. Is there something there that will help you next year.
I am also working on more educational material to go into the BeeInfo section of the website.
Of course the next event to look forward to is the Dorchester and Weymouth BKA AGM. Now I know that an AGM is not everyody's idea of fun but we have booked Lesley Gasson to talk about Apitherapy. That should make it an event worth turning up for. It is on the 16th October at the Colliton Club.
Bees are settling down now and winter preparations are being considered. At the same time the committee has been meeting to arrange some important dates:
AGM - The AGM will be held on Wednesday 16th October at 7:30 in the Dorset room at the Colliton club in Dorchester. The business part of the meeting will be preceded by a talk from Lelsley Gasson on Apitherapy. For those who have not heard Lesley talk before I can tell you she is a fascinating with a wealth of knowledge.
Beginners' Course - This year we are going to run the course in a slightly different way following feedback from last year's participants. The course will still be six sessions long as before.
The first three theory sessions will be held in the Colliton Club in Dorchester starting at 7pm and running till 9pm. The dates for those will be Tuesdays 11th March, 18th March and the 25th March.
There will then be three theory and practical sessions held at the Stinsford Apiary on Sundays 30th March, 6th April and the 13th April.
Well that has been a very tiring but very satisfying couple of days - the Dorset County Show.
We started with an empty marquee and by Saturday morning we had a full display of honey and other bee products as well as stands of information about bees. All those involved in setting the marquee up are very grateful to all the others who helped - a fantastic team effort.
Setting Up - this was an empty marquee just a couple of hours earlier.
The first day of the show, Saturday, was the day of the competition and the judge carefully scrutinised each of the submissions. He was assisted by two of our members, Andre and Sarah and they carefully wrote down his advice so that those who did not get first prizes know what they can do to improve next year. All of this was done with a great sense of humour and a very positive approach to encourage more of us to enter next year.
But it was not just about the competition. We had Candle Rolling and as ever this was very well attended. In fact several hundred candles were rolled.
Many of the visitors expressed an interest in learning more about bees and beekeeping. Dorchester and Weymouth Beekeepers will be running a course for beginners in Spring of 2025. As yet we have not decided on the details but there will be a course and whether you want to keep bees or just learn more about bees then this could be of interest. to you.
We also sold honey for members. I spent Saturday afternoon on honey sales and was fascinated by the problems visitors had deciding which honey to buy. We pointed out to them that they could choose between soft set and runny. Then they might want to choose honey from an apiary near to their home. Many seemed influenced by the colour of the honey and assumed that darker honey was stronger flavoured - which may well be the case.
The other factor that influence the decision was the label. Those labels which were significantly different attracted attention. The picture of the tractor appealed to the younger purchasers whereas the simple dark label - with no pictures of hives - appealed to many.
We also had a stand for Asian Hornet Awareness. This raised a lot of interest and if everyone we spoke to downloads the Asian Hornet Watch App for Android or iPhones then that will be good. I spoke to several people who said they had seen a lot of Asian Hornets in their garden. It turned out these were all people who lived in France or the Channel Islands. It was interesting to talk to people with first hand experience of living in the presence of Asian Hornets.
As ever the Observation Hives created a lot of interest and when explaining how the hive works - as far as we know - they are a superb teaching aid. On the Saturday the bees were not venturing out of the hive due to poor weather. This allowed us to show bees uncapping stores to feed the larvae. On the Sunday they were much more active as soon as the sun came out . This allowed us to point out the "saddlebags" of pollen and most visitors were able to see the "Waggle Dance".
Observation Hive
Not all the activity was inside the marquee. Outside we had skep making and a demonstration of a hive inspection. This was on every two hours rain or shine and those who were there thoroughly enjoyed the informative and entertaining demonstration.
Hive Demo in the sunHive Demo in the rain
On the Sunday we hosted the Butterfly Conservation display and that attracted a lot of interest. Unfortunately after the rain Saturday night and the gloomy weather forecast for Sunday meant that we had fewer visitors than the Saturday.
At the end of the show we had to remove all of our stands and a superb team effort meant that in less than two hours we went from a full display marquee to an empty shell - a great team effort.
It was a tiring weekend - two 12 hour days - but very successful.
