Our apiary manager, Dave Bennett, with the assistance of SBI John Beavan, has come up with a list of dates on which specific training will be given at the apiary. Hopefully this will give our members chance to gain hands on experience with some aspects of beekeeping with which they are not familiar. Looking at the list of topics there should be plenty to intyerest the novice and intermediate beekeeper, and those with more experience might want to get a different perspective on things or even help out if demand is high.

Each of the sessions is planned for 90 minutes, starting at 10:00 am, though I imagine that sticking to these times will be subject to the vaguaries of the bees, the weather and whatever social interactions break out. Note that the family day in June will be in the afternoon, starting at 2pm.

Additionally Brian Goodwin will be giving some more general bee keeping courses at Grgynog. See here for details.

January Oxalic Acid Treatment

The date of the January Oxalic acid treatment cannot be fixed in advance, so if you would like to attand that one, you must give Dave a phone number/e-mail address so that he can let you know when it will be.

The bees will rest during February

Sunday March 18th - Spring Inspection

This session will cover what to look for in the spring, focussing on feeding and Varroa control.

Sunday April 22nd - Continued Spring inspections

The bees should be livelier by now, so there should be plenty of things to look out for.

Sunday May 13th - Swarm Control and Making Increase

This is vital information in the current situation where feral colonies are struggling to survive and replacing losses of kept bees is an ongoing battle.

Sunday June 17th - Family Day - 2pm in the afternoon

This will be split into two groups, parents in one and children in the other. Bring your children, grandchildren or interested nieces and nephews. Most children find bees fascinating and last year this event was a big hit. Definitely bring picnic things!

Sunday August 19th - Preparing to take off the Honey

Removing honey (yum). This is what a lot of bee keepers are in it for!

Saturday September 15th - End of Season and Pre-Winter Inspection

Varroa treatment and the pre-winter inspection are covered at this meeting.

All courses are free to MBKA members, but please do let usknow if you are hoping to attend one or more of the

All courses are free to MBKA members, but please do let usknow if you are hoping to attend one or more of the meetings. Not only is it useful for planning that we know attendance numbers, but courses may get cancelled if there is little or no interest. Either fill in the slip posted with the Christmas dinner invite, or contact Dave by phone or e-mail.