Oxalic acid treatment, the basics, gardening and a new angle.

I'm planning to treat all the colonies on the Apiary with Oxalic acid next Saturday (2nd February), weather permitting.   As usual I read through a selection of the articles to be found on the internet just to confirm my recollection of the procedure. Last year the Gurus told me “choose a warm day to minimise trauma due to exposure”. This year the majority advice was “choose a cold day when the bees are tightly clustered on the comb”! Apart from this the advice was similar. Will next Saturday be warm or cold? Whatever, as long as it isn't raining the bees are getting the treatment. Any Beekeepers who want to observe, help, learn or pass on their ideas of how to do it are welcome to attend. I’m aiming to be on site at 10.00am –ish and expect to get ‘wound up’ at around 11.00am.

At our last committee meeting the suggestion was made that some Dartford Beekeepers might like to sit the BBKA Basic Assessment in 2013 and that the committee should make a plan to facilitate this. I suggested that prospective candidates might like to meet on the Apiary to work on the practical aspects and quiz one another on the theory required by the syllabus. As I may have mentioned before Beekeepers are always ready to offer a little constructive criticism and mutual support could be a good way to proceed. Bill Mundy has offered to help where he can and the Apiary facilities will be at our disposal (yes I’m going for it myself!) The link below will take you to a downloadable pdf copy of the syllabus - http://www.bbka.org.uk/files/library/basic_syllabus_2013_1354100470.pdf If you’re interested let Kevin Garood know so that you’ll be ‘in the loop’. Since writing the above, I've had a look at the syllabus, oh boy, we've got our work cut out. There's a lot to learn!!

Colin "the dynamo"Mann, who did most of the hard work on the Apiary, has moved and now resides in Somerset, how inconsiderate  can you be? Nigel Lincoln has offered  to help manage the Apiary in Colin's place and I am duly grateful to him and keen to get his angle on the job. 

Barry