I hope that I will look back on 2001 as a successful year on Kenwood Apiary. It started well although
after a fairly mild Winter, the frequent rain meant that it was a long time before the colonies could be closely examined. In the meantime, I put fondant on every hive in case stores were running out.
March 19th Judith came to see `Barry`s Hive` which is the one that she is sponsoring in memory of her father. She seemed very happy with the whole project. The apiary still looks attractive even on a cold wintry day.
In late Spring the hives were treated with formic acid as a precaution against the Acarine mite.
The Beginners Classes were, as usual, well attended. 7 members decided to Adopt a Hive, so, I set up 3 colonies and 1 nuc. Over the season all the colonies did well and one had to be artificially swarmed. Two of the adopt a hive members could not maintain the commitment but the remaining five looked after their bees extremely well. I thoroughly enjoyed all our apiary meetings.
Barry`s Hive also prospered which meant that there was honey for the Association to sell to Kenwood House. It is very popular in their Shop. Many thanks to Margaret Jarvie for extracting, bottling and delivering it…..and yet her kitchen is never sticky !
In late May Martin and myself started Queen Rearing : you may have seen the twenty small nucs (Apideas) around the edge of the apiary. This was brought to an abrupt end when James Morton came for the annual inspection on July 18th and EFB was found in one hive. He did query one or two of the other colonies but test samples from these were healthy.
I am so glad that James has such a good eye for spotting anything doubtful. As the infection was in an early stage , it was decided to treat the colony with antibiotics and then replace all the frames as soon as it is feasible. The colony has continued to be strong and it went into the Winter with plenty stores and no further sign of disease. Unfortunately, when James came for an inspection in September, another colony was found to have the disease. It was already late in the Season and the colony was not particularly strong so it was decide to destroy it. Even if treated with antibiotics, it could have died during the Winter and been robbed. So I dug a 3ft deep hole and, on October 2nd, James and myself killed the bees and put them in the hole and burnt them along with the frames, brood, wax and stores. Every part of the actual hive was scorched.
I intend to be even more generous with replacing foundation as a way of combating infections.
There were 17 Apiary Meetings last year. Some days it was very busy and it was a pleasure to see so many people. This year I have asked for help with the Adopt a Hive members and it has been decided that they will be taught by a rota of about 6 or 7 very knowledgeable members and this will free me to speak to other people who come to the apiary and to discuss their ideas and problems more easily.
I would like to thank Johan for being a super Assistant Apiary Manager. He was very busy at Work last year but he still managed to teach and work on the apiary and when he could not come along, Lizbet was there, clearing the pond and mowing the grass. They are a real asset.
Luckily Johan was able to attend the Apiary Meeting on 9th September as I, unexpectedly, had to be elsewhere. I phoned the people who been coming along to Meetings on a regular basis and said that I would be at the Apiary the previous day if they would prefer to come then and some people did this. I thought it was unnecessary for one of our other members to write a letter to Robert Carpenter Turner complaining that I had not informed everybody.
All supers were treated with acetic acid in October.
The Observation Hive has been in use throughout the Summer and until recently was still alive and well in Steve Benbow`s house. I expect that he will give us an up date at the AGM in February.