News for Beekeepers - helping bees thrive

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News for Cirencester Beekeepers 2011 End of Year Report Bee Base - are you signed up? >>>>>.... 4,289 additional beekeepers registered on BeeBase so far during 2012 leading to 28,509 registered in total as of November 2012. If you haven't already registered please do so and join your fellow beekeepers by visiting www.nationalbeeunit.com or by phoning the NBU on 01904 462510. By letting us know that you keep bees and the location of your hives, you will be helping in our ongoing battle against disease and our efforts to sustain honey bee populations. Courses and Training Opportunities Taster Day Becoming a Beekeeper BBKA Basic Training BBKA Modules Hands On Training BBKA General Husbandry These all give you an opportunity to improve your beekeeping skills. Please contact Liz Gardner for further information.

Cirencester & District wrap up of 2011 Would like to report on another great year, with a very supportive Chair in place, we started the year with many plans! And we are pleased to have accomplished most of them. The new starters are well on board helping at every opportunity, the committee has grown from strength to strength. Thank you to all involved. Many things happened at the start of the season, January we fenced & placed a shed on our 1st teaching apiary site, in some very cold conditions! Our first 6 week introduction to beekeeping and all day talk on general the beekeeping needs with lunch included. This was a wise move to have such experience, passing their knowledge onto keen new beekeepers' with plenty of more experienced ones listening inn, you can never know too much! In April we had our first on site apiary meet with our Seasonal Bee Inspector again starting with such experience and a great turn out from our members some looking into hives for the first time. Bees at this point had been leant to us by one of our members. Queen rearing started well, we managed to use & help some of our own members out with queen replacements when needed & we look forward to running a full programme in 2012, it's always good to have some spare queens! We now have our own bees, some bought and some have been kindly gifted to us. Thank you for your kind donations. Nine of our members took the Basic Beekeepers' Exam this year and all passed, Congratulations. More of our members are keen to take the Basic Exam in 2012. Our first winter study evenings, to recap over the year's beekeeping and any grey areas, have proved very successful, beats watching Eastenders, chocolate biscuits & tea gets most people there! Or is it just the opportunities to share bee experiences! We went to Tractor Ted Day & Cotswold Show to promote Bees & Beekeeping. We supported Gloucestershire at the Three Counties and many of us were spotted at the County AGM & the May auction. This year we held our own Honey Show at Siddington Grow & Show. We also had the pleasure of being involved in the MSWCC being local our members took advantage of so many excellent speakers. Some of us even went to Central Association Beekeepers' Weekend too. Our thanks for help, support & great talks and very helpful demonstrations goes to Will Messenger, Michael Hunt, Roger Eldridge, Ron Hoskins, Ivor Davies, Mike Nash, Meg Seymour, Brian Durk, Roger Houldey and Dave Maslen. And to All Committee and Members for their time during 2011. We hope to start 2012 by supporting all our beekeepers needs & to a good standard. Liz Gardner