Welcome to the Fleet and District Beekeepers Association
The Fleet & District Beekeeping Association (FBKA) exists to encourage, train and support local beekeepers to maintain healthy, docile and productive honey bees as well as advancing the education of the public in the importance of bees in the environment. We hold regular meetings and other events to promote best practice and further the craft of beekeeping and have many members in and around Fleet and surrounding towns and villages including Crookham, Odiham, Hook, Hartley Wintney and Farnborough. Over the last few years with the growing interest in beekeeping as a hobby, our numbers have continued to grow significantly.
Prospective beekeepers are always made welcome in our very friendly association. If you are interested in becoming a beekeeper, or just want to learn more about this fascinating hobby, you can download an introduction to beekeeping and our association here or use the contact form if you have a specific question.
We also have an informal "Beer and Bees" social gathering on the third Tuesday of each month at the excellent Coach and Horses pub in Rotherwick where all beekeepers or those interested in the subject are made most welcome. Next months meeting is on the 21st February and may include some fresh pancakes with honey! All members and those on the 2012 Beeginners course are most welcome.
A Christmas Present for Your Bees
This winter, as an added bonus to our members, we will prepare a bulk order of Oxalic Acid and Candy as a Christmas present for your bees!
Oxalic acid is used around the end of December to the end of January as a means of killing large numbers of Varroa mites that might have survived your Autumn treatment. Because we can almost guarantee that the Queen has stopped laying by now, any remaining mites are now surviving by attaching themselves to the bees, sucking their "blood". The Oxalic acid does very nasty things to the mites, but is harmless to bees. It's combined with sugar syrup so that when drizzled on the bees it makes them lick each others bodies to eat the syrup which dislodges the mites so that they fall off and die, keeping your bees free from parasites and disease - Huzzah and Hooray!
At the same time, you can give your bees a little present in the form of a pack of Bee Candy placed over the top of the frames and under the roof. Because of the size of the pack, you will probably need to use an eke, or alternatively if you have a poly hive you can use your rapid feeder, inverted and placed over the top of the hive, under the roof.
This extra feed will be eaten immediately if required and not stored so helps your bees survive a long winter.
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The Beekeeping Year
February - Is spring on the way?!
As I write this, there is several inches of snow outside, so hopefully your bees should be snug and warm in their hives with plenty of stores to feed them.
Now is a good time to plan your beekeeping activities for the rest of 2012. Have a think about your own personal development as a beekeeper - If you've kept bees for a year this Spring, we would encourage you to take the BBKA Basic Assessment and beyond this there are a number of written exams to test your knowledge as well as the General Husbandry Assessment for those more experienced beekeepers.
There are lots of workshops and lectures available throughout the spring to help add to your knowledge, particularly at the BBKA Spring Convention on the 20th-22nd April which this year is at the Harper Adams University College, Newport, Shropshire. It's a great place to socialise with other beekeepers across the UK and learn a bit more about this fascinating craft as well as having a huge variety of kit on sale at reduced prices from suppliers all over Europe.
With best wishes to you and your bees for the rest of 2012
Happy Beekeeping
Simon Cavill