Training Apiary & Garden Spring Clean-up – CANCELLED due to COVID-19

Apiary Clean-up, 4th April, Marlborough School, Woodstock

 

All members are invited to the spring apiary clean-up at Marlborough School, Woodstock. The clean-up is a social occasion where we get the bee-friendly garden into shape for the season ahead, and do a little preparation work on the bee equipment.

There will also be a number of items for sale by auction: A petrol rotary mower, a leaf sweeper, a horizontal poly hive with various sections, 2 manual honey spinners and 3 beekeeping Sweatshirts XL size (see below for pictures). If you’re interested you can email me for more details or to leave a proxy bid.

We meet at about 10:30 mainly for work in the garden. Please bring gardening tools and be prepared to do a bit of weeding, pruning and general tidying. We also clean some beekeeping equipment and we encourage people with less experience to get involved with this as it’s a way of learning how to keep your own equipment clean and disease free.

We break for lunch at about 12:30. We will supply lunch which may include a barbecue, weather permitting.

About 13:15 we return to the apiary, weather permitting, where Mark Lynch, one of the seasonal bee inspectors will inspect the bees for the start of the season, particularly looking for signs of disease and give us an update on any new issues or info from the National Bee Unit. This is a good opportunity for new beekeepers to observe an experienced bee-keeper doing a health inspection. You will of course need protective clothing including boots which should be clean and free from any traces of wax, propolis etc from your own apiary – we don’t want to introduce disease to the teaching apiary. There are some bee jackets available to borrow on site. We usually finish by about 16:00.

All are welcome. Hope to see you there.

Sandra Simpson, Apiary Manager

 

Bee Garden Tidy-up on 4th April

 

In addition to cleaning the apiary 4th April, we spend time tidying the apiary garden which is next to the teaching apiary. This is a wild garden that provides a range of flowers enjoyed by the bees. The garden is also used by Marlborough school pupils for ecology and botany studies. By looking after this garden, we support the school and also supply the bees with a local source of nectar, pollen and water (the pond). There has been a fair bit of damage to some of the old trees so anyone who has a chainsaw would be very welcome.

Could helpers bring their own gardening gloves and tools?

On the 4th April we will be providing a lunch of hot dogs and soup + tea and coffee. If anyone wants to supplement the offer with homemade cakes or biscuits they are always very welcome.

Gillian, Merilyn and Lynn, our team of regular gardeners, would be very interested to hear from anyone who would like to help look after the bee garden, which is next to our apiary. Please contact Gillian or any of the team if you are interested

Gillian Oliver
g.oliver185@btinternet.com