OKEHAMPTON Beekeepers’ June meeting was hosted by Simon O’ Sullivan and saw more than 20 members attend ranging in age from 11 years.

The meeting was held on the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures in the high 20’s.

Simon’s bees were very accommodating despite the warm conditions and a fair amount of disturbance from multiple simultaneous inspections.

With such good attendance, the meeting split into four groups with inspections performed by Simon, Neil Lamey, Liz Ledsham and David Wolley.

Simon described to us Demaree manipulation that he had performed on one hive to prevent swarming. This involved separating the queen and the flying bees from the brood.

The hive is first removed from the hive stand. The queen is placed in a new brood box filled with foundation and this is placed on the hive stand.

Simon also showed us a colony where he had performed a Bailey Comb change, although he suspected that the colony had also swarmed following this exercise.

David’s group searched through a colony which we hoped had raised a new queen. We were unable to find her and it was difficult to spot any eggs or brood, but the general placid demeanour of the bees plus evidence of pollen being collected indicated that the colony was now queen-right.

This large meeting included several new to beekeeping and it was encouraging to welcome new young members to carry on the craft.

The afternoon ended with a generous “bring and share” tea.

Our next event is a “Bee Health Day” at Bow Village Hall tomorrow, Saturday, July 1. Simon Jones, the Regional Bee Inspector for the South West will be supported by a team of Seasonal Bee Inspectors and the day will focus on identification and prevention of bee diseases.

WP