{"id":973,"date":"2024-07-15T17:10:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T16:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbka.info\/?page_id=973"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:19:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:19:54","slug":"apiary-meetings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mbka.info\/?page_id=973","title":{"rendered":"Apiary Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At Home August<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roedd ein ‘Cyfarfod Adre’ yng ngwenynfa Sion Goronwy yn wych!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our ‘at home’ meeting on Sunday 20th August was at Sion Goronwy’s apiary near Bala. For once it was warm and dry! Bees and beekeepers were happy. There was a good mix of old and new faces and plenty to discuss while opening the hives, before retiring for a very civilised cup of tea, sandwiches and cake and more bee talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diolch Sion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MBKA Summer Social<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday the 4th of July we met at the Association Apiary for our Summer Social and BBQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light rain showers meant that we couldn’t do the planned health inspection on the hives but instead Paul talked about how, when and how to carry out such an inspection. Julia then shared some tips for entering in the honey show at the County Show in August which this year will be in Tywyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then moved on to the BBQ and a truly wonderful spread organised and cooked by Mark and John. It was a great opportunity to meet up and talk beekeeping. The weather could have been kinder but did not dampen our spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AT Home, June<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Pearce hosted this month’s meeting at his apiary in Tywyn. The turnout was good, but June’s very unpredictable weather played a role:
“We had about a dozen for our open apiary this afternoon. The weather was not so kind, so only one hive was inspected (a newly arrived catch), then we switched to the wet weather programme!
Much tea and cake. One new beekeeper and a few partners interested in learning more. A fun few hours.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plas Tan Y Bwlch, May<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MBKA apiary bees have generally been doing very well during this year’s warm dry spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main task for the day was doing a shook swarm of a colony that was on rather old frames in a poly National hive. Their new home is a Langstroth hive kindly donated by Carole and Mike Beavis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bees were very happy and well behaved – even those being shook onto new frames. The weather probably helped. Some colonies had already been split so those raising new queens were left alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of nectar is being collected and one colony in particular (#3) is making honey almost faster than we can get the supers on there. The hive did have 3 supers but they were virtually full already, the 3rd only having been added a week ago. They are strong, so we added 2 supers on Saturday, but one of those came from the colony that we shook-swarm so wasn’t empty. #2 is also collecting well so we added 1 super to the 2 already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another colony was re-hived from a nucleus box it was bursting out of into a full hive. We would have put more supers on colonies if we’d had them (or rather had the frames to put in them) but a group will be visiting next weekend (with the beginners group) with more supers to add.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First “At Home” of the year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 26th April one of the MBKA’s newer member’s hosted a gathering at the apiary on her farm.
Arora is in her first year of keeping bees and currently has three colonies.
The “At Home” meetings were put on hold during the pandemic, but we are now trying to get back to more frequent visits. The benefits to members new and old cannot be overestimated, in terms of both sharing beekeeping knowledge and social contacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plas Tan Y Bwlch, September<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We met at the Association Apiary on Saturday 28th and managed to open hives between showers. We checked the varroa floors and opened the brood boxes briefly to check they have stores. The varroa levels varied quite a bit and some will need treatment. Some were left with supers as there was not enough stores in the brood box and some will need feeding, while we were able to extract a small amount of honey from the strongest. We took the opportunity to move any old, black brood frames that were empty of brood to the edge of the box ready to be replaced in the Spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plas Tan Y Bwlch, July<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday the 24th we met at 12.30 for a picnic and it was lovely to be able to chat with beekeeping friends in the sunshine. Paul Pearce then showed us how to adapt an inexpensive hornet trap to catch the yellow legged hornet with minimal or no bi-catch. Liz Childerley then spoke to us about disease inspections and we were just about to decamp to the apiary to put that into practice when the heavens opened. It was a heavy downpour and was not about to pass over quickly so the disease inspections were abandoned, hopefully to be carried out at a later meeting. So, no practical beekeeping, but a lot of useful information being shared and lots to take in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plas Tan Y Bwlch, May<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plas Tan Y Bwlch, October<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather was kind to us for our last apiary meeting of the year at the Plas Tan Y Bwlch apiary on Sunday 22nd October. This is the first year we’ve had an apiary meeting in October, but since somebody needed to feed the colonies, check equipment and generally prepare for Winter, we decided to make a meeting out of it and use it to discuss Winter preparations as well as getting the necessary work done. We had 3 new beekeepers turn up to help and it felt very worthwhile being able to answer their questions and discuss beekeeping at this time of year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A lovely day for our May apiary meeting<\/strong>. The bees were happy and all very well behaved. Our members enjoyed the chance for some beekeeping chit chat over ice cold drinks afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n