THE BEGINNING OF THE GBKA APIARY AT THE GSPCA

On the 11th February 2018 the majority of the bee colonies were moved from the old apiary in St Peters to the GSPCA site. Once the bees were safely re-homed Damian gave a talk at the GSPCA training room -- amongst the topics covered was the the Asian Hornet strategy -- Asian Hornet traps and sachets of attractant plus fondant were also available for purchase.

Damian also introduced a programme for the Bee Keeping Year and hand-outs were available.

The move went well and a few images of the event are shown here.








IMPORTANT

GBKA APIARY - HYGIENE

THE KEY ISSUE IS TO PREVENT THE TRANSFER OF ANYTHING WHICH MAY BE CARRYING DISEASE OR PESTS BETWEEN ONE COLONY AND ANOTHER.

The duty apiarist or the individual responsible for the visit to the apiary must ensure there is a suitable sized container for a number of hive tools.

Fill the container with a high concentration sodium carbonate solution and put the hive tools in the solution, so they are completely covered and have several minutes in the solution before they are used on a colony.

Ensure that the beekeepers wear disposable gloves, over their gauntlets if necessary. These are to be used once only, and disposed off at the end of the visit.

Bee suits and boots should be clean, and have had a sodium carbonate treatment as part of the washing cycle.

To minimise transmitted diseases, it is most important that no other used equipment is brought from any other apiary to the GBKA site.