Canalside Community Bees AGM

We will hold our AGM on Thursday 17th October, at 7.30pm, upstairs at the Fox and Vivian pub at 32 Clarendon Avenue. This will be an opportunity for you to hear about the past year in beekeeping. We will discuss some ideas about how to improve the bee club in the coming year, and also have a talk about sustainable beekeeping using "Warre" hives - a smaller style of fixed top bar hive.
Members of CCB will be able to pick up their share of the honey harvest. If you cant come to the AGM, you can pick up your honey at a future bee club meeting.
If you did not join the bee club this year, you are very welcome to come along to the AGM to learn more about what we have been up to. We will be offering people the chance to join early for next year. You will only be able to purchase honey if there is still some remaining after all current members have purchased.
Hope you can come!

Date of Talk Changed! - Now 25th April

We have changed the date of the talk by Chris Parks. It will now take place on Thursday 25th April at Oddfellows Hall, 6 Clarence Terrace, Warwick Street, Leamington Spa, CV32 5DL. The talk will start at 7.30pm and tea and coffee will be served after the talk and before the discussion time. All are welcome. £2 entry. Free for members of Canalside Community Bees.

Upcoming Talk - 18th April

We have booked a really interesting speaker to give an evening talk on Thursday 18th April. Chris Parks keeps bees in straw skeps and top bar hives both of which could be considered more 'natural' ways of beekeeping. He will talk about his experiences. He will also share his interest in the heritage of honey. All in all it should be a facinating evening. More details will be posted up once we have booked the venue.

April 6th Apiary Meeting - Planting the Nectar Garden

The next apiary meeting will be on April 6 when we will be planting our nectar garden (as long as this cold weather has ended by then!). We have bought a large selection of organic nectar and pollen producing plants which will help the bees to have food throughout the summer. We will be planting these amongst the fruit trees near to the apiary at Canalside Community Food (CCF), Southam Road, Radford Semele. We will meet at 2pm at the CCF Barn. There will be a social event at CCF that day so there will be a lot of people around. If you are not a member of CCF then please make yourself known / ask for a bee club member! Any questions, email us at canalsidecommunitybee@yahoo.co.uk.

Workshop on making balms and creams from honey and wax

Dinah and Helen went on an excellent course where they learned to make body butter and lip balm using honey and wax (amongst other things). They will be sharing their skills in a workshop for bee club members on 7th Feb in Cubbington. If you are interested then please email canalsidecommunitybees@yahoo.co.uk for more information. Numbers will be limited  so hurry and book your place.

French Bees Create Blue Honey

Check out this great story
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120009-French-Bees-Create-Blue-Honey-After-Raiding-M-Ms-Factory

Honey extraction and sticky fingers!

We borrowed the mobile extractor from the Warwick and Leamington beekeepers Assoc and had a fun morning uncapping and spinning frames then jarring up the honey.  Just enough for 2 jars each for honey share members and none for sale to others. At least we got some honey which is more than a lot of local beekeepers. Here are some photos...