Members

The Buzz from the Branch News Letter – April 2026

Our last winter meeting (with weather to match it seems) is coming up. Thursday April 2nd 7.30pm Kilmington Village Hall. Richard Simpson will give us in depth hints and tips on using bait hives.

It would be very helpful too if you have library books 📚📚 to please return them at the same time.

Swarms

The procedure for the request for swarms is as follows:
Please send your request to Stan Wroe Stanwroe@aol.com .
Please give him the following information.
Your name
Your home address
Your apiary address if different from home
A What Three Words location would be helpful
Your home landline number
Your mobile number
Your email address
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOURSELF AND YOUR HIVE IS READY TO RECEIVE THE SWARM.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR HARRY.

HARRY BURROUGH OUR EAST DEVON JUNIOR MEMBER graces the front cover of BBKA NEWS. We are delighted for his success at the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers.
Follow his selection story on page 23 and we look forward to hearing of his experiences in Belfast as a valued member of Team England.

HONITON SHOW THURSDAY AUGUST 7th 2026

DEFINITELY MORE STEWARDS NEEDED PLEASE for our Bees and Honey tent. 🐝🐝Let Keith have your name please. It’s our chance to showcase our craft and lots of opportunity for you to enter the competition as well. Trophies and prize money to be won but as always it’s the taking part that shows our spirit.
If show day is not for you but you want to help in other ways then there’s plenty of jobs to be done the day before. An empty tent at the start of the day needs to be transformed into a show tent by the days end, all prepared for the public. So a set up crew on Wednesday 6th, is an essential part of the event.

BBKA Insurance

All Devon’s members received an email on 9th March explaining that BBKA’s insurance policies have been updated in response to questions from members. The FAQs attachment you received is worth a look. (The document is stored in the BBKA Admin & Compliance section of the Member Hub: https://memberhub.bbka.org.uk/ for members to view or download at their convenience).

Branch Apiary

Bob reports the apiary bees have faired pretty well, (assuming that we’re out of a long cold and more importantly damp winter).
We have lost three colonies of the eleven which we took into the winter and two of those were lost early on. Whilst the monitored varroa drop was quite low during the summer we were surprised at how the mite drop shot up in December.
A beekeeper who had ceased to keep bees in Seaton had a swarm arrive in his Layens hive in the summer. Left to their own devices they thrived and without any feeding have come out of the winter as a strong and good tempered colony. They are living in a very des res mock tudor mansion at the end of the apiary.

Branch Secretary

At the risk of sounding like a broken record the countdown continues for the Secretary search. Seven months and counting.

East Devon Polo Shirts

There are a few polo shirts available from our last order £12 each.
If you are thinking of wanting to wear one for Devon or Honiton show then they do give us a smart unified presence. Mostly, medium and large sizes and they do come up quite roomy I’d say.

Beginners

Well done to all our beginners who entered the cake competition. It was a grand effort. Congrats to Emma, Chenoa and Alison for their winning entries and thanks to our judges Wendy and Helen.

Val🐝

YLAH
Please continue to be observant. Make sure you can recognise one and please spread the word that the Yellow Legged Asian Hornet is not welcome. It’s a huge threat to all pollinators, especially our honey bees. There are many references, articles, recorded talks etc on the web. Our branch website, Devon website and probably every beekeeper branch website up and down the country will have a dedicated section with plenty of info. If you see one at least take a photo as it’s the the best evidence for future tracking.

Orchard Site – Raymonds Hill. We have had a request for a member to keep bees in a newly planted orchard of 24 assorted fruit trees (the orchard is part of the garden). If anyone is interested please get in touch and I will give you the contact details for you to find out more.

Contacts:

Chair: Alasdair Bruce. chair24@edbk.co.uk

Treasurer: Keith Bone. charandale@gmail.com

Secretary: Val Bone. val.valbone@gmail.com

Swarms: Stan Wroe. stanwroe@aol.com

YLAH: Milly Frankpitt amelia.frankpitt@gmail.com