Members

The Buzz from the Branch News Letter – January 2026

Dear Members,

🥁🔔🎊HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE🎊🔔🥁
Here we are then, a new year of beekeeping awaits. What will the weather throw at us this time? Or more to the point what will YLAH throw at us?

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
Deadline payment date of 31st Dec has now passed. Please attend to your renewal and payment for 2026 with some urgency.

First Meeting of 2026
Thursday 8th Jan 7.30pm Kilmington Village Hall
We welcome David Packham. Hot topic is VARROA. David addresses how diseases are spread and how to avoid them, comb management and the arguments for and against treating Varroa. We look forward to seeing you.

***Date for your diary:***
This year is the time to focus on the Yellow Legged Asian Hornet.
So to start with AH in full focus, please do your best to attend our second meeting of 2026 on February 5th with Alan Baxter. He is coming all the way from Hampshire. His talk is entitled ‘Asian Hornet – Fit2Fight and Integrated Colony Management’. This is our joint meeting with West Dorset branch who we are always eager to welcome along.
YLAH has been found in West Dorset so it’s on our doorstep. A nest was destroyed in Swyre on November 19th on the coast south east of Bridport – Just 19 miles from Axminster. The threat of establishment has now become real.
We have done alot of work over the last two years at our local shows with a display and exhibits, educating the public about the Asian Hornet. BBKA has already acknowledged the value of Joe Public in reporting sightings. We have contributed to that.
If you haven’t before, I would urge you to listen to the Andrew Durham lectures on UTube. (There’s a man dedicated to his subject. The lessons to be learnt from his revelations about France, Belgium and Switzerland in the YLAH fight give much food for thought).
Make sure you have your Asian Hornet App on your phones.

What else can you do?
We still need more Verifiers please: We are very short of verifiers across the East Devon area. Please let me know if you would be willing to act as a verifier. This just means you will be contacted to check any sighting of an Asian Hornet, either live or a photograph so that time isn’t wasted when the insect is reported as seen. We need to collect as many names as possible.

Branch Committee 2026
We welcome Nigel Boulton onto the committee who has kindly stepped up to the role of Vice Chair. Also Andy Potter who fills a vacant seat. We look forward to working with them both.
So full committee reads:
President – Hilary Kirkcaldie
Chairman – Alasdair Bruce
Acting Vice Chairman – Nigel Boulton
Treasurer – Keith Bone
Secretary – Val Bone
John Badley, Nick Silver, Mary Boulton, Marion Coleman, Stan Wroe, Ralph Cox, Rhiannon Hodson, Andy Potter.

For those of you who were not present at the AGM, myself and Keith gave notice that we will step down at the 2026 AGM. Andy Potter is considering taking over as Treasurer but Secretary has yet to receive an expression of interest. Please come forward and have a conversation if you are even a ‘maybe’ and would like to know more.
I will continue as Membership Secretary but branch matters I need to pass on. We have 10 months to find my replacement but ideally would like those ten months to be a training and handover time so the transition is smooth. Please, please get in touch if you care about the branch and think you can contribute to its life going forward. Thank you.

***January 5th is the date to look out for the new passwords which you need in order to access the Devon Beekeepers website. Each of us will be e mailed the necessary passwords from DBKA.

***Saturday 17 th January 2026 Time: 1000 hrs. Devon Beekeepers AGM. This is a virtual meeting.
If you can tune into the meeting it will help ensure they are quorate and you will enjoy listening to the speakers. Clare Densley and Martin Hann will give a joint presentation on “Queen rearing made simple”.
Link should follow .

Val🐝

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