Meetings

New branding

SWBK has introduced a fresh new logo designed by one of our members, Ali Norden. This logo will give the division an instantly recognisable identity.
Ali is in her words "a Graphic designer, illustrator, nerd & dog lover". She is also a beekeeper.
You can see more of her designs on the alisonnorden.com website.

Meetings

Christmas get together

Helen, waiting with a warm welcome as we arrived for the Christmas get together.

It was a fairly good turn out for the Christmas get together on Friday night at “Pam’s Place” in Thaxted despite it being a very chilly evening, winter has arrived!
Helen was there to greet us all with the heating on and a lovely hot drink or a glass of wine or beer. She then offered us some very nice sausages in buns, mince pies and assorted nibbles! Thanks Helen much appreciated.
It was such a treat to see each other again “face to face” and to be able to chat and ask “how are your bees?” or “much honey this year?” and to be able to ask those awkward questions quietly that you might not want to add to the group whatsapp. Zoom was a good stop-gap but there is nothing quite like a “proper” meeting. Particularly for the "newbies" in the group, a good chance to pick the brains of the more experienced beekeepers. I think this might be the first meeting at Thaxted since late 2019 or early 2020. It’s good to be back in this lovely cosy venue!
Tony gave us a very interesting talk on his and Linda's travels over the years and beekeepers/bees that they have observed en-route. The talk covered trips to Crete, Malta, Costa Rica, Malaysia and Indonesia! They've done some miles!
The audience were fascinated with Tony’s tales of apis dorsata, giant honeybees found in Indonesia! Their comb is built very high up in trees and is huge. These bees are very big and fairly mean and can give you a nasty sting. A google search at the meeting revealed that their sting can cause some very unpleasant symptoms including gangrene, severe illness and even death!
Amazingly the local people climb the trees and harvest the comb into a bag, bees and all! No Sheriff Bee Suits for them. Lord knows how they deal with the stings. Tony very wisely gave them a wide berth. He didn't seem to be too keen on the mead produced from the honey either, it contained a few too many bits of bees and other insects for his liking.
Douglas then entertained us with a story of his recent encounter with a “wasps” nest which actually turned out to be some very grumpy European Hornets. Apparently their stings really do hurt! He survived the mission and can laugh about it now. He blamed his elder brother Robert of course!
After the talk there was further opportunity for a glass and some more chat before we headed back out into the cold. Thanks to Steph and Helen for organising the evening. There were a few absent friends at the meeting, we wish you all well and hope to see you at the next one.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the AGM on January 20th 2023.
Happy Christmas to you, your families and your bees in the meantime.


Lizzie Beard 5/12/2022

Apis dorsata. Scary, giant bees of Indonesia!