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What a busy October we have had. Our annual Open Day at the Rand head office dawned bright and sunny, with well over 700 beekeepers attending throughout the day. The factory tours were full; entertaining talks were given by Tony Jefferson and Stewart Spinks, Lincs Beekeepers talked to beginners and all things Asian Hornet, and the sale areas were swamped with people looking for (and finding) bargains galore. The queue for the thirds sale started forming at 6am, and didn’t those first few eager customers deserve the pick of the bargains. We have listened to your feedback and next year the main undercover sale area will be doubled in size, making the shopping experience that little bit easier. |
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To round off the month we have attended the biggest and best honey show in the world – The National Honey Show at Sandown Park Racecourse in Esher. If you have never attended, please try to put it in your diary next year, it really is the highlight of the beekeeping calendar. |
The Autumn sale has now begun online and over the phone. The sale will run until 10th November so bag yourself a bargain and get ahead of your beekeeping preparation for next year. |
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Finally, we would like to say a big thank you to all our team here at Thorne. We have had an incredibly busy couple of months with branch sale days, Apimondia, Open Day and then the National Honey Show – as always, they have been brilliant. Thank you! |
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In a world of mass production and overseas manufacturing, it's getting harder to find beekeeping equipment that's made with real care and close to home. That is why we are proud of our Empire Smokers. They are not only expertly crafted, they are the only smokers still made in the UK. The perfect Christmas gift for any beekeeper! |
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Polycarbonate & Glass Candle Moulds |
We are currently offering 10% off our polycarbonate and glass candle moulds. The polycarbonate moulds are strong, crystal clear plastic moulds from Switzerland. We stock a large range of designs that produce excellent candles each time. The glass moulds are made from laboratory grade heatproof glass. These moulds produce flawless candles every time. Available in a wide range of diameters and heights. |
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In addition to our polycarbonate and glass candle mould sale, we have now added all appliqué wax to the offer — enjoy 10% off across the full range of colours, making it the perfect time to stock up. |
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Preventing Honeybee Starvation: Best Practices for All Year Round |
The invention of the moveable frame by Langstroth in 1850 has been as transformatory in beekeeping as the wheel has been for transportation. |
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Prior to the moveable frame, honey was harvested at the expense of the colony. It was a hunter/gatherer approach to honey collection – an opportunistic venture undertaken without regard to the survival of a colony. With the moveable frame, our relationship with the bee has changed and it has become more like that of a livestock farmer. |
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Through the invention of the moveable frame, the modern beekeeper provides a home for the bees and in exchange reaps the benefits through taking the honey crop or at least part. However, the relationship is not simply that of a landlord taking payment in kind. The modern beekeeper has responsibilities and the most fundamental of these is making sure the that the colony does not starve. |
Bees are amazing!! Even though a queen bee lives for a few years (normally five at the maximum) winter bees only last for months and summer workers burn out after only six weeks. The colony itself has the potential to exist forever. |
Of course, there are natural events and disease that may prevent a colony continuing ad infinitum but the biggest disrupter to the natural cycle is the beekeeper. Certainly, by taking the stores so painstakingly stockpiled by the bees the beekeeper risks losing the colonies that have so generously supplied the honey to go on our morning toast. |
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Unfortunately, the long days of summer are now over, and the active beekeeping season has settled down. For us, we always use this ‘down time’, to look ahead to winter and make sure that the bees are prepared to face the cold months. There is always lots of tidying, feeding and cleaning that goes on at this time of year. |
One of the main jobs this month has been to give the equipment a thorough clean. Brood boxes and floors have been scorched and scrubbed to make sure that any lingering pathogens are dealt with. Old combs have been removed too – this helps with disease prevention and also reminds us on a practical level roughly how many new frames of fresh wax we will need for next year. |
Another job we have been doing this month is checking the varroa mite drop from each colony. We have found that it can vary significantly from hive to hive. As we move through the winter months, we will keep an eye on this because this will help us to determine whether further treatment is needed. A winter treatment would probably be oxalic acid trickle during a cold spell when the colony is most likely to be broodless. |
Over the last few years, we have had a lot of wind at this time of year, so this month we have got straps ready to go on the hives in preparation! Fingers crossed, this will save any colonies whose hives get blown over because it will stop the hives coming apart. Even if they are toppled over, they may survive if all the components stay together. |
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You can see from this photo that the weather has really taken a turn for the autumnal and that the hives are still set out in a long line. One of this winter’s main jobs is to move the hives into a different layout, but as the bees are still flying on some warmer days, we can’t yet move the hives around. We will wait until the days are much colder for longer periods of time so that we can move them without fear of bees getting lost on their way back home. |
This month we have been doing a lot of hefting too. By lifting from the back and gauging the weight, we can get a good idea of how much food the bees have inside the hive. Some colonies are nice and heavy, while others may need a little extra feeding, but this is something that we will continue to monitor throughout the winter. |
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October is obviously not as busy in terms of inspections or swarm control as it is during the spring and summer, but it is still an important time of year. We are always busy cleaning, monitoring, securing, and planning for the year ahead which will hopefully help to get the bees through the winter as best we can. |
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Well done all! You kept our team busy at this year’s show with a record 2646 entries from 356 exhibitors in 25 different countries on display. Those of you who couldn’t attend can see some of the exhibits by watching Enid Brown, our Judges Referee, walk through the trade floor describing honey, confectionery, and craft entries; and Debbie Burney from Mrs Burney’s Bee Club on children’s entries among the presentations filmed live from the show.
Don’t forget to ‘Subscribe’ to the channel, it costs you nothing and is a great help to the show. |
Among the livestream videos are chats with some of our lecturers about their research, and some insights with Tony Ward and Lynda Marston-Weston from our major Wax Chandler sponsors into the modern wax industry with some interesting examples. We had a catch up with a returning visitor from Rodrigues, keeping bees in the middle of the Indian Ocean (no disease); the next International Meeting of Young beekeepers (IMYB), to be held in Northern Ireland next July; and many others. |
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Fabulous decorated beehive,
new class (126) for 2025 |
Bob Maurer welcoming a representative from The London High Commission of Tanzania |
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Across the coming year lectures from our main programme, recorded by our fantastic video team, will be released on the first Friday of each month at 5.15pm UK local time for you to visit or revisit from your armchair on our YouTube channel. |
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If you’ve never been to the show and are interested to know what you’re missing, you can catch an overview. |
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We look forward to seeing you at next year’s show, Thursday 22nd to Saturday 24th October 2026 at Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9RT, UK. |
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SAVE THE DATE! Big Give Christmas Challenge |
Bees for Development are building up to their biggest fundraiser of the year, The Big Give Christmas Challenge – Help Make Beekeeping Disability Inclusive. Beekeeping empowers people with disabilities to make a living and earn respect. 12% of Ugandans and 8% of Ghanaians have a disability. Employment opportunities are few and difficult to access and people with disability often face huge social, cultural and physical barriers and suffer chronic poverty. They need viable livelihood opportunities. Beekeeping helps alleviate poverty, provides good nutrition and medicine, helps address social inclusion and encourages people to protect their environment. |
As a result of this training Bees for Development aim to raise £100,000 to expand their work and with your donations they will train 300 beekeepers including men, women and young people, train bee champions to provide beekeeping mentorship and scale up and share their successful disability inclusive beekeeping model developed in Uganda with Ghana. From 2 December until 9 December all donations to Bees for Development will be doubled by Big Give’s Champions - meaning every donation will be DOUBLED. Please do save the date - you can be confident that your money will reach the people who need it most, read more details HERE |
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Kasule in his apiary ©BeesforDevelopment |
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Bees for Development Blog: Empowering Uganda’s Deaf Students |
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The Uganda National Apiculture Development Organisation (TUNADO) and Bees for Development are actively partnering with vocational schools for the Deaf in Uganda to deliver practical beekeeping trainings that create sustainable livelihoods for Deaf youth. |
The approach combines mindset change to inspire the young people to seek opportunities in apiculture, technical skills training in local style and top bar hives making, apiary establishment, while employing inclusive education methods where trainings are conducted in Ugandan Sign Language. |
Read the full blog story HERE |
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Hope supporting bee suit making training for tailoring students at Mbale Secondary & Vocational School for the Deaf ©BeesforDevelopment |
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Honey Farming
by R.O.B. Manley |
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"One of the great bee books of the last 100 years! It is written from experience of keeping large numbers of stocks over many many years. He gives the reader an insight to the craft - like no other." – Ann Chilcott |
Northern Bee Books (2012 repr.)
Softback & Hardback
306 Pages
£18.95 |
Reviewed by Ann Chilcott
Scottish Expert Beemaster and author of The Bee Listener |
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Honey Farming by R.O.B. (Robert Orlando Beater) Manley was written in response to the many letters received from the readers of his previous popular book, Honey Production in the British Isles. Honey Farming describes beekeeping practices from over a hundred years ago but most of this book stores gems of interesting and amusing information that remain relevant to beekeepers now. |
There are 13 chapters which are illustrated throughout by black and white photographs and drawings. They contain the following subjects; the author’s introduction to beekeeping and account of beekeeping last century, getting started in bee farming, climate, forage and apiary set-up, equipment, bee breeding, beekeeping over the seasons, swarm control, introduction of queens, moving bees, going to the heather, harvest, diseases and pests, and a final short chapter with advice for beginners. |
Honey Farming was written for experienced beekeepers and focusses on setting up a successful bee farming business. It was ahead of its time and different from other books available in the UK then. It reflects the thoughts and experiences of an open-minded and enterprising beekeeper. |
Manley is an entertaining raconteur and writes with acerbic wit. He describes the state of beekeeping at the end of the 19th century and the main big names in beekeeping—Cowan, Carr and Digges. He entertains with stories of how these great figures fought amongst themselves to be top dog in beekeeping. Manley moved away from the narrow-minded orthodox beekeeping mindset and took a risk in moving out of agricultural farming into beekeeping and relying solely on honey for an income. Bee farming was already established in the U.S in 1921 when Manley took the plunge, but he had no real role models to learn from here in the UK. Most beekeepers believed it was not possible to be a successful bee farmer in the UK climate and so Manley, along with his friend Mr. Gale, became two of the first productive bee farmers. |
Manley apprenticed himself to an experienced beekeeper for a year then set up his own successful business. He read widely and found that the American magazines were the most useful for honey farmers. He gives lots of good advice for the bee farmer starting out today including, “if you have no money, don’t go in for bee farming”. Back then, Manley advised anyone not to attempt to make a living from bees on fewer than 200 colonies. |
The chapters on moving bees and taking them to the heather are very useful and someone who has not done these things before will learn a lot. The information is also helpful to anyone studying for exams. |
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Tuesday, Thursday & Friday |
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Online and over the phone |
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