Wimbledon Beekeepers' Association

Welcome to the Wimbledon Beekeepers' Association

Coronavirus update:

In light of the Prime Minister’s announcement of the steps to be taken to combat the Corona19 virus, we will need to cancel our monthly meeting until further notice.

However, we are having our monthly meetings via 'Zoom'.

Please keep an eye out for further announcements as to WBKA activities during/while anti-Corona 19 measures are ongoing:- on the WBKA website, via email to Newsletter recipients; and in the WhatsApp chat groups. The gist is that all but essential WBKA activities will be cancelled or deferred.

In the interim, keep safe.

Your "Chair"

SWARMS

If you find a swarm contact your local council's Environment Officer, or local Police Station, who will arrange for a qualified Beekeeper to give suitable advice for the safe removal of it.

Alternatively, for those in the local area, Wimbledon Beekeepers' Association offers a swarm collection service to the public. If you find a swarm contact the Swarm Secretary on:

07835 322771

Please note that we are unable to deal with Wasps, Bumblebees or Masonry Bees.

The Wimbledon Division of the Surrey Beekeepers' Association is an organisation of Beekeepers, who operate in the London Borough of Merton and its surrounding areas. Every year we organise beginners' courses and a variety of educational and social events for our members.

Click here to download our leaflet for more information

There are a number of divisional apiaries in secluded places where members can keep their bees, although many prefer to use their own gardens. Members receive the following:

Meetings

Lectures

Diagnostic bee disease checks

BeeCraft magazine each month

WBKA newsletter

BBKA Newsletters

Product liability insurance

Bee Disease Insurance

National representation from the BBKA

Lots of training, advice and support

They may also demonstrate their skills by exhibiting high quality honey, mead, beeswax and cakes at competitions and shows. Our season ends with our own Honey Show in November, where members can exhibit their bee products and compete for awards and prizes.

Interested in Bees?

The joy of keeping bees is that they never fail to surprise you. Observing them working in their hive and organising their lives around the changing year is simply fascinating. One of the rewards for the beekeeper, of course, is honey. Honey produced by your own bees undoubtedly tastes far superior to almost any that can be found in the supermarket.

At some point humans began to domesticate wild bees in artificial hives made from hollow logs, wooden boxes, pottery vessels and woven straw baskets or 'skeps'. This domestication was well developed in Egypt. Even sealed pots of honey were found in the grave goods of Pharaohs, such as Tutankhamun, which was still edible when it was excavated.

Globally, there are more than 20,000 species of wild bee but only four produce honey. Many are solitary, like mason bees and bumblebees, these rear their young in burrows and small colonies. Beekeeping, or apiculture, is concerned with the practical management of the social species of honeybee, mainly the European Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera), that live in large colonies of up to 100,000 per hive!

We hope that this website will inspire you to join your local association, wherever you are, and enjoy the rewards that beekeeping brings.

The Different Types of Bee

(Click pictures for more information)

The Honey Bee