Equipment & Bees
Bees and equipment for sale
Beekeeping items are also starting to appear on EBay nowadays and this does provide a convenient method of buying and selling equipment.
NB Only purchase honey extractors that are made from stainless steel or food grade plastic. Recent legislation prevents the use of tin plated or galvanised extractors on honey sold to the general public.
Equipment wanted
Members retiring or leaving beekeeping are encouraged to offer their equipment to the Branch for sale to new beekeepers. Anyone with equipment for sale is asked to contact Ray Dowson.
Bees for sale
The Branch will endeavour to supply new members with a three or five National frame colony of bees for a fixed fee. The colony may originally have been a nuclei, a captured swarm or surplus to a member's requirements. All the bees supplied by the Branch will be based on the native black bee. New Branch members should contact Ray Dowson who will coordinate supply. Bees will be supplied on a first come, first served basis and any orders for a second colony will go to the end of the priority list.
Equipment for hire
The Branch has two sets of honey extraction equipment available for the nominal hire charge of £1.00 per day. Edwina Abbott at the Out Apiary is responsible for equipment hire. Inevitably everyone wants to use the equipment at the same time, so please book an extractor as early as you can and return it on the day and time that you agree with Edwina. You must ensure that the extractor you hire is returned clean and not sticky. This is so that the next person to hire it can use it straight away, without Edwina having to clean it first.