Ron Hoskins, 10 Larksfield, Swindon, Wilts. SN3 SAD.
Tel: 01793-525364.
e-mail: ron@honeybee.org.uk

NEWSLETTER 1. (June 2004)

• I have agreed to write the occasional newsletter for the members of the group. This is the first. They may not be very regular as they will be dependant upon the information being 'fed' to me so that I may pass it on. If you have anything interesting to pass on you should send it to me or these news letters may well dry up. OK?  I have sent the occasional information letter in the past but I have now agreed to become newsletter editor!

• Don't forget the next insemination meeting is to be held this month, Sunday 20th June at the BBKA HQ, NAC, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire starting at 9.30am. This is a 'practical' day of insemination; so if you have ANY equipment, bring it along. If you have queens or drones, bring them along, but most important, bring yourself along. We will be meeting in the conference room upstairs as there will be another meeting in the main hall downstairs, so please, when you enter, angle off to the right and upstairs, don't disturb the other meeting. For this day (and our group) to be a success please do not rely entirely upon other members attending and/or bringing their bits and bobs along, they may also be relying upon you doing the same! Result - no attendees and/or no bits and bobs. If we wish to progress we need every member to participate, just like a good honeybee colony - "All Workers - No Lazy Drones". (I pinched that phrase from the chairman of BIBBA - Thanks)

• Sorry to talk business, but may I remind those of you that have not yet paid their subscription, (£10 for 2004), that I shall have my receipt book with me. If on this occasion you are unable to attend, then please send me a cheque payable to the Instrumental Insemination Group. I have just deleted several names from our membership list, as I've had no response from them for two years. If I get no response from you this time this may well be the last contact you will receive!

• The last unofficial newsletter I sent out was firstly by email, which is obviously far easier for me, and less costly for the group, but several emails failed to get through and I then had to go snail-mail, which meant a delay. Email me your latest details if you can, even if only to confirm the address I have is in fact your latest. I am sending this to everyone by snail-mail on this occasion.

• In my last letter you were asked if you would like to submit a Logo design for our group. I showed one of Dave Cushman's as an example. To my knowledge, not one was submitted so Dave has agreed to do a bit of 'tidying up' on one of those he drew. The one above is one of his originals. When we have his 'final' we may wish to make a lapel badge of it, if we can find who offers such a service. Do you know who makes such badges?

• Several of us now have Harbo syringes with our I.I. equipment. This means we are in a position to take 100μl tubes of sperm and send or receive them anywhere in the world, (or just swap them among ourselves). This would give us access to a very wide gene pool. But... this would only be useful to those like-minded mono-strain breeders. To send sperm from A.m.m. to a Carniolan breeder would, if used, produce unpleasant hybrids. Therefore, if it is your intention to specialise I would like to record this in our membership register. I am a member of BIBBA and would like to go on record as one who is interested in breeding the Native Dark Bee. I am opposed to importing bees of any kind. Specialising in one type is not the aim of BIIG. Each member has the perfect right to use I.I. as a means to improve their own stock but should discount sperm swapping as an aid to that improvement.

• I use morphometry to check the 'nativeness' of my breeding program. There is an easy to use computer program called 'Beomorph' designed by Russell Talbot (£25) that makes these checks so easy, collating the results into an easy to read scatter-gram and bar chart. There is now another one (free). Albert Knight sent me the web address for downloading it. It looks excellent but as I haven't yet had the need to use it for this years bees, I cannot comment on its ease of use or the resultant info. The following is part of Albert's forwarded email:

Hi Albert!
> The CBeeWing program is for free as are still the CooRecorder program which I
> think you downloaded two years ago.
> You need both programs!
> You will find CBeeWing and all info about how to use it at
> http://www.cybis.se/forfun
> The info is found at the three links under the heading "The honey bee:"
> in the left column.
>
> With kind regards/Lars-Åke Larsson

• Stephen Loughborough has used his computer knowledge to help BIBBA with a breeding record program for computer that is now available, usually free from Albert Knight I understand,. I feel sure that this program will be on display on the 20th. Bring a floppy disk along if you want to take a copy. After each visit to your apiary you simply feed the 'hive info' into your computer awarding up to 5 'quality points' to each of your selected attributes and the program analyses the info. As the season progresses your best quality colony becomes the top of the list, aiding you make the decision of which one you should use for improved breeding selection.

• We have members in Ireland and the Isle of Man. At Stoneleigh we were able to put on a display that created a lot of interest. It also got us more members, one from Scotland who will be attending on the 20th. This week we have another new member, a lady from Guernsey who we will also meet on the 20th. Let us ensure they will not have a wasted journey. The group stopped being amateur last August. We are now professionals so see you all at Stoneleigh.