Shropshire Beekeepers' Association

 

 

Newsletter : April 2008

1.      Editor's Notes

At this time of year all the local Beekeepers’ Association Newsletters are full of advice, particularly for beginners, about how to carry out the first full inspection of the new beekeeping season. No one has offered to produce such an article for us and I certainly lay no claim to any expertise as a beekeeper. However, there is enough common ground in the various articles in circulation to put together some reminders for making a good start to the new season.

Assuming that you have been looking after your bees and that they have survived through the winter you will want to make a proper inspection as soon as the weather is warm enough (i.e. shirt-sleeve” temperatures: 16ºC/60ºF). Have a clear purpose - Ted Hooper’s ‘Guide to Bees & Honey advises 5 things to look for. Ivor Davis, who spoke to us last September, offers a convenient mnemonic (defra) in the current edition of Beecraft by presenting what are essentially the same points in the following way:

• disease and evidence of good health in the brood, including
• egg-laying by the queen. The availability of enough
• food to keep the bees going until the nectar flow begins and enough
• room for the expanding colony Finally colony growth that is at least
• average for the time of year in our part of the country.

2.      Forthcoming Meetings

The last indoor meeting of the season is on April 9th, beginning at 7.30 p.m. at Shirehall. The first item will be a brief Extra-ordinary General Meeting, called by the Chair to elect a Secretary for the Association to hold office until the AGM in October.

Following this the editor will give a talk on ‘An Outline History of Beekeeping’. This will be a broad survey rather than a detailed description, so if anyone has old beekeeping items that they would like identified or which they think would interest members, please bring them along - together with any anecdotes of past practices that would illustrate the old days.

The second meeting of the month, on Saturday April 26th (2.30 p.m. at Radbrook) is the first of our outdoor events. As mentioned opposite, this will include practical advice on setting your colonies up well for the season. We usually also organise a ‘bring & buy’ sale at this first meeting, so please bring along anything surplus to your requirements that might be welcome to others.

The following apiary meeting will be on Saturday 10th of May at a venue yet to be advised. Two topics are being considered. One is ‘Managing bees on oil-seed rape’ while the other is “Shook swarm and other comb replacemnent methods”. Further details next month.

3.      Granulation of Honey  (Robert Swallow)

All honey harvested in the British Isles with the exception of Heather honey will eventually granulate. The most important factors influencing this behaviour are the ratio of glucose to fructose in the honey and the ambient temperature. Apart from being unsightly, granulation, or crystallisation as it is also known, brings with it the danger of fermentation, which will not just spoil the visual appeal of the honey; it will also affect the taste and aroma, becoming unpalatable and useful only for the production of mead.

Honey is an unstable mixture of sugars and water as a consequence of there being an excess quantity of sugars dissolved than can naturally be supported in solution, it is a super-saturated solution which over a period of time will try to reach a stable state either by increasing the amount of water present or precipitating solid crystals of glucose out of the sugar solution. Crystals on the bottom of a honey jar indicate that granulation has begun. If the crystals formed are large they fall to the bottom of the container and build up to become a honey that contains a large proportion of coarse crystals with a weak sugar solution on the top. This provides ideal circumstances for natural yeasts to get to work and ferment the honey if the moisture content of the surface liquid honey is above approximately 19%.

As a further consequence of the balance of sugars there are variations in viscosity and a light honey is likely to commence granulating by the crystals falling through the honey to the base of its container whereas a viscous honey will produce fine crystals in the form of clouds, the particles of which are insufficiently heavy to overcome the viscosity of the honey and remain suspended rather than falling downwards, the honey becoming more and more cloudy and eventually becoming immobile. We also see fermentation take place if we leave honey exposed to the atmosphere, where effectively it is diluting itself by attracting moisture, this characteristic being described as the honey being hygroscopic i.e. it attracts moisture.

Although the sugar balance/glucose content is the fundamental cause, granulation can be initiated by seeding, caused by physical stimuli from particles such as dust, pollen, wax fragments from the extraction process and even minute air bubbles which have been entrained in the honey when it has been stirred or poured while it is being processed. Another cause is a small quantity of a rapidly granulating honey remaining in the super after extraction going on to trigger granulation in a subsequent crop, i.e. a super used for rape in spring, is extracted, and then used for summer blossom honey, which then granulates.

All the above are instigators of the granulation process, the speed of the subsequent granulation will then be influenced by the temperature of the honey. The temperature of the honey and its viscosity are important factors in granulation, viscosity is linked to temperature, being thinner when warmer. The temperature at which honey granulates most strongly is 14° C or 57° F.

From this point granulation reduces if the temperature is reduced (increasing viscosity) and at 10° C / 50° F or below no granulation will take place. Similarly if the temperature is increased above 21° C / 70° F honey will remain in the liquid state but suffer the disadvantages of degradation of flavour, a tendency to darken and also increase the rate of decomposition of diastase into HMF, which although not known to be harmful is required to be below 40 parts per million in honey offered for sale. Incidentally the HMF content could be considered to be an indicator of the ability of the honey to produce hydrogen peroxide, valuable as a biocide and so assist in maintaining the bacteria-free state of the honey. High HMF - low peroxide.

All these factors need to be taken into consideration when honey is prepared for sale and also when it is stored prior to sale. Unless we intend to sell set or soft-set honey it must be prepared using techniques that achieve the maximum postponement of the onset of granulation prior or following sale so that the consumer is not confronted with deterioration due to granulation soon after purchase.

To prepare liquid honey with the maximum storage life it has first to be heated sufficiently (by indirect means) to dissolve any particles of glucose and kill the natural yeasts whilst stirring periodically and then filtered to remove as much in the way of the physical contaminants of dust, pollen and wax fragments. Professor Dyce, who patented a process for reaming honey in 1928 recommended heating to 66° C / 150° F for fifteen minutes and then filtering through a mesh 100 mesh/inch (or 40 mesh/cm) in order to kill yeasts, liquefy any glucose crystals and minimise particulates. These operations are best combined, as the heated honey is not at all viscous and will pass through a fine filter acceptably rapidly. Following cooling at as rapid a rate as is possible the honey should then be allowed to rest for a few days at 20° C / 70° F in a warming cabinet to allow the small air bubbles to rise to the surface, which will also improve the clarity, before finally packing into jars. Many will blanch at the thought of heating honey to such a degree but the alternative is a rapidly granulating and hence unsaleable product.

4.      This and That - Western RBI Report for 2007 Part 3  (Dave Sutton)

During the year, more than 4500 queen bees were imported into the Western Region particularly from Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece and Italy. Inspectors carried out import checks on a proportion of these as required by the regulations. Inspectors were also involved in collecting honey samples on behalf of The Food Standards Agency and The Veterinary Medicines Directorate. 105 individual samples were obtained and each was tested many times for 9 groups of suspect chemicals. Unfortunately some traces of paradichlorobenzole (PDB), which used to be used control wax moth in stored comb, were pinpointed in one sample. Beeswax can take up this material readily and a part of it may later migrate into honey. Please do not use PDB – it could lead to bad news for home produced honey and beekeeping.

The threat of the exotic pests Aethina tumida (Small Hive Beetle) and the tropilaelaps mite have not gone away. It is now regarded as inevitable that they will appear in this country one day. All the NBU Regions have now carried out mock exercises to help improve our Inspectors’ techniques in examining hives for the presence of these pests. My team of Western Region Inspectors undertook one such exercise in the Bristol area recently. We were helped enormously by a willing beekeeper who had donated his apiaries. We quickly learnt that it is a very time-consuming and involved task to do the job properly. Each colony inspection takes an average of 40 minutes, compared to perhaps 15 minutes for a routine foulbrood inspection. It is clear that if ever these exotics were discovered then we would have to enlist the help of able and willing beekeepers from throughout the local area to support us in trying to contain any outbreak. Will you be prepared to undertake some training and respond if the call comes?

Just out of interest, during one of our exercises, a colleague ‘spiked’ some random samples of hive debris with very tiny ‘bits’ indeed from a dead hive beetle, which were then sent unbeknown to them to our CSL laboratory at York, mingled among the many other samples of hive debris. The ‘lab-boys’ detected all but one of these straightaway, and for the one that was dubious, they asked for an immediate re-inspection of that particular hive! Now, that gives you confidence, doesn’t it!

Now back to varroa, which is still the number one killer of bees throughout this country and indeed throughout the world. Do take care of your colonies by employing as many of the recognised and proven Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques as possible continually throughout the season in order to keep those damn mites well below an Economic Damage Threshold (EDT) at all times (generally accepted as being below 1000 mites per strong colony – pro rata for smaller units). Among these techniques are things such as Open Mesh Floors (OMF’s) - which should be in place all the year round - icing sugar dusting, drone brood culling, etc. etc. all of which should be undertaken regularly throughout the season.

So far this winter has been open and mild again, apart from one or two welcome frosts (did you put your stored supers and comb outside for a good freezing to kill the Wax Moth?). Bees have been flying freely on a number of days using energy and consuming their stores when normally they should be in tight cluster and quite torpid. With the coming of longer days brood rearing will begin to increase rapidly and any varroa mites that escaped your autumn and winter treatments will be happily reproducing and multiplying in there so be prepared for some emergency treatment sooner rather than later. Colonies will be making big inroads into their reserves of food, so keep an eye on your stocks and try to assess the food situation. If your stocks feel light when hefted, fondant can be fed in an emergency but avoid syrup until much warmer weather arrives.

Lastly, here’s a thought for you. My provisional figures suggest that there are 358 beekeepers in your local area, keeping 1906 colonies of bees. There may be 201 beekeepers of ‘unknown status’ that apparently own 897 colonies of bees and somewhere out there are 61 beekeepers who have given up, but ‘may return to the craft one day’. Are all of these people in your Association or Branch? If not, reach out for them!

Finally, my very best regards go to all individual beekeepers and your Associations and Branches, for all the co-operation, support and friendship that me and my team of Inspectors receive from you. Thank you all.

5.      Round and About  

Ludlow BKA: Sat 5th April 2008 Beginners’ Theory Day - Bishop Mascall Centre. (Sat 26th April 2008 Beginners’ Practical Day). Further information from the Secretary: Andy Vanderhook. Tel: 01299 841379

Wye Valley Beekeepers: Sunday Apr. 6th. 2.00 p.m. Annual Auction of bee-keeping equipment (N.B. no bees). 2.00 p.m. Bulmers’ Orchards, Lower Newton Farm, Kinnersley, Herefordshire. Details, contact June Williams, Tel: 01981 550320

BBKA: Spring Lecture Convention & Exhibition: Fri 18 - Sun 20 April at Stoneleigh Park, Nr Coventry. Trade sale day on Saturday from 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. Tickets & Programme from BBKA.

Oswestry BKA: Saturday, April 26 at 3 p.m. by invitation of Mr. & Mis. S. Humphreys, Nant y Wiber, Croesaubach, Oswestry. Demonstration and talk by Mr. B. T. Goodwin, President of Shropshire BKA. Details from secretary 01691 654448

Gloucestershire BKA: Saturday May 10th. 2.00 p.m. Annual Auction of bee-keeping equipment – including bees. 12 noon: Hartpury College. Enquiries: Rolf Ellis: Tel: 01242 571175

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