As you will all know, this year’s show is to be held on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th August. The Bees, Honey and Wine Section is again hoping to have a Honey Tasting and Sales stand with a number of types of honey from around the area supplied by members from any of the Shropshire Associations.

In order that we can get some idea of the number of people who would like to supply honey, it would be helpful if you could contact us by July 31st. So that everyone is given a fair opportunity to offer honey for this stand, there may be a cap on the amount that each individual can supply. This level has yet to be decided along with the selling price, although the latter may be based on £5.00per lb. A deduction will be made from the selling price to help with the costs of staging the Show. Each supplier is expected to help steward the Bees, Honey & Wine Section at some time over the two days.

If you would like to offer honey or have any questions, please telephone Ray Green on 01743 465079 or 07946 501975 or email him at berwickbees@connectfree.co.uk

4.      Bumblebee Behaviour by Bill Block

Bumblebees flying in the garden in January, well before the snow falls of last winter, prompted me to read recent literature to find out if survival over winter had increased. Bumblebee colonies usually collapse at the end of summer in Britain, when the old queen dies and its daughter queens hibernate, emerging to start their own colonies in the following spring. Apparently, there is increasing evidence of a second generation of bumblebees active during winter, due to warmer winters and the availability of food throughout winter, in the form of exotic, winterflowering plants in gardens (see:Stelzer, R J, et al).

Researchers at Queen Mary College, University of London used automatic radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology to tag and monitor individual bees in colonies established on the roof of the College! Weighing bees before and after foraging trips (261 trips) showed that, on average, 100mg of nectar per flight were being brought in, about half the body weight of the bee.

Foraging trips were short, 20 minutes on average, but from which plants were they getting the nectar and pollen? As very few native British plants flower during winter, the research team undertook monitoring of bumblebee activity on imported (non-native) evergreen shrubs in Kew Gardens over winter.

Popular plants were seen to be Mahonia, strawberry trees and honeysuckles. It is suggested that urban areas (especially parks and gardens) provide a valuable source of exotic flowering plants supporting winter-active colonies of bumblebees. Another possibility is that interbreeding between local native bumblebees and other subspecies, imported from warmer climates to pollinate tomato and strawberry crops, has contributed to the increase in winter activity. So can we expect to see many more winter-active honeybees with climate warming and increased honey yields in areas with lots of non-native winter-flowering plants?

Stelzer, R J, Chittka, L, Carlton, M & Ings, T C (2010) Winter active bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) achieve high foraging rates in urban Britain. PLoS One, 5(3): e9559. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009559

From Cambridgeshire BKA Newsletter: Late Spring 2010: Courtesy eBEES)

5.     A Striking Story   (To be read while relaxing in the garden)

Members of the International Sisterhood of Egg layers, Local 1851, are set to vote this week on a strike action against Sweet Bee Honey Corporation. At issue is Sweet Bee’s new mandatory retirement age of two years for queen bees. The policy was announced on March 1, and drew an ominous hum of indignation from egg layers across the company’s 1200-hive operation. “It’s completely arbitrary. It’s not even a matter of individual ability,” buzzed Myrtle, a 26-month-old queen who declined to give her last name. “They just assume we’re too old and can no longer do the job.” Myrtle was summarily dismissed as she reached her second anniversary at Sweet Bee; just weeks after the new policy took effect. She was able to find work in a nearby observation hive, and while she considers herself lucky, she acknowledges that this is a huge demotion for her. “This used to be where old, worn-out queens went to die,” she mused. “I love my hive-mates and am treated well by my keeper, but it’s not the same as running a full-scale production hive. I need to be challenged.”

“It’s just not fair,” complained Rosie Romano-Ortis-Petrova-Schultz- Bertolli- Bremer-Maggiano-Boehner-Milosevic-Anderssen-Bommarito-Yurovich-Hegel, a 22-month-old single mother of 54,371. “I feel like I’m just coming into prime production age. I’ve got a lot of mouths to feed, and now I have to worry about one day being plucked out of my work station like some yellow jacket, and tossed out into the grass, or worse.”

Sweet Bee officials declined to comment for the record, citing ongoing negotiations. But one high-level manager, speaking on condition of anonymity, called it “a matter of simple economics. It is true that you can’t put a definitive age on productivity,” he said, “but the simple fact is, once they get beyond that two-year point, it’s really hit-or-miss.” And since the union has consistently resisted the idea of its older members submitting to viability testing, he added, “This was our only option.”

Another company official concurred. “Close to 50 percent of queens experience significant production declines in their third year, and the worst part is, it’s so unpredictable. You have a queen who looks to be doing a great job, and suddenly she starts producing nothing but drones. It’s very difficult, and very expensive, to replace her when that happens in mid-season.”

It is widely acknowledged that queen productivity declines with age, often during the third year and almost always by the fourth. The reasons are complex, but experts agree that the largest issue is a decreasing supply of sperm in the egglayer ‘s spermatheca. This organ is supplied on a mating flight within the first two weeks of a queen’s life, and is never replenished. (Sperm is required for fertilization of worker eggs, while unfertilised eggs develop into drones.) In previous labour negotiations, management has floated the idea of requiring queens to make additional mating flights, possibly annually, in order to circumvent this supply issue. But while drones have generally supported that proposal, the egg layers’ union has been vehemently opposed.

Some members object on ethical grounds. “It’s just not natural,” said one queen. “No queen in nature has ever been subjected to this ritual more than once, and we shouldn’t have to start now.” Then there is the safety issue. There are occasional reports of virgin queens falling victim to birds or other predators during mating flights. “Foragers deal with this danger as a part of their job,” said Myrtle, “but they’re also more nimble than we are, and have extensive flight training to boot.” After mating, the only time a queen would typically leave the hive is in a swarm, when she’s surrounded by a large contingent of workers.

The last time the apiculture industry saw open labour strife was in 1962, when the International Union of Drones (DUI) declared a general strike, protesting the industry-wide policy of releasing drones in the autumn months in preparation for the winter dearth period. But the ill-fated strike occurred in late September, at a time when apiaries had little to gain from negotiation with the union. The action was settled within days in a humiliating defeat for the union. In an effort to save face and in exchange for a promise not to strike the following spring when a work stoppage would have had more serious repercussions, DUI leaders asked for and obtained an unrelated concession -- the free-agent status that their membership enjoys to this day. (Some conspiracy theorists maintain that this was the result the union had in mind at the outset, though most experts agree that drones are just not that intelligent.)

Under the free agent policy, drones are allowed to drift from hive to hive as they see fit. It is not uncommon for a drone to leave his home hive in the morning, visit several drone congregation areas during the course of the day and then follow other drones back to a different hive in the evening. In recent years this state of affairs has been blamed in part for the spread of mites and disease conditions between hives, but there has been no serious discussion about amending the policy.

As far as the impending strike vote is concerned, most believe the motion will pass easily. “It’s just too much,” said an executive at another apiary. “Sweet Bee can’t expect this big a change to go uncontested. But (a strike) won’t last long,” he added. “The company certainly can’t do without the queens’ services this time of year. I’m guessing management will cave quickly - if they let them walk out at all.”

Meanwhile, Romano-Ortis-Petrova-Schultz-Bertolli-Bremer-Maggiano- Boehner-Milosevic- Anderssen-Bommarito-Yurovich-Hegel, the 22-month-old soon to be retiree, is busy planning for life after Sweet Bee. She’s developing a plan for a pheromone-marketing business, and is looking for consulting work.

Report by Eugene Makovec, Newsletter Editor, Missouri State Beekeepers Association [seen in Hampshire BeeTalk April 1, 2010 - Courtesy of BEES]

6.     An Unlikely Marriage .....   Robert Swallow

I don’t know if many other beekeepers have tried to mark queens using the current offering of press-in cage, made of yellow plastic, but I found it well-nigh impossible to position the thorax of the queen inside one of the squares and carry out the job satisfactorily. I decided that the only course was to look round for a suitable piece of fine netting and use that to replace the grille in the centre of the cage.

A short search found suitable material sold as a “Body Puff” in Superdrug. This is manufactured by bundling a length of mesh tube about two metres long and tying it up with cord to form a pad. The knot in the cord is released and the netting opened out. The original “grid” in the centre of the cage is cut out using a sharp blade and discarded. The new netting is then stretched slightly and laid over the tines of the cage and gathered on the opposite (top) side by twisting the netting and locking the twist with a bulldog clip or similar. Having ensured that the netting lies evenly on and in contact with the ring, two coats of varnish are applied to fix it in place. When dry, a sharp blade can be used to trim the netting. The result is not quite as good as the one made from a rigid ring of “Tufnol”, lost whilst at the oilseed but still far more effective than the current offering, which is surely a backward step?

7.      Hornets by Mags Cousins

The appearance of three queen hornets (Vespa crabro) in our house over the last week has prompted me to write about these beautiful and awesome creatures. They have a fearsome reputation due to their large size, painful sting and penchant for honey and honey bees. In fact they are not aggressive only attacking when provoked and eat a good deal more flies than bees. There is no denying their large size, the queens in our house were at least 1.5inches long (35mm) and it must be quite distressing to see your hives being raided as there is nothing much you can do about it. The hornets don’t sting the bees but crush their heads in their powerful jaws to take them back to feed their own young.

There is added cause for concern regarding an Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) which was recently accidentally introduced into Europe and has spread rapidly in France and other countries in Europe (British Wildlife Magazine Vol. 21 No. 3 Feb 2010). It probably arrived in Bordeaux in 2004 in a cargo of pottery from China and by 2009 had spread to Brittany. It preys on honeybees, which it attacks by hovering near the entrance to hives. In France many hives have been destroyed which prompted alarmist media reports such as 'Hornet death squads menace France. Honeybees massacred by oriental assassins' - or, from The Daily Telegraph, 'Waves of hornets virtually the size of wildfowl are sweeping over France, devouring whole hives full of bees at a sitting and hungrily pursuing Dutch bicyclists down country lanes...'

Actually V.velutina is not the size of a duck but is about the same size as our native V.crabro but much darker. If you think you have seen it the National Bee Unit (nbu@csl.gov.uk) would welcome a record of the sighting and preferably a specimen as would the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS, www.bwars.com). The largest hornet is the Giant Asian Hornet (V.mandarina) and there is a report in BBKA News Oct. 2008 of a possible sighting in this country. A specimen of this species would definitely be required for verification but would you dare catch this giant whose queens are 3 inch (7cm) long? Rather you than me.

8.      Spraying on the Stiperstones