Newsletter : June 2008
Newsletter : June 2008
1. Editor's Notes
I am sorry to have to report the recent death of Gordon Hartshorn, a longstanding member of the SBKA. He was particularly associated with the campaign to encourage us all to prioritise the British black bee for our breeding stock and gave several talks on various aspects of that topic to SBKA and many other organisations. Others will be better qualified than I to write of his wider contribution to beekeeping but I would like to put on record his support to me when I first took over editorship of this Newsletter in 2003. Gordon provided a constant stream of articles, together with responses to those by others and numerous personal communications by phone and email. He will be much missed.
2. May Apiary Meeting Report
Our meeting in May, at the Radbrook apiary, focused on how to change brood comb as a way of combating disease. Under the guidance of Dave Sutton, two approaches were demonstrated: the ‘Bailey’ comb change and the ‘shook swarm’ technique. The former is a way of replacing comb in the brood box when it has become old or unsatisfactory. A new brood box, with fresh comb, is placed on top of the old box and the bees encouraged up by feeding them syrup. When sufficient of the new comb has been drawn out and the queen has begun to lay in it, she is confined to that brood chamber which gradually becomes the bees’ new brood nest. When all the brood has hatched from the old chamber it can be removed, thus leaving the bees on fresh clean comb.
The ‘shook swarm’ involves a more abrupt change from old comb to new and is being recommended as a way forward for treating EFB. In this case a clean brood box, complete with new frames of comb, replaces the old brood chamber. The bees are then shaken into the new box, one frame at a time. The old frames, with any unhatched brood are taken away. The bees thus find themselves in the same situation as a swarm and, like a swarm, need to be fed so that they can get on with drawing out their new comb. This process ensures that any disease organisms that may have been present in the old comb have no opportunity to infect the new. However, because any unhatched brood is also lost, it is recommended that this technique is best used early in the season so that the bees have time to recover before the major nectar flow.
As always in these sessions, the discussion that accompanied the activities ranged over many related topics. Arguably the most important was Dave’s recommendation about a timetable for varroa treatment. With the advent of pyrethroid resistant mites, the autumn medication has to be thymol based (e.g. apiguard), which needs an ambient temperature of at least 15°C for adequate evaporation. Since the treatment period lasts for a month, this implies beginning it no later than mid-August. Beekeepers who have traditionally looked for a late harvest from heather or, more recently borage, have now to consider the cost of this in terms of potential colony mortality. A winter treatment of oxalic acid should then see the bees through to the beginning of the next season in a good state. Comb changes, drone culling and the ongoing medication of swarms during the actives season all contribute towards an effective Integrated Pest Management regime.
3. Committee Meeting: 13th May
Several topics that were discussed at the last Committee meeting invite a response from the membership. One was to do with the BBKA Basic Assessment (see syllabus here). All members will be aware of the big campaign being organised by BBKA at the moment aimed at securing additional government funding for research into bee health. However, we also know that the government will expect the beekeeping community to develop its own capacity to monitor and treat endemic disease problems in honeybee colonies. The recent demonstration of the ‘shook swarm’ treatment for EFB (see p.3) is one example of how this can be done, and BBKA’s examination system is another. The Basic Assessment is the essential first step to all the other BBKA modules and, as you can see, should be easily coped with by anyone with a year or two’s practical beekeeping experience. If you would be interested in following this up please let Brian Goodwin (Tel: 01743 884524) or Robert Swallow (Tel: 01691 682020) know.
Another agenda item was the Shrewsbury Flower Show. The call is still out for volunteers to help with preparing, manning and dismantling the beekeeping section. Please contact Ray Green (Tel: 01743 465079). The Show Prospectus and Programme will be issued to all members soon.
Next year’s programme: do you have any requests for topics and speakers for our monthly meetings or any offers to make of your own? If so, let Ray Green know now!
You should also know that progress is steadily being made with the idea of moving our apiary from Radbrook, where its future is uncertain, to Attingham Park. Negotiations between SBKA and the National Trust are ongoing. More news as soon as it is available.
4. A Short History of Smokers (Judith Rowbottom)
Beekeeping without one's trusty smoker seems unthinkable today and we are taught that smoker, hive tool and veil are essential to good beekeeping. However, like most equipment used regularly today, the smoker as we know it is a relatively modern invention. That smoke subdues bees has been known for thousands of years. The first honey hunters will have carried smoking wood or grass to protect themselves whilst robbing wild colonies; the ancient Greeks and Romans progressed to earthenware pots holding smouldering dung but little advance was made for hundreds of years. Bees kept in fixed comb hives like skeps did not get regular inspections. Hiving a swarm and harvesting the honey was the most attention many hives ever got and in the latter case the bees were often killed in the process, making subduing unnecessary.
Thomas Wildman writing in 1778 makes very few references to smoking and those few are for the specific purpose of moving bees from one skep to another. Wildman used a clay dish containing live coals covered in linen rags to make his smoke. Langstroth in The Hive and the Honeybee of 1878 frequently mentions using the smoke of rotten wood to subdue bees and says "it burns without any flames and its smoke may easily be directed upon the bees by the breath of the apiarian'”
Apart from rags or a dish of coals, one of the simplest smokers was the clay pipe, preferably with a long handle. Indeed, veils were specially made with a hole to accommodate the pipe stem. John Hunter in 1879 describes how a Mr. Cheshire won a prize at the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition for a simple tobacco pipe with a piece of India rubber tubing over the bowl, tied at its open end. The tube could be squeezed, forming bellows and sending the smoke out of the stem of the pipe. This was a boon to “ladies and those to whom the pipe is an abomination.”
One of the earliest smokers was a firebox attached to a pair of two-handed bellows at one end and with a long spout at the other. As it was 3ft long altogether it must have been a bit unwieldy to use but it was a good step forward from a bowl of dung. Moses Quimby, the father of commercial beekeeping in the USA, is credited with inventing the first one-handed smoker worked by bellows. He already had a tin tube with a pipe attached and in 1815 he added bellows to the tube and the modern smoker was born. There were two methods of smoke production - cold blast and hot blast. In the cold blast smoker, air is conducted from the bellows through a tube to a point ahead of the fire. The vacuum created by the blast of air pulls the smoke along with it. The smoke tended to be drawn back into the bellows, thus shortening their life. In the hot blast smoker the air is blown in lower down, through the fire itself, producing a lot more smoke much more quickly. It is, however, a hot smoke. In fact the hot blast smoker can become a blast furnace if pumped continuously.
Most early smokers worked on the cold blast principle, then the A. I. Root company introduced what they called the Improved Root Smoker that worked on the hot blast principle. The firebox had a grid inside and the nozzle was bent at an angle at the top, unlike most early smokers that went straight up and down. Apart from slight modifications the modern smoker is unchanged from this design.
(Adapted from an article in Harrogate& Ripon BKA’s The Apiarist. Courtesy of BEES)
5. Round and About
Oswestry BKA: Saturday, June 21 at 3 p.m. Invitation to the apiary of the Secretary, where he will demonstrate his management of bees, followed by a strawberry tea. Confirm with the Secretary if attending. (Tel: 01691 654448)
Ludlow BKA: Sunday, 15th June : Summer Beekeeping Safari. “We intend to repeat the safari event that proved so successful last year; this time visiting the southern part of our patch. Dave Sutton will be our "great white hunter" leading us through the "savannah" along the Shropshire/Herefordshire border to investigate the rare bee colonies resident there!” 10.00 am: Meet at The Balance Inn, Luston. Further information from the Secretary: Andy Vanderhook. Tel: 01299 841379
Montgomery BKA: Sunday 15th June 2 30pm visit to the famed garden of Mr & Mrs Thomas, Tregynon, Newtown, Powys, to discuss plants that attract bees, followed by a visit to the nearby out-Apiary of Brian Norris, tel: 01686 625250
Shrewsbury Flower Show: See item 3 above and further information here.
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