Newsletter : March 2003
Newsletter : March 2003
1. Editorial
Gordon Hartshorn's article this month returns to the subject of Open Mesh Floors. You will remember that our President spoke on this subject at the January meeting and expressed reservations about the idea. Last month Steve Watkins reported that he had experienced bees dying out during past winters both on OMFs and on solid floors. I have also discovered that one of my colonies has died out this winter while on an OMF. Recent articles in Beecraft and in the last BBKA Newsletter dealt with the question of winter 'die-outs' rather differently. In the Newsletter, a correspondent (P.A.M.) said that such events were a reflection of poor autumn management while Adrian Waring (whom I imagine knows what he is doing) admits in the current 'Beecraft' to having lost some colonies each year. 2. Next Meeting
The next meeting, on Wednesday April 9th, will be the last indoor meeting until the autumn. It will take place as usual in the Rosa Room at Radbrook College, starting at 7.00 p.m. and will include a talk by Graham Royle from Sandbach on the subject of Bee Communication. As we know, this is a complex and important topic, and we can look forward to some fascinating insights. From May onwards we will be having our usual out-apiary meetings on Saturday afternoons. Further details of these are in the programme card and will also be listed here each month. Members of the Oswestry BKA are reminded that planned trip to Lake Vyrnwy on 13th April has had to be cancelled due to the work schedule there.
3. March Meeting Report
In his talk on the Beekeeping Year Wynne Jones C. Wynne Jones took us through his beekeeping year in his Welsh Apiary, starting with the bees' collecting of pollen in the early Spring flowers. He spoke of his preference for having a single brood on 14x12ins. frames rather than a brood and a half of standard frames, of preventing swarms by dividing colonies when occupied queen cells appeared and of reuniting these without worrying about finding the queens since they would sort themselves out. At harvest time he recommended Bee-Quick for rapid clearing of supers, especially when working in an out-apiary - and using Ashford feeders there which would not need frequent attention. He told us about how he creamed his honey and made the most of other hive products to maximise the value of his beekeeping. Varroa control was done by the use of thymol crystals under the crown board, which appears to be very successful. His observations during the winter were leading him to consider insulating the roofs of the hives with polystyrene blocks to reduce heat loss. Questions and discussions during the talk added extra information to what was a most interesting talk, as did the splendid slides, which included a prize-winning picture, taken by his wife, of an occupied queen cell.
4. Open Mesh Floors (OMFs) Are They Here To Stay?
To continue the debate, lets go back and see what we can find out about hive ventilation. OMFs were first mentioned in Beecraft in the early 1990s. However, before this a German named Helmut Horn published his findings on the use of OMFs in the 1980s. His experiments were contrary to the methods used on the continent at that time i.e. Bee Houses and insulated hives. Horn's method was an OMF with an insulated roof. He found that:
5. Committee Report
The Committee met on 18th March. Previously a suggestion had been made that the Association commission a souvenir mug. This has been investigated by Maxie Sinclair but the price quoted (around £7 per mug to cover the set-up costs and a 'first run') was considered too expensive. This project has therefore been abandoned. 6. The Forthcoming 2003 Season.
This season is going to be a busy one for the inspection team. Priority is being given to 'follow ups' from last year's discovery of AFB and EFB in Warwickshire. We will be re-visiting all the beekeepers we saw at the end of last year plus those that we were unable to inspect as the weather closed in. Those months are never the best for inspections anyway as there is very little open brood for us to examine and all other vacant brood cells are usually full with stores. If you have bees in any area where disease has been found and you think we have missed you out why not give telephone your relevant inspector to arrange a visit! 7. Members Notes
From Steve Watkins
On checking my colony notes I see that this particular hive did not take in any of the autumn fed syrup, while its neighbours were consuming up to 15/16 pints - so I should have expected trouble and kept a closer eye on them (bad management?). When I did look inside the brood chamber all the bees were lying dead on the floor rather than lodged in the comb as they usually are when starving. I am now speculating that they did not take food because they were already in a weakened condition.
Both the articles mentioned list other possible causes (nosema, queen failure, varroa etc.) but I am taking heart from Adrian Waring's suggestion that such unplanned events are part of a 'survival of the fittest' process which ensures that only strong colonies continue into the next year.
By Gordon Hartshorn
Other people who have experimented with OMF floors have found:-
So lets look at what happens in the hive in the winter. We have a colony of bees in a cubic container. The bees give off heat, which rises to the plywood crownboard - which will be cold as most hives have through ventilation in the roof. The hot air rising from the cluster is exhaled air and contains water vapour. On hitting the cold crownboard it condenses, and drips could fall on the cluster, causing disturbance. There will be a small amount of circulated air exchanged at the hive entrance.
Now consider an OMF and an insulated pad over the crown board. This time there will be less condensation, the air circulating around the periphery of the brood box and the moist air will drop through the OMF. One of the things that started me thinking about OMFs was that on occasions that I put a piece of perforated zinc over the porter bee escape holes in the crownboard I found that every Autumn the bees would propolise them up. Rightly or wrongly, I have assumed that the bees did this because they did not want a through draft. It would appear that they disagree with a lot of bee books.
Now I am fairly new to OMFs but so far I have been impressed. I have found that on inspections in January the colonies appear in good shape and there is no moisture or mildew in the hive. I see the advantages of OMFs when moving bees, as only the holes in the crownboard needs covering. There will be adequate ventilation through the OMF floor. I can see that there could be problems with OMFs when feeding with the bucket type feeder as there is usually some spillage, which would run through the OMF and perhaps lead to robbing. Again, if the hive was subject to attacks by ants the OMF would be difficult to defend. However, this winter I am making more OMF floors using the epoxy resin coated mesh sold by bee keeping suppliers. In the roof I am using 1" thick insulation pads from builders supply merchants. So watch this space for further findings!
There was no progress to report on the possibility of a new site for our apiary or the development of an Association website. These items were put forward to the next agenda.
Following a number of reports from members, the committee recognised that we need to make the Association more easily accessible to the public. A start is being made by including the telephone numbers of the officers and the venue for our meetings in this Newsletter. In addition we are planning to publish a simple 'flyer' about the Association that could be displayed in public libraries and Tourist Information centres. A more detailed information/membership application leaflet will be put together that can be available at venues where we are putting on displays etc. We would also like to compile registers of members willing to participate in particular activities. These include:
The Committee heard from Dick Powell about the interest being shown in the library at our monthly meetings. It was suggested that members be invited to contribute unwanted items from their own shelves to expand the stock further. So, if you have beekeeping books that you no longer need, or have room for, please bring them along to a meeting and let Dick have them. In addition the Committee agreed to fund the purchase of some particular items to fill gaps in the current list (including, probably, some videos and additional copies of 'Bees in the Curriculum' to encourage teachers and children to learn more about bees).
Finally, the Secretary has received a notice about the competitive classes for Honey & Honey Products at this year's Royal Show (29th June - 2nd July). If you are thinking about entering items for this, or would be interested in being a steward on one of the days, please contact Penny Mungeam for further information.
From Robin Hall (Regional Bee Inspector)
We will also be continuing to carry out Pyrethroid Resistance Testing (PRT) as we make inspections. This is to monitor varroa resistance that may occur anywhere in the region. Is there anyone in your Associations who would take on the task of organising members to carry out the simple Beltsville test as described in the Ministry ' Managing Varroa' leaflet, page 12? If all the results could be collated then sent to the Bee Unit at Sand Hutton this would be extremely useful. If some results show a less than 100% efficacy this doesn't mean that the beekeeper has been using the varroa strips incorrectly, but shows the natural ability of the mite to become resistant to prolonged usage over a number of years to the same product. A lot of scientific work is currently being undertaken on the resistance problem and beekeepers can help themselves by using a system know as Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This is a method of using biotechnical techniques such as Open mesh Floors (OMF) uncapping drone brood, artificial swarming or comb trapping. All these techniques will reduce mite levels in the hive and therefore reduce the dependence on Varroa strips (Apistan/Bayvarol).
Small Hive Beetle, (SHB). There have been some excellent articles recently in BeeCraft and in Bee World. There is a real threat from this pest. SHB was found in Australia last year and all exports of queens and bees have been halted. . Even though action has been taken there is a need to ask how many queens had been sent out before this discovery. SHB is widespread in at least 30 States of America, mainly in the south. Beekeepers should be on the look out for this.
Shook Swarm methods of treating colonies that have been diagnosed with European FoulBrood is proving to be very successful. Colonies appear to thrive on being shaken and will often still produce a surplus.
Honey Sampling. Last year over a hundred samples of honey were collected from beekeepers in England and Wales. Honey sampling will continue this year and is part of continual monitoring by government agencies looking at all aspects of food standards/safety.
Every year the National Bee Unit organises courses at its headquarters in disease recognition. In the years that the courses have run between 450 and 500 beekeepers have benefited from them. Would you be interested? The courses are FREE with tea/coffee and lunch (also free), and last for one day. Your only expense would be travelling to Sand Hutton and possibly overnight accommodation. The dates are 29th or 30th May, 26th or 27th June, 17th or 18th July The courses start at 9.00 and usually finish 4.30/5.00pm. In the morning there are talks on bee diseases and their recognition, practical laboratory sessions and up-dates on all bee research currently being undertaken. After lunch, and weather permitting, there is a chance to examine the Bee Unit's bees, make a tour of the labs where we send all our diseased comb and see how all our bee information is collated. There are a number of B & B's near to CSL that are reasonably priced and I or the Bee Unit can advise you of these. Interested? Give me a call.
What fuel do you use in you smoker? Why do we put up with being choked with corrugated cardboard and hessian? That stuff really does sting the eyes and make you cough. Plus, do we really know what glue and other junk is put into this cardboard we burn. I have gone over to rotten wood, conifer hedge cuttings and herbs and found it a revelation. It is lovely to have the aroma of herbs wafting during an inspection - try them, just throw a few sprigs into your smoker before you close it. It will transform your inspections. Your own aromatherapy session amongst the bees!
(N.B. Did you see the article about fuel in the last BBKA Newsletter? An interesting suggestion there was to try cattle nuts/pellets, which consist of compressed grass and produce quantities of very cool light smoke - Ed.)
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