The cold spell that we are in the middle of as I write has come as rather a surprise, given the mildness of recent winters. I remember about three or four years ago that we had a week in February that was unseasonably warm and the bees were very active. In many ways I prefer our current weather. If nothing else, it helps cleanse the stored supers/frames of wax moth, which must be a good thing. The danger of course is that the bees run out of food because it is too cold for them to forage and, in any case, the appearance of the early pollen and nectar sources is delayed. The message, therefore, is that hives must be checked for stores and, if necessary, additional candy or pollen provided.

Last month's talk by Brian Goodwin was a timely reminder of the tasks to be done at this time of year. Typically Brian began by telling us that we were already too late if we were only just beginning to think about this and that we should have begun last September, when food stores and anti-varroa measures should all have been attended to. Be careful to cover any candy/pollen given now with something to hold in the moisture, otherwise it will dry out and become too hard for the bees to use. Pollen patties can be bought, or made using a mixture of soya flour and fish meal, mixed to a paste in sugar syrup. Do not attempt to look through the brood-nest yet, but you can briefly lift the crown board to gauge what is happening. If the bees are high up on the frames, they need feeding. If in doubt -feed! (But do not give a liquid feed yet) -and remember that strong colonies are the most vulnerable to starvation because they consume more food.

As far as varroa control is concerned, Brian reminded us that Bayvarol & Apistan are still the most effective varroaicides, so unless you have resistant varroa - and few of us do - continue to use these products as per the instructions. Space does not allow a list of the many other valuable reminders of what we should be doing. To learn more about all aspects of your beekeeping, come to the meetings!

 

2. Next Meeting

The next indoor meeting is on Wednesday 8th March at Radbrook when the speaker will be Dave Sutton, acting RBI for the Western Region. Dave is going to give us an update on the findings of his inspections in the last twelve months. He will also brief us as to the things beekeepers should be doing for themselves to monitor the health of their colonies, with particular reference to brood diseases, pyrethroid resistant varroa and now, the small hive beetle.

There seems little doubt that in the long run beekeepers will have to become much more self-reliant in dealing with such matters themselves. Make a resolution to be in the forefront of damage limitation by being there on Wednesday (7.30 p.m. - but come earlier to buy a raffle ticket!).

 

3. From Our Chairman - Ray Green

The end of one chapter and the start of another...............

For about thirty years, the SBKA has had an apiary site at the rear of Radbrook College with 10 -12 hives. We had been asked to vacate the site by 28th February by the developers, Shropshire Homes, as they are going to build houses fairly close to the apiary.

Several alternative sites, away from Radbrook, have been explored, but each one up till now has resulted in a dead end. With the deadline for moving drawing closer, it was decided to move the hives to an area behind the car park at the front of the College. An appeal went out for willing helpers and on the first Saturday in February the new site was prepared. This involved clearing some old dead vegetation, putting down black weed suppressant and laying paving slabs at intervals around the arc that was drawn out.

Being a fairly cool day, all but two hives were inactive. The entrances were blocked and each hive strapped, loaded onto a trailer and taken round to the new site. The last job before we left was to remove the foam and put a handful of dead twigs etc across each of the entrances to confuse the bees on their first exit from the hives.

Stage two involved the clearing out and dismantling of the shed. This was achieved a week later and this now is lying on the concrete base waiting to be collected and stored by the developers until we are ready to re-site it.

We are grateful to all those who responded to the request for help. Everything was achieved within the timescale set. We are still interested in a more permanent site, preferably within the ring-road, so if anyone has knowledge of such a site, please let Brian or me know the details.

 

4. The Effects of Pollen Availability on the Quality and Quantity of Workers    Produced in Spring
by H. R. Matula and G. W Otis, Dept of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, NIG 2Wl

BROOD REARING
Colony growth in spring is dependent on the ability of an over-wintering colony to initiate mid-winter brood rearing with pollen and protein stores) Seeley and Visscher, EcoI. Entomol. 10: 81-88)

PROTEIN STRESSED
Colonies can become protein stressed if the protein reserves are depleted before adequate foraging conditions exist. We examined the effects of pollen availability on the quality and quantity of brood reared by colonies in the spring. Pollen stores were manipulated by trapping pollen in the autumn (low pollen), feeding pollen patties in the late winter (high pollen) or left unmanipulated (control).

TAGGED WORKERS
Sealed brood measurements were made on colonies from mid-March to late April. Three times in April, newly emerged workers were collected from colonies, if available. Some workers were tagged and introduced into a common observation hive to determine differences in behaviour and longevity between treatments, while others were measured for size, symmetry and protein content.

FOREWINGS
Pollen-fed colonies reared significantly more brood than control or low pollen colonies. Worker size, protein content and symmetry were not affected by pollen availability at any sampling date, except for forewings, which increased in size over time for control and low pollen colonies but remained constant for high pollen colonies.

LONGER LIFE
Longevity was significantly greater for workers reared in high pollen colonies compared to low pollen and control colonies. A two-week difference in longevity between high and low pollen treatments was found even though workers spent their adult life in the same observation hive.

INCREASED WORKFORCE
This increase in workforce translated to significant increases in honey production in the source colonies by mid-summer where high pollen colonies produced twice as much honey as low pollen colonies.
The results indicate that protein stressed colonies compromise both quantity and quality of brood. No differences in behaviour were found between bees from each treatment to 10 days of age, but our data suggests that bees reared under high pollen conditions may spend more time performing in-hive duties at the age when control bees became foragers (20 days).
(Copied from Bee Talk, the Newsletter of the Blackburn & East Lancashire Branch of the Lancashire & North West Beekeepers Association. December 2005)

 

5. Accurately Assessing Brood Viability
(Jim Ryan, Galtee Bee Breeders Group)

One of the ways we look at our bees when we are assessing them to improve our stocks is to look at the brood pattern. But what exactly does it tell us, or does it tell anything at all? Do we know what to look for when we are looking at the brood? How do you calculate the rate of brood viability of a queen by a casual look at the brood pattern? I would suggest that it is difficult to make any accurate judgements by this method.

In my view if you have a good queen the brood pattern is invariably good. By a good queen I mean a queen heading a colony that builds up well in spring. I am not speaking of any other desirable traits that we may wish to develop in our bees. The fact that a colony builds up well has little to do with the brood pattern as such. What is important is a high percentage of brood viability. The good news is that it is very easy to accurately assess the percentage of brood viability and the test is simple - taking no more than a few seconds. I have been using this method for about fifteen years and all of my records are headed by the percentage of brood viability of the queen.

In order to carry out the test you need a "brood meter". This is a simple device made from a piece of Perspex cut into the shape of a rhombus (like a pushed over square). The rhombus covers an area of 200 cells on a brood frame. To use it a frame of brood is removed from the hive and the bees shaken off. The piece of Perspex is then placed on the brood with its bottom along a line of cells and then the number of empty cells covered by the template is counted. The result is divided by two and then subtracted from 100 to give the percentage [of filled cells].

Usually I carry out this test in early April before the bees have built up into too strong a colony. I write the figure in large numbers at the top of the record sheet. In subsequent inspections, if I think the brood pattern shows more vacant holes than I would expect, I will check again. I have found over the years that a failing queen can be spotted early by this method and appropriate action can be taken before any damage is done to the colony. A queen whose brood viability drops during the season is not a suitable queen to breed from or let the bees supersede from. Re-queening from an outside source will solve the problem.

It is not possible to achieve a brood viability of 100%. 90% is acceptable and it is probably not possible to achieve better than 94- 95%. However, when I began looking at brood viability I was surprised at the degree of variability and also how low some of my queens scored in this important area.

Once you start using this device you will make it part of your first inspection. It's a bit like using hive scales - it tells you interesting things about your queens that you don't get to find out otherwise. Accurately assessing brood viability can become a valuable part of record keeping in the improvement of our bees.

[Copied from Nottinghamshire BKA Newsletter (Spring 2006) : Courtesy BEES]

 

6. A useful tip - from Selby Martin

One of several problems for me in recent years has been the lack of storage space for supers and other equipment. I bought a garden shed 8' x 6' confident that this would be more than big enough. This has proved not to be the case. Indeed, so cluttered with equipment did it become that there was scarcely room to get into it.

A chance visit to the Roden Garden Centre provided the answer. A firm called Bicton Section Buildings (01952-771191) offers a wallshed, size 6' by 2' 6". It has no windows, is well made of good quality timber and takes three stacks of standard supers comfortably. At £195 including assembly it has proved a good buy.

 

7. Round and About

Ludlow & District BKA: Thursday 9th March 7.30 p.m. Talk by David Kemp: "With Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey". Bishop Mascall Centre. Further Information: Andy Vanderhook Tel: 01299 841379

Stafford Bee Group:Thursday April 6th: Bernard Diaper - Queen rearing by grafting. County Staff Club, Eastgate Street Details: Tony Burton Tel: 01785 663340

Oswestry BKA:Sunday 26th March: An afternoon tour of Oswestry Waterworks. Max. 12 in party. Contact the secretary for further details (01691 654448)

Montgomery BKA:Wednesday 15 March 7.30pm; Plas Dolerw, Milford Road, Newtown; Talk on Swarm control. Speaker: Jim Crundwell

Welsh Beekeepers Convention.Saturday 25th March: 09.00 - 17.00: This annual event will take place on the Royal Welsh Showground at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, admission £6 for adults and free to under 17s. It will be officially opened at 9.30a.m. by the World Honey Queen. There is a programme of lectures as well as the usual trade stands, demonstrations, refreshments etc.

09.45/13.30	Progress with Black Bee Breeding in Ireland (an account of the work of the Galtee Bee Breeding Group)
11.00/15.00	Medicinal Use of Honey for Treatment of Wounds
12.15	Lifetime Experiences of Beekeeping (in Welsh)

 

Return to Newsletters Menu