Newsletter : October 2004
1. Editorial
This season seems to be ending with plagues of wasps and waxmoths. My colleague Elizabeth Hatchell, who is editor of the Ludlow Beekeepers' Newsletter refers to several colonies having been decimated and comments, "I can hear you querying why this should be? A simple anwer - WASPS!!" I also see that Adrian Waring has written a whole article about the wasp problem in the latest edition of BeeCraft, while a letter in the same journal from Peter Edwards of Stratford-on-Avon refers to 3 hives out of 8 in an apiary being wiped out by wasps. He describes a simple way of trapping them near the hives and also recommends destroying the nests wherever possible. The most important way of helping the bees to help themselves, of course, is to close the entrances right down so that the bees can defend their territory more successfully.
Colonies that are seriously depleted, or even wiped out, soon become prey to the waxmoth, which also seems to have had a very successful season. At our September meeting our President, standing in for the listed speaker who was indisposed, addressed this issue. He reviewed ways of storing extracted supers so as to minimise their exposure to waxmoths and other predators. These included storing them on the hive above the crownboard, stacking them in the open air sandwiched between queen excluders to prevent mouse invasion, treating them with Certan (or some other insecticide based on Bacillus Thuringiensis) to kill off waxmoth, or giving them all a few days in rotation in a deep freeze (which destroys the waxmoth eggs).
Other issues discussed included various treatments for varroa (resistant or otherwise), cleaning up propolised queen excluders and feeding up colonies for the winter. To get the benefit of these pearls of wisdom you really need to come to the meetings!
Our Annual General Meeting is on Wednesday October 13th. The agenda (see at the end of this Newsletter) includes the election of the Officers and Committee to serve for the next twelve months. As usual, the meeting will be in the Rosa Room at Radbrook College and will commence at 7.30 p.m.
Following the formal business of the meeting there will be a talk by Clive Hewitt from Exomite Apis. This firm is marketing a new approach to treating colonies with thymol as part of the IPM approach to varroa control. If you would like to know exactly how this works and how to do it, please join us on the 13th.
Looking ahead, the November meeting will be addressed by Terry Ashley, who will be talking about bee diseases. In our concern over varroa it is easy to forget that we also need to remain constantly on the alert for the many other threats to the welfare of our bees. This talk should be a useful reminder.
3. Round and About
Ludlow & District BKA:Saturday 23rd. October - Leominster Apple Fair (L&DBKA will have a stall at the Lion Ballroom.
North Shropshire BKA: Saturday October 19th at The Raven, Tilley speaker Wynne Jones.
National Honey Show: 21st - 23rd October at the Royal Air ForceMuseum, Grahame Park Way, Hendon. 4. End of Season Disease Report -Robin Hall. (RBI Western Region)
It seems that the season this year has gone all too quickly and despite the weather the inspection team has been very busy. Overall a total of 125 cases of European FoulBrood have been found in 25 apiaries and one case of American FoulBrood has also been found. We have been busy not only examining hives for the two statutory bee diseases but also collecting samples of bees for virus detection, carrying out Pyrethroid testing on colonies and also collecting honey samples.
Pyrethroid Resistance Testing
'Taqman'* Virus Testing.
Integrated Pest Management.
Honey Crop
2005
It's been a funny old year - largely because of the odd pattern of weather. Everything started well enough with all eight hives surviving the winter. Having fed them well the previous autumn, applied mouse guards on a fully opened entrance and a two-inch polystyrene quilt over the crown board, plus candy in January as a feed insurance, I was following my usual pattern of winterising the bees, which has always stood me in good stead. Over 30 years of keeping bees I cannot recall having lost a colony because of starvation or harshness of weather. These last few years, because of the mild winters, I've thought of leaving off the polystyrene, but sure as fate, if I did, that would be the year when the temperature would plummet to -25ºC as it did in 1981.
Perhaps I should mention that the hives are a mixture of W.B.C. and Dadant, which were acquired as a job lot in 1974 when one of our sons chose beekeeping as part of a Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme syllabus. A quick course at Taylors of Welwyn and we were in to keeping bees. The Dadant hives are easy in woodworking maintenance, the WBC.s less so.
The spring of this year proved wet and cold with poor brood development and sadly two hives were lost due to population decline. Improvement in the temperature resulted in a very rapid colony increase with anticipation of imminent swarms. The two WBC hives that had failed were commissioned a bait hives, but with one fatal omission. Yes, you've guessed it - no mouse guards. In retrospect the result was obvious! Wax and stores were totally consumed. Surviving colonies did well on the autumn sown rape but I have a suspicion that the varieties of rape currently popular are not so nectar productive as those earlier species of some years ago.
The spring crop was extracted in late May. Over the years I have found cheese wire stretched across a stainless steel frame as the most efficient of uncapping tools. It has little drag and is easily cleaned. In due course the supers were replaced for the mid season foraging but the swarms that were earlier anticipated just did not materialise. This year only one hive swarmed and first perched only 200 metres away on a hedge branch conveniently one metre above ground level. Thirty seconds later it was boxed ready for hiving - the easiest ever! With regard to the summer honey crop, this was extracted in late August with the problem of spring-sown rape maturing 5 weeks previously. Cutting down to the rib is not the most expeditious way of extraction but as needs must, so will it be.
The final chapter this year concerns the wasp population. With so many other matters on my mind in the run up to the flower show I overlooked installing entrance closers on the hives until it was too late to save one of the hives, which was totally ravaged.
The autumn is now with us, the second batch of feed is being taken and the Bayverol strips are due for removal on October 16th.
A funny old year in many respects with the poor midsummer weather resulting in a poorer than average crop. However, with the total weight of honey recovered amounting to 350 lbs there's always the thought that this year is another in the annual run of learning curves and that next year will show the benefits of this and previous years' experience.
This year in place of the one pavilion we usually share with others, the Honey and Wine Section had one unit to itself. Our "layout Manager," Ray Memory, managed to provide enough space for all those who had booked to enter the various classes. This is not the easiest of jobs because as well as accommodating the right number of exhibits he also had to ensure that there was a theme running through the Show and that security and many other factors were considered. Our Man did a superb job. Thank you Ray.
The Honey classes where again slightly down in entries, a trend that has been evident for a number of years. What can be done to reverse this? If you have any ideas or suggestions please tell us. Our good members the Croxtons, again provided a magnificent display of wax sculpture, which was not only admired by the public but also caught the Media's attention. Another husband and wife team from our Association, Sue and Steve Watkins, are building up an impressive display of household and toiletry items based on wax or other hive products that is drawing a lot of attention and respect from the visitors.
The Honey Tasting and Sales Stand again proved a great success. It now requires four stewards to cope with the attention it draws. This is quite a strain on the stewarding rota, but I'm delighted to meet this challenge. Two hours on this stand is quite demanding but can be very informative since it is here that we can witness public taste and judgment at first hand. It was noticeable this year how some of the labels that have been developed to comply with the new regulations seem to be catching the customers' eye and influencing their choices. All this experience is yours in exchange for a few hours of your time!
Two other particular incidents might interest you. First, early on the Friday morning it was reported that in one of the trade avenues there was a "swarm of bees" on the grass. Indeed there were quite a number of them happily feeding on a liquid. It was suspected that a nearby stall belonging to a popular tea- bag company had discharged a sugar solution outside. One of our clever members arranged for some barriers to be place around them and the matter was resolved with no incidents. Secondly, on Saturday, while one of our members was demonstrating hive manipulations in the bee-cage, the colony swarmed into a large tree nearby and stayed there until the following morning, when they departed in the direction of the College apiary. Lessons are to be learnt here, as these bees had originally been brought to the Show as an observation hive and had not been intended for working in the cage. It really emphases the fact that great care must be taken when the public are brought into close contact with bees.
Finally, I must thank all who assisted in helping over the week on and off the Showground, your energies and efforts were very much appreciated.
I am sure everyone is aware of the importance and value of the SBKA Teaching Apiary in the life of the Association. It is now in need of help from our members. In order to deliver best practice at the apiary in the battle against Varroa, open mesh floors are to be introduced. We are intending to incorporate a method practised at Tony Little's apiary and, for the mite drop to be effective and easy to monitor, we need to provide adequate clearance beneath the mesh floor. It is thought that a sturdy brood box per hive will do the job. We have 10 hives at Radbrook, so we would be very grateful if any member with a spare broodbox (in good condition) would consider donating it to the Association Apiary. You can bring it to any meeting (the AGM would be an excellent opportunity) or drop it off at Brian Goodwin, Roger Evans or Steve Watkins' house, who will make sure it gets to the apiary. 8. Annual General Meeting
7.30 p.m. on Wednesday 13 October 2004
at Radbrook College, Shrewsbury.
AGENDA
Saturday 12th November - Annual Dinner (contact the treasurer for details: 01584 890830)
Tuesday November 16th at The Raven, Tilley : AGM
Open Thurs: 2 p.m. - 6.30 p.m.
Fri: 9.30 p.m. - 6.30 p.m.
Sat. 9.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.
Day Tickets £5. Further details www.honeyshow.co.uk
As a result of the Pyrethroid testing, a further three new areas where resistant mites have been found can be added to the area that was found last year. It is disappointing that in only one case was the resistance found by a beekeeper. Of all the Bee Unit testing kits handed out in the last three years, very few tests for resistant mites have been carried out by beekeepers. I have only heard (so far) of one association that has asked its members to test as a matter of routine. I am sure that there are varroa mites in every colony that are showing a degree of resistance. These can easily become full-blown resistant mites. Beekeepers are still leaving varroa treatments late. With the honey flow over early I would have hoped that treatments would have started early as well. Certainly the spell of warm weather in August would have been ideal for the application of Apiguard.
We have taken many samples for this very simple test. It involved taking a sample of twenty bees that are then preserved in ethanol. The samples are sent to the bee unit where they are passed to another department at CSL for processing. From the results it is hoped to gain information as to what viruses are present in the UK and their location. Beekeepers who took part in this trial will be notified of results.
* 'Taqman' a wonderful machine that can analyse 1500 samples in a week. It is also possible to analyse contaminants to one part in a billion!
A number of talks and demonstrations have been given throughout the Region on this subject. The use of open mesh floors (OMF) is gaining popularity as a very effective way of reducing varroa mite levels in the hive. Open mesh floors which incorporate a removable tray means that you are able to monitor natural mite drop and from there, gauge whether or not treatment is needed. Drone cell uncapping/removal can also help reduce mite levels too.
From what I hear honey crops have been poor. Some beekeepers have done better than others depending on location. The bulk of the honey would appear to have come early in the year with very little from the main flow. In fact a number of colonies which we examined in August were short of food and the beekeeper was advised to feed.
With the number of colonies with resistant mites on the increase (all regions in the UK now have cases) there will have to be an increased awareness of what needs to be done to control them. It may be that scientist will discover a 'magic treatment' which will once more save our colonies. In the mean time it is up beekeepers to monitor, test and treat their bees. All the information is available for this to be done; the rest (as they say) is up to you.
Many Thanks
Return to Newsletters Menu