BBKA News - British Beekeepers Association

Transcription

1_Cover_July 2012_Cover 10/06/2012 19:22 Page 1
BBKA News
The newsletter of The British Beekeepers’ Association,
incorporating the British Bee Journal
No: 203 – July 2012
New Studies on Some Pesticides
and Bee Health
Two teams of researchers recently had innovative
behavioural studies1 published in the journal Science,
which suggested that low levels of
neonicotinoid pesticides2 can have
significant effects on bee colonies.
Following publication of the studies, the
European Commission asked the
European Food Standards Agency
(EFSA) to compare the actual exposure
of bees to neonicotinoids as a result of
their use as plant protection products
in the EU with the exposure levels used
in the research. The Authority was also
asked to determine whether the results
can be applied to other neonicotinoids
used for seed treatment.
In its published statement, EFSA
concludes that for honey bees the
concentrations tested in the published studies are
higher than the highest recorded residue levels
found in nectar for the neonicotinoids
thiamethoxam, clothianidin and imidacloprid. For
bumblebees, the doses of imidacloprid tested were
in the range of maximum residue levels found in
pollen and nectar. The Authority also explains that
in order to draw these conclusions it considered a
third study3 that looked at the effects of
imidacloprid and clothianidin on honey bees.
In the studies by Henry et al. and Schneider et al.
bees consumed the total amount of active substance
within a relatively short period rather than over a
longer, more realistic period. Depending on the
substance properties and how fast the substance can
be metabolised by the bees, this method of exposure
could lead to more severe effects than when bees are
foraging under realistic field conditions. However,
before drawing definite conclusions about the
behavioural effects of neonicotinoids on forager bees
and bee colonies based on actual doses, it would be
necessary to repeat the experiments performed in
the studies with other exposure levels or in other
situations. Additional data would also be required to
Going Wild in the Garden
For tips on how to
collect your favourite
plant seeds and ways to
promote biodiversity
turn to page 7.
fully consider the relevance of the new research
results to the seed treatment of other crops and to
spray uses.
An in-depth review will be undertaken, which
will pay particular attention to acute and chronic
effects of neonicotinoid active substances on bee
colony survival and development, taking into
account the effects on bee larvae as well as bee
behaviour. In this context, an assessment of effects
of sub-lethal doses on bee survival and behaviour
will be further considered. The review is due to be
published in December 2012.
Return of the Native
Bumblebee
The short-haired
bumblebee is back thanks
to conservationalists’
efforts! More on page 9.
From the ESFA Press Release
1. Henry M et al. (2012): A common pesticide decreases
foraging success and survival in honey bees; Whitehorn PR
et al. (2012): Neonicotinoid pesticide reduces bumble bee
colony growth and queen production.
2. Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides.
3. Schneider C et al. (2012): RFID tracking of sub-lethal effects
of two neonicotinoid insecticides on the foraging behavior of
Apis mellifera.
Pseudoscorpions May
Benefit Bees
Learn more about these
tiny arachnids that could
be potential predators of
varroa mites on page 20.
August BBKA News will include an article on the
recent research on varroa and Deformed Wing Virus.
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3_Chairmans letter_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:33 Page 3
Chairman’s Letter
It is a sign of our success if the demands placed
upon the support services for BBKA members
and the provision of information about honey
bees for the public continues to increase. To
ensure that we have the tools to deal with this
situation the Trustees have carried out a full
review of the administration and membership
support services. As a result Julie Marples has
joined the BBKA team as our Administration
Manager and we welcome her. We have also reviewed and revised the
job specifications of the BBKA administration team and I am sure the
support to BBKA members as well as the public and other interested
parties will become even more professional and appreciated.
One of the key areas of the activities of the Healthy Bees Plan (HBP)
has been to increase the efforts in education and training of beekeepers.
As the HBP moves into its second phase and the BBKA seeks to evolve
its strategy for training and education for the next ten years, it needs to
discuss with its members their needs and aspirations. To this end the
BBKA has appointed David Blower as BBKA Training Co-ordinator. His
mission is to find out what members need and then make
recommendations as to how the BBKA and its partners can meet your
requirements. This post is being part funded by the Wax Chandlers and
we are very grateful for their support and continuing interest in our work.
The BBKA Trustees are interested in hearing members’ ideas and
opinions on the work of the BBKA and we are holding the BBKA Forum
Event to help promote this exchange. It is planned to hold the Forum in
early October at the National Beekeeping Centre, Stoneleigh and we
would like to hear from you the topics you wish to be included. As well
as your suggestions we look forward to your participation.
Honey bees are part of the natural spectrum of pollinating insects
whose activities benefit humans and the world food web. Humans and
the impact of their activities cause habitat fragmentation and destruction
affecting the numbers and species of pollinating insects, especially
bumblebees and solitary bees. This situation is becoming better
understood. As beekeepers we should welcome all efforts to reduce such
habitat destruction and also encourage habitat creation both on a
landscape scale and in the individual garden. We should resist the urge to
make everywhere tidy and weed free; ask local authorities to review their
grass cutting policies and ask farmers and landowners (including ourselves
as gardeners) to think more carefully about their hedgerow management.
Such efforts will benefit all pollinating insects and strengthen their
resilience to pest and diseases and ensure there is a sufficient variety of
pollinating insects to pollinate and ensure the survival of plants and those
reliant on their fruits and seeds.
Contents
Regulars
Chairman’s Letter
In the Apiary
Handling and Examining a Colony: NBU Guideline
Going Wild: Saving Seed, Saving Biodiversity Part 2
The Virus and the Bee
Notes from a Clifftop Apiary
Learning from Others: Honey Tasting
Patterson’s Page
From the Boardroom
Wax Chandlers Help Honey Bees
Business Corner
Book Review: The Beekeeper and the Bee
BBKA Written Examinations
Classified Directory
Your Letters
3
4
5
7
14
18
21
22
24
24
26
26
27
29
30
Features and Practical Advice
The Sentinel Apiary Programme
The Return of the Native
Neonicotinoids and Honey Bees
Supers Without Foundation
Fashion Helps Honey Bees
An Unconventional Start to Beekeeping
What a Lady!
Pseudoscorpions May Benefit Bees
Training Co-ordinator
8
9
11
13
15
16
19
20
25
EDITORIAL
Editor: Mrs Sharon Blake, Stratton Court, Over Stratton, South
Petherton, Somerset, TA13 5LQ. Tel: 01460 242124
Deputy Editor: Dr Christine Knott, Tel: 07765130203
Design: Roger Cullum-Kenyon
All editorial enquiries and submissions should be sent to the
editor at: [email protected]
ADVERTISING
Lynn Pearce. Email: [email protected]; tel: 01732 851955
(Office hours: Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm)
PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION
BBKA News incorporating the British Bee Journal is published
monthly for its members by BBKA, Reg. Charity No. 212025.
Copyright 2012 BBKA.
Printed by: Avenue Print Management, 1 Blighs Road, Sevenoaks,
Kent TN13 1DA. Tel: 01732 742397
Distributed by: First Move
CONTRIBUTORS
Regular contributors: David Aston, Dr Bee, Sarah Holdsworth,
The Forager, Rowland Molony, David Baldock and Jon Arul.
David Aston, BBKA Chairman
Cover photos: Main image: Roger Cullum-Kenyon; Top right: Sarah
Holdsworth; Middle: Dr Nikki Gammans; Bottom: Barry Donovan.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in articles in BBKA News are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the BBKA.
BBKA News incorporating THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL July 2012
CIRCULATION 22,050
Please send any alterations for direct mailing, via your
Association secretary, to the BBKA Members’ Register.
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR/ GENERAL SECRETARY
Jane Moseley, National Beekeeping Centre, National Agricultural
Centre. Stoneleigh, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 2LG.
Tel: 02476 696679 Fax: 02476 690682
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.bbka.org.uk
3
4_In the apiary_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:38 Page 4
In the Apiary
This month will see most beekeepers keeping their fingers crossed
that the weather will be kind and there will be a good summer flow
of nectar. Many beekeepers split their colonies during May or June
using an artificial swarm method to prevent adventitious swarming.
Splitting the colony at this time will not seriously affect the number
of foragers in mid July and therefore will not have too much effect
on the honey crop. This, of
course, relies on the split
colony being united at the
start of the main flow. This
can be done with the new
queen produced by the
artificial swarm method or
with the old queen (assuming
Above: Rapid clearer board; Right:
Hives with clearer boards fitted;
Below right: Bees trying to retrieve
their honey. All photos by Dr Bee.
she is still able to manage a large
colony). The artificial swarm will
have lessened the risk of
swarming, allowed the old queen
to continue laying eggs and
hopefully allowed the queenless
component of the split to raise
a new queen. Uniting the colonies using the newspaper method will
allow the colonies to work together to produce a large crop of
honey. It also has the added benefit of providing some freshly drawn
brood combs that can replace old ones in the original colony.
It is evident that one large colony will produce more excess
honey than two small colonies so if you are after honey rather than
increasing the number of colonies you have, now is the time to unite
small colonies to boost their strength and help increase your honey
crop. Be careful though; if the small colonies are small because of
disease or poor quality queens uniting them could simply result in
one small colony that will not survive the following winter.
During spring it is always advisable to give bees plenty of space
in the supers and not be too concerned in getting honey capped.
The exception to this is where the main crop is collected in spring
and early summer, such as from oil seed rape. Having good space
in the supers reduces congestion in the brood nest (and the
possibility of swarming) and provides more space for nectar to
ripen into honey at lower ambient temperature .
When the main crop is taken during summer the objective is
to get the majority of each super frame capped as soon as possible.
When the supers on the hive are getting heavy and the last super
provided is about 2/3 capped the time has come to add another.
Remember that if the frames in the new super are drawn this can
be placed anywhere (probably on top of the other supers as this is
easiest) but if the frames only have foundation the new super is
best placed just above the brood nest. Temperatures are highest
here and the job of producing and working wax is much easier for
the bees.
4
If the summer is warm and especially if we get warm evenings
then the honey in supers on the hive will stay liquid. When the
flow is over in your area you will need to remove the supers and
extract the honey. It is better to take supers off the hive as quickly
as possible, because when supers are removed the colony becomes
confined to a smaller volume and can get quite tetchy. Rapid
clearer boards help, but it is usually advisable to place an empty
super with drawn frames below the clearer board and just above
the brood nest. This gives the colony a bit more space and reduces
crowding in the brood area. There are many designs of rapid
clearer boards, but they all aim to make it easy for bees to navigate
their way down while confusing them on how to get back up to
the supers. They are not 100% effective and when used overnight
a few dozen bees will normally remain on the supers.
When the bees leave the supers they
become very vulnerable to robbers. So,
before placing a clearer board on a hive make
sure that there are no gaps where bees or
wasps can gain access to the honey from
outside the hive. Be particularly careful to
ensure that the vent holes in the roof are
insect-tight and that the roof sits squarely on
the crown board. Honey that is not guarded
by the colony becomes fair game for any
other bees or wasps that can remove it. I
have even seen a colony that had a fast
clearer board on it where the few bees still
inside the supers were feeding their
colleague bees outside the colony. The gap
was not big enough for the bees to pass through but they were
able to practice trophallaxis and thus get their honey back!!
If you do not have many
colonies then it is quite
feasible to remove the super
frames one-by-one, brush off
the bees and place the
cleared frames into another
super box made bee-proof
underneath using a spare
crown board and covering
the top with another crown
board. This can be very quick
and it is useful if only a few
frames have sealed honey in
the super as only those
frames need to be removed.
Once the supers are virtually
clear of bees they should be
taken to a bee-tight room
(preferably not in your
house) where the few remaining bees will leave the frames and try
to return to the colony. Once the frames are completely clear of
bees they can be moved to where you will be extracting the honey.
You can see from the picture that if the bees find where you are
storing their honey they will try very hard to get it back so it is
always important to store super frames in a bee tight room.
Dr Bee
5_Handling bees_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:40 Page 5
Handling and Examining a
Colony of Bees
if you are looking for disease, look for disease; if you are
checking for feed status, check that honey stores are sufficient.
p Always have a reason for examining the colony.
p Where possible, always replace combs in the same sequence
p Keep colony records and consult them prior to examining the
and the same orientation as they were at the start of the
colony so that you know the priority actions and can prepare
inspection.
suitable equipment in advance.
p The top and side bars of each comb should be kept clean by
p Have with you a bucket of washing soda solution to clean your
scraping off any wax or burr comb.
gloves and hive tools between frames or colonies, and a sealed p Unless you are moving frames to the outside of the brood box
container for scrap wax.
with a view to removing them from the hive at the next
p Be certain that all circumstances are suitable to examine the
inspection do not split the brood.
colony. Do not start your examination if the weather is likely p Any new, undrawn frames that need to be added should be put
to be adverse or if there are people or animals in the vicinity.
to the side of the brood nest and not in the middle of it. Only
Note also the forage conditions as this will affect the
do this when conditions are right for them to be drawn.
p If you suspect disease is present in the colony make certain that
disposition of the bees.
p Before opening the colony make an assessment from the
you do not cross-infect another colony. Clean your gloves and
outside e.g. are the flying bees behaving normally, are there
all hive tools, changing your gloves if necessary.
significant numbers of dead bees outside the hive, are pollen p If the disease is notifiable, i.e. EFB or AFB, reduce the entrance
and nectar being brought in.
to minimise robbing by bees
p Before opening the colony know
from other colonies and
where all of the hive parts will be put
notify your appointed bee
and have all of the equipment you will
inspector.
need to hand.
p
Foul brood (and
p Light the smoker away from the hive
other brood diseases) can
and ensure that your veil is not likely
be identified by reference to
to be affected by any sudden flare-up
the Fera brochure Foul brood
from it while lighting.
Disease of Honey Bees, also
p Use smoke sparingly to control the
available on the National
bees rather than the ‘let them know
Bee Unit (NBU) website.
you are coming’ approach. Smoke
p
Consult the Fera
from the top downwards rather than
NBU brochure Managing
from the bottom; smoking from the
Varroa, which gives full
bottom drives the bees upwards.
details of virtually every
effective varroa control
Smoke from the top. Photo by David Wootton.
Opening the hive
technique (this is also
p Remove the roof and any supers and place them in a neat stack
available on the NBU website www.nationalbeeunit.com).
close to the front of the hive; they will tend to attract the p Aim to have healthy bees with minimum varroa levels to go into
autumn and winter. They will have a higher chance of surviving
returning bees and make inspection easier.
p Carefully remove the queen excluder and check to ensure that
winter and helping the queen to raise brood in the new year.
the queen is not on it.
p If you have concerns about Nosema spp, consult the NBU
laboratory at Sand Hutton or your association microscopist
p Clean up any brace comb or propolis on the queen excluder
who will help you identify the presence or otherwise of
at this stage so that you are able to quickly re-assemble the
nosema.
hive if necessary.
p Make sure that any brace or burr comb is placed into a sealed
p Changing combs can make a big difference in keeping
container that you can take away with you; do not discard it on
pathogen numbers down and therefore controlling chalk
site as it can set up robbing and is an agent for spreading
brood disease and sac brood; requeening from a different
disease.
strain can also often help.
p Be quick, calm and methodical throughout your examination of
Closing up
the colony avoiding any sudden or sharp actions.
p Carefully remove either an end frame or dummy board, if there
p Re-assemble the hive making sure that frames are tightly
is one, to give space to easily remove or move the other frames
pushed up together to provide the correct bee space.
without damaging the bees. After inspecting to see if the queen p Ensure that the hive is stable on its stand or the ground and
is on it place it in a safe place at the front or side of the hive,
that it is properly assembled with no gaps between boxes.
preferably not in direct sunlight.
p Check that the site is clean and tidy and make the notes on
your record card before leaving the site.
Preparation
What to look for and what to do
p Examine each comb thoroughly enough for the purposes of
your examination i.e. if you are looking for eggs, look for eggs;
NBU Best Practice Guideline
5
5_Handling bees_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:40 Page 6
6
7_Wild gardening_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:42 Page 7
Going Wild: Saving Seed, Saving
Biodiversity — Part Two
There is absolutely no reason why amateur
gardeners should not collect their own
seeds if they are equipped with a basic
understanding of the process and aware of
a few pitfalls. There are many reasons why
this is a great idea. If we leave seed saving
to businesses with a vested interest in a
limited seed list, then wild species and old
cultivars will continue to become extinct at
the expense of pollinators.
p Apiaceae, such as carrots, parsnips and
parsley, are biennials and will need to
overwinter before they set seed the
following year. Their seed is generally
only viable for one year. It works well
to grow two different carrot cultivars in
alternate years, so each year there are
both carrots and seed of the previous
year’s crop.
first year. Plants left to themselves form
drifts in the right soil; this is exactly what
bees need.
The first thing to know is that we
should only choose plants whose seed can
ripen sufficiently in our climate. Also the
parent plants must be strong and healthy
looking; this being a sign that they are not
harbouring any diseases. Importantly, many
cultivars do not come true from seed and
you cannot save seed from F1 hybrids.
Finally, remember that you should always
discard seed with any blemish or
imperfection as it could be carrying a virus.
Allow the seed to ripen and then keep
an eye on the optimum time for seed
collection, which is just before natural
dispersal. Choosing plants with good
characteristics will ensure the traits you
desire will begin to predominate naturally
in your stock.
p Remove seed heads on a dry day. If they
Kitchen garden crops
The old gardeners’ varieties do come true
from seed, and have done so for hundreds
of years in some cases. Gradually bred over
many generations of plants, the gardener
only saved seed from those with desirable
characteristics. This is in tune with nature’s
own breeding method for survival of the
fittest and does not drastically change the
flower structure. This is ‘win-win’ for us and
pollinators. Many of these old varieties have
good disease resistance as do some of the
newer, also open-pollinated varieties,
especially those bred for the organic
growing system. Here are a few points to
consider when growing for seed saving:
p Keep your chosen varieties isolated
p Cucurbitaceae such as courgettes, squash
from other varieties of the same family,
for example, Alliaceae (onion family),
Brassicaceae (cabbage family) and
Cucurbitaceae (cucumber family) and
varieties of broad beans or runner
beans (which flower at the same time),
could potentially cross-pollinate with
those in the same family groups, thereby
corrupting varieties.
and pumpkin are also liable to crosspollinate if grown too close together.
However, another factor with this family
is seed longevity, since cucurbit seed
remains viable for up to ten years.
Different varieties can be grown in annual
succession, their seed saved and stored
until you feel like reuniting with an old
favourite variety again.
The Lend-Lease Act of World
War II stated that 1/4 mile isolation
distance is desirable between two
varieties, but the distance should not be
less than 150 feet plus a barrier crop
between two varieties.
If you wish to grow ‘heritage’ varieties of
vegetables and help save them from extinction
while enjoying some of the best tasting natural
veggies around, why not join a seed library who
will send you these seeds for free (there is a
small joining fee). This is acceptable under the
Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964. If you are a
dedicated grower you can even become a ‘seed
guardian’. Visit www.rytongardens.co.uk.
Annuals and perennials
Annuals take care of themselves by
releasing every year (then the parent plant
dies) and they will self-sow. If we wish to
control where they grow we can save and
redistribute their seed. Perennials also selfseed, though they seldom flower in their
are damp they should first be scattered
on a sheet to dry. With flower-spikes,
take the entire stem of seed capsules
and hang upside down in a paper bag out
of sunlight in a dry, ventilated place. All
ripe seed will drop into the bag after a
few days. Discard any seed left behind
in the capsules as this is probably unripe.
p Clean off as much chaff and dust from
the seed as you can to avoid it rotting
and harbouring mould, using a series of
sieves and blowing off the dust.
p Place the seed in a clearly labelled
envelope and store inside a plastic box
placed in a fridge at 0–5ºC. If your
fridge is very damp, you can put silicagel sachets, or even milk powder, in the
box to absorb excess moisture.
Shrubs and trees
Nut-like fruits with high water content
from trees like hazel need to be collected,
their shells removed and sown straight
away in pots. If they dry out they lose
viability. They also need to spend winter
outside to break dormancy. Seed from ‘dry’
pods are ready to collect when their pods
turn from green to brown. Ripe seeds
inside will be plump and still green. Put the
pods in paper bags to shed their seed, and
store as you would perennial seed. These
will usually remain viable for many years.
Sarah Holdsworth
[email protected]
7
8_Sentinel project_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:42 Page 8
The Sentinel Apiary Programme
for England and Wales
Introduction to exotic pest surveillance
An important part of the National Bee Unit’s (NBU’s) apiary
inspection programme is surveillance for exotic pests, which pose
serious threats to honey bee health should they be found in the
UK. Clearly, early detection and interception of high risk species
such as the Small Hive Beetle (SHB) and Tropilaelaps mites are key
to preventing their establishment. This year up to 10% of all apiary
visits carried out by our Inspectorate will be for the purposes of
exotic pest surveillance (EPS). We use geographic information
systems to identify ‘at risk’ apiaries, for
instance those situated close to civilian
and military airports, close to freight
depots and ports of entry, or belonging
to bee importers, and concentrate EPS
efforts in these places. A map of risk
points is available to view on the NBU’s
BeeBase website (Figure 1).
Figure 1. EPS risk points and type. Taken
from https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/
beebase/maps/map.cfm (select Exotic risk
points to view the map).
Abbreviated Key:
Landfill site assoc with imports; Crude hive products importer;
Military airport (UK forces); Military airport (US); Fruit and veg
wholesale market;
Freight port/ Port; Freight depot; Civilian
airport; Confirmed outbreak.
UK Mid and large cities.
tested by Fera’s honey bee diagnosticians for the presence of SHB
and exotic mites. Finally, at the end of the season, a log of the SA
inspections is returned to the NBU to provide a record of the
surveillance programme.
Additional surveillance for the Asian hornet
(Vespa velutina)
The Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, is an aggressive predator of honey
bees and other beneficial insects. It has recently extended its
geographical range from Asia to mainland Europe following an
accidental introduction to France and is now also present in Spain
and Belgium. Adult hornets are highly mobile; the rate of spread
across France is approximately 100 km/year. There is now great
concern that this exotic insect will reach the UK, either by hitching
a ride on imported goods or simply by flying across the Channel.
A commercially available wasp and hornet trap, modified to (i)
maximise the probability of catching an Asian hornet in such a
condition that completely reliable identification is possible and (ii)
minimise the impact on any other insects that may be drawn to the
trap, has recently been offered to SA holders and is now being
deployed across England and Wales. The coastal regions of South
and South East England are probably at most risk of incursion by V.
velutina and beekeepers in these areas who are interested in
monitoring for Asian hornets can contact the NBU office or e-mail
Gay Marris at [email protected]. If traps are not already
being deployed nearby then a limited number of traps are available.
The sentinel apiary holders
EPS is an important first line defence, but we do not work alone in
our ongoing campaign to keep exotic pests at bay. For the past
two years a selected group of beekeepers in England and Wales has
been specifically monitoring their honey bee colonies for exotic
pest species on behalf of the NBU. These ‘Sentinel Apiary’ (SA)
holders represent a valuable additional front-line defence against
exotic pest incursion. There are currently about fifteen SAs in each
of the eight beekeeping regions (i.e. 120 SAs in total across England
and Wales). Selected from our BeeBase database, beekeepers
located in at risk areas were approached and asked if they would
like to take part in the SA programme. A few additional beekeepers
in areas not associated with particular risk points have also been
invited to take part to give a more complete regional coverage. As
a result the distribution of SAs
is deliberately such that some
are in at risk areas while
others are sited at random,
thus maximising the likelihood
of early pest detection. SA
holders are provided with a
monitoring and sampling kit
and regularly examine their
colonies according to standard
protocols.
Monitoring is
carried
out
using
SHB traps
Figure 2. Checking the SHB trap. All
(Figure
2),
uncapping
drone
photos courtesy of The Food and
Environment Research Agency (Fera), brood to look for exotic
Crown Copyright; images supplied by mites, and twice a year hive
the National Bee Unit at Fera.
debris samples (Figure 3) are
8
Figure 3. Collecting floor debris for examination.
All beekeepers are encouraged to monitor for the Asian
hornet. There is a feature on the front cover of April BBKA News,
and an identification sheet and links to much more information
about this insect under the Pest and Diseases pages of our BeeBase
website www.nationalbeeunit.com including a French design for a
home-made hornet trap. It is also possible to make your own traps
simply using a couple of plastic bottles — just remember to insert
a grid over the bait so that the insects are trapped rather than
drowned to aid easy identification.
IvorFlatman, Regional Bee Inspector, North East Region and
GayMarris, Science Coordinator, National Bee Unit
9_Short tailed bumblebee_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:45 Page 9
The Return of the Native
The short-haired bumblebee Bombus subterraneus was last recorded
in the UK in Dungeness, Kent in 1988. Specific surveys to find it
came to no avail, and it was officially declared extinct by the
international union for conservation of
nature in 2000. It is believed that
extensive loss of habitat has been the
cause of this bee’s decline and extinction
along with other late emerging, longtongued bumblebees (of which one other
is extinct and seven others classified as
Biodiversity Action Plan [BAP] species).
Over the last sixty years the UK has lost
over 97% of its wild flower meadows due
to intensifying agricultural practices.
The short-haired bumblebee project is a partnership between
Natural England, Hymettus,The Bumblebee Conservation Trust and
RSPB. Since 2009, we have been working on the reintroduction of
B. subterraneus to the UK. The project aims are to
reintroduce this species back to the UK and form a
self-sustainable population; to recreate a minimum of
twenty to thirty hectares across the release site of
Dungeness and Romney Marsh; to give advice to
The B. subterraneus queens and
workers have the same colour Bombus subterraneus.
morphology of black and yellow stripes; Photos by Dr Nikki Gammans.
two yellow bands on the thorax, the
second band always being narrower than the first and the first
having a black notch in the centre of the band. Two faint yellow
bands appear on second and fourth tergites on the abdomen and
a white tail. The males are yellow in colour and similar to
B. distinguendus. In some parts of Europe a melanistic form of farmers, land owners
B. subterraneus is seen which is black with a chocolate brown tail. and conservation groups
Research has shown that colour is determined by a single gene, so on managing, maintaining and
these different forms do not represent sub-species. Nests are creating wild flower areas, and to
made underground, usually in former rodent holes.
monitor the spread of rare bumblebees.
9
9_Short tailed bumblebee_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:45 Page 10
The RSPB reserve at Dungeness and surrounding area of
Romney Marsh in the south of Kent was selected as the release
site following trials by Mike Edwards and Brian Banks on pollen and
nectar mixes and hay meadow creation in conjunction with local
farmers. The project has extensively worked with land owners and
farmers across this site and over 650 hectares are managed as
flower rich habitat. As a result of this change of habitat, the UK’s
rarest bumblebee species, the shrill carder B. sylvarum, has returned
to Dungeness after a 25-year absence and the large garden
B. ruderatus bumblebee returned after a ten-year absence. The
other BAP species, the red-shanked B.ruderarius, the moss carder
B. muscorum and the brown banded carder bee B. humilis are also
all increasing in their distribution.
An initial trial expedition to
Sweden took place in May 2011 to
collect queens for disease
screening and to establish the
abundance of B. subterraneus. Sixty
queens were collected from two
30 mile transects from the
province of Skane, South Sweden,
(one south coast and one west
coast). All queens were collected
foraging on white dead nettle,
Lamium album. The population of B. subterraneus was found to be
abundant and it was deemed that taking between thirty and one
hundred individuals annually over the proposed next five years
would not harm the donor population. Sweden does have both
colour forms of B. subterraneus. Both were collected for disease
screening, but only the continental (black and yellow striped) form
will be reintroduced to the UK because no melanisitic specimens
have ever been reported here. Any queens that might be collected
in the future would need to be disease screened and any found
with parasites would not be released.
In April 2012 Dr Nikki Gammans with a team of volunteers
travelled to Skane, Sweden to begin collection of B. subterraneus.
The team required a minimum of thirty and maximum one hundred
queens. The team was split into two, four people on each transect
and collection began with walking along areas of suitable forage,
and netting any queens seen and placing them into vials. The queens
were then stored in a fridge at 5°C to induce torpor.
After five days of collection were completed the queens
were taken back to the UK and taken directly to
Dr Mark Brown at Royal Holloway, University of London,
where the queens spent two weeks in quarantine.
Screening took place on faecal samples and any queens
with parasites were not released.
On 28 May 2012, Kent welcomed home
B. subterraneus nearly a quarter of a century after the bee
was last seen in Britain. Dr Nikki Gammans, project
advisor Brian Banks and a team of twenty volunteers will
closely monitor how the bees take to their new
surroundings. It is hoped that an additional four years of releases
will take place.
Dr Nikki Gammans,
The short-haired bumblebee project officer
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11_Neonics_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:44 Page 11
Neonicotinoids and Honey Bees
In recent months there has rarely been any time when the media
has not carried a story on pesticides and bees, and in particular on
neonicotinoids. Two research papers released in March 2012
prompted the BBKA to issue a statement (opposite) on the 30
March 2012 reiterating its call for an urgent review of all available
data on the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on bees.
On the 10 April 2012 the BBKA wrote the letter
reproduced below to the Chemicals Regulations Directorate
(CRD; the UK competent authority for the regulation of
pesticides in the UK).
Dr Adrian Dixon
Recent papers concerning neonicotinoid insecticides and bees (honey
and bumble)
Dear Adrian
You are no doubt aware of recently published papersnote 1 concerning
neonicotinoids and their alleged effects on honey and bumble bees.
The British Beekeepers Association has consistently maintained the
position that the regulation, approval and monitoring safe use of such
products is the responsibility of the competent authorities and
government and that it is up to government and its agencies to
communicate and provide reassurance or otherwise about their use.
I attach a copy of the statement we issued on 30 March 2012 in
connection with these new papers.
Regrettably the position taken by the BBKA has been assumed
incorrectly by those who are calling for the ban on the use of
neonicotinoids, as being supportive of their use and without question.
This is not the case; the BBKA (and the public) expect to be kept
informed of the authorities’ evaluation and consequent reaction to
new research and practical experience.
In spite of recent high profile articles in broadsheet papers such as
the Independent and Guardian there has been no public response or
comment from CRD, Defra and Fera (through Bee Base). In fact the
latest posting on the Defra website concerning neonicotinoids and
bees is from March 2011.
In return for being objective and pragmatic and generally supportive
of the regulatory process the reputation of the BBKA is being
damaged.This is unacceptable.
We would like assurances that the results published in the papers
listed in Note 1 will be or have been evaluated and the risk profiles
of the substances concerned assessed to determine whether there is
an increased risk to honey bees in the UK. If the competent authorities
conclude that there is no risk to honey bee health and well-being
based on a particular new piece of evidence, then they must state
how they come to that conclusion and the reasons for taking no
action.
We thus wish to know:
1. Whether there is any substantiated evidence of the effects of
neonicotinoids used in the UK to honey bees.
2. Whether the UK is participating in future EU work regarding risk
assessment and the investigation of alleged sub-lethal effects of
neoniconitoids on honey bees.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience
Dr David Aston, NDB
Note 1
Henry M et al A Common Pesticide decreases foraging success and
survival in honey bees. Science
Whitehorn PR et al Neonicotinoid pesticides reduces bumble bee
growth and queen production. Science
BBKA Statement 30 March 2012: The BBKA today reiterates its call for
an urgent review of all the available data on the effects of neonicotinoid
pesticides on bees. The work reported in Science by Goulson et al an
bumblebees and Henry et al on honey bees, is a matter for concern.
It is vital that the UK authority, namely the Chemicals Regulation Directorate,
reviews this new and other recently published data in depth and reports back
in a full and transparent fashion. The findings and limitations of these studies
and their relevance to bee health must be subject to scrutiny and appropriate
action taken, if justified. The BBKA also renews its call on the competent EU
authority to review the regulatory requirements for products in this new class
of pesticides in order to detect possible sub-lethal effects which may not be
picked up by current testing regimes. Over time, the BBKA has campaigned for
more research into this group of compounds as evidenced in its paper Honey
Bee Research Concepts (Jan 2009) and earlier papers submitted to Government.
The BBKA itself is funding research on pesticide residues in bee colonies at
Keele University.
Honey bees and bumble bees share the same environment and may be exposed
to the same negative influences of poor forage availability, diseases, bad weather
and agrochemical products. The BBKA is currently conducting its fifth annual
winter survey of honey bee colony survival which will be reported as soon as
the data is gathered and analysed.
In reply two letters, reproduced below, were received from
the CRD. In the case of the second letter readers are
recommended to use the link to the WIIS site and read the
background information associated with the reported findings of
dead honeybees. The letters are self-explanatory and, hopefully,
will reassure UK beekeepers that our authorities are fulfilling their
legal obligations and being pro-active in work to further reduce
risks of exposure.
First letter in reply:
Dear David,
BEES AND NEONICOTINOID PESTICIDES
Thank you for your letter of 10 April which we discussed recently. I
apologise for the delay in responding.
Ministers take the success of bee populations very seriously. That is
why, despite the tough regulatory controls on pesticides already in
place, we are not complacent.We carefully assess new studies as they
emerge and consider with an open mind whether they alter the overall
picture. In case it is of interest I attach a list of recent studies which
have been/are being considered here. The body of evidence assessed
so far supports the conclusion that neonicotinoids do not threaten
honey bee populations. However we will continue to develop and
assess the science and will act if new evidence, including the latest
studies which you specifically mention and which are currently under
review, shows the need. You may be interested to know that the
European Commission have asked the European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA) to look at the relevance of the two studies you mention to the
authorisations granted by member States. We understand that EFSA
are likely to report to the Commission on this by the end of May.
Your letter also asks about UK involvement in international work in
this area. Government scientists and officials are actively engaged in
a number of important international initiatives such as the European
Commission’s plan for Honeybee Health, the OECD’s Pesticides Effects
11
11_Neonics_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:44 Page 12
on Insect Pollinators (PEIP) initiative, and the work of the International
Commission for Plant-Bee Relationships (ICPBR) and the European
and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) in
developing risk assessment schemes for honey bees which will cover
all types of pesticides, including systemic seed treatments. CRD
regulatory scientists are also participating in the Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)’s work on the
pesticides risk assessment for pollinators (honeybees and non-Apis
bees) which is developing the risk assessment.This will then feed back
into the revision of the Terrestrial Guidance document which is used
by member States in the pesticides risk assessment process. Scientists
and officials will continue to develop these links, and are involved in a
Bee working group set up by EFSA to develop risk assessment
guidance.
We are also continue to support research in this area, and have
recently commissioned two new pieces of new work under the Defra
funded pesticides research programme. The first (PS2371) involves
research on bumble bees and will look at real life exposure of bumble
bees to treated oilseed rape, picking up questions raised by the Stirling
University research. The second (PS2370) will focus on the
interpretation of pesticide residues and disease in honey bees. This
will help interpretation of any bee incident results under the
Government’s Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme by obtaining
samples of apparently “healthy” bees and analysing them for pesticide
residues and for disease levels.The hives would also be looked at the
following year to check that the bees survived the winter. Fuller
summaries of these projects should be available shortly on Defra’s
website under the project numbers mentioned.
I hope this information is helpful to address your Association’s
concerns. You may recall that Tim and I discussed by email last
summer how CRD might maintain regular contact with your
Association, and we still look forward to considering any suggestions.
For our part, we would be particularly interested to know more about
the BBKA research being done at Keele University which is mentioned
in the BBKA statement you enclosed.
In addition to the bee health work carried out by the National Bee
Unit, the Government’s Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS)
also gives an indicator of whether pesticides are impacting on bee
health. The number of incidents involving bee deaths investigated
under the scheme is shown in the table below (routine screening for
neonicotinoids was started in 2009/10).
Financial
Year
Bee poisoning cases
all cases
neonicotinoid
residues found
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12*
10
19
15
1
5
4
Details
imidacloprid (1)
thiacloprid (4), imidacloprid (1)
thiacloprid (3), imidacloprid (1)
* the final number of cases in 2011/12 is subject to confirmation
Background information on the WIIS can be found on HSE’s website
at
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/
topics/reducing-environmental-impact/wildlife. Detailed WIIS quarterly
reports can be found at http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/
industries/pesticides/topics/reducing-environmental-impact/wildlife/
WIIS-Quarterly-Reports.htm
As I mentioned in my letter, in order to help assess the significance of
the levels of pesticide detected in these cases, a research project is
being initiated to look at the levels of pesticide found in normal honey
bee populations. You may wish to remind your members that any
beekeepers who believe the sudden, unexpected death of a large
number of honey bees may be due to pesticide poisoning should
contact their local Bee Inspector or one of the Team at the NBU in
the first instance.
Adrian Dixon
It is intended that the CRD and the BBKA will maintain a
dialogue to ensure the interests of honey bees and beekeepers are
represented and that we are made aware of any research or other
findings which suggest an increase the risk of injury to honey bees.
In the event of this we will insist on appropriate steps being taken
in line with the scientific findings.
Adrian Dixon
Second letter:
Dear David
BEES AND NEONICOTINOID PESTICIDES
Thank you for your email, following my letter of 8 May, in which you
reiterated your question as to whether any substantiated effects have
been found in honey bees in the UK from the use of neonicotinoid
insecticides.
Dr David Aston,
Chair BBKA Technical and Environmental Committee
Note: The abbreviated reference list below accompanied the first
letter of response to Dr Aston.
Abbreviated list of recently published research considered by the CRD
1. Henry M et al. Sciencexpress 29 March 2012,
p10 1126/science.1215039
2. Whitehorn PR et al. Sciencexpress 29 March
2012, p1 10.1126/science.1215025
3. Pettis J S et al. Naturwissenschaften 2012;
99(2): 153–8.
4. Vidau C et al. PloS ONE 6(6): e21550. Doi
10.1371/ journal.pone.0021550.
5. Cresswell JE et al. Accepted article doi:
10.1002/ps.3290. Pest Manage Sci 2012.
6. Wu JY et al. : J Invert Path 109 (2012) 326-329.
12
7. Mommaerts V et al. Ecotoxicol, 2010; 19:207215.
8. Tapparo A et al. Env Sci Technol ACS
dx.doi.org/ 10.1021/ es2035152 Envion Sci
Technol.
9. Johnson RM et al. PLoS ONE 7(2): e31051.
Doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0031051.
10. Schneider CW et al. PLoS ONE 7(1): e30023.
Doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0030023.
11. Brittain C, Potts SG. Basic App Ecol 2011; 12:
321–331.
12. Teeters BS et al. Env Toxicol Chem 2012; DOI
10.1002/etc.1830 – accepted preprint.
13. Aufauvre J et al. Sci Rep 2012; 2: 326
DOI:10.1038/srep00326.
14. Lu C et al. 13 March 2012 — corrected
PROOF Bull Insectol 65(1): xxx-xxx, 2012
ISSN 1721-8861
15. Blacquiere T et al. Ecotoxicol 2012; 21:973–
992.
13_Foundation or strips_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:54 Page 13
Supers Without Foundation
Over the last few decades established beekeepers have had to adapt
to quite a few changes. For us one of the first challenges came in
the late 70s/early 80s when oil seed rape started to be grown
extensively. The bees became difficult to handle on these early
varieties. On occasions
migratory beekeepers
could not even get out
of their cars! We had to
get used to dealing with
honey that granulated at
the drop of a hat. If the
weather got cold or the
colony was split so
there were fewer bees,
or if supers were taken
off the hive more
than 24 hours before Top: All their own work; Right: Look how
extraction, you had to thin the midrib is. Photos by Paul Edwards.
deal with honey which
had set rock solid in the
frames. One of the techniques we adopted was to cut out the
worst affected frames, leaving about one inch of comb attached to
the top bars, chamfered on both sides. The rest of the honey and
wax was melted down in a heated uncapping tray. If this frame was
replaced in the super between two drawn combs, the bees refilled
the frame perfectly, but the frame was now unwired. We have a
twelve-frame electric radial extractor and found we could extract
the refilled combs with little fear of the wax collapsing unless they
were loaded with pollen.We suspect this might not be the case with
tangential extractors; proceed with care.
that you should be replacing your super combs every five years to
keep your bees healthy. So what we are doing also helps to keep
disease down. Another possible advantage is that there is an
increase in the number of drone cells in the supers and honey is
said to spin out more easily from drone cells.
However, we can think of rather serious
disadvantages if you are a bit careless in your
manipulations or your queen excluder is less than
perfect!
Wax is made at the expense of honey, so your
yields of honey might be down a bit, but you will
have more beeswax. All we need to do now is
persuade the honey
judges that ‘A Frame
Suitable for Extraction’
does not have to be
wired. For us the pros
far outweigh the cons.
Have a bit of an
experiment and see
how you get on.
Paul and Paula Edwards,
West Dorset BKA
The next challenge, which came in the early 90s, was learning
to live with varroa. As fully paid-up members of the Soil Association
we did not want to use Apistan or Bayvarol, especially when we
knew the synthetic pyrethroids were attracted to beeswax. It
followed that we did not want to use foundation that came from
the commercial pool. Having kept bees long enough to have plenty
of our own beeswax, we started to make our own foundation for
the brood chambers and building on our previous experiments we
used starter strips of foundation in the supers. Then one day when
a major honey flow was on we put in a few empty frames without
the starter strips. The bees put comb in them just the same! It
does help if you can put the empty frames between frames that
already have drawn combs, otherwise the bees sometimes build
their combs sideways across several frames and this is a bit tricky
to deal with.
What are the pros and cons of using this
system in the supers?
Some of the advantages are obvious, such as saving the cost of
foundation and the time fitting it. Other advantages are less so.
We sell quite a lot of our honey as cut comb or chunk. The midrib
is beautifully thin and the resulting product perfect. All the frames
are candidates and the best can just be put to one side during the
extracting process. The empty frames are then sterilised and
cleaned in a vat of boiling water with washing soda. Last year we
sent samples of wax to the Keele University student who was
looking into chemical residues and our wax was totally clean.
We recently heard a talk by a Seasonal Bee Inspector who said
13
14_Bee vet_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:57 Page 14
The Virus and the Bee
A large amount of research has been done
into a number of viruses that affect honey
bees, especially as some of these viruses
were the first suspected cause of the
phenomenon known as Colony Collapse
Disorder. The emergence of varroa has also
probably increased the prevalence of many
viruses in hives. They are often the hidden
cause of colony losses over winter, and
understanding what they are and how they
influence the health of the colony is crucial
to help us effectively control them.
There is still debate as to whether
viruses are alive or dead. On their own
they are a simply a few strands of DNA or
RNA (genetic material) and a protective
shell, unable to replicate on their own; they
must use their host’s cells to achieve this. A
key reason why antibiotics cannot destroy
viruses, unlike bacteria, is because they lack
any of the metabolic pathways that could be
disrupted. Viruses cause damage and death
to both growing and adult bees, with
different viruses causing diverse signs such
as deformed wing, caused by Deformed
Wing Virus (DWV; see photo above). When
colony size is reduced, a high number of
damaged or dead bees could easily cause its
collapse; this most commonly occurs over
winter. The basics of viral control in other
species are threefold:
p Improving the animal’s immunity; this is
achieved by maintaining a healthy
animal, including proper husbandry and
nutrition and most importantly by
reducing the level of virus introduction
to the hive.
p Certain antiviral drugs; these are
expensive and efficacy varies.
p Preventatively with vaccines.
Of these methods of control, only one
is truly available to the beekeeper to reduce
the ‘viral load’ in the hive; this is to improve
the bees’ immunity and ensure the colony
is healthy enough to effectively limit the
damage caused by them. Relate this to the
common cold in humans. Most of us have
been infected at some point in our lives but
we usually recover from it relatively quickly
if we are healthy, and our body then
develops immunity to that strain. Similarly,
although a large number of people are
infected with the flu virus each year only
some get sick and only a very few become
seriously ill.
In my previous article I discussed how
immunity is achieved in the complexity of a
bee hive and the possibilities to improve it.
These include not just hive management,
genetics and a varied nutrition, but also the
use of certain supplements that promote
gut health so as to prevent viruses from
penetrating the gut lining.
The future of the viral disease control
is most probably effective vaccination, but a
lot more work needs to be done in this
field to accomplish this. Until then the
success of colonies through the cold
weather relies heavily on how they are
managed throughout the year to allow a
healthy colony to survive the winter.
Jon Arul, The Bee Vet
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14
14_Bee vet_BBKA master 10/06/2012 19:57 Page 15
Fashion Helps Honey Bees
The BBKA is to receive half the profits from the sale of limited
edition Liberty print bee charm bracelets, designed and made by
British designer label Cinderela B.
Two designs of Liberty prints have been specially chosen to
celebrate the beauty of honey bees and flowers, and only a limited
number of bracelets will be available. Each bracelet costs £19.95
and comes with the choice of a silver or gold plated bee charm,
which can be removed from the bracelet to allow it to be washed.
The bracelets come complete with a gift pouch and would make a
great summer gift, with the added benefit of raising much needed
funds to help us support and protect our honey bees.
Cinderela B was founded in 2006 by British designer Rachel
Jackson. She began with a stall in Spitalfields market in London and
has since grown to have her own studio, but has remained faithful
to the vibrant and creative area of Spitalfields. She now employs
a team of young fashion graduates to help design and make her
jewellery. Rachel explains why she chose to support the BBKA:
‘The beauty of nature is very important to me and I try to reflect
that in the design of my jewellery. Honey bees play such a massive
role in helping to keep nature in balance so we wanted to do our
bit to help ensure that they continue to thrive.’
These beautiful bracelets can be purchased at
www.LoveHoneyBees.com, but hurry, they are a limited edition
and are expected to sell quickly. So do not miss out; order yours
today.
Gill Mclean, BBKA Press Officer
FASHION SUPPORTS
HONEY BEES
The BBKA and British designer
jewellery label Cinderela B have
teamed up to create 2 limited
edition Liberty print bracelets
with honey bee charms.
With 50% of profits going to
the BBKA, they’re the most
boho-chic way to show your
love for our Great British honey
bee. A perfect gift for yourself
or someone special.
£19.95 includes free gift pouch*
To buy visit www.LoveHoneyBees.co.uk
or call 020 7375 0505
* Whilst stocks last
15
16_Unconventionalstart_BBKAmaster10/06/201219:59Page16
An Unconventional Start
to Beekeeping
Last season was a prelude to my bee keeping life. I say this because
although I was a fully paid up member of my local association, and
equipment was sterilised and ready to go, no bees were established
by September. So, my bee buddy and I were content with attending
a Beginners’ Beekeeping course and hoping for better luck next
year. We finished our six-week course with the course leader
becoming our mentor in the last week and everything was looking
rosy for 2012. The next day a friend alerted me to a ‘hive of bees’
that I should go and look at. Having seen quite a few hives by now
and wanting ours to have something in it, I did not jump at
the chance. It was a
beautifully sunny day,
and at the school
pickup I was badgered
as to whether I had
been to see it yet. So,
with my 4 and 2 year
olds, I wandered down
the lane to see this
‘hive’. Well, oh well.
Sauntering down the
lane, with the hedge
on one side, and
pretty little country
cottages on the other,
Above: In transit from greenhouse to
I lead my unsuspecting hive. Right: Bees and comb put safely
family to witness the into the hive.
most wonderful sight.
The farmer had just cut the hedge back and revealed a colony
of bees which had been hard at work all summer long. The
friend who lived opposite (who could give respite to the young
ones!) had witnessed a swarm the previous May. It was now
October and we could see around seven combs beautifully
dangling from the branches of this hedge. Action stations!
We had come through our first bee season without being
responsible for anything. We had practised catching swarms in the
safety of the classroom, and identified the queen (conveniently
marked) on photograph after photograph. I rushed back home
with the children, rang my buddy and made ready the equipment.
I had taken photos, had emailed them to our mentor and hoped
she was sitting by the computer to provide immediate advice.
Disappointingly, after ten minutes I had heard nothing from our
fearless leader and so we decided to take action. Donning our bee
suits, opting for the gauntlets that had come with the suits (that
others had advised us were only for show, rubber gloves being far
more practical) some secateurs and a rather large cardboard box,
onward we went into humanitarian-rescue-mission mode.
I found out afterwards that the action of standing aside the
raised hedge, legs stretched far apart for balance, had ripped the
inside seams of my bee suit. Luckily, the bees were not interested
in ‘crawling upward to a dark place’ as we had learnt in our reading.
The comb was attached to two branches. The bees seemed pretty
friendly considering I was dismantling their home and manhandling
them, as gently as I could, into a cardboard box on the other side
of the road. We got most in, then left the box, in the opposite
neighbour’s garden and hoped the rest would follow. We had no
16
idea if we had got the queen or not. To look for her would have
dismantled the structure of the comb, and we had already seen far
more bee action in that thirty minutes than we had done all
summer long.
After dark, children safely out of the way this time, my buddy
and I went back for the box. Her gallant husband let us lift the box
into the car while he stood a distance away. We then piled into
the car and drove to our awaiting, carefully planned and anticipated
bee spot. It was late October, and although it had been wonderfully
warm and sunny, that night was going to be the first real
frost we had that year. I have now started to note these
things down in a book for future reference. My husband
finds this a little worrying. We decided on leaving the
box, covered with a blanket, in the greenhouse overnight,
to protect from any frost. Our mentor had been in
contact by then, it turns out she had been washing her
bee suit to put away for the winter, and congratulated us
on our first stages of bee rescue. She would be arriving
in the morning to attend to Stage 3 — transfer to hive.
Sleepless nights were
had by me and buddy on
whether we had squashed
the bees in transit;
suffocated them with the
blanket; caught the queen;
were they going to be too
hot in the greenhouse…
Oh, who would have the
responsibility?
Yet, the
morning dawned, child
number one was shoved off
to school and my two-year
old accompanied us to the rendezvous point of our local pub to
meet mentor and then off to the greenhouse. Mentor and buddy
got dressed up and opened the box … oh to cries of joy! The bees
had made it through the night and were safely transferred to the
hive. OK, so they did not look as impressive now as they did
hanging in the bush, and some were lost in transit due to collapse
of comb, but probably more would have died had we left it in situ
through the frost of the previous night. We felt we had done them
a service.
Safely tucked up in the hive, with a lump of baker’s fondant,
our instructions were to put a cushion between the metal and
wooden lid of the hive and wait two weeks. They cleared out a
few dead bees over the coming days. I managed to get hold of a
copy of At the Hive Entrance which I studied, then handed to my
buddy. We stood and waited at the hive to watch the bees happily
fly in and out over the next two weeks before we could open them
up again and just see they were doing OK.
All seemed well for the next few months. November was
pretty warm, the bees were happily flying to and fro. December
was the same. In January we decided to put in some more fondant.
We tried not to lift the lid very much so that their heat did not
escape. Everyone seemed busy and happy. There was a dent in the
16_Unconventionalstart_BBKAmaster10/06/201219:59Page17
fondant so they knew it was there. Our thoughts turned to how
we would sort out the comb come the spring. Our mentor, ever
one for providing incentives, promised us each a gold star if we
managed to tie the comb to empty frames — a task not usually
undertaken by even
the most experienced
bee keepers.
We
checked our stash of
rubber gloves and
gleefully anticipated
the sticky moment.
had only led to prolonging their lives by a few months.
Our hive is now sterilised, frames — complete with virgin
sheets of beeswax — are waiting our conventionally acquired bees,
direct from our mentor. We will know a little of
their ancestry and will probably have a less messy
introduction to our hive. We will also know not to
strap the badger protection across the vent holes
and have marked the lid to remind us. Hopefully, we
Then
came
February. I had started
to note down the daily
temperatures, at 8am
and 5pm — the times
I happened to be in the
downstairs loo which
has the inside/outside
Above and Right: The bees were
thermometer. The temperature started now dead and scattered, but they
to drop, and the snow came. Bee buddy had built comb around sides of the
went out every morning and swept the hive. All photos by Helen Sharp.
snow away from the door, made sure the
entrance was free for access in and out of the hive. We waited,
and watched. We watched and waited. The temperature dropped
to minus 15°C one night. The bees were quiet. We waited and will be able to manage the stores for this year’s bees so this is the
waited. We went up to the hive and listened but could not hear a last case of starvation; we will see…
thing. We studied At the Hive Entrance to see if there were any clues
as to what you should hear after four nights of minus double figure
temperatures. Not many clues were found!
Helen Sharp
Dover BKA
A few days later it warmed up to 11°C, we decided to have a
look in the hive. All was lost. The bees were dead. Was it the
extreme cold, had they run out of food or was it something else?
Apparently, the bees can survive the cold, but not damp. It was
then we realised there were vent holes in the roof of the hive. We
had strapped our hive together to protect from the active badgers.
It looked as though we had squeezed the vent holes closed with
the cushion being between the metal and wooden lid for extra
warmth, it had provided a squeezable option. Disappointed and
frustrated we put the lid back on and waited for word from our
mentor. That weekend was the monthly meeting. We met up in
the cold hall on a raining day with cake, and discussed what could
have killed them. Damp was a concern, cold probably not the
culprit, but they could have starved. We were told to go in and
take the comb apart. If the bees were all in a huddle together, the
damp was our murderer. If, however, the bees were scattered
around the comb with their heads stuck in the cells, then starvation
was more likely.
Off we trudged to the hive. We took the strap off, undid the
hive and examined the comb. The bees were scattered around the
comb, with heads stuck in the cells. Our bees had starved. What
I do not understand is that they had the baker’s fondant just nearby,
they could have feasted on that and survived the bitter cold to see
their first — albeit rather wet — spring. In taking apart the comb
we squashed the honey stores between our fingers. It was rock
hard. It was beginning to make sense. If our bees had swarmed
last spring, their stores contained the honey they had harvested
over the spring and summer, and into the early autumn. There was
plenty of ivy in that hedge; it was also bordering a field that had
contained rape last spring. As they had essentially been living a wild
life last summer, no one had dealt with the stores that would
become so solid as to be useless. Our attempts to rescue them
17
18_Clifftop_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:00 Page 18
Notes from a Clifftop Apiary
Sometimes we have friends up on the allotment for a latish sort of
breakfast. Cook up a bacon bap and brew mugs of tea with a kelly
kettle. Or if it’s later in the day, take scones and jam and cream up
there. The bees are fine with that, so long as we don’t sit in their
flight line. Some folk, though, are understandably nervous. It’s not
every picnic site that your view out over the sunlit sea is crisscrossed continuously by zipping bees. They don’t bother us. Some
visitors were amused that I’d painted red, white and blue RAF
roundels on my landing boards. Well, why not? I have an affinity
with the RAF. My father flew Bristol Fighters, Sopwiths and S.E.5s
in the RFC in 1918, and he commanded a Barrage Balloon Squadron
in the Second. And he put me into the RAF Boy Entrants in the
early 60s. What else are bees if not pilots, navigators, flight
engineers, and in early spring, bomb-aimers?
There are quite a lot of people I would like to have invited
onto the plot to look at the bees and look at the view and chat
about whatever these things gave
rise to. Writers, mostly. Like Sylvia
and Ted. The arrival in the post of
the County Yearbook of Beekeepers
makes me think of them. How, if
things had turned out differently,
they might have become successful
beekeepers, perhaps have appeared
in the Okehampton Branch list.
Would she have kept her own
name on her honey jar labels?
What price today a jar of Sylvia
Plath’s honey? Only, she never got
around to keeping bees through a
full year-cycle. She wrote a small
group of poems about bees. Ted
didn’t. Somehow, bees didn’t get his
creative juices going.
Some years ago I wrote briefly
about Sylvia Plath’s bee poems in
the Devon Beekeeping Magazine,
edited by Glyn Davies. This came to the attention of the Keeper
of the Plath Collection at Smith College Library in Massachusetts,
her Alma Mater, who kindly sent us photocopies of pages from
Sylvia’s journals from the autumn of 1962. That summer she and
Ted had met Charlie Pollard and a group of North Tawton
beekeepers, and by October she had received delivery of a box of
bees. A sequence of five bee poems was written intensively one
after the other in a matter of a few days in early October. Of these
The Arrival of the Bee Box is probably the most accessible and
therefore best known. Its mystery and potent danger set her off:
In her writing about bees, she never developed beyond a sense
of mystery tinged with fear. Did she ever get to the point of having
a hive in her garden at Court Green? If she had become familiar
with an occupied hive and with handling bees, then she might have
written more genially about them. But there was much else that
filled her mind at this time. She had two young children. She was
driven by a powerful writing ambition. And her marriage was
coming apart.
Ted by this time had published two volumes of poetry.¹ Among
them a handful of ‘nature’ poems of stunning power and originality.²
It was a household containing two artistic literary drives. By the
end of the summer of 1962 they had parted.
The local midwife who had attended Sylvia at the birth of her
son Nicholas in January,Winifred Davies, was also the woman who
taught her beekeeping. Elsewhere among the bee poems Sylvia
makes much of the fecundity,
power and authority of the
queen. Some commentators
see in this a resolve in the
writer to re-form herself as
an independent woman in
control of her own creativity.
Obviously,
after
the
breakdown of the marriage,
she had no taste for staying
on in the little Devon town
on the northern rim of
Dartmoor. She took her two
children and left North
Tawton for London. There
were further poems to come,
terrible poems that steered
inward towards darkness and
annihilation; certainly nothing
more about bees. And rest, as
we know, is silence.
So, yes, Ted and Sylvia up on the allotment for a brew-up and
look into the hives. Why not? It’s an attractive whimsy. Playing
the ‘what-if?’ game. Those of us who survive the dark periods of
life and go on to have this working partnership with bees, flowers,
pollen, nectar and honey — well, it’s a pretty life-affirming
occupation, isn’t it? One could wish it like a beneficence on others
who might have found in beekeeping a living lifeline, a connection
with the core of nature. And be continually reminded of it by the
zipping of flying bees coming and going across the forefront of
your life.
The box is locked, it is dangerous.
I have to live with it overnight
And I can’t keep away from it.
The excitement of fear animates her writing:
I put my eye to the grid.
It is dark, dark,
With the swarmy feeling of African hands...
How can I let them out?
18
RowlandMolony,
East Devon BKA
References and notes
1. The hawk in the rain, Faber, 1957. Lupercal, Faber, 1960.
2. The curious reader who may be unfamiliar with the volumes
might be rewarded by looking at The thought fox, The horses,
Wind from hawk in the rain; and Esther’s tomcat, Hawk roosting,
View of a pig, November,Thrushes from lupercal.
19_What a lady_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:01 Page 19
What a Lady!
A honey bee is no ordinary insect, but a very special one and among
its colony members is a very special bee — the queen. She is
mother of all the bees in the colony, which she constantly replaces
with generation after generation of workers and drones over several
years. Bumblebees and wasps start off each year from a queen that
has hibernated. However, a honey bee queen can only perform
when surrounded by hundreds of workers who do not hibernate.
Hatching from the same fertilised egg as a worker, she goes on
to get ‘regal’ treatment. As soon as bees sense that they are
queenless (or their queen is failing) workers pit their efforts into
making new queens. The hexagonal, horizontal cells that suit the
other castes are not worthy of such an august recipient. So queen
cells are ‘purpose-built’ and used only once. Comb-makers may
start off hesitantly building small cups pointing downwards. Once
nurse bees encourage the queen to lay in one of these the whole
colony becomes alert. The usual three days of incubation occur
and then ‘royal jelly’ (the richest brood food) is lavished unsparingly
on the tiny larva while the cell is extended downwards. This usually
occurs during the height of the season when such cells can easily
be so smothered with bees that they can go unnoticed. However,
they do stand out like the last joint of a human finger. Their
protective walls are dimpled and tinted a shade of brown. The larva
grows rapidly inside adhering to a bed of royal jelly and breathing
through spiracles on the exposed side.
Such cells can be squeezed to expel both royal jelly and the
larva and some beekeepers specialise in selling the jelly. Feeding
goes on for about five days, the royal larva becoming quite different
from her ‘sister’ workers. She will develop a mass of ovaries, special
strong legs and hooks to match while the enlarged cell takes the
form of a chrysalis as she spins a tough tip (further reinforced by
the house bees), which will later become her exit. Incubation
continues for a further week allowing metamorphosis to occur and
a wonderful, valuable virgin queen comes into being.
foraging levels and climb,
supported by up-currents
to a considerable height.
Certainly well beyond
human eye-sight, say
between twenty and
fifty metres! Up there
numerous drones flying
in a ‘drone congregation
area’ will be ready
to engage her.
Her
‘pheromonic’ trail is
White spot marks the lady. Photo by Chris Knott.
eagerly followed by the
drones and one-by-one they sacrifice their lives in performing their
only duty of passing on their genes to further generations. She now
becomes a mated queen, memories of her mates locked away in her
spermatheca where they will be nurtured and held available for
fertilising millions of eggs that she will lay (thousands a day during
summer). She has really become hermaphrodite. It takes a day or
two for the spermatozoic layers to settle and for her sperm pump
to become effective. Then she follows the bees’ instructions as to
when and how many eggs to lay in cells they have prepared. Her
immensely strong legs and hooks befit her for straddling the comb
and laying in cell after cell. So strong are her claws that when held
in one’s hand she can be felt tearing away trying to escape from
between the fingers. She might take part in a swarm once or twice
during her life but otherwise she just goes on laying, preferably in
the dark for years on end.
Ken Stevens, NDB
One week later she will be ready to climb out and face the
world. It should be mentioned that queens depend entirely on the
workers as opposed to being ‘rulers’ themselves. If the ear is held
close to a ripe cell the virgin can be heard moving about inside.
She uses her mandibles to cut round the tip of her cell and might
protrude her antenna to explore the world outside. But the
decision as to whether she might be allowed to emerge lies with
the workers who can re-seal her cut tip and confine her according
to the colony needs, the weather, state of the colony etc. Left to
herself she uses her head to push open the flap and hastens out
unlike the slower drones and workers when they emerge.
Not much larger yet than a worker (she needs to be trim and
lively to flaunt with the drones on high), her abdomen, destined to
extend later, has yet to develop. Should she be one of several new
virgins at that stage there would be intense rivalry and a fight to the
death could occur unless workers intervene. At swarming time a
virgin might well emerge to find that half the colony has already
swarmed with her mother. In that case as well as performing a
mating flight she may be called upon to fly off with a group of bees
known as a ‘cast’. Otherwise if the bees are content to let her go
off to mate and become their new ‘mother’ bee, they will preen her
and prepare her for mating. Like embryo foragers she will take ‘play’
flights leaving the hive to familiarise herself with its position and
appearance. Then comes a very bold and adventurous step. Drones
having made a ‘pathway’ to the skies in some way help her to leave
19
20_Pseudoscorpion_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:03 Page 20
Pseudoscorpions May Benefit Bees
Pseudoscorpions are tiny arachnids, related to spiders, harvestmen,
mites, scorpions etc. They inhabit a variety of habitats where there
is decaying organic matter and associated insects and mites upon
which they feed. These include soil, leaf litter, humus, compost
heaps, old manure piles, rotting wood, and beneath bark, old hay,
thatch, debris in barns and warehouses. Several species are
associated with other animals including birds and moles where they
live in the nest material. They can
also be found in bat and
pigeon lofts, where they
live in the accumulated
droppings, and in
beehives.
Anyone
who
keeps bees and
carries out a spring
clean, changing the
floor, will be familiar
with the debris that can
accumulate beneath the
bees
in a relatively short time.
Elinsignius eating Varroa. Photo by
Neglected
colonies often have
Barry Donovan.
a deep litter of debris beneath
the combs which consists of fragments of wax, dead bees etc. The
material provides food for primary decomposers like bacteria, fungi
and mites. These, together with the wax and dead bees, are fed
upon by other mites, beetles (larvae and adults), flies (larvae) and
they in turn are predated and parasitised. A beehive provides an
ideal stable, warm, humid environment, allowing the hive floor
debris to become a dynamic habitat of its own.
One of the earliest references to pseudoscorpions in beehives
dates from 1873 when Chelifer cancroides was described as ‘an
enemy of the louse of the bees [Braula coeca] and other small
acaruses [mites] of the beehive’. More recently several species of
the genus Ellingsenius have been found exclusively in hives and
considered as potential predators of varroa, notably E. indicus in
India, and E. fuller and E. sculpturatus in S. Africa. Ellingsenius likes the
constant 33–37oC, the even high relative humidity, and the darkness
of a beehive. They have been observed eating free ranging varroa
as well as varroa on bees. As a result a number of researchers,
including Dr Flora Paul (India), Dr Elizabeth Kassimatis (S. Africa),
Dr Barry Donovan and co-workers (USA, NZ, India) have
investigated whether species of Ellingsenius can be used in the
control of varroa.
beehives in New Zealand. Using video observation (see www.you
tube.com/watch?v=-qw3eVjQPXQ&noredirect=1) they were seen
to predate upon varroa mites while studiously ignoring bee larvae.
Varroa mites reproduce at exponential rates during the spring
season and current chemical miticides rely on single treatments,
aiming for at least 90% control. An alternate strategy, removal of
mites at a rate matching their reproductive capacity, although
mathematically obvious, fails unless a suitable biological control
agent is available. The video observations provided evidence that
pseudoscorpions showed a clear potential to be suitable predators
for varroa management in beehives. Approximately 25 chelifers
could be expected to manage varroa populations in a single hive.
Thus the pseudoscorpions would not eliminate the varroa, but keep
them below the economic threshold. Other studies in S. Africa
had suggested that the possibility of using pseudoscorpions as a
biocontrol agent on the mite population growth would be unlikely;
there was no evidence at that time that they could act as significant
predators of the varroa mite and captive pseudoscorpions failed
to consume either live or dead varroa.
It is worth noting that the single record of pseudoscorpions
in beehives in the USA is probably erroneous. The absence of any
pseudoscorpions associated with honey bees in the New World is
not surprising as honey bees were only introduced there in 1622
when they were brought to the east coast of North America.
In the tropics pseudoscorpions appear to have simply added
varroa to their ‘menu’; perhaps they could do it here. In Europe
and UK, C. cancroides is a possible candidate for varroa control.
Weygoldt observed that C. cancroides was often found in beehives:
‘Normally the pseudoscorpions do not harm their hosts: they like
the warmth of the nests and feed on other animals living there —
wax moth or beetle larvae, for example.’ A Dutch company (see
http://www.scorpion-beneficial-organisms.com/) is currently hoping
to market pseudoscorpions for varroa control; trials are also being
considered in the UK by researchers at the St David’s Poultry Team
(veterinary surgeons) who are also looking at the use of predatory
mites in varroa control. This might well turn out to be worthwhile.
Dr Gerald Legg,
Sussex BKA — Brighton Division
The bionomics of Ellingsenius are synchronised with bees; they
do not interfere with bees and the bees ignore them except when
bees swarm. At this time the pseudoscorpions detect the bees’
desire to swarm and climb onto their legs and hold on tight. Each
bee may carry one to eight of the little arachnids. This behaviour
is known as phoresy or in simple terms, hitchhiking, or using the
bees as taxis. Once the bee swarm has located a new home the
pseudoscorpions climb off their ‘hosts’.
In 2011 Fagan LL and colleagues reported to the Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry Biosecurity New Zealand (Chelifers,
assessing a predatory control option for varroa management) the
potential of using pseudoscorpions in varroa control. They
collected pseudoscorpions within or closely associated with
20
21_Learning from others_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:07 Page 21
Learning from Others
Honey Tasting: How Difficult Can It Be?
I thought I would share my experiences with you as I had found
difficulty in finding information to enable me to run a honey tasting
session. Honey tasting makes a fun activity for all kinds of events,
and of course one can imbibe honey and drive, but do not get it
on the steering wheel!
Once again I was presenting an ‘Introduction to Beekeeping
course’ at Sidcot School; it is spread over an eight-week period,
and depending upon the audience is either on interesting beerelated topics or more closely focused upon husbandry. This time
I announced that there would be a honey tasting session to close
the course. I did little preparation, other than to make a mental
note to purchase some supermarket honey to add to the ‘real’
honey samples. I will just Google all I need, I thought! As the
session drew closer I began trawling the net to find score sheets
and notes upon how to advise the tasters.
My first rushed attempt drew a surprising blank, as did the next
two or three. People spoke about honey tasting, but gave
no specifics. There were endless notes on how to judge
honey, but what I was looking for was more akin to wine
tasting. With two busy days to go I was getting anxious, I
did not want people to dip a finger and go ‘yum yum’, I
wanted something a little more interesting with
winners, losers and discussion! Then it struck
me! Use Google’s site-specific search option
and search the BBKA website, there is bound
to be something useful ... Nothing! (Apologies
if there is such an article, but I did not find it.)
So, time to start from scratch! What do I need?
honey, of course
t.
not
Phot
bowls for honey samples
o by Chris K
lettered labels for the honey jars so that the tasting can be blind
labels for the bowls also
score sheets
pencils
pencil sharpener
water and cups to cleanse the palate
napkins, for hands
dippers, quite a few (samples x people — to prevent double
dipping)
p something to hide the honey jars under during tasting
p a spreadsheet to make sense of the scoring and to reveal the
names of the honeys at the end.
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Not too much then! But a quick session at the computer and
some help from my wife, the demon shopper; it all seemed doable!
This was going to be a subjective result, we were not judging against
a standard; some people like honey so thin that a summer breeze
sets up ripples on the top of the jar, while others prefer what can
only be described as ‘spoon bender’. So, upon what criteria would
my tasters be asked to score? I decided upon six areas of judgment
and set them out in what I thought was a logical order:
Appearance
Colour
First impressions; action: looking.
Colour is important to our perception of food;
action: looking.
Aroma
Viscosity
Taste
Finish
Notes
An important part of taste; action: pick up the
bowl and smell.
Honey running out of a sandwich is all very well,
but... action: tipping/scooping with dipper.
All important; action: tasting.
Where good (usually non-blended local) honeys
score the best.
Just in case.
After forcing my class to understand Snelgroving they were
ushered out of the room while I set everything up. They were taken
aback by the preparation (little did they know). They
quickly got to the task at hand and were soon
deliberating, often standing with a dipper in their
mouth and a quizzical look on their face — a
missed photo opportunity. Once they had made
their way around the tables, they transferred
their results to a PC. Then the discussions
started along with some re-tasting,
some of it forced! So, which honey
‘won’? Hangs head in shame ...
Sainsbury's Squeezy Eucalyptus Honey
(340g).
I will certainly host
another honey tasting, but I
may make some changes. I
will
probably
remove
appearance from the list
since colour and viscosity
cover that category. I would
possibly change the scoring
from 1–9 to 1–5 although the range of
scores are quite telling — the
spreadsheet highlights this range. The most
important change would be to give each taster a full
set of bowls each. They could then move back and forth between
the bowls without the need for fresh dippers and would be able to
physically place the bowls in order. Moving around a room means
that you only get to compare the taste of the previous sample. This
would in my mind undoubtedly have changed the outcome to be
more representative of people’s true preferences.
I found it interesting when my son turned up after everyone
had gone; after dipping three bowls he pointed to a bowl and
declared ‘Sidcot’, yes, he was right, and after another couple, ‘That’s
Sidcot too’, I did not answer, but pointed at another bowl. He tried
it ‘They’re the same’, I shook my head. He tried each a couple of
times and rightly chose the bowl I pointed at as Sidcot honey (there
were two different batches of our own honey). I then told him
that the other sample had come from a farm just two miles down
the road. He had been able to taste repeatedly.
If anyone would like a copy of my files for score sheets, labels
and spreadsheet, I would be happy to send them to you:
[email protected]. Have fun.
Adrian Wells, Avon BKA
21
22_Pattersons page_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:54 Page 22
Patterson’s Page
In a number of different apiaries this year I have seen levels of
deformed wing virus (DWV) beyond what might be expected —
especially in the spring. At one apiary I visited in early May the
levels were so high, together with a large number of small bees
that I thought the colonies would probably collapse at some time
during the summer unless they were treated. As we all know
DWV is an indication of a high varroa level and I suspect that
owing to the mild winter there will be many colonies with a high
load this autumn.
I am sure there is still a lot we do not know about varroa and
I believe that may be the reason why the available information is so
conflicting. Conflicting or not, I think it is important for every
beekeeper to know the life cycle of varroa. Lets forget the timings
(that seem to vary somewhat depending on the source) and
concentrate on what is happening. A female mite enters a cell at
some time before it is sealed. She squeezes past the larva at about
the time it is large enough to fill the cell and sinks into the larval
food, which is why it is very unusual to see mites in cells. When the
cell is sealed she lays eggs that produce adults. The mites that
emerge with the bee are all females that have mated with their
brother in the cell. The males die quickly in the cell, and this is why
all the mites we see on bees are females. We know that female
mites prefer to enter drone cells and in round figures two mites are
produced in a worker cell and three in a drone cell from each adult
mite. In a heavy infestation more than one mite may enter a cell.
22
The mites, when they emerge, transfer to an adult bee, then after a
while they enter a cell and the process starts again. The cycle is
around 14–18 days. I have simplified this and left out the timings.
If you know the life cycles of both varroa and bees and accept
that a high proportion of mites are in the brood, you will
understand what should be happening when you treat your
colonies. In the ‘old days’ all you needed to do was to use a couple
of Bayvarol or Apistan strips and they were so efficient you could
hardly get it wrong and you did not need to know what was
happening. Now there is widespread resistance to these products
we need to assess the level of mites in a colony and understand
the life cycle to help us decide which treatment we should use and
when we should do it.
We are encouraged to use one of two tests to determine the
level of mites in a colony; these are the ‘drop down’ test and
uncapping drone brood. I believe both of these are flawed making
it is difficult for the ordinary beekeeper to accurately estimate
mite levels.
Uncapping drone brood is done with an uncapping fork and in
my view needs a considerable amount of practice. I think one
mistake made by many beekeepers is to uncap when the drone
brood is too young, which means that many immature mites are
missed.
22_Pattersons page_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:54 Page 23
At our teaching apiary the colonies are monitored at least five
times each year and the results are transferred to a spreadsheet
for circulation. An experienced beekeeper counts the mite drop
on the floor and this is then compared with a second count. These
figures are often surprising, with those that are low at one count
being high at the next. So much so that we have come to question
the accuracy.
Some bees are far more prolific than others and the queens
may lay all the year round. On one occasion a few years ago I had
need to open a colony in mid December and there were four
frames of brood. I think it’s fairly common for non-prolific bees to
have a brood-break of several weeks during the winter. These two
different situations presumably have two different results. I assume
the colonies with no brood-break are breeding varroa throughout
this time, therefore the varroa levels will be higher and oxalic acid
“
A female varroa mite enters a cell before it is
sealed. She sinks into the larval food and when the cell is
sealed she lays eggs that produce adults. The mites that
emerge with the bee are all females that have mated with
their brother in the cell. The males die quickly in the cell,
and this is why all the mites we see on bees are females.
In round figures two mites are produced in a worker cell
and three in a drone cell from each adult mite. The cycle
is around 14–18 days.
“
may not have much effect. But what about those with a broodbreak? I am guessing that, when the queen comes back into lay,
virtually all the mites migrate to the brood and this will cause
fluctuating mite levels for several cycles during the spring and
summer. If a drop test was made a couple of weeks after the queen
started to lay again presumably the drop would be very low, yet
could be high a couple of weeks later when the varroa that were
in the cells had emerged.
One thing we need to be sure of is that mite levels should be
low throughout the year, but how does the ordinary beekeeper
achieve this? I think we should rely as much as we can on thymol
and oxalic acid, with perhaps drone culling as a backup measure,
with the two monitoring methods plus a visual check for DWV,
small bees and mites on adult bees. I do not believe colonies
tolerate workers with deformed wings very long, so DWV at a low
level may be difficult to detect. We must be much more vigilant
and to this end I have been known to help young bees emerge to
see if they are full size and have full wings.
I understand that in the north thymol is not always effective
owing to lower temperatures and presumably those in heather
districts have a timing problem. I would like to hear about how
they manage and I am sure others would as well, so there is a
challenge for someone!
It is often said that we should look after the winter bees and
it is important to get the treatment done in the early autumn, but
I think we should also concentrate our efforts at an earlier stage
and look after the bees that rear the winter bees.
Roger Patterson,
Wisborough Green BKA
[email protected]
23
24_From boardroom_BBKA master 10/06/2012 21:01 Page 24
From the Boardroom
Wax Chandlers help Honey Bees
As the charity dedicated to supporting beekeepers, bee health, a
vital part of our role is being able to deal with a wide range of
beekeeping queries and issues. The downside of this is the risk of
spreading our resources too thinly, becoming less effective and
neglecting our core activities. To be effective in the use of our
resources we need to be clearly focussed on our aims and
objectives. One way of achieving this is to develop the BBKA
Strategy which will guide future BBKA Executives while allowing
us to review and update it in the light of changing circumstances.
The Executive is developing such a strategy.
BBKA is to receive a grant of £45,000 from The Wax Chandlers
Company, one of the City of London’s livery companies, to help
fund the cost of a Training Co-ordinator. Phased equally over
three years the money will help pay for an employee who will
lead an initiative to support and co-ordinate the efforts of local
beekeeping associations to train their members.
The Healthy Bees Plan (HBP) is now entering its second phase
and the Executive has discussed the progress to date and the
proposed Forward Work Plan. In general the Executive is
supportive of the HBP but has concerns that its work is mainly
education driven with less effort being spent on research and the
development of practical solutions to health-related beekeeping
problems.
Pesticides and neonicotinoids and their alleged effects on
honey bees are rarely absent from the media and the BBKA
continues to receive requests to support calls to ban the use of
such substances. The BBKA takes the position that the competent
authorities are responsible for ensuring that new data or
experiences are reviewed and the risks assessments are updated.
If the risks are increased we expect the Chemicals Regulations
Directorate (CRD) to establish measures needed to bring the risk
down to acceptable levels. Correspondence between the BBKA
and the CRD can be found on page 11.
The role of Training Co-ordinator will be to help to raise the
general level of training skills across the country; for example, by
sharing best practice between associations and by ensuring that
individual beekeepers know what resources are available to help
them learn more on both a theoretical and practical level. More
about this on page 25.
John Sleeman Master of the Worshipful Company of Wax
Chandlers said: “In our long history with the wax industry the
honey bee has always been important to us. One of our goals is
to support beekeeping, particularly with regard to good
husbandry and research so I am particularly pleased to be able to
help improve the craft of beekeeping by supporting this training
role”.
Dr David Aston, the BBKA Chairman said: “We are delighted
to accept this generous grant from the Wax Chandlers. It will
enable us to improve the skills of the nation’s beekeepers who
are vital in maintaining healthy honey bees, one of nature’s most
important pollinators. This grant will free up funds to underwrite
more training across the country”.
Dr David Aston, Chairman of BBKA
VARROA GARD since 2008
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To order or to find your nearest stockist
Contact Philip Gardner
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email [email protected]
www.varroagard.co.uk
Call Richard for our 24/7 Beekeeper Helpline on
01245 440367
24
25_Training coordinator_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:12 Page 25
BBKA Education Initiative
In his article in the May BBKA News Bill Cadmore summed up the
situation that beekeeping training had reached at the end of his
eighteen months as Regional Training Co-ordinator. On behalf of
all those involved in the training days he put on I would like to say
a big thank you to him for his efforts. As Bill said, what was most
striking about the training days was the enthusiasm and energy of
those who attended. We now need to harness and channel this
energy so that these people can achieve what they unanimously said
was their goal: to improve their own and other people’s beekeeping.
After the experience of the training days it was obvious to
those of us who were involved that we could not leave these willing
and able people to their own devices to ‘reinvent the wheel’ in their
local associations time and time again. To this end, the BBKA has
now appointed a new National Training Co-ordinator, David Blower,
who introduces himself on page 26. Martin Smith, who led the
education initiative while President, has obtained part-funding for
three years’ for the post from the Wax Chandlers, which will
underpin the financial commitment that the BBKA is making to
beekeeping education. The emphasis with this post is shifting from
centrally organised events to locally focussed activities. The new
education initiative will be assessing the needs and wishes of the
membership in local areas and trying to put demand in touch with
supply! We want to put beekeepers in touch with the people who
can help them, hence the title ‘Co-ordinator’. We all know that the
beekeeping population is bottom-heavy i.e. we have a lot of
newcomers to the craft and a shortage of experienced beekeepers
that can help and support them. We also know that provision of
beekeeping education is patchy, with good provision largely due to
particularly gifted individuals. An improvement in this situation will
take time, but several of the new generation have proved that you
can cram a lot of learning into a relatively short time and there is
more expertise out there than we tend to acknowledge, i.e. there
are many people who could help others but who need support and
encouragement to do so.
Bill emphasised the wider interpretation of ‘education’. This is
not about going back to school, hours of reading, or sitting at a desk
scribbling notes; this is about the essence of beekeeping. After all,
why do most of us take up beekeeping in the first place? For most
of us it is to pursue a fascination with these wonderful insects and
to find out about their world. Even those who start beekeeping in
order to produce honey soon succumb to this desire to learn more.
If beekeepers are different from non-beekeepers it must be in this
respect; that their hobby is about learning and understanding.
Beekeeping has always been, and still is, a broad church. There
are those who are keen on an academic approach, and who roar
through the BBKA examination system to become the leading
educators. The BBKA examination system is a huge asset and we
will try to help everybody who wants to work towards one of the
BBKA exams. However, there are many who want to become better
beekeepers without taking examinations. We must cater for them
too. And there are those, much easier to overlook, who just want a
quiet hobby; they may read a book about beekeeping and may even
attend a course, but then regard their training as being over. Many
of these never attend an association meeting, and throw the
newsletters in the recycling bin after a cursory glance. These are the
‘hard to help’ beekeepers, whom we must nevertheless try to help
if beekeeping is going to improve. It is not necessarily that these
people do not want to learn more about beekeeping and improve
their skills; if approached in the right way they would probably enjoy
learning more about the craft just as much as anyone else.
The Courses in a Case are another element of the BBKA’s
push on education. Again they represent a huge effort and
investment, and a great innovatory step. Part of our initiative will
be to make sure they are tested ‘in the field’ and that the feedback
obtained goes into improving future versions.
Now to the detail of what we propose
First, we are surveying the training situation in each area to find
out the strengths and weaknesses, needs and wishes of local
beekeepers. In order to concentrate our efforts and not have them
dissipated over too large an area, we are confining David’s activities
to a geographical area around where he lives in the Midlands. This
will produce, we hope, a pilot project from which we can learn
before we widen the scope. This does not mean that other
associations cannot be involved and cannot benefit from the
scheme; indeed the survey has been sent out to all associations and
branches. David is not the only person involved in the initiative: he
is the leading member of a team of volunteers who are all dedicated
to this project. Please, therefore, make sure that the survey is
answered as fully as possible. The more you can tell us, the more
we can help your members get what they want from their
beekeeping. If we are not able to respond to your needs
immediately the information will be kept on file until we can. This
initiative has been a long time in gestation. The shoots of new
growth might take a little more time to reach the required height!
Pete Sutcliffe, BBKA Executive
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25
26_Business corner_BBKA master 10/06/2012 21:04 Page 26
Business Corner
David Blower: BBKA Training Coordinator
Beekeeping and I first became acquainted in 2006 when my wife
Margery and I went to the Spring Convention to investigate
beekeeping for us in our Kenilworth garden. Our lasting
memories were of how friendly and encouraging the beekeepers
who we met were and how many people kept bees. Many more
have joined since then, accelerating the need for training
resources, which has led to this new Training Co-ordinator role.
I qualified as a Chartered Civil Engineer, but my interest in
computing led me to a new career with Hewlett Packard. During
my eighteen years there I learnt to appreciate the vital role that
training has in stimulating and developing individuals in an
organisation. Since then I have been employed helping law firms
take advantage of new technology.
In my own quest to learn more about beekeeping I stumbled
upon the BBKA assessments and
modules and have been working my
way through them. This year I have
completed my Intermediate Theory
to go with the General Husbandry,
which I passed last year. I was
shocked when I turned up for my first
module exam to discover that in my
Area Association there was only one other candidate. I have
begun to try to change this and I am delighted now to have the
opportunity to do the same for a much wider audience. Beyond
BBKA I am involved with Bees Abroad projects in Tanzania and in
addition to bees I enjoy playing golf and walking.
David Blower,
BBKA Training Coordinator
The Beekeeper and
the Bee
Kate Lynch
ISBN 978-0-9544394-4-6
Hardback, 80 pages; £15
www.katelynch.co.uk
Somerset-based artist Kate Lynch has spent over two years
working with her local beekeepers to create a record of the craft
of beekeeping as seen through their eyes. The Beekeeper and the
Bee is the result of this work; a collection of oil paintings, pencil
or charcoal drawings, and transcripts of interviews with many
beekeepers. Her subjects are drawn from across the Somerset
Levels, an ancient rural landscape comprising a broad swathe of
drained farmland surrounded by low hills, in an approximate
triangle between the towns of Taunton, Wincanton, and Cheddar.
From the moment you pick up the book, it impresses, with a
good hardback binding and quality paper. The cover illustration is
representative of the content; colourful without being gaudy,
detailed without being overtly technical. Structured as a monthby-month record of the beekeeper’s year, the design is clear and
stylish. Full page illustrations are accompanied by the words of a
beekeeper, describing the scene or activity, just as they were
spoken in interview. These monologues are comfortable and
conversational, informative yet easy-going, building an account of
the beekeeping year through many different perspectives and
reflecting the character and interests of each speaker. That a nonbeekeeper has managed to collect and collate, in both words and
pictures, such a cohesive insight into the craft speaks volumes of
the research that the author has done. A brief glossary explains
the principal terminology, and the text is rounded off with an
afterword which describes swarming and the various tasks
undertaken by individual bees.
The illustrations are a delight throughout, capturing a richness
of colour and light, conveying a pleasing mixture of serenity and
activity. To a beekeeper, this book evokes many shared experiences,
yet to a non-beekeeper it offers an approachable and engaging
insight into the craft. To succeed on both levels is admirable, and it
will make a distinctive and welcome addition to many a bookshelf.
Dan Basterfield, Devon BKA
26
27_Exam results_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:16 Page 27
BBKA Written Examinations
Successful Candidates in March 2012
Module 1: Honey Bee Management
Paul Abbott, Rayleigh, Essex
C
Philip Allway, Chudleigh, Devon, C
Phil Archer, Pulloxhill, Bedfordshire, C
Andrew Archer, Nailsea, North Somerset, C
Beverley Bailey, Plymouth, Devon
Jenny Band, East Molesey, Surrey, C
Glenis Beardsley, Barnstaple, Devon, C
Penny Benford, Chesham, Buckinghamshire
Michael Boll, Cowes, Isle of Wight
Shirley Bond, Sadberge, Darlington, Durham
Richard Bond, Sadberge, Darlington, Durham, C
David Bonner, Stretton on Dunsmore,
Warwickshire, C
Patsy Bowdige, Worcester, Worcestershire, C
Richard Bowyer, Sidlesham Common, West
Sussex
Nicholas Brading, Wath, Ripon, N Yorkshire, C
Christopher Branch, Chingford, London, C
Richard Brook, Orpington, Kent, C
Olivia Burren, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, C
Laura Burton, Newton, Preston, Lancashire, C
Joe Callaghan, King's Lynn, Norfolk
Eileen Carson, Lydiate, Merseyside
Catherine Clark, Usk, Monmouthshire, D
Tony Clarke, Stoke Gabriel, Totnes, Devon, C
Paul Cleaver, Abinger Hammer, Surrey, C
David Cleeve, Alton, Hampshire
George Cole, Borden, Sittingbourne, Kent
Jane Corcoran, Wooburn Green, Bucks, D
Karin Courtman, East Dulwich, London C
Janet Crowhurst, Northallerton, North Yorkshire
Michael Cullen, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
Andrew Davies, Little Sutton, Cheshire
Sue Derbyshire, Hallow, Worcester,
Arnold Desandere, Beaconsfield, Bucks, C
James Duckworth, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Cleveland
David Edmonds, Little Witley, Worcestershire
Anthony Edwards, Gillingham, Kent
Fiona Eelbeck, Stoke Goldington, Bucks, C
Andrew Eelbeck, Stoke Goldington, Bucks, C
Robert Elms, Worthy Down, Hampshire
Richard Flenley, Watersfield, West Sussex
Jenny Louise Forester, Bromham, Bedfordshire, C
Brian Forster, St Helens, Merseyside, C
Lucille Frost, Medstead, Alton, Hampshire
Jeffrey Gamberton, Hampsthwaite, Nth Yorkshire
Elizabeth Gardner, Cirencester, Gloucestershire
George Graham,Yealmpton, Devon, C
Jane Hall, East Horsley, Leatherhead, Surrey, D
Robin Hall, Andover, Hampshire, C
Adrian Head-Rapson, Crosby, Merseyside
Emily Heath, Hanwell, London, C
Melanie Henbest, Rochester, Kent
John Hewitt, Waterfoot, Rossendale, Lancashire
Alison Hine, Whixall, Shropshire, D
Geoffrye Hood, London, C
Victoria Jacklin, Healing, Grimsby, North East
Paul King, Old Church Stoke, Powys, D
Helen Knight, Hadley, Worcestershire, C
Brenden Knowles, Clifford,Wetherby,W Yorkshire
Susan Lang, Marston Mortaine, Bedfordshire, C
Anne Lieberman, Chudleigh, Devon, C
Kathryn-Ann Lovegrove, Plymouth, Devon
Susan Madgwick, Landkey, Barnstaple, Devon
Salvatore Mancina, Nth Allerton, Nth Yorkshire, D
Karen Mann, Twickenham, Middlesex
Paul Manning, Wirral, Merseyside, C
Anita McDonnell, Downholland,West Lancashire
Clare McGettigan, Tadcaster, Nth Yorkshire, D
Nicholas Mills, Carlisle, Cumbria
Patricia Morgan, London,
Ruth Mountford, Bovey Tracey, Devon
Julia Neale, Whitchurch, Shropshire, C
James Norfolk, Chichester, W Sussex, D
Caroline Oakes, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Deborah Park, Alton, Hampshire
Michael Parker, Belper, Derbyshire
Normanda Pech, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire
Samantha Peckett, Rugby, Warwickshire
Sarah Peterson, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, C
Paule Pimble, North Common, Bristol
Gillian Quijas, Holywell Bay, Newquay, Cornwall, D
Anne Rhodes, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, C
Graham Richards, Colchester, Essex
Sandra Rickwood, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, C
Gail Robinson, Coppull, Chorley, Lancashire
Margaret Scott, South Croydon, Surrey
Kevin Shillington, Gillingham, Dorset
Phillipa Shillington, Gillingham, Dorset
Robert Smith, Rochester, Kent
Andrew Smith, Weston Turville, Bucks, C
Karen Smith, Tring, Hertfordshire, D
Stuart Smith, Hunston, Chichester, West Sussex
Cherry Smith, Haywards Heath, West Sussex
Janet Stanton, Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross, C
Peter Stevens, Reigate, Surrey, C
Roy Sturgess, Daventry, Northamptonshire
Alan Summerfield, Barnstaple, Devon
Bruce Taylor, Bishops Waltham, Hampshire
Alec Thomson,Woodthorpe, Nottinghamshire, C
Rhona Toft, Pershore, Worcestershire
C
Richard Toft, Pershore, Worcestershire C
Richard Tucker, Foxham, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Simon Turner, Faintree, Bridgnorth, Shropshire
James Vivian-Griffiths, Monmouth, D
Valerie Vivian-Griffiths, Monmouth
Diane Wakeling, Maidstone, Ken
Di Webster, Fraddon, St Colomb, Cornwall, C
Elizabeth J Westcott, Brixham, Devon
Robert Michael John Williams, Hoylake, Wirral
Caroline Windley, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, D
Lyndon Wortley, Portadown, County Armagh, D
Bob Yelland, Holybourne, Alton, Hampshire, D
Module 2: Honey Bee Products
and Forage
Gillian Atkins, Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, C
Michael Barrie, Whitchurch, Hampshire
David Blower, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, D
Richard Bond, Sadberge, Darlington, Durham, C
Shirley Bond, Sadberge, Darlington, Durham, C
Patricia Brown, Chalford, Gloucestershire, C
Laura Burton, Newton, Preston, Lancashire
Tony Clarke, Stoke Gabriel, Totnes, Devon, C
Gaynor Clement-Evans, Garston, Liverpool, C
George Cole, Borden, Sittingbourne, Kent, C
Karin Courtman, East Dulwich, London, C
Simon Croson, Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, C
Janet Crowhurst, Northallerton, North Yorkshire
Michael Cullen, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
Robert Curtis, Loddon, Norwich, Norfolk, C
Adam Darling, Browston, G Yarmouth, Norfolk
Brad Davis, Headley Down, Hampshire
James Duckworth, Saltburn by Sea, Cleveland, C
Anthony Edwards, Gillingham, Kent
Fiona Eelbeck, Stoke Goldington, Bucks, C
Andrew Eelbeck, Stoke Goldington, Bucks
Alexander Ellis, Whitchurch, Shropshire, D
Robert Elms, Worthy Down, Hampshire
Kevin Emmett, Milton Keynes, Bucks, C
John Fisher, East Dean, Chichester, West Sussex
Timothy Foden, Rugby, Warwickshire, C
Serena Fraser, Oxshott, Surrey, C
Margaret Ginman, Groombridge, East Sussex
Clare Gronow, Lymington, Hampshire, C
Tamsin Harris, Leedstown, Cornwall, D
Nicholas Harris, Frensham, Surrey
Adrian Head-Rapson, Crosby, Merseyside, C
Melanie Henbest, Rochester, Kent
John Hewitt, Waterfoot, Rossendale, Lancs, C
Patrick Hillman, Charing, nr Ashford, Kent, C
Mary Hunter, Enfield, Middlesex
Paul King, Old Church Stoke, Powys, D
Susan Lang, Marston Mortaine, Bedfordshire, C
Caroline MacKenzie, Preston, Lancashire
Patricia Marlow, Old Church Stoke, Powys, D
David Marston,Yeadon, Leeds, West Yorkshire, C
Mary Martin, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, D
Clare McGettigan, Newton Kyme, Nth Yorks, D
Douglas Nethercleft, Oxhill, Warwickshire, C
James Norfolk, Shopwhyke, W Sussex, C
Andrew Pedley, Greenford, Middlesex
Evelyn Pelham, Woking, Surrey, C
Christine Phillips, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, D
Richard Ramsden, Horsham, West Sussex
Sandra Rickwood, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
Stuart Roberts, Rugeley, Staffordshire, C
Gail Robinson, Coppull, Chorley, Lancashire, C
Anne Rowberry, Bath, Avon, D
Francine Sagar, Southport, Merseyside, C
Colin Sherwood, Honiton, Devon
27
27_Exam results_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:16 Page 28
Karen Smith, Tring, Hertfordshire, D
Andrew Smith,Weston Turville, Buckinghamshire
Robert Smith, Rochester, Kent, C
Jan Stuart, Colaton Raleigh, Devon
Alec Thomson,Woodthorpe, Nottinghamshire, C
Rhona Toft, Pershore, Worcestershire, D
Richard Toft, Pershore, Worcestershire, D
Richard Tucker, Foxham, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Valerie Vivian-Griffiths, Monmouth, C
James Vivian-Griffiths, Monmouth, D
Caroline Windley, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, C
Alan Woollhead, Wychbold, Worcestershire, C
Module 5: Honey Bee Biology
Beverley Bailey, Plymouth, Devon, C
Janet Bates, Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire
Anne Binns, Milton Damerel, Holsworthy, Devon
Chrissy Blakeman, Worthing, West Sussex, C
Christopher Branch, Chingford, London, D
Anne Bryson,Yealand Redmayne, Lancashire
Geoffrey Buckland, Weymouth, Dorset
Julie Coleman, Denstroude, Canterbury, Kent
David Corney-Walker, Newton Abbot, Devon, C
Robert Curtis, Loddon, Norwich, Norfolk, C
John Dadswell, Wendover, Buckinghamshire
Adrian Davis, Deal, Kent, C
Steve Fletcher, Bath, Bristol and N E Somerset
Simon Foster, Teddington, Middlesex, D
Lesley Gasson, Shillingstone, Dorset
Margaret Ginman, Groombridge, East Sussex
Camilla Goddard, Brockley, London
Claudie Godet, Teddington, Middlesex
Catherine Graham, Batley, West Yorkshire
George Graham,Yealmpton, Devon
Martin Hann, Newton Abbot, Devon, D
Geoffrey Inglis, Guiseley, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Lynne Ingram, East Huntspill, Somerset, C
Robert Jackman, Herne Hill, London
Bridget Knutson, Cheddar, Somerset
Annabelle Le Page, Bedale, North Yorkshire
Simon Maslin, Kirkella, Hull, East Yorkshire, D
Wendy Maslin, Kirkella, Hull, East Yorkshire, D
Amanda Millar, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, C
Ruth Mountford, Bovey Tracey, Devon
Patricia Nelson, Bilbrook, Minehead, Somerset, C
Terence Payne, Iwerne Minster, Dorset, C
Jim Pearson, Dewsbury,Yorkshire, C
Celia Perry, Ashtead, Surrey, D
Elizabeth Rescorla, Dorchester, Dorset, D
Clifford Rose, Kingstone, Herefordshire
Gregory Sharp, Selby, North Yorkshire
Mary Slater, Herne Hill, London, D
Janet Stanton, Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross
Diane Steele, Storrington, West Sussex, C
Peter Stephens, Arnside, Cumbria
James Stuart, Andover, Hampshire, C
Julie Wessels, Great Eccleston, Preston, Lancs, C
Alan Woollhead, Wychbold, Worcestershire, D
Kay Wreford, Lynsted, Sittingbourne, Kent, D
Module 7: Selection and Breeding
of Honey Bees
Janet Bates, Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire, D
Lea Bayly, Milton Combe, Devon, D
Sheila Borwick, Amersham, Buckinghamshire
Gillian Brewer, Flitwick, Bedford, C
28
Peter Callan, Newton Hall, Durham
Deborah Campbell, Gerrards Cross, Bucks
William Clayton, London, C
Andrew Cooper, Gateforth, North Yorkshire
Jane Corcoran, Wooburn Green, Bucks, C
David Corney-Walker, Newton Abbot, Devon
Gordon Cutting, Chalfont St Giles, Bucks, C
Arnold Desandere, Beaconsfield, Bucks
Brian Downes, Kingsdown, Corsham, Wiltshire
Janet Flynn, Sutton, Macclesfield, Cheshire, C
Pauline Ford, Ferring, West Sussex
Camilla Goddard, Brockley, London
Kirsty Gordon, London, C
Ross Gregory, Highworth, Swindon, Wiltshire
David Haigh, Drighlington, West Yorkshire, C
Pamela Hatton, Hatton,Warrington, Cheshire, C
Stuart Hatton, Hatton, Warrington, Cheshire
Barnaby Henderson, Milton, Cambridge, C
Paul Hillier, Flaunden, Hertfordshire, C
Helen Howarth, Colne, Lancashire
Paul Hurley, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, D
Kathryn Kindred, Pilling, Lancashire, C
Christopher Logan, Martins Moss Smallwood,
Cheshire
Patricia Marlow, Old Church Stoke, Powys
Simon Maslin, Kirkella, lHull, East Yorkshire, D
Wendy Maslin, Kirkella, Hull, East yorkshire, D
David McHattie, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex
Amanda Millar, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, C
Jack Mummery, Barnstaple, Devon
Margaret Murdin, Waterloo, Merseyside, D
Anthony Platt, Hartford, Cheshire
Angela Pocock, Ferring, Worthing, W Sussex, C
Marilyn Poole, Bromley Cross, Bolton, Lancs, C
Richard Ridler, Hatfield Broad Oak, Herts
Jane Ridler, Hatfield Broad Oak, Hertfordshire, C
Clifford Rose, Kingstone, Herefordshire
Bridget Schneiders, Ilminster, Somerset, D
Nancy Shering, Old Sarum, Salisbury,Wiltshire, C
Andrew Smith, Brooke, Norwich, Norfolk
Michael Southern, Urmston, Manchester
Mark Stott, Thornton Heath, Surrey, C
Nichola Summerfield, Crewe, Cheshire, D
Heather Taylor, Smithills, Bolton, Lancashire
Sally Wadsworth, Chippenham, Wiltshire, C
Mary Walter, Leominster, Herefordshire , C
Julie Wessels, Great Eccleston, Preston, Lancs
Michael Whittick, Milton Abbas, Dorset
Neil Wilmore, Redmire, Leyburn, North Yorks, C
As a result of passing modules the
following have achieved their
Intermediate Theory Certificate
Janet Bates, Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire, C
David Blower, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, D
Julie Coleman, Denstroude, Canterbury, Kent
Adrian Davis, Deal, Kent, C
Simon Foster, Teddington, Middlesex, D
David Haigh, Drighlington, West Yorkshire, C
Bridget Knutson, Cheddar, Somerset
Annabelle Le Page, Bedale, North Yorkshire, C
David Marston,Yeadon, Leeds, West Yorkshire, C
Wendy Maslin, Kirkella, Hull, East Yorkshire, D
Simon Maslin, Kirkella, Hull, East Yorkshire, C
Jack Mummery, Barnstaple, Devon
Christine Phillips, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, C
Gregory Sharp, Selby, North Yorkshire, C
Nancy Shering, Old Sarum, Salisbury,Wiltshire, C
Diane Steele, Storrington, West Sussex
James Stuart, Andover, Hampshire, C
Kay Wreford, Lynsted, Sittingbourne, Kent, D
Key to codes used:
C = pass with credit
D = pass with distinction
Congratulations to all these successful
candidates.
ValFrancis,
BBKA Exam Board Secretary
Intermediate and Advanced Theory
Open only to those who have passed the Basic Assessment and kept bees for at least
two seasons these Assessments consist of seven modules that may be taken in any order
with the exception of Module 8, which is the last module to be taken.
Each module is examined by a 1½ hour written paper. An Intermediate Certificate will
be awarded when modules1 to 3 and one other have been passed and an Advanced
Theory Certificate when all modules have been passed.
The Assessments are a searching test of the candidate's knowledge and power of
expression. The entrance fee for each module is £20. For an Advanced Theory
Certificate to be awarded the relevant modules must be passed in a time period not
exceeding twelve years. Applications should be made by 10 February for the March
series (Modules 1,2,5,7) or 30 September for the November series (Modules 1,3,6,8).
Past papers for the modules are available at £1 each from National Beekeeping Centre,
Stoneleigh. A maximum of four modules may be taken on any occasion. Please note
that Module 4 dropped from the framework in 2011.
29_Classified_BBKA master 10/06/2012 21:07 Page 29
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Available in National, 14x12 and Commercial sizes.
Please phone:Tim on 01394 274386 or on 07503773630
or email [email protected] for further details
www.mrbees.co.uk (Suffolk)
Bee Books new & old
Beekeeping Study Notes. Modules 1, 2 & 3. Just out!
New Edition, £30
BBNO, Ash View, Tump Lane, Much Birch, Hereford, HR2 8HP
Tel: 01981 540907
www.honeyshop.co.uk
Park Beekeeping Supplies
Suppliers of quality Beekeeping equipment
Hives Extractors Package Bees Filtration Clothing Starter Kits
17 Blackheath Business Centre
78b Blackheath Hill,
London, SE10 8BA
Tel: (020) 8694 9960
Fax: (020) 8694 8217
www.parkbeekeeping.com
To advertise here please contact
[email protected]
Buzz Beekeeping Supplies
Welcome to the hive of buzz ... The home of 100% cotton
beekeepers clothing.
We have searched the globe for the best
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Come on, buzz on in and take a look. 10% off website with
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Forest, Rosemary, Orange, Mountain, Calluna.
Beeswax, Pollen, Propolis.
[email protected] Tel/Fax 00 333 86476199
Imported Bees
Readers are reminded of the BBKA’s policy to discourage the
importation of queen bees and colonies from outside the UK.
Prospective purchasers should satisfy themselves of the origin
of bees offered for sale.
www.thebeeshop.co.uk
Quality Beekeeper Clothing at Affordable Prices. Full suits, smocks, bee vests and veils.
Discounts for schools, courses & multiple purchases.
Contact: [email protected]
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11-20 queens £29 collected
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A non-returnable deposit of £15 per order
01303 273466 / 07952739795
29
30_Your letters_BBKA master 10/06/2012 20:29 Page 30
Your Letters
Solar Wax Extractors
Recent issues of BBKA News have devoted
many pages to the use of solar
extractors, particularly how to optimise
orientation for different months and
latitudes and times of the day. The
complex tables and calculations needed
which have been published may make the
whole matter too complex for some
beekeepers.
For many years, I have used a
foolproof method, which I would like to
pass on. My extractor frame is made of
wood, so a nail driven into the top edge
at a right angle to the glass surface
provides a simple pointer. If the angle of
the extractor is adjusted until the
shadow of the nail is minimised (i.e. the
shadow covers the base of the nail) the
glass must be at right angles to the sun
this being the best position for solar
collection. From time to time during the
d,
rE
Dea
day the collector can easily be moved
round to follow the sun.
John Cook,
Yorkshire and District BKA
The Heritage of Honey
Many countries have exciting and
educational museums of beekeeping.
Have you ever wondered why this
country does not? Would you like to help
change that? At Acorn Education we have
an emerging project ‘The Heritage of
Honey’ and are creating a Beekeeping
Heritage Centre. We have a bee garden
and skep apiary and have been teaching
skep-making and skep beekeeping for four
years. We have been delivering talks and
demonstrations to bee clubs and
educational groups. There has been
alchemic experimentation with Meddyglin
making! For your interest ... upon the old
Berkshire downs this medicinal drink was
noted as ‘natheglum’ ... while in
Gloucestershire it was called ‘thaygle’ ...
what did your old beekeepers and
brewers call it? We will be gathering
stories and anecdotes, folklore and
artifacts.
Would you be willing to get involved
with The Heritage of Honey and a
Beekeeping Heritage Centre? We need
help with fundraising, research and
publicity. Or perhaps you would be willing
to donate artifacts, relate stories or
anything you think may be of interest and
service to the heritage of British
beekeeping? If so, please get in touch.
Chris Park, Wiltshire BKA
[email protected]
07816591151
Chemicals
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“Every one of my 300 hives
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impressed with HiveAliveTM and will
continue to use it for all my hives”
“I treated one very weak apiary with Nosema
last Winter and I was pleasantly surprised to find
all colonies in good condition. I will be adding
HiveAliveTM annually to my Autumn feed.”
Peter Little
Micheal MacGiolla Coda
Commercial beekeeper & queen breeder in the UK.
NatDipSc(Apic), CFL, FIBKA Honey Judge,
BBKA Senior Honey Judge and Bee Breeder
SStockists:
tockists:
Simple, Natural, Safe
www.AdvanceScience.com
31

BBKA News - British Beekeepers Association

Transcription

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