Hon. Newsletter Editor:
Mike Osborne
New E-mail: M.Osborne@care4free.net

There still seems to be some confusion about what we are covered for in the way of insurance. Basically there are two areas that concern us:

1. Third party insurance. This is to cover any claims made against a beekeeper by a third party as a result of his or her beekeeping activities.

By being members of the Stratford Association, which is affiliated to the BBKA, all members are automatically covered through the BBKA for an amount up to £5,000,000. As well as this there is product liability insurance. This is limited to £5,000,000 in any one year for all claims made. Any claims that do not involve bodily injury are subject to a £250 excess.

2. Bee diseases insurance. Because the presence of EFB and AFB, which are legally notifiable diseases, can result in the destruction of colonies and equipment, this can be insured against through BDI (Bee Diseases Insurance Ltd.). Included in our membership fee is insurance for 2 hives. Any more than this and an extra charge is made. For example if you are going to have up to 5 colonies during the year the cost is £1.80 extra. This is paid and details given with the annual subscription, which is payable on the 1st October. The amount paid must take account of any possible increase in the number of hives that they will occur during the coming year. Whilst the compensation paid is reasonable it is not on a "new for old" basis. It must be emphasised that BDI is not a commercial enterprise run for the benefit of shareholders, but is run for the benefit of beekeepers. No staff are employed, so that a network of hundreds of unpaid volunteers are relied upon, starting with the treasurers of each association who collect the premiums.

Other insurance for hives and equipment is available through the BBKA, who can be contacted on 024 7669 6679 if you are interested.

There is still some honey available which was taken off the Association's hives last year. Cost is £1.25 per lb. It is already filtered and is in buckets, but could be made available in smaller amounts if required. Contact Peter Edwards on 01789 295169.

The Association makes a bulk purchase of honey jars and lids on behalf of members, and this means that they are obtained at a very competitive price. The cost this year is jars at £19.75 per gross with lids (available in 1/2 gross if required), with additional lids at £6.00 per gross. Contact Peter Edwards by the end of this month if you wish to order any (01789 295169). Peter also has fondant available at £8.00 for a box of 12.5Kg. He will also be able to advise you on this quick and easy way of feeding the bees. With the number of colonies that he has to look after he should know!

The latest visit to the apiary in Hampton Wood revealed that we have a mated breeding queen in all four hives. Before we go through each hive in turn, let me set the scene as five of us turned up to examine the hives. When the first two of us arrived a couple of WARNACT members left the wood at some speed after seeing us get into our veils and boiler suits. On arrival at the apiary all was busy, with bees flying well from each hive.

Hive no.1 was still on two brood chambers as we had previously united the stock which had lost its queen with that of an old queen on some older combs. All appeared to have gone well as the newspaper between the two brood chambers had been eaten away and the queen was breeding slowly in the top part of the hive. They were clearly not very strong. In the bottom brood chamber to one side the paper had not been eaten and under this a wax moth colony had taken off and there were as many grubs as there were bees. As we could not find the queen we removed the wriggling combs of grubs and some other well past their sell by date combs, which we took away and burnt. We then put all the combs and bees in one brood chamber and tried to settle them down. The old brood chamber, which had rot and holes in it, was also taken away and burnt.

Hive no.2 had a young queen which our five pairs of eyes eventually found, those with glasses doing better than those without, so we thought we would try to mark her before we lost sight of her never to be seen again this year or next. That's when the fun started. We marked her, but put too much paint on leaving her looking like a zebra. Whilst someone was giving orders as ever, four other pairs of hands were holding combs, paint, smoker, or anything else that was needed. Then some young man, who was there with his wife, tripped over a tree stump (we missed that one Jim) and nearly head butted the beehive! Imagine trying to explain that to the casualty sister.

Well we settled that hive down and it should build up well ready for next year's crop.

Hive no.3 had all brace comb in the top of the hive and a brood chamber full of foundation which had not been drawn out. So two of the foundations were put into hive no.4, two combs of brood into hive no.1 and two combs of drawn foundation from hive no.1 into no.3. Well, if you are confused you should have been there. Goodness knows what the bees thought! We found the young queen, who was laying well in the few drawn out cells that she had, and marked her more successfully than the one before. However, with paint on both wings she looked more like a greater wax moth and will probably never fly again even if she ever intended to.

Hive no.4 was easy, with a good queen and lots of bees, and another super of honey to come off. They were well behaved, but we could not find the queen, even with everybody wearing glasses. I think that by now word had got around the apiary. The two empty supers extracted by David were returned to the hive with the hope that they may fill them with honey again. Some hope, the way this season and the management of this apiary is going this year! Well, that ended our visit and if you want to come along to our next meeting the date is at the end of the newsletter. It's all about learning and taking the best practice from what you see at these meetings. What people took away from this meeting remains to be seen, but we all did practice marking workers as well as the odd queen. Good fun was had by all, but watch out for those stumps!

Brian

There seems to be general agreement that wax moths have become more of a nuisance over recent years. Whilst we get both the lesser and greater wax moth, the latter is more destructive and it is the increase in their numbers which is probably causing the problems. I am now frequently finding their grubs active in the middle of sealed brood, whilst in the past wax moth activity was confined to those areas where bee activity was minimal. Even worse are the boat shaped depressions that the greater wax moth scoops out when it comes to pupate, causing permanent damage to woodwork. Combs stored in supers over winter must be protected. This is achieved by stacking them and placing paradichlorobenzine crystals (PDB) on newspaper between them so that the fumes can filter downwards. PDB is available from Thorne. Peter Edwards has obtained details of an effective wax moth trap, which he has put into practice. Cut two holes about 1/2" diameter opposite each other either side at the top of a 2 litre plastic bottle. Put one cup of vinegar, one cup of sugar and the peel from one banana in the container, and fill up with water to within 2" of the holes. This is then hung near the hive at about the same height as the entrance. Apparently it takes a week or two for the mixture to get up to strength. You will find it catches other insects, including wasps, which is not a bad thing at this time of the year.

At this time of the year I frequently have a mild panic because I think that one of my colonies is queenless - that is without a laying queen and with no brood present to produce a new queen. However, a moments thought tells me that this is unlikely unless I have done something stupid. What one must remember is the time that it takes from the date of a swarm, produced either naturally or artificially, until the new queen is mated and laying. It could be several days before a queen cell is sealed, with say another 8 days till she emerges. Depending on the weather, more than 2 weeks can pass before she is mated and laying eggs. This means about 4 weeks in total, giving time for all the brood originally present to hatch out. Ideally, one should reassure oneself by finding the virgin queen, but they are comparatively small and easily missed. Given really bad weather it is possible that a virgin queen remains unmated until after 3 weeks of age, when she cannot apparently mate or at least not with sufficient drones to obtain the required amount of sperm. Thus a colony that has swarmed will have a long gap in brood production, often at a vital time of the year for foraging. It has been suggested that a large number of queen cells indicates a colony more prone to swarming and efforts should be made to avoid using queens from such a colony. If when checking for queen cells only one is found, particularly if it is after the normal swarming season up to late July, this is an indication that supersedure is occurring. This is the natural replacement of the queen by one of her daughters, due probably to the age of the former, and can take place at any time during the active season. The only time that two queens will be found naturally in a hive at the same time is as a result of supersedure. Although supersedure will occur when a queen is about 3 years of age, some queens can go on to be 5 or 6 years old. There appears to be no hard and fast rules as to when supersedure occurs, but it is obviously preferable to swarming. There is no gap in the brood production and the colony benefits accordingly, so such colonies should be encouraged and bred from.

Sunday, 10th August. Get together at Denis Keyte's apiary in Wootten Wawen.

A chance to discuss preparing the bees for the winter and compare notes.

Sunday, 19th August. Association apiary meeting Hampton Wood.

A look at the bees to see how they are faring after the numerous manipulations carried out during the year. Any queries about how to get there etc. contact the apiary manager.

Sunday 16th September. Association apiary meeting in Hampton Wood.

A final look at the hives and an opportunity to go over the year's events.

Friday, 21st September. Extraordinary General Meeting at Stratford College.

To be held as usual to fix the level of this year's subscription. If you don't turn up to give your views you will just have to accept what someone else decides. Our present subscription is £14 (including BDI insurance for 2 colonies), which compares with members of other local associations paying twice that and more.

Friday, 21st September. Cooking demonstration by Alan Deegan after the above EGM.

Alan is Programme Manager for Professional Catering, which means that he is in charge of the training of the College's catering students in the kitchen, from which we benefit at our annual dinner. Those who attended his last demonstration will know that this is an event not to be missed.

Friday, 28th September. Committee meeting at Ron's house in Stratford.

12th-14th October. Leamington Weekend at the Manor Hotel, Leamington Spa.

Organised by the Central Association of Beekeepers, this important event is held so near to us that it is well worthwhile considering attending. Talks are to be given by at least six of the country's best-known beekeeping experts. Contact Mrs. English for details on 020 8977 5867.

Friday, 19th October. Annual Honey Show, at Stratford College.

Why not enter your surplus wax from extracting. Melt it in the oven and filter through muslin into a scratch free bowl of appropriate size to produce between 4 and 8 oz. Let it set very slowly to avoid cracks. When set it can be freed from the bowl by placing it in the refrigerator.

Friday, 16th November. Annual General Meeting at Stratford College.

15th-17th November. National Honey Show, London.