Hon. Newsletter Editor:
Peter Edwards
E-mail: beekeepers@stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk

THE ‘BIG’ ISSUE!

BEE IMPROVEMENT GROUP (BIG)

The group held its inaugural meeting at Terry Hitchman’s house on 17 June.  Terry was appointed chairman and Kevin Roles agreed to act as secretary.  We discussed many topics, e.g. what members wanted from the group, types of bee and their traits, how to assess colonies, how we could record and evaluate data, how we could raise queens and distribute genetic material, and how the Association apiary could be used in any breeding programme.  The spreadsheet program from BIBBA looks to be a useful tool for recording data, but there are some features that are not particularly satisfactory and we are now modifying it for our own purposes.

We agreed that the first requirement was a group exercise in assessing colonies, so that everyone had a common understanding of how to score the various traits; we then met again on 25 June at the Association apiary with the intention of assessing all the colonies.  Given the current state of the apiary – queen rearing in progress, with colonies perched on top of other colonies – this was perhaps a little over-ambitious!  However, we did assess some colonies, had a good measure of agreement on scoring traits, numbered the brood boxes - and Kevin even managed to number two queens with his newly acquired numbering kit.  I am still not sure why the queens are numbered 75 and 77, but it is good that we can now positively identify at least two queens – a first for the Association?

Now we need to get members involved in hands-on queen rearing – the season is running out fast!
Peter Edwards

APIARY MEETING - 21 MAY

To say that the weather was less than ideal for our May meeting would be an understatement.  However, a few hardy (foolhardy?) souls took on the task of inspecting some of the colonies under David’s guidance.  I understand that David demonstrated the need to ensure that zips on veil and boilersuit should fit together without leaving holes and another member learnt the advantages of a zip-fronted boilersuit!

In fact, it was essential to do some work, as David was in the middle of queen rearing using a Wilson board.  David tells me that he is very pleased with this method as it is ideal for the small-scale beekeeper who wants to raise a few good queens.  It has two great advantages: very little extra equipment is needed and there is no need to find the queen.

For those who are not familiar with the Wilson Board method here are the details:

The board is basically a crownboard with mesh fixed over the feedhole on both sides, so bees have no contact, and a small (1") entrance cut in the rim on the upper side (it is an advantage to have a deeper rim on the top - perhaps 7/8").  You will also need a spare broodbox.

Take 2 frames of unsealed brood and eggs (your queens will be reared from these), 2 frames of sealed brood and 2 frames of stores from your colony.  Brush the bees off the combs back into the broodbox or down in front of it.  Put these frames in the spare broodbox and fill both boxes up with spare frames of empty comb or foundation.  Put the queen excluder on the original broodbox and put the new broodbox on top of it.  Replace the supers and leave for 2 hours.  You will then have the queen in the bottom box and young nurse bees in the top box covering the eggs and larvae in the upper box.

After two hours reverse the two brood boxes, but put the Wilson Board between them with the entrance at the rear.  You now have the box with eggs and young larvae on the floor, then the Wilson Board, then the box with the queen above.  Bees will fly from the upper box, but return to the lower box, creating a strong queenless colony that will raise queen cells on the eggs or young larvae.

After 10 days reverse the boxes again, but note that the lower box will need supers above a queen excluder.  Now you have the lower box with the queen in it, a queen excluder, supers as required, the Wilson Board and, on top, the brood box with sealed queen cells.

After 15 days there should be a mated, laying queen in the top box which can either form a new colony or be used to re-queen the colony by uniting to the bottom box after removing the old queen.  Another possibility is to split the top box into nucs before the queen cells hatch – this will enable you to raise several new queens.
Peter Edwards

APIARY MEETING - 11 JUNE

Around half a dozen members gathered at our chairman’s house on the 11 June to have a look at his bees – and most of them were well worth looking at, with good tempered bees and plenty of full supers.

The hives are in a very favourable position, well sheltered by a good hedge.  Terry explained that most of the colonies kept at home are descended from BIBBA stock that originated from a queen bought at a meeting many years ago at Locko Park.  Terry does virtually no swarm control, as they swarm infrequently. It was unfortunate that Terry had moved one rather less well-tempered colony into the apiary recently, as this one colony not only stung gratuitously, but also followed us for about 100 yards as we made our way to another apiary in a nearby field; at this point, our President – noted for wearing what some might describe as less than adequate protection – seemed to depart!  On our return to the house, we found that the bad colony was still on the warpath and the meeting ended a little prematurely.  However, this experience was invaluable for the newer members present who might not have seen a bad case of following before.

As a footnote, last weekend I put my Jenter box into Terry’s colony with the three year old ‘Ratnieks’ queen and removed it on Monday in light rain.  There were a large number of bees at home (they are well into the fourth super), but they were still easily handled with some smoke.  I now have 100 ‘grafts’ in cell starter colonies, so have high hopes of raising some good queens.
Peter Edwards

APIARY MEETING - 18 JUNE

Our meeting on 18 June was a little different as we opened the apiary to WARNACT members as part of National Insect Week (OK – we were a day early!).  We set up the observation hive for those not wishing to get too close to the hives and Mike spent some time giving a talk.  The braver ones donned bee suits and joined Denis, who led the meeting.  Some of our members went on the guided walk around the wood – and the BIG members assessed everything!
Peter Edwards

SUMMER WALK

Assemble at 6.30pm at Denis Keyte’s, parking in the field behind his house.  Shirley will count heads for the supper (choice of fish or chicken + chips).  The walk will be approximately three miles - down the River Alne to Little Alne, returning on the opposite bank.  Supper will be in Shirley and Keith’s garden.  If the weather is bad, then we will eat in the village hall.  Directions to Denis’ house were in the April newsletter (or telephone 01564 792872).
Peter Edwards

HEATHER

Some of us will be taking bees to the heather at the end of July or very early in August.  If you are interested in joining us please contact me.  See July 2005 newsletter.
Peter Edwards

WEBSITE

I missed an anniversary last month – our website started in May 2001.  How time flies when you are having fun!
Peter Edwards

PROPOLIS

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – by Terry Wade

Serial kissers at Brazil's racy Carnival parades can now swap saliva with even more revellers thanks to a mouth spray designed to fight germs, just one of many weird products companies have launched to profit from traditionally libidinous revelry.

The spray was launched by a local company for Carnival celebrations this weekend in Salvador, the heart of Brazil's African culture, and Sao Paulo, its biggest city. French kissing among strangers is rife during Carnival.

Its slogan was "Kiss a lot, kiss pleasurably, kiss safe."

"Beije," or "Kiss," is made with propolis, or bee hive glue. Though propolis has long been used in natural medicine, many health experts disagree about its positive effects.

Still, propolis extracts from tropical Bahia state have special qualities that fight micro-organisms and boost the immune system, Brazilian researchers say.

A 35-milliliter bottle of mouth spray will sell for 5 reais ($2.35) and the local Naturapi company hopes to sell more than 100,000 bottles during the bash.

DO HONEY BEES ‘BOMBINATE’?  (or should they just Apinate?)

The website www.dictionary.com offers a free ‘Word of the Day’ email.  A recent word was: BOMBINATE.  BOM-buh-nayt, intransitive verb: To buzz; to hum; to drone.

Bombinate is from Late Latin bombinatus, past participle of bombinare, alteration of Latin bombilare, from bombus, "a boom."  So now you know!

(For those left scratching their heads and wondering what this is all about: bumblebees belong to the genus Bombus, honeybees belong to the genus Apis.)
Peter Edwards