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

SUMMER WALK - URGENT!

This year’s summer walk will be on Friday 20 July from the Fish Inn at Wixford, two miles south of Alcester.  The 3-mile route will take us past Wixford church, along the old Roman road (now a bridleway), under the Alcester bypass, and back along the old railway track alongside the river.  That will take about 1½ hours, so if everyone arrives at 6.15pm we will be able to order our food before leaving the pub promptly at 6.30pm; this will give time afterwards for eating, drinking and chatting.

The pub can provide snacks or full meals, but they have asked for an idea of our requirements in advance.  So if you are hoping to join the walk (or the party at the inn at 8pm), please let me know whether you want a snack or a meal on 01564 792872 before Sunday 8 July.
Denis Keyte

FONDANT

I will be ordering fondant for winter feeding again this year, probably towards the end of August.  If you are interested then please contact me before the end of July so that I know that you may want some.  I will then contact you when I have a price and you can then place a firm order.
Peter Edwards

THORNE’S OPEN DAY

Our Wragby Open Day is approaching fast - Saturday 7th July 2007

The Sale of Bargains begins at 9.00am.

A series of beekeeping mini-lectures begins at 10.30am.

Light refreshments will be available all day.

WHEN IS A BLACKBERRY NOT A BLACKBERRY?

In the early part of June, David (Titcomb) and I were doing some grafting in one of his apiaries as part of the BIG queen rearing programme.  As usual we discussed the forage available and I remarked that the bees seemed to be working blackberries well.  ‘I’ve always called them Dewberries’, he said, ‘they come out before the blackberries’.

I had to admit that I had not heard of Dewberries - and suspected that it was a local term.  However, when I looked on the Internet, I found that David was indeed correct; the blackberry family is larger than I thought!

The blackberry belongs to the Rubus genus, which is further divided into 13 subgenera, the largest of which (rubus) is further divided into 12 sections; the genus contains not only the ‘blackberries’, but raspberries, loganberries, cloudberries, salmonberries… (the list is endless)  and the dewberries! 

So how do you tell a dewberry (Rubus caesius) from a blackberry (Rubus fructicosus)?  The answer is that its leaves are divided into three leaflets (five in the blackberry) and it has few individual drupelets in the fruit.

Of course, I had to go and have a look in the hedgerows - and, sure enough, there were some blackberries with five leaflets and some dewberries with three.

There is some good information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Rubus

http://www.ukwildflowers.com/Web_pages/rubus_caesius_dewberry.htm

Peter Edwards

DON’T BELIEVE ALL THAT YOU READ IN NEWSPAPERS!

Norman Carreck, who was until recently one of the research team at Rothamsted, recently posted this to one of the Internet beekeeping lists following discussions about the quality of reports in the media about ‘CCD’:

‘I think it comes down to reporters.  There was a very small quote from me at the end, but I had quite a long chat with the reporter, who seemed quite sensible.  I was very surprised when I saw the article, because he states that "more than 80%" of the colonies in West Sussex had died.  My own bees are in West Sussex, and although I haven't got many colonies, all survived the winter in fine form (much better than Spring 2006, which was miserable).  I later discovered that the reporter had looked at CSL's Bee Base:-

http://beebase.csl.gov.uk/public/BeeDiseases/colonyReport.cfm

showing current results from field inspections, which showed that out of 16 colonies inspected in West Sussex, 13 had died, hence "more than 80%" losses! It must be borne in mind that the inspectors have only been working for a few weeks this year, that 16 is not a very large sample size, and presumably these particular colonies would have been inspected because a beekeeper called them in because they were dying.  In the last couple of weekends I have spoken to Andy Wattam, Eastern Region RBI and Richard Ball, National Bee Inspector, and both have said that all cases that their inspectors have been called to have been easily explainable, mainly due to inadequate Varroa control.  At the Hertfordshire AGM a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to see Apistan still doing brisk sales, despite the fact that resistant mites have been in the area for several years...’
Peter Edwards

CLEANING UP EQUIPMENT

There is nothing quite like a blowlamp, or blowtorch as they now seem to be called, for cleaning up old boxes and floors.  The heat melts wax and propolis which can then be scraped away easily with a hive tool or paint scraper and scorching the wood will destroy disease and parasites – provided that it is done thoroughly.  But it does need a decent flame.  For years I struggled with one of those blowlamps with a butane cylinder – but it was hard work and the flame often went out when working outdoors.  I then repaired my grandfather’s old paraffin blowlamp; it only needed a new leather washer for the pump, which I made myself after being told by an assistant in Baildhams (an ironmonger’s in Stratford) that the best place for it would be Warwick museum!  It worked very well and cost far less to run.  However, lighting a paraffin blowlamp is time consuming and not very practical for out-apiaries.

So last year I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a proper blowtorch.  I knew that our Seasonal Bee Inspectors had the best equipment for the job and enquiries soon put me in touch with their supplier.  After negotiating a good discount, I have become the proud owner of a blowtorch that would make even Jeremy Clarkson’s eyes light up!  It runs from a 3.9kg propane cylinder, is self-igniting with just a click of the switch on the handle and delivers a massive 43.5kw through its roofing burner.  I wondered if I needed a licence for it!  Floors, boxes, crownboards, roofs are all cleaned in no time, but I was surprised to be able to clean zinc excluders with it.  The trick is to put then on damp grass, keep the flame moving fast so that the whole excluder is warmed uniformly and then scrape it quickly.
Peter Edwards

OPEN MESH FLOORS - ANOTHER ADVANTAGE?

I wrote in September 2005 about the advantages of OMFs and described my own design which has a 7mm entrance; of course, the smaller entrance means that the brood combs are closer to the mesh floor and a side-effect of this, which I only noticed the other day, is that the bees do not build drone comb on the bottom of the brood frames.  Whether this is due to the mesh or the reduced space under the frames I do not know, but it has certainly made working colonies so much easier.
Peter Edwards

HEATHER - NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED

The recent wet weather suggests that the heather may do well this year.  Some of us will be taking bees to the moors - assuming that it stops raining by August!  If you are interested in joining us please contact me.  See July 2005 newsletter for more details.
Peter Edwards

BEE DISEASE AND VARROA CONTROL EVENT - COMPLETELY FREE!!!

The National Bee Unit Western Region are organising a disease recognition and varroa management day at Abberley, Worcestershire, on Sunday 15 July.  There is no charge.  The programme covers:

·         Welcome and Introductions

·         Apiary and Hive Hygiene

·         Coping with the Resistant Mite

·         Comb Examination Workshops

·         Beetle versus bee

·         Recognising and Dealing with the Foulbroods

·         Questions and Discussion

Tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available throughout the day, but it is suggested that participants bring a packed lunch.

I have full details for anyone wishing to attend.

Peter Edwards