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

It was an incredibly early build-up, with swarms in March and huge colonies by the end of April; by early May most of us were running out of supers - and then the weather changed! The rain during the last three days of April became torrential on the 1st May and the wind swung round to the north on 2nd May - and then stayed in that quarter for the next ten days. Many large colonies ate the contents of the bottom super during that time and some started on the next super! These have now been refilled, but the early promise of huge crops has not really materialised. In addition, the cold weather has extended the flowering period for the rape and honey in the supers is now granulating; it will be a long and tedious job to extract it.

On a personal note, it has been a very busy month indeed. Disease inspections have now been completed on all hives, including those that I bought in, and the two EFB colonies that were 'shook-swarmed' at Ailstone last month have now been moved under licence to an isolated hospital apiary near Sherbourne. This is to ensure that they do not become re-infected if there is any disease still lurking at Ailstone and also to keep them away from other colonies until we are absolutely certain that they are healthy. This site will be the subject of a Standstill Order for the rest of the year. Swarm control is ongoing (who knows what they will do in the next few weeks?), I have split about 25 colonies and set up three new apiaries. I expect to split another 25 or so over the next couple of weeks and this will then bring me close to the number of colonies that I want to run. I have also numbered all my brood boxes with tree tags to aid record keeping.

Reports indicate that varroa numbers are quite low where colonies have been properly treated and it seems most beekeepers are coping well. However, varroa remains a constant threat and it is important to continue to monitor numbers. Uncapping drone brood with an uncapping fork and checking the larvae for mites is a good way of monitoring; if more than 25% of cells have mites then treatment is indicated. Remember to sterilise the uncapping fork after each colony! In my own colonies (treated only with thymol) varroa have been very difficult to find.

There has been considerable debate in the beekeeping press and the Internet news groups about the effectiveness of open mesh floors (OMF) for varroa control. The idea is that you replace the floor with a screen (8 mesh to the inch) so that any varroa that fall off the bees will drop through the floor and cannot then climb back. The floor is also said to improve winter ventilation, prevent mouldy combs and produce a stronger colony even though brood rearing may start later in the Spring (which may hold back varroa numbers). I thought that this was worth trying, so I have had 40 OMFs made and am now deploying them as I split colonies. As there is no problem with ventilation, I had them made with very narrow entrances (7mm) so that mouseguards will not be needed. If all else fails then they will make excellent travelling screens! I will report further when I see what effect, if any, they have.

I was on the road to York at 5am last Friday! The reason for rising at such an unearthly hour was to be trained as your DLC by the National Bee Unit (NBU) team at the Central Science Laboratories, Sand Hutton, York.

This was the first time that I had visited the NBU since it moved from Luddington and I found it to be a very impressive unit, not only for the facilities under the direct control of the team - laboratory, workshop, stores, extracting facilities, home apiary etc., but also for the wealth of expertise available to them from the 600 scientific staff working in other departments on site.

The day started with a welcome from Mike Brown, who went on to explain the thinking behind the DLC concept. The purpose is twofold:

• To provide a trained and experienced beekeeper locally who can act as a first point of contact for beekeepers who think that they may have a disease problem (or need other advice on bee husbandry).
• To arrange disease training sessions within local Associations.

He made it very clear that we will not be acting as unpaid inspectors (the number of SBIs has been increased this year) and that we will not have any of the powers of an SBI.

We then had lectures:

• Disease Recognition and their Control - from an RBI
• Summary of new R & D projects in progress - from Dr Ruth Waite (née Spinks)
• The PhD Studentship - Lee Robinson (Lee is working on the aetiology of EFB for his PhD)

After tea and coffee, we progressed to the training laboratory for a two-hour informal practical session on combs with EFB, AFB, varroa, chalkbrood etc. We were able to make microscope slides of EFB and AFB and discuss the work with the NBU Team.

After lunch, we went to the home apiary and in a strong breeze (!) and several heavy showers we were shown how to inspect colonies for disease and how to test for varroa resistance to Apistan and Bayvarol.

A tour of the NBU laboratories followed and we finished at 4.30pm with a general discussion.

Although I have had no further cases and Will Spencer's colonies are now clear, there are further cases of EFB in our area and, as far as I know, none of our Association members is involved. However, the Ministry are only allowed (Official Secrets Act!) to identify the 10km square - so it could be almost anywhere, maybe within a hundred yards of your bees! Please take extreme care if you collect any stray swarms - hive them on foundation, ideally in an apiary isolated from your other stocks and then watch the health of the brood - especially the older unsealed larvae - very carefully. Maintain strict hygiene after handling all colonies (see last month's newsletter) and ask for help if you suspect that anything is not right. Keep records of dates and places where they were collected.

Richard Lindsey, our SBI, tells me that it would be very helpful if you would all keep an eye open for apiaries belonging to non-members or beekeepers living outside of our area. If you do come across hives let me know and I will pass the info on to Richard. He tells me that some Associations are now plotting the location of such apiaries on a map and I will be raising this idea at our next committee meeting.

Since I started to follow Robin Hall's hygiene procedure (wearing Marigold gloves with latex single use gloves on top) I have only been stung once on the hands. In that time I have probably made around 400-500 colony inspections - some under less than ideal conditions with very defensive bees! This compares very favourably with leather gloves where I picked up stings fairly regularly - often through the stitching.

My thanks to Richard Lindsey for telling me about a company called Protec Direct, who specialise in indoor and outdoor protective clothing. Their range is vast, but just to give you a few examples: Latex single use gloves - £1-80 per 100; Bodywarmers - from under £5; Riggers gloves (for gardening) - from 50p; food handler's standard white trilby - £3.53.

Catalogues from 0870 333 3081 or on-line orders from their searchable website: http://www.protec-direct.co.uk/ .

Lakeland Plastics are selling a useful little gadget called the 'Handy Lighter'. It is a gas lighter with a long neck - I think that there used to be a similar device called a Gas Match - which makes it ideal for lighting your smoker, as you can get the adjustable flame right down into the fuel and out of any draught. It has piezo ignition - so no flints - is refillable and - best of all - costs only £1. There is also a larger version for barbecues at £4.65.

One of our ex-members, Sheila Handy, has for sale 5 National hives including 15 supers (no bees), 2 jacket & veils, trousers, gloves, smoker, solar extractor, nuc box, capping feeder 01564 893710.