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

A BUMPER ISSUE THIS MONTH

Two reasons: there is a great deal to report (in particular our recent activities) - and the weather is so bad that I have had to give up on the outdoor work!
Peter Edwards

ASSOCIATION STANDS AT FÊTES

The Association is to have a stand at the following events:

Sunday, 24th.June.  Snitterfield Annual Summer Fête, 12.00pm at Snitterfield.
Saturday, 7th July.  Shakespeare Hospice Fête, 12.00pm at Shottery.

Anyone able to help man our stand please contact me on 01789 731745.
Mike Osborne

WINTER LOSSES

Many thanks to those of you who sent in your winter loss details.  I received details of losses from 24 members plus the Association apiary, so I think that we have a good representative sample.  Overall 415 colonies went into winter and 55 died - a 13.3% loss, which is well within normal expectations.  However, the results were skewed by two members who had particularly high losses; one lost 89% and we do not know the reason for this - although he has in the past used a substance for varroa treatment that no-one else has used locally to my knowledge; the other member lost 90% in one apiary (but only 7% in his other apiary) and we know this was entirely due to a failure to deal with resistant mites.  If we eliminate these two results then the figures are: 396 colonies into winter with 38 lost - a loss of 9.6%.  Clearly, we do not have CCD here!  Here is an analysis of the data:

Peter Edwards

THE PRICE OF HONEY COMB

I sell cut comb at the door at £2.00 for 200g and sections weighing 1lb for £5.50.  I have seen comb honey for sale at £7.50/lb. in some shops and no doubt there are places charging more.  However, if you really want to push the boat out you can get 'more than 2lb of honeycomb' for £27 from the Quince Honey Farm in Devon.  That is £13.50/lb!  At these sort of prices I am surprised that more of our members do not produce comb honey.  If anybody is interested I will be happy to show them how I go about it.
Mike Osborne

HONEY ON TELEVISION

On Saturday June 9 at 11.30am, the BBC1 popular television programme, ‘Ever Wondered About Food’, which fuses culinary expertise with science and social history, will be devoted to honey.
Presenter, Paul Merrett, a Michelin starred chef, will talk to beekeepers - including John Home - and a food historian and also create three new recipes using honey with pork, a honey steamed pudding and healthy cereal bars with honey.
http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/1/2007521_44321_o1.doc
Peter Edwards

CCA, SPA, MVCAS!

There seems to be a relentless increase in the number of initialisations afflicting our lives just lately.  The following was posted to Bee-L recently and is from the Proceedings of the American Bee Research conference that took place January 8-13 at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona:

‘Using a Colony Condition Assessment and Survival Prediction Analysis (CCA/SPA) approach, it as been possible to define the status of bee health in individual colonies and to predict the chances of surviving winter.

A CCA is a process that measures a wide range of factors that can affect bee health or can be indicators of a problem.  This process must be performed in a living, managed colony of honey bees.  Samples are also collected and processed in the laboratory to complement the in-hive assessment.  This information combined with data related to equipment, apiary, environment, and management completes a data snapshot of colony condition at the time of assessment.  Using provisional thresholds and interaction considerations, it is possible to do a SPA to realize the effects of multiple stressors.  The system is objective, unbiased, accurate and comprehensive.

What has become clear from using CCA/SPA is that honey bees are suffering from what is being referred to as Multiple and Various Causative Agents Syndrome (MVCAS).  This syndrome is caused by additive or synergistic combinations of more then one factor that affects bee health.  The combinations may vary among hives, apiaries, regions and countries.  The factors most frequently associated with MVCAS are parasitic mites, diseases (including viruses), management, and nutrition.  It is possible, using CCA/SPA, to determine the specific various factors that are contributing to bee mortality.  As well, the system has been found to be a good predictor of the chances of colony survival over winter.  Assessing all of the factors that affect bee health at the correct time, and interpreting the results in relation to provisional thresholds and interactions, takes the mystery out of why honey bees are dying.’
Peter Edwards

THE ‘BIG’ QUEEN REARING MACHINE SWINGS INTO ACTION!

We have started queen rearing at the Association apiary and in our own colonies.  Here is a summary of events so far.

Association:

4 May: David went to the Association apiary and set up a cell raising colony ready for us to use for our grafting on 12 May.  A double brood colony was arranged with the queen in the bottom box with a queen excluder on it.  The second brood box was over the excluder, so that by 12 May it would have only sealed (or nearly sealed) brood in it.

12 May: Well, it did not rain - but the weather was not good and the bees were worse!  Nevertheless, a small group of hardy (foolhardy?) members turned up to do the grafting.  The cell-raiser that our apiary manager had selected (?) was absolutely fiendish and the light was so bad that I ended up grafting in the headlights of the Land Rover!!!  With so many bees around it was impossible to work without a veil, so grafting was made even more difficult.  However, despite the hundreds of aggressive bees from the cell-raiser spreading alarm pheromone everywhere, our chosen breeder colony remained quiet.  The cell-raiser was re-arranged - quickly - by removing the lower box with the queen and putting the upper box on the floor; the hive was then hopelessly queenless and ready to rear our queens.  We put the 20 grafts into it to be accepted.

15 May: We had planned to return on Sunday 13 May, but the weather was so bad that we had to delay further work until the Tuesday.  David, Sue and I went the apiary to re-arrange the cell-raiser (floor, brood box with queen, excluder, brood box with cells, supers).  The bees were a little better than on Saturday - could they have been worse? - and the job was quickly completed.  We found that 12 grafts had been accepted and I have to say that I was amazed, given the conditions that we worked under.  One cell was just sealed - so that larva must have been just about two days old (on the limit for producing a decent queen); all the rest were unsealed, so must have been no more than one and half days old - again very good given the conditions.

20 May:  The weather was much better for the Association meeting on 20 May.  We made up 6 nucs and added a queen cell to each; the cells were protected by hair-roller cages.  Surplus cells were distributed to members.  I took 2 cells and put them into Apideas where they hatched on 22 and 23 May - right on cue.  When the weather improves we will have a look at the Association nucs, but for now we must hope for a few breaks in the weather so that they can fly to mate.

Setting up the cell-raising colony.

Ginny searches for larvae - much to Will's amusement...

...but Will finds that it is not easy!

Turn on the headlights!

That's better - but not much!

David was not convinced that there were any  larvae in there.

Mike puts the grafts in the cell-raiser - before beating a hasty retreat...

...but somebody had to put it all back together - not forgetting the feeder.

The bees seemed strangely attracted to David - was it his aftershave?

Getting the nuc boxes ready.

The queen is on here - we don't want to put her in a nuc box!

Stocking the nucs.

Tipping in a few more young bees.

Now for the queen cells - and a group photograph. (David, Margaret, Peter, Terry and John)

Putting a cell into a Jenter cage to protect it.

Finally, the cell goes into a nuc.

Our own queen rearing:

5 May: Sue and I started queen rearing at Snitterfield by the above method.  We grafted 60 Jenter cups and put 20 into each of 3 cell raising colonies.

6 May: We checked the grafts and found that the first colony appeared to have accepted all 20 - 100% success!  The others appeared to have accepted about 14-16 each, which was a good rate of acceptance (70% is about right).

The breeder that we used was a queen that we raised from Terry's 'Ratnieks' stock last year; normally, I would have wanted to see a bit more history, but in this case I knew that the origin was good as the stock came originally from BIBBA and there is no doubt about its quality.  It was mated in an apiary flooded with St James and Galtee drones.

14 May: 46 queen cells had been finished in the cell raisers, so we had a very long day making up 18 Apideas and 17 4/5 frame nucs.  The remaining 11 cells were placed in the incubator (honey warming cabinet!) at home, where they all hatched successfully.
Peter Edwards

WORKING WITH CHILDREN

Our committee has agreed that we will adopt the BBKA guidance document ‘Working with Children and Vulnerable people’.  It contains valuable material of which we should all be aware, not only for running apiary meetings, but also in our day-to-day lives.

Much of the advice is common sense, such as ensuring that no adult is ever alone with a child, but we also have legal responsibilities that may not be quite so obvious, e.g. Risk Assessment, dealing with emergencies and First Aid, the use of information relating to children, and the use of photographs.  The full document is available from the BBKA (it can be downloaded from the members’ section of their website (http://www.bbka.org.uk/members/downloads.php - the password is on your BBKA membership card).  A copy will also be put on the notice board  at the apiary soon.
Peter Edwards

DEALING WITH EMERGENCIES AT OUR APIARY

We now have notices at the apiary about the action to be taken in emergency.  One on the inside of the door (outside when it is open) gives details of the location of the apiary (with map reference), together with other useful information.  The BBKA leaflet about dealing with stings has been posted on the notice board.  We will shortly add the BBKA leaflet on running apiary meetings.  The committee is also planning a risk assessment exercise.

Three temporary A-boards have been made (soon to be replaced by more durable versions) and these must be placed in each of the three tracks leading from the site when a meeting is in progress.  Clearly they must be placed far enough along the track so that members of the public have adequate warning.
Peter Edwards

COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER

Whilst we have yet to discover the true cause of colony deaths in America, Max Watkins of Vita (Europe) Ltd posted the following on the Internet:

‘Just to clarify, in recent years there have been a small number of "Marie Celeste" cases here in the UK (hives completely deserted) but there is currently no indication of "CCD" in the UK; there have been some unexplained high bee depopulations in some other European countries over the past few years but these have not been identified as Colony Collapse Disorder.  While there could be common factors involved there is not enough information on the status or background to many of these losses to attribute all to one phenomenon.  That may change as more evidence is gathered but I think it's jumping the gun a bit to label all hive deaths with one name or cause.’
Peter Edwards

A TIMELY WARNING FROM DAVE SUTTON (RBI)

Just for your interest, a colleague reports a case of AFB that can almost definitely be linked to feeding supermarket "foreign" honey to a short-term observation hive at a show as an expedient measure.  When the combs were returned to the colonies from which they came the disease was introduced into the apiary.
Courtesy  Shropshire BKA via B.E.E.S.

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

A very warm welcome to two new members who have joined us recently, John Penn from Charlecote and Lloyd Tredell from Bretforton; we wish you both ‘full supers’.
Peter Edwards

FEBRUARY MEETING

At the February meeting, Peter Edwards, ably assisted by Kevin Roles and John Beaumont, gave a presentation on the first year's activities of the Bee Improvement Group.  This was set up to increase members' appreciation of the advantages of keeping bees of the North European 'black' strain and to demonstrate the practical steps that can be taken to replace the widely kept 'mongrel' bees with the superior strain.  Peter stressed the importance of assessing the qualities of the bees that are kept.  He demonstrated a computer program that he has developed to record the data obtained from colony inspections and then analyse it to identify the colonies with the most desirable qualities (available from http://www.dave-cushman.net/computing/downloads.html).  These can be used for breeding new colonies, which are likely to inherit the good characteristics, particularly if the chances of the daughter queens mating with drones of the desirable strain can be increased.  Another means of assessing the purity of the strain of a bee is to use morphometry - the measurement of certain parts of the bee's anatomy.  The most widely used technique involves the measurement of the vein structure of the bee's forewing.  The meeting was shown how about 30 wings from bees from a particular colony are mounted, scanned, and the projected images analysed by another computer program.  The result indicates whether the bees are hybrids or of a pure strain, and the origin of the strain - for example, native or Italian - can be deduced.  The six colonies in the association apiary were assessed and some new queens reared from stocks that had been headed by queens purchased from specialist breeders.  Two colonies at the apiary have been identified from morphometric measurements as being of the dark European strain, and they will be used to breed from in the coming season.
Denis Keyte

MARCH MEETING

At our final indoor meeting of the winter season, Celia Davies gave us an excellent talk on ‘Wild Bees and Wasps’.  Celia has always been a popular speaker with an excellent style and a superb collection of photographs; now she has ‘gone digital’ and her presentation is even better.

We were treated to an insight into the lives of all those ‘other’ bees (there are around 250 species of bee in the UK) and convinced that members of the wasp family do not really deserve the villainous reputation that they seem to have acquired.

It was a very enjoyable and informative evening.
Peter Edwards

BUMBLEBEES

As our Swarms Officer will no doubt testify, bumblebee nests are now getting to the size where members of the public begin to notice the activity from them - and sometimes shout for help.  So what should you do when asked to ‘sort out’ the perceived problem?

·         My first move is to allay any fears that bumblebees are likely to attack, pointing out both their docile nature and the fact that colonies are very small compared to honeybees (most nests do not exceed 100 bumblebees and a huge one might have no more than 400).

·         I then try to persuade the caller to simply leave the bees where they are, if this is practical.  Explaining a little about the annual life-cycle, where many colonies will have finished in July and almost all will be gone by September, helps considerably in persuading people to live-and-let-live.

·         Then I tell them how lucky they are to have the bees - explaining their role in pollination.

·         Finally - the ‘eco’ bit about how the towns and cities have become a haven for these beneficial creatures.

If all that fails and the bees have to be moved then, provided that you can get to the nest, this is not a difficult task.  If they are in something that can be picked up, then no problem, otherwise I pick the nest up and put it in a plastic washing-up bowl during the day and come back at night to move it when all the bees are inside.  (Wrap it in a loose-weave cloth).

Old beekeeping equipment is useful for housing them.  We have a colony in the garden that we brought home a week ago.  It is in an old super that was beyond repair, with similar condition floors above and below it to keep them dry.

There are good books available from IBRA: http://www.ibra.org.uk/shop/erol.html#1X0 and Northern Bee Books: http://www.beedata.com/nbb/index.html.  'The Humble Bee' by Sladen is the classic.
Peter Edwards

A COMPLETE QUEEN REARING COURSE BY CLIVE DE BRUYN

All aspects of Queen Rearing for all levels of ability, with a practical approach and hands on for those who wish.

The Cost of the course is £45.00 and includes all lectures, demonstration sessions, and a meal on Saturday night with speaker and Sunday lunch.

The course will run from 1pm on Saturday until late and from 11am to 5pm on Sunday.

The course will include: Making up a swarm box, preparing cells and grafting, inspecting cell raising colonies, distribution of queen cells and examining and using nuclei for mating.

Practical involvement will be possible at all stages but not compulsory.

The course will be held at: Wishaw Country Sports, Grove Lane, Wishaw,

Sutton Coldfield, B76 9PQ

Tickets for the Saturday meal for non beekeeping partners are available at £15 each.  A list of local B&Bs and hotels is available on request.

For full details or to purchase tickets contact Julian Routh, 58, Frederick Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B73 5QN or 0121 354 5956 or biennial2007@suttoncoldfield-beekeepers.co.uk.

ASSOCIATION LIBRARY

With all this bad weather around, it seems timely to remind you all that the Association has an excellent library.
Peter Edwards

FOR SALE

4 brood chambers, 3 supers, 3 lids (flat), 1 lid (pitched), 4 bases, 1 excluder.

If anyone is interested, please either phone me on 07852 671659 any time or send an email [via me, PE].  I can either deliver the items or they may be collected from Ashorne.
Richard Trinder

Jean Dance has 14 feeders for sale - contact via me Peter Edwards