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

A BUSY MONTH!

It has been a very busy month, but not with the bees – the miserable weather has put us well behind schedule, especially when compared with last year at this time.  Instead, life seems to have been occupied with conventions, AGMs, seminars, surveys and petitions, so here is a brief roundup.

Stoneleigh Convention

The BBKA convention at Stoneleigh seems to get bigger every year, with three days of activities for members – something for everyone.  As Sue and I now seem to have most of the equipment that we need, we exchanged our wax for foundation and some new frames so that we can start on the task of eliminating some of that old black comb that should have been replaced long ago.  We will also replace damaged frames and get rid of the last few remaining non-Hoffman brood frames.  I have to say that I do not think that rendering down the old brood combs is worth the time, effort and electricity involved, so we will be having a good bonfire.  We also bought a couple of books.

I then spent some time on the First Honey Co‑operative stand, while Sue attended two of the alternative lectures.  Manning a stand is a good way to meet other beekeepers and catch up on gossip; the feeling is that honey is going to be in short supply this year.

I did make the time to visit the DEFRA stand (sadly hidden in the corridor leading to the restaurant) and spent some time talking to a lady involved in drafting the strategy document; I found her to be very much on the side of beekeepers and receptive to my view that we should be producing home-grown queens rather than importing them – although it seems that colleagues had told her that this would never happen, the implication being that beekeepers in this country are just not capable of rearing large numbers of queens.  We need to prove them to be wrong!

BFA AGM

I had no time to attend the lectures at Stoneleigh as the Bee Farmers’ Association AGM and Spring Meeting is held on the Saturday afternoon.  This year there seemed to be few major issues except for the ongoing problem of bee health.  We were all urged to respond to the Government’s Draft Strategy on Bee Health document, as this will set out the strategy for the next ten years; if we get that right then we can argue strongly for the money to fund it properly.  The document is available on the Internet together with online response forms:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/bee-health/index.htm.
 

BIBBA Seminar

The BIBBA (Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders’ Association) day on Sunday started with a seminar in the morning consisting of two lectures.  Dr Giles Budge, from the NBU, delivered a detailed lecture (at breakneck speed!) which demonstrated not just how quickly he has 'slotted in' to the vacancy left by Dr Ruth Spinks but, I thought, how quickly research into honeybee diseases (particularly viruses) has moved forward with some of the new technology available – especially PCR; it was most impressive to hear that 1700 samples had been analysed so quickly.  However, it is clear that so much more could be done with just a little extra funding.  We obviously have some very able people and some very sophisticated technology - we can only wonder what they might achieve given some money!

The second lecture was from Norman Carreck who previously worked at Rothamsted with Brenda Ball until the funding ran out, and is now Senior Editor of the Journal of Apicultural Research.  He is also a much respected contributor to the Internet IBNewlist.  Norman’s topic was “Is the Honeybee Apis mellifera (L) native to the British Isles?”  At first, this might seem a strange question to ask, but it is necessary because an adviser to Natural England (formerly English Nature) has come up with the crazy idea that honeybees are not native and should therefore be excluded from all wildlife reserves!  This has serious implications for many beekeepers and Norman has put together evidence tracing historical evidence of honeybees and beekeeping in England to well beyond the time of the Romans.  It was a well presented and fascinating talk which I hope will be published in due course.

BIBBA AGM

Lunch was followed by the BIBBA AGM – a rather depressing affair which only served to demonstrate how much work needs to be done.  However, there is some hope of change following changes to the committee.  One bright spot was the proposal, tabled at the meeting, to award Honorary Membership to Norman Carreck; it was carried unanimously of course and is well-deserved.

Petitions

You will have received the BBKA petition (with your last BBKA News) and I hope that you are all busily collecting signatures – I have found that the public are well aware of the problems that we face and are very sympathetic to the idea of increased funding.  There are also two online petitions that you should sign if you have access to the Internet:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BeeResearch/ and http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Beeappeal/.
(Members who receive the newsletter by email will already be aware of these).
Peter Edwards

DO YOU HAVE EMAIL?

More than 60% of our members now have material sent to them by email rather than on paper.  This not only helps to keep our subscription down, but also enables rapid communication.  The website is also the best place to read the newsletter as I sometimes add photographs and there is also an excellent search engine which allows you to search through everything that has been put on the site since it was set up in May 2001!

So do you really still need paper?  If not, join the 60%+ and send me your email address.
Peter Edwards

HEAVY WINTER LOSSES IN EUROPE

I am getting reports of heavy losses in France and Germany, e.g. the Rhone BKA has done a survey of its members and got responses from 206 members, concerning 264 apiaries and 3264 colonies.  From 1 November 2007 to 1 March 2008 the overall loss was 49%.
Peter Edwards

WINTER LOSS SURVEY

The last BBKA News invited ten per cent of our members to complete a Winter Losses Survey.  In view of the work and pressure that the BBKA are putting on DEFRA and the Government the results of these surveys are now much more urgently needed to illustrate the complete picture.  If you were randomly selected to complete the survey, please send it in promptly.

Our own winter loss survey returns are coming in rather slowly – I only have 15 so far.  Perhaps this is because you have not been able to inspect colonies due to the weather, but I really would appreciate returns now as quickly as possible.
Peter Edwards

QUESTION 3b

Last month I wrote about Ted Hooper’s 5 questions to ask yourself when inspecting a colony and I said that 3b could wait because of the weather – those words seem prophetic now!  Assuming that the weather does improve, the answer to “3b. Are queen cells present?” will soon be ‘Yes’ – at least in some colonies.

The discovery of queen cells is something that often seems to put beginners (and others) into a state of panic, but it need not.  Swarming is a natural event in the life of bees and is often an opportunity for the beekeeper, particularly if extra colonies are needed.  If the colony swarms and the swarm is caught then it is, of course, a simple matter to run it into an empty hive (assuming that one is available).  However, we would hope that our members would conduct regular inspections and get to the colony before the swarm issues!  Back to question 3b.

All colonies will make queen cups around this time.  They are like little brackets standing out from the comb and may be anywhere in the brood nest.  Unless they are ‘active’, i.e. the bees are starting to develop them into queen cells, then they can be ignored - they are what we call ‘play cups’.  So how do we know whether the bees are just playing, or whether they intend to swarm?  The answer is to have a look up inside the cups, or open them out with the corner of your hive tool.  These cells go through various stages:  first the inner surface is dull; next the bees polish the inside; then the queen lays an egg.  Up to this point no action is required; the eggs may develop further, or they may simply be removed and probably eaten. The next stage sees the egg hatch and a small larva will be found in a large pool of royal jelly.  Now we know that the bees are serious and action by the beekeeper is a wise precaution.  These larvae will develop fully in just five days from hatching and the cell will be sealed: at that point a swarm will issue as soon as the weather is suitable.  Bad weather may still cause the bees to tear down cells, even at this point, but we cannot take the chance.

Queen cup

What is the best course of action?  Some books will tell you to remove the first queen cells in the hope that the bees will give up the idea of swarming, but I have to say that this has rarely worked for me.  I would advise that colonies with unsealed queen cells (i.e. cells with larvae in them) should always be split (artificially swarmed).  The procedure is quite straightforward and I covered it in the May 2004 newsletter. But what if there is a sealed queen cell?  Now things become just a little bit harder, because we will not know for sure whether the queen is still present (unless we happen to find her) – so we need to look for clues.  Perhaps the most obvious indicator of swarming is the reduction in the colony size, but this may not be easy to judge unless you have inspected the colony recently; certainly the presence of honey in supers that are virtually empty of bees is a fairly certain sign.  The queen cells will not all be the same age, so if there are a number of queen cells that are sealed and the weather has been good, then the likelihood is that they have swarmed.  The  state of the remaining brood will also help: if there are no eggs and only older larvae then it is usually possible to determine when the queen departed.  So what is the next move?

Now a note on clipping and marking queens.  At this time the advantage of a marked queen becomes clear – they are so much easier to find when you have to split a colony.  Clipping is perhaps less well understood.  The reason for clipping a queen is that she will not be able to fly when a swarm tries to issue (remember this happens just after the first queen cell is sealed).  So if a swarm does come out, it will return when it finds that it is missing the queen.  Of course the queen may walk out of the hive, get lost and die, or may be found by the swarm which will cluster around her on the ground (or a low bush if she has climbed); whatever happens your bees will not be over the hills and far away!  However, even if the bees return to the hive each time, seven days after the first cell is sealed a new virgin will emerge and it is virtually certain that a swarm will now depart.  So clipping does not prevent swarming – it just buys you time.  If you think about the development of a queen cell (egg 3days, unsealed larva 5 days, sealed 7 days) then you will see that, provided no cells are found on an inspection and the queen is clipped, then a swarm will not be lost within the next 10 days; even if the bees took a young larva at 2 days old (i.e. day 5) the minute that your back is turned it will still take 10 days for the new queen to hatch.

Queens are easy to mark if gently restrained with a push-in cage. The Uni-Posca marker pen is ideal.

For a beginner this is, perhaps, a great deal to take in, so I offer some simple advice:

1 Learn how to make an artificial swarm.  Get the principle clear in your head, if necessary by drawing it out on paper or playing it out with some empty boxes.

2 When (not if) you find queen cells, don’t panic!  If you are not ready to deal with the situation just close the hive and come back later that day; if you can find and cage the queen, or move her to a nuc box, so much the better.

3 Never shake bees off combs until you know that you will not need to find the queen!

4 Never destroy (or shake) queen cells until you are certain that you will not need them; sealed queen cells can be put in a matchbox - out of the sun - while you are working on sorting out the hive.
Peter Edwards

MEETING ON 4 APRIL

We were pleased to welcome several new members at our last indoor meeting of the winter held at Stratford College.  Bernard Diaper, from Sutton Coldfield, has often judged our honey show, but this time gave us a talk on producing honey both for sale and show.  Although the end product in each case must be pure and attractive, the various classes in a honey show require the exhibitor to take extra care in the choice of honey to be shown and in its preparation for the show bench.  As a successful exhibitor in honey shows throughout the country and an official of the National Honey Show, Bernard described his painstaking procedure for producing prize-winning honey, starting from the selection of a site for the apiary from which a particular type of honey can be obtained.  I am sure that Bernard would not object to being described as fanatical in his attention to detail in selecting and processing his honey; briefly: he identifies individual frames, extracts (and discards!) unsealed honey from the frames and, where different type of honey are stored in the same frame, he even uncaps and extracts them separately.  The honey is then strained and left to settle for weeks to remove fine bubbles before bottling.  Small wonder that he has won so many cups and prizes.

For many years, the annual honey show in Stratford has been judged in the presence of members.  Asked whether this is the best format, Bernard said that he felt that the general public should be given the opportunity of seeing the range of bee products in a honey show, and enquiries are already being made by the committee with a view to combining the 2008 show with a local public event.  Suggestions welcomed!
Denis Keyte and Peter Edwards

FIRST APIARY MEETING OF THE YEAR

I missed the meeting on 13 April, but understand that the meeting went well despite the poor weather.  A brief look at the colonies revealed that all were alive, but conditions were not good enough for a thorough inspection.  In common with many colonies this spring, our Association colonies are smaller than we would like or expect for the time of year – let us hope that conditions will improve and that a reasonable crop will be gathered.
Peter Edwards

NEW VENUE FOR THE NATIONAL HONEY SHOW

30th October - 1st November 2008.  International classes; beekeepers' lectures and convention.  The venue: St George's College, Weybridge, Surrey KT15 2QS.
http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/