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

ASSOCIATION HONEY SHOW

Every year we have a problem – and it is one that you could help to solve very easily!

The problem is that many exhibitors do not send their entries to the show secretary in advance and then arrive too late to allow sufficient time to register and stage their entries.  Staging of exhibits starts at 6.30pm and should be completed by 7pm.

Judging is scheduled to start at 7.15pm, but if members do not arrive on time then our judge is kept waiting and the whole show runs late.  This is most discourteous to our judge and can also mean that the judging has to be rushed towards the end in order to finish on time.

The committee has discussed the options available including, for example, requiring all entries to be sent to the secretary in advance or refusing entries from members who arrive at the last minute.  However, we do not wish to do anything that will restrict the number of entries and would prefer that members help resolve the problem, preferably by sending entries to our Honey Show Secretary, Mike Osborne, in advance and then arriving in plenty of time so that the show can start at 7.15pm.
Peter Edwards

BEE BREEDING

I have been promising to tackle this subject for some time, so I think that I should at least make a start.  Let me say first that, together with a number of other members, I am biased towards ‘native’ black bees and that the issue of which is the ‘best’ bee can be contentious!

This month I want to look at some of the broader issues that I believe that we need to consider, to tell you what has been done so far and to suggest where we could go from here.  As an introduction I had planned to print material from Albert Knight’s excellent lecture, ‘A Rational Approach to the Honey Bees of Britain’ given to the Central Association (CABK) last year (June newsletter), but this has since been published by the CABK and is now  copyright.  I am indebted to its secretary, Margaret English, for permission to use some material from it and would suggest that it is well worth purchasing a copy of this, or indeed any of their range of excellent booklets priced at only £2 each plus postage.

The problem

First, some background for those who think that all bees are the same.  They are not.  There are many subspecies of the Western honeybee, Apis mellifera (A.m.), that have developed in specific regions, e.g. Caucasians, Carniolans, Italians, and these bees have adapted to suit their local conditions.  They vary in many characteristics - such as colour, temper or use of propolis.  In the case of the UK our ‘native’ bee is the Dark European Honeybee, Apis mellifera subsp. mellifera (A.m.m.), sometimes known as the British Black Bee; this bee in its various strains occupied the whole of Northern Europe until 150 years ago.

Some imports of other subspecies into the UK took place in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but this increased rapidly following the First World War after what was known as ‘Isle of Wight’ disease decimated bee stocks.  Brother Adam, of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, then announced that the British Black Bee was extinct, even though no surveys were carried out and many beekeepers refuted his claim, stating that their bees had been unaffected and that they still had the same strain of bee that they had at the turn of the century.

Where are we today?

I would suggest that ‘in a mess!’ would not be far from the truth.  Beekeepers in the UK have continued importing queens in large numbers from anywhere in the world that it is legal to do so (and perhaps some illegally) so that we now have vast numbers of ‘mongrels’ and, although they may sometimes gather good crops, they tend to be inconsistent and are often bad tempered and swarmy.  It is these latter two characters that are perhaps our biggest problem in an age when the public seem ever more removed from the natural world - and are also becoming increasingly litigious.  In an attempt to get ‘good’ gentle bees, beekeepers often buy queens that are, as Albert puts it, ‘flavour of the month, with little regard to any conflict this may cause by such colonies producing drones that will hybridise with bees from surrounding colonies of other beekeepers’.  It is not just the drones that are a problem: queens are often superseded soon after introduction – often without the beekeeper realising it, unless the queen is marked – and the new queen is unlikely to retain the desirable characteristics for which the beekeeper paid good money.  Bee breeding groups have been formed in a number of areas of the UK to try to tackle the problem and some have made good progress.  However, the UK is a long way behind many other countries – notably Germany - and there is much work to do.

The situation in the Stratford-on-Avon area

Here in Stratford no serious work has yet been done, even though we may have some of the worst problems.  Typically, we have set up beginners with swarms, often of unknown parentage, which has resulted in the propagation of ever more swarmy bees.  I also believe that the National Bee Unit did us a great disservice when it was at Luddington by converting its 200+ colonies of dark bees to New Zealand bred Italians; the resulting hybridization of local stocks of predominantly dark bees will have done little to improve the temper of our bees as the black/yellow cross often produces very bad temper.  Of course, the NBU was not alone in introducing yellow bees – our own members have also introduced them in varying numbers in their quest for docile bees, often not realising that they were likely to get bad tempered bees as soon as new queens were produced either as a result of swarming or supersedure.

Which type of bee is best for our area?

This is where the debate starts to heat up!  Let us look - briefly - at some of the available options and their pros and cons.

Italian.  Pro: docile, works well and gets large crops under the right conditions.  Con: Impossible to keep pure unless new queens are bought regularly (at least every other year); keeps breeding even when conditions are bad and there is no income, so can consume large amounts of stores; requires at least 60lbs of stores to overwinter; poor wintering ability; susceptible to brood diseases; very prolific and therefore requires double brood boxes – with much increased swarming if confined to a single box (double brood makes inspections more difficult with more lifting and queens are harder to find); has a short life-span; is noted for robbing.

Caucasian.  Pro: docile, hard working.  Con: very heavy use of propolis, slow build-up.

Carniolan.  Pro: docile and works well; fast build-up.  Con: noted for its propensity to swarm, not kept by many people in this country.

Buckfast.  This is an interesting hybrid developed by Brother Adam to suit his method of beekeeping and his local conditions, i.e. little early flow and the main crop coming from clover and heather.  Pro: gentle and hard working.  Con: it is a hybrid and does not reproduce true, so new queens have to be purchased regularly; very prolific - it was developed for a special, very large, 12 frame Dadant hive designed by Brother Adam.

Dark North European.  Pro: Our native bee - well suited to UK conditions; thrifty - winters easily on 25lbs of stores; does not continue to breed when there is no income; can be very docile; requires only one brood box; can produce large crops; gives excellent white cappings; mates near its own apiary, so is easier to keep pure; may have some resistance to varroa; is noted for superseding its queens rather than swarming.  Con: is sometimes prone to chalkbrood; can produce bad tempered offspring if hybridised; queens are smaller and black, so can be more difficult to find (but do you need to find them if they usually supersede?).

What has been achieved so far?

Some members have made a start by obtaining queens bred from pure A.m.m. stock.  We are also in the process of re-queening the Association apiary to provide a small pool of good genetic material that can be made available to members - more on this in the future.

Where could we go from here?

I believe that we need to set up a bee breeding and improvement group.  This would probably concentrate on three main tasks: to identify good genetic material from our own area, to organise a breeding programme and to educate members.  Perhaps this could be discussed at the AGM in November.
Peter Edwards

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Subscriptions are now due for the year 1 October 2005 to 30 September 2006 and your renewal form is included with this newsletter.  Please pay promptly to save the Association unnecessary time and expense in chasing late payers.  Please note that the premiums for BDI have changed slightly, so do read the information carefully to ensure that you pay the correct amount – incorrect payments cause our treasurer a great deal of extra work.
Peter Edwards

MENTORS

The committee has discussed the idea of mentors for new members.  This is already happening to a certain extent, as Mike Osborne has taken on responsibility for new members.  However, with the very welcome large influx this year, the task is really too much for one person and we need to review how this should work.  We feedback from our new members on how they would like to see a scheme working and also from more experienced members who feel they could contribute by acting as mentors.  This will be discussed at the AGM – so make sure that you attend!
Peter Edwards

THE BEEKEEPERS’ QUARTERLY MAGAZINE

We have had an offer of a substantially reduced price (only £14 instead of the usual £24) for this high quality magazine if a group of 10 or more Association members subscribe.  Please contact me if you are interested.
Mike Osborne

THE BRISTOL BOTTLE COMPANY

I understand that the Bristol Bottle Company has gone into administration.
Peter Edwards