Editorial
Spring is definitely underway and my colonies are very active on warm days. Lots of pollen is being collected from early blossom and catkins. Keep an eye on the weather though because a cold snap or prolonged rain could prevent the bees from flying and they may need a quick feed.
The AGM and lectures took place on 28th March. A full report will be given next month.
Many congratulations to Peter Folge ("The Bees Knees") of Welwyn Beekeepers. Andy Wattam, our Regional Bee Inspector, has just confirmed that Peter will commence Seasonal Bee Inspector training later this month. Peter will cover West Herts and Bedfordshire and train alongside Peter Heath. So watch out for the Peters.
If you are reading this online then check the Calendar link above. It shows all HBKA meetings and other related events. If you don't see a future meeting for your group then please let me know so that the calendar can be updated. The printed version of this newsletter includes events occurring over approximately the next two months.
See you at the BBKA Spring Convention at Stoneleigh (17-19 April).
Paul Cooper
North Herts news by Christine Phillips
There was a good turnout for our AGM last Tuesday 17th March, including two new members, who we are very pleased to welcome to N. Herts Beekeeping group.
We agreed to continue to hold meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of the month so that we can use the larger room at Howgills rather than squeezing into the schoolroom.
The committee was re-elected without change, but Rosemary Fairey who has looked after us so well with tea and very good cakes at every meeting for longer than I have been a member, would like to hand over this task from next autumn. The chairman thanked Rosemary for all she has done.
Extractor
Our extractor is now with Terry Pierson. Anyone wishing to borrow it should contact Terry. There will be a £10 charge, refundable when the extractor is returned clean.
Summer apiary meetings
- 25th April - Graham's apiary near Titmore Green. This will be especially to give beginners a feel for looking into a hive and handling bees – old hands welcome too.
- May 9th at 4.00pm - Nortonbury clear-up. Everyone welcome. Come and chop down nettles and trim bushes (or just come for a chat) and then adjourn to the Three Horseshoes for a well earned pint.
- May 23rd - John and Frank's bees at Boxwood
- June 13th - Pat Veasey's at Gosmore Cross
We hope to arrange two or three more summer meetings – watch this space! All apiary visits at 2.30 unless otherwise stated. If you need directions to any of these meetings please phone or email one of the committee members.
Following the AGM the more enjoyable part of the meeting - the honey tasting competition. After some discussion about health and safety, the very varied honeys were tasted and given marks out of five, the scores totted up by someone with a mathematical flair and the winners announced:
- joint 3rd place, John Brooksbank and Robin Dartington,
- 2nd place - Roman Gorski
- and in 1st place none other than our chairman who duly presented himself with the cup!
Congratulations to all winners and don't forget to bring your cup, freshly polished to next year's competition.
Tuesday April 21st at Howgills will be our next and last indoor meeting of the season. Frank Everest will be presenting a slide show on beekeeping which should be especially interesting for beginners and upon which old hands may wish to comment!?
We will also hope to finalise the summer programme.
St Albans news by Richard Peterson
No shortage of new recruits wanting to learn the craft
The end of March will see St Albans Beekeepers’ Association over halfway through their latest ‘Beginners Course’ which is being held at the United Reform Church Hall, Chiswell Green, St Albans. The course like those held previously was again over subscribed and the class had to be extended from the original allocation of 18 places to about 24.
As in previous years the Association is again running its ‘Hives for All’ scheme with the expected uptake being far greater than we have hives to allocate so this year we are exploring the possibility of students sharing a hive. This will have the advantage of making it easier for the new students to accommodate their annual holidays and also keep up the strict inspection routine which has become increasingly necessary as the occurrence of colonies swarming with queens in their first year seems far greater than was previously thought.
Our photograph shows the St Albans Committee surveying a new site for an apiary at Oaklands College on the Hatfield Road, which when up and running, will reduce the stress upon our teaching apiary at Pré Wood.
By the time you read this, the April Apiary Clear-up will have taken place and it is hoped that you were able to have found the time and came along to lend a hand. Whilst on the subject of the apiary we will be compiling a new mowing rota from the names of members who have indicated that they are willing to help at the apiary on their membership renewal form for this year as the ad-hoc system that we used last season was less than successful as a great deal of the mowing was left to a few stalwarts that attended on the Saturday afternoon meets so don’t be surprised to get a call.
Bishops Stortford news by Paul Cooper
Our next meeting is on Sunday 5th April at 2:00pm at Susie's house in Widford. Please call me (☏ 01279 771231) for directions. There have been lots of enquires from prospective new members over the past few weeks so we welcome you all if you can come along. We will supply a few spare bee suits.
The accompanying photograph shows one way to serve comb honey for breakfast. This picture was taken by John Dockerill while staying at a hotel in Cairo. It shows a whole capped frame suspended above a drip-tray. Just hold your toast underneath the frame and scrape the capping away with a spoon!
Welwyn news by Peter Mathews
We are hearing very mixed accounts of colonies. Many hives are very weak. This is attributed to lack of stores, queenless, nosema or a combination of factors. Certainly the number of colonies on the verge of collapse is much higher than usual. The good news is that there are plenty of full strength colonies about. Would be interesting to relate problems with autumn treatment for nosema.
We have a very full diary. Our Apiary sessions for beginners start again on 5th April and continue on the first Saturday of the month at 10.30 am at Raffin Green. Contact me for directions. Our first stall is at Hertford Castle on June 7th (12.00 - 17.00pm). For these events we need honey and you. We hope to see our newer members along both to sell honey and promote beekeeping.
If you have bees. Hopefully, you will soon have honey. If you want to sell your surplus honey you will need jars! Make sure you have ordered enough for the coming year.
South East Herts news by John Mumford
First I have an apology to make. In the rush to get the Programme out I omitted the date of the Apiary meeting at Garry Barnett's Apiary at Goose Green (Lord Street Hoddesdon) - it is on the 24th May. We will meet in the car park on the right as you leave Goose Green traveling West at 2.50pm. It is just before you get to the Equestrian Centre.
The Winter Meeting on 'Collection and Hiving of Swarms' degenerated into farce, with all and sundry chipping in with their own personal experiences, methods, and procedures. I can only apologise to those new beekeepers who must have gone away totally confused. The behavior of Swarming Bees is about the most predictable of all beekeeping events. As one Novice Beekeeper remarked to me later, "the only way to get two beekeepers to agree is to shoot one of them".
I have been showing some of the students of our Beekeeping Course around my apiary on the last two Sundays, and yesterday (29th. March - 9°C Max) my Bee Water Trough was crowded with bees, and looking through a few colonies it was easy to see why. Large patches of brood on 6 to 7 frames - Queen laying eggs at some 1000 per day (normal for this time of year)
A larvae just being sealed weighs about 150mg. and just like ourselves consists mainly of water, therefore colonies will need to collect some 150 grammes of water each day (just over a quarter of a pint per day), and 3000 bee flights at 50mg. per flight will be required to satisfy this demand. Bees will collect water from the nearest source, and can sometime create a nuisance around leaking drains and bird baths etc. Colonies will get heavier, but stores are being used up at an increasing rate. If in any doubt about the amount of remaining stores then feed small amounts of syrup. Only fools lose their bees at this time of year!
Any members wanting a swarm should phone me, and their name will go on my list. I will collect the swarm and the member at the top of the list has two days to collect it, else it will go to the next person on the list and their name goes to the bottom of the list. I have two names on the list at present.
E.A.R.S. Eastern Associations Research Studentship for Bees
by David Bancalari
Hello from E.A.R.S - the research studentship that associations in Eastern Region are funding. There is still a shortfall of about £4,000 to the total £16,800 needed from beekeepers in Eastern Region to fund the research studentship, so your contribution would be more than helpful!
There are various bits about E.A.R.S. which can be reviewed by members to help decide:
- BBKA www.britishbee.org.uk are carrying the Press Release
- Beekeepers Quarterly www.bkq.org.uk current edition pages 14/15 contain an article by "our" researcher Dr Stephen Martin at Sheffield and a tailpiece about EARS.
All being well, there will be a piece in next Beecraft too. Dr Stephen Martin, spoke at Cambridge' BKA one-day seminar last Saturday and talked with enthusiasm about beekeepers and researchers working more closely - and also that the award from BBSRC is particularly prestigious since we were competing with the likes of Zeneca and other major pharmaceuticals for it.
More than happy to talk. You can get me on 01603 755105 evenings or before 9 a.m. are best.
Scientific American article review by Peter Mathews
"Saving the Honeybee" by Cox-Foster & van Engeldorp, "Scientific American", April 2009, pp 40-47
Difficult to be concise on something like CCD which appears so complex a subject. This article covers both data and laboratory analysis of colonies across the United States. Interestingly, affected colonies were free of neonicotinoids when tested. CCD was even found on organic farms and included both migratory and non-migratory apiaries. However, the investigators were surprised by very strong links with Israeli acute paralysis virus - again, a complex issue as there are several strains of the virus. No single cause was identified. And, it would seem that a combination of factors, including IAPV, combine to destroy the colony. Beekeepers could do much to prevent colony loss by redoubling their efforts in following good practice in husbandry and hygiene.
The article is available to read on the Scientific American website and is called Solving the Mystery of the Vanishing Bees.
Basic Beekeeping Exam
Have you ever thought of taking the Basic Beekeeping Exam but been too shy to ask? Don't be! This is a practical exam with a face-to-face question and answer session, run by a really nice, friendly examiner. It takes place at the Prae Wood apiary and this year will be on the 27th and 28th of June. Are you interested in having a go? It is well within the reach of anyone with a year's beekeeping behind them and a good knowledge of Hooper's classic book. I do still have a couple of spaces available and would be happy to fill you in on the details. Either e-mail me (postman@chevaux.co.uk) to register an interest or call me on 01582 467789 to discuss.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Marian Whittaker (Exam Secretary SBKA)
Queenlessness by Len Dixon, Herefordshire BKA
One of the most commonly asked questions particularly round about June/July, relates to queenlessness, principally in the form of 'What should I do?' My reply is usually 'Nothing.' The reason is that they may not be queenless at all. So before too many people ash the question again (I've already had severall), let's have a quick look at the problem.
The reasons for queenlessness about now normally result from natural re-queening (swarming, to the likes of you or me). It arises because a queen gets lost. during a mating flight (actually it rarely happens when you think about it), of meets some other accident (that probably means something silly done by the beekeeper, like checking a colony too soon after a virgin queen might have emerged). But more often than not I believe the queen is there all the time - except she's just not laying. There are several reasons for this. First, it might simply be a case of impatience on the part of the beekeeper. New queens frequently don't start laying straight away. Once emerged they require a few days to mature before their subjects decide enough is enough and pack them off on mating flights. Once mated, it can take some time before a new queen begins to lay. So frequently what anxious beekeepers describe as queenlessness is nothing more than a delay in the commencement of egg laying.
That's why I suggest that no action should be taken, at least in the short term. Wait for at least a week to see what happens. Then, before tearing the colony apart, watch the front of the hive to see what is going on and whether pollen is being brought in. If it is then all is probably likely to be well. A second good sign is shiny cells in the brood area. If you see these when checking for a new queen then it pretty certain she's there; the bees are preparing cells for her to lay in. Note the bees' behaviour, too. If they are comparatively calm and quiet, you can be pretty sure they aren't queenless. There's no guarantee, though, because there may be other problems which I will touch on in a moment.
If there seems to be undue delay in the commencement of egg laying, before anything else, try inserting a frame of eggs and very young larvae into the centre of the brood area and leave them for three or four days. If a colony is queenless they will fairly quickly begin to correct the situation by building queen cells, Frequently, when checking the result one finds that the new queen lus begun to lay; tile new eggs seem to provide the necessary urge to get her going. (That's one good reason for having at least two colonies.) If there are indeed queen cells, you were right, they were queenless. Allow a chosen one to develop. Some people try to solve swarming simply by removing queen cells. This is likely to result in disaster. If bees are going to swarm, this won’t stop them. They are likely to get so frustrated that they'll go even if a queen cell isn't sealed. So if all cells are continually destroyed when a colony is checked queenlessness is an almost certainly. And I'm afraid people still try it.
Of course actual queenlessness isn't the only problem. Sometimes, for one reason or another (long spells of bad weather is a common one), a queen is not fertilised properly or sufficiently. This shows itself either immediately or even after a considerable delay, depending on how serious the problem is, and results in either all-drone brood or a mixture of drone and worker brood in the worker brood area. Sometimes the bees will correct this themselves by requeening again. Often, though,the colony dwindles and if it is to be saved the beekeeper needs to requeen it. Before doing so the faulty queen must be removed. After doing so insert a frame of eggs from a good colony to allow them to requeen themselves.
One of the most serious problems is laying workers. This happens after a colony has been queenless for some time. The lack of queen pheromone no longer prevents workers' ovaries from developing and several workers begin to lay, Any eggs that hatch and develop will be drones. The most obvious signs are multiple eggs, often many, in each cell scattered throughout the brood area. A drone-laying queen usually keeps to a reasonable pattern; laying workers don't, laying quite randomly. This really is a problem because it is unlikely that the colony would accept a new queen even if introduced. And it's not possible to find and despatch the offending workers! Essentially the colony is doomed. To save the bees, if that's what one wishes to do, empty the colony out in front of a larger one and let those that can merge with it (providing, of course, you are sure that's all that is wrong with it).
So, if you think they're queenless, patience is a virtue. And don't be in too much of a hurry in the first place.
Hardworking pair of hands to help
My name’s Luke Paisley, and I currently work at the Science museum in London. I have been considering my summer options and have been looking to quit my current job to undertake a new path. Ever since a beekeeper came to my school and showed us the hive hierarchy, introducing us to beekeeping, it has been an activity that has fascinated me. To cut a long story short, I am searching for somewhere that may be able to take on an inexperienced, but very eager (!), extra pair of hands to help in any way possible this summer. If there was an opportunity to earn some money, even the tiniest amount, I would be even more grateful!
I would be looking to work any time from about May 15th on. If there is any possibility you can help me out, offer any advice or want to know anything more about me, please don’t hesitate to contact. My email and phone number are at the bottom of this email. If you would like to see my CV please just reply and I will send one immediately.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Yours faithfully,
Luke Paisley (Email: luke@thepaisleys.plus.com Mob: 07878 625 903)
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