Editorial
Some important news hot off the wire this month. Defra has launched its ten year plan - Healthy Bees – Protecting and improving the health of honey bees in England and Wales. Further details below.
The diary is filling up with this year's meetings so please check out the Calendar page. Why not visit a neighbouring group this year - we could probably benefit from some cross-pollination! Please phone ahead first out of courtesy.
The main event this month is the AGM and Seminar. Please come along especially if you haven't been before. You will be pleasantly surprised as to how useful it is to meet with others from across Hertfordshire at the start of the season. We have some great guest speakers too.
HBKA AGM and Seminar
28th March 2009
Civic Centre, Prospect Place
Welwyn, AL6 9ER
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12.00 |
AGM |
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12.30 |
Lunch (please bring your own or visit one of the excellent nearby pubs) |
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14.00 |
Bumble Bee Ecology & Conservation (Juliet Osborne, Pollination Ecologist - Rothamsted Research) |
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15.00 |
Tea & Raffle - Please bring something along - proceeds go to HBKA |
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15.30 |
New Queens - Using Simple Methods (by Roger Paterson, BBKA Exec & BIBBA Com Member) |
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16.30 |
Meeting closes |
Paul Cooper
North Herts news by Graham Beesley
What a joy to go yesterday, Saturday 21st Feb, to my apiary and see the bees flying strongly from each hive and bringing in pollen. It seems incredible, so soon after snow and 3 weeks of freezing weather. I’m aware that there’s a way to go yet before I can say they have come safely through the winter. Three of the seven are light and will need feeding. Fondant seems favourite this year so I will see how they get on with that.
On our first meeting of the year on Tuesday, 17th February we were treated to a most stimulating lecture given by Judith Pell and Juliet Osbourne from Rothampstead Research Station. Judith described the work that she and others had conducted up to 2006, when funding was withdrawn, on biological treatments for Varroa using fungi that will parasitize the mite without harming the bees. It was, for me, a fascinating insight into how painstakingly trials of this sort are conducted. Judith and her colleagues at Rothampstead are bidding now for some of the new monies allocated by Hilary Benn to continue their work and thanked us as beekeepers for the lobbying we have done.
Juliet and her team are studying the foraging behaviour of bumble bees and honey bees and the impact of this for agriculture and the environment. Both Juliet’s and Judith’s enthusiasm and sympathy for their subject, Juliet’s partner is a beekeeper, was most evident.
Our next meeting on Tuesday, 17th March is our AGM. Incorporated in this is our annual honey show. Any members wishing to take part in this keenly fought competition please bring along their honey in unmarked jars. Would the winners of last year’s trophies, (that’s Sam and Roman), please polish up the cups and return them.
We will also be fixing dates for Apiary meetings throughout the summer and electing officials.
I have been asked to point out that the venue for our meetings, the Friends Meeting House, Letchworth, is also known as Howgills. The full postal address is 42, Southview, Letchworth, SG6 3JJ.
St Albans news by Christine Aitken
The A.G.M. of the St Albans & District B.K.A. was held on Friday 23rd January at The United Reformed Church Hall in Chiswell Green, St Albans with 20 members attending.
Committee for 2009 are:
Chair - Eileen Remnant
Treasurer - David Brown
Secretary - Christine Aitken
Committee - Luke Adams, Andrew Copley, Robin Moore, Richard Peterson and Marion Whittaker
Honorary Life Membership of the Division was presented to Eric Margrave as he stepped down after 38 years service to the committee, 37 years service on the Apiary sub-committee and 35 years representing the St Albans B.K.A. on the Herts Executive Committee.
At the 4th April 2009 apiary meeting, Honorary Life Membership of the Division is to be presented to Anne Wingate who has also stepped down. She joined the committee in 1978 becoming Secretary for the first of many times in 1980. Her support of H.B.K.A. over the years has been immeasurable.
Reminder of H.B.K.A. A.G.M. at the Civic Centre at Welwyn on 28th March 2009 where with an excellent programme of speakers in the afternoon good support from St Albans Division would be great to see.
Our Beginners Course for 2009 started on Friday 13th February with 23 signed up joining us at the Church Hall in Chiswell Green. This is a six session theory plus 2 session practical course when they meet their mentors.
First meeting of the season is to be held on 4th April 2009 from 10am to 12 noon with our ‘Apiary Clean-up’ at the Pre Wood Apiary. Please come prepared with gloves and pruning equipment. Nothing too arduous just a general tidy-up and a bit of socialising over a cup of coffee.
Bumper attendance at St Albans Beekeepers’ Annual Honey Tasting
by Richard Peterson
FRIDAY, November 28 saw forty-two members of St Albans Beekeepers’ Association attending the Annual Honey Tasting at their winter venue in Chiswell Green. This was the largest gathering to attend this event for very many years. The evening was very informal but consisted of members tasting each jar of honey and marking it with a score from one to five, five being the highest, on a sheet which was then handed in to be calculated on the computer by Phil Remnant, husband of our well-known scientific officer Eileen Remnant.
During the interval while the scores were being entered onto the spread sheet we all enjoyed a splendid supper provided by the members themselves, some of whom donated a dish of food either savoury or sweet for the occasion.
This year the cup was won by one of our newer beekeepers Crispin Baker who is now in his third season of beekeeping. In second place was Stuart Thorne who is in his second season and third place was taken by Fred Vanston. It was strange to note that this year the first four places were taken by dark autumn honey instead of the more usual lighter variety that normally wins the cup.
(Photograph shows Anne Wingate presenting the cup to Crispin Baker winner of the Annual Honey Tasting Competition.)
Our next meeting will be our AGM to be held at the United Reform Church, Chiswell Green on Friday, January 23. Anne Wingate and Eric Margrave, long standing members of the committee, have both decided not to seek re-election this year as they feel they would like to promote some of the newer members to the committee to help them gain some experience at the sharp end. All members are therefore urged to attend and vote for the officers of the committee and also make their opinions heard as to what they would like the Association to try and achieve over the next year. There will be just one more winter meeting after the AGM which will be held in March before we start our Apiary meetings in April.
Members are also reminded the new Beginners Course, which is now fully subscribed, starts on February 13 and consists of six sessions that end midway through April. The dates are all Fridays: February 13, 27, March 13, 20 and April 3, 17.
Bishops Stortford news by Paul Cooper
The AGM was held on 18th February and was well attended. A programme of apiary meetings was planned with the first one taking place on 4th April in Widford and then every three weeks until August. All the dates are on the Herts Bees Calendar. Visits to neighbouring groups (SE Herts West Essex) are also planned during the year. The incumbent officers were all re-elected. Valerie Edel was awarded the Charlie Page Competition cup for many years of service as the association's treasurer. A number of new people attended the AGM and expressed an interest in starting to keep bees.
Your treasurer would like to remind everyone that the Membership fees are now due. Most members have paid but if you haven't the club needs your subscription before the end of March as the capitation fees need to be paid 1st April 2009.
Please send your subscription to: Pauline Gibbs, Falcon Crest, Tye Green, Elsenham, Bishops Stortford, CM22 6DY. If you no longer wish to be a member please let Pauline know as we have a lot of names on the membership list that no longer attend meetings and we need to up date it.
Welwyn news by Peter Mathews
Welwyn BKA Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, 18th March at 8.00 pm at 3, Fearnley Road, Welwyn Garden City
Please let me know if you're coming as we may need to switch to a nearby hall. I will only contact those people who have told me they are coming. If you are unable to make it, but have a suggestion or other issue, please e-mail me.
Little you can do this time of year. But, plan to be one step ahead of your bees. Now is the time to get equipment ready for the warmer weather. Don't be tempted to open your hive too early, wait for a warm day. Your bees will be building up, but won't need intervention until April.
South East Herts news by John Mumford
The AGM was attended by just 9 members on a cold snowy evening. Nothing much changes! Associate members subscriptions were increased to £5.00 per annum, and Adrian Lloyd took on the Librarian duties. To qualify for the £2.00 discount, subscriptions must be received by Roy Cropley by March 31st. Please, if you qualify, complete the Gift Aid Form and return to Roy with your subscriptions. And because of changes in BBKA Capitation payment requirements, if Subscriptions are not received by 31st March I have no alternative but to remove members names from the BBKA Register!
At last the Spring has Sprung and the bees are on the move, and it looks as though my bees have come through winter very well. Colonies will take an initial beating collecting water and early pollen in all weathers, but by the end of March they will start to expand rapidly. A few dead bees around the entrances is normal and no cause for alarm, it just shows that bee are present in numbers and they are having a clear out. Watch the stores position closely because now the bees are raising brood they will use up their remaining stores like crazy.
I expect to have some bees for sale during April. Both Nucs, and Overwintered Colonies.
I normally expect to have to start putting on supers around the middle of April and so need to get my finger out!
The Programme of Events for 2009 should be enclosed with this Newsletter and will be on the Calendar on the Herts Bees website.
Save our Bees – Building Up Stocks
by Robin Dartington
A year ago, Peter Folge raised the question of raising queens to raise the quality of the bees in Hertfordshire. Nothing has yet been co-ordinated at county level that I know – but I believe the need remains. I spent £100 this year on four queens from Bucks – introduction was difficult in the poor weather and I doubt if more than two will last the winter. An expensive way to try to improve stocks.
In a letter to The Independent on 19 November, a northern beekeeper (Ken Pickles) suggested the way to improve the quality of UK bees was to stop all medication, let colonies die and restock from the survivors. However, there would be no guarantee that any survivors would be of quality in all respects – or if there were, that the owners would be able to produce sufficient nucs to restock the UK before the effects of the vast reduction in pollinators had caused new problems. So I sent the letter below that was published on 24 November.
It would be well within the capability of HBKA to set up a pilot scheme to coordinate local queen rearing along the lines described in the article ‘Queen Rearing as a Group Activity’, BeeCraft December 2008 – the method is apparently fully described by Ben Harden NDB in Beekeeping in a Nutshell 59, ‘A Simple Method of of Raising Queen Cells’, available from Northern Bee Books. The focus is on getting grafted larvae accepted in a cell-raising chamber set within a production colony and then distributing the accepted cells to individual beekeepers for completing and mating in their own apiaries.
Success would depend on a number of experienced beekeepers working together to identify the best available local strains (Peter Heath could probably give advice) and then co-operating to rear queens or larvae in batches. The branches of HBKA and tutors of local courses would need to be willing to recommend to members that they re-queen using these locally raised queens.
HBKA holds funds in the bank that arguably could be used to repay expences and to buy specialist equipment such as Cup-Kit cell cups. Is anyone willing to volunteer time to a joint effort?
A subject for the next HBKA ADM?
Letter published in The Independent, 24 November
How we can save our bees.
Ken Pickles (‘Time for drastic action to save bees’, 19 November ), correctly identifies the need to maintain bees that are strong and well adapted to deal with the problems of weather, parasites and diseases currently overwhelming Britain bee hives. But his strategy for eliminating the weak by of leaving all bees to sink or swim without medication would be vastly inefficient, uncertain of outcome and is certain to be rejected by Britain’s beekeepers. Experiments with leaving 200 colonies untreated have simply resulted in the extinction of the whole bunch.
The characteristics of a bee colony are determined solely by the queen – all the workers are daughters of the sole queen in the hive. Ill-adapted mongrel strains could quickly be replaced by more suitable bees if the UK were to set up a queen breeding programme based on say seven regional centres, each producing queens from a number of lines to maintain genetic diversity but all selected for vitality and local adaptation. Queens should then be offered free to local beekeepers to ensure wide take-up. Costs could be met in various ways, including donations from progressive beekeepers, the public, the food industry and charitable trusts.
DEFRA is preparing a Bee Health Strategy, apparently full of aspirations but short on simple, effective, fundable action programmes. This would be an excellent start.
Robin Dartington, Director, BuzzWorks Community Bee Garden, Hitchin, Hertfordshire
Agrarian Renaissance at Church Farm, Ardeley
Church Farm has been restoring and creating a traditional, mixed, sustainable and high welfare food and farming system at a farm between Stevenage and Buntingford. The farm is a place for wildlife, beauty, diversity, community and people as well as a place to produce authentic local food. The main aim is to build a sustainable, resilient source of great food, for us and the community. Sustainable means, amongst other things, drastically reducing fossil fuel inputs from farm to fork, by creating a diversified, localised food system.
Carry on walking the footpaths south of the village and you will see:
- the new ‘vicars’ orchard with 130 local varieties
- an organic garden being prepared in Beards Oak field
- a new walnut orchard housing ducks and geese
- ponds, woodland plantings, conservation headlands and new hedges
- free range ducks, geese, turkeys, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and more.
The team at Church Farm would dearly love to run an apiary from the farm but they do not have the beekeeping skills themselves. They have therefore asked HBKA whether anyone would be prepared to keep one or more of their hives at the farm. They are also interested in selling local honey through their retail outlet.
If anyone is interested in this new venture then please contact Dan Broadbent on 07717 682894 or visit the website at www.churchfarmardeley.co.uk.
Bee News from Brussels
BEE SHOP (Bees in EuropE & Sustainable HOney Production) is a European strategic research project, consisting of a network of nine leading European honeybee research groups in honey quality, pathology, genetics and behaviour as well as selected beekeeping industries, which all share the common interest in promoting Europe's high honey quality standards.
To reach the goal BEE SHOPs focus is on:
- Disease resistance in various European honeybee races to pests and pathogens to avoid chemotherapy.
- Differences in foraging behaviour and its underlying mechanisms among European honeybees to identify behavioural traits reducing contamination.
- Analysis of Antimicrobial properties of plant and bee derived compounds in bee products to evaluate the impact of honey quality on disease prevention.
- Inspections of honey according to the current EC directives on honey quality and organic beekeeping based on the new honey analysis methods.
- Genetic background of disease susceptibility analysed through QTL mapping based on the yet sequenced bee genome to find causative loci.
- Selection of specific target genes through the development of SNPs to establish swiftly resistant but efficient stock.
For further information their website is at www2.biologie.uni-halle.de/zool/mol_ecol/Beeshop_pics/beeshop_home.html.
Healthy Bees – Protecting and improving the health of honey bees in England and Wales
Published by Defra in March 2009
Honey bees contribute directly to local food production and make an important contribution, through pollination, to crop production. They are susceptible to a variety of threats, including pests and diseases, the likelihood and consequences of which have increased significantly over the last 5-10 years.
This plan aims to address the challenges facing beekeepers and is aimed at sustaining the health of honey bees and beekeeping in England and Wales over the next decade. To support the initiation of this work Defra has allocated additional funding of £4.3 million. The first stage of the plan will attempt to identify and make contact with those beekeepers not already known to the National Bee Unit (NBU). This will help ensure that any new or existing health problems are identified.
The plan describes the five main things we want to achieve working with, individual beekeepers, their associations1 and other stakeholders. These are:
1) To keep pests, diseases and other hazards to the lowest levels achievable
2) To promote good standards of husbandry to minimise pest and diseases risks and contribute to sustaining honey bee populations – prevention is better than cure
3) To encourage effective biosecurity to minimise risks from pests, diseases and undesirable species
4) To ensure that sound science underpins bee health policy and its implementation; and
5) To get everyone to work together on bee health.
The plan also identifies the distinct roles and responsibilities of Government, beekeepers, their associations and other stakeholders in achieving these aims. A strengthened partnership, involving all interested parties, is essential if current and evolving threats to bee health are to be successfully identified and addressed.
Publication of this plan marks the beginning of work on its implementation and the identification of further priorities and actions. Government, in consultation with other stakeholders, will now develop the necessary detailed programmes.
Further details can be obtained from Defra or from the website at www.defra.gov.uk/hort/Bees/news/plan.htm.
Sugar- free recipes
I have been asked to link to the website www.sugarfreerecipes.co.uk as it contains some excellent recipes for using honey as a substitute for refined sugar. Please take a look as there are lots of good ideas.
I do however have some concerns about their claims for honey as a sugar replacement. Most people assume that the word sugar only applies to granulated sugar (sucrose) whereas, as we know, honey contains mainly fructose and glucose which are both sugars.
Herts Bees Housekeeping
This is a plea to all members in Hertfordshire. Please can you check the website at www.hertsbees.org.uk and let me have any updates. In particular:
- Do you wish to be added or removed from the Herts Bees emailing list?
- Has you local branch set meeting dates for the year to go onto the Calendar page?
- Are the swarm officers correct on the Help! page?
- We now have over 30 places to buy honey in Hertfordshire. Are any changes required to the map on the Help! page?
- Do you have any more tips to go on the Bee Tips page?
- With election of officers taking place at this time of year, are all of the contact details correct on the Contact HBKA page?
It is not easy keeping the website up to date so I am grateful for all feedback. Many thanks.
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