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December
Press release – Blind veteran leads local beekeepers
Former Royal Navy Commander and barrister, Penny Melville-Brown, was elected as the Chairman of the Fareham and District Beekeepers’ Association last week. The hives of over 100 members of this thriving organisation stretch from the coast at Gosport to the countryside north of Wickham. Their bees pollinate local plants and trees, gardens and crops and produce top-class real honey that many sell.
Penny said, “I confess that I leave the bee-suit to my husband, Alan Baxter, who has all the knowledge and experience of practical beekeeping alongside his Asian Hornet expertise https://www.alanbaxtersblogs.co.uk/ . But I’ve learned masses and am fully involved in extracting and using the honey, making our mead and have even tried creating beeswax polish. Beekeeping can involve the whole family and introduces children to our natural world.”
The FDBKA provides friendly training and mentoring for new beekeepers, shared learning opportunities for the more experienced, regular meetings, loan equipment, apiary visits, an annual honey show, speakers for other organisations and a great supply of local honey for hay-fever sufferers and lovers of good food. Find out more and how to get involved at https://farehambka.co.uk/ .
Penny is supported by a great team committed to growing and strengthening the skills of Association members to maintain their ancient craft in the face of climate change, the Asian Hornet threat and other challenges to our environment.
She was still serving in the Royal Navy when her sight failed before launching a new career running her own business, holding a wide range of public appointments and roles in voluntary organisations before winning an international prize for blind people, cooking around the world and publishing the book of her adventures. She has been awarded an OBE and Honorary Doctorate https://www.pennymelvillebrown.com/
November
Bees change lives worldwide
Blind Ugandan beekeeper Ojok Simon was one of the winners of the international Holman Prize in 2017 (along with FDBKA member Penny Melville-Brown). His award-winning project was teaching his blind country-fellows how to keep bees and achieve more financial independence. Sadly and very unexpectedly, he suddenly died a few years later in the midst of discussions with Alan Baxter (also of FDBKA) about how local UK beekeepers might support his initiative.
Penny and Alan are now proud to support Bees Abroad in his memory and, with their help, have twinned their hives with some in Uganda.
Another international charity, Bees for Development, also uses bees to change lives for the better all over the world. Tune in to hear Monty Don read the Bees for Development BBC Radio 4 Appeal on Sunday 24th November at 7:54am and 9:25pm.
He’ll tell you about how Bees for Development have been working with farmers in Ethiopia, showing them how creating bee-friendly habitats on their farms can boost their income.
All donations up to £10,000 will be matched by one of their generous donors.
by Penny Melville-Brown
October
Wasps
Robbing has been a serious problem in the queen rearing apiary this autumn. After bemoaning the lack of wasps, we were suddenly inundated with thousands of hungry blighters who were determined to get into the more vulnerable nucleus hives. They even started chewing holes in the back of the nuc boxes just to get at the precious stores of honey that would feed the little colonies of bees in the coming winter. Sadly, the stress of defending the hives against the aggressive invaders proved too much for one of the nucs, and it gave up the ghost.
Wasps have an important role to play in our already fragile ecosystem and I am very reluctant to put out traps, but the consequences of losing whole colonies of bees to wasps who are going to die in the next couple of weeks, are too serious to ignore. Traps that allow non-target species, such as the delicate hover fly or precious moths, to escape can reduce the collateral damage amongst innocent bystanders.
Which leads me to the thought about Asian Hornets which are a sort of wasp. If Vespa vulgaris has made a sudden late appearance , will Vespa velutina do the same……?
by Alan Baxter
August
WINTER PREPARATION
“In the life of the honey bee there are only 2 seasons – winter and preparing for winter”
Introduction
The honey bee colony builds up to its maximum foraging force in July for the summer flow when they must accumulate enough food stores to last for the next 7 or 8 months. The population of ‘summer’ bees rapidly declines from now on until there only remains a small number of ‘winter’ bees. Unlike summer bees, who only live for 5 or 6 weeks, the winter bees can live for up to 6 months. Their job is to keep the queen alive and ready to start producing brood again in a few months’ time, as well as to feed the spring larvae. Colonies can be lost in the spring when not enough winter bees have survived to keep the colony alive. The more winter bees, and the longer they live, the greater the chance of the colony surviving into the following year.
Feeding
Stimulating the queen to lay
Worker bees born in August and September and will die in November but those born after the beginning of October will live until next spring. It is vitally important therefore that the queen continues to lay after the summer peak to produce plenty of heathy, well-fed winter bees. This can be achieved by stimulative feeding of thin 1:1 sugar syrup, and pollen patties if there is little pollen coming in, in September to simulate a nectar flow and help the queen to keep laying. Note that thick 2:1 syrup will only be laid down as stores.
Winter Stores
The average colony is estimated to need about 21kg of honey to avoid starvation. Happily for us, the bees usually collect more than they need and the surplus provides us with the delicious honey that we enjoy so much. If we take more, or if the bees haven’t collected enough, we have to replace it with some form of artificial feeding, usually in the form of sugar syrup, pollen supplement or substitute, and fondant.
Hefting the hives regularly in winter can tell us if they have enough. If the hive feels light, feeds of thick 2:1 syrup can be given as long as the daytime temperature is above about 10 deg C. Thereafter fondant is required.
Some beekeepers leave the bees with a full super. It’s important to remove the queen excluder so the queen isn’t isolated when the cluster moves into the super. Whether the super is placed under or over the brood box doesn’t seem to make any difference, although bees will often prefer to move upwards, so it could be argued that above is better. In some cases, the cluster will not move up and over the top of the frames to reach the stores in nearby frames and the colony dies in what is known as isolation starvation. Communication holes made in the comb can help the cluster to move more easily from one frame to the next.
Health
A thorough health inspection after the supers have been taken off can give a warning of any adult or brood diseases which can then be treated, hopefully in time. See below on where to find more information on pests and diseases.
Varroa
Varroa infestation is one of the main causes of winter losses and must be treated now.
Although the bee population is decreasing the varroa load continues to rise exponentially and the untreated colony can soon be overwhelmed, with fatal results. Apart from weakening the adult bees and shortening their lives, Varroa can cause them to suffer from a variety of serious virus infections including Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV) and more. There are numerous approved products on the market, some containing natural ingredients such as Formic Acid, Thymol and essential oils. Others are composed of manufactured chemicals including Amitraz, Flumethrin and Tau Fluvalinate. Artificial or ‘hard’ chemicals are effective but carry the risk of the varroa developing resistance.
Whilst Formic Acid treatments are said by some to be tough on the queens or cause excessive losses, all the authorized brands are safe to use if the manufacturer’s instructions are followed to the letter, especially regarding dosage, temperature and ventilation. All are designed to kill the mites that are feeding and reproducing inside the capped brood.
Treatment must be applied after removal of the supers containing honey for human consumption. Any supers left in place during treatment should be marked to indicate that they may contain traces of the miticide used and shouldn’t be used again until the frames have been cleaned and refitted with new foundation.
A second treatment of Oxalic Acid to kill the ‘phoretic’ mites, i.e. those living and feeding on the adult bees, is given in winter when there is little or no brood. Traditionally this was carried out in late December between Christmas and New Year, but recent research has shown that in Southern England the optimum period is now early December. Treatment is by trickling the dissolved product from a syringe, using a device called Gas Vap which is a modified blow torch, or by sublimation with special equipme nt. Treatment with Oxalic Acid requires the operator and any bystanders to wear personal protective equipment.
Queens
Apart from Varroa and its attendant diseases, queen failure is probably the second most common cause of winter losses. Queens are at their most productive in the first 2 years of their life. After that their egg laying capacity declines and they are likely to be superseded. Unfortunately, the chances of a replacement queen being mated are diminishing rapidly and both the old and the new queen will fail to survive.
Now is a good time to introduce new, mated queens which are ready to produce the vital winter bees needed to see the colony through winter and into spring. If the old queen has good genetic traits, and you can’t bear to part with her, she can be retired into a nuc and used for emergencies such as making up winter losses, or for raising new queens next year.
Young queens in their first 2 years are less inclined to swarm the following year. Those that do make swarm preparations will pass on the trait to their offspring and their drones will spread the swarmy behaviour to other colonies in the area. The colony should be requeened as soon as practicable.
Similarly, if the colony has been excessively defensive or flighty during the season, requeening now will improve the temperament of the colony and make your beekeeping a pleasure again, as well as not spreading the undesirable genes to other beekeepers stock by its drones.
Like humans, not all queens are born equal and poorly mated or badly developed queens will fail early in their lives or be superseded.
Pests and Predators
Mouse guards and woodpeckers. Mice are sometimes tempted into hives at the start of winter by the prospect of a warm home in which to hibernate. Mouse guards fitted in October will deny them access. In a hard winter when there is little food available, green woodpeckers will drill holes in the side of hives and raid the contents causing considerable damage and often leaving the colony to die of cold or starvation. A cage of chicken wire around the hives will prevent the birds from attacking them.
Insulation
A layer of insulation in the roof of wooden hives can help to keep the cluster warm and reduce the quantity of stores they consume in order to produce heat. The winter bees are more rested and likely to live longer. Insulated hives enjoy better winter survival rates and faster spring build up. Poly hives and nucs have an advantage in this respect.
Summary
- A colony that is fit, strong and well fed, with a productive young queen, will have a better chance of getting through winter and spring.
- Bees born in August and September will die in October and November. Bees born in October will live until the following spring.
- Feeding of thin 1:1 sugar syrup in September will stimulate the queen to lay in October and produce the vitally important winter bees.
- Feeding of thick sugar syrup be laid down as stores.
- Feeding with fondant will see the colony through times when it is too cold for the bees to consume syrup.
- Varroa treatments in August and December are required to prevent winter and spring losses.
- Colonies led by young queens are much more likely to survive than those with older queens. They are also less susceptible to swarming the following spring.
- Protection against mice and woodpeckers is fitted in October.
- Insulation can make stores last longer, extend the life of the winter bees, and help the colony to grow faster in spring.
References:
The BBKA Healthy Hive Guide
BBKA Special Edition: Feeding Honey Bees
Baxter A. https://www.alanbaxtersblogs.co.uk
National Bee Unit Managing Varroa https://shorturl.at/ysjpR
Stainton, K. (2022) Varroa Management: A Practical Guide on How to Manage Varroa Mites in Honey Bee Colonies, Northern Bee Books.
by Alan Baxter
July
Boundary Oak School is a member of FDBKA and today (5th July) 5 pupils passed their BBKA Beekeeping Junior Certificate. We are so proud of them and would like to thank the association for all their support.
by Clare Finegan
June
DAMP ALL OVER
Water spray is a great alternative to smoke for controlling honey bees.
Yesterday, we were extracting over 20 kg of honey from the wax honeycomb frames from three of the sous’chef’s hives. Sticky work: removing the cappings from the honeycomb; spinning the frames so that the centrifugal force empties out the honey. It all goes through various filters to remove the odd bee leg etc. Now the golden harvest is settling for a few days to allow the air bubbles to rise. The hopeful bonus is a demijohn of honey-rich rinsing water destined to be mead.
Several hours later, slumped in the garden for the final sun rays of the day, a single bee found whatever fragrances of honey in my hair fascinating. Endless buzzing around until the gallant sous-chef did the deed with his water spray: Dampening the bee’s enthusiasm and me too. But, at least, we both lived to see another day.
by Penny Melville-Brown
April
QUEEN INTRODUCTION
It’s the time of year when beekeepers are buying in new queens and are faced with the uncertainty of whether or not the queen will be accepted in her new colony. The following method was first described by L.E. Snelgrove ¹ in 1940 who claimed an almost 100% success rate.
The method is based on the principle that the new queen should adopt the receiving colony’s odour before being introduced.
The colony should be showing signs of queenlessness before carrying out the operation; this usually takes from a few minutes to as much as half an hour after removal of the old queen.
The “one-hour’’ method
- Release the bees escorting the new queen from the cage in which they arrived.
- Take a matchbox and place it three-quarters open over brood comb in the receiving colony at a point where the bees are thickest.
- Gently close it with about 20 bees inside.
- Put a pin through the side to keep it closed and put it in your pocket for 5 to 10 minutes.
- At the end of this period partly open the box with your thumb over the opening and drop the new queen in among the bees.
- Close the box leaving a very narrow opening for ventilation, put in the pin and return it to your pocket for half an hour.
- The bees confined in the dark with no food will be more interested in trying to get out than the presence of the new queen.
- The queen and the bees will soon have the same odour thanks to the warmth in your pocket.
- Give a little whiff of smoke through the hole in the crown board to clear the way.
- Place the matchbox upside down over the hole in the crown board and open it gently
- The new queen and her new escort will then safely make their way down into the queenless hive.
- Close the hive and don’t disturb for a few days.
Essential points :
- The queen acquires the odour of the hive before being introduced.
- She is hungry when she enters the hive.
- She enters the hive accompanied by a friendly escort.
- The hive is in a state of distress and looking anxiously for their queen.
¹ L.E. Snelgrove The Introduction of Queen Bees Furnell & Sons Aug 1940
by Alan Baxter
NOSEMA
There have been many reports of winter and spring colony losses this year for which there
could be any number of causes. One answer to the mysterious death of a previously
productive colony is infection with a microsporidian, or spore-forming pathogen, called
Nosema.
Two types have been identified in Britain, N.apis and N.ceranae. They are similar in many
ways but the main difference between them is the seasonal nature of their impact on
colonies. N.apis can almost disappear in summer whereas N.ceranae is active throughout the
year and its impact is often more severe as a result.
What does it do?
Nosema affects the ability of the larva and the adult bee to absorb nutrients, shortening its
life and preventing the winter bees from surviving until the following spring. They are also
unable to produce enough brood food for the larvae resulting either death or a slow buildup
of the colony.
There are often no obvious signs of infection, although occasionally it is accompanied by
dysentery, in which case there may be staining around the entrance and on top of the frames, see below.
How do you know you’ve got it?
Diagnosis is by laboratory analysis, but you can carry out a rough test in the apiary:
- Take a few young bees from the centre of the brood nest.
- With forceps pull out the intestines from where they exit the body near the sting
area. - The midgut, which is normally brownish in colour, in the infected bee is white and
often distended.
To confirm the infection, take a sample of 30 bees from the centre of the brood nest and
euthanize them in the freezer and send them to someone with a microscope for analysis. If
you have your own microscope it’s quite simple:
- Cut off the abdomens and crush them in a mortar and pestle. Add a few drops of
distilled water and stir. - Take a drop of the soup and place it on a slide. Allow to dry.
- Examine under a compound microscope at x 400. Nosema spores look like this:
How do you treat it?
There is no specific treatment for Nosema but it can be reduced by strict apiary hygiene, feeding and comb change. A less stressful method is a Bailey Comb Change for a weak colony. In some cases changing the queen can be effective.
Bailey comb change for a weak colony:
- Place a clean brood box beside the colony
- Find the frame with the queen and place in the new brood box
- Add a frame of sterilized drawn comb either side of the frame with the queen
- Add dummy boards either side and centre them
- In the original brood box remove any frames with no brood and destroy the comb
- Centre the remaining frames with dummy boards
- Close the entrance
- Add a Bailey board
- Put the new box on top
- Add a feeder with sugar syrup
- Close the hive
Day 8
- From the original brood box remove all frames with no brood
- From the new box remove the frame that had the queen and place in the lower box
- Centre the frames so they chimney upwards
- Add more frames of drawn comb to the upper box
- Check feed and top up if necessary
Day 15
- Repeat as above
Day 28
- All the brood in the original box will have emerged and the box can be removed
- Put the new box on a new floor on the original stand
- Add any supers
- Close the hive
All the old comb should be burnt and the brood box and frames cleaned and sterilized for reuse.
by Alan Baxter
January
SPRING TRAPPING OF ASIAN HORNET QUEENS
GENERAL
The subject of trapping is surrounded by controversy, mainly concerning its effectiveness and its impact on other species and can risk pulling beekeepers in different directions.
Naturally, we all want to be fully pro-active, use the best equipment and techniques available, and protect our bees.
However, it’s important to understand that traps are not a silver bullet that will solve the problem of the Asian Hornet in our apiaries – they are just one weapon in our defensive armoury as part of an Integrated Apiary Management Strategy.
o protect biodiversity, it is essential to avoid catching insects of other species as far as possible. Even if they are released, the experience of being captured and imprisoned with other insects is highly stressful. It has serious effects on them from which they may not fully recover, including staying alive for very long after release or being able to reproduce.
Whatever the manufacturers and their supporters claim, as far as we are aware, no trap has yet been produced that is 100% guaranteed to avoid catching innocent victims.
TYPES OF TRAPPING
There are 4 different types of trapping. The objectives are different, the logistics are different, the execution is different, the outcomes are different, and its important not to confuse them. They are:
- Spring queen trapping for queens emerging from hibernation.
- Monitoring trapping throughout the season.
- Decoy trapping in an apiary under attack.
- Bait stations during track and trace for locating nests.
SPRING TRAPPING FOR QUEENS EMERGING FROM HIBERNATION
The purpose of spring trapping is to catch and kill queens newly emerged from hibernation at a time when they are most vulnerable. At this stage, the foundress queen is the head of a single parent family, and she has to forage to provide food for herself and for her young brood. The theory is that if they are caught and killed at this stage, they can’t go on to develop their own colonies.
Apart from other dangers when she is out of the nest, the attrition rate amongst queens emerging from hibernation is very high due to fierce, deadly competition between them for nest sites. The period over which queens wake up from their winter sleep is long, and those coming out later enjoy warmer weather, a richer diet and are therefore bigger, stronger and more fertile. For every queen you kill another, better queen will always be waiting to replace her.
An organised spring trapping operation involves a substantial logistic organisation of material, personnel and of course cost.
The spring trapping of foundress queens, in a clearly defined area, can reduce the number of nests, but only:
- if Asian Hornets nests were found in that area in the previous year
- and were still active in the autumn when the young, mated queens, were produced.
Most queens hibernate within 200 metres of their original nest. It’s essential that spring trapping operations should only focus on areas where there was already a nest, and which was not removed before gynes could have emerged.
Foundress queens are known to forage up to 1km from the embryo or primary nest, but in practice a radius of 600 metres is more likely as they don’t want to leave their eggs or larvae for very long. Therefore, selective traps are placed in a regular pattern round the old nests.
Traps should be put out in February when daytime temperatures average 12 deg C, and removed at the end of May, a total of about 14 weeks.
In most areas it involves the cooperation of local authorities, and in all cases permission to access land and property every week for 14 weeks.
A typical spring trapping operation would consist of:
- a network of more than 200 traps
- spread evenly over 10 km2
- Placed in an even grid-like pattern
- Intervals of 350 metres and no more than 500 metres between them
- At least once weekly visit to empty and renew bait.
- Over 4 successive springs
For reference, the oft-quoted spring trapping campaign organised by the Government of Guernsey involved the placing of 260 traps on the island. The latest report can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=163839&p=0
IN HAMPSHIRE IN 2023 THERE WERE NO KNOWN ACTIVE NESTS IN THE AUTUMN WHEN GYNES ARE RELEASED INTO HIBERNATION. AS FAR AS WE KNOW THERE IS NOTHING TO CATCH, THEREFORE SPRING TRAPPING IN 2024 IN HAMPSHIRE IS NOT APPROPRIATE.
MONITORING TRAPPING FOR BLOW-INS OR HITCHHIKERS
Instead, closed monitoring traps should be put out randomly throughout the County in places where they can be checked every day, for example outside a kitchen or office window. Family members, friends, neighbours, and colleagues can all be recruited to help. They can be checked at the end of the day and don’t need to be watched all the time.
Once an Asian Hornet has been caught in a trap, enhanced surveillance is put in place by the NBU or local AHAT using open bait stations to find and destroy the nest.
Monitoring for possible Asian Hornets and getting our bees Fit2Fight, is where our attention and energies should be focussed in spring 2024.
DECOY TRAPS DURING PREDATION IN THE APIARY
Traps can be deployed in the apiary to reduce the level of stress on the bees but not until hornets are actually present and hawking in front of the hives.
If there’s no hawking taking place, traps in the apiary will only serve to attract hornets to it.
Once hornets are visiting, the NBU or local AHAT will set up bait stations to start the process of tracking and tracing the nest.
BAIT STATIONS
These are simple handmade devices using everyday domestic items that are used during track and trace operations. They are only used when operations are in progress.
SUMMARY
- Spring trapping campaigns are not appropriate in Hampshire in 2024 and would be a serious waste of time and money.
- Monitoring traps should be deployed at random from February onwards to detect Asian Hornet queens that have blown in on the wind or hitched a lift.
- Once hornets are found in the monitoring traps, bait stations can be set up to begin track and trace to find the nest.
- Decoy kill traps are installed in an apiary once predation has started to reduce stress on the bees, and bait stations set up to find where they live.
In addition to monitoring for Asian Hornets, beekeepers are encouraged to focus their energy on sharpening up their beekeeping skills and getting their bees Fit2fight in case we have incursions next year.
by Alan Baxter
https://www.alanbaxtersblogs.co.uk