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Important
news
Varroa
showing resistance to pyrethroids have been found and confirmed in six apiaries
around Haverfordwest. It
would appear that this is a new outbreak, totally unconnected with the Cornwall
one although tests are continuing. It
is important that we always use pyrethroids responsibly and that we
monitor our colonies for resistance. There
is not likely to be much of a flow now, so unless you are near rape or field
beans don’t put on extra supers until they have completely filled any space
that they have already. Think
about getting your extracting gear ready for use. If
you want to go to the heather prepare the colonies and be ready to move at the
end of the month. Fly like a Bird, Swim like a Butterfly An interesting article reviewing some work done on the analysis of flight
of insects, using high speed photography, where it is suggested that butterflies
moved through the air with a swimming motion, rather than gaining
"lift" by the passage of air over a shaped wing like birds and for
that matter the aeroplanes we all fly in. Some of the stills show the incredible
shape to which the wing distorts to obtain movement through the air in all
directions. This seems to me to explain how insects like hover
flies can seem to remain in one position for some time and then suddenly dart
off. Just really the same principle as the Harrier jump jet, the control system,
its brain, must be very complex. Does this apply to heavier insects, such as the
May Bug with its heavier shell? The debate on GM seems to be hotting up with many
conflicting claims on both sides. What I don't think can be denied is that
commercial GM crops have been around since 1997, when 17% of the acreage of soya
was GM and in 2002 it is 75%, and with cotton from 10% to 56% over the same
period. I just cannot see how it is possible that some of this has not got into
the food chain in this country, let alone the USA, with no significant harmful
effects reported. The supermarkets will have great difficulty in maintaining the
"No GM" policy with this increasing volume of GM products produced
around the world. This puts the beekeeper in a most awkward position. August Bodies, RICS, National Trust, English Nature The Royal Institute of Chemistry is looking for a couple who are about to
be married who are prepared to drink a cup of metheglin or mead every day for a
month to see if it will increase passion during the "honey month" or
honeymoon. I do wonder how they will measure the increase? The National Trust and English Nature are worried about the scarcity of Bumble bees in the countryside, commenting on their value as pollinators of many wild flowers. They are looking for recorders to report sightings of bumble bees and then will use the data in the study of Phenology (the study of the timing of natural phenomena). If you are interested call 08000837497 David Chubb was demonstrating straw skep making at a recent Forestry
Exhibition at Eastnor Castle, and making it look very easy. I was greatly
impressed by some of the modern machinery that is available to cut up trees as
soon as they are felled. One of them even allowed the production of square posts
where the circular saw could be tilted at right angles for successive passes
along the tree trunk. Contrasted nicely with an older steam driven set with just
one enormous circular saw blade, with the trunk carried on a moving carriage, as
opposed to a fixed trunk and a moving saw for the modem machines. The smell of freshly sawn oak is, I think, one of the
most attractive ones in the countryside, almost as good as a newly opened
thriving bee colony. Am I alone, as someone interested in the countryside to find in a rural
area in the late spring a road sign saying "PLANT EMERGING", to find
this rather ambiguous? Dick Sadler,
28/06/03 Apimondia is the world’s largest
international event concerned with bees and beekeeping. It takes place every two
years in a venue decided at the General Assembly 4 years previously. This year it is in Ljubljana in
Slovenia. If you would like to attend, even for only one day, it is not too late
to register. For more details visit their website www.apimondia2003.com There are lectures, technical
tours, film and slide shows, social activities and tours for non-beekeepers. There is also a huge exhibition of
suppliers. It is always great fun and very
stimulating The Beekeepers Pupil by Sara George Published by Review £6.99 ISBN 0-7472-6663-8 This marvellous novel set in 1766 is related by Francois Burnens who acts as assistant to a blind scientist, Francois Huber, in experiments into “the violent and sexually competitive world of the bee!” This is set against a background of the violent events of the eighteenth century and the scientific discoveries of that time. In his ramblings Dick Sadler raised the fascinating question of the whole colony acting as a single being. This meticulously researched and beautifully written novel raises just this question, and even tries to answer it! Thoroughly enjoyable even if you are not a beekeeper. (Ann Miles) More Effective, Less Clever Strategies If you place in a bottle half a dozen bees and the same number of flies, and lay the bottle horizontally, with its base (the closed end) to the window, you will find that the bees will persist, till they die of exhaustion or hunger, in their endeavour to discover an opening through the glass; while the flies, in less than two minutes, will all have sallied forth through the neck on the opposite side……. It is the bees’ love of flight, it is their very intelligence, that is their undoing in this experiment. They evidently imagine that the issue from every prison must be where the light shines clearest; and they act in accordance, and persist in too-logical action. To bees glass is a supernatural mystery ….. And, the greater their intelligence, the more inadmissable, more incomprehensible, will the strange obstacle appear. Whereas the featherbrained flies, careless of logic … flutter wildly hither and thither, and meeting here the good fortune that often waits on the simple …. Necessarily end up by discovering the friendly opening that restores their liberty to them. (Gordon Siu, in Peters and Waterman, 1982:108) (I found this quoted in a management strategy book and the
caption was “Do we have too many bees making strategy and not enough flies?)
( Bridget) Comment I am not at all
pleased about the way the swallows swoop over my apiary site. Maybe it was
better when they were further away as I was then unaware of it. After the
buttercups a field of rape opened right next to me so the bees have been
extremely busy. That last storm seems to have finished the rape so I shall be
extracting shortly. There is a great deal of white clover around and to my
delight it is now—since that last bit of rain -covered in bees. I am told that
it has to be warm and humid for clover to be a useful source of nectar. Has anyone ever
transferred a colony from a National to a Langstroth hive? If you have and can
give a few tips I would be pleased to hear them, or you could email the
webmaster. Dick supplies me with
quantities of cuttings from all the newspapers that he reads. An article on
pollen says that Royden Brown reports that life can be sustained on a diet of
bee pollen (I suppose they mean plant pollen collected by bees, to distinguish
it from that nasty flying about pollen that makes us sneeze) and water alone.
This has been demonstrated to be true for rats who were kept healthy for
several generations on an exclusive diet of pollen.
(Bridget) This
one started with an email: “I have a very active nest of bees in my hedgerow. They seem to be
living in an old plastic agricultural feed sack that has somehow been missed by
my farming neighbour. As I am concerned about my grandchildren and also my
gardener (who is allergic to bee venom and has to carry anti-venom) I am
wondering if you know anyone who can come and take the colony away? I don’t
want to kill them.
Annie” A
phone call to a nearby member led to Fred’s mobile number being passed on to
Annie: “After I phoned him, Fred called here this morning and we walked over to see the bees. It is not a plastic bag, as I thought, but an old plastic 5 gallon drum - bright blue, and with a hole in the side - that they have made a home in. Fred says he's never seen anything quite like it, but it makes it easier for him to collect them as he can just throw a blanket over the whole thing and pick it up. He says he will return this evening when all the bees have finished working in the fields, and do the move. His hives are actually so close to here - probably only a mile or two as the bee flies - that it is quite possible that they might even be some of his bees anyway. They aren't bumbles, by the way.” How did he get them out of the drum?????(webmaster) Bridget has been nudging me – “It’s
time you wrote that item on your health and safety inspection” she said. Having bees sitting on a field of oil seed rape brings honey
extraction to the forefront!! It was back in Feb when a letter dropped
through the door addressed to John. Monmouthshire
C.C. Environmental Health Dept would apparently like to inspect his food
production business premises, under the Food Safety Regulations 1995.
As John is a very obliging humper of beehives whose interest in our 6
legged friends stops at that point, he was indeed puzzled. Even though I have not sold honey at the gate for many years, you never know, the year may arrive when my bees stay at home and a glorious flow arrives at the appropriate time. An appointment was made and a very helpful young lady came to call in March. So far she has inspected just a few honey production premises. She was very keen to learn about the practicalities of honey extraction; visits to Ted and Gareth had provided her with lots of useful info. The Bee Farmer sheet from Gareth next page summarises what we need to be aware of. As small scale home producers, we need to apply common sense standards of food handling hygiene at all stages, avoid contamination with foreign bodies at all stages and be careful not to overheat our product. We spent a happy hour at the dining room table talking bees. Then the room for extraction was checked to see all was clean and tidy and that the dog was not invited in for the event. Equipment was checked to see if it complied with food regs standards and that was that. I then became the owner of a shiny clean certificate of a satisfactory inspection to sit along side my shiny clean cooker. If you also would like a certificate to back up the sale of your honey, contact Julie Powell on 01633 644644
Janet
An
overview of 'New Beekeeping in a Long Deep Hive" - pioneered by Robin
Dartington. Robin
Dartington has kept bees for over 25 years in both rooftop urban settings and
more relaxed country apiaries. He has made a close study of the biology and
ecology of the honey bee and from this has developed an innovative approach to
practical management which reduces swarming to an absolute minimum. As a
professional engineer he has designed the Long Deep Hive (LDH) from first
principles - starting with the ergonomics and safety of lifting weights. The
maximum weight anyone ever has to lift in normal honey-box manipulations is
about 16 lbs (8 kilos). Robin
is emphatic that there is nothing 'new' about the Long Deep Hive - he has merely
brought together some very ancient principles of hive construction and produced
a new synthesis - based on a profound understanding of the normal development of
a bee colony over the year. The
site includes details of the numerous books and publications Robin has produced
relating to the Long Deep Hive. There is also an extensive photo-gallery which
records my own DIY construction project to build my own first LDH. As someone
who has both British National Hives and Langstroth Hives - I can only say that
the Dartington Hive has transformed my beekeeping. It is MUCH easier to use; the
bees are much LESS disturbed by inspections and it is all just more enjoyable. I
would stress that the Dartington Hive has been designed with the home-hobbyist
in mind - it is not a commercial hive. However, there are more than 5 variations
on the design including specialist hives for queen rearing; migratory
beekeeping; back garden town apiary; country apiary and so on. This is the 'unofficial' site - Robin will be putting an official site together in the coming months. I just wanted to help out in the interim and to document the DIY building of my own Long Deep Hive - which has transformed my enjoyment of beekeeping. (Graham White) *************************************** ****************************************************************************************** I was interested to read Just Ramblings in the last newsletter. Dick mentions the use of Froe (or Frow) mixture to treat varroa. Originally it was used to treat the “Isle of Wight disease”. This was first reported in 1904 and caused immense losses until 1920’s. It was later discovered that this was caused by a mite called Acaris woodii.1,2 These mites infest the thoracic trachea (airways) of bees where they breed causing damage to the airways. Symptoms are described as seeing bees, sometimes in their hundreds, on the ground near the hive, often crawling rapidly, but quite unable to fly, their abdomens greatly extended and containing large amounts of ropy yellowish brown matter. Although the queen stays healthy, and remedies have been tried, the results have always been fatal.4 If 1927 Mr. R.W. Frow published details of a successful treatment of the disease. Instead of patenting his discovery, he gave it freely to the world for all beekeepers to use. The mixture was made of: 1,3 2 parts nitrobenzene 1 part safrol oil 2 parts petrol I would say that this mixture is poisonous and inflammable. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to try it, and the ingredients are not available anyway, but it is probably no worse than paint brush stripper or bleach. Yates describes treatment with Frow mixture as using an old
tobacco tin containing a piece of polythene foam soaked with 7ml of the mixture,
inverted over the feeder hole of a cover board. This is repeated two more times,
and is performed in the autumn. I wonder whether this would be effective against varroa. This
could only be found out by testing, but at least it can be said that it has been
used in the past to very successfully deal with another mite, (‘this
mixture will readily rid a stock of acarine disease5). Interestingly, I have obtained a formic acid evaporator that can be fixed to a deep frame and placed in the brood box. I am told that using agricultural formic acid makes the cost of one treatment about 5p, after buying the evaporator of course. Three treatments are required per year, and the evaporators are reusable. Formic acid is used in other countries but is not recommended by CSL as it is rather nasty stuff to handle and can easily damage the bees if too much is used. 1. Beekeeping Practice F.S. Stuart p 180 2. The Practical Bee Guide J.G. Diddles p173 3. Module 4 J.D. & B.D. Yates p204 4. The Practical Bee Guide
J.G. Diddles p172 ( taken from the Irish Bee Journal, June 1906) 5. The Practical Bee Guide J.G. Diddles p175 ( Graham Loveridge) Bees for Development announces its new website open! Providing an insight into its work and activities you can visit the site for all sorts of reasons: Not yet a subscriber to the Journal? You are welcome to download a complimentary copy if you wish and then subscribe on the site. Browse through our Store and make your choices from the 200 items available. Join forum discussions on: top-bar hives, honey marketing and legislation, beekeeping projects, organic certification; Bees for Development Safaris, and more. Support Bees for Development Trust – give a donation by credit card or download your standing order and Gift Aid forms. Download a range of informative documents. Look at the Links, Communication Centre and information about " Bees for Development" www.beesfordevelopment.org |
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