GBKA Registered 
Charity Number : 1014600
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GBKA Registered
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a)On
the first good beekeeping day do your spring inspection, look particularly for
signs of disease, if you still have solid floors scrape or change them for clean
flamed ones. b)Prepare
to put supers on. If you have stored them with PDB crystals they will need to be
aired for 24 hours before use. c)Have
you enough equipment to deal with a swarming situation? Go to the BBKA
convention at Stoneleigh to stock up on supplies and learn something new about
beekeeping. The
bees will be returned to the NEW site at Cefn Tilla on 17th April. There will be
NO meeting there on Sunday 18th BUT Please
come to the apiary day on 10th April when we will be getting ready the
new site and making up new equipment. From
10.00 until it is done. Bring a picnic lunch
It
is with great sorrow that I have to tell you of the death of our friend and
rambler Dick Sadler. Stuart has put together some thoughts about him. His widow,
Doris, sent me the poem written by her granddaughter and is happy for it to be
copied here. Dick Sadler will be remembered for the good things that he did in life. As a beekeeper he cut a distinctive path, in that he was reluctant to subscribe to conventional wisdom unless it could be supported by personal experience or sound evidence. While we are all prone to muttering about issues from time to time, Dick was prepared to question things in the public arena if he felt strongly about something. He served the Association well, acting as Secretary for several years. After retiring from that post he continued to help by distributing a proportion of the newsletters produced each month. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the Association came from his global interest in beekeeping, which was expressed through his monthly newsletter “Ramblings” and his bombardment of the Editor with cuttings that he gleaned from the local or national press. Topics ranged from pesticides in France to droughts in Australia and from killer bees in Mexico to GM crops in East Anglia. All were relevant to beekeeping in one way or another. “Just Rambling” became to the GBKA Newsletter what Alistair Cooke’s “Letter from America” was to the BBC. Dick’s contributions were always there on time (almost always, anyway). They were always interesting and frequently controversial. They could be mischievous but were never malicious. Occasionally his comments would provoke wrath from the establishment. Better to do that than stay silent, even if there was only the merest whiff of injustice. Dick’s interest in the natural world around him was immense and his desire to share that interest with the rest of us was compelling. When Bridget visited him in hospital a few days before his death, he was diligently cutting out newspaper articles that he considered might come in handy. We will miss him greatly. It doesn’t seem as
though we need worry about GM contamination at the moment as the growing of GM
crops appears to have been side tracked. For the record I believe that we and
our bees are far more at risk by contamination from over zealous ‘insecticidation’,
see the article on p5. The poor French beekeepers who had their stocks
devastated by ‘Gaucho’ on sunflower seeds, now seem to be suffering a
similar fate due to a pesticide called fipronil. The GM crops that UK tested
were all herbicide resistant, which at least should not affect the life of the
bees, and the one that came out as ‘OK’ was in fact resistant to a much less
noxious herbicide than the current one being grown which is ’naturally’
selected for a particularly vicious herbicide. How have your bees
survived the winter? I would love any feedback from you about how strong they
are this spring. There seem to have been bees flying at very low temperatures
all winter, is this good or is it bad? For years we have said that the
beekeeping year begins with the WBKA convention at Builth Wells. That has now
been and gone, a merry band of GBKA members were there enjoying themselves and
getting tuned in to the new year. So now 2004 is officially launched and we must
stop planning and dreaming but get out there and do something. I have put my
inserts under the varroa floors to check on
natural mite mortality. It is a very easy way to decide whether or not they need
treating, and once you know that they don’t you can sort of relax until after
the harvest. One colony that I had
thought had died out is now flying merrily, so it was obviously just a couch
potato waiting until April. I hope you have all
taken in the change to the dates of the apiary meetings. They are not mistakes
on my part they are alterations.
Bridget the honey bee is sad and cross and wicked as a weasel and when she perches on you boss she leaves a little measle Don Marquis New Regulations
about Honey Labels There are some new rules about labelling honey which came into force last year but must be complied with by this harvest. This is the list as given in Thorne’s catalogue (who probably make more labels than anyone else in the UK so they should know). For more detailed information go to the website of the Food Standards Agency. 1. The word “HONEY” is required. 2. The weight must be on the label. It must be in figures at least 4mm high for 1lb and over, 3mm for less. 3. You can specify the area where the honey is produced. 4. You can specify the type of honey. E.g. Heather, Borage. The honey must be at least 75% of that particular type. 5. If you are selling the honey you must have your name and address on the label. It does not need to be complete but you should be able to be found using the information given. 6. If you are selling through a third party you must have a lot number. 7. You must have a best before date on the jar. We suggest 2-5 years from harvesting. 8. You must have a country of origin on the jar. E.g. Produce of Wales. Adding the country to the end of your address is not acceptable. Numbers 7 & 8 are the two new ones for this year that you may not be aware of. If you buy Thorne’s labels they will of course be OK, but be careful with home made ones. On a beastly cold, snowy evening Chris Harries came to Goytre to talk to the intrepid members who had braved the elements to hear what he had to say. I always enjoy listening to Chris and get infected with his enthusiasm for bees not necessarily honey. There are about 250 different solitary bees in the UK, they don’t live in colonies and are only active and visible for 2 months in the year. A few may have more than one cycle a year but some, obviously more vulnerable, are specific to one plant species for their forage so have to appear at the same time as their food. There are mining bees, who need loose, sandy, well drained soil and dig their own tunnels and there are mason bees who make use of existing holes in walls, wood etc. and may enlarge them. And there are different sorts of nests. The leaf cutters cut out pieces of leaf and roll them up to carry back to their holes. Some bees separate their egg cells with mud and some with plant tissue. The carder bees use plant fibres from soft furry plants like stachys and verbascum to make their nests. The really interesting thing is how to encourage these bees into our gardens. There are the rolled tubes in a tin made by the Oxford Bee Company for mason bees, but you can make your own by drilling holes in a block of wood, different size hole for different bees so the diameter of any bee and as deep as the block allows. There are complicated bumble bee nests, I gave you one last year, but they never seem to work in my experience, so just look after any natural ones that you may come across. And there is the Bees,Wasps and Ants Recording Society for the real enthusiasts. Bridget TERRA.WIRE PARIS (AFP) Feb 27, 2004 The main farmers' union, led by anti-globalisation campaigner Jose Bove, led the charge against the product, marketed under several brand-names including Regent TS, one day after staging an occupation of a national food safety agency in Paris during which activists stole several confidential government documents relating to the matter. Bove and several of the activists were arrested and briefly detained for the demonstration, and police said Friday they were investigating the theft. Among the documents, which they made available to the media, there was an agriculture ministry report which deemed that the government's decision to give farmers till June to use up their remaining stocks of the pesticide was much less costly that destroying the crop seeds already sprayed. But the national association of bee-keepers says massive damage is being done to bee populations, which are crucial to plant pollination. The association and Bove's union are calling for a total and immediate ban on the use of the main molecule involved -- fipronil. Subisidiaries of German groups Bayer and BASF, which sold Regent TS, are under criminal investigation in France for selling an agricultural product that is toxic to humans or animals. Bayer's unit is also under investigation for destroying
private property -- an accusation related to the death of the bees Contd: By
Geoffrey A.H.Watts ‘Kali’
the Africans said of them in Swahili. In Livingstone’s diaries he recorded
that he expected to lose about a dozen porters on each safari from the stings of
these unlovable little creatures. Even
as I reached for my microphone the black crawling mass on the dashboard had
started to spread across the bottom of the windscreen and was probably numbering
100’s rather than dozens. Fortunately I raised Nairobi immediately. In those
days one made radio contact only every half hour and I was relieved to hear the
slow calm answer: ‘Receiving
you Kilo Oscar Delta.’ I
cut in with my emergency message, not a Mayday as I was already in voice contact
but using the code that would alert them to the seriousness of my plight. ‘Pan-Pan-Pan.
I have a swarm of bees in my cockpit. I am approximately 40 miles beyond Tanga
airfield. I am returning immediately and request emergency landing facilities.
Repeat Pan-Pan-Pan…..’ From
his crisp affirmative response I could see that the dangerous situation in which
I found myself was not lost on the controller. We both knew I could not reach
Tanga in under 15 mins. Meanwhile
the bees continued to exit from the tiny gap between the passenger and pilot’s
seat and mass on the dashboard; there were now so many that they had lapped over
onto the windscreen. I saw the rising panic in John’s face as he sat
helplessly watching the ever-growing swarm in front of us. The single thought in
my mind was that we must at all costs try to avoid making the bees angry. At
present they were merely settling, and probably a dozen or so were flying lazily
around the cockpit. I said as much to John, forcing myself to speak calmly
despite my own fear. In that moment I thought we were dead men. Fifteen minutes
assumed the proportions of infinity as I gingerly leaned forward to open the
throttle, easing the nose of the plane down to achieve maximum speed. Before
long even the windscreen was covered in a crawling mass of small furry bodies
and my only forward vision was in the gaps left as they swirled and eddied in
concert. Now some had begun to settle on the throttle and one or two were around
the flap lever. If they covered either of these I would have difficulty landing
the aircraft safely. Two or three had now settled on my knees and arms and I
tried to ignore them. I envied John’s decision to wear slacks that day as one
insect began to explore the hem of my shorts. I thought that if I ignored them
they might fly off and join the others – treat them like exploratory wasps at
a picnic. But it was not easy, revulsion as well as fear engulfed me and I had
to work at concentrating on flying the aircraft. I
could hear Nairobi alerting nearby air traffic, advising them to keep clear to
allow me to land without entering the pattern. Unfortunately my approach
direction meant that I would have to land downwind but that seemed the least of
my problems. I was going straight in regardless. I
heard John stifle a gasp and turned towards him. There were three bees on his
forehead and one in his hair. ‘I’ve been stung’ he said quietly, ‘Hang
on’ I said more calmly than I felt, ‘Almost there now’. Even as I said it
I felt a sharp sting on my right hand. Somehow I resisted the impulse to shake
my hand. It
seemed an age before I spotted Tanga on the horizon. I tried blowing at the bees
hovering around the flaps lever in an attempt to move them without upsetting
them. I
aimed the plane straight at the centre of the runway as I began my powered
descent, gingerly releasing the throttlescrew and easing the lever to reduce
revs. I was sweating with relief but as I took my hand off the throttle lever a
small group of bees landed on the black plastic handle. Thereafter I could
hardly see the throttle. I had almost got the flaps down when another battalion
descended towards my hand and
as I hastily withdrew it settled instead on the lever. By now there were bees in
my hair, on my arms and legs. It was a horror movie come to life. At
100mph, not helped by a 20mph tail wind, the landing was far faster than I would
normally have found acceptable but I put the Cessna down reasonably smoothly,
holding the wheel forward to press the nose-wheel hard against the runway while
speed reduced to a controllable state. We were still taxying far too fast for
comfort when I slewed off the runway on to a taxi
track and applied the brakes hard. John and I already had our hands on
the door handles, seat belts off. The fire engine had been standing by further
back along the runway expecting a slower landing but was now rushing after us in
a wild career across the grass bordering the runway. Even
as we hastily abandoned the Cessna and ran to safetythe bees swarmed from the
pilot’s door and started to settle below the wing where they hung in a long
pendulous dark mass. With the engine switched off I could hear the threatening,
muttering buzz. Having
established our safety the firemen made it clear that they were reluctant to
tackle the problem. After a long discussion it was decided to turn the hoses on
the bees and to my immense relief the swarm suddenly took to the air and
departed towards the forest, a tight black ball with a comet-like tail. We
headed for the airport buildings. We had been extremely lucky and the only
damage was a couple of stings each. When we left Tanga about an hour later we
went over the inside of the plane very carefully until we were both satisfied
that no bees remained. Even so we were alert and over-hyped in the air, watchful
for the odd insect that might have been lurking somewhere. RBI’s Newsletter
Wales Spring 2004 |
Whilst the domains gbka.co.uk & gbka .org .uk are owned by G Cole. The web pages under these domains are published for the Gwent Beekeepers association and its members , in order to publicise our association's news, aims, activities, and the art of beekeeping.
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