GBKA Registered 
Charity Number : 1014600
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GBKA Registered
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Check
your bees now and then to make sure they haven’t been blown over, attacked by
woodpeckers or flooded. Sit
back and peruse the plant and seed catalogues for bee friendly plants. Learn a bit more
about bees by reading a bee book that you haven’t read before. If
you join through the association with your membership renewal you make a huge
saving as the current subscription rate for individuals is £24 But
we have to have 10 people in the scheme by the end of January
The BBKA’s annual delegate’s meeting takes place in February. Our delegate is Les Chirnside and he attends the meeting and votes on our behalf. Please would you read the propositions in the BBKA News that you received recently and if you have strong views about any of them let either Les or Janet know how you feel.
Look on the GreenWeb for interesting activities with other organisations who have a common interest in environmental concerns. www.monmouthshiregreenweb.co.uk In the newsletter
last month I mentioned the decrease of government funding to DEFRA and their
decision to cut costs by reducing the number of SBIs and removing EFB and varroa
from the list of notifiable diseases. The BBKA is urging all its members to
write to their MP to ask the government to change its mind. You may remember
that in 2002 we were asked to write to our MPs about Bee Diseases Insurance Ltd.
having to pay into The Financial Services Compensation Scheme. I believe BDI
were given a waiver as they are still in existence so it must have worked. I can
remember writing to Huw Edwards and to Mike German (the assembly minister for
rural development) who were both very interested in the problem and wrote
letters to influential people about it. David
Davies is also a good person to approach as he is always helpful. If you are
anxious about this matter then do please write to someone about it to draw their
attention to the possible connotations. I have been given a
cutting from a newspaper concerning some research that is being done on the
effect of alcohol on the brain using bees as the research model (as their brains
work the same way as humans at the molecular level.) Apart from the astounding
discovery that those who drank most spent more time lying on their backs
-’without postural control’ - I quote: “Honey bees are very social
animals, which makes them a great model for studying the effects of alcohol in a
social context. Many people get aggressive when they drink too much. We want to
learn if ethanol makes the normally calm, friendly honey bee more aggressive. We
may be able to examine how ethanol affects the neural basis of aggression in
this insect and, in turn, learn how it affects humans.” "
I wish you all a Happy Christmas
Bridget" Suggestions from Brian Harris: all cotoneasters, ceanothus,
single camellias (he has a pink one which he says is smothered with bees
on mild Feb days), poached egg plant (limnanthes douglasii, a nice easy annual),
phacelia (which makes an excellent green manure for digging in but you have to
do that before it flowers). Thank
you Brian. I think my favourites this year have been a self seeded annual echium,
and also self seeded borage. Any suggestions from anyone else? Selwyn Wilkins
talks at the AGM Selwyn Wilkins works for the NBU where a great deal of research is being carried out on many different aspects of bee disease prevention and control. They have a huge experimental apiary of about 120 colonies, as well as a teaching apiary using Langstroths as these are the most used hives world-wide. He concentrated on telling us about the Small Hive Beetle (SHB) which is the main concern at the moment. Using GIS modelling they can pinpoint all the apiaries in a given radius of all airports (military, freight, passenger) in order to check them as the most likely places where the beetle will first appear. SHB is indigenous to South Africa where it lives on fruit and is a minor pest to bees who can control it. It was first found in the USA in Florida in 1998, since when it has travelled about and is now known to be in 26 eastern states. So far it has been responsible for the loss of 20-30 million colonies. In 2002 it was discovered in Queensland, Australia but due to a huge control response it has been kept below the damage threshold. It is not thought to be present in Europe, although the latest scare involved 3000 queens being imported (illegally) into France from Texas and these have been distributed between 117 apiaries, not all of which have yet been checked. The beetle is said to be able to fly 10k but Selwyn reckoned that they could probably manage 10 miles. They lay their eggs in cracks and crevices in the hive in the dark. The eggs are pearly-white, 2/3 the size of a bee egg and the beetles synchronize their egg laying so that 2000 eggs can be laid at a time. He thinks the larvae are pretty!! There is no webbing or frass, they produce slime which is the fermentation from defaecation and smells of oranges. The larvae take 10-14 days to become fully grown and then they wander en masse to pupate, some way from the hive. They prefer to pupate in sandy soil above 10o C. In 3-4 weeks the adults emerge and it all begins again. It is important that we understand what we can do to control this new threat. We must check for its presence routinely and understand the life cycle and when it is at its most vulnerable ie when travelling to pupate. We should not move apiaries around, and we should extract honey asap. We only have 6 years knowledge of it at the moment and they are working hard to find a specific pesticide, trapping techniques etc. The good news is there are new varroacides in the pipeline. Sue Bentley
1.
Mixed sushi and Royalty about noon repelled by sight of blood (9) 2.
Queen surrounds her
in Surrey (5) 3.
Fierce animal charge makes gold (7) 4.
Memory aid concerning keeper (8) 5.
Nautical greeting made up of others (4) 6.
Complete object not yet tin 6) 7.
Endless projectile in the Museum produces familiar mite (6) 8.
Short distance in Chester (4) 9.
Herb grown by Proops endlessly before midday (8) 10.
Lime sea makes African corn (7) 11.
Japanese beer made by relations surrounding Royal Institution (5) 12.
Patriotic hives (9) Clues down: 1.
Before endless nit in pig house comes calmness (8) 2.
Musical lyre holds a friend (4) 3.
Eira R Harries found Celts to be few in number (5,3,4) 4.
Ginny Foreham changed commercial beekeeping (5,7) 5.
Green ginko Ma transformed into Association’s inventor (6,6) 6.
Tune minus a note separated about nervous twitch to produce the tuneful
bit (8,4) 8.
The best knees (4) 11.
Poor humour gets heated about disc jockey with ring (3,5) 14.
Seals headgear (4) 17.
Seeks alibi round this pen (4) If you send
the Editor your solutions, I will give a prize
to the first correct one drawn from the hat on Jan 6.
Rattus
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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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