GBKA  Registered Charity Number : 1014600

  Are You Doing This?

Double check food stores. Make sure they have enough.

As soon as the weather is warm enough (to stand next to your bee hive in a t-shirt) make  a Spring inspection for disease, queen status, food etc.

Les predicts that as they have been cooped up for so long with the cold they will be bursting at the seams and we should expect SWARMS.

Be prepared. Clean up old frames and have them ready. Put supers on NOW.

Apiary meetings

Thank you for returning the questionnaire. As a result it would appear that more people would like Sunday afternoon meetings than any other time. John is sorry to disappoint those who specified a different day, there will be workshop occasions on other days which he hopes you will be able to attend.

Please note the dates of the apiary meetings NOW

Comment

I have said it before and I say it again. If you have mesh floors and monitor for varroa you also have the chance to have a jolly good insight into the state of your colonies especially at this time of year when the weather is too bad to open anything up. I can tell by looking at the debris that collects on the ‘drawer’ how many frames the bees are covering, if they are uncapping stores, whether they are bringing in pollen and I think I can tell that some uncapping debris relates to hatching pupae—darker caps with more pollen than the stores. There are also wax moth larvae when they are a problem and chalk brood mummies fall through mesh sometimes. So although I now have little confidence in mite mortality drop giving anything except an indication that you have a problem if the numbers are high (but not that you haven’t a problem if the numbers are low) I still favour looking at what is falling out of the brood nest for other reasons.

However in the first number of the ‘Journal of Apicultural Research and Bee World’, which has recently reached me, there is a paper on ‘Cryptic low-level reproduction of small hive beetles in honey bee colonies’. This shows that small numbers of SHB can live in hives and reproduce, the larvae being protected from the bees by living in the debris under hive bottom screens. In these cases it is not associated with high numbers of larvae and the typical diagnostic  signs but it is contributing to SHB population buildup. We are  therefore urged to allow worker bees access to all parts of the hive and to minimise debris on bottom boards.

Bridget

John Verran at Goytre

John gave us some very interesting facts about the state of brood disease in this country. It was in 1972 that we began burning all colonies infected with AFB. There were 700-800 cases each year at that time, but the numbers declined steadily until in 2004 there were only 82. Of these 40 were in Wales, so we were rather over infected, but in 2005 our number dropped to 22. So that is a good news story. On the other hand EFB has increased since 1972, possibly because OTC  (oxytetracycline, the antibiotic used to treat EFB) has become less efficient presumably due to resistance. Control by using the shook swarm technique works quite well but is not the whole answer. There has been a great deal of talk about deregulating EFB and relying on beekeepers to use the shook swarm method for themselves but people are against that as many of us are not skilled at identifying the problem. Also, once the disease has been identified in a colony the shook swarm needs to be done every two years to keep it at bay.  The number of cases of EFB in Wales was 20 in 2003 and 9 in 2005. It would be a pity if these figures were to increase due to the absence of statutory control.

Varroa has recently been deregulated, so you no longer have to tell the ministry when you get it. John gave a method for combining swarm control with varroa control. Briefly it went like this: Put your hives in groups of two. Wait for swarm cells. Do a shook swarm, when you get two frames of sealed brood destroy them. Remove the queen from the other hive and put all the brood from the first in it with just two queen cells. When the new queen starts laying remove the first two frames of sealed brood. It will get rid of all the varroa and you will have a new queen and hopefully no swarms. Not for the fainthearted.

Annual Convention at Builth (2006)

A bit warmer than of late and we managed to keep ahead of the promised rain on the journey up. I am reminded of the comments of a colleague on this the first of the years annual events that as a beekeeper one can ill afford not to plan and set aside the few days each year to attend pilgrimages

Gwent beekeepers were not in attendance as normal, no ladies except Mary Laxton and besides ourselves there were only three others. Still not a bad day for a reported 240 total. Last year you may remember was badly hit by the Welsh rugby match and in the afternoon the place was bare.

In a recent survey as to the features of the convention attracting members to attend, access to trade stands, the lecture programme and meeting other beekeepers, came out as being more or less equally important. For my part I have always thought the quality of lectures at Builth was good and looked forward to them more than any other reason. This year there were two and since I was quite familiar with Dr. Rose Cooper's talk I went only as far as seeing standing room only at the back of the room. I did attend the talk on 'Black Bee Breeding in Ireland' but I was disappointed not to hear about the biometry of the black bee race. The talk laboured on about organisation and history of the 'Galtee Bee Breeding Group' and their efforts to improve the basic qualities of the bee, gentleness, honey gathering prowess etc.

There were eleven trade stands, Freeman & Harding did not show but there was no shortage of general beekeeping equipment, with Thorne's, Maisemore, the expanding Wynne Jones and a new name to me, Martin Hooper. Other non trade stands numbered seven with DEFRA, BIBBA, Anglesey Beekeeping Association among them. Of course our Les was there with his wax foundation making and creating quite an interest.

The day was well spent and in particular I had an interesting talk with Wally Shaw on Varroa origins, which reminded me to get an address for last years speaker on that subject. Still time to go came soon enough and although raining the journey home passed quickly, talking over the events of the day.

Barry George & Tom.

Statutory rules on the Importation of Honey bees

On the 17th March certain rules came into force in England. It is up to the Welsh assembly what will happen in Wales but presumably they will follow suit. Varroa is now deregulated and tropilaelaps and the small hive beetle are notifiable. Queens (from certain countries outside the EC) can be imported without a licence from DEFRA, but there are other conditions. They can enter through one of two approved Border Inspection Posts, Heathrow and Gatwick. They must have with them a health certificate confirming that their country of origin regards AFB, tropilaelaps and SHB as notifiable. Each queen must be in a cage accompanied by no more than 20 workers. She must be transferred to another cage for introduction to the colony and the cage, workers and any attendant packaging sent to the NBU for examination. You must give the official vet at the Post of entry one clear working day’s notice by post or fax of the anticipated date of arriva of the consignment. Imports of bee packages are prohibited, (into the EC so that will cover Wales as well).              See the bee health pages of www.defra.gov.uk

Show your support for Bees for Development

Thornes have printed some little stamps which they are selling in sheets of 65 for £6.50.

You can stick them on your honey jars and they say “10p from the sale of this honey is donated to Bees for Development Trust. Helping poor people fight poverty by means of beekeeping” next to a little picture of the Bees  for Development tree.

Thornes have printed these at their own expense.

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