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Charity Number : 1014600
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GBKA Registered
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If
you have not yet put on any supers then put them on now and prepare more so that
you are ready for the need for the second. Put
out a bait hive and look out for swarms, they will come suddenly even though
there is no sign at the moment. Make
sure the bees have plenty of room for the queen to lay and for stores. The hives
are bursting with bees at this time of year. Summer
Shows We
are often asked to attend shows to represent beekeeping with demonstrations and
honey sales. It is fun talking to
people about our passion, but is difficult unless there are at least three
people to share the work. Please
volunteer to help with at least one show over the season. Contact Jill Chirnside
who will co-ordinate activities. 01873
880625 Stoneleigh
was fun, but very hot and crowded. John Holden asked me to get him an
“Easi-steam” from Thorne’s for sterilizing whole boxes of frames in one
go. It was lying about the house for a week before he came to collect it, but
when it had gone I thought to myself bother how am I going to deal with those
two brood boxes. So I went over to our local Thorne’s agent (Les) and acquired
one for myself. That evening we set it up and an hour later we had clean frames
in a clean box and a bucket of watery waxy gunge. I am a keen protagonist of
solar wax extractors for all the small pieces that you collect each time you
open a hive, and for the odd frame or two. But for dealing with a complete set
of brood frames this steamer is definitely an answer. I can predict the
awkwardness of getting rid of the brood frames once one has performed a shook
swarm—you may remember Ken’s story last year with his garage full of
recently hatched bees. You have to act quickly if you want to destroy the brood.
Of course there are alternative things to do with the brood, but I feel that if
you go to all the trouble of doing the shook swarm you might as well do it
properly, get rid of any chance of any disease and destroy the brood. Use it in
the evening though as every flying bee and wasp comes to investigate. John is
pleased with his as well but says make sure it is sloping the right way.
Bridget Ken
Key is our swarm liaison officer. If you would like to know about swarms phone
him up and get your name on his list, he will then contact you when he hears
about one. Similarly if you hear about a swarm and don’t want it yourself get
in touch with Ken who will be able to pass on the information to someone who
wants it. Ken
Key tel. 01873 852512 The
first apiary meeting took place last month.
Six colonies have come through the winter, two are very strong but we
lost a nuc. We are hoping to make up some nucs with new queens some time this
year. As everyone wants the apiary to continue show your support by coming to
the meetings, share your experiences with others and compare methods. You never
know what may happen at a meeting, you might come home with a queen in your
pocket just when you wanted one. We now
have two SBI’s. Mike Pett tel. 01656 658963 covers
Newport, the M4 corridor to Chepstow and north as far as Usk and up the valleys
to the Heads of the Valleys. Peter Guthrie tel. 01874 754412 covers
north of the Heads of the Valleys and north Gwent above Usk (also Crickhowell
and the rest of Powys) If in doubt phone one of them with your apiary map ref. nos The
British Beekeepers Association Spring Convention and Exhibition at
Stoneleigh-Park,
Worcestershire, 22nd April 2006 As
a novice beekeeper I was rather apprehensive about a visit to the British
Beekeepers Association Spring Convention! The
word ‘Convention’ sounds rather serious and that a prerequisite of
attendance is a good sound knowledge of bees.
Listening to conversations of those around me, I realise that there is a
vast amount of knowledge to be picked up, which is, on the one hand exciting,
and on the other, rather bewildering. So,
I gratefully accepted a lift with fellow Gwent beekeepers, Bridget and Stuart
and Janet, and met up with them at 9.30am on Saturday morning.
It was a pleasant journey with good conversation (not particularly about
bees) with fun to be had with the sat. nav. system. Arriving
later in the morning seemed a good idea as we heard that the queue was right
around the block at 9.00am whereas we waltzed in, paid our dues, got a wristband
slapped on and then attempted to read the map and get our bearings.
Stoneleigh is not a massively huge event and it was decided that we
didn’t really need to take each others mobile numbers should we not find each
other again, and I saw my companions on a number of occasions.
It is a little overwhelming as you walk into the first of three Halls and
see a mass of exhibitors laid out in front of you with a buzz almost as loud as
a beehive! There are a range of
stands, from beekeeping bodies to equipment, books, cosmetics, plants and
knickknacks. I wandered around
feeling rather bewildered, trying to keep the different prices of equipment I
wanted to buy in my head. We had
agreed we would leave at 4pm which meant about 5 hours at the show.
At first this felt like an age, but it’s surprising how quickly the
time passed. There are quite a number of lectures to attend and if you
pick one or two, it easily fills the time and leaves time enough to buy things
too. I went to a lecture entitled
‘DNA, Genes, Genomes and Bees’ by Professor Stuart Reynolds from the
University of Bath, and thought that it may be a little over my head but
Professor Reynolds put it in simple language and I came away thinking I had
understood it quite well, only to realise as I was talking about my day later,
that I hadn’t quite remembered the bits about the sex defining chromosomes of
bees other than that it is indeed complex! I
met an old man called Stan, a retired beekeeper of 30 years or more, who was
keen to talk about bees and who was trying to get me to think about why things
happen as they do with bees. He was
fascinating to talk to and had been a pharmacist so has a good understanding of
chemistry. I wish I’d had a tape recorder to record his words as there
was an overload of interesting information.
He had even recorded the ‘piping’ of Queen bees. I
left him to buy some equipment before the lecture as we were leaving shortly
afterwards. I abandoned my price
comparisons and went to the first stand I came across which happened to be
Maisemore Apiaries and spoke to a man with a strong Gloucestershire accent and said
what I was looking for. He
sorted me out and at last I had a plastic bag of goodies clutched in my hand as
many others did. I felt like
a bonefide Conventioner then! It
was good to see the familiar face of Les Chirnside as a Convention Organiser,
and had I not been with my newfound friends, I think I would have been even more
excited at seeing Les. It
was an enjoyable day out and for someone who is new to Beekeeping, it was great
to have so many suppliers in one place and have the chance to pick and choose
who you buy from and to see and touch all the amazing beekeeping equipment.
Easy I’m sure to get carried away! Claire
Howes Llancaiach
Fawr Manor Les
and Jill attended the rural craft day here with an observation hive and things
for sale. They had a wonderful time for which the Association gets paid. They
report that the venue was very nice with plenty of space and all the people
there were friendly and helpful. The Manor is worth a visit.
The last Goytre meeting of the season (the next one will be the AGM in
November) saw a good collection of members who had come to hear our very own
Gareth Baker give us an update on his management techniques. He does admit that
the way he works his commercial setup is not altogether relevant to hobbyists.
However we all found it really interesting to be told about the problems that he
has to face and how he overcomes them.
Having started beekeeping with Langstroths and Dadants Gareth now uses
National double brood boxes, which does cut down on swarming, and uses the same
size boxes for supers. When he takes his bees to oil
seed rape he doesn’t put foundation in the super frames. Then when he
takes the supers off he melts 6 supers worth at a time in his big melter. This
means that he doesn’t have to rush to extract the honey before it sets, he
waits and does all his extraction when it suits him. Despite the large number of colonies that he deals with
Gareth still takes disease control seriously and says it is important to keep
all the supers from each apiary site together, and wherever possible marks all
the hives so that the individual supers go back to their same box.
It is always fascinating to hear about crops that need pollinating.
Gareth moves 100 stocks at a time. Don’t forget that moving bees about in the
summer means VERY late nights and VERY early mornings, and the bees get cranky
if moved too often! The earliest ‘crop’ that requires pollinating in the
year are the dessert apples, then cherries, next cider apples and last
raspberries. After that there is borage which yields so well that he can
sometimes afford to do the pollination for no fee.
There were other details like the 300 queens that he rears every year
using the Jenter system. It is all a far cry from the paltry efforts of the two-
to three-hive beekeepers. His record keeping is very organised. He uses a
programme called Pro-Bee 2000, which he brought on a computer to demonstrate its
versatility and simplicity. I don’t think many people had a play with it, most
of us still rely on paper and pencil I’m afraid. This
was a good end to our ‘winter’ lecture
series giving us the enthusiasm to get out there and do it properly. We must now
concentrate on the practical stuff until we
meet again in November. Come to the apiary meetings instead when you feel you
need to talk to other beekeepers.
Bridget Janet
was told this by a beekeeper in mid Wales. In an apiary there are four colonies,
they were treated with apistan last autumn and entered the winter very strong.
This spring the bee inspector paid a visit and found three out of the four of
them almost collapsing under the
weight of varroa. In fact when they performed the Belltsville test they found
there was an average of 2.5 varroa per bee and a knockdown of 98%. Therefore
these varroa were NOT resistant to apistan, but must have swamped the colonies
since their autumn treatment coming from neighbouring
collapsing colonies, either feral or untreated. The
moral: this can really happen to you. Be aware of the state of local hives and
how they can affect your well managed, treated colonies. NEW
Question and Answer Corner Send
in your questions and see how many answers you get Brian
Harris asks: I am convinced that there is a distinct perfume of banana in the
stings that I get. Is the chemical within the venom itself or is it part of the
alarm pheromone released? Research must have been done to identify
the composition of bee venom etc - has this ever confirmed a
correlation with the composition of the banana? Answers
please to the editor for next months letter, contact details on front page. DNA,
Genes and Genomes at the Spring Convention In
contrast to topics such as integrated pest management, queen rearing and honey
production, the subject of molecular biology does not regularly appear on the
agenda at beekeeping conventions. It was a pleasant surprise, therefore, to find
a packed audience ready to cope with the near tropical conditions of the Wolfson
Lecture Theatre at Stoneleigh, to listen to Professor Stuart Reynolds talk about
progress in the understanding of bee genetics and its relevance to the future of
beekeeping. Unlike many academics, Professor Reynolds did not talk down to his
audience. Rather, he explained his subject in sufficient detail to be
meaningful, making use of examples and concepts familiar to a non-specialist
audience. The result was a thoroughly enjoyable presentation that encompassed
molecules, cell biology, genomics and bee breeding in a clear and logical order. Professor
Reynolds began by reminding us that DNA technologies are now in such widespread
use that we cannot ignore them. The benefits to mankind are incalculable. For
example the use of recombinant DNA techniques to engineer the synthesis of
insulin in bacteria has had a profound impact on the treatment of diabetes. He
reminded us that even controversial subjects such as the genetic modification of
crops can be viewed from different perspectives. While we may take a somewhat
sceptical view of “flavour saver” tomatoes, we can hardly object to the
opportunity of providing rice, genetically engineered to produce vitamin A, as a
preventive measure for the blindness caused by vitamin deficiency, that is a
scourge of much of the third world. Professor
Reynolds described the history leading up to the discovery that DNA acts as a
template, encoding the proteins that form the basis of life and being
transported through germ cells to pass that information from one generation to
the next. He drew attention to the simplicity of a polymeric structure of
phosphorylated sugar molecules to which are attached four bases (coded A, T, C
and G) which belies this molecule’s complexity of function. He pointed out the
astonishing fact that the double stranded helix of DNA in a single cell would
reach a length of 2 metres if unwound from its closely folded structure. He
explained that the elucidation of the human genome has produced a wealth of
valuable information as well as unearthing one or two surprises. In humans,
around 4,000 genetic disorders are now recognised, affecting 1 in 33 babies
born. The identification of the genetic mutations responsible for these has
opened up enormous possibilities both in predictive medicine as well as in gene
therapy. One of the biggest conundrums to emerge is the discovery that only 1.5%
of the DNA in our chromosomes is present as translatable genes. What the rest
does remains something of a mystery. It
comes as no great surprise to learn that genetic information is highly conserved
throughout living organisms. For example, around 99% of our genes are found in
other primates. We appear to be less closely related to mice, where homology
occurs in 85% of genes, fruit flies (70%) and bananas (55%). This information
enables us to construct evolutionary trees which can be extremely useful in
developing breeding programmes. Given the cost and effort involved in sequencing
a complete genome, it is remarkable that Apis mellifera is one of
the privileged organisms to have benefited from such analysis. Professor
Reynolds explained that the majority of the funding needed for the project ($6.9
million) came from the National Institutes of Health in Washington. He felt that
while several reasonable arguments had been put forward to justify the project,
he had a sneaking suspicion that some of the scientists involved may have been
surrogate beekeepers! Knowledge
of the bee genome is important. The information will enable us to identify
important genes such as those influencing disease resistance, winter survival,
honey composition and foraging behaviour. Molecular biology techniques can
significantly accelerate breeding programmes as well as allowing rapid
identification of Africanised honey bees. Indeed, genes affecting aggressive
behaviour have already been identified. Another important discovery has been
that of the complementary sex determiner gene (CSD) that provides the basis of
sex determination in the honey bee. On
a wider scale, we may be in a position to benefit further from the new
knowledge. For example, bees are good at defending themselves against bacterial
diseases and several genes coding for proteins with antibiotic activity have
been found, thus raising the possibility of finding novel antibiotics for
treating human diseases. A protein constituent of royal jelly (MRJP-3) has been
found to modulate mammalian immune systems and may have potential as a treatment
of inflammatory diseases.
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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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