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Charity Number : 1014600
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GBKA Registered
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Are You Doing This? It is time to settle the bees down for winter. The hives should feel really heavy when you heft them (lift them gently
from the back to assess the weight). If they don’t there are not enough stores
present, keep feeding but if it gets too cold they will not take it. Put on mouse guards and protect from woodpeckers if necessary. Protect extracted comb from wax moth. CABK The
mission statement of The Central Association of Bee-Keepers is
‘Bringing Science to the Beekeeper’. They hold excellent meetings with
erudite speakers and the I
have booking forms, phone me if you would like one. 01291690869 Comment There is so much to say about Eva Crane that I have
lifted what I considered to be the best obituary from one of the papers in case
you have not seen one. As president of IBRA she was often in This year I have followed the advice of John Verran and
treated my bees with Apiguard. We have been counting the varroa drop every
evening and have a startling array of huge figures. If anyone else has been
doing this I would be very interested in your numbers, if we could collect a few
together we may be able to make some sort of conclusion from them. Initially the
count decreased after the first week, but after the second dose was administered
it rose again alarmingly and we still have 200 falling every day in one colony.
According to the DEFRA Managing Varroa leaflet some countries aim to keep the
population of varroa in hives below 5,000, much higher than the 1,000 that we
are told to aim for here, so maybe we now have bees that can tolerate a higher
level of infestation. I have been unaware of any signs of stress or deformity in
these bees, but the strongest colonies always have the heaviest infection as the
mites also have more chance to reproduce. Janet and I went to a seminar on Bee Health in Bridget Usk Show For some years now, and thanks to an arrangement set up by Mike Foster,
the association has had a stand in the Horticultural tent at Usk Show.
Our observation hive, which was originally made for us by George Kinman,
puts in an appearance. The hive is
based on a 5 frame nuc. For show
days the frame with the queen is placed in a glass display section that sits on
top, separated from the nuc box by a queen excluder.
Into the vacant space in the nuc box is put a feeder frame of weak syrup.
The bees are shut in the night before the event and cope OK for 24 hours
providing it does not get too hot. At
Usk Show the hive was surrounded by children and adults all day – hopefully
inspiring beekeepers of the future. Our
willing helpers Ken Key, Claire Howes, Martin Howells, Kath Harris, Reg
Griffiths and Dianne Jenkins, did a valiant job, answering endless questions
“If that is the queen, where is the king?”, with enthusiasm and patience.
Ken brought his national hive that he has cleverly arranged to show how
one works. We also promote our
course for new beekeepers and 23 people left details for more information. Lots
of our members stopped by for a chat and in between times we sold 37lb
association honey @ £4.00 per lb. Thank
you to all who assisted and helped to make it a very successful day. Janet Microscopy
Evening and Forgotten Landscapes at Goytre Our association owns three microscopes and two others were brought for
the evening so that we had five microscopy stations. Just the right number of
people turned up with bees so that we were able to look at all the samples and
everyone who wanted to try their hand at dissecting out tracheae was able to
have a go. In acarine disease the mites lives in the first thoracic trachea, which
apparently they invade within 24hrs of the bee’s emergence which do not
subsequently ever get nfected. To diagnose the disease you need freshly killed
bees. You pin them on their backs and slice off their heads with the first pair
of legs. This exposes the tracheae which can be seen more completely if a ring
or collar of chitin is also removed. Healthy tracheae are glistening and cream
coloured, if they are infected they are discoloured. One needs to look at 59
(!!!!) bees to establish whether or not the colony has an infection. No one
found any infected bees. There are no recognised methods of treating acarine but
it can cause spring dwindling and I suppose it is useful to know why that is
happening. Although it is refuted the treatments used for varroa probably
don’t do the mites any good. Nosema is a protozoan that lives in the cells of the ventriculus (mid
gut) of the bee and produces spores in the ventriculus. An infection impairs the
digestion of pollen and shortens the life of the bee. To diagnose an infection
30 dead bees are ground up in a pestle and mortar with a drop of water. A small
drop of supernatant is put on a slide and looked at x400. The spores are 6-8µm.
As the disease is endemic one is usually able to see a few spores in every
slide, but in an infected state there are millions produced which are readily
identifiable, looking like grains of rice. Nosema can be treated with Fumidil B,
which is dissolved (with difficulty) in syrup and fed to the bees. If anyone
would like help and guidance in looking for nosema or acarine in their bees
either with their own microscope or using one of the association’s then just
ask and we will help. Steve Rogers came to the meeting and gave us a little presentation about
The Forgotten Landscape of Blaenavon and what we might be able to do to help.
There was considerable interest shown by a few people who I hope will be able to
participate further in our planning get togethers.
Bridget Bees
in Forgotten Landscapes Please take some time to read about the Landscape Partnership Scheme that
has been set up with Heritage Lottery Fund money to protect and improve the
landscape around Blaenavon, which is a world heritage site. We have been asked whether we could help to foster beekeeping in the
area, to train and encourage local beekeeping, help to establish an apiary in
the area and make use of or suggest improvements to local forage plants such as
heather. The committee have decided that this is a splendid opportunity to try to
help a community and the environment by teaching and practising things we enjoy
. So a small group is going to meet and talk to Steve again about what is
required and the things we think we can achieve. If you are interested in
participating in this ‘steering’ group, and particularly if you live within
the boundary of the Heritage site, the initial meeting will be held in our
house, so please phone me so that we can establish a time to suit everyone. Bridget Forgotten
Landscapes An innovative new project is being planned to
help protect and promote the outstanding landscape around the town of The 40 kilometre Blaenavon World Heritage Site was
recognised by UNESCO in 2000 as an area of rare
and historic industrial heritage
landscape, shaped by the legacy of well
over a century of iron and coal workings. The
natural heritage of the area is equally rich, including five sites of special
scientific interest and one special area for conservation with heather
moorland, acid and limestone upland grassland, mires, ponds and woodland interspersed
with scarred post-industrial areas. The project is led by Torfaen County Borough Council
in partnership with Monmouthshire County Council, Brecon Beacons National
Park Authority, Blaenavon Landscape World Heritage Site, Gwent Wildlife Trust,
Forestry Commission, Woodland Trust, Countryside Council for The current funding is for project planning,
partnership building, public consultation and
community input into project ideas– a vital process in helping shape the
vision of the project. This one year
phase will result in a full application for funding to HLF for up to £2
million. The competition for financial support is stiff, but
if the partnership is successful the area and its communities will enjoy wide
ranging benefits Councillor
Neil Lewis, Executive Member for Regeneration at Torfaen County Borough Council,
said: "We want people to join the partnership and come up with ideas
to protect and improve the landscape. The best way to do this is through
involving a variety of people who have an interest in the area. Local residents,
farmers, business owners and visitors can all help to bring tremendous
benefits to the area by taking part. Even someone who only occasionally walks or
cycles in the area would be welcome to contribute." Jennifer
Stewart, Heritage Lottery Fund, Manager for Ultimately,
the planning work will develop a portfolio of individual projects which will
bring significant long term benefits, integrating the built, cultural and
natural heritage of the Blaenavon World Heritage Site.
It will aim to help conserve the built features that form the distinct
historic character of the landscape; conserve and restore the natural landscape
features, including working with farmers and Commoners to improve the condition
of the heather moorland, and tackle the bracken problem; and improve access into
the wider landscape and make high quality information available to visitors so
they can learn more about the area’s important cultural heritage and wildlife.
As
well as restoring buildings and natural features, the scheme means more people
get actively involved in the heritage of their local area and learn about local
crafts and develop new skills. This
project is also supported by the Welsh Assembly Government, the Countryside
Council for HLF’s Landscape Partnership Scheme is an innovative
programme which enables community partnerships to work together to tackle the
environmental needs of their local landscapes. The scheme is made up of a
portfolio of individual projects which are designed to bring a wide range of
benefits to an area and the people who live, work and visit there. For further
information on HLF log onto www.hlf.org.uk The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was set up by
Parliament in 1994 to give grants to a wide range of projects involving the
local, regional and national heritage of the The 79th MSWCC annual convention, this year hosted by
Worcestershire, was held at the Friday evening commenced with a not-so-serious quiz, which succeeded in
setting the right tone and getting people talking to each other. After supper,
Nicola Bradbear talked about her work with Bees for Development under the title
“Beekeeping in the Developing World”. As always, Nicola’s tales of foreign
parts and exotic pictures provided an exciting and thought-provoking start to
the conference. Saturday started with a talk from Celia Davies, which heralded a slight
departure from traditional beekeeping topics. Her lecture on “Wild Bees and
Wasps” was accompanied by some extremely professional photographs and included
some fascinating snippets of information. It was intriguing to learn, for
example, that in return for feeding their larvae on caterpillars, wasps receive
a small donation of a sugary secretion from the larvae. Their addiction to this
secretion means that as autumn approaches and there are no longer any larvae in
the nest, wasps invade our kitchens and pub gardens looking for a substitute. A lecture on the archaeology of pollen had been cancelled owing to the
recent departure of Katie Head from Saturday afternoon provided further entertainment in the form of a series of
practical workshops. For those wishing to stay indoors, there were sessions on
wax sculpturing and pollen analysis and afternoon tea with sticky cakes. The
more adventurous donned flimsy veils to help Will Messenger find queens in
Apideas, generously provided by John Gowar, or joined Dave Sutton for a lesson
in disease inspection. After that came the presentation of prizes for the honey show. The general
euphoria quickly evaporated when Bernard Diaper, who had agreed to judge this
year’s offerings, complained that he found the quality of the submissions to
be disappointingly low and certainly not up to the standard of an inter-counties
competition. Those of us who had not contributed to the show reviewed the
display with more critical eyes, though I must say it all looked like honey to
me. Most shrugged their shoulders and headed off for dinner and vocal
entertainment from the “Gilded Lilies”. Sunday’s presentations began with a lecture from Juliet Osborne on her
work at Rothamsted, under the title “Where the Bee Flies-Pollen Ecology”.
Her talk described mainly work with bumble bees, many species of which appear to
be in decline in the Julian Little from Bayer’s Agrochemical Division then talked about the
issue of pesticide use in crop control. Not surprisingly, the audience was
apprehensive from the outset and Dr Little, who specialise in PR work, was
careful to take as objective an approach as he could. He explained the extensive
toxicological evaluation data that had to be gathered before a new chemical
could be considered for pesticide use. The problem faced by the agrochemical
industry was highlighted by the history of imidacloprid (gaucho), an insecticide
marketed by Bayer as a seed treatment. This compound remains banned in The final presentation by Mathilde Briens described the work of a biotech
spinout from Rothamsted called Inscentinel. Work at Rothamsted had shown that
bees exposed to a familiar smell will respond by extending the proboscis.
Pavlovian training can be used to get bees to respond in this way to a range of
volatile chemicals. Dr Briens described how bees could be trained to detect a
few parts per trillion of the explosive TNT and how Inscentinel had developed a
device containing trained bees that was being applied in anti-terrorist work. After a final cup of tea and
the raffle draw, Bridget and I were invited to advertise the delights of
Abergavenny as the venue for the 80th meeting of the MSWCC. We intend
to live up to the high standard set by our colleagues in Worcestershire and look
forward to lots of local support when we act as hosts from September 5-7, 2008. Stuart Apiary
news The honey has been extracted, only 48 lbs this year, it has been a bad
year for many people although some have had a late flow of Himalayan Balsam. All the colonies have been treated with Apiguard, one of the nucs.
absconded so we are down to 8 colonies. It is considered best to have very
shallow ekes on top of the brood boxes when treating with Apiguard, rather than
using supers which are too airy, so Martin Howells is making some for us. Thank
you very much Martin.
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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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