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Herefordshire Beekeepers’Association

NewsletterAugust 2019

www.herefordshirebeekeepers.org.uk

Association Honey Show

Saturday October 12th

Hellens, Much Marcle, Hereforshire

The schedule is now on the Association website.

Please come along to support your Association, and even better enter. In addition to the Honey classes there are categories for photographs, cakes and

preserves, wax and everything to do with bees and beekeeping. You do not need to be an expert and by taking part you will improve your presentation

skills.

F o rth c o min g e v e n ts

August 1st East LAN Acton Green

August 6th Holme Lacy, Varroa

August 13th East LAN Cradley, Stone House Farm, WR13 5JN

August 27th Holme Lacy, Wax rendering

August 31st-September 1st Pershore Worcestershire

Extraction equipment is available to borrow. Please contact your LAN co-ordinator if you wish to use an Association extractor.

Co-ordinators can be contacted by email through the website.

The end of my first beekeeping year

As we get to the end of the beekeeping year, I reflect on the end of my first beekeeping year. My husband Stuart was the beekeeper, I was the bee keepers assistant. He became fascinated by bees some years ago after Bob Cross came to collect a swarm from our garden in the traditional skep. The following year we went to Bob’s open day and he was hooked. “Just the one “ he said, but who has just one hive?We joined the HBKA and attended the local meetings, learning something new every time. He loved the practical aspect of building hives, making frames and working out when to check the bees next. Even better we got started with a split swarm donated by a fellow bee-keeper. Our first batch of honey was certainly sweet success.Last year Stuart died very unexpectedly but not before I was able to report the bee inspectors clean bill of health on our now 4 hives following the EFB outbreak nearby.It was without hesitation the family said to donate his funeral collection to the HBKA. I pledged to try my best to continue with the bees after telling them of Stuart’s loss (as several people said I needed to do.)At this point I would like to say a big big thank you to Bob Cross who came along and helped me in the blurry weeks that followed Stuart’s passing, giving them their varroa treatment and advising me when to feed them. I continued attending the local meetings, but now trying to take in all the information for myself. The four hives survived the winter and went into production. I nervously checked them, never yet seeing the queen but sometimes able to spot eggs and certainly larvae & brood. Another big thank you to Dave and Sue Garrett who gave up an afternoon and came along and went through a thorough hive inspection with me. Yes I had brood in one of my supers, my mistake in not putting a queen excluder back properly or a skinny queen? No matter , they helped me rectify that. Dave also very kindly repaired my extractor which had taken me 12 hours to extract the first 2 supers of honey (due to wonky bearings) so my second extraction only took me 4 hours. I proudly turned some surplus plastic boxes into super frame collecting boxes to make it easier to lift the frames out one by one as a full super is too heavy for me to lift. As the oilseed rape finished I took off the last of the supers. Their extraction took me only 2 hours as I decided to treat myself to a small electric extractor. What bliss , just press a button and no sore arms. The honey set rock solid in the tubs, so thanks again to Sue and Dave who put the tubs in their warming box to soften so I could jar what was our biggest oilseed rape honey haul to date.The bees started swarming, so as instructed at the meetings I managed to collect the swarms in my polynuc. I say swarms , as in the end I actually collected 4 swarms in my garden which were passed on to fellow beekeepers. One of my hives has some very grumpy bees who seem to take a delight in dive bombing me when I’m trying to garden, they particularly like to sting my ears, they must be Noddy and Big Ears fans as mine swell to three times their normal size. They do not like my double chin either and seem to delight in going for it even with my veil & suit on so I end up looking like Jabba the Hut from Star Wars! I am now contemplating moving them over the winter to another site further away from my growing plot.Like many other bee keepers, I’m not sure if all my hives’ queens have survived as very little signs of new brood in 2 of my hives while the other 2 have queen cells aplenty . There was a little hope last week when one of my ‘queenless’ hives had very newly hatched larvae in it. The adage ‘just be patient and let the bees sort themselves out ‘ certainly rings true.I feel a lot more confident about beekeeping than I did last year , and it’s entirely due to the support and encouragement of HBKA members. It’s made what could have been a difficult year slightly easier to bear and I’m very grateful for that. My sincere thanks to the members of HBKA

Maureen Sullivan

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HBKA ÉLAN meeting – learning from mistakes and testing for varroa

4th July 2019 at St. Katherine’s, Cradley.

If we can learn from our mistakes, I have had plenty of learning opportunities in the short time I have been keeping bees. The ELAN visit to St Katherine’s was an opportunity for around 15 others to learn from what I have not yet got right, and from Bob Cross (whose advice I should listen to more often). The visit took place six days following an inspection by the SBI (Seasonal Bee Inspector) as a follow up to an outbreak of EFB (European Foul Brood disease) within a 3km radius a year ago.A very quick explanation of the background to each of the colonies revealed an immediate lesson. During the SBI inspection he and I had spotted a colony with no eggs but two queen cells, one damaged. We had left the undamaged one. The colony swarmed four days later. The SBI had complimented the way that another colony had two 14 x 12 frames wall to wall with brood. That colony had swarmed five days later. Not wanting to conduct unnecessary intrusions into the colonies, I had used the SBI visit, focussed solely on looking for EFB, as an excuse not to carry out a full, detailed inspection myself. If I had I would have spotted other queen cells. This was a mistake.All the hives had had inspection boards put in 48 hours before the ELAN meeting and these were now inspected for varroa. Only ones and twos were found, not because the colonies were necessarily devoid of varroa, but because the boards had been in for only a short time (in view of the warm weather) and because some of the colonies had recently been though a brood break. We opened up the hive that had produced three varroa on its floor, and sure enough Bob Cross showed us some sealed larvae that had been damage by Varroa. We took some sample bees and conducted two tests for ‘phoretic’ mites. The first was an alcohol wash, in which the sample bees and varroa are drowned in diluted surgical spirit and any varroa fall off. A couple of varroa were seen floating in the fluid. Unfortunately this process kills all the sample bees. The second test consisted of putting the sample bees in a pot with a mesh floor and injecting CO2 which sends them to sleep. This we did (once I finally could get the cobbled together CO2 injector to work) Again we found one or two anaesthetised varroa which had fallen off the anaesthetised bees. The bees started groggily to come round and eventually flew back (albeit possibly with hangovers)Eight hours before the ELAN meeting, I had conducted a pin test on some sealed brood in this hive. This consisted of pushing a pin into 50 marked sealed cells and seeing whether the bees would clean out the damaged larvae. To the contrary we found that the bees had resealed the cells. This was not an indicator that this colony did not exhibit the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) behavioural trait that I had been trying to test for, but that I had not put the pin in far enough. I will reread the instructions.Another of the colonies was known to have a Drone Laying Queen (DLQ) so Bob was able to open this hive and show us all the typical signs. We looked for the queen, but could not find her. She must have been hiding out of embarrassment and knowing her fate once she were to be found.

Our last inspection was of a swarm which had been caught in a bait box less than a couple of weeks earlier. In that time they had fully drawn out five frames with foundation and one foundationless frame. Bob sensibly suggested that I stop feeding them as the queen, who had been performing prodigiously, risked running out of room to lay.

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Over tea and cakes (thank you Kirsten) we were able to look inside the bait box which I have used to tempt three or four swarms each year. Earlier this year one small swarm had moved in and promptly moved out again, building comb on the outside of the box. Then came the wet June and the bees had starved to death. We were able to see the sample of comb with dead bees, their heads buried in the cells desperately searching for the last vestiges of food.

Just before everybody left, Bob kindly helped me raise the bait box back into position. We shall see if it catches a late swarm in July, although not worth a fly.

Post Script:Eleven days after the ELAN visit I went to the DLQ hive with the intention of shaking them out and putting a queen excluder across the entrance (cf. report for 16th July ELAN meeting). In the middle I found a frame with some beautifully capped worker brood, neatly surrounded by larvae, surrounded in turn by almost a 14x12 frame full of eggs. She must have overheard us discussing her fate.

Roger Gill

Starving bees

A big thank you to John and Anne Robinson for hosting our garden party on July 20th. The sun shone and we all enjoyed sandwiches, cake and soft fruit, with plenty of bee chat for good measure. Sorry I forgot to take any photos.

Mary

HBKA ÉLAN meeting – checking hives and medicating for varroa

16th July 2019 at Stone House, Cradley, by kind permission of Kath and Bob Cross.Sensibly Bob suggested that we should not disturb his production hives with supers on, but that still left nine hives of various shapes and sizes for around a dozen or so of us to go through.The first was task was to deal with a Drone Laying Queen (DLQ). Not having found the miscreant queen, Bob placed a strip of queen excluder across the entrance and shook out all the bees on to the ground. All except the queen would be able to make their way back, and the then queenless colony can be united with a queenright colony.The next hive contained a swarm collected four weeks previously. We saw lot of eggs and spotted the queen. Bob showed us how to treat the colony with Apiguard.Hive three was a swarm from only a week ago but already they had drawn frames and knew there was a laying queen present as there were eggs to be seen. We put a new frame in between those frames with brood and those frames with food.The fourth hive was a weak colony on 14 x 12 frames. It had swarmed in late may and now had a DLQ. No point in treating this colony at this stage.Students of honey history were next able to see and open up a “Honey Home” national hive. These were made in small numbers in the 1970s out of ‘integral skinned polyurethane foam’. A classic example of British invention, (patent 35554/74 dated 13th August 1974) and failed British commercialisation, it was ahead of its time and the company producing it folded a few years later. Bob showed us how to treat the colony in his example with Api Life Var.I do not know if you have problems getting through the weekly edition of the Ledbury Reporter, but the bees in the next two colonies did. They had been united with a couple of pages from that newspaper to separate them. They had yet to make their way through and meet each other. Hive seven had swarmed, but the new queen was laying.We opened the penultimate hive to find, to our surprise, a skep therein. Bob had been raising this swarm in a skep to allow him the opportunity to show the old beekeeping methods at shows and exhibitions.

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And the ninth hive gave us the opportunity to see a queen being introduced from a Butler cage.Over tea and cakes we learned more about varroa control methods, including the chance to have a look at a little machine for sublimating oxalic acid crystals and sending the vapour out into a hive. Roger Gill

DLQ Cottage hiveBob’s skep

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Another of Alfred Watkin’s photographs, it seems this was hand coloured. Not much has changed, though I would not like to do this outdoors, but the two gents don’t seem to be surrounded by bees. A messy job wearing a waistcoat with a watch and chain!

Mary Walter

Uncapping and extracting

PS If you are tempted to buy an oxalic acid vapouriser, don’t forget that you will need full protective gear, especially a face mask and goggles suitable for organic acids, as oxalic acid will have a nasty effect on your lungs. This equipment should only be used when the colony is broodless, as oxalic acid does not kill varroa mites in brood cells.

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HBKA NLAN meeting – mating nucs and queen introduction

25th July 2019 at Leigh Bank, Hope-under-Dinmore, by kind permission of Mary and Steve Walter

The hottest day of the year – but drizzling rain is desultory bursts.Around half a dozen of us, including a couple of beginners, were there to see Mary start by demonstrating the parts and workings of an Apidea mini mating nucleus. She then took a successfully mated queen from another mating nuc and slipped it into a little square cage, with a few workers, ready for introduction into a queenless colony.Of though the garden to the apiary where we watched as Mary and Bob slid the new queen in her little cage into the gap between two frames in the target queenless colony.The next hive was an opportunity for one of the beginners (with a little help) to open and check. It turned out to be queenless too, but not worth saving, so it was decided that they colony should be shaken out later, allowing the workers to enter and boost some of the other hives.Another chance for another beginner to handle some frames came as Mary opened up another hive. This one was known to be queen right, but had been slow to get going this year. Although it had last been inspected only a week before the meeting, five queen cells were spotted and taken down. It was not a strong hive, with a poor laying pattern, perhaps because the cool wet June had held it back.

Last but not least we were able to see a Snelgrove board in action and had the method explained to us.

Adjourning back to the house for tea and cakes (and tasting some honey) we discovered that one of the learners had just been awarded her MSc in zoology with a thesis on honeybee hygiene behaviour. She is most welcome to the Association.

Roger Gill

Queen insertionPoor brood pattern with queen cell

That's all for now.Bob and Kath

Bo b ’s Be e lin e s

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Over in the east of the County the season will soon be over. Time to take off those full supers, and start to prepare your bees for next year.

Time to treat your bees for varroa, with one of the recommended treatments. MAQs strips are very good, BUT if the temperature is too high, they could damage the colonies. Please be careful.

Now is the time to unite weaker colonies and nucs with stronger hives.

We had the June gap this year, but if the hot weather continues we may have to feed our bees in August, so keep a check on stores. Don’t forget to put your wasp traps out, lots of wasps about.

Thank you to all the members who supported and help run the East LAN meetings and events.

Knapweed is still flowering in our meadow, and is very attractive to both bees and butterflies.

Wasp bafflingHaving just lost a colony to wasps (admittedly a very weak colony that was due for uniting) I have made and fitted wasp baffle entrances to one or two of my other hives. The idea is to make it easier for guard bees to keep the wasps out. Cut a piece of wood (the lower one in the picture) the same length and height as your current entrance block (the upper one in the picture):

Drill, cut, saw or rout a slot in the middle of the piece of wood. It needs to be around 75mm long and 6mm wide:

Get some plastic electrical trunking (I use the 16mm x 16mm from Screwfix, much cheaper than Homebase). Cut off a piece around 240 mm long. Cut a slot in the base of it to match the slot in the wood, line it up and attach it with a couple of screws.

Then drill a bunch of 2mm holes in the top roughly corresponding with where the slot in the base is.

Slide the top bit of trunking onto the bottom bit and it is now ready for use. The bees will be confused for the first minute or two but it does not take them long to work out how to get in and out.

A baffled wasp

Roger Gill

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Registered Charity No:117491710

CO M M IT T E E M E M BE R S :

Chairman Andy Tatchell

Vice Chairman Debbie Smith

Secretary Mary Walter

Acting Treasurer John Robinson

Membership Sec. Steve Utley

Co mmitte e:Roger GillRob WilliamsRobert CrossNicola Percival

LAN CO -O RDIINA TO RSSouth LAN: Val LilwallNorth LAN: Mary WalterEast LAN: Sue Garrett

Worcestershire Beekeepers’ Association in association with the National Bee Unit.

‘Better Bees, Better Beekeeping and Better Bee Health’

August 31st-1st September 2019

Pershore College

See the WBKA website for further details

If foul brood is suspected, contact our RBI, Colin Pavey email Colin.pavey@apha.gov.uk Phone 07775 119471, or seasonal bee inspectors: Gordon Bull 07867 351626 covers the Worcestershire/ Herefordshire border. Noel Parker 07900 404245 covers some of the North Herefordshire area.

To contact a member of the committee please look on our website for the appropriate email address. Herefordshirebeekeepers.org.uk

Topical Tip

When checking the bees at this time of year it is a good idea to sort out any badly drawn combs, or those containing a preponderance of drone comb. If they are moved to the edge of the brood nest now, they can be removed next spring as part of your comb replacement programme.