We are looking for 60 beekeepers to take part in a project to record local air pollution. Working together we will collect small samples of bees to discover whether air pollutants are present in the hives.
Go to https://www.thrivinghive.co.uk/ to see how it works. Thanks to David Parker for this item.
This looks to be an interesting and worthwhile project. Do spend a few minutes reading the details even if you do not intend to be a volunteer. It gives an idea of our polluted environment.
Thanks to Jenny Nield (Report), Stewart Westsmith (Demonstration), Nicola Simpson, David Parker, Claire Balla (Photos), Michael Main (Host)
The purpose of this meeting was to introduce Stewart Westsmith, our seasonal bee inspector (between April and October), and for him to demonstrate how to carry out a disease inspection on a colony. Last year he inspected 1100 hives. David Parker and Michael Main opened the meeting by thanking everyone for attending despite the weather. (In fact this turned out to be quite good, warm with a hint of damp air near the end, not a return to the heavy downpour we had at the beginning – see photo below.)
Throughout the meeting, due to Covid and the local EFB outbreak, only Stewart and Michael handled the frames and any equipment during the inspections.
Quoting Stewart’s opening comments:
“We’ve had an increase of EFB in areas in Surrey which we never had before, so it’s obviously more important to be aware of checking your hives for signs of EFB and of course AFB, recognising it and being able to then have the confidence to say whether it is FB or getting it analysed. What I’m busy doing at the moment is finding cases, diagnosing them, treating them and making sure it is not spreading out of that area. This has been my whole summer.”
Stewart stressed the importance of hygienic practice throughout the apiaries particularly if you have multiple sites. Here is the list of the items he mentioned on a few occasions: boots, gloves, (disposable is better), jackets, tools and a bucket of washing soda solution to clean all tools between each hive, which is highly advisable (4.5 litres water to 1 kilo soda crystals). He uses wire wool in the soda solution to clean the tools between each hive.
Stewart has several clean suits to change into for every Apiary. He sprays his car with anti-bacterial solution and at home he sprays door handles and everything he touches, very mindful of potential spread.
He uses a plastic sandwich bag around the smoker. The puffer on smokers is sometimes difficult to scrub down, hence a bag that can be taken off and replaced with a new bag is good hygiene.
He stressed the importance of beekeepers registering their hives on Bee Base and keeping the record of hive numbers up to date. It is a big help for the inspectors as if there is an outbreak, they can contact all beekeepers within a 3 km radius of it or more.
Stewart then went on to inspect 2 hives that Michael had prepared.
When it comes to FB disease inspection, the only sure method is to shake the bees off each frame, looking out for that one cell that has any signs of disease. It only takes one cell to show us. And you can’t always see it with bees on the frame. The best way is to shake them off.
If found early enough, the bees can be saved, if not, it’s destruction and sterilisation of the equipment. The first step is to inspect the hive from the outside.
Make sure the hive looks ok, not damaged from woodpecker or other. Check underneath the floor of the hive, to see if there are dead bees about, this gives an indication of what’s going on inside the hive. If there’s a mass of dead bees at the front it could be an indication of starvation, varroa, poisoning or chronic bee paralysis, among other things.
Also it’s good to see what the bees are bringing in, pollen on their legs is a sign of brood in the hive.
You don’t have to see all the signs, 1 or 2 is sufficient to alert you.
Generally, EFB is found on unsealed brood, but can be found in sealed. AFB is mostly in sealed brood.
When looking for EFB some signs are an uneven or patchy brood pattern, dead and discoloured larvae in uncapped cells, twisted lying unnaturally in the cell, in some circumstances larvae may die after capping; sometimes there is also an unpleasant smell.
If a hive has any of these signs, the apiary must be put on stand still, (nothing allowed off the site). When results are verified, and the infested hive is cleaned, treated or destroyed by burning, the stand still order will be cancelled.
Stewart emphasised that if you have concerns at any time, do please take pictures and email them to him, as this can be a quick way of finding out if your bees require further investigation. Email in Contacts List.
We are very pleased to tell you that the Show will be held this year, following its cancellation last year. The details have to be finalised as we have not yet fully returned to normal from Covid, but the following website has much more information, including the Schedule of Classes: www.honeyshow.co.uk
The following is quoted from that information:
‘Thank you for supporting the National Honey Show. After such a long period of lockdown I think we are all looking forward to seeing each other face to face (not too close though!). Do start preparing your entries so we can make the 2021 show a bumper celebration as we start our return to normality. We are doing everything we can to make this a normal show, but as we go to print, we are unsure of exactly what rules we will have to follow to comply with COVID-19 regulations. We may have to implement a time schedule for you to bring in your entries, so please take note of the changes to the entry form and look out for specific instructions that will be sent out with the entry.’
Surrey Honey Show, 10-11th September
The Honey Show that usually takes place annually in a marquee at the Surrey County Show in Guildford, will not take place again this year because of Covid restrictions.
However, The Show Committee decided that there will be a Show. Full details will be available later on, but for now here is some advance information:
Venue: Henfold Lane Apiary, Beare Green, Dorking (home of the Reigate Division)
Classes: 21 classes, similar to 2019 schedule, will be available later.
Editorial
Look at the National Bee Unit (NBU) website for details and photos of the effects of the disease and check the larvae (unsealed brood) in your hives carefully. Report anything suspicious to our local Seasonal Bee Inspector, Steward Westsmith.
Over the last few years there has been a considerable amount of debate on the use of polystyrene hives. As usual with beekeepers and many beekeeping matters, there is a very wide division of opinion on this. Some have advocated their use in preference to wooden hives, while others, equally knowledgeable and skilled in beekeeping, have been totally opposed to them. The former have pointed out that they have heat insulating advantages in winter and claim that the colony grows more rapidly and to a greater size in spring. They also say that they are lighter to handle and that their cost is less than that of of wooden hives, but it should be remembered that the life of a poly hive is far less than that of a wooden hive, some of which are still perfectly usable after 50 years or more. It would be interesting to do a proper long-term comparison of the cost of the two types. A very rough estimate indicates that a conservative figure for the real cost of poly hives is at least twice that of wooden ones as they don’t last as long. Those who do not like them point out that polystyrene hives cannot be sterilized as effectively as wooden ones as a blowlamp obviously cannot be used for this purpose. However, a more sinister problem has come to my attention in recent weeks, now that EFB has been identified in our area. Apparently the NBU does not take responsibility for the sterilising of polystyrene hives (as they do by the flaming of wooden hives) when foulbrood (EFB or AFB) has been found in them and so this very important task is left to individual beekeepers to manage. Full details can be found under: Hive Cleaning and Sterilisation on their website (https://nationalbeeunit.com). Treatment of poly hives is on the 9th (unnumbered) page. Cleaning has to be done by careful scraping, then sterilisation by immersing and scrubbing the hives in a large container of water to which various chemicals (some dangerous to handle) have been added by the beekeeper and it is implied that this important process does not necessarily have to be carried out or observed by the NBU inspector. It does not take much imagination to realise that infected or inadequately cleaned polystyrene hives may well be put back into use, or taken to the local authority’s dump from where polystyrene currently goes to landfill, complete with AFB or EFB, which bees in the area could easily pick up. As poly hives cannot be expected to last for as long as wooden ones, we could expect a greater rate of replacement of them with the possibility of more infected hives being dumped (with or without sterilising). This all seems to be a great way of spreading these highly infectious diseases after the wonderful work done by the Bee Inspectors and others over many years to reduce them to tolerable levels, their work could well be undermined by the practices described above. Then, of course, there is the serious matter of AFB with its long-lived (40 or more years) highly infectious spores that could be spread around as a result of careless polyhive disposal. Also, there is the further damage to the environment by the scrapping of more plastic materials. There are currently moves afoot to influence the NBU in view of the likely effect of their proposals and no doubt we shall hear more of this in time.
Of course the simple way to stop this serious source of spreading of AFB and EFB is to make the manufacture, sale, importation and use of polystyrene beehives illegal. It would also reduce the mounting problem of plastic in the environment which is another major cause of concern. This would raise another set of problems, but I would suggest that these would be more easily solvable and of significantly less importance than disease spread.
I realise that there is a lot of disagreement among beekeepers on the use of polyhives, and I fear that the opinions of many beekeepers are deeply entrenched on this, one way or the other, as with many other beekeeping opinions! However, I would suggest that new beekeepers do make a very serious attempt to look into and weigh up the pros and cons of polystyrene before taking one view or the other.
I welcome any comments on this article. Do please point out any errors or false assumptions. I assure you that I will not be offended by anything you write. I hope there will be plenty to put into the next Newsletter, either with or without your name as you wish. This is too important a subject to take comments personally. I think that we need to deal in facts. The important point is to establish what the actual facts are, among the vast number of opinions.
UPDATE: WBK Summer Social Meeting, August 21st, 3.30pm
Given the lockdown we have all endured for the last year or so we thought it would be a good idea for us all to meet up and catch up. Hoping that the weather is good, Paul and Helen Bunclark have very kindly agreed to let us use their facility; most beginners and students of recent years will already be aware of it from the summer practicals they will have attended there. A map and details of where Paul’s place is for those that do not know were enclosed in the recent News Letter.
The structure will be that WBK will provide Sausages, Burgers, Buns, etc. with attendees asked to bring along any special foods they want as well as salads and desserts to share. Please bring any drink you want other than tea and coffee – for which please bring your own mug. As we will be buying the food we would like to get an indication of numbers in advance, please therefore email David Parker (address below) with ‘Coming to BBQ’ in the subject line with how many e.g. Coming to BBQ 2 or Coming to BBQ 1, thanks. If you require a vegetarian option please also put that in the subject line.
The invitation is open to all members and we hope you will bring your partner. It would be great to get as many people along as possible so some of our new members can meet the older ones. We do hope you can join us for what I am sure will be a great afternoon.
David Parker (davidparker@polymathconsulting.com)
HOLD THE DATE: Summer Social. August 21st, 3:30pm
Given the lockdown we have all endured for the last year or so we thought it would be a good idea for us all to meet up and catch up. Hoping that the weather is good, Paul and Helen Bunclark have very kindly agreed to let us use their facility; most beginners will already be aware of it from the summer practicals they will have attended there this year. The idea is to have a bring along BBQ. Closer to the time we will ask people to give us an indication if they are attending and the division will supply rolls, sausages, burgers with everyone invited to bring any special foods they want as well as salads and desserts to share.
September 18th, 2.30pm
Preparing for Winter. This meeting will be hosted at David Parker’s Fairoaks Airport apiary. There is more than one way to prepare for winter so in addition to breaking into groups and going through some hives looking at stores, etc. David will take us through how he takes his bees through winter, his method of two National 8-frame boxes. It is also hoped that one or two other beekeepers will talk about how they take their bees through winter. When to feed syrup, when to use fondant, what ratios of sugar to water for syrup, how much syrup to feed, can you over feed your bees? All these and other questions will be addressed along with talking about winter chemical treatments and options for controlling Varroa.
David Parker davidparker@polymathconsulting.com 07712 07930
As the Covid rules about maximum numbers of people gathering were still in force, Marion had organised a QR code for track and trace purposes, for those with a smartphone and the NHS app to scan on arrival. For those unable to do that, Jane and Michael were on hand, both to arrange the parking and to list names.
The main purpose of the meeting was about setting up colonies for the anticipated nectar flow.
We were all given a programme of items that would be covered, on the back of which was a diagram of the apiary, with comments about each of the colonies.
For various reasons, I hadn’t seen Marion & Geoff for quite a while and was surprised to find that Geoff had reverted to the (nineteen) sixties, with his “rocker” look. He did seem to have left the Harley at home, though.
Marion welcomed us to the apiary, making a few remarks about Geoff’s appearance, explaining about the set up of the apiary and the reason for the extra “fencing” (to deter keen visitors from approaching the hives). She made the point that they do what they have found to be the best way for them, in their apiary, since there are various ways to run one. She explained that they normally change the comb on most frames in each hive every other year, but that some of the hives currently have quite “dirty” brood comb as they were not strong enough to stand the disruption of a major comb change this year.
They run their hives on 14×12 brood boxes, so that each frame has the equivalent area of a brood and a half of a “normal” national hive.
She handed over to Geoff, with instructions to “keep it short” and on point.
Since quite a lot of the attendees, 29 I counted, were from the latest training courses, Geoff started by defining the summer flow and the likely/usual timing, mentioning the blooming of various plants, to be aware that the flow had started. He then went on to stress the importance of checking that you have enough equipment to cope with demand, whether that is supers with frames of drawn comb from previous years, or with foundation; how to space the frames, for personal preference, which prompted conversations around how many frames to put in a super and the pros and cons of each.
He briefly discussed extraction, with the usual invitation to new members to visit the Cooper household when they do theirs, later in the summer. This prompted a short discussion on the benefits of owning an extractor and the type, tangential or radial. At this point Michael Main explained about the association ones that are available to members for a nominal fee.
We got the usual, amusing, interaction between Marion & Geoff, in terms of keeping on subject. All this, of course, was done with the help of equipment from their inventory, to illustrate the talk.
Geoff then handed over to David Parker, who gave us a talk about cut comb and the various ways to produce and package it for sale. Unfortunately, one of the bits of equipment failed in demonstration, but we were all able to get the gist of how it is supposed to work.
By now, the assumed timing had overrun slightly and it was time to inspect a couple of the hives.
The group split in two. Geoff went through a hive in which the bees had ‘chewed’ almost every frame of comb! I stayed with Marion, who showed us a hive that was used earlier this year for queen rearing, by packing the bees from the brood box and two supers into a small area (only 6 frames), so that several queen cells were created as swarm preparation. The queen was removed into a prepared 2-frame nuc just before the queen cells were sealed. Before the queens emerged the queen cells were removed and put in nucs or mini-nucs made up from the main colony. The space in the colony was then restored, and the queen nuc reunited with it. Our group also looked into a couple of the nucs in the apiary. The queen was spotted in each one. Following this Geoff showed us his Asian Hornet trap. He has made his own patterned on an original that he looked at, which he felt was of inferior quality. It hasn’t caught any Asian Hornets yet (on Guernsey), though it has trapped some wasps. Let’s hope it’s a long time before any Asian Hornets are in the area.
I was unable to stay for the socialising that was set to follow the talk and demonstration, so I can’t comment on that, but I expect that some more useful time was spent by all. (I think that must have been the case as some of the members did not leave until nearly 6.00 pm, and we had the pleasure of receiving some appreciative comments. Everyone had brought cakes and savouries to make a lovely picnic which was enjoyed by all. – Ed.)
Thank you to Marion and Geoff for this opportunity to visit their apiary and especially for the time they devote to helping all the members of WBK. Paul Hildersley
Thank you Paul for your report and appreciative comments. Sorry you were not able to stay to the end.
I am pleased to be able to firm up the dates now for the summer meeting schedule, Covid issues allowing. This year we have deliberately ensured that all three meetings are particularly relevant to those from this year’s and last year’s beginners courses. I would stress that everyone is of course welcome and it would be great for the beginners to meet some more of the division members. Please put the dates in your diary and I hope as many of you as possible will attend. The more bees you see the better you are able to understand what is normal behaviour as bees are often challenging in that they do not read the text books!
June 19th, 2.30pm
Preparing for the Flow.
Geoff and Marion have kindly offered to host this meeting at their Painshill Apiary.
July 31st, 2.30pm
‘An Inspector Calls’. Our seasonal Bee Inspector, Stewart Westsmith, will inspect several hives, taking us through what they look for and how they look. A masterclass in Bee Disease inspection but rather than ‘in theory’, this is the real practice. Essential for all beginners and more experienced beekeepers alike.
We are very fortunate that Aslam has again offered to open his amazing garden(s) to us. For those who have been before you will remember what a wonderful location it is. Please contact us for his address or see the emailed newsletter.
August 21st, probably 4pm but time tbc
Summer Social. Given the lockdown we have all endured for the last year or so we thought it would be a good idea for us all to meet up and catch up. Hoping that the weather is good, Paul and Helen Bunclark have very kindly agreed to let us use their facility; most beginners will already be aware of it from the summer practicals they will have attended there this year. The idea is to have a bring along BBQ. Closer to the time we will ask people to give us an indication if they are attending and the division will supply rolls, sausages, burgers with everyone invited to bring any special foods they want as well as salads and desserts.
September 18th, 2.30pm
Preparing for Winter. This meeting will be hosted at David Parker’s Fairoaks Airport apiary. There is more than one way to prepare for winter so in addition to breaking into groups and going through some hives looking at stores, etc. David will take us through how he takes his bees through winter, his method of two national 8- frame boxes. It is also hoped that one or two other beekeepers will talk about how they take bees through winter. When to feed syrup, when to use fondant, what ratios of sugar to water for syrup, how much syrup to feed, can you over feed your bees? All these and other questions will be addressed along with talking about winter chemical treatments and options for controlling Varroa.
David Parker davidparker@polymathconsulting.com
Weybridge Town Business Group market on 26th June 2021 – volunteers wanted
We are once again taking a stall at the market on Monument Green (near Waitrose/Ship Inn). It would be great to have some volunteers for this. I will allocate shifts once I know how many people will be helping, but it is usually a couple of hours of chatting to the public and selling honey and candles. We are looking to have a contactless card payment system for the day. Volunteers can bring honey to sell, which is usually very popular.
Contact Jane Hunter on 01932 857427 or email weybridgebees.sec@gmail.com More information about the market can be found at: www.allaboutweybridge.co.uk/weybridge-market
Jane Hunter
COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes) is an international, non-profit association headquartered in Bern, Switzerland that is focussed on improving the well-being of bees at a global level.
We are composed of scientific professionals that include researchers, veterinarians, agriculture extension specialists and students. We understand that cooperation and open dialogue are key to better understanding the reasons why bee populations are threatened in today’s world. (Bold highlighting is mine. – Ed)
In the last decade, elevated losses of western honey bee colonies have been observed, mainly in Europe and North America, but the underlying causes still remain unclear. In 2008, European and USA honey bee experts formed a network “COLOSS” realising that efforts by individual countries to identify the drivers of losses were unlikely to succeed, given the current consensus that causes are complex and can be different between regions and between the years. Now more than 1000 scientists are working together in this network in specific working groups. This information was extracted from the COLOSS website.
A request from COLOSS for help in identifying the cause of honey bee losses
The epidemiological working group have developed a standardised questionnaire to identify the underlying causal factors of losses and provide beekeepers with sustainable management strategies.We now invite you to fill in the questionnaire for 2021 which you will find below.
https://www.bee-survey.com/index.php/253937
This will enable us to compare your answers with those of other beekeepers. With your data we can estimate the relative risk of colony losses for beekeeper decisions such as Varroa treatment, migration of colonies and comb replacement. We also aim to identify differences in relative mortality risk between regions. This will enable follow up research projects in specific regions.
At your option your personal details may be recorded, however we undertake not to disclose them to any third party to protect your privacy.
Finally your help is much appreciated. Please can I ask you to promote this survey and the questionnaire link through this open letter to as many English beekeepers as you are able to do so. Feel free to share the link by email, word of mouth, newsletters or social media and to your local beekeeping organisations. In doing so you will be making a contribution to tackling the problem of colony losses and ensuring that English data is represented as an equal partner in the COLOSS European community.
Norman Carreck, Member of Coloss for England
The usual Honey Show that usually takes place annually in a marquee at the Surrey County Show in Guildford, will not take place again this year because of Covid restrictions. However, The Show Committee decided last week that there will be a Show. Full details will be available later on, but for now here is some advance information:
Date: 10-11 September 2021
Venue: Henfold Lane Apiary (home of the Reigate Division)
Classes: 21 classes, similar to 2019 schedule