This month (July 11th) we have been invited to visit one of Tony Little’s apiaries in the Market Drayton area. Tony is the Vice-Chairman of the Association and his skill as a beekeeper is second to none. The choice of site will depend on what is best to see on the day concerned, so he suggests that we meet him at 2pm outside The Stormy Petrel pub, which is on the A41 about half a mile south east of the junction of the A53 and A41 at Tern Hill. Travelling towards Newport it is on the left side of the road and is quite large, making it unlikely to be missed. For those using SatNav, the postcode is TF9 3QD. Tony will then guide us to his chosen site, so don’t be late!

4.      Disease Recognition Day Report

The long awaited Disease Recognition Day finally arrived on Saturday 13th June. A ‘full house’ of around 100 beekeepers from Shropshire and beyond assembled at the Shirehall to hear the combined wisdom of the West Region Bee Inspectorate on how to help our bees thrive in an increasingly hostile world.

Dave Sutton opened the day by outlining the work of the National Bee Unit, now part of the Food & Environment Research Agency (formerly DEFRA). He highlighted the current workload of a stretched Inspection team and underlined the increasing emphasis on improving beekeepers’ own skills and standards of husbandry.

Dave Maslen then provided a succinct summary of the latest word on varroa, including monitoring our colonies by noting natural mite drop and then treating accordingly. He referenced the New Zealand Ministry publication ‘Control of Varroa’* as a comprehensive guide to treatments, though some of them may not be available to UK beekeepers. Dave advised a continuous and varied approach to deal with surges in mite numbers, according to the state of the colony and the season. Options include queen trapping (and the subsequent destruction of new sealed cells), creating artificial swarms (which can then be treated with oxalic acid), dusting with icing sugar, drone brood removal. He also reviewed the current chemical treatments, though underlined that we should not rely on Apistan/Bayverol unless we know that our mites are not resistant to their active ingredient. Finally he spoke about other threats to bees and particularly the Foul Brood diseases. He urged that we should examine all brood combs at least twice each season, shaking off the bees to do so. At the moment, 97% of all foul brood outbreaks are discovered by the Inspectorate rather that by the beekeepers concerned, whereas the onus should be on the individual beekeeper to recognise and report statutory diseases, which the Inspectorate will deal with.

Dave Sutton returned to give us a guide to the notifiable foul brood diseases. He described what they are, how they are spread, and how they are treated (EFB by shook swarm early in the season or by Inspector administered antibiotics later; AFB by total destruction of the infected colony). This was followed up in a practical afternoon session by an opportunity to examine infected brood combs that had been specially provided for the purpose. Megan Seymour & Justus Klaar also presented a workshop on nosema, which included a demonstration of how to prepare a sample of ‘bee soup’ for microscopic examination. We all then had an opportunity to see the nosema spores for ourselves.

The afternoon continued with presentations on good apiary hygiene (Charles Millar), which on its own could greatly reduce the spread of the minor brood ailments followed by an outline of an effective Integrated Pest Management plan (Megan Seymour), helpfully summarised in a handout. Jo Schup, our own SBI, described the benefits of our all registering on BeeBase, the Bee Unit’s national database, which stimulated an interesting discussion and won general approval, before Dave Sutton brought the afternoon to a close with a light-hearted quiz (1st prize a box of washing soda) and a brief question and answer session.

This splendid day was the brainchild of Robert Swallow, who did much of the ‘heavy-lifting’ in advance, ably supported b y Jo Schup and other members of the SBKA Committee and their partners. We owe them all a debt of gratitude. Many thanks!!

* The first edition of this booklet can be downloaded from the internet at this address. A more recent updated edition has been published but appears only to be available by purchase from the National Beekeepers’ Association of New Zealand (Price NZ$30)

5.     Advice on Bee Stings

(Stings are always with us - as are all sorts of suggested remedies. Here are a few collected from various sources recently, courtesy eBEES : Ed.)

(a) From Bee Talk, Newsletter of the Blackburn BKA June 2009
A couple of weeks ago, I was stung by both a bee and hornet while working in the garden. My arm swelled up, so I went to the clinic. The doctor gave me cream and an antihistamine. The next day the swelling was getting progressively worse, so I went to my regular doctor. The arm was infected and needed an antibiotic. The doctor told me - ' The next time you get stung, put a penny on the bite for 15 minutes'.

That night, my niece was stung by two bees. I looked at the bite and it had already started to swell. So, I taped a penny to her arm for 15 minutes. The next morning, there was no sign of a bite. We decided that she just wasn't allergic to the sting.

Soon, I was again gardening outside. I got stung again, twice by a hornet on my left hand. I thought, here I go again to the doctor for another antibiotic. I promptly got my money out and taped two pennies to my bites, then sat and sulked for 15 minutes. The penny took the string out of the bite immediately.

In the meantime the hornets were attacking, and my friend was stung on the thumb. Again the penny. The next morning I could only see the spot where the hornet had stung me. No redness, no swelling.

(b) Here is another solution from the Notts. BKA Newsletter August 2008
Always carry some soluble aspirin. If you ever have a sting (wasp or bee) place a tablet on your tongue and when it froths put it (the tablet not the tongue!) and the froth on the sting site. If you do this within 15 minutes of being stung, you should avoid any swelling and inflammation. I’ve used it on numerous occasions and it works for me.

(c) ...and some kill or cure remedies for bee stings from Warwick BKA

• To stop the smarting of a bee sting apply some clay kneaded and thinned with urine.
• A bee sting treated with ammonia and whisky will relieve you in a measure.
• Cure a bee sting by covering it with earwax.
• Immediate relief from a bee sting can be secured by covering it with a piece of lean raw meat.
• If you are stung by a bee, use hartshorn: if bitten by a snake get drunk.
• If you would prefer to treat bee stings naturally, use fresh cow manure. Others suggest smearing with mud or clay - less smelly!
• If any person should be stung by a bee or other insect, rub some spirits of turpentine on the place, and the pain will nearly cease in one minute.
• Rub the bee that has stung us, or any other bee, around the wound. This is making the body the antidote to the tail.
• An old English Apiarian advises a person who has been stung, to catch as speedily as possible another bee, and make it sting on the same spot!

6.      Collecting Bumblebees

[Quite often, when I’m called out to a ‘swarm’, they turn out to be bumblebees. This article suggests that they might be worth some further attention: Ed.]

During the discussion, removing bumblebees were brought up. Though not part of the beekeepers role, they will often be destroyed if we don’t collect them. In most cases a shoebox with a lid will be sufficient with some dried lawn mowings inside. Make a largish hole in one of the short sides of the box. Always wear protective gear as they can and do sting, but as the sting has no barbs, they do not suffer the fate that the honeybee does when she stings. The cells are a random bunch of round cells about the size of a small thimble, very higgledy-piggledy and made of a brown bees wax. The pupae are covered in a white oval cocoon. Some make a lid for the nest of brown wax, others cover the cells with vegetation, bits of fluff or whatever is handy. Carder bumblebees nest in old grassy tussocks and shred the dried grass to cover the nest.

If possible lift the nest intact onto a trowel or spade and place this in your box. Place a piece of cloth where the nest was and your box containing the nest on top and replace the surroundings as much as they were, to allow the bees to settle. Return in the evening and cover the box with the cloth and move them some miles away. I usually take them home and put them in one of my sheds with a holey door.

If you intend to place them outside, make a wooden box, about shoebox size with a waterproof roof and mesh floor for ventilation, and naturally an exit hole. I have used my polystyrene mini-nuc boxes successfully. Bumblebees do suffer wax moth attack, so remove the debris once the nest has died out. They will raise the next year’s virgin queens and males later in the season. The time of year varies with the different bumbles. A good indication that the repro-ductives are about is when you see bumbles with yellow facial hair. Those are the males. Mating takes place on the ground and lasts over an hour. The mated queens feed up and then dig a hole in a north-facing bank and hibernate till next year. They are those fat bumbles we see about in the spring.

Occasionally the nests are larger, especially if they are in a protected site such as a garage or under a permanently placed mobile home. I have had to use an old honey-jar box to accommodate a large nest. They already had reproductives, and I fed them pieces of honeycomb and any visitor was dragged out to the shed to admire them.
(Margaret Thomas: Essex BKA June 2009 Courtesy eBEES)

7.      An Aside

To Ellen Gee of Kew (stung in the eye by a bee and died, 1880)

Ye nymphs of Q, then shun each B,
List to the reason Y;
For should a B C U at T
He’ll surely sting your I.
Now in a grave L deep in Q
She’s cold as cold can B;
Whilst robins sing upon A U
Her dirge and L E G.

(From The Scottish Beekeeper, March 2009, courtesy eBEES)

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