Newsletter June 2009

Shropshire Beekeepers' Association

Newsletter : June 2009

1. Editor's Notes

On occasion, in the past, members have asked what they get for their subscription to the BBKA, which is recommended for all beekeeping members of our Association. One obvious answer is that it provides insurance against 3rd party claims for damage or injury caused by our bees or by products that we might sell. It also gives some financial recompense should we be unfortunate enough to have a destruction order on stocks and hives as a result of contracting American Foul Brood. For most of us this is reason enough. However, as the SBKA representative to the Annual Delegates Meeting, held in January each year, I have also observed the gradual development of the BBKA from a narrowly focused, inward looking organisation into one that punches well above its weight on bee-related and other environmental issues. It has achieved this transformation through the hard work and commitment of some first-class officers who have harnessed the energies of beekeepers and targeted them where they can influence the political decision-making processes of the government and other bodies.

The heightened public awareness about the problems faced by honeybees is obvious to everyone. These days hardly a week goes by without some item in the press or other media and many of these are generated by the BBKA. In our own Association, as well as elsewhere, we have seen a huge rise in interest in learning about beekeeping and our beginners courses have never been so much in demand. The campaign for a step-change in funding for research into problems such as varroa and other threats has been rewarded with the announcement that new money from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Scottish Government, and the Wellcome Trust will enhance the £2 million already promised by Defra and will take the total funds available to some £10 million. This is a great achievement.

Of course there are legitimate dissenting voices with regard to some BBKA actions - the issue of its approval for the use of some insecticides is a prime example. However the organisation is also robust enough to trust its members to guide its policies on such issues and act accordingly. So, what do you get for your money? Well, for me - and this is a personal point of view and not an SBKA policy statement - I think that if we want to have a say in the future of bees and beekeeping, both at national and European level, the BBKA is the only show in town!

2. Shrewsbury Flower Show 2009

This year’s show is to be held on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th August. The Bees, Honey and Wine Section is again hoping to have a Honey Tasting and Sales stand with a number of types of honey from around the area supplied by members from any of the Shropshire Associations.

In order that we can get some idea of the number of people who would like to supply honey, it would be helpful if you could contact us by July 20th. So that everyone is given a fair opportunity to offer honey for this stand, there may be a cap on the amount that each individual can supply. This level has yet to be decided along with the selling price, although the latter may be based on £5.00per lb. A deduction will be made from the selling price to help with the costs of staging the Show. Each supplier is expected to help steward the Bees, Honey & Wine Section at some time over the two days.

If you would like to offer honey or have any questions, please contact Ray Green.
Email: berwickbees@connectfree.co.uk
Telephone: 01743 465079 or 07946 501975

3. DISEASE RECOGNITION DAY

This is the last call for you to register for the Disease Recognition Day, organised by SBKA, with the content provided by the Bee Inspectors of the Western Region.

This special Event is on SATURDAY 13TH JUNE at the SHIREHALL in SHREWSBURY.

Registration is at 9.45 a.m. with the first presentation being at 10.00 a.m. The day will end at 5.00 p.m.

ADMISSION IS BY TICKET ONLY (£5)

Contact Robert Swallow for further information. Drinks available, but bring a packed lunch.

4. Varroa: Some Points from a Research Update by Dr Stephen Martin

It had been thought that the dimples seen on some mites were the result of bee bites. Research has shown that they arose in mites that had developed in adverse conditions and were sited where its muscles attached to its carapace.

The drones of all honeybee species are much the same size. It had been postulated that mite success depended on the space in the cell so in a trial, only small cells were provided. The result was smaller bees and little change in mite numbers.

In Apis cerana, mites develop almost exclusively in drone cells; if one mite enters a cell, 3 emerge but if 2 enter, both pupa and mites die so the mite population is stable at about 800. Contrast this with Apis mellifera where mite populations of 100k have been found. Total annual mite drops of up to 40k have been found in surviving colonies, up to 60k in dead ones.

Mites and viruses. We have found that Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) hides in bees in different forms. Bees with the virus do not necessarily show it and vice versa. There are some 14 or 15 bee viruses – some can be transmitted by mites, some not. Bee longevity is similar whether infected or not but bee life is cut by half if it is infected as a pupa.

The transmission of covert DWV can be by sperm to egg to worker to larvae. It is known that overt DWV can be transmitted by mites and it may be triggered by them in a similar way to herpes in humans, but this has yet to be shown. Virus on bees’ exterior is not a problem but they die when it is injected. DWV is now widespread and by reducing bee numbers it affects the ability of the colony to survive the winter.

Acute Paralysis Virus (APV) kills colonies but large mite numbers are needed.

Using colonies in the Scillies and Isle of Man as controls, it has been shown that, pre varroa, virus was rare; it is now universal. Covert DWV may become overt without mite introduction. Nosema and Tropilaelaps have the same effect.

Delaying autumn mite treatment by one month compromises the ability of the bees to survive the winter.

[Notes by Jeremy Quinlan, edited from Cambridgeshire Beekeepers Newsletter: Late Spring 2009: Courtesy eBees]

5. Swarm Story

Swarms have been few and far between in my area - and all that I have heard of came from managed apiaries. Yesterday I was driving to the nearest large town - 15 miles away - when I saw a cloud of bees above the hedgerow. I drove home, got my gear and two large nucleus boxes and within 20 minutes had 'secured' what looked like a smallish swarm from the hedge; it might have been a cast since it seemed to be less than a pint-pot of bees. I left them to settle - intending to collect them at dusk. The chap at a nearby cottage told me there were about 20 hives in a field behind a wood - about a mile away .....I drove slowly along the main road towards the field in question and within quarter of a mile had found another - much larger swarm in the hawthorn hedge. I got this one into the second nucleus box with no trouble - and hot and bothered by now - decided to unsuit and take the dog for a walk while the bees calmed down. I couldn't recover them until sunset at around 10pm anyway.

Within a hundred yards I found a tiny, tiny cast in the same hedgerow - hardly worth saving but it would not have survived on its own - less than a teacupful of bees - but there must be a virgin queen in there. I had no more collecting boxes with me so I had to use the wooden 'trug' that I keep my bee tools in. I had a hessian sack in the car so draped that across the tiny cast and left them to settle, feeling I had done my good deed for the day. I thought I could keep them alive by donating a frame of emerging brood to them - and feeding them for a couple of weeks.

When I got back to the big swarm something remarkable was going on. Instead of a calm box of bees settling down into a new home I found a boiling volcano of bees, running all over the box in great waves, erupting from the cover board feed hole and the front entrance. They were not flying away but the scene was one of total chaos; they were also 'roaring' - a very loud roar. They had obviously lost their queen - but how? When I found the swarm the cluster was well-formed and compact - and I had held the box only 6 inches below it when I dropped them into the box. No other cluster was evident anywhere nearby - so either the queen had been crushed when the swarm fell into the box - or perhaps she was not in the swarm when I found it.

If I could not get them to stay in the box they would depart and be lost. I hurried back to the tiny 'useless' cast I had left in the hedgerow and brought it back to the boiling mound of bees on the nuc.. Then I witnessed one of the great sights of beekeeping - the effect of restoring a queen to a queenless swarm; I uncovered the little cast of 300 or so bees and dropped them, like a plum, into the centre of the 'volcano' of boiling bees. The effect was instantaneous and truly dramatic, like dropping oil into a pan of boiling water. Within seconds the churning mass of scurrying bees slowed to a crawl and became 'orderly'. Ranks of fanning bees appeared as if from nowhere - all showing their Nasonov glands - fanning the 'homing pheromone' into the air around the nucleus box. In just a few more seconds the bees had organised themselves into serried ranks and lines which trooped down through the feed-hole - as if some vacuum pump was sucking them down into the combs. In just a few minutes - 15,000 or so bees had vanished inside the box, leaving 50 or so fanning around the entrance and at the feedhole. The continuous roar of terror subsided into an excited 'hummmmm' of content.

I have rarely seen such a dramatic example of the impact of queen pheromones on a queenless hive before - and never on a swarm; but then I have never 're-queened' a swarm before and it was pure serendipity that there was a cast with a 'spare queen' available in the same hedgerow! It is almost certain that the queen in the tiny cast was a virgin which had emerged from its cell earlier that morning - but her pheromones were obviously able to calm this mass of boiling bees in just a few seconds.

(Read in the forum of Edinburgh & Midlothian Beekeepers Association: ref: http://www.edinburghbeekeepers.org.uk/talk/viewtopic.php?t=124)

6. Women’s Institute Support for Bees

(Continuing the theme of public support for honeybees, you may be interested in this statement from the recent Women’s Institute AGM - Ed.)

Every year WI members submit resolutions to a democratic selection process and the most popular suggestion is put to a vote at the AGM. If members support these resolutions, they become mandates and form the basis of the WI's campaigning activities in years ahead. The following resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority of 99.4% at today's AGM of the Women's Institute

"SOS for Honey Bees – honey bees play a vital role in the pollination of food crops and in our environment. In view of concerns about the accelerating decline in the UK honey bee population, this meeting urges HM Government to increase funding for research into bee health."

Tim Lovett, President of the BBKA, said:

“We are delighted by the result of the vote. Our members look forward to supporting local Institutes as they campaign to save the nation’s honeybees. “The vote is a vindication of the BBKA’s continued campaign for £8 million for honey bee health research funding. We demand that a realistic and adequate share of the £10million fund set up by the Government for research into pollinator decline is now put into honey bee health research.

7. Have you heard the one about.....

....the woman who went to the cinema with her dog? On the way out a man stopped to speak to her.

" I'm sorry to bother you,” he said, “ but I noticed that your dog watched the film all the way through, crying at the right times, hiding during the scary bits and laughing during the funny bits. Don't you find that odd?"

"Well yes," said the woman. "It is odd. He hated the book."

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