Ayr and District Beekeepers Association Newsletter.
Contact Details: President: Tony Riome.
Vice President: Joyce Duncan.
Secretary/Treasurer: Lindsay Baillie.
Librarian: Suzanne Clark.
Editor: Suzanne Clark.
Telephone 01290 700 370November 2010
Email: .
November/December 2010
Profile of Past President Phil McAnespie.
Phil was doing some joinery work in the Gospel Hall in Tarbolton, when a chance conversation with a young plumber called Davy Gordon who was also working there and who was a beekeeper at that time, sparked in Phil an interest in beekeeping, and a continuing friendship with Davy. That was approximately thirty years ago.
Today Phil is the Vice-President of the Scottish Beekeeper’s Association and his beekeeping journey throughout those years from novice, to “old hand” has been lively.
When Phil was invited to visit Davy’s apiary all those years ago, being assured that all he needed was protection for his upper body, he went along with dark coloured heavy serge trousers on. He discovered to his cost that bees find this colour very irritating when they proceeded to sting his legs very enthusiastically. Phil was fortunate that Davy’s wife Morag had a bee suit which he could borrow, and from then on he has never looked back. He acquired his first bees from Davy and more from Jimmy Swan.
Phil visited Jimmy Swan’s apiary on a regular basis, learning the basics of beekeeping, and through Jimmy he met that other stalwart of the beekeeping fraternity, Mr. Ian Jamieson, who was also starting out with his bees around this time.
Phil became a member of the Ayr and District Beekeepers Association, and meetings of members were held at Doonfoot Primary School, with guest speakers and visits to members out apiaries taking place. Phil had his hives at Doonfoot Estate at this time
Phil was working full time doing shift work and also had a young family, so his input to beekeeping varied, nevertheless his interest in bees remained and he contributed as much of his time to his hobby as possible.
Ayr Flower Show was part of the Association programme at this time with Davy contributing to the making up of the stand displays, and his wife Morag designing and making intricate floral and other wax models.
Approximately six years ago, following discussions with Ian and Tony it was decided that, such was the interest in bees it would be a good idea for the Association to start beginner’s classes. This has been hugely successful with the last class numbering approximately forty. Clearly not all go on to keep bees, however many who would previously not have done so, now do thanks to the foresight of the pioneers of those beginner’s classes namely, Phil, Ian and Tony.
History, they say, repeats itself; another conversation with Davy resulted in the Open Hive demonstrations at the Flower Show. Davy had been at the Shrewsbury Flower Show which had an Open Hive demonstration, but without the public participating. Davy related this to Phil who realised this would be an interesting feature for the Ayr Show and if the public could be involved it would be really innovative. This is indeed what has transpired, with members of the public of all ages, the oldest gentleman at this year’s show being over eighty years, eagerly taking part in going through the bees. All are properly suited up with bee suit, wellingtons and gloves. There is always a full capacity audience with many people standing as the seats have all been taken.
Phil has been a member of the Ayr and District Beekeepers Association Committee for eleven years. He became Vice President in 2003, and President in 2006. He remains a committee member.
Phil has been Membership Convener of the Scottish Beekeepers Association for five – six years and has been Vice-President for two years now.
As Vice President Phil attends five Executive meetings per year and CONBA (Council of National Beekeeping Associations) meetings at Stoneleigh and Weybridge. He is on the NDBA (National Diploma in Beekeeping Board) as a representative of the SBA at its AGM, and attends meetings of the Bee disease Stakeholders Group.
As well as the Ayr Flower Show, Phil helps to organise, set up, and take down the apparatus at a variety of other shows, e.g. Culzean, Neilston and Gardening Scotland, and the shows are usually dependent on Phil’s ideas for their major stand. It has recently been decided that the committee needs to put on its thinking cap much earlier in the year and a small sub-committee has been formed to work up ideas for the Flower Show. Phil is a member of this sub-committee.
Phil enjoys giving talks to a variety of groups including schools, nurseries, Church groups, Brownies, Guides and the WRI. He is involved in mentoring children from Carrick Academy who are taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. This is in conjunction with Lindsay and Tony. (By the way did I mention he has a full time job!)
Phil, along with Enid Brown is the Scottish representative of the BBKA charity Adopt a Hive. The money raised will fund research into honey bee health and education programmes for beekeepers. Check out the BBKA website to see Phil and Enid.
Phil’s wife Joyce is involved in assisting Phil in his beekeeping activities. She has been a committee member, and gives talks to the beginner’s classes on the subject of Hive Products. Joyce enjoys baking and making wax models and exhibits her work at the Flower Show having won several prizes. She is instrumental in organising the candle making events at the various shows, which helps to increase the Association’s funds. She is also a talented photographer of bee related topics, having won first prize for her entries in the past.
Phil remains optimistic about the future, despite the problems currently besetting our honeybees. He feels that in the meantime we have to continue treating them as best we can, both in terms of husbandry, and in terms of dealing with varroa. In the longer term the hygienic behaviour, intrinsic in bees, can be used through the breeding of the most hygienic queens to combat the dreaded mite. Research could also be carried out on the Varroa genome in order to render it more vulnerable to a hygienic bee, or treatment from the beekeeper.
Phil helping out at the
Association Apiary Clean Up.
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Edinburgh leads in effort to save Bees. .
Edinburgh is to spearhead a project to help save the declining population of the bee. A biodiversity officer from the city council will work with Edinburgh University and wildlife trusts for three years to explore how cities could help to bring back insect populations.
The Herald 22.9.10.
Beetle back from the dead.
A rare beetle believed to be extinct in Britain has been found living on the RSPB reserve in Coll in the Western Isles.
The short-necked oil beetle was thought to be extinct in Britain until seven years ago when a small population was found in Devon. It has now popped up in abundance in Coll.
Exactly how the tiny beetles got there is unknown, but one possibility is that they hitched a ride from a bee.
The beetle has parasitic young that depend on solitary nesting bees for survival. As they are unable to fly themselves, they use the bees to travel to new locations. This may be how they came to Coll.
The lovely RSPB reserve on Coll is best know for its corncrakes in summer, but this goes to show that there are still some hidden gems waiting to be found.
Visit
RSPB Scotland News November 2010.
Queen Rearing Using Simple Methods.
A talk given by Dina Sweet. MSc., MB., & Dip. Apiculture. (Cardiff University).
Dinah’s talk was given on 27th. September in Belmont Academy, Ayr.
Dina commenced by reminding the audience that bees need to suit the local conditions, and that imported bees affect the natives.
She listed the possible reasons for rearing our own Queens:
- Climate - bees already acclimatized to local environment.
- No disease brought in.
- It’s fun and fairly easy.
- You can pick the characteristics you wish to transfer to your next generation.
The different methods you can use:
- Natural swarm cells.
- A Queenless colony.
- The Miller method (zig zag cut out of foundation).
- Snelgrove method using a Snelgrove board.
- Grafting.
- Cell punching. It is possible to have 100% success with this method.
What characteristics should you select for:
- Docility.
- Disease resistance – good grooming.
- Amount of honey production.
- Bees frugal with stores.
- Disinclination to swarm.
- Work in colder temperatures and drizzle.
- Mate in colder temperatures and drizzle.
- White cappings for cut comb.
Selecting the Drones. Isolated mating is not always possible. May use Instrumental Insemination but queens do not live so long.
Avoid bringing swarms of unknown origin into mating apiary. Attempt to flood the area with selected genetic material.
Remember drones take thirtyseven days to reach maturity and be prepared to cull queens of bad tempered colonies as you don’t want bad tempered drones mating with your new queens.
Grafting: Start with queenless colony. Feed and put pollen and honey next to graft bar. Larva must be right age – less that 24 hrs. old and you need plent of nurse bees. You can use a grafting tool or paint brush to transfer the larvae which needs to be sitting in a pool of Royal Jelly so that it remains hydrated.
Can use Jenter method or Cell punch method.
Swarm Box: You need two frames with space in the middle for the graft. Put frame feeder inside. Ventilation will come from below.
Sliding panel in lid.
Add graft after about two hours.
Leave in dark for 24 hours,
Should be roaring. Then put swarm box outside with roof over the top and allow the bees to fly.
After a few days check that there are no queen cells and if so destroy them.
Move queen cells to mating nuclei ten days after grafting; should be mated in two or three days.
Requeen by culling old queens but can keep good old queens in small units in case new queen is a dud.
The smaller the nucleus box the quicker the queen will mate..
Type of mini nucleus. Polystyrene or Apidea. You need the correct number of bees to control the temperature: 300ml. for an Apidea.
Don’t keep queens for too long in mini nucleus. Once worker brood confirmed (21 days) they should be ransferred to a bigger box, as they are less likely to survive in a mini nucleus.
Please note this is only an outline of the information Dina gave in the course of her talk. For more detailed information please refer to the many books on the subject, an excellent exercise during the winter months which I hope to pursue myself.
Albino Bees - whatever next!
Ian Stirling was startled one day recently when, on looking into his hive he thought his bees had evolved into a new species. On closer inspection he realised their coats were covered in a white powder which turned out to be the pollen of the Himalayan balsam, “Impatiens glandulifera”.
This plant has a number of vernacular names which are: Poor Man’s Orhid, Stinky Pops, Policeman’s Helmet, Jumping Jack and Bee-bums. The last name is on account of the attractiveness of the flower to bumblees that, when sampling the fare,show only their rear anatomy at the mouth of the flower! The plant provides excellent bee forage towards the end of the season.
It was introduced to these isles in 1839 from the mountains of Kashmir. It thrives in damp places, growing very quickly to the seed stage. Despite only being an annual, with no overwintering root, it is perceived as a problem invader. Vast banks of it can grow up if left undisturbed, displacing native species.
Thanks to Ian for his story and to John E Davies article in BeeCraft October 2006 for details of H. Balsam.
Himalayan Balsam
Ian also sent some photos of a swarm he was called out to at Caprington estate
:
Gift Guide in the Observer Food Monthly
Bee Keeping Course and Hive. Wished for by Marc Demarquette, chocolatier.
“I’d love a bee-keeping course and a hive. British Bee Keepers Association runs courses all over the country. The prettiest hives are Fortnum& Mason’s on the roof of their shop from which they harvested 1,000 jars this year.”
The hives were specially made for the shop by Kim Farley-Harper in Machynileth and would cost around £5,000 each. A 227g jar of Fortnum’s honey is £12.95, or a cone shaped candle from Fortnum’s beeswax, £9.95.
To see the bees in action click on Bee Cam at fortnumandmason.com/fortnumbees.aspx
Observer November 2010.
For those who are new to beekeeping, and do not subscribe to Beecraft, I thought it might be of interest to give you a potted version of an article in November’s issue by Willie Shaw on this month’s tasks.
He writes:
As far as practical beekeeping is concerned, November is one of the quietest months of the year but as a new beekeeper there is plenty to occupy your mind if not your body.
Inspection of Hives during the winter.
Apart from visiting the apiary to see if all is in good order and looking for activity at the hive entrance, it is sometimes useful to open hives and see what is going on inside.
Until recently it has been a long-established tradition of beekeeping that on no account do you open hives for inspection during the period from October to March (five to six months).
Failure to observe this rule was thought to jeopardise the survival of your colonies. Apart from lifting the roof and quickly looking at the bees through a glass quilt (a transparent coverboard), most beekeepers had no idea what was going on in the hive during nearly half of the year.
Why do you need to know?
The answer is for the correct timing of backup (insurance) varroa control using oxalic acid. To get the best result using this method, the colony needs to be broodless (or as near broodless as possible) at the time of treatment.
But when does this happen? Most beekeeping books say that there is quite a long broodless period, extending from November through to late January or February. Some beekeepers take this as gospel and are using oxalic acid as early as October or November or as late as February.
A long broodless period may be the rule in cold winter climates but is it true for oceanic Britain? Simple observation of hive activity suggests otherwise. Under favourable conditions, bees can often be seen carrying pollen as late as December and as early as mid January, an activity which implies the presence of brood. The only way to find out is to look!
He goes on to say that if you want to manage your bees intelligently (and apply oxalic acid at the right time), you need to know about the brood status of your hives.
(Oxalic acid only kills the varroa mite which is on the bees, it does not affect the mites in the brood, hence Willie’s suggestion of applying it, preferably using the Trickle method, when there is little or no brood in the hive. This usually occurs from December, but may vary depending on weather conditions.)
Until recently we in Scotland would have considered ourselves to be included in Willie’s “cold winter climates” although our winters (apart from the last one) do seem to be becoming milder, but has anyone seen bees carrying pollen as late as December or as early as mid January? Please let us know if you have, and please let us know if you ever consider looking into your hives as Willie suggests: Email
Other tasks he suggests are reading beekeeping books and preparing for the Basic Beekeeping Assessment. Good advice.
Frequently asked Questions.
Beginners often ask: What is Propolis?
Propolis is derived from the Greek ‘pro’ (for ‘in front of’ or ‘at the entrance to’), and ‘polis’ (‘community’ or ‘city’), and describes a substance used in defence of the hive.
Propolis is composed of three main ingredients: plant resin, bee salivary enzymes, and beeswax; it may or may not contain pollen. It also contains minerals such as magnesium or calcium and vitamins such as Vit. B1 and Vit. B2.
Foraging bees collect the plant resins from plant buds and cracks in the bark of trees. They chew and mix it with salivary enzymes. It can be amended with varying amounts of beeswax and pollen depending on the purpose intended for it.
The most important characteristic of the Craniolan bee is the minimum use of propolis, while the Caucasian goes to extremes in building brace-comb and in the use of propolis. To the beekeeper, the frugal habits of the Craniolan make it more attractive than the propolis-hoarding Caaucasian race from a management perspective. The Anatolian bee also builds brace-comb and uses an inordinate amount of propolis but is very productive under migratory beekeeping conditions.