Waldringfield Young Bee-keepers club

WHY?

Learning how bees live and work is fascinating; it isalso fun; the honey is delicious and profitable; bees are a threatened species and need our protection and support – they provide vital pollination services for trees, hedges and wild flowers and also for arable crops, vegetables and fruit.

WHO FOR?

Children and young people age eight upwards. Parents are welcome to join in either regularly or ad hoc.

WHEN?

Wednesday afternoons 3.30 – 4.40 – in the active season we might over-run a little.

WHERE?

At Dormers, Cliff Road, and the apiary in School Road.

TAUGHT BY?

Betsy Reid, bee-keeper of twenty five years experience, ran a comparable children’s bee-keeping club at St Christopher School, Letchworth, Hertfordshire for eighteen years, and Ann Proctor, a newer beekeeper.

RISK ASSESSMENT?

Parents will be asked to sign a consent form.

A detailed risk assessment is available.

Full protective clothing will be supplied for practical sessions.

The club is a member of the local Ipswich branch of the Beekeepers Association, through which insurance is provided: full personal injury for members of the club, and third party during club sessions.

COST?

There will be a club subscription of £2 per session to contribute to the costs of learning materials, protective clothing and other essential equipment.

LEARNING STRATEGY

New participants will join those who are already established members of the club and will learn from both them and from us. Most of the sessions will be practical. Activities will include regular inspections of the bees and manipulations of the hive; hive maintenance and possibly construction; bee diseases control; honey extraction and bottling; cooking with honey and making a ‘honey hamper’ to raffle; making candles with wax; observing bee behaviour and foraging; learning about plants bees like. If members wish we can work towards the British Beekeeping Association certificated qualification for children.

Betsy Reid and Ann Proctor

Waldringfield Young Beekeepers clubContact details: Betsy Reid, Dormers, Cliff Road Waldringfield, Suffolk IP12 4QL

January 2016 Tel : 01473736506 email:

RISK ASSESSMENT AND CONTROL

Summary of potential risks and control measures

Activities / Equipment / Risk / To be controlled by:
Opening hives and handling bees / Veils, gloves, overalls / Stings / Protection by bee-suits with integrated veils and gloves provided to all participants: bring their own boots.
In the event of a sting:
  • The child should be sat down and kept quiet until the effect of the sting has decreased
  • An ice cube should be applied if possible
  • A Piriton tablet should be administered if the child appears affected
  • If breathing is affected, parents notified and an ambulance called.
  • The incident will be noted in the club record book

Using matches to light the smoker / Smoker
Matches / Fire /
  • Smokers to be lightedonly in the open air
  • Smokers to be extinguished and emptied before being brought inside

Testing for Varroa using acaricides / Approved vetinary medicines / Damage to nerves though surface contact or inhalation /
  • Acaricides to be applied strictly in accordance with manufacturers’ recommendations
  • Acaricidal strips to be handled with rubber gloves – to be washed after use
  • Applied standing up-wind

Fumigating combs with acid / Fumigation box / Acid burns / inhalation of fumes / Acids to be handled only by adults
Acids to be opened only in the open air – acids to be held down-wind.
Assembling hive parts / Hammers, screw drivers, wood glue / Accidents / Pupils to use tools only under supervision
Studying bees in glass walled observation hive / Observation hive / Stings if hive knocked over / Observation hive to be fixed onto wide base plate
Lifting full honey boxes / Supers / Strain from lifting too heavy weights / Ensure students know how to lift without causing injury.
Full honey boxes in the Dartington Long Deep hive are within the maximum weight specified by the Govt guidelines.
Extracting and bottling honey / Hand powered rotary extractor; kitchen tools, uncapping knife / Accidents from tools / Ensure adequate working space.
Tools used only under supervision.
Ensure cleanliness and hygiene – aprons to be worn and hair tied back.
Making candles with wax / Candle moulds, electric hot water boiler, various jugs and containers / Burns and scalds / Ensure adequate working space.
All equipment to be used under supervision.
Remind participants of emergency first aid for burns or scalds.
Cooking with honey / Kitchen equipment / Accidents with knives, burns and scalds / Ensure adequate working space.
All equipment to be used under supervision.
Proper hygiene practices routinely reinforced.
Supervisor to have Food Safety Certificate (Both Betsy and Ann have this.)

HEALTH AND SAFETY FOR BEES AND BEEKEEPERS

The handling of bees

  • Always approach a hive from behind – keep out of the bees’ flight path
  • Wear full protective clothing – bee suit with integrated veil, gloves and boots.
  • Always smoke bees to calm them, unless otherwise instructed.
  • Use slow calm movements and avoid jolting the hives. Don’t flap at the bees.
  • If a bee gets inside protective clothing:
  • Do not run
  • If you can kill the bee by squashing her rapidly before she has a chance to sting, that is perhaps a good idea – though she will release an alarm pheromone as she dies!
  • Go calmly to a dark place away from the hives – under trees or hedges and squat down. Face the light: the bee will move to the front of your veil towards the light, where you can see her.
  • Check there are no other bees around.
  • Remove protective clothing, locate bee and allow her to fly away.
  • Put protective clothing back on and get back to business!

Bee Health

Take care to adopt the hygiene procedures on the DO’s and DON’Ts for Healthy Bees notice

If you get stung:

Don’t panic! The surprise of being stung is the worst bit and it’s over!

Remove the sting as quickly as possible, to prevent more venom getting into you.

Sit quietly holding some ice against the sting to reduce the swelling.

Apply some soothing herbal remedy if you feel you need to.

If you have been stung on your face or neck, or if swelling seems severe you may be offered a Piriton tablet, which reduces allergic reactions. It may make you a bit sleepy.

Tell an adult immediately if you feel any constriction in your breathing (Anti-histmine is most effective if taken in advance, but as really bad reactions is so uncommon, this does not really seem advisable.)

Do’s and don’ts for healthy, happy (and calm!) bees

Don’t interrupt them in their business more than you can help

Don’t stand in their flight path

Don’t jolt or joggle or bang or bash their hive

Don’t open the hives when it is raining, cold or windy

Don’t transfer disease to another apiary, or even to another hive in your own apiary: keep equipment for each hive to that hive as far as possible and wash with washing soda solution between hives

Do keep varroa parasite numbers down

Do leave the bees enough food for the winter or a cold snap when they can’t forage

Do make sure they have enough empty cells to hang up the nectar to dry

Do always check there is a queen and that she is laying well

Do make sure there is water fairly close by

Waldringfield Young Beekeepers Club

Risk assessment and parent consent form

The club is open to young people from 8 years old upwards. Apprentices will learn about bees and their ecology, manage colonies for honey production; extract,bottle and sell honey; make wax candles; cook with the honey; maintain and possibly build hives.

There is a club subscription of £2 per session towards the cost of insurance, learning materials, protective clothing, and other essential equipment.

STANDING RISK ASSESSMENT AND SAFETY POLICY

Principal risks:Bee stings

Injury from wood-working tools

Burns or scalds when dealing with smoker, wax or cooking

Precautions in advance:Explain how to behave to minimise upset to the bees

Ensure proper protective clothing when handling bees

Practise what to do in the event of being stung

Ensure adequate working space; limit numbers around the hive

Have first aid kit with anti-histamine

Pre-activity check:Check all remember behaviour around the hive

Check protective clothing is being properly worn

Take proper account of the weather when handling the bees

During the activity:Frequent reminders of risks and appropriate behaviour

A note on bee stings:

Education: being stung is an occasional but almost inevitable risk in bee-keeping. Students are helped to understand that the initial surprise is the worst thing! Typically any pain subsides after a couple of hours to itching (sometimes intense) which may last for a couple of days. Most people react less and less to each subsequent bee-sting; very few have no reaction at all.

The students are introduced to handling the bees carefully so that the children are confident and both they and the bees are likely to remain calm. The students are given very specific and constantly reinforced instruction on how to handle the situation when a bee or several bees start crowding them.

Protection: full protective clothing is provided and used for manipulations. Very experienced bee-keepers may be allowed to manipulate without gloves as it increases the delicacy of any operation – this is voluntary.

Stings with no allergic reaction: as being stung is not actually very serious or painful for the majority of people, pupils are trained in remaining calm and the sting is treated by reassurance, ice and a soothing herbal remedy applied externally, andantihistamine tablets - in that order and stopping where appropriate.

Stings with allergic reaction: a small number of people (less than 1%) are severely allergic to bee stings. These reactions are rarely known in advance and may not be consistent: an adverse reaction may be one-off. Usually people – and especially children – react progressively less to subsequent stings. If there is a severe allergic reaction where breathing becomes difficult leading to the possibility of anaphlactic shock, immediate action in the form injected adrenalin is needed. Parents will be informed and an ambulance called.

Betsy Reid, Dormers, Waldringfield. 01473 736506

Parental consent:

I have read the risk assessment and agree that my child ………………………………….. be a member of the Waldringfield Young Beekeepers Club.

Signed: ………………………………………(parent / guardian) Date: ………………………….