Water

Last Saturday 10 March we held the last of Dartford Beekeepers winter meetings at the Asda warehouse. Terry Clare delivered a talk on "Queen rearing for the small Beekeeper".  The talk was very well received by the members and especially Colin Mann and I as we hope to rear a few Queens on the Apiary this season and we appreciate any help and guidance we can get.  Here are a few of the tips the speaker gave us:-

 Always practice good hygiene, keep tools in a solution of soda crystals and water. If anyone has trouble finding a supplier local to them try the hardware shop on Temple Hill in Dartford, that's where I got mine.  If your tools are kept in a container full of this solution and returned to it when not in use they will be clean and sterile at all times.  Rubber marigold type gloves are recommended as these will protect you from the soda solution and against stings to some extent. Another good practice is to wash your bee suit regularly to remove disease pathogens and alarm pheromones so that you don't transmit disease or prompt aggressive behaviour from you bees when you next open a hive.  The speaker also advocated the use of Oxalic acid at the appropriate time of year, and noted that the acid solution should be clear and not yellow, as ours was this year on the Apiary!!  I asked him his opinion of the efficacy of icing sugar dusted over the bees as a means of varroa control.  He says or at least implied that he's not impressed and doesn't use it himself.

Amongst many other interesting and useful tips Mr. Clare also suggested that we should consider misting with water in a hand-spray, instead of using smoke, if looking for the queen - she won't run away so fast, also neighbourhood drone culling amongst local beekeepers with a mutual interest  in the quality of their replacement Queens and various methods of feeding the colonies that are light on stores.  One method of feeding is to immerse a bag of granulated sugar, with a few holes punched in the front, for 3 seconds in water.  I tried this technique as soon as I got home from the meeting but left the bags submerged for 5secs - result, unusable mush! Next time I'll give it strictly 3 seconds.  A member of the audience at the meeting told us that she had approached a super-market and asked if they would let her beekeepers association have any broken bags of sugar accrued by the store, (they are unsaleable to the general public).  She said the manager was pleased to find a good use for the sugar and now saves it for them!  On my way back from the lecture I popped into my local Tesco store and sure enough the manager, a young lady, said yes Dartford Beekeepers could have their damaged bags.  Result!

I have downloaded "The Stud Book" from BIBA's website.  This is the record sheet recommended by our speaker.  Go to http://www.bibba.com/pdf_files.php where you can download an Excel file to see what records he recommends.

I've hung two Asian hornet traps in the apiary complete with bait,(pork meat).  They're of a design circulated by Bill Mundy which I've modified very slighty.  Most beekeepers expect the Asian Hornet to arrive in the UK sooner or later and trapping the new queens before they've had a chance to establish a colony, in early spring, has to be a good idea. Today and yesterday I planted about 8 shrubs (I can't remember the exact number), they were very kindly donated by Kevin.  The shrubs are carefully selected to give long months of flower and also for their value to wildlife specifically bees and butterflies.

On Friday night I'm prepping a hive for relocation in an out apiary in Barnehurst.  After a couple of weeks there we'll bring it back to Dartford and place it about 20m from where it sits right now.  The old adage says "never move a hive more than 3 foot or less than 3 miles".

Barry

Recently on the Apiary...

On Thursday 23^rd Feb. I saw my first Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies. Numerous Bumble bees are to be seen engaged in searching for nest sites. Presumably they’re finding enough nectar nearby to keep fuelled up for their nest building. Our honey bees are collecting plenty of pollen and presumably nectar from somewhere.  The bees have been fed with fondant, at the end of January, and look to be in good shape for the coming season, (I’m touching wood as I write).  Last Monday I spotted a couple of Blue-tits investigating one of the newly cleaned bird-boxes.  Crocuses of various colours are in full bloom, the yellow varieties have been out for a couple of weeks now. They make quite a show and the bees really appreciate the pollen. Talking of early flowers popular with the bees, the Hellebore has been in bloom for a couple months and still has buds on it. It seems even more popular than crocus.   This year plenty of bulbs have gone in, we should have an excellent display this year but an even better next year.     Colin and I have done a little welding and remounted the gates to the apiary. Colin has come up with the idea of cladding them in wood which will look a lot better. I’m making up a few Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina), traps. There’s a plan of how to make an Asian Hornet trap on the BBKA website which I’ve followed with one slight mod. If you want to see how they’re made there’ll be a couple hung up around the Apiary soon. I fancy that it’s possible that the south east counties will see the Hornet first in the UK and the obvious time to trap them is before last year’s queens establish new colonies in the spring.  When Colin and I were in Nepal we saw a goat slaughtered as part of a festival occasion. Within two or three minutes of the animal being butchered Hornets were feeding on the meat, so I shall be baiting the traps with raw meat. On the 1^st May we placed Varroa counting sticky sheets on the Varroa trays of hives 1,2,3&4 and I removed them on the 2^nd. There was one Varroa mite between the four hives! That's what I call a result.

Barry