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