General Update

The orchard at dusk a couple of weeks ago

Its been more than a couple of weeks since my last update and its been busy, tough, lousy and business as usual.

Almond buds

On the orchard front some of the trees are in bloom and the damn rabbits have still be gnawing at the trees. I can't be 100% certain that its rabbits, it could be deer, but they always seems to be in the same area.

The almond trees have blossomed. Thanks to my beekeeping studies I have noticed that when the pollen had been taken the flowers from bees and other insects the blossom changed color. Something I hadn't noticed before.

Quince doing well

The soil is still damp, but its drying up. In some parts of the orchard its dry and back to a normal. It may be a couple more weeks for the parts that were flooded to return to its normal texture. If we have a hot summer then I might want some of the water back. The quince is doing well, but the varieties that we planted do like water. Its not flowering yet, and last year the fruit was nicked, so I'm hoping for some fruit from these trees to make into a jam this year. Lets see though, it still early on in the year.

Pear trees doing well

The pears also have started off well, they have had lots of water this year. They are very dependent on water, and have had plenty in the winter months. Still not blossomed or even begun to blossom but lots of good growth.

Almond Blossom

 This is a picture of the almond blossom after the bees and other insects have taken the pollen. You see how the center of the flower is a darker shade of pink.The yellow pollen is gone.

Its also very attractive.

Almond Blossom

This is a picture of what will be the cherry blossom. Its still very immature but a couple of weeks and its going to be in full bloom. Yahoo.

Cherry Blossom showing Promise

General Certificate in Beekeeping Husbandry two day course Day 2

General Husbandry Training

Products of the hive - Bob Gilbert

On the day of the general Husbandry exam you need to show
All the equipment used for managing bees.
All the equipment used for extracting and processing honey
Showing spare equipment and where it is stored.

For me it would be a trip to the hives and then home for an examination of my honey extracting process.
The examiners would want the kit set out as it would be if I were going to extract.  So as I normally borrow an extractor I would have to borrow the extractor and have it set up in the house.

Its important that records and equipment match so if you have a 50 hives you should have something larger than a 4 frame tangential extractor.

You should have 3 jars of set honey and 3 jars of liquid honey that you can show to the examiners.

Also a block of wax suitable for retail sale.



We then examined the honey samples which we had brought in we looked at the jars and the label to see if they were legal. The size of font used on my jars was questioned and measured to see if it met the 4mm standard. Also in the jar of honey that I had provided I often leave a small amount of wax that contains pollen. This was discouraged.

We as bee keepers have to meet the legal requirements for selling honey, these include
Labeling the jars of honey with the following
Description whats in the Jar
Contact Details - Producer trace ability
Weight metric / imperial
batch/lot number
Best before date
Country of origin
Nothing should be misleading
Optional - Babies can get ill from honey
All the information is in the field of view or signposting is used.

The examiner will also look to make sure that the honey is clean and hygienic and labelled correctly
Its important that you know the regulations and its the correct weight and contains no air.

For the examination you should know and be able to show that you test the water content of honey.
You should also know the legal requirements for the honey itself like
Water content
HMF Values - or what they should be legally not more than 40mg/kg
Diastase legal level not less than 8

If your honey has been heated you should be able to give reasons why and to what temperatures.
Reasons - make the honey clear or runny
Heat bulk honey to a max of 52C
To give you a longer shop life then heat to a max of 62C for 1 hour and allow to cool rapidly
Natural crystallization
Processed and left to set

A chart showing the temperature and time of honey heating is useful.

With wax, it should be labelled with what it is, the producer and labelled do not leave unattended.

Same again with other products from the hive like polish, creams and even pure bees wax.



Bailey Comb Change with Celia Davis
We received instructions and a practical on a bailey comb change. Celia gave us both her method of doing a Bailey Comb Change and the one recommended by the Ministry.

Both methods include finding the queen and then placing her in a new brood box with new foundation, Celia recommended taking a single frame from the bottom brood box with eggs and larvae and placing that into the top brood box.
An ike is required in both methods, however the ike should have a hole that will be used as the entrance of the hive.


Shook Swarm
We were given a demonstration of a shook swarm. A shook swarm is a good method of cleaning out a hive but is very stressful on the bees. This is because you are removing the brood and stores that they have. However its a good way of clearing out a hive that had Nosema and reducing the Varroa count.
Its also very important to feed a colony that has had a shook swarm.


Disease Inspection and taking samples

When inspecting hive you should be looking at the external signs of disease on bees.
Deformed wings and the parasite varrora. You should look at bees looking for stunted abdomens. See if bees are shivering on the top of the hive this is one of the signs of Chronic Bee Paralysis, also look for signs of Nosema Apis, signs like dysentery.

Need to both look at bees and see what is happening
Is pollen coming in, Do you have any mummified bees in the hive. Do the bees look like they are shivering. Are bees coming and going

Black Yellow shinning bees - another sign of chronic bee paralysis. You are looking for abnormalities or strange looking bees.
If you find deformed wings and stunted abdomens its a sign of a high varroa count.

Nosema is a disease of the gut and can cause diarrhea. Diarrhea does not mean the bees have nosema.
If you suspect that you have nosema then take 30 bees and look at the guts under a microscope, for the spores. You could send the bees to the National Bee Unit and they could look for nosema spores.

Larvae diseases
You need to be able to see the larvae, So you need to remove the bees off the frame.
- One sharp shake of the frame to dislodge the bees into the brood box.

Use light to be able to see to the bottom of the cell by moving the frame.If you have remove the house bees they you can move the frame into clearer daylight.

Taking Samples

How big a sample
Larvae disease - 1 /2 per colony or whole frame. More the better / Frame is best.
Adult Disease - 30 per colony
Poisoning - 200-300 per colony

Larval sample - A small tube is ideal "Epindorf"
- Use one per colony
- Label the tube colony Id and Date

- Frame
Remove and wrap it in cardboard - ensure honey is not dripping off the frame.
- Bees up to 1 week old + Nurse bees - So would be on the larvae and open brood
Bees 1-3 weeks old - House bees - Bees processing honey, Building wax hive ventilation.
Bees over 3 weeks old foragers so they can be found by the entrance of the hive.
The older the bee the further it will be away from the brood.

A method of collecting older foragers would be to block the entrance and wait for them to cluster and then collect bees. Freeze then and send to Fera.

Poisoning samples should take 200/300 bees and freeze. They should be in a strong bag.




Queen rearing program
Some method of selection the queen and justification for it. The Colony produces lots of honey, perhaps the queen is very docile and easy to handle. Having photos and even better would be a photo journal.

Records -

• Show reasons for selection
• Have a plan 
• Suitable method for you operation
• Have evidence
• Be able to explain it

Selection
Swarm cells from your preferred hive.
Use of natural queen cells not be appropriate

Records
Records need to support the queen rearing programme

Which colony selected from

Selection traits

Parameters
Honey Produce
Tendency to swarm
Stinging
Following
quiet on comb

Method of Queen Rearing
Match your skills and timetable
Appropriate to size of operation
Keep it simple - Less chance it will go wrong

Calender - Timetable for queen rearing
Have a strategy
Kit you use
photographs
Queens in nucs
records ...

Miller method

Remember the selection evidence, You need to plan way ahead.

Try the procedure before the assessment season
Assessors know that things don't always work

Don't try to kid the assessor !!!!


General Husband Assessment
Audit trail for queen rearing
Colonies ready to meet requirements
Kitchen set out as if to extract
Hats and overalls clean and ready
Honey and wax available ready selection

Checklist of how to prepare the area when you do your extraction

Apiary requirements
Apiary Clean tidy
Amount of equipment corresponding to number of hives
Use wash and wax

Good thing to have
Medicine and chemicals safe stored separately to equipment
First Aid kit - easy obvious to find
Map reference - location directions to where the hive is if at an out apiary

The day itself
Assessor will have traveled a long way
Refreshments / Loos
Ask questions ask for clarification

Have considerations
Do
Choose a suitable day - but be flexible
Show what you do
Exclude family
Explain, Explain, Explain, Explain, Explain, have photos.

Don't
Wing it
Retype records
Buy lots of new kit
Mix clean and dirty equipment

Note

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

General Certificate in Beekeeping Husbandry two day course Day 1

I attended the General husbandry course sponsored by the British Beekeepers Associated (BBKA) and Food, Environment and Research Agency (FERA). Its a two day course which is meant to help you get ready/ prepare for the general bee husbandry course.

These are the notes from day 1. It was held at Solihull School.

Beyond the basic 

Celia Davis gave the aims of the course - and how it should improve beekeeping skills as well as starting planning and taking the general husbandry exam within the next couple of years.

What will be assessed

Record Keeping
General Manipulations skills
Swarm Management
Queen rearing
Preparation of products for sale
Relevant theoretical knowledge
Honey extraction facilities

The syllabus includes being able to perform the tasks.
Queen rearing
Practical Beekeeping
  Swarm Control
  Queen Clipping
Natural History and Behavior
Foraging
Plant Diary / Pollen nectar
Hygiene, disease, pets and poisoning stings
honey and honey processing
     Honey regulations
     Samples - Honey and Wax

Hygiene & Husbandry

Bio security and Barrier Management is very important and is taken very seriously by the examiners, both in handling bees its husbandry and honey processing for human consumption.

For equipment, its important that hive tools, brushes, porter bee escapes are clean and kept in soda water solution. The lecturer Dave Bronner an regional bee inspector also explained how important and why hygiene of bee suits and and gloves is important.

Leather gloves which are very difficult to wash and can amass pheromones and stings, perhaps germs and pathogens are really not longer suitable for more modern bee keepers. However blue nitrate gloves, which are disposable are better. Suits should be washed regularly also important.

Apiaries should meet the " The Cafe Kitchen test". If you walked through the cafe kitchen would you still want to eat in the restaurant.

Dave also talked about equipment storage and using different sheds to keeps clean and dirty equipment and scorching and replacing used equipment. Much of the lecture was common sense, and all things we know, just getting them into a normal pattern of usage.

Cleanliness included the important honey processing facilities, and equipment, like extraction items and storage facilities for honey, wax and other hive products. 

Microspordian parasites in honey bees and in other animals by Dr Scott Campbell

I attended the Warwickshire beekeepers county lecture today it was on Nosema and given by Dr Scott Campbell from Exeter University. It was a very enjoyable and informative lecture.

Nosema is a microporidean which is a parasite and is fungi. Its a spore with a store outer coat which is strong enough for it to avoid being killed by various chemicals. The chemicals that people did use one this and other fungicides have been banned. Also oxalic acid may help to kills it.

Its a fungi found i domestic animals like rabbits, in edible Crustaceans like shrimp and lobster its found in fish and in humans. Normally its killed by the immune system however if the hosts immune system is weak, the parasite can take hold and survive.

It has no way of making its own energy so it saps the host of nutrients for it to survive and reproduce. Its a trait it has developed over time.

The spore finds its way into the bee and in normally found in the gut or ventricular it then lets out a tube from within itself and attaches itself to a host cell. The host cell becomes infected with the parasites young, the parasite then replicates with the cell and spreads. Most normal bees can just kill of the parasite however if the bees immune system has been weaken say from another parasite varrora then it can't or had more difficult fighting this new infection.

Nosema has been know about for a while. It was first discovered in 1857 in european silk worms but is probably millions of years old. In 1870 Louis Pasture wrote a book about nosema in silk worms. In 1959 it was found in humans, however in 1985 it made a huge increase in numbers in humans thanks to AIDS. Then by 2010 it was found to be in honey bees and causing serious issues to bees.

Lots of money is  being spent on research on the issues related to nosema and not just to honey bees, it causes problems with fish farmers and other livestock.

Scientist have found that when bees become infected with nosema they need to increase the amount of sucrose they intake. Microspordian have the smallest number of Genoa, it steals everything it needs from its host. Like all parasites it divides and develops to expand it numbers.Scientists have also discovered that they can affect the pheromone production, and alter flight behavior and mortality.

Bees get infected by two types of nosema
Nosema ceranae - first found in bees in china in 1996. It is found in the gut and the the salivary glands. Its 4x2 um in size
Nosema apis - This more common in bees and found in the midgut/ventricular and is larger about 6x3um in size.

Buds and flooding

Apple tree in need of pruning

I need to start pruning the apple trees but the weather has just been so poor and wet. I wouldn't mind a couple of days of very cold weather as it would kill of the nasties, but it just wet and getting wetter and more slushy and muddy.

You can't even walk through the orchard now without wellies.

Qunice Buds

The orchard is still very wet, its been raining now for a month, it feels longer. I'm worried that the roots will be affected and that the roots won't be able to breath as they should, and trees need and roots do need to breath.

I'm not the only orchardist that must be feeling like this in Britain today, but it feels like we can do nothing but wait and see what the weather brings. I look at the trees and can can see that the buds are getting bigger.

Buds on a Qunice tree

Willow doing well

The willow trees are doing really well, they seem to strive in this wet weather,  but i'm not sure for how long. The plan was also to get more in via some coppicing, but that just isn't happening.

Rabbit hole full of water

The colors in this weather is is very vibrant and actually pleasing to the eye. Lots of yellows, orange and bright greens. That's one reason I like willow this time of year. The buds on the willow are also growing. I reckon that I could plant the new coppiced willow into the ground in this weather, but its just getting down in the water that is deterring me.

The wet weather is also have a damaging effect on the wildlife. Some of the rabbit holes and mouse holes have been flooded. Rabbits are also beginning to gnaw at more of the trees. They are getting desperate for food etc. It must be the same for ground dwelling birds.

Wet but warmer

Plants doing well underwater

The parts of the orchard that were water logged last week are still waterlogged. Though the ice has melted. I can see that some of the grass that's under the water is now brown in colour but some of the plants seem happy living underwater. It must be good for some creatures and plants and as time goes on, I should consider planting more water loving plants in that area. It's still cold and I don't see any creatures venturing around the orchard, not even insects, I could see hoof prints from horse riders that have been riding in the mud. 

Willow tree buds

Part of the orchard that flooded no tree trees in the area though

Its not all bad the plants that are happy under the water are a lovely shade of green., it makes a good contrast with the brown. I can also see some of the buds from the willow that I planted some time ago doing very well in this weather, too. They have also been water logged but they continue to grow, and the buds are beginning to stretch out.

Conker trees to be plant this year

The plan is in a couple of weeks once the water has receded  plant some more coppiced willow, lots of it will be around at this time of year. Well the willow will be it will just need to be coppiced.

Last year from my parents garden my mother and father he collected a number of conkers trees that had taken hold from conkers so that I could plant them in the orchard. The trees will add more diversity to the fruit trees. Recently the UK had as problems with conker trees but I still plan to plant these. I'm not sure how many will actually survive, we shall see in a couple of years. I also have other fruit baring plants that need to be planted, including strawberries. I have to wait for the weather to improve so that I can start planting.

Strawberry plants that were in my garden last year

The weather has been so bad, that I haven't had a chance to clear the ground. One of the things I wanted to do, was to burn up the brambles that I had cut down during the late autumn. The problem is I have piles of them  brambles that are soaking wet, they just haven't had time to dry out so that I can burn them.

The weather was good enough for me to check on the bees and I made sure that they had stores, and the numbers of bees are still good. I check from above I could see large numbers of bees in the hives and lots of fondant. All good signs.

Wet and icy

The Orchard is cold at the moment

Its been another wet and cold week and the part of the orchard that was flooded part has a very a very fine sliver of ice which is nice to look at but her delicate. I'm sure by mid afternoon most of it will have thawed out and will refreeze over night The grass and flora sticks out which kind of looks nice.

Gnawed Tree

This colder time of the year is one where rabbits love gnawing at the trees. I have fenced up and checked the rest of the rabbit guards. It seems like the  occasional rabbit guard goes missing every now and again or it gets pulled out and  find itself against the fence. 

All the trees are  dormant I can see the last 3 leaves on one of trees its a nice image, almost showing what im hoping I will see in a couple of  months. The lycan and moss on some of the trees and in this weather it looks really good.

Bark of a Tree

I caught the farmers lad who this year got a scrambler for Christmas thinking of going through the orchard on it. I put a stop to that. The kid is really lucky, last year he got a quad bike which he has broken this year he has a scrambler which he tells me has a top speed of 85 mph. He is no  older than 11/12years old. I'd be a little weary of giving kids that age such expensive gifts.

I didn't check on the bees, it too cold, perhaps next week. The kids didn't want to come down to the orchard. When i was leaving the house in the morning it was I was cold. By the time I left I was only thinking of getting home for a warm drink.

When I got home and told the kids about the ice they wanted to come down with me.  I had mentioned it when I was heading down They weren't Interested it was early and cold outside. I looked for birds and rabbits around the orchard; they had more sense and stayed in where they were snugged up warm I bet. This is also the time of the year when lots of pests get killed off. Which is good.

Lots of horse tracks in the orchard someone is riding through the mud.

Icy Flood water

More icy water