Bee Lecture January 2012

Sutton Beekeepers Question time

This month's lecture for Sutton Bee Keepers was a Question and Answer session similar to Radio 4's Gardeners Question time. The bee keeping panel were 3 bee keepers from the Coventry branch of the Warwickshire Bee Keepers association. The Coventry branch is based at Ryton Gardens, home of Organic Gardening "Henry Doubleday Research Association". The association has had a number of problems over the past few years with European Foul Brood (EFB). European Foul Brood (EFB) is a disease which if found you must notify Defra and they send in National and Regional Bee inspectors to investigate the cause and to take measures to kill off the virus.

Question 1 - How will GM crops affect us? 

The panel said if the government legislation changes and allows more GM crops to be planted then the public would lose confidence in British honey. The EU government wants to restrict honey sales of honey found to contain high levels of GM pollen.

The entire panel were against GM crops and some state that when GM crops were planted in test areas it created a huge amount of fear from the public. 

My personal thought is it would be good for British bee keepers if the British government were to maintain the ban on gm crops. The British public would have more confidence in honey and honey produce. Random testing of pollen from British honey would help to locate rogue farmers or even members of the general population which have GM crops or plants.

Some time ago Farming Today another Radio 4 program had an article about how the EU was going to ban honey which contains GM pollen. This would be beneficial for British Beekeepers in theory as Britain has so few GM crops. It would even make British honey, more attractive to the rest of the world. I see problems with this as well though; increasing demand would not be good especially if you’re a bee.

In the US many honey producers and importers heat and filter out the pollen so that it's difficult to tell where the honey originated from. This is something I learned from the Food Program yet another Radio 4 program. This means that all the goodness of the pollen is removed. The guy in the program was arguing that it’s no longer technically honey. One reason for this is to ship in cheap honey from China and India (whose honey is banned in the UK) then heat it and filter out the pollen, so that all the pollen is removed then bottle it before selling it. No one can then tell where the honey is from then as it’s the pollen from plants indigenous to India or China that mark it out, and can help in tracing it back to source.

Question 2 - Is it worth buying new frames each year

The entire panel was unanimous you should change your frames each year. One alternative was to give them a deep clean with a soda wash. You should also replace the wax comb every year.

This for me this was eye opening. I have over the past few years only replaced the wax comb and not the wooden frames. I will be replacing all the frames this year. I do buy new frames every year but normally to expand the number of colonies. 

The reason to change them every year is to reduce any disease or viruses within a hive or colony. This process would involve physically removing any contaminated bees wax and the wooden frames that hold the bees wax in place. It makes perfect sense to me; I don't understand why it hadn't occurred to me before. I normally just replace the wax and keep the frames giving them a rough scouring. 

Some particles may remain on the bees themselves but they can create a new environment that is clean and fresh. From a superfluous point of view it also looks better, and makes it easier to find bee eggs. They show up better on new wax comb as the wax is translucent and eggs are visible when the frame is held up to light. Some varroa mites would still get through this process though as they tend to latch onto bees and suck the life out of the bees, you could sprinkle icing sugar on the bees forcing them to clean themselves and in the process dislodging the mites.

All this would help in maintaining a healthy hive and trying to reduce the risk of European Foul Brood.

Question 3 - Best method to stop swarming

Most of the bee keepers just them get on with it and considered swarming a routine issue, once swarming had occurred they had become proficient in collecting the swarms and then either merge them together or starting new colonies.

A method of swarm control that was published in the April 2002 in an edition of Bee Craft was mentioned by a member of the panel who has been a Beekeeper 30+ years stated that it works and recommended it. I am attaching pictures of the method from that edition to explain the method. That's probably better than me trying to explain it.

Question 4 - If you had 5 bee hives and located a swarm how would you determine from which hive they came from

The panel would look inside each hive and see which had less bees or attempt to lift all the hives and the one that was lightest would probably be where the swarm came from.

Question 5 - Can the temperament of a colony be changed?

The entire panel said yes the temperament of a hive can be changed and gave examples and techniques for requeening. If a colony attacks you or if they regularly sting you then locate the queen and remove her and replace her with another queen from a more dorsal colony. You can obtain a new queen from another colony or let the hive create new queen cells. They also gave advice if placing a new queen into the hive. This included removing workers from the queen cage before going to the hive. The panel also gave suggestions and methods of disguising the new workers and the queen by spraying bees with rose water or placing the queen into your mouth and covering her in saliva and the spitting her into the hive. You would only do this with the Queen or a male bee as they will not sting you. You would never do this with a worker bee as if they stung you on the inside of your mouth or on your tongue you would be in trouble. The swelling would mean that you may not be able to swallow and breathing may also be difficult, and a trip to A&E may be on the cards.

Question 6 - If you could be a Bee keeper anywhere where would you be one, and why?

Madeira - It’s beautiful and the bee keepers paint the hives in the same colours at the national flag. According to the bee keeper the first time she saw bee’s hives in a valley while on holiday in Madeira she fell in love with the place and wanted to be a bee keeper in Madeira.

Tasmanian - The leather wood forests would be a great place to be a bee keeper and the honey would be delicious.

Anywhere - that produces Acacia honey and the bee keeper could present and server on the comb

They all sounded marvellous to me, but in truth I'm happy with my hives in my own small orchard just north of Birmingham.

 

The article is very old and as you can see  the bees wax etc is very dark making it unhygienic for bees that why modern practices would replace the wax with fresh sheets which the bees would then build on. You would then have a loving fresh comb.  which looks nothing like  these pictures but I will take a picture later this year and try and show you what it's like. Bright, clean fresh and it has a nice aroma too.