Apple blossom starting to bloom

Apple Tree Blossom

Apple Blossom

The Apple trees are starting to blossom finally. I like the smell of apple blossom. I like getting my nose into the blossom and smelling the faint scent. 

Its a wonderful time of year. The smell is a gentle soft smell and its only around for a couple of weeks. Apple tree blossom is very attractive and white and the pink on most varieties of apple trees, within the orchard. Some of apple trees haven't started so I will have a couple of weeks to enjoy the blossom. I recently became a life member of the Mid Shire Orchard Group. I am hoping to gain more skills and talk to people about orchards and the like. Must as I do with the bee keeping. 

Kazakhstan Blossom

Kazakhstan Trees

The Kazakhstan tree that we have the so called father of apples is in full bloom and blossom petals are a beautiful white. This was the first of the apples trees that blossomed fully. Its also the only apple tree that we have that has pure white flowers. Its not proper apple tree its more of a crab apple.

The cherry blossom is still going, but the trees that came into blossom first almost all the blossom has disappeared, and the fruit is starting to grow. Yeah, yum yum.

Cherry Trees Blossom disappearing

I didn't get a chance to go into the hives today as it started raining just as I arrived at the orchard. I could see the bees at the entrance, I need to go into the hive and check if they are likely to swarm this weekend. 

 
The farmers kid dropped off a quantity of horse manure today. I think it was a way of him saying sorry for driving his quad bike on the land. This also gave him a chance to to drive his new quad bike and trailer to drop of the manure.

Blossom here in full effect

Cherry Blossom

Lots of Cherry Blossom

Checked on the bees and wondered around the orchard, the blossom is out and in full effect, some rabbit damage but spring is here. Wondering around its obvious that the whole place is growing and full of energy. The grass is getting longer and the trees are getting taller.

Cherry blossom is out, as is the plum. The pear is starting to blossom and we are still a couple of weeks away from the apple coming into blossom.

As soon as I arrived I could see loads of rabbits out and about. Plenty of bees also whizzing around.

Me checking on the bees today

 I check on the bees and I found a sealed queen cell in the one of the hives, I think I may have lost a prime swarm, but lets see. The bees in the hive was very gentle, lots of brood and eggs I didn't see a queen, and if they have swarmed it would have been in the last 24 hours.

The 1st hive was very aggressive and I didn't spend much time going through that hive. They must have stung me a 20 or so times. I used a new bee jacket and 2 of the ladies managed to get in  a crawl up my body.

I have seen that much of the pollen from the fruit trees has been removed, I can only suspect that the pollen has been consumed by the bees in my hives. 1 point of disappointment one of the quince trees has some damage. Not sure its frost damage or an insect that caused it. Will have to monitor it.
 

Plum Blossom

I recently collected my certificates from the BBKA module exams 1-2. I also sat the Module 5 exam. Not sure how I have done not as great as previous exams. In the previous ones I have only just managed to pass. I have started to study for module 3. The exam is in November so I have some to get up to speed.

BBKA Spring Convention 2014

I attended the convention on the Friday 4th  April and the Sunday 6th April.

On Friday I attended a number of lectures and the trade exhibition

My plan for lectures was 

Wild honey bees in Britain - Catherine Thompson - This was cancelled and Dan Basterfield stepped in and gave his talk on Nutrition for honey bees. 

Dan Basterfield gave an excellent talk on the nutrition that bees need and how in the UK with more diversity of plants makes for healthier bees, with comparison to bees that are forced to live on mono cultures. Bees need protein which they get from pollen and the more types of pollen that bees are collecting from the better. They need essential amino acids just as humans and do and don't thrive well on just one type of pollen. 

Reading Bees - Ken Basterfield

Ken gave an interesting informal lecture in which he explained how he has improved his skills over the years by studying not just his bees but others bees and the more exposure you have to different bees the more you will learn. The point of his talk was the more experience you have the better. Take the time to have a proper look and study, not just the BBKA modules, but books and articles that have been written and make sure that you are think about what your are seeing. He regularly talks to his bee inspector as the bee inspector will have seen more and is more knowledgeable because he handles more colonies and is more exposed to different bees. In hindsight this was my favorite talk although at the time I didn't enjoy it as much as it was informal. 

Beenomics: tools for bee health - Jay Evans

Jay is from the States and gave a rather technical talk on the research he has been carrying out in the states. Jay is a bee keeper but firstly a scientist and that was evident from his talk. 

Age distribution in a colony - Sjef van der Steen

Sjef from Holland gave a light hearted talk about some research he has been doing on bees in Holland. He has studied where bees are in the hive and what they are doing at particular times during a bees lifecycle. 

Inbetween lecture I hit the trade stands talked to couple of people. I bought a couple of books but later found they would have been cheaper on amazon. I also bought a couple of wax moulds for candles. Plans to make more candles in the next couple of weeks.

On the Sunday I attended a single Session Celia Davis Introduction to BBKA Module 6 course

We went over Biological Terms, looked at various pheromones and glands that bees have. The also heard about various dances that the bees does and also the differences between summer and winter bees. The various roles that bees do in the hive and when.

Some of the things I had studied for this exam were in the module 5 exam.

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.