APRIL 2017

USEFUL LINKS

DEVON BEEKEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION

www.devonbeekeepers.org.uk

BRITISH BEEKEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION

www.bbka.org.uk

DEVON APICULTURAL RESEARCH GROUP www.dargbees.org.uk

SPREAD 2004 TO 2010

LOT-ET-GARONNEIn ceramic bonsai pots from Yunna, China

Text in footer 7

SPREAD BY NOVEMBER

2016

SPAINPORTUGALITALYGERMANYBELGIUMALDERNEYUK

ASIAN HORNET—WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT ?

Last month we had a branch workshop and a talk about the Asian Hornet and how to trap the queen. 24 of the 96 branch members attended and leant how to make a hornet trap. This note is to help those missing members to understand why it is so important to control the pest..

The first slide on the left shows where the first nest was discovered in 2004 and how fast it spread across a large area of France in six years.

The next slide shows the spread by 2016 in France and then on to several European countries.

The blobs in the bottom slide show the spread in August 2016. Note how the mountain ranges of the Alps, the Pyranees and our English Channel have restricted the spead.

I attended a lecture day in Somerset a few weeks ago when Nigel Semmence of the NBU revealed that last year the Asian Hornet destroyed 50% of the hives in France.

Last week I spoke with Simon Jones, Regional Bee Inspector for the South West Region who informed me that a Hornet Queen had been found last month in Scotland.

However, the good news is that the UK is better organised than France where the hornet is out of control. We have the NBU (recognised as the best in the world), the help of the BBKA, the county associations and the branches so we are well organised to deal with the problem.

Chris Utting

Slides provided by NBU BEEBASE

Chair Chat

I have several people to thank this month.

Chris Utting arranged the three Winter Talks and one workshop. Finding topics and speakers to interest all our members is not an easy task. However, all the talks were informative, sociable and well attended. Not forgetting the epic Queen Hornet workshop! Thank you Chris, and Pete for his input into these events.

I think I am right to say that Chris would welcome any suggestions from you for the future talks.

My next ‘thank you’ is to all the members who helped on the Work Day. Trees were cut, wood stacked, all the huts cleaned and tidied, the water was reconnected and the slabs around the hives levelled. The apiary now looked at it’s best and was ready for the Beginners Course. Having so many helpers made the day a great success with much tea and cake consumed. Our North Devon Branch is fortunate in having many volunteers who quietly get on with ‘things’.

Are you keeping in mind the Devon County Show which is held from 18th to the 20th May? Jack Mummery has offered to help with the taking and collecting of your entries. Have you considered being a steward? A free ticket comes with this role. Entries close on April 20th.

We still have not had a warm day in which to inspect the colonies at Horestone. Happy beekeeping…when the weather allows.

Mave

BRANCH MEMBER WINS PRIZE SKEP

The DBKA Basic Assessment candidate who gets the highest marks in the county is awarded the Frank Alston Prize Skep at the DBKA AGM. This year Tim Allen of lfracombe received the skep from Colin Sherwood the DBKA President.

BRANCH EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY

7—9 APRIL 2017 BBKA SPRING CONVENTION—HARPER ADAMS UNIVERSITY

SATURDAY 13 MAY 2017 HORESTONE PLANT/BOOK/EQUIPMENT SALE & BARBEQUE

18—20 MAY 2017 DEVON COUNTY SHOW & HONEY SHOW

25 JUNE 2017 TASTER DAY AT HORESTONE APIARY

The branch committee meeting was held at the warm, cosy Cedars Hotel on the 20th March but the next one will certainly be at Horestone. Zara has had several people enquiring about Beekeeping training after the Beginners Course started. We have set the Taster Days for 25th June and the 3rd September. We talked about the increasing interest in Beekeeping generally and wondered if this area is becoming over-stocked with colonies. Julie has suggested more publicity about people increasing the forage for bees. Brian reported that we have 96 paid-up members. Internet payments are going well. Brian is to remind members that a lot of information is available in the Members Pack as well as on the website. Alan is continuing to improve the work area near the Equipment/Cliff’s hut. Cathy is making good progress in sourcing a new computer system for the apiary. Organising Branch outings is an on-going topic, but we agreed that we probably have enough activities for the time being.

Executive Council Committee There are several changes to this committee. The new President is Chris Smith. The new Chair is Tony Lindsell, and the Vice-chair is Viv Thorn. Tony Linsell is a Tiverton member. He plans to increase the involvement between the Branches and hopes to visit Horestone this summer. The issue around removing VAT from Beekeeping supplies has been passed to the BBKA from the DBKA team. The Year Book is to be reviewed as much of the information is duplicated elsewhere on the website. Tim Allan, a North Devon member and Examination Secretary, gained the highest marks in the 2016 Basic Assessment and so he was awarded a very fine skep.

The minutes of the EC meetings are available on the website.

Mave on behalf of the committees.

NEONICOTINOID (NEONICS) UPDATE

I heard on BBC Radio Four ‘Farming Today’ on Monday 24 March 2017 at 6.45 to 7.00am a report that Neonics may be permanently banned in the EU from the end of this year.

Neonics are used to coat the seeds of Oil Seed Rape (OSR) as a systemic insecticide against the Flea Beetle, a serious pest of OSR. There is strong scientific evidence that the use of Neonics in fields of OSR is a serious problem to honey bees and other pollinators. It is currently banned in the UK.

Damian Carrington, the Environment Editor of The Guardian, has seen a leaked unpublished draft issued by the European Commission proposing a complete ban on the three main Neonics. This has to be agreed by all 28 states in the EU and a lot of negotiation is expected.

Chris Utting

Committee Summaries March 2017

LIBRARY UPDATE We have some exciting new additions to the library. Firstly we have taken out subscriptions for two Journals, the Beekeeper Quarterly and the new Natural Bee Husbandry both edited by John Phipps. Beekeepers Quarterly is well known and puts the emphasis on main stream (conventional?) beekeeping with a wide range of articles from around the world. Natural Bee Husbandry will focus on and I quote from the Editors description “sustainable beekeeping, api-centred bee keeping and it will be of special interest to beekeepers who have moved away from keeping their bees in conventional hives allowing the bees to carry out their lives with very little interference……etc.” Don’t dismiss this as ‘hippy dippy’ early editions contain some thought provoking articles and everyone’s favourite professor Tom Sealey is contributing to it. Both can be borrowed from the library.

New books are;

Healthy Bees are Happy Bees by Pam Gregory, a Master beekeeper who also holds the NDB and an MSc in Natural Resource Management and was for many years an NBU inspector. This is a very readable and well referenced book detailing all the known pests and diseases confronting bees with the emphasis throughout on keeping bees healthy by good stockmanship, knowing your bees and learning to recognise the signs when things aren’t right. An interesting section covers poisonous and unpleasant honeys and practical beekeeping through the year advice.

A Practical Guide to Producing Heather Honey by Tony Jefferson. Tony is the 3rd generation of beekeepers keeping black/native bees in Eskdale with heather honey being the major crop. With so much interest in heather honey lately (last year was a very good year but many aren’t!) this is a concise and informative guide if you aspire to taking your bees to the heather stance. Not everyone will agree with Tony’s beekeeping methods eg no queen excluders but this book is based on years of experience and successful beekeeping. I think we should also have his ‘The Jefferson Beekeeping Guide’ in the library.

The Use of the Taranov Board a booklet in the Nutshell series by Donald Sims NDB . A concise guide to using this once again fashionable method of swarm control that was devised in 1947 by a Russian beekeeper. It consists of shaking the bees out onto the Taranov board placed in front of and below the hive entrance, most of the house bees return to the hive and the ‘swarm’ with the queen is left hanging under the board and can be hived as a normal swarm. It has the advantage of being swarm control without needing to find the queen.

Why Not Top Bar Hives by Jim Slade is a book for the technically minded for making and using Top bars, now very popular. We already have Phil Chandlers now classic book on Top bar beekeeping with his latest book soon to be on our shelves.

BBKA booklets. Honey Bee Anatomy by Ian Stell, a book of his excellent diagrams for anyone studying Module 5. In the Apiary, month by month by Dr. Ivor Davis sounded a very useful guide but your reviewer wasn’t impressed so you’d better read it and make up your own mind.

If you have difficulty getting to Horestone when we are open but would like to borrow books please contact me to see if we can make other arrangements to collect books. julie.elkin@outlook.com

THUG OF THE MONTH – SPANISH BLUEBELL April, a month that carpets the ground with our most loved spring flowers and by late April and into May sheets of shimmering bluebells, an ‘immanence of blue ‘as the poet Lucia C. Markham described it. Sometimes we forget because it appears so abundantly that our native bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta is confined to quite a small area of the world, a narrow Atlantic slice of Europe from the Netherlands to Northern Portugal and absent in Orkney and northern parts of the Outer Hebrides. In Spain, Portugal and North Africa it is replaced by the Spanish bluebell, H. hispanica a thug introduced several hundred years ago that hybridises freely with H. non-scripta to produce H. x massartiana. It continues to be popular as a garden plant even though it crosses and re-crosses with natives producing off spring so mixed up that it becomes difficult to discriminate between them creating in some areas a

‘hybrid swarm’. ( ref. Stace & Crawley, Alien Plants) .Both native and Thug spread freely by seed and bulb. Native bluebell flowers are narrowly bell shaped with straight sided petals deeply curved back at the tips. The majority of the flowers droop from one side of the stem and the anthers are creamy white. Spanish ones have flowers that open more widely, petal tips curling back only slightly with the more erect flowers arranged all around the stems. Anthers are pale to dark blue and leaves wider than H. non-scripta. Despite their pale pink, blue or white larger flowers the Spanish invader cannot compare in colour, grace or fragrance with our bluebells. The nectaries of H. non-scripta are too deep for honey bees but as with beans the bees can access the nectar via a hole at the lower end of the flower tube. Experts seem unsure as to just how useful a nectar source they are. Pollen is certainly used, F N Howes describes it as pale blue but I‘m inclined to agree with W. Kirk that it is a creamy to buff colour. To control these invaders the RHS advises that they should be dug out carefully (the bulbs can go deep) when in leaf and the soil is moist. Don’t compost them as the bulbs survive most compost systems but put into a black plastic bag for a year first.

‘LIVING WITH VARROA’ A TALK BY DAVID PACKHAM — 22 MARCH 2017 This was our final talk of the winter months. David Packham, Seasonal Bee Inspector, gave this talk in the Castle Centre, Barnstaple to a well-attended group of ‘seasoned’ and new beekeepers. This talk was detailed, comprehensive and well illustrated about the control of the mite and management of our colonies. David described how ‘hands-off’ beekeeping had been before the Varroa mite appeared. Twenty-five years ago colony losses of 10% were considered unusual. Now we have to concentrate on keeping the mite population as low as is possible. Varroa feed on the bees, weaken them and transmit diseases. The mites multiply on the larvae after the cell has been sealed. The numbers can increase by 50% in a week. Developing drone larvae are preferred as twice as many mites can develop than in a worker cell. By checking the inset board, we can estimate the weekly drop of mites. <2 daily is ok, 3-8 is moderate but >8 indicated a severe infestation. Drone culling is an option and indicator of the problem. David explained how to use of the Shook Swarm and Artificial Swarm procedures in reducing the mite population. Then the use of various registered chemical controls for application in the first week in August, after the honey supers had been removed, so that strong winter bees may be raised.

David demonstrated the use of a Queen cage to remove infested brood. He did not advise the use of icing sugar as this contains a ‘flow’ agent and it could interfere with the bees breathing. All registered chemical treatments must be recorded. Varroa control is a huge topic to cover in an hour so further study may be needed? David gave us a good over-view with much to consider.

Mave

H. non-scripta

photo credited to the GB Non Native Species Secretariat

Edited by Chris Utting e-mail chrisutting@btinternet.com The views expressed in the articles are the author’s and not necessarily those of the North Devon Branch of the Devon Beekeepers’ Association.

Member’s contributions are extremely welcome: by 23rd of the month prior to publication please

In times gone by, when life was dated Things were simple, uncomplicated.

Ladies were demure in lace. We lived life at a slower pace. People mostly worked the land

The empire continued to expand. Each man knew just where he stood,

Life was simple and it was good. Rumblings in a far off land

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand Our quiet, peaceful way of life Will quickly change to war and strife.

The rural ways we thought would last Will soon be in the distant past

But in cottage garden, on the flowers In shady nooks, on verdant bowers,

The air hums with the sound of bees Collecting nectar from the trees. The beekeeper working in the shade

Weaves straw with skill - a skep is made. Traditional home of country bee

But wasteful when extracting honey. At summer's end the bees were smoked Then prodded, squeezed and pulled and poked

When every bee has flown away The beekeeper then takes his pay. But payment for the bee is poor

She loses home and honey store. The skep will soon become outdated

And bees will be accommodated In hives that give bees room to move The 'bee space' that is going to prove

A revolutionary change for bees To check for swarming and disease.

The skep will soon become outdated And bees will be accommodated

In hives that give bees room to move The 'bee space' that is going to prove A revolutionary change for bees

To check for swarming and disease.

The Gardens of Heligan just sublime Will soon be lost in mists of time Grounds not tended anymore

Gardeners, beekeepers, gone to war Bee boles and rose beds overgrown Those men will not be coming home

And like the words of the song: "Where have all the flowers gone?"

Some country customs have survived We still tell the bees the keeper's died.

So some things still remain the same And there's a constant in our game. The war's still on - it didn't stop

We fight to save our honey crop. But now we fight to save our bees

From pests, parasites and disease. Loss of habitat and varroa Neonicotinoids from the oil rape seed grower,

Asian Hornet drawing near, The small hive beetle will soon be here.

Scientist and beekeeper work hand in hand To preserve our green and fruitful land

Let's hope our efforts aren't too late And bees can forage and pollinate. For fruit and flowers we need honeybees

So let's fight the war and help them. Please!

FIRST WORLD WAR POEM By Liz Westcott of Torbay branch