The Basingstoke Beekeeper

December 1996

APIARY UPDATE

All is quiet on the apiary front. The bees have been fed, treated for varroa and bedded down for the winter. The standstill Notice has been lifted from St. John's Copse.

I shall visit Breach Farm and St. John's Copse at least fortnightly during the winter months to ensure that the bees have not suffered from vandalism or severe weather and to check the varroa floor inserts.

Mike Butler and I attended a recent public meeting in Oakley at which the Hampshire Wildlife Trust gave a presentation on Community Woodlands, with particular reference to the future management of St. John's Copse and nearby Cowdown Copse.

The Wildlife Trust, The Borough Council and, most importantly, local volunteers, will manage the Copses for the benefit of wildlife and the local people. I have volunteered.

There seems to be a fair amount of goodwill surrounding the Association's activities in St' John's Copse and our future there is provisionally assured. I expressed concern about the possible increase in vandalism following public access. Also, I reported that the Association would be interested in developing the apiary into an educational resource.

I shall attend an inaugural field meeting of management volunteers on 7th December and will keep you informed of developments through the newsletter.

I shall now remove my Apiary Manager's hat and don my Bee Inspector's hat for a moment.

In this newsletter you will find a map of Hampshire showing the number and general location of confirmed foulbrood cases during 1996. The map is broken down into ten kilometre grid squares. It is not broken down to Parish, town or village level because of the risk of beekeepers' identities being assumed. Each square contains the name of its most central or largest settlement as an aid to identification. That does not mean that foulbrood has necessarily been found in the area of that particular town or village. It could be anywhere in the square.

Although I am sworn to confidentiality, those beekeepers who voluntarily divulge foulbrood in their bees are to be congratulated. After all AFB and EFB are no respecters of beekeepers. If fact, it is often the strong, well managed colonies that succumb through their robbing of weaker, diseased colonies.

On that relatively sombre note (sorry!), I shall wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Dave Purchase (Apiary Manager)

HONEY SHOW 1996

First the thanks. To Norman and Tony for organising our Honey Show again this year. To George and Krystina for the arduous task of judging the event, the confectionery classes seemed particularly challenging as they spent some time there. To Sue, Dave and Gordon who can always be relied upon to help stage any event organised on behalf of the Association. To Kathy Philo of Basingstoke Council for giving us the opportunity to join in the Apple Day event, allowing us to hold our show at a cost that helps it remain viable. And to Everyone who participated.

Thank-you all.

The weather was wet and cold and the visitors modest in number but hardy at heart. The display of entries this year looked really good and the number of entries exceeded the space we had originally allocated. A very pleasant outcome when only a few weeks before we had just about decided not to hold the event at all. How encouraging then to have such a substantial and high quality turnout, making the show a resounding success despite the short notice we actually gave you once we decided to hold it. Congratulations to those who won prizes and better luck next year to those who did not.

This year, with Gordon & Norman's encouragement, we had a first class turnout in the Honey for Sale class. This is perhaps the premier class as it is closer to the customer than the rather esoteric 'show' classes. It was also very satisfying to note the number of entries that really were just taken off the shelf for entry. We plan to continue our strong support for this class and Gordon has offered to sponsor a trophy.

The Honey Show is not just an event for members to have a little sport by producing that prize-winning entry. It's also an important showcase where the general public see the range and quality of our products and where we raise the awareness to locally produced honey and other hive produce. Remember too that the Show and indeed the whole Association lives or dies by your support and involvement. So don't forget next year to have your entries planned and ready. The committee prefers not to have to 'phone around and remind you.

Our new-found link with the Apple Day looks as though it should remain, so we plan to include a couple or so honey & apple classes next year. One of these will be for cyser, a traditional old English drink made from apple juice with added honey to increase the alcohol content and enhance the flavour - the honey adds a nutty mellowness. Cyser takes a little while to make and polish, so get that must fermenting soon! Ideas for other apple & honey classes are welcome.

John Peacock

p.s. Congratulations too to John Cain, who went on to win the Best in Show award at the Hampshire Convention with his Honey for Sale entry.

A letter from Cathy Philo

Well, what a wet and windy Apple Day it was this year! I would like to thank the Basingstoke & District Beekeepers' Association for helping make the day such a success despite the weather. I hope that the Association found it useful to combine the Honey Show with the Apple Day and would be interested to hear if you wish to do the same again next year. In the meantime, any comments on how to improve on this years even would be gratefully received.

Please convey my thanks to all your members for their support.

Yours sincerely, Cathy Philo for Head of Leisure Services.

EU Grant for Beekeepers

I read in the paper that the EU have just agreed a 12million pounds grant to help the EU's 435000 beekeepers "aid production and marketing of honey and help with disease control". I don't yet have any further details.

Foulbrood Report

Some figures for Foulbrood in the Southern Region.

          AFB           EFB
County          1995  1996    1995  1996
Berkshire         0     3      26    22
Buckinghamshire   0     0       5     6
Dorsetshire      11     8      22    31
Hampshire         4     3      46    69
Isle of Wight     0     0       0     0
Oxfordshire      24     4      22    12
Wiltshire         0     1       1     1
Total            39    19     122   141

Foulbrood apiaries and (colonies) infected (10 Oct. 1996).

GRID   AFB    EFB    Nominal area
SU46                 Newbury
SU56          1(9)   Thatcham
SU66                 Burgfield Common
SU76          1(3)   Shinfield
SU45  1(1)    2(8)   Litchfield
SU55  1(1)    2(3)   Kingsclere
SU65                 Basingstoke
SU75                 Hook
SU44          2(3)   Hurstbourne Priors
SU54  1(1)           North Waltham
SU64                 Farleigh Wallop
SU74                 Froyle
SU43                 North Winchester
SU53          1(2)   Alresford
SU63                 Four Marks
SU73          2(11)  Alton

Remember -- those are 10km (6m) squares. Some 'Kingsclere' infections were very close to the eastern boundary of the square.

Any rise in disease is always disappointing, but there can be several sides to any story. The first question to consider is whether it's the rate of disease that has increased, or the rate of detection. I don't know which is the major factor, but I do know that Dave is both a thorough and dedicated inspector and is far more local to us than our old friend Mark White, who had an outrageous journey to make to get to us (from Gillingham in Dorset).

Another likely factor is increased susceptibility due to the additional stresses from varroa. Colonies that would not have succumbed, or in which foulbrood might not have been noticed, may this time have just not quite remained clear.

Perhaps too we should consider whether our concern about varroa, well placed though it is, might have fogged our concern about the other more 'traditional' diseases, which have not, and will not, go away.

To reiterate Dave's comment, there should be no stigma attached to finding a foulbrood -- it can and does happen to anyone. In fact, it may be that the better beekeepers are more likely to find it, as they are the ones who are both alert and know what to look for.

There are some interesting new looks at old ideas for managing EFB, which if successful will become common. If the results of the experiments are encouraging, Dave (or MAFF) will be reporting to us in the future. For now, I can just hint that colony hygiene is as important as it ever was -- renew those brood combs regularly.

Gordon

Swarm Collections

Our first year working with the Council on swarm collection has been a little mixed. Some things have worked well, whilst others have been a little clumsy, but practice should as ever make perfect(ish). This year, swarming was lighter or later than usual, depending on who you talk to. Well done everyone who collected swarms, but remember to complete and return the blue forms so that we both demonstrate that we 'did the job' and get paid for it. Remember too that people on income support don't have to pay, so you don't have to be too magnanimous. Gordon

Some Thoughts on Home Brewing

I'm no expert on home brewing and wine-making, but I've done a little with various degrees of success or failure, so I'll expound a few thoughts and see where we get.

Often in the past when I've made wine, I've followed the recipes and produced a 'brew' that seems pretty reasonable when I test it, but clearly needs a little more time to smoothen out a bit. Well -- wines do! So I leave it a little longer and test another bottle -- better, but it still needs a little more time.

Soon enough I've tested all that I made and I'll never know whether it would have been a great wine if kept longer than a month or so. It takes great discipline to leave those few bottles alone for long.

Of course, eventually I saw the error in my procedure -- I just wasn't making enough to get a decent chance of testing it before I ran out. Problem solved -- a master wine-maker just has to make bigger batches! I started making five-gallon batches. This is definitely better than making those silly little one gallon lots, but if it does go wrong, it hurts more. Pouring away five gallons of raw materials can be a bit depressing, not to say a little expensive. Maybe I could make three-gallon batches.

Recipes for honey-show mead tend to be a little 'purist'. Thou shalt use only honey, water and yeast, thou shalt not consider putting in even the teensy-weensyest bit of citric or malic acid to give that little 'edge' to your mead. Nor shalt thou use even a single solitary tea bag to add that hint of bitterness that makes a wine mellow with age. Such a shame. Still, there's show mead (which is good), there's the real drinking mead (which is arguably better) and indeed there are some good wholesome quaffing honey beers (No, not Honey Bears), which are quicker to make and maybe therefore the best. There is also a selection of fruit & honey wine and spiced mead blends that may tempt the palate.

There has always been a misconception that mead is unbearably sweet. It can be, but it certainly need not be. Meads can be fermented to absolute dryness just as any other wine -- you just have to get the recipe right. The sweetness of wines and meads depends on their 'original gravity', which is roughly speaking a measure of the amount of sugar dissolved in the water. The more sugar the more potential alcohol. I say potential, because above a certain point, the sugars will not all change to alcohol and we get a strong, sweet wine.

That purist honey-show mead can be a little bit bland, or if not, can take some years to reach perfection (maybe three-gallon batches are too small after all). But English wines have traditionally been made with local fruits and honey, rather than honey alone. This is partly because very few fruits contain enough sugar to make a full strength wine without a little help. It's also partly because fruit & honey wines generally taste better.

Some classes of mead

• Cyser -- My personal view is that this is the original English wine. Cider was a natural by-product of damaged fruit and adding honey made it pretty zippy.
• Melomel -- Fruit wine made with added honey. Hey, you can make this stuff with other fruit besides apples. Melomels seem to work best with white fruits than red/black fruits.
• Pyment -- Like melomel, but always with grapes.
• Hippocras -- A pyment with added herbs and spices, purely for medical reasons of course (remember the Hippocratic oath?)
• Metheglyn -- (from the Welsh word for medicine; meddcyglyn -- if I've spelled it right), also with herbs or spices.

Wine characteristics

So what makes wines good or bad? Practice helps a lot, but a little research and science helps too and it can take less time. First of all, wines can 'go off' because a bacterium turns the alcohol to vinegar. We protect our wine from that by hygiene. The wine-makers standbys are Campden Tablets which sterilise the ingredients and various possible cleaning fluids for the equipment. Dishwasher powder works well, Jeyes fluid is most definitely a no-no!

Acidity adds that extra zest to the flavour. It also helps a wine to keep longer and mature better. The favourites are citric acid, traditionally from lemon or other fruit juices, malic acid from apples or tartaric acid -- I don't know where that one comes from. Depending on the acidity you want, you'll want somewhere between 1/2 and 1oz (12 to 25g) of acid to a gallon of wine. Of course if your original 'must' is naturally acidic, you won't need to add any more. A higher acidity also helps to offset sweetness.

That characteristic bitterness and astringency you get with red wines is due to the tannin that occurs naturally in red fruits, particularly red grape skins. Tannin also helps preserve a wine and is a major factor in producing those big high-quality reds that want years to mature. If you want to drink it early, go for only a modest amount of tannin -- Beaujolais Nouveau, not Rioja. Of course, if you don't mind waiting...

A little tannin works well with meads, but beware adding too much as the end result can be unpalatable. Pyments made with red grapes will typically have too much -- stick to whiter fruits until your sure what you're doing. Acids and tannin are available from home-brew suppliers.

'Body' is that rather indefinable 'fullness' in the mouth when you drink. It tends to come from sugars, alcohols and soluble fibres. If the sugars are fermented right out, mead tends to lack body, so sometimes this is worth boosting. A traditional method is to add sultanas or raisins to the 'must', but an alternative method is to pulp in a very ripe banana. It works!

The choice of yeast is probably overstated as it isn't really all that important. However, baker's yeast tends to have too strong a flavour and be too fast acting, so avoid it and buy a suitable yeast from your home-brew supplier. Generally, use beer/ale yeasts for 'long' drinks like beers, ales and ciders, and use wine yeasts for stronger drinks like wines and meads. If you want to make a sparkling wine you really must buy a purpose made yeast as these actually are quite special. Yeasts work best with some added 'yeast nutrients'. Again yeasts and nutrients are available from your home-brew supplier.

Equipment

You can actually get away with surprisingly little equipment. You'll need a couple of containers in which to ferment your wine. The traditional 1 gallon glass jars are fairly easy to get from your home-brew place, but other containers can also be used. Do ensure that they're made of food grade materials though, or you may taint your wine. A large container with a fairly small neck is ideal. If you use a one gallon jar, you will also want an air-lock again from your local home-brew place. If you use larger sizes like 3 or more gallons, you'll almost certainly get away with covering the aperture with nothing more than a fine cloth.

You'll need a length of food grade tubing to 'rack' your wine, which just means that you siphon the clear liquid off of the thick sediment that drops to the bottom. Once fermentation stops (or nearly stops), siphon the liquid from the fermentation container to a new clean container and allow it to continue clearing. There are 'fining agents', available from the usual place, that will help with this. If like me you're vegetarian, avoid isinglass, which is a fish extract.

If you get 'hooked' and want to be more adventurous or thorough, you could also invest in a Hydrometer for measuring specific gravity, a pH test set for measuring acidity or filters for helping to clear your wine.

Methods

There are many variations on a theme and this is just an example.

Preparing the 'must'

'Must' is the name of the primordial soup with which we start and which eventually turns into a fine wine. Generally, meads are safest made with milder flavoured honeys, as the stronger ones can take many years to mature. As I mentioned earlier, hygiene is vital to ensure success, so start by sterilising the equipment. Now we need to make up and sterilise the 'must' itself. Some books suggest boiling the honey solution to sterilise it, but Campden tablets added to the solution work well and affect the flavour less. Mix together the water, honey, any juices tea-bags or whatever. Don't yet add the yeast. Add the Campden tablets, seal the container and leave it in a cool place for 24 hours. You could now rack or filter off any sediment if you wish.

If you have a hydrometer, you can now check and adjust the specific gravity. More sugar makes it higher. Around 1.060 will make a dry wine and around 1.100 start to make sweeter wines. If you don't have a hydrometer, trust the recipe and see what you get. It shouldn't be too far out.

If you have a pH test kit, you can now test the 'titratable acidity' (don't worry, the test kit will explain). As a general rule, 3.0-4.0 parts-per-thousand is for dry wines and 3.5-4.5 ppt for sweet wines.

Fermentation

Generally, it's best to 'start' the yeast in a small quantity of the 'must' in a warm place. Mix together the yeast, nutrient and about 1/2 pint of 'must' in a small bottle, loosely cover the top and leave it in the airing cupboard for a few hours. This gets things going nicely. Add the starter to the bulk of the 'must', stir or shake it in and then cover the bulk containers opening either with the airlock, or with a close fitting cloth. Put the container in a place where the temperature is, ideally, 70-80F (20-25C). It may take a day or three to get going, but then the next few days of fermentation can be quite vigorous and there may be some frothing during this primary fermentation. Be careful where you store the container.

After a few days, this vigorous fermentation diminishes and the secondary fermentation begins. This secondary fermentation may continue for several months, but eventually it will stop. If it stops very early and the 'must' remains sweet, the fermentation may have 'stuck' and you may now need a book to find out how to restart it. Just shaking a little air into the mixture sometimes works. Fermentation can be stopped early by adding Campden tablets.

Racking & Clarification

This just involves siphoning the clear wine off of the 'lees' or dregs at the bottom of the fermentation vessel. The wine should be racked for the first time at or near the end of fermentation to remove the large deposits that occur. This is an important stage and should be done sooner rather than later to avoid the risk of musty off-flavours from the dying yeasts. Second and subsequent rackings should be carried out at intervals of a couple of months. The wine may be filtered to speed the process. The wine may be fined to speed the process. Tools and ingredients from the usual place.

Maturation

Most home wine-makers mature their wines for too short a period of time and the wines can be rather raw. Wines can be matured either in large containers like that originally used for fermentation, or in standard wine bottles. Wines actually need a tiny amount of air to mature well, but don't overdo it. Plastic 'corks' may lack finesse, but they are actually more practical than their real cork ancestors.

Wines should be stored in a cool dark place where the temperature is fairly stable. Soaring temperatures are the sworn enemy of fine wine.

And Finally...

Enjoy!

Gallery Open Evening

Angela Pingram, one of our newer members, has recently opened an art & craft gallery at the Viables Craft Centre and is holding an open day to which she invites our members:

The aim is to spread the word that there is now a place in Basingstoke where you can can buy high quality contemporary arts and craft, without paying London gallery prices.

The gallery has a range of of original artwork, ceramics, and a unique selection of hand-carved mirror frames in selected hardwoods. Prices range from 20 to 400 pounds. A 10% discount is being offered for the evening of the open day only.

The open evening is on Tuesday 10th December from 5:30pm to 7pm at Gallery Crafts, Viables Craft Centre, Harrow Way, Basingstoke. Viables is between the Alton Road roundabout and the Brighton Hill roundabout. It is signposted from each.

Angela

'Triangular' Clearer Boards

From: Gerry Visel

Take an inner cover, a thick one like a feeder board. On the "thick" side, glue or tack on 1/4" square wood strips around the hole to form two or three concentric triangles with their corners open about 3/8". The strips should have the ends cut on a slant so that the ends angle toward the corners. Then glue or tack a triangular piece of screen over the whole triangle. You're done.

To use 'em, put the board under the supers, screen side down. The bees go down through the hole and straight outward through the passageways at the corners of the triangles, but when they come in, end up turning down a side passage to the next corner of the triangle.

Cute idea. It's not sensitive to bee space in the moving parts like the spring-type escapes you install in the inner cover hole. Those need the "springs" to be cleaned and adjusted to one bee thickness opening. Every type has its adherents though. Gerry Visel

Clearing Bees

There was a long series of discussions on the bee-l mailing list regarding clearing bees from supers. Much of the information came from Allen Dick, who features largely. I've taken the liberty of reorganising and occasionally rewording things to make a composite whole. Allen will be the first to admit that what works for him in Canada may not work elsewhere. Look, Learn and note that there are several important caveats in the following text. Gordon.

From: Allen Dick

Brushing

The trick is to shake most of the bees off first with a quivering shake and then brush UPWARDS. Being pushed upwards is quite natural to the bees compared to being brushed down. Try it -- you'll like it.

We extracted 125 hives many years ago, using only brushing and it was not too bad a task. Remember to carry two brushes and soak the one not in use to remove any honey. Shake to water off and change brushes at any sign of the brush in use loosing its softness.

Fume Boards

The chemicals available for fume boards these days are butyric anhydride and benzaldehyde -- at least in North America. Carbolic acid was previously used for many years without problems, but is no longer permitted, even though, apparently it is major ingredient in cough drops.

Benzaldehyde is 'artificial oil of almonds', and has a most pleasant smell. In concentration, I doubt you would want to breathe it all day or wear it on your skin, but it seems pretty benign. Unfortunately it does not work reliably in many different conditions and we gave up on it long ago.

Butyric anhydride (Bee Go or Honey Robber) is a really pungent material. I will not allow it in my building -- even for a minute, in case it spills. Boxes removed with it smell like dog faeces long after and any honey house where they are extracted smells bad. The user soon gets used to the smell, and only visitors notice it, but it gets in your hair and your clothes. Honey Robber has a cherry oversmell, but as one commercial beekeeper says: " the only difference is that it smells like cherry flavoured dog do".

In the field, butyric anhydride works almost as well as carbolic used to, however I personally am choked by the fumes no matter where I stand. It's not the smell, but the fumes actually hurt my bronchia. (If I were a hobbyist, and not selling to any large market, frankly I'd get some carbolic and use it. It's the best. But do not use it if you are selling honey).

Using fume board chemicals requires at least average intelligence and careful handling); never place the open container on top of an open beehive -- it might tip. Apply the chemical sparingly and make sure that it is on the cloth and soaked in, not sitting in drops on the wood, waiting to drip on your top bars as soon as you invert the board. Use smoke to start the bees make sure the bees are not in a cluster, but are moving freely in the hive and responsive to smoke.

Bee Escapes

All in all, for comb honey production, we found the triangle bee escapes to be reliable and had the advantage of leaving the burr comb in the supers clean and non-drippy. In a hurry, we have used fume boards, but a bee blower -- with or without abandonment was the fastest.

A bee escape board can also be used on a floor on the ground, not necessarily facing -- or near -- the hive.

The advantage is that the lifting is reduced. The disadvantage is that if the weather and bee activity levels are not right, the bees will not be attracted by the hive below (thru the screen) as they are in the more conventional use, and will remain a long time -- perhaps indefinitely. However robbers cannot enter if all other holes are taped. This is an abandonment method, and relies on a good level of bee flight. It will not work reliably if the bees are clustered.

These methods require an ability to observe and understand bee activity. This activity varies very considerably from one time of year to another. This is particularly true of how the bees relate to their home, and how they find it.

Blowers

Blowers come in may guises, from the home vacuum cleaner in reverse mode to the Huskvarna and Stihl two stroke 'big mothers' that approach 200 MPH air speeds. We use the latter, but seldom turn them up all the way. The top speeds are for partly empty combs on cool days -- days when the bees should actually be left alone, but there are a few boxes that have to be cleaned out and we are 60 miles from home on a Friday afternoon.

We don't turn them up because if we do, the bees are blown up in our faces instead of thru the top bars, and there is a risk of damaging bees with too much force. Bye the way, we blow from the bottom of the box to the top, since the frames can be moved easily by their bottoms -- like leafing thru a book.

Under some circumstances, we blow down through a box that is still on the hive before removing it. Temperature must be considered when doing this.

Leaf blowers are a cheap and ubiquitous alternative to specialised bee blowers. They are adequate for most (95% of all) jobs, and we carry one as back up for when our main blowers fail. They are not as rugged as the big ones, but they do last well -- even being trucked around the country.

I like to put 15 feet of 2-1/2 inch hose on my blowers and set them far from the bees -- and me. If they are close to the hives, bees can get into the air intakes and gum everything up (we screen the intakes and the motors). If they are near me, I go nuts from the noise, and my helpers get tired of being shouted at (over the racket).

A blower is very useful if you misjudge how fast the bees will abandon your boxes and they are still full of bees when you are ready to load, or if there is a patch of brood in a super, and the bees have not left.

Abandonment (Tipping)

The abandonment method also leaves the burr comb free of dripping honey, and having a blower allows one to take the boxes within the hour in case robbing is likely, or an extra trip would be required.

Abandonment is the very best method, but it is an expert method and requires some considerable expertise. It is not normally suitable for most beginner or intermediate beekeepers because they cannot recognise the difference between bees leaving, and robbing bees and cannot understand the seasonal and weather related conditions that determine exactly how the procedure must be accomplished -- there are many tricks. Having said that, however, a knowledgeable commercial operator can look out the window in the morning and send a crew of trained labourers out to tip without too many worries.

Tipping can be used in both flow and robbing conditions without loss or contamination of honey, and with minimum disturbance to the bees. It is our primary means of removing honey, but we always carry a blower. Tipping is a method of removing honey without using chemicals, blowers, brushes, etc. It's the most elegant solution, but requires at least advanced or master level bee knowledge to succeed consistently without complications.

Here's how:

• Choose a day when temperatures are sufficient for free bee flight, and a good flow has been on for several days.
• Remove full or partly full supers -- preferably with no brood, and preferably from above an excluder.
• Place each one on end either on the ground to one side near the entrance of the hive from which it was removed, or on top of a hive nearby that has it's lid on normally. (Perhaps that latter hive has just had its honey removed and a super added). Do not block flight paths.
• Shortly the bees should finish their tasks, clean up any drips from burr comb, and fly out. They will then fly into the hive from which they came. This may take minutes or it may take hours, depending on the intensity of bee and flight activity.
• Pick up the supers and take them away. You're done.

Problems:

Weather changes fast, and so do bees. Bees that were happy at one moment, may turn to heavy robbing, resulting in (total) loss of the honey and serious stinging of passers by.

If you don't use excluders, the queen may be in the super of some hives. Careful blowing, brushing or shaking toward the correct hive is then required, as the bees may not leave by themselves. Brood in supers will have the same effect.

Tipping will not work if the bees are not flying freely!

That's because if they've not flown for a few days, they will not know where to go when and if they do fly up, and as a result abandonment will fail. Bees can forget where home is in a day or two at some times of year, and it is a safe bet that after three days of confinement or low flight activity, most will not remember their hive location.

Backing out

In the worst case, you can simply lift the supers back on the hive from which they came, and try again later.

With our experience, we are able to leave boxes tipped -- sometimes for days -- without incident, if the truck doesn't have a chance to return due to breakdown or some other cause. But then we do know exactly what we are doing and seldom have a problem. There are only a few weeks a year that we can get away with such 'careless' behaviour.

Some of these things are so much second nature to me that it is hard to remember to explain every little detail.

Those of us who work with bees daily for decades do things without thinking or putting them into words, and they just work. When it comes to trying to explain, it gets really tough knowing what to explain and what is just intuitive. An example is combining hives -- I haven't even thought seriously about using newspaper for twenty years. Whenever I want to combine hives, I just do it (without) and there are no problems. Twenty five years ago, I can remember piles of dead bees resulting from my inexperienced attempts.

From: Winston Sweatman

Are young bees that haven't progressed to the forager stage, ever a cause for concern with tipping or blowing methods? If these bees are in the supers they wouldn't be able to find their way back home.

From: Allen Dick

That is one of many reasons why it is an advanced technique. A good intuitive understanding of bees is required to use the method without occasional disasters. That's also why it's important there's a good flow. Despite what I read in the books, experience has shown that in a good flow, every bee in the hive seems to be able to find her way home. In less optimal conditions, they just cluster in the boxes.

From: P-O Gustafsson

There is another method that's been used here with good result. Instead of using an escape board on the hive, we have an escape bottom that stands on the ground beside the hive. A bottom board with only one small hole that's facing the entrance of the hive.

Beekeepers using this system usually have 2 hives on a stand with a space between the hives. The bottom is placed between the hives with supers from both hives stacked up. In this case the bottom has 2 holes, each facing a hive entrance. If the boxes are taken off the hives in the morning before 11 o'clock, it works great. All bees leave the supers and you can pick them up in the afternoon. The small holes don't attract robbers so much as an open box.

But when you are alone in a beeyard of 20 hives in the autumn taking off that last box and want to check the broodnest without getting thousands of robbers to help you, then it's nice to have that escape board to clear the supers. Even if it means you have to go back one more time.

From: Allen Dick

Having written about such a complex and intuitive subject, I was challenged -- in my own mind, at least -- to consciously observe, to explain better and to confirm for myself what I wrote.

The flow is over, we have had killer frost, the day was sunny and in the low to mid twenties (C) or mid 70's (F) with a light to moderate south wind.

The yard has 24 hives -- four per pallet, laid out so that 3 pallets are in a semi-circle on the west of where the truck sits to load, and 3 are on the east. On the south end are a group of 15 splits (no honey supers) we made as the flow wound down. Of course, we do not move the truck into loading position until the honey is clear of bees and stacked up ready to load. We park it well out of the way. The nearest other bees are a yard of 24, 1/2 mile away. They did not seem to become involved.

We started to tip about noon, opening all hives, and smoking the top box, then removing it and placing it on end to one side of the entrance. We then smoked all the hives (on top only to drive bees, and particularly queens down) and removed the next box and placed it next to the previous one, on end. Periodically we carefully smoked the pulled boxes to disorganise the bees and to break the loose clusters that had formed because of the lack of flow. Bees began to flow up to the top surface and fly away.

We observed that where the supers touched the hive and one another, the bees would march right into the entrance like a swarm without flying. If a stick or a bit of comb was made into a bridge, they would walk or fly across to the hive, fanning as they went.

The wind had a considerable effect. The bees whose hive was downwind from the supers had much more trouble walking home than those whose hive was upwind, because the hive scent was lost on the wind.

We were initially putting lids back on hives that were complete (down to the two brood boxes), but had to remove them again because robbing started up. Once all the lids were off, there was still a bit of robbing, but the bees settled right down, and stinging ceased. Of course we put all the lids on -- after a tetracycline dusting and feeding -- as we left the yard.

I really don't know why this works, but I can guess that the bees have to guard their own hive on a large front, reducing their interest in leaving the hive. It cools the hive, so they must cover the brood more and control temperature. It disorganises the bees so they have to re-orient and the large area of exposed hive provides more choice for bees to visit and reduces the conditions that lead to fighting.

Fighting is the worst aspect of robbing, because many bees are killed and bystanders can get badly stung. Fighting doesn't normally occur where there is a large area of food exposed. Bees normally start to fight when the supply runs out.

We were in a rush, and had to clean up the boxes with a blower (on low speed), before stacking them up and loading them, but given time, all the bees would have been gone. With all the lids off the loss due to robbing was very insignificant.

That last trick was one I learned right here on BEE-L, so thanks to the individual who posted it some year or two ago. It has proven a handy trick more than a time or two.

An interesting result of this time we had taken to observe and better understand was that my helper, Matt came up with a variant on tipping the next day. He discovered he was able to stand the lowest super on top of the open hive, smoke lightly and watch the bees march down and in. This was quick, involved less bending down, and resulted in fewer bees lost.

An interesting thing about tipping, as distinct from simple abandonment is that the boxes are placed on end. For some reason, when the boxes are placed on end, the bees become disoriented and run up and down. When tipped, the bees leave very much faster than when flat, partly because of the bees disorientation and partly because of the large exposure to light and air. It helps to align the boxes so that the sun shines directly in the space between the combs.

If the robbing comes from a nearby yard, then, I would think it would get worse.

Lots of beginners quickly think they are experts because they read the books or got elected to an executive position in the local bee club. Heed my warning.

I can tell the difference between bees leaving a super and those robbing. However, I don't have much of an idea of what weather and flow conditions are good.

Here's a good indicator of a good flow: Many bees come and go rapidly from all hives (without stopping to orient), and there is no serious defensive behaviour at the entrances. bees do not 'hover' like bullets at every potential hive crack in the characteristic robbing position. Honey left on the ground in front of the hives is left untouched for days. There is humming at night as the bees fan the moisture from nectar, and often some of the bees will 'hang out'.

I'm surprised that you say this method can work under robbing conditions.

I am really leery about recommending tipping without a flow because I have often been surprised to find what other beekeepers might do -- or not know that I would have never imagined from just talking to them -- things that might have a huge influence on the results. Using abandonment during 'no flow' conditions is tricky because of the possibility of robbing activity overwhelming weak hives (and an inexperienced beekeeper), and conversely the difficulties posed by the bees being semi-dormant in the supers.

Using tipping during a good flow is reasonably idiot-proof, but if there is even a chance of robbing, well... Then it gets unpredictable. (Don't try this at home kids -- unless you happen to be -- or have the supervision of -- a well experienced beekeeper)!

A method I consider much safer is to place full supers, with bees but not necessarily from only one hive if you use excluders, on a single pallet with the top of the stack open, about two or three hours before dusk on a day when the hives are active.

Light robbing starts and gets the bees stirred up enough to depart, but the declining light puts a natural end to robbing and flight, and stimulated the bees to want to go home to mother. If things go awry, just placing a tight lid on the stack ends the problem.

You return to claim the boxes any time before 8 AM or so (Don't be late). It's slick, and when done right, few -- if any -- bees remain, and none are killed. The burr comb is nicely cleaned up and the honey either deposited in the combs or taken back to the parent hive. It works best in a home yard, and that's where I have often used it without any problem.

Of course, you can just put a bee escape board on top of the above stacks to begin with (with the triangle up), and if you have taped the cracks, you can even depart for a while.

The problem with this in no-flow conditions is that the bees may be sluggish and not inclined to leave unless stimulated by repeated smoking or the stimulation caused by some light robbing. But then, you can wait days with no problem if the escape board can stand weather.

If you really want to tip in robbing conditions, here's how it is done

Don't just go away while the boxes are tipped when robbing is possible. Watch closely.

Since one way to stop robbing (temporarily, at least) in a yard is to remove every hive lid and leave it off while you work, a similar effect can be used to have the bees leave the supers -- without robbing problems:

When you tip boxes from every hive in a yard on a hot day with many bees flying actively and perhaps light robbing already occuring, the bees will depart quite rapidly. In the confusion, there will not be much robbing or violent defensive behaviour until the boxes are picked up, and even then there should be little problem -- if it is accomplished with reasonable speed. Be careful not to leave scraps of honey around when you depart. Smoke may be required to get the bees to start moving.

Once begun, there will be a lot of bee activity -- enough to intimidate novices. If you plan to work with this, try it on a limited scale at first.

Robbing from an open source becomes a huge problem mainly when the open supply runs out, and the bees start to seek honey everywhere. If the supply is removed at dusk and the bees have the night to settle down, things are much better.

If you can control robbing and you can move the boxes away quickly when most of the bees are gone, and if the hives in the area are all strong, and there are no neighbours with bees -- no problem. Otherwise... Hmmm. Quite a few 'if's in one statement!

Bye the way, if you do this during mid day, you'll want to pick up the boxes well before every last bee is gone. Be prepared to clean up with brushing, shaking or a blower if necessary. The last few bees will leave the stacks as you prepare to drive away. If you wait for them all to be gone, you will not be able to complete.

I've never had a problem using the stacking technique, and can't really see a problem using tipping if a flow is on. If you're uncertain or want to try it when robbing is possible (or certain), do it late in the day until you build up confidence so that, if things go awry, you can tidy up at dusk.

By describing these methods, I'm not recommending that the unwary start a robbing frenzy, and caution those who are in areas where robbing can turn into bedlam to be careful or people can be stung, nucs can be robbed out, etc. I've never kept bees where most of you live, so I sure can't predict the outcome of trying abandonment during a dearth in your district. Where I have bees, I am usually the only beekeeper for a mile or so, so I don't have to worry about other peoples' bees participating unexpectedly. Beekeeping neighbours will affect your decisions.Please bee careful.

Regards, Allen

W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper. VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet mail to Allen.
Honey. Bees, & Art

That 'VE6CFK' is an amateur radio callsign -- Allen is also a radio 'ham'. Gordon.