VARROA TREATMENT

For that date, I expect to be able to sell some Apistan at £2.80 per colony (limited availability) and Bayvarol at £4.00 per colony.

If you have ordered Apistan and not yet collected it please do so SOON or I shall sell what I have, first-come, first-served.

If you wish to order Bayvarol, please do so by 18th July.

NEW SEASONAL BEE INSPECTOR

When MAFF were advertising recently, David decided that it would be interesting to apply and see what happens. As he found his sedentary job in Basingstoke Council was physically uncomfortable, that he wanted a job with more physical movement and he enjoys beekeeping, this seemed an excellent opportunity. David has now taken early retirement from BDBC to allow him the time for his new job.

I'm sure that we all wish David every success in his new role.

HECTOR ALBERY

I first met Hector in 1977 and he took me, a complete novice at the time, and imparted me his great knowledge and love of the beekeeping craft. His great encouragement and enthusiasm were an inspiration for many other beginners who were new to the art.

I remember him saying "I reckon that woman will make a good beekeeper", after I had been stung nine times on the face, "Most people wouldn't put up with that!".

As a novice, when I acquired my first colony, I greatly needed Hector's advice and as Hector couldn't drive, we began to keep bees together. In the end, our partnership comprised 47 hives and lasted for 19 years.

We started off making hives and foundation. Together we aimed to concentrate on a new aspect of beekeeping every year, for example queen rearing or mini-nucs. Hector's love of ling honey inspired us to restart migratory beekeeping with the Basingstoke Beekeepers' Association, something that had not been done for several years. Hector was always ready to try something new -- except for candle making, which he declared "a waste of beeswax".

Hector also enjoyed wine making. We were always picking sloes, crab apples and other types of fruit. I remember on particular occasion where Hector had noticed some Rowan berries on the other side of the road. Unfortunately he hadn't noticed that between the road and the tree was a large ditch, into which he promptly dissapeared and found himself up to his ankles in mud!

Hector was a great beekeeper and a good friend of mine, who is sadly missed. Along with his dry sense of humour, Hector will be remembered by his friends for selflessly devoting so much to the beekeeping world. Anyone could go to his allotment where he would be working. Hector would put away his tools and go with them to sort their bees out. Though he is no longer with us, his contributions to the craft he loved so much will be remembered through a series of memorial lectures in his name.

Hector had a favourite saying: "I know nothing about beekeeping or gardening!".

A full obituary for Horace "Hector" Albery is in the June 1996 issue of "Hampshire Bee Talk".

My very special thanks to Krystyna for writing the above, particularly as I know that it was hard for her to do so, so soon about the loss of such a close friend.

It is a further measure of a remarkable man, that Hector himself asked that his passing be marked not with flowers but with "A memorial lecture". He even specified the first speaker -- one Adrian Waring.

Gordon.

APIARY REPORT

Competing priorities and poor weather have made it difficult for me to maintain regular inspections of Association colonies this springtime. All four colonies have over-wintered successfully.

One is exceptionally strong and was in the advanced stages of swarm preparations in early May.

Two are building up quite nicely, though one had brood in the super, which had been left on minus the queen excluder, for winter feed. It was an interesting exercise at the April apiary meeting to sort out the problem. Having left supers on over-wintered colonies both with and without queen excluders, I have not noticed any disadvantage in leaving the excluder on, though I know it is not recommended by the text books.

The fourth colony was found in April to have a drone-laying queen. She was found by eagle-eyed John Peacock at the subsequent apiary meeting and duly despatched. A frame of eggs and young larvae was transferred from the adjoining hive, but there was no attempt to raise a queen. During a rushed period in May, I obtained three virgin queens from another colony when controlling swarming. In a further attempt to recover the colony, I ran the three queens in the entrance and left them to their chances. Sadly none was accepted. the colony could be a lost cause and I must decide what to do with it. Probably I shall unite it with another stock, however uniting with a swarm may be a possibility.

There are vast acreages of oilseed rape in Oakley this year. Unfortunately, the bees have been unable to take full advantage of it because of the poor weather. I am sure that it is just as frustrating for the bees as it is for the beekeepers.

As I write this, on 24th May, I have not had any authenticated reports of swarms. I was, however, called to a 'swarm' at the end of April. It turned out to be many dozens of both honeybees and bumble-bees on a particularly magnificent ornamental Cherry tree, just doing what comes naturally! A sight to gladden the heart of any beekeeper. Sadly, the householder did not share my enthusiasm.

Dave Purchase.

THORNE'S SALE

12 Frame S/S radial extractor £550, Nat floor £6, Brood box £9, super £6, Roof £10. Seconds, ends of lines curios, demonstrations, tea coffee and so on.

THE POWER OF THE PRESS

The almost full-page article about bees and varroa was entitled "The end of the bee?" and with a kicker line in the style of the Hot Metal TV series "Tiny bugs spread aids-type virus as vital pollination threatened". The article went on to tell how honeybees; maybe also known as bumble bees; well bees anyway, are suffering from this mite, or virus, or something and its a bit like aids.

Of course, within 48 hours I had people asking me to kill ones and twos of these "aids-carrying" bees lest they threaten the health of everyone in the street. Once I explained that the article was rubbish they calmed down and I left them watching the occasional comings and goings of a little bumble bee nest.

Gordon Scott.

HONEY CO-OPERATIVE

Dear Association Secretary,

You have probably read about the Co-operative in BeeCraft or Beekeeper Quarterly or you may have visited our stand at Stoneleigh. If not, I will be pleased to send you information at your request.

We are a non-profit-making company whose purpose is to market its members honey. We are sponsored by Gales honey who will process and market our 'bulk' honey. The honey will be sold as FHC honey sponsored by Gales under its own exciting new brand name and not as Gales honey.

We need a lot of members to supply major outlets through Gales -- we are hoping to process 100 tonnes in the first year. We could, of course, buy honey on the open market and we will probably do this initially to supplement members honey but the long term aim is only to market members' honey. We need an initial supply of 20 tonnes.

The Co-operative depends on the setting up of local groups each with its own honey collection centre. Members will belong to a local group and bring their honey to the collection centres where it will be transferred to drums for bulk transport. The system will be suited to both large and small-scale beekeepers.

It seems sensible to set up groups based on the BBKA Associations and we would value your help to make that happen. We would like to invite all local beekeepers to a meeting in your area in order to recruit members and to set up a local group and collection centres.

This letter is being distributed to all Association Secretaries by the kind co-operation of the BBKA, but I need to contact you individually to make the above arrangements. It would be most convenient for me if the meetings could be arranged for July and August as I am a part-time teacher. I appreciate that this is a short timescale but it will maintain the momentum of development as well as suit my convenience.

Yours sincerely, Sam Greenbank, Secretary.

[Editor's note: I have been unable to contact John Cain, but I suspect that he will try to get Sam Greenbank to a summer evening meeting]

NATIONAL BEEKEEPING UNIT FUND

I hope many of you and many of your members have had the luck to hear Dr. Steve Martin at the Spring Convention or the National Honey Show. You will have all had the opportunity to read his reports in the News. This research was partly paid for by us from the NBU fund. This fund is now closed and the money in it will pay for the current programme of research co-ordinated by Dr. Martin. The name of the fund meant that it could only be used at the National Bee Unit and nowhere else.

The need for research into bees and their diseases is obvious. Many people thought that the basic information on varroa was fully known. Dr. Martin's work has shown this to be a fallacy. We need also to know a great deal more about EFB, this disease seems to be increasing inexorably in spite of what we do. What we are doing obviously isn't controlling the situation. We need proper research to find out the causes behind it all.

All this points out the need for a Research Fund to replace the NBU fund. I feel the need to be able to 'shop around' for the best centre for research or the best researcher, or for the best value for money means that we should not restrict the fund to one centre.

BBKA would like to institute a new research fund called the "BBKA General Research Fund". We would like to invite your members as individuals or through the Associations to contribute to it. The NBU fund was built up by annual donations of £1.50 per member. We would like the same procedure to be used for the new fund. The old fund brought us invaluable knowledge to cope with varroa. The new fund will do the same.

Yours Sincerely, Adrian C. Waring, General Secretary.

APIARY MEETING AT BRAMLEY

We had plenty of opportunity to look around the apiary, comprising several acres of pasture with wild-flowers. We were also able to inspect the foundations for his new building and his extensive native tree/shrub plantings. There is still much work to be done, but the site is good now and will be superb when complete.

Chris has had problems over the winter with losses due to varroa and is now rebuilding his stocks, so there were newly hived swarms around. He'd also kept examples of the mess that wax-moth and woodpeckers can make of a colony.

We inspected four colonies, finding and marking the queens, treated the colonies with talc and made up a nucleus from one that was threatening to swarm.

Chris had hoped to have his new shed erected so that we could finish with tea and a chat, but that particular job is still to be finished. I expect we'll have another meeting next year so that we may check progress and discuss that days meeting in greater comfort.

ESTIMATIONS OF NUMBERS OF BEES

Gordon.

WANTED TV & VIDEO

BEES AVAILABLE

A BEGINNERS OBSERVATIONS

Hi, I enjoy reading some of the things that happen to us when we start Beekeeping. All of us start on page one. As we observe our bees, we start out with a problem. We try to relate what we see to our human perception of reality. We read books and watch the bees. After a while we come to realize that the honeybee knows what to do and when. We then are getting into their world when we open up the hive. I was told by someone, that I should not open the hive very much, because you would upset the bees. How can you learn without looking? Let me tell you I did a lot of looking. I learned to handle the frames with care and move slowly. Now and then I would squash a bee and notice that other bees would react to the squashed bee. The sting pheromone would be released from the squashed bee and that would set off the alarm.

My observations of how much smoke to use, is as little as possible. Now when I go to one of my bee yards with 30 to 60 hives, I may smoke one pretty good now and then if they need it or I need to change a queen. When your calm yourself it helps. They know if your tense.

My first big discovery with my bees. There was a nursery with a lot of heather 2 miles away from my home. I lived right on the water on Hood Canal, so the bees had to go up or down the beach to get pollen or nectar. I love to garden so I was always stopping at the nursery and the lady that run the nursery knew my Mother from high school. One day I saw honey bees all over the heather and I thought they may be my honeybees. I went home and got some wheat flower and headed back to the nursery. Margaret thought I was crazy when I started to sprinkle flower on the bees. I drove home and sat by my hives to see if any would have flower on them. You would think that I found the Mother Load when I started to see my bees with the flower on them returning to my hives. Margret is 83 now and she still remembers that day that I found my bees at the nursery.

Beekeeping is wonderful. Full of Wonder. There is no end, but there is a beginning. Ask questions and always be open to change. I have a beekeeper friend who has 100 hives and a son. He wanted me to take his Son through the bees and see how I do it. I can give his son all that he needs with a long walk out in nature. The book will give you some information, but your understanding of nature will give you wisdom. Honeybees are very complex to say the least. You don't need to study genetics to enjoy and learn about your bees. Our researchers are very dedicated into learning more about the honeybee. We all need their help and they need beekeepers to get support for their work. We need positive press. Giving talks on bees and giving a little honey out helps. Enjoy and try to understand what you see in the hive and tell others.

Best Regards, Roy

VEGETABLE OIL FOR ACARINE

Crisco patties are rather like our pollen supplements, but incorporate 'Crisco' or some other brand of vegetable oil, and usually also terramycin. The 'towel method' involves coating a paper towel with a vegetable oil or grease, which the bees then eject from the hive as usual.

From: "Franklin Humphrey Sr." email@omitted.anti.spam

Ok I'm going to go through this one time and I'm not going to furnish any papers to prove that I'm not lying.

It is thought that the removal of the vegetable oil from the hive creates greasy bees. This in turn hinders the migration of the mature T-mites from the older bees to the younger bees. The patties can be in the form of Crisco or other solid vegetable oils placed directly on a paper towel or can be patties without the terramycin. Some people say that the paper towel method is better and others like the patty method. Personally I make my patties only about half a pound is size and put them between waxed paper. When I put them in the hive, I tear holes in the paper so that the bees can get at it. The waxed paper keeps it together so that the patty can be moved out of the way to manipulate the hive.

As far as I know there are no official papers written about this method. It is something that is being tried by numerous beekeers in Georgia and Tennessee and seems to be an effective method of slowing the spread of T-mites during production periods when the bees cannot be medicated.

Frank Humphrey email@omitted.anti.spam

From: Allen Dick email@omitted.anti.spam

Well, I don't know why anyone would think you were lying. I appreciate your taking the time to explain what you know and what you have heard for our benefit.

A lot of beekeepers do things under mistaken assumptions or from misunderstanding research results or directions, and I think it's reasonable to ask for evidence before believing what one is told -- especially if new information does not agree with what one has heard before.

This is a particularly intriguing matter that affects many thousands of dollars in cost -- either of treatment -- or losses if it doesn't work, so please excuse any scepticism. Non-sceptical beekeepers tend to lose their bees sooner or later.

Since the original discussion started, I have received some private email from several researchers indicating that they believe these techniques merit some investigation. One says that the trial he did resulted in no significant benefit compared to controls, but he soaked cardboard in salad oil, not towels. (Maybe it's the towel that does the trick, not the oil) And the trial was in July -- not the best time.

What you write below is interesting because I was sure that the original post was talking about *liquid* oils, not grease.

There is some speculation about the mechanisms that are involved with the grease treatments and I am familiar with many, if not all.

However, I do not believe that anyone has *proven* how it works -- only that it does, and that the effects seem independent of the brand or source of vegetable oil.

One particularly interesting theory is that the breakdown of oil (rancidity) produces a chemical much like a pheromone that the mite uses to detect young bees. Of course a wag might just say that the grease just makes it harder to climb into a trachea :)

What is not clear here is whether you mix sugar into the patties or just slice off some Crisco. I've wondered why that wouldn't work, but have not heard of it being done, and tested against controls.

I've wondered about spraying the bees lightly with salad oil, and I've heard of oil fogging, and other things too. BUT no matter how nifty these ideas are, I, for one, need someone to try them against controls to decide I should rely on them.

A lack of scientific measurements is unfortunate. Perhaps that will be remedied soon. Hard facts save cold cash.

Regards

Allen

W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper, E6CFK RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta Canada T0M 1Y0 Internet:email@omitted.anti.spam & email@omitted.anti.spam Honey. Bees, & Art http://www.internode.net/~allend/

LACK OF HONEYBEES IN WESTERN WASHINGTON

Hello All, I have been giving talks on bees this week and I have been getting a lot of feedback about the lack of bees on fruit trees in western Washington. I looked around myself and the problem is real. Now I wonder if other parts of the world that have Varroa have the same problem? We have lost many of our hobby beekeepers due to varroa and they don't want to start up again. This could affect wildlife that lives off of berries and nuts. The real gold that the honeybee does for man is pollination. We move the bees to certain crops and then try to find a place to get some honey.

Honey prices are up for US honey and it should stay up. We need all the bees that we can get, so the beekeeper needs to make a living off of them so we will always have the bees around. If domestic honey gets undercut very much, we will all feel the affects of Mother nature. We need healthy bees in the whole world. Just take one second to think about an other % 50 loss of honeybees with beekeepers and no feral colonies. I have now looked at over 40 large apple trees in full bloom about 6 miles from my home over a 4 hour period. I saw ONE carniolian with a friend of mine. We did not see one bumblebee either. This fall will back up what we see now.

A note to domestic producers, you are selling more than honey and you need to get that across. We need an educated public, so help educate them. Everyone can help and we have the hammer. We only want the truth out because it will last, I think this time the beekeepers have to show how much the bees do for everyone and not just honey. We need the people to support us and help themselves. We want packers to make money, but we did lose a lot of beekeepers and not many packers. Times changes and now its time to really support honey producer organizations and stick together, because it is easy to have John Q public look outside and see for themselves. I have been feeling bad seeing so many old time hobby beekeepers going down. I'm 54 and I have never seen a spring with so few bees on flowers all around. My trees can be herd 100 feet away and down the road 6 miles nothing. This may be a big experiment in nature.

Best regards, Roy

From: Ted Fischer email@omitted.anti.spam

Roy, I feel the same way. We haven't had fruit bloom yet in southeastern Michigan, but I have noticed the lack of bees in the maples, dandelions and garden flowers. I have bees permanently placed in one orchard, and plan to carefully observe that one and compare it to others without pollinating bees brought in. I have had to talk reluctant friends into trying beekeeping again after losing everything to the mites. Another acquaintance is hesitant to get into the hobby now. It is possible that we may soon see a general agricultural collapse, for we all (farmers, horticulturists, etc.) have been taking honeybees for granted. Truly these are challenging times!

Ted Fischer

From: "Whitney S. Cranshaw" email@omitted.anti.spam

Similarly there was a lot of concern about the dearth of honeybees in western Colorado (our tree fruit production area) this past month. Some of it may be due to the poor shape of bees following last year's terrible weather. But mites are definitely involved.

Whitney Cranshaw Department of Entomology Colorado State University Ft. Collins, CO 80523

From: Roy Nettlebeck email@omitted.anti.spam Subject: Honeybees in the news.

Here in western Washington USA the press has started to talk about the lack of bees this year. People do notice that their apple trees have no bees on them, when they are in full bloom. I think the Honeybee will do her own PR work to get help. Maybe the negative press that beekeepers did get about government hand outs, might go over the sunset.

You don't have to say too much to the public, just tell them to look for themselves. We must have had feral colonies all over western Washington. It looks bleak to people that have there special fruit tree and no bees to pollinate it. Maybe this is a good wake up call for everyone. A lot of animals and birds depend on seeds and wild fruit for survival.

We are not having the best of weather around the country either. This should bring out the best in us as, beekeepers and researchers. We can not take any part of this mite problem, as just one problem. It is complex with Varroa a known vector for 3 viruses. Ten out of ten states checked for virus, show positive results. It would be very beneficial for every beekeeper to try and find a hive with a low count of Varroa in the fall. The USDA needs our help and we need their's. It would be nice to get a little feedback on how many Queens they have received to work with on a breeding program against Varroa. I know that some beekeepers are doing that themselves also.

Real feral colonies are going to 0 around here. By next spring bees will be in great demand for small farmers. It looks like we can all learn something out of this problem. The Honeybee is more than a Latin name in a biology book, it is a key player in all of nature. I know why a lady went on to get a PhD., so she could even learn more about this wonderful insect. She is one of many, who are trying to study and learn more about our honeybee. All of us need to help in any way that we can. Just by looking at our bees a little closer and paying a little more attention to there behavior, we may see something that can help everyone.

I worked with my bees yesterday, we had sun and a lot of wind at my place. I did some requeening and splits. I came across 4 or 5 hives that were low on brood and just not doing well. I requeened them, but it was more than a new queen could do for them. I'm going to check for TM. I guess I look back at beekeeping before the mites and it was easy to get a hive of carni's up in 3 deeps full of brood in may and about 200 pounds of honey in the fall. Now I hope to get them thru the winter and going at all during the spring. I have some hives that are in 4 deeps and 2 supers right now. I have a new queen in there also. I started feeding pollen and syrup in Jan. We had a mild wet winter. Now you better be on top of your bees or you're out of bees. I will be glad to look back at this time and say, boy we made it with a lot of work by many.

Best Regards, Roy

From: "Dave Green, Eastern Pollinator Newsletter" email@omitted.anti.spam Subject: The Bee Trucks are Rollin'.....

Tractor-trailer loads of honeybee hives are rolling north along Interstate 95 to orchards in Pennsylvania, New York, and New England, and along Route 75 to Michigan, where they are badly needed for pollination of our fruits.

We've been busting our butts here to get everything the South can spare (we need more bees here, too, for our melons, squash, & cukes). But we've done our best, and we're proud of our contribution.

New York, one of the major apple producing states, needs about 30 thousand hives for this pollination. My own guess is that probably less than 20 thousand are available this year. More and more commercial beekeepers have been migrating south for the winter, where they can get better survival, then get an early start on raising queens and starting new hives. New Yorkers can produce queens and new hives, but not early enough to pollinate spring fruit.

The major eastern wintering grounds are in Florida and South Carolina. Florida has the advantage of an early honey crop -- orange blossom, but this same crop causes bees to dwindle somewhat, as its pollen is poor quality, and the removal of that honey makes it a difficult race to get ready in time for northern orchards. South Carolina has especially rich spring pollen for raising queens and nucs (starter hives), but the main honey flow coincides with northern fruit bloom, so beekeepers traditionally have left just as the honey flow starts. The price of honey is soaring, so northern fruit growers with pollination needs may be in competition with honey production.

It's fingernail chewin' time for beekeepers who may have a major part of their livestock on those trucks. An accident, or simply a breakdown, or irresponsible trucker who parks for a few hours in the heat, can make or break the beekeeper. Bees, once loaded, MUST be kept rolling, so they can ventilate and cool. Beekeepers once used a lot of refrigerated trucks, but the practice has mostly been abandoned, due to reefer breakdowns, or just weak units that could not cope with the heat production of the bees.

The bees are energized by stored sunshine, sugars produced by plants and stored in the honey reserves. When they are loaded on a truck they must be cooled by water or moving air, as they will begin to overheat, which makes them excited, which makes them produce more heat, which makes them more excited, .........MELTDOWN!

Reports keep arriving here, of heavy losses of bees over-wintered in the northeast. The president of the Empire State (NY) Beekeepers' Association estimates statewide average losses of around 70%. Some attribute the unusually severe winter; some blame varroa mites (though commercial beekeepers treat for mites). Others note the unusual honeydew production in many areas last summer. Honeydew contains a lot of indigestible material, and, when bees cannot fly to relieve themselves, can cause the death of the hives, by dysentery. The heavy winter losses are sure to stimulate more beekeeper migration to the south.

Pollination service is becoming more and more critical. In the past, large growers used imported bees, but smaller fruit and vegetable growers relied on wild honeybees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, and other solitary bees for their pollination. Pollinator populations have been dwindling, and growers cannot rely on pollination by accident. New parasitic mites have devastated wild honeybees, and pesticide misuse continues to decimate all kinds of bees.

A survey of California beekeepers last year showed that pollination service provided more total beekeeper income than honey production. This is true in some other fruit or vegetable regions of the country, as well. Many crops must have bees. The biggest pollination event, of course is the California almond crop, which needs about 300 thousand hives, and sucks bees from as far away as Florida. Brokers have approached me, here in South Carolina, to ship bees to almonds.

Apples are another biggie and bees must be trucked to Washington, the Great Lakes and the Northeast for these. There are never enough local bees for these big crops. Then there are cherries, pears, plums, cranberries, blueberries, kiwifruit, and many other fruits, not to speak of watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, pumpkins, cukes, and many seed crops.

There is a lot of misunderstanding of the role of the bee. Many folks think that the bee goes to the blossom and the fruit "sets." One bee visit may make an apple, but it is likely to be a poor, small, misshapen, starchy apple. Size, shape, and sugar content are directly related to the number of seeds set. Yes, we should refer to seed set, rather than fruit set. And good seed set, to produce quality apple, must have multiple bee visits. Watermelons are similar. Many poor quality melons reach the market. Small, flat sided, or gourd-shaped melons exhibit the results of only partial pollination. White seeds in the melon are unpollinated, and large numbers of these indicate a melon that never can reach it's potential.

"This farmer used TOO MUCH SODA!" Consumers know a poor melon when they taste it, but they don't know the reason. The farmer had TOO FEW BEES! The white seeds tell the story.

Every now and then, the beekeepers nightmare occurs -- an accident on the highway. Usually jumpy public officials declare a disaster and kill the bees, rather than get qualified people to salvage and clean up. They need to keep in mind that they are not dealing with $50,000 worth of bees, but a million dollars worth of apples.

Such an accident occurred a couple years ago where a tractor-trailer flipped on its side. The bees were strapped and contained within netting. A beekeeper with air bags, who could have righted the entire load, was within a half hour of arrival, when an idiot cut the straps, spilling everything and causing general havoc. The bees were destroyed, and some orchards did not get their bees. The last I heard, this was still in litigation.

We recently helped load a truckload of bees for New York apples. As we began to load, there were some rumbles, and a shower broke. Did you know that wet clothing is about the same as NO clothing, when it comes to bee stings?

The owner was determined to roll before midnight, and there was no way to talk him into waiting for morning, so we continued to load into that warm, wet night, punctuated by my shrieks and running commentary (and I am an experienced beekeeper, who doesn't mind a few stings).

The mission was accomplished. The bees went on their way to the apples. My guess is that the owner took 300+ stings without a complaint. I thank God that American agriculture still has people with the kind of commitment to get the job done, when it HAS to be done.

So ...... here's to you, New York, New England, Michigan, and other eastern fruit regions. We send you our best..... "Y'all send us some of your best fruit now, too, heah!"

email@omitted.anti.spam Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC 29554

Practical Pollination Home Page http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

SECRETS OF A MASTER

Bee listers,

One of the better bee supply catalogs I have seen is from Bushy Mountain Bee Farm (800-233-7929). It has some good general information about beekeeping, so I fired up my scanner and OCR to post this list two articles that might interest readers.

Many people consider themselves Master Beekeepers and we met someone this year that epitomizes "Master Beekeeper". George W. Imirie, Jr. started keeping bees in 1933 under the tutelage of Dr. Jim Hambleton the top USDA scientist at the time. George has worked with bees for 63 years applying scientific methods he has learned as an Atomic Physicist and he tells it like it is! He and his partner Ann Harmon produce a yearly average of 132 pounds per colony in Maryland, a state with an average of 28.5 pounds per year. George is eager to share his knowledge with those interested in improving their beekeeping skills. By following his management techniques you will make much more honey. His methods are really very simple and this is an abbreviation of what he does.

He requeens every colony each fall. He does not do it in the Spring. When you requeen in the fall your bees should not swarm the next year given plenty of room, also they will winter much better. His "Almost Foolproof Requeening" methods are described below. Practice good fall management, making sure required disease and mite treatments are applied. Producing honey requires a large field force to collect it

To get that field force you must stimulate the queen to lay by feeding: 1:1 sugar syrup (1 pound of sugar with 1 pint of water). The gestation period for a worker is 21 days and she spends the first 19 days of her life doing hive duties. Only after 40 days is a worker ready to collect nectar. Let's say your honey flow starts May 1..ON THAT DAY YOU WILL NEED A FIELD FORCE OF AT LEAST 42,000 BEES. A young queen (REQUEEN IN THE EARLY FALL) can lay 1500 eggs per day, so in one brood cycle (21 days) she can lay about 31,000 eggs. Understanding that it takes a bee 40 days to be ready for field work; you know you need to feed for two months (40 days plus 28 days) prior to the honey flow. Fortunately you may need to feed for only 6 weeks because the last two weeks there should be naturally available nectar. Do not let those feeders run out!

When your honey flow starts you should add your drawn extracting supers immediately to the colonies. At least 3 per colony. Colonies swarm due to congestion and George eliminates this by adding an Imirie Shim between each super. The additional entrance reduces congestion, thwarts swarming, and allows the bees to reduce the moisture from 50~7c to "80%" to the required 16% to 18% much easier. As soon as your crop is capped remove the supers and shims. Don't worry about burr comb using the Imirie Shim because the bees will prefer the drawn supers and will store their crop there.

*************

Almost Fool-Proof Requeening

By George W. Imirie, Jr.

When your new marked queen arrives, water her and store her in a cool dark place until needed. Gather up a double screen board, an empty hive body, 10 drawn combs and some 1:1 sugar syrup, and a feeder.

Find the old queen in the colony you want to requeen. Set her aside and select 3 frames of brood from her hive; I capped and 2 of larvae and eggs, with the covering nurse bees.

Place these in the center of the empty hive body. Now add 6 more frames, as follows; 2 empty drawn comb, (one on each side of the brood frames), 2 frames of honey and pollen, (one on each side of the drawn comb), then 2 more empty drawn comb, (one on each side of the honey-pollen frames). This makes 9 frames leaving space for the queen cage.

Now take several frames of brood....remaining in the old colony....and shake some of the bees into the new 9 frame nuc. Cover the nuc and set aside for a while. Return the frame with the old queen to her home hive and fill with drawn comb. This colony will stay where it was originally.

Put the double screen board on top of the old colony opening the back entrance of the double screen board. Put the 9 frame nuc on top and install the new queen (make sure you remove cork from end with candy). Start feeding the split immediately. In 3 days check the queen cage very quickly with little or no smoke to see if she has been released. If she has not been, release her from the cage. Do not disturb for another 5 to 7 days then check again with as little disturbance as you can and look for eggs. Add the 10th frame and remove the queen cage.

During the next few weeks check the brood pattern of the new queen. If all is well you can kill the old queen and remove the double screen board. This method has a couple of advantages:

1) if something is wrong with the new queen, the colony has a backup with the old queen and

2) for a time 2 queens will be laying eggs increasing the number of bees which will make the hive stronger and help reduce the stress of Winter.

Source: Bushy Mountain Bee Farm Catalog.

Standard disclaimer -- a happy customer.

Paul Cronshaw DC Hobby Beekeeper

From: "(Kevin & Shawna Roberts)" email@omitted.anti.spam

Back before we started using single-story brood chambers, we sometimes had trouble finding the queen. We would slip a queen excluder between each of the boxes the queen might be in, then come back 4-5 days later. The box with the eggs in it had the queen, and we could focus our search on the one box, instead of looking through 2 or 3.

There is a technique that I have never used--I will try to get this right....basically, you shake all the bees out of the existing hive, through a queen excluder, and into a new box. The queen (and drones) theoretically gets prevented from entering the new hive by the queen excluder.

take a queen excluder and an empty deep super. Spray some non-stick cooking spray on the side of the empty super (this keeps bees from being able to walk up it). Put the queen excluder over a hive body with some frames in it. Put the empty super on top of the queen excluder. Open up the hive you want to requeen, and shake ALL the bees off of each comb into the empty super. If you smoke them gently, that will encourage them to go through the excluder into the new hive body. Take the boxes from the existing hive, and carry them away from the site. Shake all the bees off the boxes onto the ground.

Carry the empty super and queen excluder away from the hive site. Put the hive back together at the original site. The hive is now queenless -- if you have been careful to make sure that all bees in the box were forced through the excluder. (I hope I got this description right.)

This technique sounded incredibly messy and time-consuming when I heard it. It's easier to simply find the queen. However, it does mean that you can requeen a colony whose queen you cannot find.

The more you look for queens, the easier it will get--practice every time you open the hive, and sooner or later you'll be able to spot a queen in moments.

(My husband's sure-fire technique when he's having trouble, is to say a little prayer... it's amazing how much easier queens are to spot when you ask God to point them out to you!)

Good luck.

Shawna Roberts.

From: Nick Wallingford email@omitted.anti.spam

The description was good! Here in NZ it gets called sieving, and its one of those things you do when you have to do it, but it is to some extent an admission of failure! I've seen a 'permanent' box with excluder nailed on, and aluminium sheet on inside walls (rather than your use of silicon spray - that would be good.) which you would wet slightly before starting to shake the bees.

The first 3 or 4 frames of shaking is a real mess, but if you use *just enough* smoke, you can get them moving down. And most of the time you can spot the queen trying to get down between the wires. Many times near the corners, but the flash of her abdomen as she turns head down makes her noticeable.

It works, but isn't much fun.

  (\      Nick Wallingford
 {|||8-   home email@omitted.anti.spam
  (/      work email@omitted.anti.spam

NZ Beekeeping http://www.wave.co.nz/pages/nickw/nzbkpg.htm

APITHERAPY WITH A JOLT!

I recently became interested in apitherapy for M.S., because a co-worker, of mine, was diagnosed with it a few days ago.

I know that there is a lot of research, all over the world, that has been done on bee-sting therapy and I have read some of the articles in ABJ. However, I have a unique question for anyone who deals with apitherapy from a scientific standpoint. I'm not looking for mere opinions, here, from people on the list. I need to know specific scientific data, if there exists any on the question that I have.

I may be barking up the wrong tree by asking this question here, but here goes. First, I need to give a little bit of background:

I am aware of research that is going on, right now, that involves the use of electrical shock, in conjunction with various types of venoms. I know that, to date, the research has shown that all bee, wasp, spider and snake venoms consist of a complex, "energy seeking" protein and that the basics of that protein exist in all known venoms. This protein, when it enters the body, seeks energy to unlock and actually be beneficial to the human body, rather than detrimental. It can not find the energy that it seeks and as a result loops back on itself in a never ending, energy seeking loop and that is what causes it to be "poisonous" to the human body.

they, preliminarily, have already, substantially proven that by introducing a high-volt, momentary shock, using a taser (stun gun), 3 to 5 times around the sting/bite site, the energy is provided, necessary to unlock the protein. I believe the University of Oklahoma has been leading the research in this area and it has been used several times on bite/sting victims with great success. So much so, that Wycliffe Bible Translators are requiring that all of their missionaries carry tasers to the different countries that they go to.

I heard one story of a missionaries' wife, in India, who was bitten by a crate (sp?) snake. The husband went for his taser, but the batteries were dead. He had been working on his motorcycle, so he took his wife to it and shocked the site with the spark plug wire. I understand she became person number 4, in all of recorded history, to live through the bite of this particular snake. Anyway, that's straying from the question.

The question is this: Has anyone done any research using the combination of bee venom and high-volt electrical shock to treat any ailments or is this information so new that it has not been considered? If not, could this not be something that someone might need to look into?

If you have any info., I would like to know and it would make for a very interesting discussion on the list. If you do, or you know the direction that I could head to find out what I want to know, please post to the list.

Regards,

Mike Wallace email@omitted.anti.spam McKinney, Texas USA

From: "Dave Green, Eastern Pollinator Newsletter" email@omitted.anti.spam

As it was told me, the electric shock breaks down the venomous proteins to render them harmless. The premise seems far-fetched, so I am naturally skeptical.

The device that Wycliffe missionaries use is manufactured at Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS), PO Box 248, Waxhaw, NC 29173-0248 USA. They are a group associated with Wycliffe that provides services to Christian missionaries. (I've seen one of their planes, which can land or take off in about 4 plane lengths. They are also big into computers, which they provide for missionaries in the remotest areas, along with radio contact, similar to Internet connections)

I understand they do sell the shocker device to the public, for somewhere in the $20 range. I had considered getting one to experiment with.

The shock is provided by a piezoelectric crystal. I believe they rework the igniter setups used to light propane heaters.

I will contact them for more info, and see if I can release their e-mail address. They are convinced that the device has been a life-saver in snake-bite situations. Missionaries in some situations are now required to carry them. JAARS is a reputable organization, and they are not trying to scam anyone. They are not out trying to "sell" this device, and they might not be willing to provide large quantities. I am acquainted with a retired man who is working with them as a volunteer.

Does anyone have more info on the scientific end of this?

email@omitted.anti.spam Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC 29554 USA

APISTAN IN HONEY-PRODUCING COLONIES

Bill Miller asked:

How long must Apistan be out of a colony before the start of the honeyflow, I have heard various answers ranging from "pull strips when you put on the supers" to "28 days". The Apistan label does not specify a waiting interval; only that the strips must be out before honey supers go on.

If you're more comfortable in taking the strips out a few weeks before the honeyflow, that's fine but you should not be worried about tau-fluvalinate residues in honey, providing the Apistan strips are used according to label directions.

Dr Max Watkins, Technical Development Manager, Sandoz

RECIPE

A Traditional Dutch Recipe.

• 250g (8oz) Strong White Flour
• 1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 175g (6oz) + 3tbs Clear Honey
• 200ml (6fl.oz) Buttermilk
• 125g (4oz) Soft butter
• 3 Beaten eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp each Cinnamon, ground ginger & ground cloves
• 40g (1.5oz) Blanched almonds
• 40g (1.5oz) Raisins

Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the honey then stir in the buttermilk.

Cream the butter with the 3tbs honey in a large bowl, add the eggs and beat until well mixed. Sift in the flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Add the buttermilk liquid and mix to a batter. Dust the almonds and raisins with a little flour, fold them into the batter and pour the result into a greased 1kg (2lb) loaf tin.

Leave the covered tin in a warm place for about an hour, then bake at gas 4 (180C/350F) for 50 minutes.