Apiary Report

by David Purchase

There is only one disadvantage to me job. In a period of unsettled weather such as we've had recently, I spend most of the fine spells inspecting other people's bees at the expense of my own bees, the Association's bees and my garden!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I love my work. I could pretend that I carry out regular weekly inspections, but that might leave me with egg on my face at the Apiary Meetings!

It is three weeks since I was last able to carry out inspections. I removed Queen cells from some, added supers to some and artificially swarmed one. It is Sunday, 25th May as I write. I had enjoyable meetings with Andover and Meridian beekeepers yesterday and today. I plan to inspect my bees and the Associations tomorrow.

As most of you will have guessed, the May Apiary Meeting had to be canceled because of the weather. That was the first cancelation for several years as far as I can recall. We've really been quite lucky.

Good luck Mike (Butler) in your new job and thanks for your help last year. Is there anyone out there who would like to replace Mike as Assistant Apiary Manager? The terms and conditions are quite straightforward: enthusiasm and a willingness to work for an average hour a week without pay! An inexperienced beekeeper would learn a lot and an experienced beekeeper would have the satisfaction of applying his or her skill for the benefit of our Association. Two members have offered to help on an ad-hoc basis, subject to their availability. I am very grateful to them and it will certainly help until Mike has been replaced.

My impression from inspecting bees throughout Hampshire is that there have been many swarms this year. Strangely though, I've had no call-outs, other than to one swarm ensconced in a roof-space in Whitchurch. What has been the experience of other members so far?

Please be vigilant for European Foulbrood. It is still widespread in Hampshire: I've had thirteen confirmed cases so far this year, dispersed throughout the county. If you see mature larvæ, which are not pearly white and not lying in a nice `C' shape in the bottom of the cell, please have a closer look. If in doubt, please give me a call, or in the first instance contact John Cain or Chris Mounty, who volunteered to represent the Association at Beulah's training day last year.

An Oakley Woodlands Group of local volunteers has now been established to be responsible for the ongoing management of St. John's and Cowdown Copses. I shall play an active part during the winter months, partly out of personal interest and partly to safeguard the interests of the Association in St. John's Copse.

Dave Purchase

New BDI System

Changes in the method of calculating your premium as from 1st January 1998

As from January 1998, Bee Diseases Insurance will be calculated using a new banded system rather than the existing amount-per-hive system.

The minimum cover will be for the first two colonies, the premium for which will comprise part of your membership subscription. The following additional premium will be payable for each of the following numbers of colonies covered including the initial two colonies.

Up to 5

colonies, £1.50

Up to 10

colonies, £3.50

Up to 15

colonies, £5.00

Up to 20

colonies, £6.00

Up to 25

colonies, £6.50

More than 25

colonies up to a maximum of 39 colonies at 30p per colony.

I have a detailed explanation of the reasons for the changes for anyone who wishes to read them.

If you have forty or more colonies, you should contact BDI Ltd. and talk to them about their Scheme B, which is aimed at bee farmers. In an attempt to encourage them to insure, Scheme B is also now open to beekeepers who are not members of Associations at 61p per colony, minimum £5.00. GS

Varroa Dates 1997

The advised dates for Bayvarol (et. al.) treatments this year are 10th to 18th August.

The aim is to treat all colonies at around the same time so that the mite has no hiding place and also to treat early enough that the colonies have time to build up healthy winter workers. Remember that varroa shortens the lives of bees, as well as subjecting them to stress and virus infections.

The Association price for Bayvarol this year is £25.50 a box or £5.20 per sachet and that this is basically an at-cost price (We're too good to you!). I shall buy in some stock, but I shalln't hold too much when there's no profit margin. Order early to minimise the risk of disappointment.

Gordon

A day in the life of a movie maker

by Norman Hughes

Isn't it always the way, when your in a hurry the phone rings!. It happened to me the other day, I was late for Margaret Johnson's talk on Candle Making. Muttering a few well chosen words, I picked up the phone - it was Liz who makes a living by supplying animals for films and television, adverts and the like.

They needed some live wasps and had been let down, I was not surprised, it was mid-March and the Queens were only just emerging from their winter slumber. ``Do you think Honey Bees would pass in a long shot'' she asked. Well, since I seem to spend half my life explaining to people that Honey Bees are not wasps, then ``I should think so'' was my reply. ``Good'' she said, ``I'll check with the film company and get back to you in ten minutes''. More delay, I hope Margaret doesn't start without me! Sure enough, Liz rings back in ten minutes, ``Great,'' she says ``could you take some up to Boreham Wood tomorrow, they'll need you there to handle them''. ``How many?'' I asked, ``I don't really know'' she replied ``better make it 200 or so''

I'm not sure that Liz knows what 200 or so bees really looks like, but first thing next morning I was up at the apiary, mini-nuc in hand, furnished with freshly prepared candy and a damp sponge. Fortunately it was a bright still morning as I opened the hive and shook out a measure of bees, they didn't seem to mind to much.

As a surprise, it was a pleasant drive to Boreham Wood and I arrived in good time to be handed a Shoot Schedule for the day. The amount of detail was incredible, every piece of information necessary for a successful days shooting was there, starting with the time of sun rise and ending with sun down. Looking down the schedule I found that I was listed as Wasp Handler (oh the shame of it!) and that I was needed for three scenes in episode six of what is to be a drama for Channel 4 TV.

The crew had established themselves in the car park of the local rugby club with large vehicles positioned around the perimeter doubling as offices and dressing rooms. Most prominent of all was the, very well appointed, meal provider. They certainly have their priorities right for it was apparent that a very acceptable three course menu was in preparation.

So there I was, indulging in my usual hobby of people watching, many of whom were either plugged into two way radios or were making extensive use of their, on the move, mobile phones. Time passed quickly, and before long the word went round ``They've cut for lunch and are on their way'' Immediately, those present moved towards the meal provider and I found myself next to Frank Findley discussing the finer points of the Curry that was on offer. Lunch was excellent, but all to soon I was back people watching and awaiting the call.

It came at around 2.15 pm with the call ``Wasp Handler wanted on location''. So I was off, mini-nuc under my arm and with some trepidation as to what was expected of me.

The location was about half a mile from base, where a semi-detached house in a small close had been taken over for the duration. The close was cluttered with a mass of filming equipment and people who appeared to be activated by the word ``cut'' and de-activated by the call ``shoot''. On entering the house I could see through to the garden which was full, shoulder to shoulder, with the rest of the crew.

The scene involved a pretty young lady sunning herself on the small patio in a somewhat deep conversation with Frank Findlay on the subject of suicide. Unfortunately, as so often the case in summer, they were being pestered by wasps, such that the conversation was at times accentuated by either participant attempting to swat the offending creature.

As the afternoon continued to those well known calls for ``Quite please'', ``Speed'', ``Roll'' and ``Cut'' I began to realise the secret of how these thespians are able to memorise such lengthy scripts. It simply is that the shoot is broken down into segments of short sentences and the participants made to repeat them over and over again as they are filmed from different camera angles Only on camera -- on stage it's done the hard way; Ed. The wonder is that they are ever able to erase the lines from their memory once the film is finished!. They often don't -- Ed.

Interesting as it was, I was glad to eventually be called forward for an explanation of exactly what was expected of me and I quickly informed them that the bees I had brought with me where new to the game and that I had left at home those that could do handstands whilst singing three choruses of ``Bee mine to night''.

My time had come as I moved on to the patio, keeping low and on the call for action, I released about half a dozen bees. Somewhat bemused they emerged from the mini-nuc, slowly took flight and whilst encircling their point of exit they steadily spiraled upwards. ``Cut'' came the call and one shot Hughes had done it again!. The bees, as if by instruction, exited stage right, disappearing into next doors garden and allowing the scene to continue.

My part had been played, my moment of glory passed. It was time for me to leave and as I wound my way home I reflected on a new and interesting experience and as I replaced the remaining bees into their hive I thought how close, they to, had been to becoming stars, but perhaps their chance would come -- another day.

N P H. April '97

A Spiky Hive

by Gordon Scott

As I write, I have a very spiky hive, which I hope I'm sorting out. The new queen is waiting for me to take her to the apiary.

A few weeks ago, they were ok. Not thrilling, because we usually took one or maybe two stings, but nothing too serious, then on one visit I smoked lightly as usual, lifted the first two supers (they are strong) and went back for the next two. The eight bees hanging tail-first from my bee cuffs just a couple of seconds later were a warning, but they were now overdue an inspection and I'd better do it if I can.

Some more smoke and off came the next two supers with no further drama. Then the QX, then the dummy board, then the first frame. By now, the drama had returned big-time! I now had several dozen bees hanging tail-first from my arms. I closed them up fast and wrote a strong but pertinent comment on their record-card.

After a chat with Norman about possible solutions, and with his help a day later, I had a clearer board under the top supers, to help towards reducing the weight ready to swap the spiky queen with the nucleus at the other end of the apiary. I planned to swap the brood boxes over, before requeening, as I was clearly not going to find Madame in that colony.

Well, a week passed and those supers were still not clear. Fortunately, the colony was not too bad and we were actually able to get right through the inspection with only a little blood-letting. We saw the queen (fortunately) and knocked down the one queen cell (just capped! - lucky or what?).

Well, the hive was in parts, we'd inspected that nucleus colony and probably stopped this one swarming for now, so I took my chance and swapped brood boxes. (As they had just capped a queen cell, removing the queen might just have triggered them to swarm immediately!) It was a little fraught as by now they were pretty fed up, but I made it. Literally dropping the bad colony in its new location didn't help!

Now we have the bad-tempered bees with a milder queen from the Nuc, with around four foundation frames to minimise the risk of swarming, and in which hopefully the older bees will die out before we have to open the box again. We also have a bad queen in a box with mostly young bees, which will be easier to requeen.

Thinking back, I just put that nucleus plus bad supers together as a stack, and I Really should have united with newspaper - not that I had any with me. I guess there'd have been some nasty squabbles after my efforts. I do hope that nucleus queen made it!

After all this, I finally called John Furzey and asked for thoughts. He'd have had his new queen ready, smoked that spiky colony heavily and moved their supers back to just behind the brood box. Then he'd have moved the brood box aside for a couple of hours to lose the flyers back to the old site before requeening a box full of quiet young bees. Easy, except, of course, you still have to put the colony back together and those old nasty workers in the supers have been queenless a couple of hours now!

Ten days later and I was replacing that nasty queen with a new carniolan from George Vickery. Already the colony was getting stroppy, despite its small size. That's one queen I'll be glad to see the back of! It's a little early for major changes in temperament of the bad colony, but I'll be looking closely soon.

All-in-all, interesting if a bit stressful. I haven't had that many stings before, but I coped with them ok. Those early days where I'd inflate like a balloon seem to be over, though the spikes still hurt somewhat when the bees mean them to!

Stop press -- Looks like the nucleus queen made it ok and the colony is now just quiet enough to work.

Gordon

Bees and Noise

by Sid Pullinger email@omitted.anti.spam

Q: What effect does banging pots and pans together have on swarming bees to cause them to light on a nearby tree? I have seen this only once and was told the bees think it is thunder so they light to gain protection from the rain.

It is strange how these stories persist. What he saw was pure coincidence. 99to going off to their chosen home. I think that human noise, shouting and banging of pans, has no effect on bees at all. However, it appears that many in the past thought so and the idea has persisted down the centuries. Village beekeeping was popular in the old days in England and, as he states later, banging on a pan could be a signal to other beekeepers, This is my swarm. Hives were small and swarming and casting took place every year. I decided to see what references I could find to tanging, as it is called, in a few old books.

Quoting from a book by T. B. Miner, an American beekeeper, published in 1846, we find:

The custom of jingling of bells and rattling of tin pans originated from the cottagers of Europe, residing in communities making a practice of ringing bells or thumping on tin pans when a swarm issued so as to know who the owner was: since swarms issuing from the premises of one cottager would frequently cluster on the grounds of another.

And from a book by A. Neighbour, well known English beekeeper and appliance maker, writing in 1866:

In many country districts it is a time-honoured custom for the good folks of the village to commence on such occasions a terrible noise of tanging and ringing with frying pan and key. This is done with the absurd notion that the bees are charmed with the clangorous din and by it may be induced to settle as near as possible to the source of such sweet sounds. This is, however, quite a mistake. The practice of ringing was originally adopted for a different and far more sensible object -- viz., for the purpose of giving notice that a swarm had issued forth, and that the owner was anxious to claim the right of following, even though it should alight on a neighbour's premises. It would be curious to trace how this ancient ceremony has thus got corrupted from the original design.

And an explanation from Root's ABC of Bee Culture, 1905:

In the old fashioned box-hive days, the ringing of bells and the tanging of tin pans was considered very essential in causing a swarm to alight. These old-timers probably did not know that the bees would cluster before going off, noise or no noise...Because they settled on some tree after each tanging, such tanging was supposed to be essential. At one time this old custom was supposed to be a relic of an old superstition: but it is now known that one of the old kings of England once issued an edict that , whenever a swarm came forth, the owner of it was to ring bells or drum on tin pans to give notice that his bees were out, thus preventing anyone else from claiming them. What was done in an obedience to an old law, for an entirely different purpose, has crept down through the generations until the old significance is lost.

So much for recent history. Going further back in time I found in Dr. Crane's book The Archæology of Beekeeping an illustration of an etching on a silver goblet now in London and made in 1683. It clearly depicts a beekeeper tanging as the swarm issues from the hive, suggesting that the noise is for the bees and not neighbours.

Finally, in H. M. Fraser's book Beekeeping in Antiquity, I found more references from the first centuries BC and AD which indicated that the belief existed that tanging brought the bees down.

No doubt there are many more references, some even earlier, if one has the time and books to search. Clearly the origin of tanging lies in the dim and distant past.

Sid P.

Observations

Roy Nettlebeck email@omitted.anti.spam

We all start with a hive and maybe a book. Then we start to look into the hive and see what is going on in there. It looks like Greek to most of us - bees walking around, and maybe some eggs and larva. We see the queen and that makes us happy and eager to see how our hive will expand with this queen.

Let's look at what problems we have at the get go. We are human and have a bias by the way we look at nature. You need to understand a little about how nature is balanced. If there is plenty of nectar and pollen the hive will expand with a good queen. Your ears are as important as your eyes when you are looking at a hive. If you look for a queen because of the lack of any eggs, listen to the sound that the bees make. Don't ever forget that sound. It will save you a lot of time in the future. When you lift the lid you will know if the hive is queenless.

When you look at your bees on a frame, notice how they walk and stand. They should be upright on their legs and not wobble on their legs when they walk. You should know what healthy Bees look like and how they act when you open them up. There is only one way to do this - pay attention to your bees. You must look at them and ask questions to yourself of what you see and hear.

I had my hives open all the time during my first 2 years as a beekeeper. The book says, don't disturb your bees too much. Well I blew that one big time. I had to learn what was going on in the hive. I did learn how to move slow and not open them up in bad weather.

Now for over 30 years I have been learning more all the time. Bee behavior is very complex. You don't need a PhD to know and enjoy your bees, you can easily do many things to expand your knowledge of them.

This list (bee-l) is very useful. When I lost 50 of 80 of my hives 2 years ago to Varroa, I knew what I was going to do. I asked questions and found out which researchers were working on what subjects in regards to the mite. I did know that my bees died with more than one pathogen. I found out who was working with Viruses and asked them questions.

My bees died very fast, in fact some went down in 3 days. My mite count was not high enough to cause that to happen. (5 mites in 100 bees with an ether roll) No mites now on my bees and they are the strongest populations that I have ever had at this time of the year.

I did everything that I could think of in the fall to get them ready for winter. I lost 1 out of 50 because the queen kept laying during the winter.

Since we cover the world with this list, we need to do the right thing for where we live. The environment is very important on how the bees behave.

The important part is to be open to your bees and let them show you what they want. Don't go against them, because they will always win. You must learn what they need and give it to them.

When you see white comb on the top of the frames give them supers. You already lost some honey by letting them pull out new wax on old comb.

To all the newbees: don't worry, we started at the same place. Look at them as a very important part of a bigger picture. We owe a lot to our bees. That is why we all need to pass on the word of how important they are to all of nature. We are doing a service by keeping bees. They are doing a service to us, showing us how wonderful and complex nature is to all of us.

Ask questions and try to understand the bee from her prospective. Enjoy what we have been given to care for. We all have a lot to learn from the Honey Bee.

Roy Nettlebeck

Queen Rearing

David Eyre email@omitted.anti.spam

For the amateur beekeeper, one major problem is making queens of quality without grafting. The following system was taught to me many years ago and used successfully for a long time until I needed larger quantities of Queens..

The sequence is relatively straight forward, and consists of a number of manipulations at set intervals, each one timed to help the bees.

First let us set the timing. With all queen rearing, there has to be a nectar flow, or the bees have to be fed!

Secondly, there is no point in making queens unless drones are flying freely.

We start by making up a nuc. To control the breeding we try hard to ensure that there are no eggs or young larvæin the 3 or 5 frames, or you can be sure the bees will start a queen up in an obscure corner somewhere. Once started in one direction it is almost impossible to re-direct them into the direction you want them to go.

One way to achieve an eggless nuc, takes longer but is overall more effective. To a two box hive add a queen excluder pulling up all open brood, make sure the queen is in the lower box, wait 7 days. The bees will cap over all open brood, then you can remove the bottom box to another part of the yard, leaving the queenless box on the original stand. Needless to say, the queenless nuc is strengthened by the flight bees from the removed box.

Now add a frame of eggs 24 hours after the split! As it is virtually impossible to get a frame of just eggs without special equipment, it stands to reason that larvæof various ages will be transferred. A series of cells will be started, from newly hatched eggs, to older larvæ. To ensure that the bees will not use larvætoo old it is important to remove those true emergency cells from the nuc after they are made and capped over.

It is important to remember the bees feeding sequence. When the egg first hatches it is fed Royal Jelly, after it is decided that the larvæis to be a worker the food quality is drastically reduced, this prevents the formation of ovaries. The bees can, even after this time change back to Royal Jelly, and will produce a semi-queen or intercaste, quite capable of laying eggs, but they are usually small and weak, and their egg capacity is very poor. Pheromone production is also under question, as the hive can get very aggressive with these scrub queens.

We cut out any cells which are capped over at 4 days after the egg frame is added, and check all other frames as the bees are known to move eggs. It is important to remember that any cell capped over before 9 days from egg laying will rarely produce quality queens. We reduce the number of cells, to concentrate the amount of food fed to each cell.

It is possible to remove excess cells and use them in other nucs, just be very gentle, and wait till the 14th day after laying, and protect with a cell protector.

Requeening

from Adony Melathopoulos email@omitted.anti.spam

Here is an article I wrote on the subject for my bee club. Please keep in mind I am not more than a hobby beekeeper, and I may be missing some facts. This should be able to get you going though.

The queen in a honey bee colony to a large extent determines how a colony performs. Without a queen the workforce in a colony will dwindle in number, loose cohesion, and unless a replacement queen appears, ultimately perish. In addition, the genetic make-up of queens by in large determines many worker characters, including aggressiveness, honey production, and disease resistance. Consequently, knowing when and how to replace a queen can significantly improve a colony's performance.

There are 3 main reasons why a beekeeper might want to requeen a colony: 1) replace an old and failing queen, 2) provide a queen to a queenless colony, and 3) improve some characteristic of a colony by introducing a particular breed of queen.

Replacing a failing queen.

Queens do not last forever. How old is too old for a queen? Although queens may ultimately live a long time, signs of age begin to show following their first year of heading a colony.

Characteristics of aged queens include reduced acceptance by workers, severe damage to body parts especially feet, and depletion of sperm stores (queens mate only once in life and when sperm stores are depleted there is no opportunities to replenish the supply).

Minnesota honey bee researchers report that colonies headed by queens older than 16 months of age supersede their queens more frequently than colonies headed by younger queens. The timing of queen deterioration, however, is likely influenced by external conditions.

Colonies that experience long and/or intense foraging seasons and furious demands on egg production (e.g. colonies used in producing packaged bees) will experience rapid queen deterioration. Requeening every two years has long been the general recommendation for the average hive, although at Simon Fraser University the policy is to requeen yearly.

Beekeepers should always be on the lookout for a deteriorated queen when ever they inspect their hive. Colonies headed by a poor queen will have spotty sealed brood patterns which may be entirely composed of developing drones (queens that have run out of sperm produce only drones).

Before introducing a new queen the old resident queen must be found and destroyed. Finding the resident queen can be a difficult chore, but the task can be made easier if the queen was marked with a dab of bright paint on the top of her thorax when she was originally introduced. Once the old queen has been removed a new queen should be given back to the colony.

To introduce a new queen to a colony the new queen must be placed in a queen cage which prevents the resident bees from pummeling her before they have got a chance to get aquainted. Queens are released from a hole in the queen cage blocked initially with a candy made of confectionery sugar and water (mixed to a thick gooey consistency).

By the time the bees chew away the candy barrier both the new queen and resident workers are happy to see one another and acceptance of the new queen is almost certain.

Providing a queen to a queenless colony.

Typically colonies lack a queen either because the workers rid themselves of the resident queen (a process known as supersedure which occurs because the queen has deteriorated) or an accident has occurred. There are three basic cues that beekeepers can look for to determine if a colony is queenless or not:

A) Colonies in which a queen is missing for more than 4 days will have no queen-laid eggs. Lack of eggs in a colony would be a totally reliable cue for detecting queenloss if it were not for three things :

1. really awful queens may not lay very many eggs,
2. queens in queen-right colonies shut-down egg production during the winter, and
3. even some queenless colonies contain a few eggs, but these eggs have been laid by workers whose ovaries have expanded in the absence the queen.

A poor queen that does not lay many eggs can only be detected by finding her (see below).

Worker-laid eggs, fortunately, can be distinguished from queen-laid eggs by virtue of the nature of how they are laid. Cells containing worker laid eggs invariably contain more than one egg, and eggs do not appear at the very bottom of the cell, but instead appear on the walls.

B) The presence of replacement queen cells suggests a colony may be queenless. The problem with using this criteria for determining if a colony is queenright is that queen cells also appear in queen-right colonies prior to swarming. Consequently the presence of queen cells cannot be used as the sole criteria for determining if a queen has been lost.

C) Colonies suspected of being queenless should always be thoroughly inspected for the presence of a queen to ensure the queen is not present.

Colonies that have lost their queen should be requeened the same way as if a queen was failing, and should not be requeened by allowing queens to emerge from replacement cells. Queens emerging from replacement cells are invariably of poor quality as workers have reared them under emergency conditions. Before requeening a queenless colony, replacement queen cells should be destroyed.

Improving colony characteristics.

Queen breeders have developed numerous lines of bees that result in colonies that are easier to manage and are more productive than their wild sisters. Beekeepers who find that their bees succumb easily to disease, are too aggressive to work comfortably with, or do not produce as much honey as the neighbors bees, may consider requeening with queens of good pedigree. Typically the best queen lines are those developed locally, and beekeepers interested in improving their colony's genetics should visit a local queen breeder's operation to find out what they have to offer.

It is important to remember however, even a good queen cannot solve every problem associated with poor beekeeping practices. In many cases substantial improvements in colony performance can be achieved using non-selected queen lines simply by improving existing management systems.

Adony P. Melathopoulos

Bees and Water

from Sid Pullinger email@omitted.anti.spam

Help wanted. Calling all experts.

Has anyone successfully tackled the problem of bees ignoring the water supply in the apiary and going instead to a neighbour's pond? Although I keep a supply in the apiary all the year round (bees here collect water as early as January) many of my bees prefer my pond some forty yards away.

Luckily I have no near neighbours to worry about. An acquaintance has just come to me with this problem. His neighbour is at present sympathetic but is worried about his children getting stung and is expecting the beekeeper to work a miracle and stop all the bees from visiting the pond. The bees have a supply well laid out and warmed by the sun in the apiary.

Is there any way in which the apiary supply can be made very attractive or, alternatively, the pond supply made unattractive (there are no fish to worry about)? It is a situation which arises every year but I have never been faced with it and do not know the answer.

If I can get a number of replies, helpful or otherwise, I can at least print them out for passing to the neighbour to show that we have taken the matter seriously and consulted beekeepers from all over the world.

Sid P.

from Adony Melathopoulos email@omitted.anti.spam

I think I am correct in saying bees prefer kind of murky over clean water. Maybe your source of water is too clean.

Also, water foragers add a pheromone to water sources they would like to recruit to (I think it is Nasanov). If someone has worked out the dosages and if this was environmentally safe to do (both of which I do not know) you could maybe mix a little pheromone in with your water. Oh, and one last thing.

The watering hole you provide them should have good opportunities for landing. Bees don't like to drown, so there needs to be plenty of edges so that they can gas up on water without getting wet.

Finally, keep your bees in a cool shaded place. The less heat stress they experience the less motivation there will be for them to visit your neighbours pond.

Cheers, Adony

from Kerry Clark email@omitted.anti.spam

It often puzzles (or embarrasses) beekeepers that their bees seem to prefer tainted water supplies (neighbour's chlorinated hot tub, seepage from compost heaps, or worse) to the pure supply provided (sometimes only after the habit of using the other source has been established).

I'm speculating, but maybe the pure supply is just harder for a scent-oriented bee to locate (inolfactible (?) like invisible), and those water foragers with a distinct scent would gain more recruits than others with a scentless water supply. (even with, or in spite of, recruiting dances, wouldn't you agree Adrian?)

If this is so, it suggests that scenting the (human) preferred source might help redirect the water recruits away from the nuisance site. It won't happen quickly if the nuisance source is a big and constant one (like a swimming pool) but a smaller one (hot tub) could be made unavailable (tarp) for a couple of hot days, and the bees might re-orient to the new, distinctly-scented source.

I'd expect a few drops of fragrant flavouring (anise, lemon, vanilla) would do the trick for 40 liters or 10 gallons of otherwise clean water. It should work even better if the scenting is done before the bees become oriented to the problem source.

Water dispensed by the droplet down a sloping board, into a tray of pea gravel (nice dry platform for a bee) has been very attractive to bees.

I'd like to hear if it works or not.

Kerry Clark

from Mark Spagnolo email@omitted.anti.spam

Living on the dry side of the island of Hawaii, we deal with the problem of bees and water all year. Actually, certain times of the year, related to certain nectar flows, are worse than others.

After trying many different ideas, we now use 100 gallon water tanks with water hyacinth on top. The water is kind of murky and the hyacinth provides a landing for the bees. It works well.

Part of the secret is to keep the tanks filled. The bees will use the water year round. If the tank goes dry the bees will find another source and use that until it too goes dry.

I can always tell when the Christmas berry (Brazilian Pepper to those of you in FL.) starts, as the bees will suddenly cover the water tank. When the tank is clear again I know the flow is over!

Mark at Kona Queen

from Aaron Morris email@omitted.anti.spam

The most important thing to remember about bees and water is that bees prefer to take their water from a spongy material rather that from a standing pool of water.

Take a pond for instance. Bees will drink the water from the spongy edges of the pond where the water meets the soil rather than taking the water from the middle of the pond. Keeping this in mind it should be easy to lure the bees from ponds or pools by providing a suitable spongy delivery system closer to the hive.

The best watering hole for bees I have ever stumbled upon is watered potted plants. My bees line up at the drainage holes to suck the water from the soil after I water my house plants which I set outside in the warm weather. In fact, my neighbor's swimming pool is actually closer to the hive than my house plants, but I've never had a problem. The bees fly farther to the house plants because they prefer the delivery mechanism.

from Stan Sandler email@omitted.anti.spam

It is also possible that it is not the smell but the dissolved minerals that is attractive to the bees. Adrian noted that his father? or grandfather? use to salt a wet area for the bees in response to a post of mine last year about bees flying to salty ground around my cattle salt licks. I think it is possible that the seepage around the manure pile is attractive for its minerals, although I do not discount your speculation about smell.

I for one am glad that my bees are used to the smell of cattle manure from gathering water, (although it offends OUR sensibilities) because they are completely unaffected by barn smells on me and my clothes when I go straight from milking to bees. Although I have read that manure smells can make them aggressive I have almost always had absolutely no problem. The one exception was getting attacked one time as I drove directly in front of a line of hives with the manure spreader. However I have done this literally hundreds of times before and since with no problem.

I would also note, as Jan Tempelman started to (his post was cut) that in the spring WARM water from something dark is very much more attractive than cold water. I have a dump of old tires near the hives and they love the water from them in the early spring.

Regards, Stan

from Adrian Wenner email@omitted.anti.spam

Stan Sandler commented quite perceptively about bees and water sources. In our adventures on Santa Cruz Island, we found bees usually collected water from some quite raunchy sources. An algæcoated seep on a rock face proved especially attractive. The algæcovered stones at the edge of streams was another.

For some years I have advocated floating a burlap bag on boards on top of the water surface provided for bees. In time that burlap gets infused with algal cultures. It seems that bees need an odor source that they can associate with a water source.

And, yes, the minerals may be quite important. Male butterflies of some species ingest water from muddy sources, pass it through their bodies, and thereby concentrate the minerals. They apparently later pass those minerals on to the females during copulation -- thus enhancing nutrition of the resultant eggs.

Adrian

Dr. Rodriguez and Mineral Oil

I have a little more information about Dr. Rodriguez' findings. He is a sensitive man who has been somewhat upset by the reactions of a few of his peers. Perhaps there is some justification in their criticism that he announced to a ``public'' meeting rather than to a peer review, however I like to think his excitement at his results got the better of his scientist's self-control. A consequence of that and the excitement & enthusiasm with which many beekeepers have responded to and reported his findings has resulted in something of a runaway. It is still early days and there is still work to do to verify his results. Dr. Rodriguez is preparing a formal statement but is rather hampered by events at present. Ed.

from Aaron Morris email@omitted.anti.spam

Dr. Rodriguez never posted his food grade mineral oil claims directly on bee-l. He announced his findings at ABF in Norfolk, Virginia, in January and some bee-l members attending wrote about his announcement after the meeting.

Aaron

from Allen Dick email@omitted.anti.spam

The method is still somewhat preliminary, not having undergone scrutiny by other workers, but has shown itself to be promising. The method is also a bit labour intensive at present. Dr. Rodriguez is working on verifying his results and finding an application procedure that requires less manipulation.

Dr. Rodriguez found himself in the middle of a bit of controversy at the time he first started to revealed his findings, since scientists typically release their findings to other scientists first, receive a review, then proceed to publicize the results.

Since the convention he has been working on his paper and looking for the appropriate moment for publication. I have offered to put his article on a web site for all to see and evaluate, however he is not ready yet.

In the mean time, I will tell you what I know -- I promised `details later' here they are:

When some of us arrived at the appointed room at the appointed time, the talk was almost over. Dr. Rodriguez graciously backed up a bit and recapped, then after finishing with the first group, went over his talk again for the benefit of us latecomers.

In short, he had a huge slide blow-up of a varroa mite on the projector screen, and pointed out the pores that dotted the surface. He stated that these were the weak point of the varroa mite, which he exploited in his treatment. He also explained that he had been a veterinarian doctor with the Spanish military and had seen the first varroa to arrive in Spain.

He pointed out that the mites used the pores to breath and to manage their water balance. If the pores are blocked, the mites will perish.

I conjectured at this point something that I don't believe he actually stated explicitly, and that is this: because of the relatively small size of the mite compared to a bee, the mite's pores are sufficiently small that a tiny glaze of oil would be drawn in and held by capillary action in those pores, while much much more would be needed to block the larger openings in a bee. (Also there may be a considerable difference in respiratory action). Anyhow I am guessing at the mechanism here

He had a number of hives in his experiment - the exact count escapes me - but it was a fair sized yard of bees that he divided into controls and subjects.

The subjects were treated every two weeks with strips of ordinary kitchen waxed paper about 2" wide and about 14" long that he placed across the top bars of brood chamber frames. Each 6-1/2" end of each strip he then pushed down into the bee space between frames, using a hive tool. I do not recall how many strips he used, but there must have been about 10 per box.

Before using these strips he prepared them at home by placing a drop or so of food grade mineral oil on the paper, stacking the strips up, and smoothing them so that the oil was pressed out in a very thin layer on each surface of each strip. Moderation is important, since he also pointed out that oil can also be fatal to bees if applied in excess.

After 2 weeks the strips would be dry and chewed, and he would remove them and replace them with new ones.

After continuing this treatment for some time, all his control hives succumbed to varroa, but the treated hives were fine. Later, when he did a 100 cell mite count at the end of the season, he could find very few mites in the treated hives. He said the mites were almost elliminated at the time of the convention, but he did not want to uncap all his brood (in January) just to find a mite or two if any were indeed still there. Apparently the treated hives had wintered well. I understood that he used no other mite treatment during the year long experiment.

When we identified ourselves as BEE-Lers, he greeted us most enthusiastically and we talked at length.

The last time I corresponded with him, he said he is looking for a less labour intensive method, refining his work, and intending to publish soon.

Allen Dick

Acarine

And Maybe Varroa

Several people have seen signs of significant infestation with acarapis woodi, the tracheal mite that causes Acarine Disease. Native strains of bee are normally pretty resistant to Acarine, but many imported strains of bee are susceptible. Acarine usually shows in and around the hive as dysentery (those yellow/brown streaks, often on the hive front) and paralysis (many still bees outside the hive).

Since Folbex VA was banned (largely because of indiscriminate use) we have no chemical treatment for the disease in this country. In the US and other places where the disease is more of a problem, they frequently use Crisco Patties for treatment. Crisco is a solid vegetable fat used for cooking, though any vegetable fat or oil will do the job ok.

In the US they also have a tendency to dose it with terramycin as a treatment against foulbrood. That is illegal here, of course (and in my personal view, may also be counterproductive), but the basic patty is popular and is firmly believed to work.

Various people are also experimenting with oils (bulk and both essential) as a defence against varroa. I can't comment on this as I personally haven't been involved, but there is some significant interest.

Here are a few recipes:

I have had success with 3lb. Crisco with 1lb. of powdered sugar, to this I add 1/2 oz. of peppermint extract. I have only three colonies with one deep and one shallow super below the excluder. Our winters are so mild here on the coast that we do not need more.

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I used Apistan strips in early September, then 2 weeks later I put a sheet of paper towel with about 2 cc's of Wesson oil and peppermint oil. ( the oil mix was 6 drops of peppermint oil to 1/2 gallon of Wesson oil.Two weeks later ,I checked the bees and noticed that all of the paper towels was out side the hive.Then I mixed up 3 pounds of Crisco a pint of honey and a teaspoon of peppermint oil. To that mixture I added granulated sugar to thicken it up some. I spread about a tablespoon of the mixture over the ends of the frames in each box. ( one box - one tablespoon.)

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I use three pounds of Crisco, one pound of powdered sugar and 1/4 oz. of essential oil. Place two little balls about the size of golf balls on the top frames. One in the front and one in the rear, mashed flat. They will last about three weeks. The oil gets on their feet and the mites slide off. The canola works the same.