The Basingstoke Beekeeper

Spring 1999

Contents

Apiary Update
Queen Rearing at St. John's
Queen Rearing Schedule for 1999
Timing Observations
AGM and Committee
Ask Arthur
The January Inspection
Just Looking
A Special Hive for Northern Areas
Beekeeping in Portugal
Lesotho Bees
Recipe

Photograph by Gordon Scott.

Apiary Update

Dave Purchase -- Apiary Manager and Seasonal Bee Inspector

I have been unable to devote much time to beekeeping this winter. Still, I have managed to practise what I preach by visiting the apiaries at least once a fortnight.

Unfortunately, the visits so far have coincided with wet or cold weather so I have not had the pleasure of seeing bees collecting early pollen or even making cleansing flights. That is unusual for me as I have always been lucky enough to have seen both by this time (17th February as I write).

This lack of observation has made it more difficult to assess the condition of the colonies. Three of the four Association colonies have made a good job of clearing out the dead on those mild days when I have been unable to visit the apiaries. The fourth (one of the two at St. John's) has shown no such signs of good house-keeping. Ron, who visits regularly, has witnessed cleansing flights but very few from that colony. It could have a problem. On the first mild day when I am able to visit I shall take a peep inside.

I have hefted the hives on each visit and they all seem still to have adequate stores. There are plenty of pollen sources nearby to attract the bees on mild days, mainly hazel, aconite, snowdrop, crocus and hellebore (although the aconites and snowdrops are going over now). The spring flowers give me a spiritual lift, as I am sure they do to many of you. To me, one of the great joys of beekeeping is its multi-faceted nature, not least the added interest and joy it provides in the plant world.

It has been agreed to run a queen rearing programme again this year after the success (notwithstanding the trials and tribulations!) of last year's. Please see the programme elsewhere in this issue.

I confirm that Apiary Meetings will be held, weather permitting, at 2.30 pm on the first Saturday of each month in St. John's Copse commencing 3rd April. There is one exception; the May meeting will be held on Saturday, 8th May, to avoid a clash with the Meon Valley Auction. If the weather is doubtful on any of the dates, please 'phone me on 781288 about an hour before the scheduled start to check whether or not the meeting is going ahead.

If you treat your bees for varroa in the springtime as a matter of course, think again. It may not be necessary. You could be wasting your money and contributing to the build-up of varroa resistance to Bayvarol and Apistan.

Yes, of course, treat if necessary, but do so only after you have used your Varroa Calculator to satisfy yourself that the level of infestation is sufficiently high to warrant treatment. If, for some good reason, you are unable to calculate the level of infestation, then err on the side of caution and treat.

There is no doubt that old brood comb is more likely to harbour disease than new comb, and not just the Foulbroods. Therefore, replace your brood comb as often as possible. The expenditure will pay dividends.

The best practice is to replace all brood comb in the early spring of each year by placing a brood box of foundation above the original brood box, minus the queen excluder. Feed the colony with a gallon of heavy syrup to encourage the wax builders. When foundation has been drawn and the queen has moved into the top box, place a queen excluder between the two boxes. Allow three weeks for the brood in the bottom box to hatch and then remove the box and destroy or render the old comb (depending on its condition). This practice doubles as a swarm prevention measure.

If you are unable to achieve this, replace a third of the brood frames each year by moving the oldest to the outside of the brood box in the autumn and replacing them in the spring, when they should be empty or nearly empty, by frames of foundation. Sterilise the old frames before re-use.

Although I have missed most of the action this winter, good progress has been made with the coppicing in St. John's Copse. The hedge which was laid last winter is maturing nicely. Some of the cut timber is to be chipped for use as a covering on the circular path which has been marked out.

Finally, if you are concerned about the health of your bees at any time, please give me a call.

Queen Rearing at St. John's

Norman Hughes

The success of last year's antics in the apiary has encouraged us to try again this year. You will notice that I have shied away from using the word ``repeat'' since we cannot guarantee the same knock-about slapstick fun nor even the success of last year. What we can guarantee is the same gutsy determination to overcome all obstacles (eggs or no eggs) at any time of the day or night to achieve our goal.

Our experience last year, having commenced our antics... I mean... activities in late May has encouraged us to move the start date forward to Monday 3rd May 1999, if only in an attempt to reduce the effects that any swarming will have done to our donor colony. Once again that particular date has been chosen to line up the programme to ensure that most of the major manipulations occure ``out of office hours'', enabling those of you who have not yet joined us happy band of retirees (Oh happy days!) to be present.

Our object is, as last year, to produce a number of Queen cells for you to introduce into your own mating nucleus, to provide a healthy young Queen to head one of your colonies.

The programme follows below, so... what the heck!... come and join us... your participation and views will be appreciated and, judging by last year, could prove vital! See you on 3rd May

N.P.H. Feb '99

Queen Rearing Schedule for 1999

Equipment

1. A Cell Transfer Cage set into a brood frame.
2. A Cell Raiser Frame fitted with Caps and Cells complete with hair-roller cages.
3. A Isolating Floor Unit complete with two entrance blocks.
4. A Spare Brood Box complete with matching frames of drawn comb or foundation.
5. A Spare Empty Super or `Eke'.
6. A Contact Feeder and light syrup.
7. A Mating mini-nucleus (or equivalent) for each queen, and some fondant for the bees to feed on whilst the queen mates.

Bank Holiday Monday, 3rd May (May Day)

1. Find the queen and place her on the brood frame with the cell transfer cage frame and free to run.
2. Transfer the remaining brood frames from the original brood box into the spare brood box.
3. Place the cell transfer cage frame, with the queen, into the centre of the original brood box.
4. Place a brood frame, heavy with honey and pollen, either side of the cell transfer cage frame.
5. Make up the original brood box with frames of drawn comb or foundation.
6. Fit a reduced entrance block to the original brood box and turn the box to face in the opposite direction.
7. Fit a queen excluder to the original box and place the isolating floor on top, without its insert and with its reduced entrance block facing in the original direction and now opposite to the lower entrance.
8. Place the spare brood box on top and restore to normal capacity by using frames of drawn comb or foundation.
9. Add the feeder, feed and close up.

1. At 19:00/7pm, open the hive to the lower box, find the queen and confine her in the cell transfer cage.
2. Feed and close up the hive.

1. At 07:00/7am, open the hive, check the queen has laid and release her to run free.
2. Feed and close up the hive.

1. At 12:00/noon, place the insert into the isolating floor and position the alternative entrance block. Note that the upper box is now queenless.
2. Examine the upper brood box and remove any queen cells and young larvae present
3. Feed and close up the hive.

1. At 12:00/noon or later, open the hive and remove the cell transfer cage frame from the lower brood box.
2. Transfer cells into the cell raiser frame and place the frame into the centre of the upper brood box.
3. Feed and close up the hive.

1. At 12:00/noon or later, remove the insert from the isolating floor to restore full contact between the upper and lower brood boxes.

1. At around 16:00/4pm, transfer the capped cells to mating nuclei.
2. Transfer the nuclei to their mating sites, supplying a good cupfull of young bees to maintain the queen until she's mated and laying.

N.P.H. Feb '99 Getting those young bees

1. At the colony where you plan to collect them, ideally first find the queen (for safety). If you don't first find the queen check very carefully at each stage to ensure that you're not putting her in the mating nucleus.
2. Take a frame from the brood area and shake it lightly above the brood box to dislodge the older bees, which hold on less strongly.
3. Holding the frame above a suitable container, give it a good firm shake to dislodge a good quantity of young bees.
4. You may need to repeat this with another frame to ensure you have plenty of bees.
5. You can either pour the bees into the mini-nuc directly from the container, or you can carefully scoop them up with a cup.

Mating Hives

If you wish to buy one of the Apidea or Warnholz mating hives, please ask me by Thursday 6th May at the latest. I don't yet have this year's prices but last year they were £16.50 and £9.50 respectively. I may also require a contribution towards the postage.

You could choose to make a mating hive (quartering a super to form four is a popular method).

You could simply replace your old queen with the new cell -- not the best method, but it often works ok.

Gordon

Timing Observations

On The Single Colony Queen Rearing Method

Gordon Scott

It's interesting to study the above method and consider how it works and why the timings are as they are. This is really quite a clever method of small-scale queen rearing.

First lets look again at the life cycle of our new Queen from lay to emergence. It's important for us to note that from the moment the egg is laid until around day six there is absolutely no difference between a worker and a queen. Only when the young larva is raised as a queen do the changes occur that make the queen special. This cannot happen before the egg hatches and only becomes significant at around the fourth moult. From then on, our queen continues on a rich royal jelly diet whilst the worker's diet gradually changes to one of honey and pollen. This dietary change appears to be the only significant difference between the two regimes.

Now let's see how that compares with our actions during our queen rearing. Shortly before we start, we introduce the cell transfer cage, simply so that it is able to become `scented' by the colony and so has a familiar smell for the queen. On day one, we transfer the queen into the lower box, together with the sealed cell transfer cage, some stores, comb and foundation.

As the queen is now separated from the upper brood box by a queen excluder, from this moment on she cannot lay eggs up there, although she should continue to lay in the lower box. While we leave out the insert from the isolating floor and the two boxes remain in contact, the colony should also continue almost normally and there is only a small chance of bees in the the upper box raising queens for themselves. The flying bees returning to the hive land on the front and climb upwards to the top box.

In the evening of day three, we confine the queen in the cell transfer cage and that becomes the only place she can lay. We release her in the morning of day four and all the eggs in the cell transfer cage must have been laid in the preceding 12 hour period. This allows us excellent precision in our timing. We continue to feed during all this time to ensure thet the bees perceive a honey flow and the queen doesn't go off lay.

On day six we change the rules for the bees in the upper brood box by fitting the insert to the isolation floor. This dramatically changes things. Suddenly the bees there find themselves queenless and without any eggs or young larvae from which to raise a queen. From their view they have a disaster and little chance of recovery, 'though thay may just try to make a new queen from an relatively old larva. Note again that most flying bees will be returning and climbing upwards to the top box.

24 hours later on day seven, we transfer our ideally aged three day old `captured' eggs into the cell raiser frame and place it in the upper brood box where our cell raiser bees are now desperate for eggs or larvae of a suitable age -- and we've now given them some.

A further 24 hours and we can allow contact between the two colonies because the die is cast -- our bees in the upper box are now raising queens and it matters not whether they were for reasons of emergency recovery or for swarming. Now they should continue to raise them even in the presence of the old queen.

If at this stage we decided not to restore full contact we would still raise new queens, perhaps more successfully, but we would make it more difficult to reunite our temporarily split colony as their scents become forgotten. Reuniting after only 48 hours minimises the risk of fighting.

Our queen rearing work is now really done. All that remains is to `harvest' our queen cells sometime between the time they are sealed and the time they emerge and introduce them to their mating nuclei. Sometime soon, we'll restore the original colony to a standard one-box unit, using the nice new comb that has been built in the lower box. The upper box will by this time have few worker cells still to emerge.

Notice that during this whole procedure the queen never has to stop laying, although she may be slowed a little when first put in the lower box. Our colony continues to raise young worker bees throughout the procedure, so that there should be no loss of either foraging force or honey.

Gordon

AGM and Committee

The Committee for 1999 is as follows:

Unfortunately we were left at the end of the AGM without a Chairman. During the forthcoming year, the elected committee plan to rotate chairmanship of the committee meetings amongst them, however that does not resolve the lack of an Association Figurehead.

So it's time for a reminder that the Association doesn't run itself and that we need people to take an active part in running things. As a rule, few of the committee jobs are terribly time consuming or hard, provided that they get shared out fairly. When the committee is short, the jobs either get done by the others, or they don't get done.

When I wrote our current constitution, I wanted to put in a clause that precluded officers serving for more than three years in succession, because I really do think it's both unreasonable and unhealthy to have the same old faces in the chairs.

Please consider whether you could help out now or in the future. We don't drop people into the deep end -- there's always someone to guide and help out. -- GS

Ask Arthur

June wrote to Arthur Attwood c/o the Basingstoke Gazette asking if he new any more about our Association. Her request was preempted by discovery in a book of a reproduction if the 1884 accounts. I have since heard that Mr. Attwood hopes to write a feature on the Association when his research is done.

Dear Mr. Attwood,

I have been a member of Basingstoke & District Beekeepers' Association for about 10 years, and about two weeks ago I was looking through a paperback of Frank Vernon's `Hogs at the Honeypot', when I came across the enclosed. I knew that the Association had been around since the 1920/30s, but 1884 came as a bit of a shock.

I was wondering if perchance you might have something in your archives on our Association, the reason being that we are in the process of, thanks to the Council giving us permission, erecting a beekeeping study centre in the walled garden at Down Grange and I thought that it would make an interesting display if we could show that we have been around for some 115 years. Can any other club claim this length of time? I realise that this is a tall order and look forward to hearing from you.

If there is any cost involved, please let me know.

Yours faithfully, June Hughes.

PS. My husband and I do enjoy reading your articles.

The January Inspection

Eric Denton

It was Sunday and a gentle bike ride round the villages seemed appropriate. I was interested in the local cows -- I had seen a few around and being a dairy farmer I was inquisitive to see more. The day was warm and sunny, I bought a beer at the pub opposite the church and while I quenched my thirst I was entertained to a slow rendering of all the verses of Amazing Grace!

Having been duly refreshed in body and mind I pedaled on for about two miles up a dead end lane. I rested in the sun and then set off to return. On the side of the lane I spotted a beekeeper lighting his smoker. I stopped to chat and asked if he minded my looking at his hives with him. He was quite happy with this although slightly embarrassed when he found I had a dozen hives. He had only been beekeeping for a couple of months.

So we prepared to look through his hive. His smoker was the largest that I have ever seem, his hive a Langstroth -- my problem was that I was only dressed in shorts! Well it was 90F and I was on holiday in Antigua. However the bees were quiet. My new friend was well dressed in thick trousers, sweater and gloves. He fed the smoker with coconut fibre and used a carving knife for a hive tool.

There was also a young helper who was preparing to start beekeeping on the cheap. He had a battered tea chest for a hive. home made frames made from 1.5" x 3/4" wood, with thick wire nailed on one side. The best part of his outfit was his hat -- a plastic bucket with a hole cut in the right place and a piece of net glued over it. I was not enlightened about where he proposed to get any bees.

The three of us looked at the hive -- it was a small colony on four frames -- he had probably acquired a small `nuc' and was allowing it to expand. The bees were still quiet and I survived in my shorts.

I enquired about beekeeping on the island -- they did not really know much but thought that beekeepers were getting about 90lb a year per hive, extracting twice a year. Having exhausted their knowledge and looked at the hive I took my leave and returned to the hotel for a swim and a rum.

Photograph by Eric Denton.

Just Looking

Can anyone help? I have been told that if one were to sit quietly facing the entrance of a colony, before opening or smoking it, one should be able to draw at least six conclusions about the condition of that colony. What might these six be? I would really appreciate an answer.

Here's Dave Green's answer. A few of these things don't normally apply in the UK, but I guess we have a few of our own to add or substitute, like woodpeckers and deer.

David Green email@omitted.anti.spam

Hmmmmmmm lessee.......

• The quantity of flight (in comparison to other hives) would give a rough gauge of the strength of the hive.
• Bees landing heavily (with full bellies) indicates a nectar flow.
• Paucity of flight (in all hives) might indicate a lack of nectar filled flowers.
• If bees are fighting or chasing bees around on the bottom board, robbing may be going on.
• A good quantity of pollen coming in, is evidence of queenrightness and presence of brood.
• The color and size of the pellets of incoming pollen are good clues as to its source (pollen varies greatly in nutritional value, so knowing the main pollens will tell you somewhat about the future condition of the colony).
• Clean looking bees, indicates general hive health and youthfulness of workers.
• Shiny, greasy-looking workers with frayed wings indicates old bees or poor health.
• Lots of fat drones in spring indicates a strong colony, possible swarm time approaching.
• Lots of undernourished, undersized drones (along with greasy workers) indicates a drone laying queen, or laying workers.
• Scratches on the hives, dug up ground in front, and nasty tempered bees would indicate a skunk has been pestering them at night.
• Bees hanging out indicates a strong hive, a good flow that day, or preparations for swarming.
• Bees washboarding (dancing in unison on the hive front) - possible swarm preparations.
• Chalkbrood mummies on bottom board indicates presence of chalkbrood, and genetically weak, non-hygenic bees that need a replacement queen.
• Urea odor - foulbrood (I have often smelled it before even opening the hive, though some of my fellow beekeepers don't believe this. I guess you have to have a sensitive smeller).
• Other odors - can tell what nectar source is yielding. Goldenrod has a distinctive, sickly sweet odor. Basswood and orange blossom have their own unique odors.
• Smashed up, scattered equipment, bees robbing, tooth and claw marks - Mr. Bear has been by, and you can write off the colony.
• Smashed up, scattered equipment, bees robbing, tire marks and beer cans - Mr. Testosterone has been by, and you can write off the colony.

Well that's more than six, I guess. Experienced beekeepers (mostly subconsciously) do gather a lot of data from visual and olfactory observations of the hives, before opening them. I guess listening could help a lot, too, but I'm a little hard of hearing (Huh?), so that doesn't help me as much.

Dave Green, Hemingway, SC USA http://www.polinator.com

Here are a few I can think of, too...

• Lots of bees just sitting around outside the hive doing nothing, often on nearby vegetation, suggests Acarine (aka acarapis woodii or Tracheal Mites)
• Brown streaks on the hive front is typical of dysentry and suggests Acarine or Nosema.
• That woodpecker hole looks as though someone excavated it with a spike like an ice pick. They like the milled-out handholds because it makes their job easier.
• If many bees are flying in one direction it often gives a good clue to main the crop they're working -- look that way and there's a good chance you'll see it!
• Some plants mark the bees distinctively, for example, oil seed rape puts a yellow pollen dot on the bees forehead.
• Lots of bees flying actively around the immediate area, but going nowhere suggests they're swarming any minute now. They'll normally settle nearby and you can box them once they're quiet.
• A queenright colony hums gently. A `queenless' colony usually buzzes rather more stridently -- if they're buzzy, they may already have swarmed.

Gordon

A Special Hive for Northern Areas

Aloyzas Palskys

Translated from Lithuanian by Rimantas Zujus.
Anglicised just a little more by Gordon Scott.

A Lituanian beekeeper Aloyzas Palskys kindly agreed to tell us of his experience on getting honey yield seven times higher than annual average in Lithuania!

Mr. Aloyzas Palskys is a retired civil engineer of 62, has 50 years as a beekeeper and 20 bee colonies. He tried all kind of hives and now uses a very wide, 20 frames in line, two storied Dadant type with a double-walled double-hive construction. His honey average in 1994 was 96kg per colony per year -- his best achievement. Annual honey average in 1998 was 70kg/colony/year. Twenty colonies, in 10 hives, total 1400kg is his mostly often result. In Lithuania, the average yield is 15kg/colony/year. The main honey crop is while Raspberry blooming. In midsummer one colony consists of 30-40 Dadant frames. (435mm x 300mm). Optimum colony 10kg. Swarming fully controlled.

The construction of hive is based on these statements:

• A double hive for two separated colonies, each up to 40 frames.
• A hive must have good thermal insulation and air ventilation.
• Constant temperature in a hive day and night as possible.
• The condensed vapour in winter inside hive should not freeze.
• The insulation material between inner and outer walls must be always dry.
• Walls must be leak-proof for wind (air).
• Venting ability of the air volume among brood combs has to be up to 16 times per hour.
• Avoid wasting of timber wood and inner volume of hive. (Using shallow frames additional air spaces).
• Using one shape frames for free operation inside hive.

Hive construction:

Hive is double (for two colonies side-by-side), total 80 frames. Walls are wooden, continuous i.e. one great heavy box, brood level and upper level (supers) consist of 20 frames 300x435mm each (only two stories). Hive design allows in brood chamber level to keep an inside surface temperature plus 4C (39F) when outside air is minus 22C (-7.6F). Hive front, rear and bottom is double board of 1 inch wood with 40 mm (25 mm for supers level) rock wool inside. (Wooden boards and pipes in Lithuania are still measured in inches).

The outer side of inner boards are carefully wrapped by moisture proof material. The outer side of insulation (front, rear, bottom) is wrapped by wind proof material as well as both hive sides/ends (without interstice for insulation). As a heat insulator is chosen a rock wool: Very low conductivity, doesn't absorb moisture, not eatable by insects and rodents, chemically stable.

There are two main entrances for each colony. One as usual on floor level and second right under the brood frame ceiling. There are two additional entrances in right and left ends/sides. They are used for nucleus or in heat of nectar flow. Also these slits are used to lay in a sheet of thick paper before winter and to draw it back in spring, and so on.

Some features of practice:

Spring - till goat-willow blooming:

• If a queen's abdomen remains less than others at this time, replace her with spare one.
• Pull off a paper floor cover with all the stuff on it.
• Narrow the upper entrance to 1 cm (both main were left to winter 10cm wide)
• Should be left winter insulation on brood box ceiling
• Arrange drinking-bowl in the warmest apiary place.
• All last year pollen in combs is given for bees while first nest widening/expansion.
• Every week a part of comb honey is uncapped (by beekeeper). All last year sugar honey should be fed till goat-willow nectar flow. This also stimulates egg laying.
• Only drawn combs are given to nest (all seasons).

After garden trees blooming:

• An upper line is started with 3-6 drawn combs (the same size as in nest - 300x 435 mm). Gradually all honey in lower (nest) combs should be uncapped (by beekeeper) till raspberry blooming. Bees bring all honey up and prepare space for eggs laying. Also as they aren't idle, the swarming mood doesn't appear.
• After garden blooming all thin honey combs without brood are lifted to supers. Bees adulter [ripen? GS] this honey during one week.
• Bee nest is checked every 10 days, except flow time. If queen rearing cells are found these combs are put to the end, beside an additional entrance. Bees are separated using an excluder board. Instead of common ceiling more convenient is to use comb back separating (packing spaces) strips (on the same level as comb back). This is the way for a good reserve queen to raise. If the swarming mood remains, are used other well known tricks. If nothing helps - change the queen.

Raspberry blooming:

• A half of the wintering insulation under the roof is taken out. The rest half is left for better temperature stability inside a hive. Temperature fluctuation incline bees to swarming.
• In the beginning of raspberry flow the first wax foundations are put among old (dark) combs in supers level. Bees don't like dark combs to draw. Five foundations are drawn in one night.
• At the end of the flow a double hive usually includes (20+20) x 2=80 combs.

Common remarks:

• A nest is expanded as usually in lying hives.
• A bee bread (pollen) usually takes four frames in the warmest part of nest.
• The brood usually exceeds to 15 frames. It means that a queen lays 3500 eggs during a day.
• An easiest way to form new nucleus is nectar flow time.
• If a colony is attacked by other one close for an hour the aggressor hive entrance.
• More constant nest temperature - lower swarming probability.
• Full hive (40 frames colony) checking: Take out 6 super combs into swarm box. Check the nest level, pull little by little super combs off (to free super level space) and go on nest checking. Leave the pulled supers in their new position and return the combs from the swarm box in free hive space (supers level opposite side as it was in beginning).
• If a nest is too cool the bees block the upper entrance with their own bodies.
• If a colony has only 30 combs at the end of raspberry blooming a queen is changed with young one.
• Usually queens are changed every year. Some of the highest quality are left. "Old" queen wing is clipped in spring. First year queen colony usually don't swarm. More eggs in autumn. Since end of May queens are changed with ones of good stock (from local breeders). Later are used separated swarm mood nucleus. When a young queen begins eggs laying 10 drops of balm oil are shaken in both parts and a separating board is pulled out. The bees choose the better queen, usually a new one.
• The Buckfast and Carnica races are used. Buckfast is better in moist summer. Carnica is better in dry summer and takes melliferous dew (Honeydew, plant-louse sweet excrement) as 7 to 3 compared to Buckfast for fir trees.

Preparing for wintering:

• A paper sheet is pushed/laid on hive floor.
• Combs containing 5 kg of honey are left and 10 kg sugar is fed. Usually 8 combs are left. Sometimes in especially strong hive 11 combs are left. After the bees are fed and Varroa treatment is ended 3 combs with sugar honey are taken out and added to nucleus. Sugar (syrup) feeding reduces a number of the old bees.
• The main entrances are left 10 cm each (lower and upper). Special wind boards are moved close to entrances in 1 cm distance. It helps against titmouse (birds) and snow.
• Free combs are kept in beekeeper's house. The house is built on the same design principal as hive is. In autumn the house is heated, becomes dry and combs with bee bread (pollen) winter successfully.
• 4 spare nucleus (queens) are enough in spring for 20 colonies (10 hives).
• The nucleus are pulled close to main colony and only main lower entrance is opened. Higher one is closed. Additional (side/end) entrances are closed.
• In late autumn an additional heat inslating cover is put on the ceiling and both hive's ends. Bees are wrapped up with fourfold wadded quilt usually used for children.

For Dadant hives:

Usually they have one entrance. For better air venting the entrance should be divided in two parts with an inserted strip. Then bees blowing out are in one side and blowing in are in the opposite side. Such way you distribute the air flow.

Aloyzas Palskys

Beekeeping in Portugal

Madeleine Pym email@omitted.anti.spam

I used to live in Portugal back in the early 1980's, up in the Sierra de Monchique, on one of the two mountains there. We were up on Picota, which at that time was the more unspoilt of the two. And yes, I kept bees there, although I had precious little equipment and got stung frequently, so I would say they mostly kept themselves.

At that time if you were to walk for any length of time along the mountain tracks you would see rows of hives tucked under the pine, or eucalyptus, or out on the scrub land. This whole mountain is the most wonderful bee garden, with tree heathers, cytisus, and all manner of wild herbs, oregano, etc, and the smells were absolutely heavenly after the rain, mixing these with the smells of pine, eucalyptus, and mimosa.

The whole area is a micro-climate and has an isect population the like of which I have never seen anywhere else. Several types of praying mantis, scorpions, thousands of species of moth and butterfly, plus colorado beetle and a fair few other farmers `pests', not to mention snakes, lizards, newts, salamanders.

The honey is divine, and if you go into Monchique itself, which is the market town nestled in between the mountains, there used to be a honey shop selling hive equipment, and honey from all over Portugal, you can also get eucalyptus honey in there, which the Portuguese use medicinally. The layout of the town has changed since my time there, but it was on the road that takes you out of the town and up to the top of Foia, the other of the two mountains, at that time there was also a wood yard which was quite close by, and a shop selling pots and pans, not to mention cafe's etc. If you don't speak Portuguese then take some sort of visual clue to show what you are looking for, they will treat someone who is not just a tourist far more sympathetically.

Times change I know but my experience of these people then was that if you were interested in talking to them about anything to do with farming they loved you. They were always the most friendly and tolerant people. I gather that things have changed somewhat since those early days, and they are more suspicious of foreigners, but I would stake my life that an interested beekeeper will always be welcome. Perhaps you can take something along to 'prove' yourself, and I think they will welcome you.

Beekeeping in that region is part of the whole of their smallholding style farming. They work terraces for beans, corn, oats, potatoes, and grow every manner of fruit, figs and vines. All exotic fruit and veg is sold off at market and they live very frugally. But the neighbours I had at that time were ever curious about new farming ideas, methods, and I bet they would love a look at catalogues, etc.

They are still immensely practical and will make most things for themselves. My neighbour even showed me how to repair disposable lighters so that you need never buy another. I felt very uncomfortable at the time about bringing new 'ideas' and 'things' into their culture, but they are doing that for themselves (I say this because I am worried that I shall be shot down for suggesting that you take anything that will 'interfere' with their culture.) and many of them had TV's that ran off lorry batteries when I lived there. Which was more than I had.

Regarding oak bark hives... I never saw anything like this when I lived there, and I travelled extensively through the whole of Portugal, but my bet would be that these would be found in the Alantego area to the north of the Algarve, as that is where the great cork oak and cattle plains are. I have an Italian friend who kept bees with his Grandfather in Italy and they used cork oak bark which peels straight from the tree in great fat strips perfect for the job. You can get through to the Alentego through the mountains of Monchique, or further to the east up from Faro, but I suspsct you'll not have time for that.

I recommend taking a long hike around the mountains, the views over the foot hills and down to the sea some 20 kilometres away is stunning. Just let's all keep that a secret though.

Lesotho Bees

A Field Trip Report

Garth Cambray, Camdini Apiaries, South Africa

I have been meaning to draft a report back on my recent field trip to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho - to describe the bees up there.

Lesotho is a small landlocked mountainous country in the middle of South Africa. It contains a big chunk of the Drakensberg (dragons mountains) also known as the Maluti highlands. These are some of the higher mountains in africa, and also some of the more rugged. They recieve above average rainfall for the region and form the catchment area for many important rivers. Winters are cold, with snow cover thick enough to allow skiing in regions (if one is adventurous). Bees occur in these areas quite happily.

The human population is comprised of the Basutho, a strong mountainous african population with a vibrant culture and good work ethic. The Basutho are a beautiful healthy people, kept trim and fit by their healthy lifestyle. Most industries are human powered and major exports consist at present of labour, water (to south africa) and narcotics (marijuana). Fabrics are also important.

Vegetation consists of grassland, sedge and small patches of scrubby heath.

My task was to take ten colonies of A.m.capensis to an isolated region 2000m above see level and to bring native colonies back from those heights to my level (380m where I have the hives).

Taking the bees to the highlands was easy - finding bees to bring back was more difficult. Beekeeping is not a major occupation in Lesotho, although recent government initiatives have got about 70 beehives going (in a country with a human population of 3 million this is few). To gather ten hives with queens involved a 1300km expedition into back valleys of these rugged mountains (one usually travels in second gear most of the way in order not to burn out the brakes).

The bees themselves are quiet hard working bees that seem to be resourceful foragers/scavengers managing to scrape together at least 10 to 20kgs of weird mountain honey a year from the overgrazed mountains nearby. Most flowers are small yellow things burried in the grass - which appear to be visited by 'random forager' - bees just cruising the area looking for flowers.

The bees are larger than the cape honeybee, and are bright yellow in coloration. They appear to be much less diverse in colour configurations with a standard yellow with thin black stripes look. The queens are all golden coloured with orange brown backs.

I was able to work all hives with little protection ( a veil occasionally) and given that most hives had frames, but no foundation and had to be butchered to find the queens a total of 7 stings for 10 queens collected was quite small. (With capensis I would normally average about half that for a single queen!) The bees appear to maintain a compact brood cluster and I saw very few empty cells.

Hive beetles were observed, and similar guarding behaviour to that of capensis was evident.

Communication with locals suggested that hives swarmed once a year in early november, and if rains were good would also swarm going into winter.

Many traditional honey gatherers exist who gather honey from the extremely harsh highland cliffs - wild hives in the Catze area are often 2700m above sea level and well above the snow line in winter.

Honey in Lesotho sells for about US$4.30 a kilogram (about 2.15 for a pound sized jar) - hence in a poor area these hives represent a considerable source of income to the villagers, often providing more instant wealth than traditional crops like maize etc - which have to be tended.

Scenery wise the country is amazing and anybody thinking of coming to the southern african area should definitely cash in on a trip there (if you earn a real currency like pounds of US$ bear in mind that for myself and a helper it cost us US$110 for food and accomodation!!) All major roads are tarred and free of potholes as well alowing one to go right into the heart of the highlands.

Keep well

Garth

Recipe

Baklavas

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 (180/350).

• 12 Sheets of filo pastry
• 250g Melted clarified butter
• 300g Chopped nuts (try walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds or pecans).
• 90g Sugar
• 1tbs Powdered cinnamon
• 1/4 nutmeg, grated.
• 250g Honey
• 1 or 2 tbs lemon juice
• The zest of a lemon and an orange
• 5cm stick of cinnamon.
• A sprinkling of rose water to serve.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 (180/350). Remember to keep filo pastry moist or wrapped. Cover it with a damp cloth whenever you have to leave it for a while.

Make the filling by mixing the nuts, sugar, ground cinnamon and nutmeg.

Brush with some butter a shallow baking tin about 4 or 5cm deep and 5cm smaller than the filo sheets. Line it with four of the filo sheets, each one brushed with butter. Add one third of the filling, spead evenly.

Add two further filo sheets, again each brushed with butter and then add the next third of the filling. Repeat with the final third of the filling and then the final four sheets of filo, buttered as usual.

Tuck down the edges and cut the top pastry in parallel lines lengthways, then diagonally to make the traditional diamond shapes. Sprinkle with water and bake for 45 minutes until golden brown.

Simmer together the honey, lemon juice, zests and cinnamon stick for five minutes and strain over the baklavas when they come out of the oven.

Baklavas are best eaten just warm and sprinkled with a little rose water.