The Basingstoke Beekeeper

Summer 2000

Contents

Apiary Update

Apiary Update

David Purchase

``I've never known a season like it''. Sound familiar? We say it each year don't we? Well, that opening line of many a beekeeping discussion could be nearer the truth than usual this year.

A kindly March saw colonies, particularly those in urban areas, building strongly and enabled many beekeepers to undertake their spring inspections. Winter returned with a vengeance in April. There were few opportunities for inspections and some colonies, particularly in rural areas, were nearing starvation.

May has been a more normal month with a real mix of weather. Many beekeepers have carried out their spring inspections, a month later than usual. There have been some shocks and surprises. Many colonies had swarmed or were in the advanced stages of swarm preparation -- they must have been plotting behind our backs in April! I have visited a number of apiaries in which every colony had been infected by `swarm fever'. More seriously, I have seen more cases of European Foulbrood during the past three weeks than during any three week period since I became a Bee Inspector four years ago.

Because of the bad weather in April and the need to make up for lost inspection time this month, I have been unable to give my own and the Association's colonies as much attention as I would have liked. The Apiary Meeting scheduled for 1st April was rained off.

I was unable to attend the May meeting (duty called). Apparently Colony No. 1, a late swarm from last year, appeared to be queenless. Ten days earlier Ron and I had tied the wild comb (see my last report) into empty frames. Possibly we had damaged the queen in the process. As a precaution I had already transferred a frame containing eggs from Colony No.2. That seems to have worked as there is now a laying queen. No. 2 has forged ahead and is on its third super. The queen was marked at the Apiary Meeting. Ten days earlier Ron and I had found her but my marker pen, a new one, had dried up!

Returning to Foulbrood, please be vigilant and call me if you have any unhealthy looking brood for which you are unable to identify a cause. Moving brood frames among colonies and interchanging wet supers are two of the best `beeekeeper assisted' means of spreading disease. If you have to move brood comb (as I did in St. John's Copse -- see above), please make sure that the colony from which it is taken is healthy. Try to return extracted supers to the colonies from which they came, or at least to the same apiary. 'Colour coding' using coloured drawing pins is one easy means of achieving this.

By the time you read this the June Apiary Meeting will probably have been and gone. I hope that the weather is on our side and that we have a good turnout. Happy beekeeping!

Dave Purchase,
Apiary Manager and Seasonal Bee Inspector
27th May

As an endnote, there is a common missaprehension that a beekeeper must in some way be responsible if his/her bees get foulbrood. In fact we have only modest control over getting it and I believe that finding and reporting it is a sign of a thorough beekeeper.

Foulbrood is commonly contracted by strong colonies robbing weaker, infected colonies and we can do little about that, however we can certainly reduce the risk of subsequent spead to other colonies with which we're involved.

David mentioned some things that help avoid spreading the bacterium around and we should also be rigorous about hygiene when we ourselves move between apiaries. It is always good practice to torch hive tools between apiaries and also to wear disposable vinyl or latex gloves, replacing them at each apiary. The larger sizes will fit over leather gloves if you wish.

Sterilisation of equipment each winter using 80% glacial acetic acid helps kill a number of ``nasties'' and torching kills all.

Gordon