The Basingstoke Beekeeper

Spring 2003

Contents

Apiary Update

by David Purchase

At the Annual General Meeting in January, Peter was re-elected Apiary Manager. He had given notice that he would be stepping down because of a change of employment. In the event, there were no other nominations and he very kindly agreed to continue. However, he will not be working alone as Jonathan Cloke was appointed to the previously vacant post of Assistant Apiary Manager. It was agreed that both would be assisted by those members who had bees in the Association apiary at St. John's Copse. Therefore, it will be more of a team effort than previously. I am confident that it will be a case of "many hands make light work" rather than "too many cooks spoil the broth"!

Jonathan is an enthusiastic new beekeeper. He is learning quickly and had a successful first season last year. I know from my time as Assistant to Frank many years ago that it is a good way to gain experience and knowledge. Good luck Jonathan!

I visited St. John's Copse today (3rd March). All nine colonies (four Association and five belonging to members) were alive. All hives were "hefted" and appeared to have plenty of food in reserve.

Seven of the nine hives have varroa floor inserts. I have been monitoring them regularly throughout the winter. All but one have shown very low levels of natural mortality, the exception being one of my colonies. It was one of two treated last August with Apiguard. It was not a particularly strong colony, on the verge of being a candidate for uniting. The other colony treated with Apiguard was stronger and the treatment appears to have been effective. The weaker colony showed increasingly heavy mortality as the winter progressed. Therefore, on 27th January, a mild day, I treated it with Apistan. I checked the floor insert two days later and several hundred mites had been knocked down. It was the first time it had ever been necessary for me to treat a colony outside the optimum early to mid August period. Had I not done so, I feel sure that the colony would have collapsed by now.

I have used Apiguard a number of times and have always found it effective. It is a thymol based gel that works through both evaporation and contact. I can only speculate that it failed on this occasion because there were insufficient bees in the colony to ensure its effective distribution, resulting in an inadequate dose. With that in mind, I shall continue to use it alternately with Apistan or Bayvarol as my contribution towards prolonging the life of the two synthetic pyrethroids. Don't forget, mites resistant to Apistan and Bayvarol have been found in Devon and Cornwall.

Weather permitting, apiary meetings will be held in St. John's Copse at 2.30 pm on the first Sunday of each month from April until September. If the weather is borderline, please telephone Peter an hour or so beforehand to find out if the meeting is to go ahead. Eleven new and prospective beekeepers are attending the current Introduction to Beekeeping course. We look forward to seeing them in the apiary, especially those who have not yet handled bees. We wish them all well!

AGM Summary

It had been my intention to produce the minutes for distribution with this issue of Basingstoke Beekeeper. Unfortunately, I have been unable to achieve that, so this is a summary of the main decisions taken at the AGM that affect you.

Annual subscription rates were increased to reflect the increases in BBKA capitation and BDI. You will have seen the revised rates on your membership application form.

It was agreed that Committee membership be restricted to a maximum of five consecutive years. Limitations like this are common among voluntary organisations. It is designed to balance the need for continuity with the benefits of change.

A full list of 'who does what' appears on the inside cover. To summarise the changes:

• Secretary - vacant (see below)
• Assistant Apiary Manager - Jonathan Cloke (see Apiary Update)
• Events organiser - Nigel Winter (succeeded Christine Mackinnon)
• New member - Eric Denton (see below)
• HBA Delegates (2) - one position vacant

Disappointingly, there were no nominations to succeed me as Secretary, despite the fact that I had given twelve months' notice that I would be retiring from Committee.

Unfortunately, Eric had to resign soon after his election. Christine Mackinnon was coopted to the vacancy.

David
(former Secretary)

Hampshire Foulbrood 2002

There were fewer confirmed cases of European Foulbrood (EFB) in 2002 (see map) than there were in any of my previous six years as a Bee Inspector. There were no confirmed cases of American Foulbrood (AFB). There were reductions too in other southern counties, with the sole exception of Dorset which, for some unknown reason, bucked the trend.

Clearly this is good news, but we must all remain vigilant and avoid complacency. Inevitably, there were unreported cases of EFB, and possibly AFB. Disease might have gone unnoticed by less observant beekeepers and colony losses attributed to other causes such as queenlessness, starvation or wasps. Colonies weakened through Foulbrood, and their contaminated hives, are potential reservoirs of disease.

Wasps in particular are often cited as being responsible for colony losses. But for wasps to overwhelm a colony, the colony must have been weak in the first place. Why was the colony weak? Could it have been Foulbrood? Please don't take any chances. If in doubt, call me out (on 781288).

David
(Seasonal Bee Inspector)

Small Hive Beetle

The Small Hive Beetle (SHB) is native to South Africa. Until recently, it was thought to be restricted to that region, where it is considered a minor pest of weak colonies of the indigenous honeybee races or, more commonly, of stored supers.

However, it was confirmed for the first time outside South Africa in Florida in 1998, since when it has migrated to the northern states and Canada where it can survive the cold winters. In 2002 it was confirmed in Australia and Egypt. In all four countries it has become, or is potentially, a major pest of the European honeybee.

Although it has not been found in Europe, there is concern that it could find its way here, possibly in soil, and survive our northern European winters.

SHB eggs are laid in hive crevices and brood cells. Both adults and larvae consume bee eggs and larvae, honey and pollen, but have a preference for the brood. Larvae cause physical damage to both brood comb and honeycomb and their secretions can render a honey crop useless and cause a colony to abscond. They leave the hive to pupate in the soil.

Although we should not be alarmed, we must be vigilant when inspecting our bees. Fortunately, both adult and larval forms are easy to see, being about one centimetre long. As yet, there is no truly effective control.

David
(Seasonal Bee Inspector)

Osmia Rufa

The Red Mason Bee

by Gordon Scott

Some of you know that I have been working recently with Matthew Allan on a project involving the Red Mason Bee Osmia Rufa. This is the second year of the work and it is beginning to build up towards a commercial situation, however full commercial viability is some way away yet.

Osmia Rufa is a solitary species of bee that typically lays its eggs in hollow plant stems, vacated miner bee holes or beetle holes in old wood.

The life cycle of the bee is such that it over-winters as an imago (adult) in its pupa, emerging at around the end of March or beginning of April, when it mates and begins a new life cycle.

The studies so far suggest that it is a good candidate for pollination of early crops under glass and in poly-tunnels. This is an area where honeybees are not really happy as they become disorientated by the enclosure. Osmia, because it typically forages for much shorter distances, is much less disorientated. For crops under glass where Bumble Bee species are not effective, Osmia is often an ideal alternative.

Osmia also has some significant benefits as a pollinator. It is early enough and efficient enough to pollinate top fruit (apples, pears, plums and so on). This would make it a viable substitute for honeybees, particularly if the latter are badly hit by varroa ... a real risk when Apistan and Bayvarol lose their effectiveness.

Matt's work and hence, for the moment, mine, is to build a breeding stock of the bees to numbers that would be viable for this work, both from a biological and from a commercial viewpoint. That means that over the next few years, the numbers of bees under Matt's control must increase from the present thousands to millions. To do this, we install tubular "nesters" comprising a biodegradable plastic canister containing either 30 or 100 cardboard tubes into which the bees lay their eggs. They follow the usual pattern of solitary bee laying of pollen, egg, cap; pollen, egg, cap throughout the tube, with female eggs to the rear and male eggs near the entrance.

The nesters are designed to be easy and convenient for the bees to use and are designed to confound some of the parasites and predators, allowing the females to raise a better than usual number of young ... by about five times.

The fundamental research for the project begins with work by Chris O'Toole of Oxford University and the Oxford Bee Company and is derived in part from work in the USA on the Blue Orchard Bee.

When the nesters are collected in August and September, the tubes are carefully dissected and their contents are removed. The numbers of male and female pup\ae\ are recorded, along with the number of parasitised cells and types of parasite. There are a number of different parasites, two species of which have been observed but are not yet identified, possibly being newly identified.

Once the data are collected, the pup\ae\ are stored under refrigeration for the winter, whether of real or artificial duration and are then incubated to initiate emergence. For this stage, the pup\ae\ are returned to new nest tubes, but minus any parasites. As I was writing this article, Matt's anxious wait for this year's first incubator arrivals ended as the first of the males emerged. "The females will be four days later" he confidently assures me. Artificial pollen and nectar sources await them, as this is just a touch earlier than nature normally intends.

Matt's and my task at the moment is to get around 10,000 nesters installed around the south central counties by the end of March or maybe mid April, ready to collect all these bees. We're doing this by attaching them to fence posts or fence wire on the margins between open land and woodland, and in old building, for which they apparently have a fondness.

When August arrives, Matt will then collect the nesters, extract the tubes and have the whole lot recorded as above. Come next spring, a percentage are then returned from whence they came and the surplus are added to the breeding stock. A few will be supplied to selected growers for pollination studies.

The breeding area comprises a large bank of nesters containing a percentage of filled tubes on the southern perimeter of an area planted with a special nectar and pollen wildflower mix, tailored to our understanding of the bees' needs and preferences. Immediately south of the nester bank is an area of woodland, the whole giving the bees their ideal situation and encouraging much more efficient production of new bees for next year.,

Whilst I am unlikely to be involved in August's "harvest", Matt has invited me to be involved at least for a little while to see the fruits of our labours this spring. It will be very gratifying to see some of those nesters filled with little rows of bees. Maybe I'll get to open a few tubes and sort some pup\ae\ for myself. But that's the future.

For now, we must be happy with our task of trudging through ploughed fields up hill and down dale in the cold and the blizzards. Except that on most days so far, it's been really nice and fairly mild. We get to explore some beautiful areas of large country estates not seen by many people. It is quite hard work as we walk a lot through fairly sticky terrain, but the project, the views and the freshness make it seem very worthwhile.

In the mean time, 10,000 nesters is an enormous challenge and we would appreciate a little help from members, if you can. All we ask is that you take a couple of nesters, locate them in your garden along some margin like a wall or hedge, about three feet from the ground an roughly south facing. Then, in the Autumn, to send a percentage (TBD) of the filled tubes to the Oxford Bee Company who will supply new, empty tubes. In exchange, you also get to see these lovely, friendly little bees living and working in your garden.

Sounds like a deal? Please call me if you'll help!

Gordon
01256-476547

Apiguard

Apiguard's efficacy

Hi Peter,

We only received your e-mail message today, forwarded on to us by our distributor in France. In answer to your question, yes, the results from many, many trials in different countries [with beekeepers, universities and beekeeping institutes show the efficacy of Apiguard to be an average of 93%; sometimes lower, especially in cooler climates or periods and often higher at temperatures above 25\degree C. Unlike using raw thymol or dry essential oil preparations Apiguard works better at higher temperatures. With dry preparations in Europe it is not advised to use them above around 22\degree C because of serious damage to young brood. We don't see that with Apiguard.

I've been working on Apiguard for over 8 years and it is now registered as a veterinary medicine across Europe and in several other countries also. We do not want anyone to think that this is another Apistan, as it isn't. With Apistan you just put in the strips and forgot about it. (97-99% control most of the time). We cannot guarantee 97-99% all of the time with Apiguard but it will usually give reasonable control - well above that of coumaphos or tau-fluvalinate or amitraz where resistant mite populations are present. There is no recorded resistance to thymol so far, probably due to its modes of action, disrupting cellular processes; synthetic acaricides used today act on specific sites and as we've seen mites have been able to overcome these toxins to become effectively resistant. Not so with thymol (so far).

In warm conditions, we commonly get 95-98% control of varroa with Apiguard. It also seems to work well on tracheal mites and although we cannot quantify it there is a definate effect on chalkbrood and foulbroods also. This will never be on the label but if you ever talk to beekeepers who have used Apiguard many will tell you that their colonies are very healthy afterwards with little sign of brood diseases.

Best regards,

Dr Max Watkins
Vita (Europe) Limited

Apiguard and foulbroods

Dear Bob &All,

Following on from your message, we have seen obvious decreases in the incidence of both European and American foulbrood in colonies treated with Apiguard over time. It's extremely difficult to quantify but we've had many independent responses from beekeepers both professional and hobbyists here in the UK, in France, Italy and in North Africa in particular who have used Apiguard over two or three seasons. They say the bees are really healthy and vigorous. Thymol is a natural bacteriocide, fungicide, acaricide and at high doses, insecticide. In addition it seems that the bees clean the hive more efficiently in the presence of Apiguard gel - they want to get rid of it and at the same time they end up doing a scouring job of the brood frames. Devious I know, getting them to do all that extra work but it wasn't planned like that!

Apiguard is NOT a treatment for chalkbrood or for either European or American Foulbrood This is particularly important to note in the UK and a few other countries where these are notifiable diseases. Apiguard is neither approved as a treatment, nor is the legal obligation removed from the beekeeper to inform the local Bee Diseases Inspectior.; it often helps but it should not be relied upon for complete control of brood diseases. The extent of control is also dependent on the activity and behaviour of the adult bees. Bee activity and thymol sublimation from the gel matrix are both partly affected by environmental temperature. Humidity may also come into it but in the numerous trials we've done so far there is no clear link with humidity alone.

Dr Max Watkins
Vita (Europe) Limited

Max Watkins email@omitted.anti.spam

Peter &All,

To clarify - the average control of varroa mites provided by Apiguard treatments is 93%. Sometimes the figure is higher, sometimes lower, partly dependent on temperature. We have sometimes seen efficacy of 70-75 conditions and 98-99% in warmer climes. The average is 93% control.

The brood studies we've performed do not indicate a problem with brood mortality. This is a function of the formulation. Thymol alone can indeed do severe damage to brood.

Max

Rimantas Zujus email@omitted.anti.spam

Dear Beefriends

Max Watkins writes:

To clarify - the average control of varroa mites provided by Apiguard treatments is 93%.

It means that 7 mites of 100 survive. Recently we use Apistan and its efficiency at the beginning was promised higher than 99%. It means that about 1 mite of 100 survives.

Does it mean that the mite resistance to Apiguard will develop about 7 times sooner than to Apistan, having a much higher efficiency? Your opinion, please.

The third and fourth week of this January, after usual air temperatures between -10 and -27 C, we got 2 warm weeks with temperatures from -2 to +2 C. Some beekeeper report that they noticed the queens' activity in their hives. Usually it starts here a month later. They are worried about the provision and added some dry food (sugar powder plus honey). Now we have a usual winter with air temperatures between -5 and -10C.

Best wishes

Rimantas Zujus
Kaunas, Lithuania

Max Watkins email@omitted.anti.spam

I suspect it will take a lot longer for varroa to develop resistance to thymol because a) the selection pressure on the mites is lower than for pyrethroids, for example, as thymol is not so widely or often used - and b) thymol has a more devastating and general action as opposed to affecting a specific neurological site. I believe it would be more difficult for mites to overcome breakdown of cell walls and proteins, as thymol is purported to do, rather than modify one nerve site or develop a detoxification process of a particular agent.

If thymol were over-used resistance might be more likely to develop, eventually. IPM is the answer.

This is my opinion only; maybe in a few years we'll have a clearer answer. A programme of varroa resistance monitoring in Europe, especially the potential for resistance to thymol is being undertaken by Vita (Europe) Limited. I'll report our findings in due course.

Max

Colour Vision

Richard Goetze email@omitted.anti.spam

I've had a great time reading the colour vision thread. The large amount of interest in bee vision is likely because humans rely so heavily on sight. Bees, I think, are far more concerned about "smelling'. But, bee sight is very important to understand. Bees need vision for foraging, mating and finding home.

I took some time today in the library to read a few recent(ish) journal items. Much of the detailed scientific work is highly technical and I sometimes found it difficult to interpret. Especially because insect physiology is well outside my area (autogenous biologics). I won't bore you with the nitty gritty. The good news is the significant findings are straightforward.

Bee sight relies on a photon gathering and interpretation system using a compound eye. Each compound eye of workers consists of approximately 4500 facets, queens 3500 facets and drones a whopping 7500. Each facet embraces a very tiny field of view. Every individual facet is analogous to a retina, albeit very small. The main purpose is photon capture. The brain receives a nerve impulse from the receptor cells in the ommatidium after captured photons cause a chemical change when absorbed. Each ommatidium has nine receptor types biochemically specialized for "colour'. Four are "green' receptors, two are "blue" receptors, two for "UV" and one for polarized UV. Some investigators seem to disregard a specialized "Polaroid" UV receptor and simply consider eight receptor types. The brain assembles, from the generated nerve impulses, the "picture" that is bee sight. The bee seems to "see" UV and all the colours we do except red (a bee's black). The prevalent conceptualization of the "picture" the bee sees is a distorted mosaic. A notion very familiar to everyone on this list.

I am not convinced the bee perceives a mosaic at all. Just what the bee "perceives" is still little understood. The concept of mosaic vision is no doubt excellent for understanding the underlying biology of bee sight but it lacks completeness. We lack investigations that integrate static sight with kinematic sight. Detecting motion is very highly developed in bees. I think what bees "perceive" as opposed to "see" is based on a "visual flow" rather than the all too human preference for static landscapes.

Giurfa et al. (1999) found that bee sight shows a marked regionalization of colour detection that they think is a result of peripheral or central specializations within the compound eye. Bees detect colour presented directly in front of their eyes in visual angles greater than 15 degrees (chromatic system). At smaller view angles between 5 degrees and 15 degrees the bees switch to a colour-blind system (achromatic system) dependent on the abundant "green" receptors. (Note: targets present smaller and smaller angular sizes the further away you get.)

The achromatic and chromatic systems work together in sequence (Hempel de Ibarra et al., 2001). The two systems are "tuned" to work together as visual targets change with respect to the size of the visual angle. The dual system means bees see solid colours better than colours within colours. Bees need a sharp contrast and a "fixation" point to activate their colour discrimination at visual angles less than 15 degrees (Hempel de Ibarra et al., 2001). Bees are unable to detect an *isolated* coloured patch that subtends fields of less than 15 degrees without a fixation point and sharp contrast.

Bees are colour-blind when they detect edges (Horridge 1999). Edge perception is engaged when the most abundant receptor types (green) detect a contrast. Because only one receptor type (green) is used, the edge detection is colour-blind (achromatic). Now, consider kinematic vision. A detectable moving target is a contrasting edge that moves across a visual field. I think this means kinematic sight is colour-blind because seeing the moving "edge" need only use the green receptors and there is no sight fixation. This is likely the case at least for motion in the horizontal plane. The vertical plane appears to use green and blue receptors (Horridge, 2000). This leads to the oddest notion that bees may be colour blind in the horizontal but may have colour vision mostly in the vertical. While flying, it is the horizontal plane that is important in terms of "heading" along a route. And yes, the bee at all times is aware of its position relative to the sun, likely using polarized UV. The vertical (up/down) plane becomes important when working blooms at the source plant where colour perception is put to best use.

The achromatic and chromatic systems are separated neurologically. The "wiring" is independent but the information is used sequentially. The dual system is an integration of a chromatic "green and blue" processing that disregards contrasts and achromatic "green" edge detecting system that disregards the *relative* location of edges but "sees" contrast. The edge contrast detection is only green based in the horizontal but green or blue in the vertical (Horridge, 2000). Bees will remember the colour that was placed in a specific position. Coloured patterns and positions are "seen" by combining photon flux from green and blue receptors. The luminosity is not important but the wavelength of the photon is.

I'll speculate a bit and suggest bees in flight may establish a route memory based on the "edges" that flow past its horizontal peripheral visual field. This is the heading space. There is evidence for this, most notably in the work of Dyer (1991) which appears to refute the "cognitive map" idea from Gould (1986). Horridge (1999) showed that bees can learn edge cues but it is not likely they "memorize" entire patterns. So I don't think bees hold entire "cognitive maps" in their wee bee brains. They may remember the "termophores" (coined here first (I think)! from the Greek terma = edge and aphoros = bearing) and their sequence but not the whole visual landscape en route. Perhaps these termophores (edge cues) form part of the learned route to nectar and pollen resources and back again to the hive relative to the sun. Other sensory information such as odour accretion on the bee's body en route; and data from propriomotic, barometric and hydrotropic organs likely are used, too, I bet.

Perhaps the best "bee-con" for a hive will reflect (or emit) UV, wiggle a little bit, have a solid human perceived colour (or be black (red) and white), be BIG, have a very obvious fixation point and lots of sequential termophores *Burma-Shave* style along the bee line. Scented candles, too? Hmmm.

Now where did I put that NSERC grant application.....?

Richard Goetze

Dyer FC (1991) Bees acquire route-based memories but not cognitive maps in a familiar landscape. Animal Behavior 41:239

Giurfa M; Zaccardi G; Vorobyev M (1999) How bees detect coloured targets using different regions of their compound eyes. J Comp Physiol A 185: 591

Gould JL (1986) The locale map of honey bees: do insects have cognitive maps? Science 232:861

Hampel de Ibarra N; Giurfa M; Vorobyev M (2001) Detection of colour patterns by honeybees through chromatic and achromatic cues. J Comp Physiol A 187:215.

Horridge GA (1999) Pattern discrimination by the honeybee (Apis mellifera) is colour blind for radial/tangential cues. J Comp Physiol A 184:413.

Horridge GA (2000) Pattern Vision of the Honeybee (Apis mellifera) blue and green receptors in the discrimination of translocation. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 74:1

The whale Put Jonah Down the hatch But coughed him up Because he scratched Burma-Shave

Richard Goetze email@omitted.anti.spam

A while ago, J B Free (1958) experimented with moving groups of hives to watch how the foragers coped. He found that when one hive was moved only about 15 m away to a new location, almost all the foragers returned to the old location. (He made sure that several hives were left behind at the old site.) The defecting bees tried to join the hives that were left behind. When he removed all the hives from the old location almost all of the foragers returned to the new location. He seemed to show that the moved bees knew their origins and somehow preferred the old location but when given no choice they eventually accepted the new location.

I think most beekeepers (and beewatchers) will agree that when bees leave natal colonies as a reproductive swarm, they tend to establish the new hive within the foraging area they know. The fascinating thing is the foragers rapidly learn to find their new home despite the fact that the old colony is relatively near-by. Robinson and Dyer (1993) determined that this reorientation after colony fission is mediated by the swarming experience. The rapid reorientation depends on "something" that happens during the complex interaction of the swarming bees. The implication is that without the swarming experience, the bees don't reorient very well. They also found that if you take away the new hive, the foragers return to the old hive. This means that the bees retain the ability to find the old hive even after the swarming experience. It also means that somehow the bees "suppress" or "disregard" navigational cues pointing the way home to the old hive when they "know" a new one is waiting for their return.

When hives are moved at night without the swarming experience, I would expect returning foragers to home-in on the old hive location. This makes sense as long as the moved hive is within the known foraging area. The bees know where they are in the foraging area. When they leave the hive moved during the night, they likely "decide" that they are on a foraging trip. When ready, they head for home as they remember it. Without the swarming experience, they don't seem to have the sense that home moved.

Some other work by Dyer (1993) suggests that bees don't use the hive as a pivot point to draw navigational vectors. He speculates that bees learn how to find feeding sites independently of the hive location; and, finding their way home is independent of feeding sites. In other words, the bees don't carry a "cognitive map" like humans do. We realize space and time form complete landscapes. We carry *whole* landscapes in our minds. Bees may separate the "where the food is" from "where home is" but use the same navigational techniques to find and remember both.

Richard Goetze

Dyer FC (1993) How bees find familiar feeding sites after changing nesting sites with a swarm. Anim. Behav. 46:813

Free, J B (1958) The ability of worker honeybees (Apis mellifera) to learn a change in the location of their hives. Animal Behaviour. 6:219

Robindon GE; Dyer FC (1993) Plasticity of spacial memory in the honey bees reorientation following colony fission. Anim. Behav. 46:311

Sting Tolerance

Paul S LeRoy email@omitted.anti.spam

Has anyone had experience with chemotherapy and receiving bee stings after therapy. Does Chemotherapy remove built up immunity? I have been around beekeeping since childhood with my father then as a hobby beekeeper and have been stung thousands of times with nothing more than swelling if stung on lips, eyes, etc. I am now undergoing chemotherapy for bladder cancer that has spread to my lungs. Doctors say that we will very likely be able to get it under control since it was caught early. They also say that if we get it into remission that I should be able to do the things I like to do which will include working my bees and with those that I have gotten into beekeeping. I would certainly like to correspond with anyone who has undergone chemotherapy and continued to work with bees. Thanks,

Paul LeRoy

email@omitted.anti.spam

Paul,

So sorry to hear of your problems! It is awful to get old. My wife died of cancer in December, and she was admitted to the hospital on our 59th wedding anniversary.

I am just a scientist, not a medical doctor. However, the great majority of chemotherapy drugs contain anti-inflammatory compounds which will cancel your sting immunity as long as you take the drug. Once you stop, and start being stung again, you can rebuild your sting immunity.

Because of my wife's hospitalization, I had to miss the ABF meeting in Kansas City, my first miss in over 20 years.

My age and my five strokes have forced me to cut back on colonies to just 20 now, which I work from the back of a golf cart. 20 keeps me busy, but it is a far cry from the 100+ I had for years.

George Imirie

Kathy E Cox email@omitted.anti.spam

George,

Are you saying that anti-inflammatory compounds make bee stings worse? I just got stung for the first time this year, yesterday. I was getting out of my suit and one flew into my hair. I have curley hair, so I ran to the bathroom to get my fork like comb. Combed her right on to my right thigh where she got me. My bite is hard, red and hot. Looks like a fried egg! I take anti-imflammatory drugs for my arthritis.

kathy

Mary Kellogg email@omitted.anti.spam

Hi all,

I am a family physician. Can't help chiming in to clear some misconceptions. As far as I know, Chemo drugs can supress one's immune system and inflammatory response. The same is true for anti-inflammatories like Prednisone (steroids), but not really for things like Motrin, Advil, Celebrex. This means that, if you are stung, your body won't mount the same response if you are on those drugs/meds. The inflammation (and pain) around the sting site would be lessened.

You don't completly wipe out your ability to mount a response unless you are on significant doses of meds. Also, once you are off the meds, your immune response should recover.

I would think that the benefits of venom therapy would be lessend as long as you are on the chemo drugs, but it should come back. I'm not an expert on venom therapy, however.

Wishing you luck with your treatments.

Mary in CT

Bill Truesdell email@omitted.anti.spam-maine.net

Ibuprofen (and similar drugs) is one of the problem drugs that can cause increased sensitivity to stings. I do not know what the level of dosage is that can bring on problems but for me it was a matter of a couple of weeks. I did have a mild allergic reaction (hives) that I had never had before. I had to take ibuprofen because of muscle inflammation, but quit and shifted to Tylenol and aspirin and have had no problems since.

BTW- I do sting myself twice a year for arthritis, per directions of Charlie Mraz. I discount most "alternative medicine", but sings did work for me dramatically. (Could not figure out why I was fairly pain free in the summer and not in the winter until we invited Charlie to our Annual Meeting, then figured out it was the few bees that got past my armor plate.)

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

email@omitted.anti.spam

Hello Kathy,

No, anti-inflammatory drugs do NOT make stings worse.

However, most beekeepers develop some immunity to stings each year, and generally, the more times one gets stung, the more immunity the body develops.

The problem is that anti-inflammatory drugs negate that immunity that one has developed each year, and that person has to start all over to re-develop it.

The sting you got is perfectly normal - red, swollen, sore, and hard, It will disappear in a few days and then it will itch like mad for 2-3 days. All perfectly normal. Often, beginners, scared, visit an allergist about these things, and 90% of the time the allergist tells them to STOP beekeeping. This is because 99% of ALL allergists don't known the first thing about honey bee stings! Of course, they had to learn about them to pass an allergist test in school, but they did not pay much attention because they wanted to go where the MONEY is - treating HAY FEVER.

A personal story: I started raising bees in June 1933, and became highly skilled because of my interest in Science (retired atomic nuclear physicist), and did not get stung very much even though I had 60 colonies in 1963, thirty years later. One day, I had a bad situation in my apiary and got about 50-60 stings. In a few minutes, I became a little short of breath, so I went to the local hospital, who gave me a shot of adrenaline and told me to STOP beekeeping. Shortly after, I was told about the two Ph.D. and M.D. scientists, Golden and Valentine, at Johns Hopkins University who did NOTHING except research on bee and wasp stings. JH is only 45 miles from my house, so I went to see them. They simply told me that I was not getting ENOUGH STINGS, and what happened to me was normal. Their prescription was "get stung almost every day including the winter". I have been doing that the past 40 years, rarely wear a veil, work my bees in shorts and no shirt in the hot summer, and I never swell or itch unless I am stung in the eyelid, inside my ear, or my lip.

You said you liked my PINK PAGES. You will NEVER become a beekeeper if you wear gloves. Gloves make bees sting you. Work bare-handed, get a few stings (that will teach you what you are doing wrong), and you will develop some immunity to stings depending on how many you get. By the Way, our BEE INSPECTORS are prohibited from wearing gloves, because of transfer of disease; and most bee inspectors are sting immune because they get stung on their hands almost every day.

Even though I don't wear a veil very often, I am foolish and wrong. I tell all students to ignore what I do, but do what I say - WEAR A VEIL! But get rid of those gloves!

Almost forgot - The pain of a bee sting which is intense for perhaps 1 minute is just as bad when you have been stung thousands of times as the first sting, but that is a small price to pay for all the hours of pleasure that I receive from daily trying to learn more about bees, savoring my success, and finding the joys of beekeeping.

I hope I have helped.

George Imirie

Jerry Bromenshenk email@omitted.anti.spam

George,

Nice summary of bees and allergies. One of our local allergist worked with beekeeper families, so he's up to speed. He turned around one of my students who began to react badly and she went on to graduate work with bees. Overall, I agree with you. Most emergency room staff also think that a normal reaction means that people should give up beekeeping. Somewhere I have a book on the topic. It warns that shortness of breath, racing heart beats, or swelling involving TWO major joints (e.g. extending from hand past the elbow) should be attended to immediately. Don't know about you, but I've never had that degree of swelling, although I saw it in my father many years ago when he got stung on the finger from a wasp on the steering wheel of a tractor. The swelling puffed up his hand and stopped at his wrist watch (leather band). When he removed the watch, the swelling rolled up his arm like a wave to his shoulder. Naturally, we took him to the emergency room.

All in all, better safe than sorry. But be sure the person attending you knows something about bee venom and what's truly an allergic reaction.

Finally, you said "The pain of a bee sting which is intense for perhaps 1 minute is just as bad when you have been stung thousands of times as the first sting, but that is a small price to pay for all the hours of pleasure that I receive". Like you, my stings rarely swell, never itch. If the stinger hits a nerve ending, it still hurts (especially on the ear lobes). However, I often don't feel stings in my hands or arms, or only feel a small prick. Its not unusual for me to look down at the end of a day and see a stinger or two in my fore arms and can't remember having been stung. Wonder if that's true of others?

Jerry

Claire Chavasse email@omitted.anti.spam

Dear Paul,

I see that you have had several replies answering you query about Chemotherapy removing built up immunity. It is a subject I know nothing about. I received Chemotherapy between February 1995-June 1996, initially at 7-10 day intervals. I am a hobbiest beekeeper and during that time I continued to work my colonies, sometimes with help sometimes on my own. I got stung occasionally, but don't remember reacting any more severely than usual. But then my drugs would have been very different to yours. However I credit my recovery from Cancer to two things, medical science and my bees. Not certain what proportion to allocate to each! I found lifting off a crown board and just entering the bees' world, shut out other worries that I might have had at the time. I tired more quickly, so I paced myself. Good luck Paul and I hope that you will continue to enjoy your bees.

Claire Chavasse,
Co. Waterford, Ireland.

Michael Palmer email@omitted.anti.spam

It's not unusual for me to look down at the end of a day and see a stinger or two in my fore arms and can't remember having been stung. Wonder if that's true of others?

Certainly is with me. Sometimes on my neck too. Then...there are those spots...yours is the ear lobe? Mine is my nose septum. Sometimes I wonder if they see that area differently. They sure are drawn to it.

Mike

Robert Barnett email@omitted.anti.spam

Absolutely true.

I have made the following comment before, regarding gloves, which I don't use twice in a summer of hobby beekeeping. If one uses pinestraw for smoker fuel (the very best of fuels), heat your smoker fairly hot to begin, and smoke hands and bare arms generously, so that the vaporized smoker volatiles precipitate off on cooler skin; bees simply can't then identify your animal odor, and hardly ever sting. Vinegar will do the same, tho much less well. I have tried Liquid Smoke, but it did not work well, in my opinion. Check this out, I think you will like it.

If you catch a sting on the hand, immediately give the place a blast of smoke and it will obliterate the sting's target odor; not forgetting the other variables (e.g., carbon dioxide in your breath, possibly leading them to attack nares and mouth, the former mentioned by a recent respondant).

Bob Barnett
B'ham AL

Help my back

I really enjoy this as a hobby and would like to earn a living at it. I would be the principal labor. As a nurse for now, I have taken classes on how to incorporate good body mechanics and devices to help save my back from injury. My question for Bee-L readers, what systems do you employ in beekeeping to save your back from injury. How do you minimze hive manipulations? What devices do you use?

Thank you,

Joe.

Paul D Brown email@omitted.anti.spam

Hi Joe,

Your question on "making your back last the distance" is right on the button.

I use a stand (400 x 500 mm) fitted with mattress springs. The base of the stand has a 100 mm deep "bean bag". The top and base are separated by 4 x 2 (8 ) mattress springs and are kept in the same plane by 4 scissor action "guides". The bean bag allow the "stand" to be "set" level on uneven ground. Sorry this is a bit difficult to explain, but the effect is that the honey boxes can be put on the stand and the stand allows them to float at a reasonable height to work on and to "lift off". It is made from aluminium and "balances" my "5 frame work box" quite well when walking to the hive.

Cheers Paul b.
Auckland, New Zealand.

Michael Palmer email@omitted.anti.spam

Joe,

Get one of those cloth elastic belts, and wear it when doing heavy lifting and when working bent over.

I hurt my lower back a few years ago...couldn't even sneeze without doubling over on the ground. Wearing a belt while working for a couple months allowed my back to heal. Now I wear it only when reversing, or taking off the crop. If I hadn't found it, I probably would have had to quit keeping bees.

Mike

Tim Sterrett email@omitted.anti.spam

Back-Savers:

1) Use medium-depth hive bodies instead of deep hive bodies. And/or leave one deep always on the bottom (so it is less likely to fill with honey.)

2) Make a platform to set on top of a garden cart. When boxes are lifted from the hive, they can be set on the platform on top of the cart. Much less lifting from the ground. Platform could be made from shelf wood with cleats on the bottom to keep the pieces from sliding from side to side.

Tim

Kathy E Cox email@omitted.anti.spam

I use those plastic milk crates. You can stack 'em if you want to work waist high. I'm changing this year to 2 brood boxes of medium size. Kathy Cox

email@omitted.anti.spam

There are 2 approaches. If one is into stacking boxes then use a hive stand that brings the top bars of the bottom box to finger tip level. It is ok to examine the brood frames in the bottom box while kneeling. Have a stand (wheelbarrow perhaps) next to the hive to move boxes onto without bending the back.

Alternatively think laterally. Go for a long deep hive. The Dartington model has 21 brood frames 14 x 12 and takes 4 half size supers. It is on a stand so the top bars are about waist high (depending how tall you are). The supers when full weigh no more than 16 pounds. The latest version has open mesh floors. A UK manufacturer now produces it in kit form.

Chris

Garrett M Martin email@omitted.anti.spam

While we are on the subject I might as well add my two sense here. For those who suffer from lower back injury or have a tendency for it here is my experience. I am only 26 years old. I hardly remember a day in my life that I did not have sever back pain. Been through all the tests and the specialists, countless years at chiropractors and no one could find anything. I was finally told by my family medical doctor (who interestingly enough also practices chiropractic) that he feels that my pain comes from muscular pain rather than spine related. I took his tip and pursued massage therapy. This has changed my life. I am now pain free 50% of the time and the rest is bearable on top of this I am a beekeeper as of three years ago. I will caution though it is very expensive and hard to find a real good therapist. There is allot more to say on this but it is probably not relevant to this conversation. Should anyone want to know more feel free to contact me.

Garrett Martin

Recipe

Honey &Walnut Coleslaw

• ½kg White cabbage
• 250g Green eating apples
• 50g chopped walnuts or pecans
• 75g seedless raisins

For the dressing:

• 2tbs Clear honey
• 4tbs Lemon juice
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

This doesn't really need instructions, but ...

Slice the cabbage into shreds about 4-6mm wide, slice the apples into fine wedges or course chunks, add in the nuts and raisins.

Mix together the ingredients for the dressing and , immediately before serving, toss together both mixtures. Serve. Enjoy!

Diary

Unless otherwise stated, evening meetings are at 7:30pm in our Study Centre, The Walled Garden, Down Grange, Basingstoke and apiary meetings are 2:30pm at St. John's Copse, Oakley.

March 20

In the Study Centre. Chris Mounty .. How to cream honey

April 6

Apiary Meeting

April 17

In the Study Centre. Alan and Margaret Johnson .. Preparing for honey shows

May 3

1pm; Meon Valley Auction; The Village Hall, Greatham, Near Liss

May 4

Apiary Meeting

June 1

Apiary Meeting

July 6

Apiary Meeting

June 21

Skep making course, see disply ad.

July 20

set up 9.30am 2pm to 6pm, Flower Show, Down Grange

August 3

Apiary Meeting

September 7

Apiary Meeting

September 18

In the Study Centre. TBD

Oct 5

set up 9.30am 1pm to 5pm, Nature's Harvest Honey Show, Down Grange

October 16

In the Study Centre. Beulah Cullen on dipping and making candles

November 20

In the Study Centre. TDA

December 18

In the Study Centre. Bring and Buy with mince pies.

Committee

In the Study Centre. Wednesdays 8 January, 5 March, 7 May, 3 September, 5 November.