Basingstoke Beekeeper March 1992 Apiary Meetings With this newsletter you will find an announcement from Dave Purchase and Stuart Broadbent outlining their proposals for the Association Apiary. After last year's disappointments due to Foulbrood, their 'new broom' approach will be welcomed. Unfortunately though, this will result in a partially closed apiary for this year, so our proposals just before Christmas to use host beekeepers was fortuitous. If tou wish to join a host beekeeper call one of the following people who will usually be very pleased to have a guest: Tony Bamberger, Dave Cox (weekdays?), Kristina Deitrich, George Garton, Norman Hughes, Chris Mounty, Dave Purchase. Remember, these people are giving their own time during their own beekeeping. You must fit in with their times and practices, they are not 'on call'. Finally, If you would join this list of hosts, Please call me! G.L.S. By 'Bert Farmer I started beekeeping during the war in 1940. I was living at Dummer at the time. I started to get interested in bees when my sister-in-law, who at that time lived in Essex Road, Basingstoke, 'phoned me one day to say that there was a swarm of bees in her garden. That started me thinking. Bees, honey and sugar were in short supply. I thought I ought to do something about it. Up to this time I had never considered beekeeping and had no idea what to do, I looked up a household encyclop‘dia which gave me some information on keeping bees and how to make a hive. Armed with a trilby hat, a lace curtain and a box I went forth to do battle with the swarm. Luck must have been with me. I got the bees into the box first time and with them safely tied up in a sheet away I went to Dummer, having first obtained some frames and a veil from Punters in Wote Street, and also some advice from Riley Bleasard who worked there. I spent all the next day, being Saturday, making a WBC hive, getting the measurements from the encyclop‘dia. Now the fun started. Saturday evening I went to the "Queens" in Dummer hoping someone would know something about bees. After several rounds of drinks I got advice alright. Very little use, however, I found out afterwards. Sunday was a lovely sunny day so, setting up the hive, I made a start. Having had my leg pulled so much the night before, I did not believe the little good advice I had been given. That was to shake the bees onto a board in front of the hive and they would run into the hive like a regiment of soldiers. I decided to shake them in to the top of the frames. This seemed to go well after after a few stings so I shut down the hive and went for my lunch. After lunch I went to see if everything was alright. I had a fairly large garden but it seemed full of bees. On investigating I found I had two swarms in the trees. The ones I had hived had come out and settled on a nearby tree. The second swarm were in another tree. By this time the first lot were not pleased to see me. My garden was situated next to the cricket field, with a high laurel in between and, being Sunday afternoon, there was a cricket match being played. By this time the first lot of bees had had enough so over the hedge they went. Seeing a nice lot of white dressed people running about, they decided to have a field day. The cricketers did not stop to argue the toss. They dashed for the only cover there was -- the pavillion. This was the wrong thing to do because the bees followed them in to where the ladies were preparing the tea. You can imagine the panic this caused. I did manage to get the other swarm into the hive after a few more stings but it was a fortnight before I dared show my face in the "Queens" again. All this happened about forty six years ago. I know a little more about bees now. Butterflies Many of you who came to the excellent talk by Geoff Lanegan will have collected from him a copy of the Butterfly Calendar which he brought with him. As many of members were not present at the meeting, and as I feel that the calendar will be of interrest to most of us, I have decided to put a copy into the newsletter. Deadlines mean that time is running out, so for the moment I shall include only April to June and will print the whole calendar later. Publicity & P.R. As an Association we should and must raise our profile within the community. Partly we must do this to encourage growth of the Association itself, partly to inform the public of the importance of bees to the environment and partly to aid our own funding. Your committee are having an open meeting on Tuesday April 7th at 7:30 pm at Brighton Hill School (a classroom, I don't yet know which) to discuss ideas and proposals. If you feel you may be able to contribute, on whatever scale, please join us! There is no obligation to commit anything after the day, however helpers will always be appreciated. Food Hygiene Act. Norman Hughes has reported to us that he has seen 'with his own eyes' a copy of the new food hygiene act and it specifically excludes 'Beekeepers and honey production' from the requirements. It also states that 'sell-by' dating is not required on honey. MAFF Moves. Our local MAFF office has now relocated from its previous home in Guildford to a new home in Reading -- MAFF, Block A, Government Offices, Coley Park, Reading, RG1 6DT (0734)-581222. Spray Problems? If you have been adversely affected by spraying, please report it, preferably with photographic evidence of damage (or even the culprit?), including if you can a copy of a daily newspaper in the photograph so that the date may be verified. Sparsholt Funding of Sparsholt Beekeeping Unit continues to be a problem. At present, the unit is losing approximately œ1000 per month and the situation will get worse when a support grant expires, increasing the loss to œ1800 per month. Investigations into trust funding or sponsorship continue. If a solution is not found, the unit will begin running down from August this year. The Bee Unit needs your support! Please participate in courses if you can (there are foulbrood courses proposed for this year). Not only does this help to support the unit financially but it also demonstrates that we want the unit. At present, Chris (the technician) is on notice until June and things are not yet improved! A meeting of HBA executive will have been held by the time you read this and any further news should be available at our meeting of Thursday 19th March at Brighton Hill. Institute of Apiculture Included with this newsletter is a flysheet from Professor Pickard, inviting membership of the Institute of Apiculture. The Institute is a very interesting initiative the support of which is to be encouraged. Remember also however the needs of other beekeeping facilities closer to home. HBA Spring Convention The HBA Spring Convention is, as usual at Sparsholt College on 11th April. Tickets are available from Gordon: Convention tickets œ3.50; Set lunch, œ6.50; ploughman's lunch œ3.80. Convention tickets can also be purchased at the door, but lunches must be booked by 4th April. Butterfly Calendar As supplied by Geoff Lanegan, April to June with the remainder later. APRIL Holly Blue Holly & Ivy. Gardens, Sunny woodlands, Parks. Tortoishell Stinging nettles, anywhere. Peacock Stinging nettles, anywhere. Brimstone Buckthorn. Gardens, open fields, wooded glades, anywhere. Comma Nettles and hops. Anywhere. MAY Adonis Blue Hillsides on chalk in the south of England. Rare local. Orange tip Garlic mustard, Jack in the hedge. Wooded glades, verges, gardens. Small white Anywhere. Pearl-Bordered Fritillary Violets. Woodland rides, coppiced woodland. Marsh Fritillary Devils Bit Scabious. Woodland rides, hillsides, local. JUNE Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary Violets. Woodland rides, coppiced woodlads, local. Duke of Burgundy Fritillary Primroses & Cowslips. Woodland rides, glades, hilsides. Painted Lady Stinging nettles and thistles. Anywhere. White Admiral Honeysuckle. Woodland glades and rides. Red Admiral Stinging nettles and Pelitory of the wall. Anywhere. Green Hairstreak Gorse & Broom. Heathland, wooded glades, hillsides. Small blue Kidney vetch. Wooded glades and hillsides on chalk. Grizzelled Skipper Woodland rides and hillsides on chalk. Small Skipper Grasses. Anywhere. Common Blue Kidney vetch. Anywhere. June 1992 Varroa I have heard very little extra information about the extent of spread since the recent 'Varroa Special', however I do have some extra information about techniques, gleaned from the Varroa Detection course that John Cossburn held at Sparsholt college. An excellent turnout by the way, around 40 on the Tuesday including our president Charles Oliver-Bellasis and some friends from his local Association at Wantage, and I estimate around 100 on the Thursday with a strong turnout from us as usual. The main 'changes' to the Varroa detection scene are a recommendation now that the tobacco smoke test should be started and completed within about an hour. This has two advantages over the old 'overnight' system: We don't have to make two visits to the apiary to do the test. This means not only that life is easier, but also that we are less likely to 'forget' to do it. It seems that, generally, the Varroa mites are stunned rather than killed and that they start to recover about 45 minutes after smoking and tend to walk back. The tobacco dose used still fits the 2-3g description from the MAFF publications, but is now also described as a good palmfull or a good pipefull! It is also now recommended that we inspect drone brood for the mite as it is easily seen on a typical larva at the capped stage. The method is simply to pull some 25 to 50 drone larv‘ from their cells and look for the reddish-brown mites which stand out well from the white body of the larv‘. The number of infected larv‘ thus found gives a good indication of the extent of any infection. If we put into our colonies, a brood frame fitted with « sheet foundation (for jumbo/Dadant hives -- just a strip for Nationals), the bees tend to draw drone comb for the rest and this gives a reasonable area of drone (an entire Jumbo/MD frame is really too much!). John Cossburn proposes removal of this drone comb at every other inspection as the main thrust of his varroa management. Is it feasible perhaps, that removal of half of the drone comb at each inspection will reduce the time that the mite has no choice other than to lay in worker comb? John announced that he had at last found a use for the 'continental' uncapping fork -- it lets him extract many drone larv‘ at once! A final thought -- If, like Sue and me you are 'green' and generally against doing damage to life, remember the importance of bees both to themselves and to ecology as a whole, and remember that the bees are now fighting an unequal battle. Sparsholt College Things still look bad! The latest statement from the Governors of the College is that the Bee Unit will definitely close on 31 December this year. All is not yet totally lost! With the Varroa situation as it is, now is a good time to again lobby for continued funding of Sparsholt College. The Committee asks that you write to one or more of the following, and anyone else you feel may be worth pestering! Pesticides 1992 June Hughes has obtained a copy of the current issue of pesticides reference book that catalogues a vast range of pesticides by brand-name, chemical name etc., and gives important details like whether or not it's harmful to bees. Association Apiary As you know from the previous newsletter, the Association Apiary has found itself in some difficulty this year, mostly due to the effects, both physical and on morale, of the foulbrood standstill order and to sheer weight of bees in the area. I am pleased to say that the standstill has now been removed from St. John's Copse. I can now tell you that whilst this situation has improved only modestly, Dave Purchase and Stewart Broadbent have been pursuing the idea of a second apiary and consequently, the title of this column should now read in the plural. We now have three Association apiaries most kindly made available by our president Charles Oliver-Bellasis, and two others from the same source that we will hold 'in reserve'. Whilst the main details are in the report from Stewart, I can give you an idea of the situation. I have numbered the sites in an attempt to make them easily identifiable: Apiary 1 is the present site at St. John's copse, Oakley; Apiary 2 is a site for around eight colonies at Ramsdell; Apiary 2A (reserve) is very close by and may hold a few more; Apiary 3 is also at Ramsdell and will be used for quarantine purposes; Apiary 4 (reserve) is at Oakley. Apiary Managers' Report At last our apiary at St. John's Copse has had the standstill order lifted. David, Sue Scott & our Bee Diseases Officer Janet Upfield, spent almost the whole of Tuesday 26th May going through all the hives at the site and thankfully found no notifiable disease. It has been a long 13 months and I hope we can start to clear all the dead hives and supers out of the apiary in preparation for grass and weed clearing. Once this has been done, we shall set about the task of laying out the apiary in a more orderly fashion. I would also like to remind members of the new ruling at St. John's, that we would wish members to have only one hive per person on this site. We would also like to confirm to members that we have secured a new site at Ramsdell, thanks to our President Mr. Charles Oliver-Bellasis. The site consists of a large area that we have designated as "The Main Apiary Site". This has a very good hard entrance track and a large grass parking area about 30 yards from entrance, and the bees are a further 50 yards or so along the same track. There is another site, just across the road, which we have designated a quarantine site, but it could also be used as an over-winter sit for eight to ten colonies. A third area that Charles has told us we could develop is a small area of hawthorn and elder that could be cut down to make another large apiary site for around ten to twelve colonies. We hope in the near future to arrange an evening visit to the new sites so that members can see for themselves -- If you wish to come along, please call Dave or myself and confirm a date. Also, if you wish to use any of these sites for your bees, please first contact Dave or me! before moving your bees there, and please mark them so that we can be sure of their owner. We hope we may resume apiary meetings soon but are as yet not ready to give actual dates, so please bear with us a little longer. At the time of writing I am pleased to say that the Association's own bees at St. John's Copse seem to be doing quite well. We have also "inherited" a further two colonies that have been sited for the time being in the new apiary. One of these colonies is very well behaved but is in the most fragile hive that either Norman or I have had to move. The other colony, having recently swarmed, is queenless and possibly the nastiest set of bees I have ever seen -- Maybe I shall have to pay a visit to John Furzey for a quick re-queening job, always presuming that I can get into the brood without getting covered with every bee in the box! Let's hope the weather keeps good -- We could be in for a bumper year. by Stewart Broadbent on behalf of both David Purchase and himself. Gossip I hear from John Cossburn that 1991 was the worst year this century for honey production -- so if you got any at all you did quite well. This is the time when one is glad to have kept some in reserve from the previous glut years! Also, of course, bad years stress the bees more and aggravate disease problems. Both Bee Talk and our own newsletter always want more contributions, if you have any experiences you are prepared to share, why not put pen to paper and send us an article -- all publications thrive on their content! There is a new German video about Varroa now available either for hire or to buy. This has been translated to English and supersedes to old one many of us will have already seen. On April 1st 1993, Sparsholt College comes out of local funding control and will be funded from central government. It is not yet clear what the effect of this may be but one keeps fingers well crossed. At present, the Bee Unit is under investigation for independent viability under a system that is "totally focused on the œ sign". One can only hope that the wider view is eventually taken. Queen Clipping I knew I had seen the ideal scissors for the job somewhere but could I think where? Well now someone has told me and I could kick myself -- they're on a "Swiss Army knife". Samples for Analysis When sending samples for analysis to Luddington (e.g., Varroa search) or Sparsholt (Acarine, Nosema & Amþba) whilst under a standstill order, officially a licence is required from MAFF at Reading to allow the movement. However, It seems that a "blind eye" is turned under these circumstances to reduce unnecessary red tape. I recommend that you DO mark the package though, so that you warn the recipients of the possible infection risk. WANTED Honey Recipes that we may collect into an Association booklet for sale at fŠtes and so on. This type of booklet should sell well and will directly help our funds -- additionally it should also boost honey sales! If all goes well, recipes will also be published from time to time in the newsletter. Please send to Gordon Scott. September 1992 Varroa As reported earlier in the year, the mite is widespread in the south with further cases coming to light from time to time. I now know of an unconfirmed but likely case in the Basingstoke area. Fleet and district beekeepers have arranged for John Cossburn to give a talk on the subject. John spent a while on a varroa course in Germany and has returned with much new information! I understand that there are many developments -- see the diary section! You have probably now heard that Bayvarol from Bayer has now been approved for use in this country. Figures quoted for the cost of these fluvalinate (a synthetic pyrethroid) impregnated plastic strips vary greatly, from œ5.00 per strip to œ5.00 for a pack of twenty -- I guess we'll soon know the truth. Bulk Buy Scheme As you know, the Association now has an embryonic bulk-buy scheme. Precisely how this will work in the long term depends rather on the amount of business we can do with the various suppliers. Our first orders for both Steele & Brodie and Thornes must be at least œ600. Whilst this sounds a lot, it will be easy to reach this figure if members take advantage of the scheme, even for quite small amounts of equipment. A further benefit of orders of this size is that carriage becomes free of charge. At our recent committee meeting we discussed this start-up cost and the costs of various other similar ideas -- we want to get this scheme off to a flying start, so we have a special deal for you -- Orders received by the end of the AGM we attract an additional discount of half that already offered on goods from Steele & Brodie and Thorne's. We can't offer anything more on jars and sugar because we already supply those at cost. Sparsholt There is at present no good news. The department is still scheduled to close at the end of December. Disease Reports This year I have not received any disease notifications from MAFF. I'm not a present sure whether this is an oversight or a change of policy, however I shall try to redress things for next year. Honey Show Our own honey show is on Sunday September 17th at John Hunt of Everest School, Popley way, Basingstoke. England Expects... ...or at least your Association does, that you enter. There are many classes available for the more and the less experienced, and the whole event will be kept lighthearted but sincere. Our main honey and cookery judge will be Sid Trenchard whose knowledge, experience and humour will make for an excellent event. Exhibits must be delivered between 09:30 and 10:45 on the day and all exhibitors must leave the room by 11:00 whilst the judging is in progress. Please come along and support this newly revived venture. Remember that this is also a shared event with the Basingstoke Aquarists, so there will also be various exhibits of fishes to see. Raffles We are to start holding a regular raffle at our winter meetings -- and we need prizes! Will you help your Association with a small gift of a raffle prize? Bring any offerings to any winter meeting and a member of the committee will be most pleased to relieve you of it. The Perils of Alcohol Honeybees that drink fermented nectar have more flying accidents, die younger and are often rejected by teetotallers back at the hive. So says Errol Hassan of the University of Queensland who has been studying a strain of Apis Mellifera that is most attracted to nectar with a sugar content of 40 to 50%. In laboratory experiments, Mr. Hassan and a graduate student Andrew Kahenya found that the fermented nectar can consist of as much as 10% alcohol by volume. Where enough fermenting nectar is fetched, the fermentation process can continue within the hive. According to Mr. Hassan, heavily inebriated bees have difficulty coordinating their actions. "Some of them just fall down. They don't want to fly or can't fly. We have seen this with birds that have been feeding on fermented nectar. They hit objects -- windows, walls -- or they fall down from their perches". Intoxicated bees frequently die as a result of their mishaps. They also have difficulty finding their hive. Drunken bees that do make it back are likely to be rejected by the guard bees because the act strangely The scientists hope to identify the maximum amount of fermentation that can occur before the colony's health is affected. They are also conducting trials on the nutritional requirements of bees with the goal of improving the insect's health during the winter months. St. John's Copse I shall remind members of our recent request to keep to one colony only in the Association's apiary here. Those of you with some experience should be able to find your own sites. O.K., we know that things don't always run to plan when looking for sites and we accept the realities of swarm control etc. but please, try not to abuse our hospitality, even inadvertently. Notifiable Diseases You have probably already heard that the list of notifiable diseases is changing due to a European Community directive. As I understand it, the directive adds Acarine to the U.K.s notifiable diseases but excludes both Varroa and European Foul Brood. I am now told that the U.K. is to continue with local rules for these latter two diseases so they will remain notifiable in Britain. It remains to be seen what affect the change in status of Acarine will have. EFB Research Mr. M. Barnes, the PhD student at Cardiff, sponsored by SERC and BBKA has "made a good beginning in his research into EFB". I understand that there are proposals to establish a technique to monitor antibiotic sensitivity on M. Pluton, to observe foulbrood infections around honey packing stations and to work on the production of anti-sera. Apiary Report Before proceeding with the August report I would like to ask members that have hives at St. John's Copse to find an alternative home for any quantity over one hive before the end of September. We do have a plan of action for the restructure and repositioning of hives, and without your cooperation we cannot put this plan into operation. If you have difficulty repositioning, please contact me (Stuart). St. John's Copse: So far we have taken a fair amount of honey, about 114 lb, all this so far coming from the two hives at St. John's Copse. After eight weeks of delicate manipulation, hive one has been fully converted to an M.D. brood box. At one time during this we could have had two queens, mother and daughter, in the hive. David and I marked one queen that we found during an inspection with yellow. The following week, I found a queen and marked her green. I have not seen the two together during any one inspection. We hope to convert the other colony to M.D. next year. Ramsdell: Sadly we decided to destroy one colony at this apiary. It had become so weak that it was being robbed and overpowered by the other colonies. This was the hive that was in very poor condition -- rotten wood, woodworm etc. The brood box had so many entrances it was a job to know which side was the front. The other colony there is quite strong, in good equipment and should produce some honey is the super presently on it -- I do hope it hasn't crystallised with summer rape as has the remaining one at St. John's. ---------- From here on, I started using drop-caps on some paragraphs. If you find a letter missing it's because WordPerfect wouldn't print the graphic box. Guess the correct letter as best you can ('til I fix them). ----- Welcome To a new look Basingstoke Beekeeper, courtesy of access to a nice new laser printer which is able to print excellent quality text and graphics -- maybe we'll get pictures yet? I have to admit that at the moment I'm experimenting, so undoubtedly the presentation will vary from issue to issue. 1992 - The Year For most people in the area this has been quite a good year as far as crops are concerned, although they tailed off in the later part of the year. The disease levels seem to have been similar to last year but varroa has definitely arrived. Possibly the worst news is the imminent demise of the Sparsholt Beekeeping Unit as there seems less hope than ever of a stay of execution, and this at a time when we probably need it most. Good news though is that John Cossburn has already set up his own Beekeeping Theory courses for beginners at the Adult Continuing Education Centre, Winchester. Whether he will be able to hold practical courses I know not as yet. Our first honey show for a decade was a great success and we offer our thanks to all those who organised, helped and participated. Visitors from Andover took a few prizes but Basingstoke members more than held their own. Our new venue on the other hand, has so far not been a success as we have needed to use a smaller room than preferred due to noise from the neighbouring aerobics class. I must apologise on behalf of the organisers at the hall for the serious booking error which left our October meeting in disarray. Our future arrangements are under review and the information should be in another part of the newsletter. 1993 -- The New Year There are various new ventures planned for the forthcoming year, some of these were already being considered and some are as a direct consequence of the double disasters of varroa and no Sparsholt. Monthly evening meetings throughout the year, both summer and winter. In the future, however, some of these meetings will be with a speaker, video or similar; some meetings will have a specific theme and appropriate experienced members or guests with whom to discuss the subject; and some will be simply an evening get-together for beekeepers. Our general aim is to continue with our present style of talks etc. but also to more actively encourage social meeting for its own sake and to encourage the mixing of ideas and information. Summer apiary meetings will resume after the 'holiday' which the new managers felt was desirable. Where we can, these apiary meetings will relate with the nearby evening meetings so that we can cover both the theory of a subject and what actually happens when we try to apply it (or what happened when we tried to apply it?). Beekeeping 'courses'; initially aimed mainly at local beginners, but inevitably and intentionally widening in scope to allow also the various levels of 'expert' to learn from one and other. The format should be informal and all will be most welcome. Meetings with our beekeeping neighbour associations. We must more than ever, foster friendship with other groups -- varroa will probably require it, so let's grasp the opportunity and embrace it -- both we and our bees will benefit. Association beekeeping both for apiary meetings and teaching, and as an aid to our finances. This year the Association's bees produced 120lb of honey, much of which has been sold at shows, but some is held in reserve for the future. Our bees are being transferred to Modified Dadant hives which should be easier to manage than Nationals (Thanks John Furzey for the chance to get used hives at a good price, and thanks to those who repaired them). A number of other fundraising ideas which we hope will allow us to avoid too many rises in membership fees. However if you have ideas for fund raising that we have not had, please tell us because we are always open to suggestions. Apiary Rent Do you have bees in the Association apiary? and if so have you paid the 'rent'? You didn't know there was any rent to pay? Well there is but it's not to great a sacrifice - - since we first obtained an Association apiary site from the Manydown Company, a rent of two jars of honey per colony has been payable, intended for distribution to the farm workers at Christmas. In the past, Frank Allen has 'paid' either from Association honey or from his own crop, but this is not really the way we should do this. So, from this year onwards please, the 'rent' shall either be paid to the Apiary Managers or to the committee by the AGM this year and by the end of November in future years. Sparsholt Autumn Convention, 1992 As usual, the autumn convention was an excellent meeting. Sadly, numbers seemed down on the usual this year -- I think that reflects the impending demise of the Beekeeping Unit, but I have to say that it's sad that, as a county, we have not supported more strongly right to the very end. I can however continue to report that the turnout from Basingstoke was good. John talked mostly about varroa, reporting that there were 285 apiaries (16 in Hampshire) now confirmed, with varroa in 'every county in Southern England, Jersey and Guernsey. There are also outbreaks in Lincolnshire (Boston), Suffolk (Felixstowe/Harwich) and in South Wales (Pembrokeshire?). The new line between North & South now includes East Anglia & Lincolnshire. There is already some good news though, John reported that farmers were beginning to agree to pay for pollination of oil seed rape. Farmers get far more out of this than we do (around œ120 per acre yield increase) so it is more than right that they should anyway, Varroa or not. Actions to take now are: obtain any books and leaflets you can on the subject -- particulary recommended are the new MAFF leaflet, M”bus & Conners' 'The Varroa Handbook' and the Devon Apicultural Research Group (DARG) book, 'Living With Varroa'. All of these documents are available at an advantageous price in the 'Varroa Information Pack' from IBRA. 18 North Road, Cardiff, CF1 3DY (0222)-372409. Get or make a Varroa Screen for each and every hive you have! Don't try to economise by sharing them around because it really isn't worth all the effort and you will only end up spreading diseases around. Steele & Brodie presently sell two types, the 'economy' which is cheap but looks not easy to use and that will probably be a major consideration very soon, and the 'standard' which is a complete false floor, screen & tray and looks much more practical for use at every inspection. Steele & Brodie's screen material (available on its own) has been much complemented by many people already as it is stretchy so very easy to get & keep taught, and very difficult to damage, even with the sharp edges of a hive tool. If you want to make your own screen, an excellent design was published in a recent Bee Talk and some members have already made many! A last comment from Clive de Bruyn at the end of John's talk --"Don't forget the other diseases!" Clive's talk -- "It Ain't Necessarily So" was, as ever, even more entertaining than it was beekeeping. Clive opened with a challenge that he has used in the past "tell me a fact about beekeeping and I'll dispute it". A glorious selection of myths, legends, misunderstandings, anecdotes and flowed forth for the rest of the talk. Some of it humorous, some of it serious, all of it most entertaining, but I couldn't concentrate enough on note taking to pass much on here, so if you missed it, you should have been there! Following Clive, should have been Brian Palmer on "Breeding the Black European Honey Bee". Unfortunately, Brian was unable to be there so John had hastily called the first substitute, Eric whose surname I missed, purportedly on the same subject. Eric apologised that he was not a professional lecturer and said that he would do his best. There followed a talk every bit as entertaining as Clive's, about a visit to a German research station where they are very actively breeding honeybees. More than just that, they extensively use instrumental insemination (detailed instruction here, in very personal detail indeed). Other activities include deliberately breeding varroa for research purposes! The bees there are superbly well behaved, prolific, good workers etc. I don't think Eric did ever say anything about Black European Honey Bees. Once again, if you missed it, you should have been there! Bayvarol In a previous newsletter I incorrectly reported that Bayvarol contained Fluvalinate, the same as Apistan. I now know that this information, given to me in good faith, is incorrect. Bayvarol (available from SCATS) is actually Flumethrin, a (synthetic?) pyrethroid which it much more benign than Apistan -- but rubber gloves are still needed. There are no warnings about the use of Bayvarol in low temperature conditions and winter is a time when brood rearing is at a minimum, and so a good time for both diagnosis or treatment of varroa. Bayvarol seems to be between 10 and 100 times more effective as a diagnostic than tobacco smoke and treatment in the absence of sealed brood can result in complete, if temporary, eradication of the mite. Now is probably a good time to remind everyone, although I don't think anyone I know needs reminding, that all of the other varroa treatments are presently illegal and frankly, in many cases, I hope they stay that way as some are distinctly nasty. John Cossburn's courses spell out the various options presently allowed for treatment and those which may be 'in the offing' for the future. There are some very effective manipulations available for the control of varroa and many people will be using these. As a point to consider, John is planning to label his honey with a statement to the effect "No chemicals are used in the production of this honey". Security Labels The committee would like to produce a security label for the Association (you know the type of thing, it breaks if anyone tampers with the cap). We would get them printed with a Basingstoke specific caption. What we want to know is are you interested in such a label, and if so how many would you want. They won't be free (sorry) but they will be at an advantageous price. Do You Know Any Beekeeper Who May Not Be A Member Of An Association? No this isn't the thought police, but we would like to get to know other beekeepers. In the short term it may be worth our while to make some sacrifices to encourage them to 'join the fold', as every convert we can get serves us doubly. Firstly, every member is a few more pounds in the coffers. Secondly and far more important, is that we need to work together to control varroa. Of course we want their membership, but far more important is the knowledge that they are there! If you know a beekeeper who is not a member, please ask them to contact us 'no strings attached' and please also tell us who they are -- we will send them some information, but we will not pester them! The Crossword You will find a crossword puzzle in this Basingstoke Beekeeper. It's a prize crossword with a bottle of (pretty reasonable) wine for the winner. All you have to do is complete the crossword, supply a suitably catchy slogan as a tie breaker and you're in with a chance (Note: the organiser's decision is final!). The crossword is organised entirely by me (but Sue has seen the clues) so everyone but us can enter. Closing date for entries is the AGM, and even if you don't win (or enter) I hope you enjoy the game! Fun & Games Whilst on the subject of games, I have mentioned earlier that we wish to mingle more closely with our neighbouring beekeeping associations. One of the things we would like to do is a quiz evening or similar, preferably so that it may include several associations on several nights. If you have any suggestions about how such a quiz/game may be organised, please do tell us -- we will appreciate it. Actually, if you have any suggestions of other joint activities in which we may like to participate with our neighbours, during summer or winter, we would like to know. Association Varroa Booklet It is our intention to produce our own mini-booklet on varroa and its treatment. Whilst it cannot be a definitive document, we hope that it will keep up-to-date on treatments etc., and will reflect the activities that we feel are most appropriate. Please note that the booklet will be additional to any other documents (like MAFF's etc.).