Southampton & District
Bee Keepers Association
Foragings
Newsletter
Contact Details
Editor: Mark Simmons
Telephone: [023] 8032 7686
Email:[email protected]
Web:http://southamptonbeekeepers.co.uk/
Saturday, 9th February 2008, All day Lyndhurst, New Forest
Integrated Pest Management Day
Stanley Gibbons who is organising this event for the New Forest BKA, just returned from a 2½ weeks holiday
in Cape Town. He will be notifying members on his list around the end of January, there is a possibility
though of some vacancies still available. The cost is £8 with a ploughman’s lunch. So I recommend giving
Stanley a ring (023 8081 3254) if you haven't been able to get through to him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, 10th February 2008, 10.30 to 16.00, Stockcross Village Hall, 2m west of Newbury
Association Day
Now an annual event organised by the Bee inspectors this should prove to be a highly informative day, open
to all beekeepers.
Giles Budge, Research Coordinator at the National Bee Unit and Dr. David Aston, author of the book “Plants
and Honey Bees – their relationships” have been booked to give us talks along with time for us to network
and talk to members from across the region
Tea and coffee will be provided but delegates are asked to bring their own packed lunch. It is essential that
the organisers know, in advance, the likely numbers of attendees so if you are interested contact Ian Homer
direct on : 01308 482 161 or email [email protected]
The latest registration date is 2nd February 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday, 16th February 2008, 14.00 to 16.00, Waterloo Arms, 101 Waterloo Road, Freemantle
John Cossburn - ‘So you want to be a Bee-farmer’
John is currently our HBA President, a commercial bee-farmer and used to teach Bee-keeping at Sparsholt
College giving him a wealth of background knowledge from which to draw upon to make an interesting,
educational, slightly different slant on bee-keeping.
A Note from the Editor
We’re now into the second other jobs that I just can’t quite
month of the year, where has the seem to remember.
time gone and what have we
The weather hasn’t helped, what
achieved?
with all the rain we’ve received,
I don’t know about you but the making it impossible to go out
plans I had for sorting the hive and clean the boxes, scrapping
equipment and getting myself and scorching them ( the bee
organised for the coming season inspector would be proud if I got
seems to have been put off for it done!)
Well this month has an active
diary for us with an IPM day organised by the New Forest Association and the Association day
hosted by the Bee Inspectors,
then to cap it all off a talk by John
Cossburn on bee farming (not
that many of us will go that far,
but still interesting to hear about.
S&DBKA on the Information Superhighway
www.southamptonbeekeepers.co.uk
By Tony Mabey, webmaster
The dictionary defines the
"Information Superhighway" as "a
route or network for the highspeed transfer of information.”
The association web site was
launched at the start of this year
and is already proving popular
with some 600 visitors viewing a
total of 2200 pages.
The photo gallery is beginning to
grow and covers the recent
events. There is a section for
picking up hints and tips which
includes information sheets on
brood disease and shook swarming. These are a timely reminder
ahead of the coming season and
the need for us all to consider the
benefits of Integrated Pest ManThe web site serves a number of agement.
purposes. It gives our association
an Internet presence, if you use The member’s area includes the
any of the popular Internet minutes of the committee meetsearch engines for a combination ings, the current membership list
of beekeeping and Southampton and a copy of the association
you should find our web site. constitution, which we are reProspective members can be viewing this year in light of the
given the web site address to revised HBA constitution.
learn about the association, our
past and present events and bee- For the coming months the comkeeping in general. For current mittee is considering the benefits
members it provides easy access of adding a for sale section to
to association news and informa- allow members to advertise beetion on the programme of events. keeping equipment and honey
and wax products for general
sale.
There are a few members who do
not have Internet access at
home, most libraries now provide the facilities to access the
Internet so next time you are
passing why not drop in and have
a go?
We have already had some favorable feedback from the Secretary
of the HBA who said “I am going
through the Hampshire web sites
and commend you on content
and current nature of info”
The web site is only as useful and
current as the content it contains. The committee would welcome
any
suggestions
or
feedback as to how the web site
could be improved or if members
want to request specific articles
or items for publication.
Bees are not the only pollinators
The popular parlour plant, imortalised by Gracie Field's in that old
song "The biggest aspidistra in the world", was beloved for it's large
dark green strap-like leaves, and extraordinary tolerance of neglect,
dust and dimly-lit drawing rooms. Giving it the common name of the
"cast iron" plant due to it's strong constitution.
The flowers are often un-noticed, being stemless, small pale mauvybrown and at ground level. In the wild these insignificant flowers are
pollinated by snails as they crawl across the flowers.
No other flowers are known to be pollinated by snails!
A November meeting at the Broadlands Apiary
By Steve Irish
On Sunday 25th November a
meeting was held at Broadlands
Out Apiary and bees were inspected!
Now, inexperienced as I am, I
was always advised not to open
hives in cold, wet, thundery or
windy weather. Yet here were
experienced beekeepers, with
the Bee Inspector, preparing to
open hives and apply an organic
acid to the bees.
Pyrethroid resistant varroa had
been identified in the Association
hives and it had been decided
that the hives, along with other
members hives, should be
treated with oxalic acid as a
means to help control varroa infestation in the hives.
ment and the strength of the
solution. To obtain the solution
a sugar syrup feed is made. Now
if you ask ten beekeepers how to
make a sugar syrup feed you and
I know we’ll get ten different
answers. As we want the syrup
to be applied through a syringe
and to stick to the bees let’s
(applying the oxalic acid)
agree on a mixture of 500 grams On opening the second Associaof sugar to 500 ml of water.
tion hive, dead bees were found
– we’ll leave the reasons for this
Take one litre of this syrup and to the Apiary Manager to report
dissolve into it 45 grams of later.
oxalic acid crystals. This has to
be precise and the crystals can Ian Homer did explain that the
be difficult to dissolve.
treatment of bees for varroa usIt is possible to save the labour if ing oxalic acid is not an approved
you splash the cash. The oxalic treatment in Great Britain. Yet
acid crystals are available from here was an employee of HM
Thornes but so is a ready made Government (DEFRA) advising a
syrup containing the oxalic acid non-approved treatment and
crystals ready to use.
demonstrating the method of ap-
We met at 2.00 p.m. Turning up
ten minutes before the appointed time I thought I had
come to the wrong place. There
were strangers walking around in
bee suits and very few S&DBKA
members. These were invited
guests from other associations.
True to form, the S&DBKA members turned up just after 2.00
p.m. and the Bee Inspector, Ian
Homer, delayed the introduction
while the late comers made their
preparations.
Ian Homer was quite relaxed as
he leaned back on his car and
(ready made solution)
introduced the topic for the day.
In fact he was so relaxed I was
thinking to myself, “If he doesn’t Armed with your acidified syrup
hurry up we’ll lose the light and load a syringe with 5 ml per seam
it will be too dark.”
of bees. In our case it was six
seams so 30 ml was loaded into
Experience tells. Around 2.45 the syringe. 5 millilitres were
p.m. Ian led us into the apiary dripped down onto the bees beand the first Association hive was tween the frames. That does not
opened. The number of frames sound a lot but several people
in the brood that contained bees had a go and found that 5 ml was
was counted. In this case six more than they thought and had
frames carried bees.
to go over a frame twice!
plication.
Why? Because varroa mites are
becoming resistant to other
treatments. Oxalic acid treatment should only be used as a
last resort. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) should be used as
first and best management of the
mite.
All in all it was a good meeting.
Much was learnt, much was discussed. There are still some
unanswered questions but given
time answers will be forthcoming
and bees will be safe from varroa.
Editors note:
This
method
should
be
undertaken by someone who
knows what they are doing, as
Oxalic acid is dangerous.
More
information
can
be
obtained
from
the
DEFRA
booklet,
Manageing
Varroa,
available by post or the DEFRA
website, alternativley you can
speak to your local bee inspector.
So here is the technical bit. Ian
described the method of treat-
Page 3
No Bees No Honey:
No Honey No Money
By Dave Norris
Ian Homer the Regional Bee Inspector gave a most interesting
talk to the club at the Waterloo
arms on January 12th
combinations of conditions will.
Therefore the beekeeper has to try
and out manoeuvre the bees in the
colony, to use the natural urge and
fool them into thinking they have
swarmed. One point Ian stressed is
that clipping the Queen’s wings
does not prevent swarming it only
delays it.
The focus of the talk was on what
precautions
and
preventative
measures beekeepers could take
to minimise the bees’ natural instinct to swarm and also to help
minimise the impact of varroa and Several methods of swarm control
were mentioned including the
disease.
shook swarm, artificial swarm and
Ian started by stating that a hive the Snellgrove method. Ian decan swarm more than once and tailed the artificial swarm using the
that if left alone 75% of the flying Pagden method which is his
bees can leave in the prime swarm method of choice with a series of
and 2 castes alone. Hence the title slides.
of his talk. The title coming from a
situation in Africa where Ian was The timing of artificial swarms is
with a local beekeeper whose bees important whichever method you
had absconded where bee-keeping use. Using the Pagden method,
was the main income for his family. start the hive manoeuvre once the
first signs of the colony preparing
Ian then started to explain about to swarm are detected. Transferswarms and that no one factor sets ring one frame of unsealed brood
the bees swarming but various into the new box of foundation
with the queen limits where the
varroa mites can lay their eggs.
The beekeeper can remove this
frame once the brood is sealed
which can cut back the infestation
of varroa dramatically.
Once all the manoeuvres have
been carried out the beekeeper
should end up with two viable colonies or they can be reunited with
the choice of queen. Ian concluded
by answering questions from the
floor. This talk was a good precursor to the IPM day at Lyndhurst.
Who are they? Who they are
A chat with Andy Willis
Andy Willis, born in Southampton, 1965
Present Position in the association: Broadlands Apiary Manager
Number of hives last season What other hobbies / interests
Co-managed 30, with Mark
do you have: Cooking, photogratalking,
working
with
Type of hive used: Nationals, phy,
beeswax
and
anything
to
do
with
easier to manoeuvre when full of
plants
When did you join this associa- honey!
tion: 1997
Day job: Professional gardener, Pet hates: Bad tempered bees that
follow and sting, they are a nuiWhy did you join this associa- until serious illness in 2004 and
sance and not necessary
tion? Recommended by the secre- continued poor health leaving me
Qualifications 8 ‘O’ levels, 2’A’
tary Tom Hill who lived around the unable to continue to work
corner, if nothing else for the in- Favourite Beekeeping Moment: Levels but none in beekeeping! Yet
surance offered
Finding a new queen has started to Best year in beekeeping: 1994,
before varroa had arrived in LinPast Positions held in the Asso- lay eggs.
ciation:
Committee member, Worst Beekeeping Moment Hav- colnshire, I started with 12 queen
Speaker and author for the news- ing to kill a colony with petrol due right colonies, summer high of 23
letter
to disease. The 20 minutes of colonies and harvested 2,500lb of
honey (mostly oil seed rape)
When did you start bee keep- noise as the bees frantically fan to
try and get rid of the petrol vapour Why do you continue to keep
ing? April 1991
is awful.
bees? I find it fascinating and adWhere did you start ? In the
dictive, every hive is different,
garden of the Manor House, Highest Yield from one Hive every year is different. Beekeeping
1999, 227lb from a hive in my
Aslackby, South Lincolnshire
is changing dramatically at the mogarden
ment because of Varroa and new
Why did you start? started a new
job and one of the duties was to What is your favourite type of pests and diseases. The challenge
look after the 8 national hives in Honey? Mine, every extraction is to keep on being able to keep bees
unique
is there, and I would like to be part
the orchard.
of it.
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