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Combings Magazine   
Issue No 14 ~ June 2005

The Combings is the Quarterly Newsletter of the York & District Beekeepers Association offering a good source of information for our local Association.

We welcome contributions.  Please submit your ideas to the Editor, John Fuller, e-mail: japlusja@btinternet.com

First Words from the Editor ...

One thing I always look out for at this time of the year is the arrival of the first swallow.  It arrived on April 19th – last year it was the 20th April.  We tend to think that it is the better weather that brings them back, but this year contradicts that theory, being cool wet and windy - with the exception of one short spell being unseasonably warm.

Summer did arrive on Saturday 23 April when the smell of the first barbeque wafted by!

During the bad weather in late February and early March when the Pennines, Derbyshire, North Yorkshire Moors and the Wolds were blanketed in snow and cars were stuck in snowdrifts, down here in the Vale of York, with not a flake of snow to be seen, the first bumblebee has come out of hibernation.  She probably perished in the night frost that followed.

On Thursday 17th March, which, for those of you with any Irish blood in you will recognise as St Patrick’s Day, was the first warm day after the prolonged cold spell.   So I went to the end of my garden to have a look at what my bees were doing. They were flying strongly and bringing in a little pollen, but what struck me most was that I had drones flying.  I cannot recollect seeing flying drone as early as this before.  I have glass quilts on all my bees all the year round and was able to see what was going on without disturbing the bees.  I did not think the colony was particularly strong.

I eventually looked through this colony a month later and I found small patches of drone brood in worker cells – I have a laying worker.  Turning round a colony in this condition is almost impossible.   I will shake the bees off the comb and let them find their way into another colony.

In the middle of February I had an unannounced visit from an East Riding Trading Standards Officer.  He wanted to look at the jars of honey I have in my cupboard ready for sale. He studied my jar labels and best before labels.  The one thing I got picked up on was the scales I use for weighing jars of honey.  I use domestic electronic scales that I know are illegal.  I explained that to purchase properly tested and stamped scales would be extortionately expensive and not cost effective for a small scale operation such as mine.

Then again, in early March, I got a ‘phone call from East Riding Environmental Health checking that I was still selling honey. Their interest was in the way I bottled honey.  The officer was quite happy that I did my bottling in my kitchen, explaining to me that as honey was a low risk food, this was alright.

While on the topic of honey standards, in February 2001 I had a sample of honey taken away for analysis.  I asked for, and got, a copy of the analyst’s report.  All it contained was a list of pollen found and the comment “Consistent with UK Honey”.  I had expected to see comments on water content, weight, HMF and percentages of the various sugars that go to make up honey, but none of these were mentioned.

I was one of those on the bus trip to Stoneleigh, and while there, purchased an old book.  Inside the book was a small envelope with a few “In the Apiary” cuttings from a local newspaper dated December 1951.  Two in particular caught my eye.  One was about manipulating a “Norman Patterson” type hive.

The cuttings are very worn and have not scanned well, so I will copy them, for I think they are worthy of inclusion in the “Combings”.

"All manipulations are carried out in the sitting position, a special advantage in the case of aged, infirm and delicate beekeepers.  The brood chamber is examined without interference with supers or queen excluder.  It can be examined in weather that would not allow inspection of an ordinary hive.  During manipulations bees have free access to supers or queen excluder.  It can be examined in weather that would not allow inspection of an ordinary hive.  During manipulations bees have free access to supers.  Returning bees therefore do not accumulate in the brood chamber.  For this and other reasons stinging is minimised.".

The second cutting, describes the “Reynolds” type hive, and I quote – “The Reynolds type of hive is weatherproof, double walled with draughtless ventilation and conforms naturally to the bees own ideas of correct circular combs for the brood nest.  All manipulations are easy quick and safe, with minimum disturbance of stock”

That is all it says.  I have never heard of either of these hive types.  Can any of you older hands shed any light on the “Norman Patterson” or “Reynolds” hive – or better still – who were Norman Patterson and Reynolds?

I have been looking at the price appliance dealers will give you for beeswax.  Twenty years ago in 1985 Mountain Grey Apiaries (a Thorne’s agent) in Goole where offering £1.20 per pound for beeswax against purchases and 90 pence per pound for cash.   In Thorne’s current catalogue they are offering £1.13 per pound against purchases and only 68 pence per pound for cash.  Taking inflation into account, the price of beeswax has fallen considerably for you and I.

Probably the best price for wax is to be got by exchanging it for foundation, where if you buy BSW deep foundation, Thorne’s will give you the equivalent of £2.55 per pound of wax and if you buy BS unwired foundation, they will give you £2.99 per pound.

If you can sell one ounce blocks for 60 pence each at fairs you are getting a good price, but to a very limited market.  A hardware shop in Goole is selling them for 80 pence each – and not selling many.

The best I have seen was in a Kleeneze catalogue where they are selling one ounce blocks of wax for £3.99 each.

This year’s “Introduction to Beekeeping” course has attracted twenty five applications – this is an unprecedented number.  To accommodate them all, course organiser Sue Hesp has had to split them into two groups on separate evenings.

New Members

Please welcome these new members to York Beekeepers:

Mark Barratt, Clifton, York
Steve Moles, Howden.
David Bastow, Kirk Smeaton, Pontefract
Mark Pennington, Kirby Gridalythe, Malton
Tom Bettles, High Catton, York
Dorothea Seibold, Heslington, York
JN Binks, Riccall, York
Hilary Spurling, Wilberfoss
David Cantrell, Heslington, York
Emma Stripe, Tadcaster
Andrew Dykes, Acomb, York
Noel Strong, Shipton, York
Jonathan Finch, Huttons Ambo, York
Chris Town, Catterton, Tadcaster
Robert Franklin, New Earswick
Gregor Tubb, Easingwold, York
Robert Hall, Terrington, York
Judith Tubb,  Easingwold, York
Peter Hunt, 5 MalvernAvenue, Acomb
Kate Wallace, Bishopthorpe, York
Roger Isles, Eggborough, Goo1e
Barrie Young,  Goodmanham
Nigel Kirk, York
Susan Young, Goodmanham
Sheelagh Massey, Claxton, York

There was a news item on the radio this morning (Monday 21st March – the Vernal Equinox) saying that a bio diesel plant was to be built at Immingham to process rapeseed oil into motor fuel.  It stated that over 1,000 farmers have been signed up to supply the plant with this number expected to double.   Beekeepers as a whole should benefit from this project.  Last year farmers got a good price for rapeseed.  This must have influenced them, for this year there is rape planted everywhere you look.  On a recent trip to North Norfolk I saw rape all the way through Lincolnshire and in to Norfolk.  I saw the first spikes of rape in the Howden area on Thursday 24th March.

I read recently of another way of controlling chalk brood.  “Simply dissolve some coffee in boiling water and add a teaspoonful of it to the spring feed”.  You can also spray coffee onto brood combs before placing them in to your hive.

York BKA has an extensive library for the use of members.  If you have a particular book that you wish to read contact Librarian John Bowes on 01904 631923 and he will bring it to our next meeting.  This particularly applies during the summer when we have outdoor meetings.  John does not bring the library to such meetings.  John is happy for you to pick up books from his home by prior arrangement.  I am enclosing a list of books with this “Combings”.

Let me remind you that the Association has three hand-powered extractors for members to use clean and return. They are held by Rob Coleman – 01904 762532, Sue Hesp – 01904 489449 and Jenny Smith – 01904 706941.  If you are going to spin out rape honey, now is the time to be doing it before it sets hard in the comb.

Foul Brood Officer Mike Booth has told me that CSL is on the lookout for Kashmir Bee Virus.  In a recent nationwide survey, two cases of Kashmir Bee Virus were found – one in Lancashire and the other near Hull.  As you know Kashmir Bee Virus is associated with Varroa.   If during your routine inspections you find any deformed bees (stunted abdomens and wings or no wings at all) then please contact Mike on: 01482 571709 Email: mlbooth@booth.karoo.co.uk. There will be more on Kashmir Bee Virus in September’s “Combings”.

In Issue No. 69 of “The Beekeepers Quarterly” Francis Ratnieks did an article on the distances bee will fly while foraging by decoding their waggle dances.  He states that some bees were flying more than 10 km (6.21 miles) away and some as far as 14km (8.70 miles). The average being 5km (3.10 miles).  I have read in the past that bees will fly up to 5 miles for forage if nothing else is available.

In another article Professor Ratnieks wrote for “The Beekeepers Quarterly” he writes about laying workers.  He reckons that as many as two workers per thousand will have mature ovaries and laying unfertilised eggs in a queen right colony.  These eggs are eaten by other workers.  The accepted theory is that workers only become layers when a colony becomes hopelessly queenless.  Professor Ratnieks article contradicts this theory. In my supers I only use drone base foundation and frequently find eggs in cells of the super immediately above the brood box even with an arch of honey over the brood nest, and assumed that workers have brought eggs up from the brood box below – yet there are only ten or twenty such eggs.  After reading Professor Ratnieks article it now appears that laying workers could be responsible.

On Friday 18th February, myself with John Whittaker Treasurer of Yorkshire BKA, Sue Chatfield Madam Chairman of Yorkshire BKA and Andy Hiles a member of South Yorkshire BKA met with Selby MP John Grogan and discussed the proposed cuts to DEFRA’s budget.  We pointed out to Mr Grogan how these cuts are likely to affect beekeeping, particularly if there is a reduction in the numbers of Foul Brood Officers.  His Secretary took notes and Mr Grogan promised to raise the issue in Parliament.

John Whittaker gave me list dated 26th January 2005 of MP’s who have signed an Early Day Motion (whatever one of those is) bringing the subject before the Government.

I have written to David Davis MP for Haltemprice and Howden on the subject.   In reply he promised to contact the relevant Government Minister and report back to me.  I know that Colin Hattee has also written to David Davis and got a similar reply.

Mr Davis passed my letter on to Lord Whitty who has the grand title of Minister for Food, Farming and Sustainable Energy. Lord Whitty’s reply went on at length about the shook swarm method of eliminating EFB.  He also said that beekeepers themselves should play a major part in disease control.  More importantly he said “the reduction in expenditure with the NBU will impact most on seasonal bee inspectors”.

You will all have heard the saying “One man’s meat is another man’s poison”.  In late February I got a list of events being organised by the National Trust throughout Yorkshire and on Sunday 5th June at Hardcastle Crags, not far from Hebden Bridge, they want volunteers for a “Balsam Bash” to remove Himalayan Balsam from the Crags and reduce its impact on the Calder Valley.  As beekeepers, we are familiar with bees coming back to the hive with the splash of white pollen on their abdomens when working balsam. It is a good source of nectar late in the season flowering from August to the first frosts.

Now that Varroa mites are becoming resistant to Bayvarol/Apistan, we have to check periodically whether the Varroa in our hives are showing pyrethroid resistance.

This article was drawn up by the National Bee Unit at Sand Hutton and published in Bee Craft and worthy of repeating.

The following instructions describe a simple test which is a variation of the USDA Beltsville Test which will enable you to check if the Varroa mites in your colonies are resistant to Apistan.  Although this test   uses Apistan, because the active ingredient (tau-fluvalinate) is so closely related to the active ingredient in Bayvarol (flumethrin), if you find mites are resistant using this test, they will almost certainly also be resistant to Bayvarol.

The form is available from the NBU website: www.nationalbeeunit.com where you will find this method and other details about testing for pyrethroid resistance. It is also available from Regional Bee Inspectors or from the above address. Telephone 01904 462510 if you have any queries.

From now onwards regular testing for pyrethroid resistance is going to be an ever more important part of the routine colony management for responsible beekeepers. Otherwise, by the time resistance becomes obvious it may already be too late to save your colonies.

When you carry out a resistance test, please send the test data to the NBU laboratory at Sand Hutton - even where the results are negative, ie where the efficacy was over 50% and no resistance is suspected, or where too few mites were present to obtain a valid result.

By pooling the results from many beekeepers, the NBU can get a much better picture of the changing distribution of pyrethroid resistance, and this helps them improve the information and advice they provide to other beekeepers.

Editors note – I did this test last year.  It does not take long.  I used an old washing up bowl to catch bees knocked off frames, I was then able to pour bees into the jar rather than scoop them up.   Drowning bees sounds heartless, but death is very quick.  (Gardeners spray plants with dilute washing up liquid to remove greenfly and the likes – this is the same principle.)  I have seen no guidance as to the frequency of this procedure, once in a season should be alright.  Nor have I seen any guidance on how many colonies should be tested.  A couple in each apiary should be enough. If you find resistance in one hive in an apiary, then you must assume that other hives in that apiary are resistant also.  If you take a number of jars out with you, you will be able to test all your apiaries in one session.  I am looking round for clear plastic jars as there is a risk of glass jars getting thrown about in your car and getting broken.

The dimensions of the Apistan strip to be used are very precise - 9mm × 25mm. A strip of Apistan is 30 mm wide. I think for practical purposes that a half inch strip off the bottom will do the job. The size of honey jars varies, so the card may have to be cut to fit.

Who's Who?

In this occasional series Jenny Smith tells us “How I started Beekeeping”

Bees had been kept on the farm at Askham Bryan for several years by a friend who brought about 30 hives to the oilseed rape each year and then took them up to the heather moors. Apart from eating the lovely honey (especially the heather) I didn't get involved with the bees at all as my husband was very ill and farm work took over.

A few weeks after my husband died in 1990 I was invited to watch while the hives were opened so I borrowed a veil and I was shown the fascinating world of the beekeeper.  I started to help first with the smoking and then gradually was shown how to lift frames and look for the eggs and larvae and also for the queens who were all marked and clipped. These hives were on double brood chambers and very full so I was thrown in at the deep end so to speak as on a hot day we were covered in bees - at least I passed that test! Everything I learnt was from going through the hives once a week and having questions thrown at me from time to time. Then in the summer a swarm was found in a milk crate and housed in a nuc box for me - what excitement! I looked round my garden and found a lovely spot for them - my first hive. My younger son, then eleven was fascinated too and I got him a spare veil so he could help.

These bees were very prolific and built up into a double brood box very quickly. I had visions of lots of honey but the trouble was that they then swarmed again!

This beekeeping wasn't so easy when you had your own hive. I managed to squash a queen, made a mess of artificial swarming and why did the wind suddenly whip up and blow my newspaper away when I was uniting a hive! But mistakes are how I learned and I still do things wrong sometimes. One rather alarming incident happened when I had my first few frames of honey to extract. I carried them into the farm office off my kitchen and left them there to deal with later. The next day I suddenly heard shouting and found that on hot sunny days bees can smell honey combs even inside the house. Being an old farmhouse they found plenty of room to get under the office door and the office was full of them - I was in trouble! There have been quite a few occasions over the years when the stack yard has suddenly been full of bees and farm work has had to stop but I have now learnt to be more careful when moving equipment around and where not to store it.

I had a 'phone call from my friend one Sunday morning to say that a lady in Acomb had a swarm in her garden. As my friend couldn't go he suggested that I went and then I would have another hive. I said I couldn't possibly go as I didn't know what to do, so over the telephone he gave me instructions! I set off in the evening with a cardboard box, string, an old sheet etc. and arrived to find the large swarm in a bush ­what a stroke of luck as it was within reach.

I put on my gear and got started feeling very nervous especially when I looked round and saw I had an audience - it seemed as though the whole street had come out to look! Everything went well and I felt so proud when I had wrapped the bees up and put them in my car.

As I am sure every new beekeeper does, I spent every opportunity I could to watch the bees and look inside the hive (it’s no wonder the bees decided to move on!). However the exciting time came when it was time to pack them up and go to the heather moors at Rosedale. My one hive was put in the trailer with the other thirty and off we went. Not quite so easy as it sounds as the 30 hives were reduced to single brood chambers before going to the moors.

Then there was the very early start to shut all the hives up before the bees started to fly (4a.m.!) I followed in a car but to my dismay as we slowed down in Pickering I noticed bees escaping from my hive - ­panic, I would lose the lot. However all was well when we got moving again and worth all the effort when we arrived at the edge of the heather moors on a lovely August morning, unloaded the bees and then sat and had our flasks of coffee. I still love the experience of going to the moors.

From then on my hives increased rather too rapidly - I had put my name on various lists to collect swarms (a good way to increase your bees I was told!) and found myself out too many evenings miles away and many a time to false alarms when only about a couple of dozen bees- were to be seen! I now only go to local pleas for help but it is very satisfying when all goes well and bees are extracted from houses. One house in the village had a swarm of bees inside their kitchen which had entered via a gap round a pipe - it's amazing how many holes people have in their house walls which bees soon find. I put a hive outside the kitchen window near the pipe and went back in the early afternoon to see the swarm all over the hive - what a relief and another satisfied customer. I just hoped it wasn't my own bees that were causing the problem in the first place!

At one point I had about 12 hives but I now have seven hives in two places on the farm. Three are still in the garden but I have to be very careful as since I started beekeeping my elder son married and my daughter-in-law is allergic and there are now two grandchildren. I love to have some bees in the garden as I can watch them as much as I like which is what it is all about. My other site is two fields away - a big problem this year getting my equipment there with the mud - my son helped out by putting it all in the JCB bucket including me!

Up until about six years ago I just carried on my hobby and I realise now what a great therapy the beekeeping has been over the years, but apart from my friend who had started me off (and had then given up owing to pressure of work) I didn't know of any other beekeepers. Then Pam and Mike Todd moved to the village and Pam joined a beekeeping course and started with her own hives - some on the farm. Pam then persuaded me to go to a York and District beekeepers meeting. I am now a regular member and enjoy the social side of beekeeping especially the apiary visits in the summer and the interesting speakers and the honey show. We take it in turns to be on duty at the bee pavilion at the Farming Museum at Murton talking to visitors and showing them the observation hive. We have just been to Stoneleigh - time to chat on the coach as well as going to demonstrations and getting a few bargains. I now realise that there is a lot more to beekeeping than just keeping a few hives - joining the Association there is always someone to discuss a problem with and always something new to learn.

Editor’s note: Jenny is a regular attender at Committee meetings and has also taken on the task of Spray Liaison Officer, for which she is well suited with her farming back ground.  How many of us have been taken to our bees in the bucket of a JCB! Have any of you any unusual methods of transportation?

The "S" Beekeeper (Part 3) ... by Robin Tomlinson, Barkston Ash & Leeds BKA

Sunlight & Sharers

I wonder what it is about beekeepers that marvel at how bees do just about everything in the darkness of the hive and yet they don't bother using cover cloths, exposing the bees and brood to loads of sunlight. They love to share the bees and hive contents with their neighbours, passers by and other bees and insects. They make the bees feel very insecure and of course defensive as well as disorientated. Not I suggest good bee keeping practice and conducive to a calm and genteel manipulation. There is also the possibility of chilling brood, stimulating robbing and losing control of the colony. Of course, bees like sunlight, but they don't like it in the hive. It is so easily avoided and cover cloths should always be used.

Spacing

Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth was an outstanding student of, and authority on, honey bee behaviour. He of course discovered the bee space, fundamental in the construction of the hive named after him and all other types of hives, along with the frames, Queen excluders, crown boards, feeders etc., that are used with them. The frames Hoffman, Manley, British Standard, Yorkshire Spaced, Castellated, Metal/plastic ends, Hoffman modifiers, etc., have all been designed to make manipulations, the securing and transportation of bees easier, but no, some bee keepers for reasons I cannot comprehend choose to ignore the bee space and never seem to come to terms with it. I have seen colonies with a mish mash of frames and spacers to go with them, frames left out and what a mess. The bees of course make up for our incompetence by filling the gaps that we leave. Manipulations can become trying, if not impossible and trying to find a Queen is a non-starter. Brace comb breaking and falling sway usually stuffed with brood, bees getting angry at the disruption, no pleasure to the beekeeper only disappointment and dismay.

I believe that any spacing is better than no spacing at all; I will concede it is not as important in supers, but essential in brood boxes. The safety and security of the Queen and colony is put at risk if it isn't maintained and the joy of manipulating bees diminished. So make a resolution that you will do it, all methods have advantages and like any tool you should choose one that suits you.

Siting

This is another subject where if not carefully thought out and applied loses many people to the craft. The guidelines couldn't be simpler and while it can be difficult to meet all the criteria less complacency and more effort can get good results. Always remember that if a site falls short or any of the criteria always keep looking for another, you should always have more than one site anyway, as you never know when and why you have to vacate a site.

The Criteria: Plenty of forage, secure, sheltered, easy access for beekeeper and vehicle, not too conspicuous, away from public rights of way, recreation areas, temperament of bees, number of colonies. All the criteria can be applied in any order except forage, it is pointless to put bees into an environment where they are not going to return a surplus.

The bad site continues on year after year getting small or nil returns, but they like the site! Others put their bees in their garden and if the garden is about quarter of an acre and depending on where they are placed this could be the ideal. My experience and other bee keepers has shown that bees in gardens, especially in residential areas spell trouble for the bee keeper and neighbours, but again the bad siter persists. If you've managed your bees well or have been lucky you soon find out just how heavy honey can be, especially if you can't get a vehicle near your colonies.

How many beekeepers have we lost to the craft through bad backs?

American Breakfast Dish ... by Debbie Hattie (fairly healthy by their standards!)

Colin and I spent a few days in California at the end of last year where we really enjoyed the American Breakfasts.  My particular favourite was granola with fresh fruit and yoghurt.  Recently my sister visited friends in the States and mentioned my almost addiction to this dish and was given the following recipe, which, as it contains some honey, I thought some of YDBKA members might like to try it.

Granola with fresh fruit and yoghurt

Ingredients:
3½ cups oats
1/3rd cup chopped flaked almonds
2 tbs chopped preserved ginger
½ cup runny honey
2 oz melted butter or margarine,
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
¾ cup dried fruits - chopped (cherries, dates, ginger, pineapple, apricots, sultanas etc)

Method:
Heat oven to 180
Combine oats, almonds and chopped ginger
Stir together melted butter, honey and powdered ginger
Mix all together
Spread into 15'' x 10" baking tray
Bake approx 20 minutes - stirring every 5 minutes
Remove from oven and stir in dried fruits
Cool in tin and then store in plastic container
Serve for breakfast layered with yoghurt and sliced fresh fruits.

What you all wanted to know ...

During their life 25% of varroa will fall off adult bees. If solid floors are used they will remain in the colony by climbing onto the next passing bee.

Past Events

Wednesday 16th March

There was a good turnout for our regular monthly meeting to hear David Aston speak on “Plants and Bees”.  David covered topics such as -what bees offer plants and what plants offer bees – after all they need each other to survive.

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