The Economic Voice (blog)Bees: National Pollinator Strategy needs strengthening says Bee CoalitionThe Economic Voice (blog)The report Policies for Pollinators, criticises the Government for failing to respond to a plethora of new studies linking the use of neonicotinoid insecticides with harm to bees. The Coalition says it’s neither credible nor possible to protect bees …
Popularity of urban beekeeping not helping to make up for declining … – The Independent
Popularity of urban beekeeping not helping to make up for declining . The popularity of urban beekeeping is not helping to make up for declining countryside populations, according to new research. The report also found that city-dwelling honey bees are three times less likely to survive than their feral cousins. This …
Bees: National Pollinator Strategy needs strengthening says Bee Coalition – The Economic Voice (blog)
The Economic Voice (blog)Bees: National Pollinator Strategy needs strengthening says Bee CoalitionThe Economic Voice (blog)The report Policies for Pollinators, criticises the Government for failing to respond to a plethora of new studies linking the use of neonicotinoid insecticides with harm to bees. The Coalition says it’s neither credible nor possible to protect bees
and pollinators whilst failing to act sufficiently on pesticides.
Vibrating bees tell the state of the hive – Phys.Org
http://phys.org/news/2015-11-vibrating-bees-state-hive.html
Researchers from Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom, have now developed and tested a new prototype device that can remotely monitor hive activity without disturbing the bees. The device picks up and analyzes vibrations from special types of bee vocalizations, such as the common one called a “begging signal.” It has successfully tracked changes in bee activity from day to night, and seasonally, by monitoring the occurrences of this specific signal.
Westcountry scientists’ research offers hope to save bees – Western Morning News
The deformed wing virus (DWV) carried by the mite is believed to be one of the reasons why bee numbers have halved in the UK in the last 25 years.
Now researchers at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) in Plymouth have solved the riddle of why one bee colony has survived despite high levels of infection by the virus, which wiped out its neighbours.
…They discovered that the survivors were infected by a different type of DWV, which the MBA scientists suggest is dominant and protected the bees against the lethal variety.
The lead researcher said the findings pointed to a natural solution to the colony collapse problem.
“It was great to see that through the process of natural selection, honey bees, Varroa and DWV were able to reach a stable state, with honey bee colonies able to survive without the use of a chemical Varroa treatment,” said Gideon Mordecai.
Scientists to Breed Genetically Modified Bees: Here’s Why – Tech Times
Tech TimesScientists to Breed Genetically Modified Bees: Here’s WhyTech Times A bee genome project at the University of British Columbia will allow scientists to breed made-for-Canada-honeybee that can resist pests and disease. This is to greatly accelerate selective breeding and ensure continuing benefits …
Supercedure and too many supers
For the first time I have 2 queens running side by side in one of my hives. I was looking through my hive the other day and saw the queen and was quite happy that she was doing well, this year’s blue queen, born about the end of May. Then I turned over the frame and randomly spotted another queen, in lay, by the size of her, and unmarked. Now I have enough fun finding queens at the best of times, so I have no idea how I spotted her and I don’t know what they are playing at superseding so soon, especially as the first is laying quite nicely. Well I am sure they know what they are about…
In other news, I have found k-wing in 2 hives and as such have started treating for varroa, as it happens I also found a bit of deformed wing on the other 2 hives on that site. I have swapped to apiguard this year from my usual api life var, just cos I had it to be honest. A few weeks ago I went round and cleared off what I had assumed would be the last of this year’s honey; the borage was cut and everything was slowing. Or so I thought. I went round and took off another 4 supers in total. Due to a backlog I now have 17 waiting for me to extract – I had to climb a step ladder to get the top ones on the stack – sigh… I appreciate for many this may be a welcome problem, too much honey, but it takes a long time to decapitate (sic) & spin. And its a sticky job. And then you have to put the supers on a hive to pull the remains of the honey out (As such I have left a couple of hives without treatment for now). And filter the honey into buckets. And this is all before jarring, labeling, selling, etc.
Oh and for those who think “oh that’s a good amount of honey”, it all comes at a price. I’m looking down a £350 sales shopping list at Thorne’s sale this weekend and at some point I want to get a motor on this extractor so another £350. And earlier in the year I paid about £300 for jars, and £70+ for turpentine and linseed oil – it never stops just keeps going around… Vicky ( the other half) is going to start a spreadsheet, as I think I spend more than I get back. Still its a hobby and my other hobbies I have would cost far more if I was doing them instead (yacht sailing is very far from inexpensive and the bees have kept me off that for 2-3 years now).
Wasp prevention
Wasps are a problem for bee hives this time of year, and for people in general. In all fairness it’s not the wasps fault, it is part of their brood cycle that causes them to starve and so they go about causing a nuisance of themselves.
Wasps can strip a hive in a week, they are after the honey, but along the way will kill all the bees or leave them so weak that they will likely not make it through the winter, so its something that needs to be dealt with one way or the other.
What to do about it?
Well the default advice that we get is to close down the entrance to one bee space. That’s about the space of sticking your little finger in. Don’t try this when sorting out the space, they don’t like being poked that much and if that’s all the space they have for getting in and out they may ‘take exception’ to you in the classic manner of upset bees. The model by which this works is that it allows the hive to be defended by having a small entrance the enemy have to funnel through – for example not his this works see the Battle of Thermopylae or the film of that 300.
There are a number of permutations on this model where you make either single bee routes in and out the hive or make them run the gauntlet while allowing bees to sting them as they try to enter via a channel of mesh or similar.
If your hive has already bee battered by wasps though there may not be much of a resistance force left so you could try an anti-robbing screen as shown on ‘Phil Craft Hive Craft’ or on Linda’s bees. The idea of this is to fool the wasps (also works if you have bees robbing the hive) into trying to get in a mesh covered entrance while the colony’s bees go in and out of a sneaky side entrance.
Talking of mesh, if a wasp makes it inside it is said they will feed their friends through a mesh floor. Obviously not as bad as a full on attack, but it might be an idea to take a look and think about closing the floor up. HOWEVER, given you are closing the entrance to one bee space, and its the hottest time of the year you may end up cooking your bees and blocking the entrance as they try to remove the dead dooming the whole hive; so blocking that up may be a death sentence. An extra layer of mesh below the screen floor about a cm (3/8inch) or more should prevent them ‘fencing’ their stolen goods.
Wasp traps work somwhat, you will need a few, wasps come in quite a number. You can get commercial models, I would recommend Wasp bane – not cheap but does the job well. Or you can make your own trap very simply. It is said that you should keep the traps to the edge of the apiary, for fear they attract the wasps to your hives. Personally I keep me by the hives as I think they will smell the hives first and the traps second. Don’t use honey in the traps or it will end up full of bees. Although inverted sugar syrup, the type you feed your bees in autumn works very well and I have not seen bees in the traps.
If anyone else has any ideas about how to deal with wasp attack, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below…
A beekeeper’s pockets
I washed my beekeeping jacket tonight and thought I would share what keep my pockets to do the task at hand – From the top – lighters (have a spare), multi-tool (pliers, knife, screwdrivers), compass & thermometer, keys to the farmer’s borage field, queen marking cages, butler cage, 3 puzzle cages, queen markers (this year’s blue for new queens, last year’s green for re-marking), hive strap, sting relief and scraps of paper to start the smoker. In the middle is a thin piece of plastic I use to break brace comb in mating nucs between the comb and the hive wall.
Honey honey honey
Well, it’s not being a bad year so far, up til yesterday I had maybe 250lb off in 5 batches. Then the other day I needed to move hives to the borage, I am very late to the party – part late notification of where I could put them from the farmer, part lack of time and part procrastination I guess.
Now those of you who have moved hives in summer may know of the issues – you have to do it at night and you have to do it with supers on. In my case the former added to most of the delay – its hard to be motivated at 9pm to start lugging hives after a long day – and the latter caught me out. I had picked up and successfully delivered to site the hive I expected to be trouble – they were good as gold, so that re-queening worked. I thought to myself, “well that was surprisingly easy, I will go and do the others”.
That’s where I came across the latter. Hives with full supers are not movable by one person, in the dark, with a family hatchback to struggle them into – it just wasn’t going to end well for anyone. So I popped some wet supers on top of one of the larger hives over the crown board fo be cleaned by the bees and called it a night.
Oh, before I forget, angry bees, in the dark, when you can’t see where they are coming from to attack you… yeah, not nice at all – kind of stuff of nightmares. Oh and that while driving, recipe for an accident if ever there was one – so drive in a bee suit or at very least a veil. Sure you get funny looks, including a police officer in central London once, but that’s another story.
Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, honey… I went back this weekend and from 6 hives I took 10 1/2 full supers (and I mean full – I decant frames and put the not filled frames back) I figure somewhere just south of 300lb of honey – not bad for an intermediate harvest and no wonder I could not lift those hives.
(The picture is of the June 6th harvest, part of the first 250lb)