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March 2nd A practical day at Hartpury
College demonstrating making things using low-tech methods. £15 cheques payable to ‘Bees
Abroad’ to be sent to Pam Gregory,Pentrebwlen, Llandewi Brefi, Tregaron
SY25 6PA 1.Check
your stored frames for wax moth. 2.Heft
your hives again to make sure no food is required. 3.Take
the opportunity to tidy up the apiary while the bees are not flying. An interesting, but rather revolting, report in one of
the papers on genetic modifications to goats so that instead of milk they were
able to produce a material which could be spun to produce a thread like a
spider, the point being that spiders web is supposed to be 10 times stronger
than the equivalent steel fibre. A similar modification has been done with
hamsters, no comment on what the goats or the hamsters say! If this type of work can be done across species from an
insect to a mammal, surely it should be possible to implant the varroa resistant
genes of apis cerana into mellifera. Also perhaps do a little modification with
the stingless bees, now would not that improve our image with the general
public. I believe I heard something of the genetic modification of bees in the
early days of varroa, I think from work in Holland. Is this not something that NBU could usefully comment
on, is it possible, can a research programme be initiated? Justification should
not be a problem, I estimate that a single treatment for Varroa must cost the
beekeeper at least £5, when materials, two visits to a colony and disturbance
to the bees is taken into account. If we say there are something like 30,000
beekeepers in the UK each with at least three colonies, then this amounts to £500,000
additional costs per year carried by the industry. Just the job for an EEC
research programme. I wonder how much AFB and EFB cost the beekeeping
community in a year. It would be difficult to cost an exclusion order, but I
expect it could be done. I was interested in Pam's article on the collapse of
colonies, and I suspect there is a minimum number of bees needed to keep a
colony going, though with laying workers the numbers get very small. Perhaps it
something to do with the presence eggs and sealed brood. I tried to think of any other areas where populations
had been wiped out, the only one that came to mind was the destruction of the
flightless birds, the dodo, in New Zealand by man and perhaps rats. I am sure
there must be others from the insect world. The discussion on Bee Disease Insurance seems strange
to me. Whilst some Associations include in their membership " free"
insurance for 2 colonies, I do not think Gwent has done that since I have been a
member. If that had been done surely there would have had to have been a payment
from the Association to BDI for this insurance. GBKA may have some obligation to
draw the advantages & disadvantages of the scheme to the attention of
members, but I wonder why they are encouraging members to take out insurance.* Whilst sorting out my compost heap a couple of mice,
together with nest appeared, now what should be done with them? The beekeeper
and householder says kill them, the animal rights man says they are part of the
grand scheme of nature and should be left alone( but not if they invade my bee
shed), the pet lover says call up the local moggie and for the neighbour they
should be eliminated. Decisions, decisions Dick Sadler, * BDI are indeed saying that the rules state that all member
associations should make a minimum donation of £1.20 for every member. I have
made a further explanation called “More about BBKA and Bee Disease
Insurance”.
Personally it seems to me that it would have been simpler if BDI had
raised their premiums, but that is what they are trying to avoid and this is the
way they have, in their wisdom, decided to acquire more funding. Bridget Dewey
Caron is a Professor in the Department of Entomology at The University of
Delaware. He has always been interested in honey bees and his other ‘fad’
is sustainable ecology, so you can understand how he came to be connected
with Nicola Bradbear and Bees for Development. While he is over here editing the
next edition of Beekeeping for Development he has been staying in Nicola’s
house, and we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear him talk last
month. The
subject is ‘Africanised’ rather than the rather emotive although often used
term ‘killer’. Dewey was insistent that they are not all bad, there are some
problems in managing them but they are very good pollinators and in some
conditions they are prolific honey gatherers. He has spent a great deal of time
in South American countries tracing the movement of the bees and analysing how
the local beekeepers are coping. It is interesting that the different countries
have found slightly different ways to manage them. There are no hobbyist
beekeepers. But it is possible for small farmers to increase their standard of
living by keeping just 4 hives. It sounded to me like very hard work. The bees
are fairly even tempered in ‘normal’ conditions, but then when a flow starts
they become extremely defensive, increase in numbers dramatically, collect heaps
of honey (which has to be immediately removed despite their emotional state) and
then as soon as there is a dearth they eat all the stores and abscond. In
temperate conditions they remain much more manageable and never act as
aggressively so there is hope for the more temperate regions of the States, but
Dewey thinks there will be a lot of fuss when they arrive in Florida. (My words
not his!) I
find these tales of how bees are managed in other countries absolutely
fascinating and I really appreciated hearing a presentation from such an expert.
He is the author of several books and I am the proud owner of
“Africanised Honey Bees in The Americas”, signed by the author. If
anyone would like to look at it you know where to come. Bridget
Bee Craft is the
official journal of the British Beekeepers’ Association. Subscriptions are £15.50
for a year of monthly magazines. Jill Chirnside can
take your subscriptions if you would like to receive them. Bee Craft is now a
large A4 size journal (and will no longer fit onto the bookcase shelf allotted
to it). The print is larger and there appear to be more pictures, maybe because
they are all so glossy. There is a review in the latest edition of a web site
that I would like those of you with children to look at and report back. It is : Www.bees4kids.org.uk It won a gold medal
at Apimondia.
The site belongs to Bees in the Curriculum and is aimed at helping
children, teachers and parents understand the value of bees. There is also an
interesting comment about preservatives for hives. They say that Cuprinol
guarantees its products on bee hives, and specifically recommend Low Odour Wood
Preserver, either the Clear, Light Oak, Dark Oak or Green. They also suggest six
weeks drying time, so that means get going soon.
Here in the garden of Stonewall Cottage we had 139 mm of rain in January, compared with 35 mm during December (and 105 mm last January). This is a fairly average rainfall for January, but in the last 10 days we have had 170 mm, of which 118 fell in the last 3 days. Let’s hope our bees keep their heads inside and don’t think the warm weather means spring has arrived. Bridget The
10th January heralded the first meeting of the New Year at Goytre
Village Hall, and the speaker for the evening was Richard Jones, the Director of
IBRA (International Bee Research Association). This association, based in
Cardiff, is a repository for all books and journals dedicated to bees and
beekeeping. It is also a reference library for papers or reports (abstracts) on
the myriad of topics related to bees & beekeeping. People who have never
been associated with beekeeping find it a bit of a shock that there are more
books and journals written on this subject than on gardening. When you realise
that there are over 25,000 different kinds of bees throughout the world then
perhaps it is understandable. Copies of abstracts are requested from beekeepers
all over the world. IBRA was established by Dr Eva Crane in 1949. It has grown
from a small operation to one that is recognised the world over. IBRA receives
many enquiries every week. The
title of Richard’s talk was appropriately “ Better Information makes for
better Beekeeping”. He started by saying that he has worked for IBRA for six
years. The Association is a charity, receiving no money whatsoever from the
government. The aim of the organisation is the advancement of beekeeping
throughout the world. As beekeepers have common interests this leads to
interaction between peoples of different regions. For example a recent bee
keeping conference in Nairobi attracted delegates from twenty two African
countries of widely different political backgrounds. IBRA
produces three regular journals, namely Bee World, The Journal of Apicultural
Research and Apicultural Abstracts.
Bee World was awarded a gold medal award at Apimondia held in Canada in 1999. It
carries referenced articles on many subjects as diverse as fatty acids in pollen
to bumble bees in Argentina. Many are original articles. Books are also
published on a regular basis on different aspects of bees, beekeeping and bee
products. The latest one entitled Honey and Healing has proved popular with bee
people and non bee people alike. Richard
told of the time he was in Costa Rica where they keep stingless bees. A colony
of these bees will only produce about 1kg of honey per year. (UK hives give
between 15 –100kg). The thought of working with stingless bees sounded
appealing until Richard informed us that these bees bite, and the bite is
caustic! One
letter received by IBRA was from a boy in an African Village who asked for a
book on making a box hive because he wanted to be a beekeeper. He said that he
was the only one in his school who was not frightened of bees. A book was sent,
and after some time the boy wrote again saying that he had built two hives and
made $5.00 from selling honey. He would give this to his mother to help support
the family. Stories
such as this make their hard work worth while. IBRA
can be contacted : 029 2037 2409. Email:
mail@ibra.org.uk Web
site www.ibra.org.uk Graham
Loveridge
More about BBKA
and Bee Disease Insurance (BDI) The BBKA is composed of 61 area associations, of which Gwent is one. Each year GBKA pays BBKA a capitation fee of £7.50 for every member. As members of an affiliated association we enjoy certain benefits, eg their newsletter and their Insurance Scheme. The capitation fee covers the cost of Third Party and Product Liability Insurance but the bee disease insurance is extra. Bee Diseases Insurance Ltd. is a non-profit making scheme managed by the BBKA which tries hard to keep premium rates low. The rules of BDI require that every member in an affiliated association takes out disease insurance for at least two colonies, i.e. £1.20, and this should be returned with the capitation fees when they are sent in by our treasurer. This means that GBKA should pay £8.70 to the BBKA each year for every member. For a number of reasons your committee does not like this insistence that everyone should pay £1.20. But while we are negotiating with BDI we have been asked by them to ‘encourage’ our members to take out insurance. As they are a worthy institution, doing their best for beekeepers and trying to keep down premiums while also trying to make good their rather large deficit, it seems reasonable to encourage people to insure and thus benefit both parties. Were we to disassociate ourselves from BDI, we would cut ourselves off from disease insurance cover. It would be almost impossible to get disease insurance from any other source. You may not insure with BDI unless you are a member of BBKA. If the members of an Association wish to take advantage of bee disease insurance, then the Association becomes a member of BDI. This now requires that every member takes out insurance for a minimum of 2 colonies. At the moment most of our members do insure, so it would be disadvantageous to the majority if we did not belong to the scheme. This was not discussed at our last AGM as no evidence of this ruling was available at the time. It has turned out to be a rather thorny issue but if you have questions or suggestions, please contact a member of the Committee.
Cymdeithas
Gwenynwyr Cymru ‑ Welsh Beekeepers' Association SATURDAY
23 MARCH 2002 The
International Pavilion, R.W A.S. Showground, Llanelwedd, Builth Wells 9.00
am ‑ 5.00 pm Admission
£4.00, in advance £3.50. Juniors (under 17) free LECTURERS Mr
Robert Jones, BEd, Clunderwen 10.00
am `Pwy Sy'n PenderfynuY Gwenyn Neu'r Gwenynwr?' 1.00
pm `Who Decides, the Bees or the Beekeeper?' Dr
Francis Ratnieks, Sheffield University 11.30
am & 3.00 pm `Bee Research at Sheffield University' Throughout
the day: Trade stands, including many bargain offers. Practical demonstrations
and free parking. Refreshments. Advance
tickets £3.50 from the Convention Secretary, Tom
Rowlands, Underhill, Tyddyn To, Menai Bridge, Anglesey LL59 SBL Tel:
01248 712652.Cheques made out to WBKA. |
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