Dear Member,
Driving to the BBKA Spring Convention at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, the roads were lined with clouds of Blackthorn blossom and the fields of Rape were beginning to yellow, but temperatures were still stubbornly below double figures centigrade. With such low temperatures blossoms will not be producing as much nectar as expected. Not such good news for our bees.
For those of you who have not yet attended a BBKA Convention I would urge you to consider going next year. It is a wonderful opportunity to hear some world class researchers talking about the work they are doing, and also to attend workshops run by leading beekeepers from Britain and Ireland. The first visit can seem overwhelming, but Harper Adams is an excellent venue with good facilities and helpful stewards to point you in the right direction. You also have the opportunity to meet and talk to beekeepers from across the country, and it only takes an hour and a quarter to drive there (traffic allowing!).
Some of the gems I gleaned from this year’s Convention are: be aware that the HMF levels in syrup can increase if it is stored for any length of time (especially at higher temperatures), and larvae fed on syrup with high HMF levels don’t develop as well, and adult bees die sooner.
Echoing the message Celia gave us in her talk last year, a researcher from Austria - Robert Brodschneider stressed the importance of plenty and varied pollen for the healthy development of larvae in Spring, and for winter bees in Autumn, and that it is necessary for the development of flight muscles and the bees’ immune system.
Professor Steve Martin (not our Steve Martin!) who has done a huge amount of research on varroa, pointed out that while it is known that varroa is the vector for a range of bee viruses, and that the spread of these viruses across the world echos the spread of varroa, a strange phenomenon has been observed; only the bees in the Northern hemisphere - and New Zealand - suffer colony mortality from these viruses. There is still an enormous amount we don’t know about varroa and viral infections of bees and researches are working hard to understand how to assist our bees.
Julia Jones, another researcher from Sussex University has done work on bee behaviour and genetics, and she outlined that bees with more diverse genetics (those where the queen had mated with 12 + drones), were more able to maintain hive temperatures, and a stable hive temperature affected learning and memory and disease resistance. Well, enough of the lectures!
You will see from this month's WB that Celia Davis has been elected chair of WBKA and Mike Blanco will take on the secretary role. This is a great relief as, for now, the threat of WBKA collapsing has been averted, and with it, the threat to our local association. If you value the support of our local association, please take an interest in what is happening in the county as it affects us all.
Tips for the Month:
Take a sample of bees for testing at the Nosema testing day on May 13th to ensure your bees are healthy. 30 bees needed- in a matchbox, recently dead or stored in the freezer. See our advice on catching bees.
Consider doing a Bailey comb change or shook swarm to change your combs.
Carry our regular 7 day inspections to make sure you spot queen cells before they are sealed and you lose a swarm. Carry out swarm control as needed.
Assess your colonies for good temper and swarming and think about generating queens from your best colony to replace queens with less positive characteristics.
Add new supers as soon as there are bees over ¾ of the previous super.
Margaret Holdsworth