Dear Member,

In mid April the sudden improvement in the weather meant at last we were all able to do the first inspection of the year - almost a month later that I had ever done a first inspection.

For some, there was bad news in that there seem to have been greater colony losses this year with a late Autumn and severe winter, and for others, they found their bees were already bursting out of the brood box and in some cases making preparations to swarm.

This is the nature of beekeeping, no season is ever quite the same and brings challenges that require thought and sometimes re-thinking plans.

Can I make a plea that if you have a colony which is bad tempered, that you cull the queen before she produces drones which will then go on to flood the area with aggressive genes. You can then re-queen the colony with a local queen (maybe someone has a spare queen after uniting colonies) or wait a week after removing the queen, break down any queen cells that get set up in that week, and then introduce a frame of eggs from a good tempered colony and breed a queen from one of the queen cells constructed on this frame.

This way, hopefully, we will build up a gene pool of better tempered bees in Rugby.

Attending the BBKA conference is always an inspiring and enjoyable experience and I usually come away with more insight into this fascinating, but complex, bee world.

This year was no exception, and a lecture by a professor from Ganz university in Austria about bee nutrition gave me pause for thought about artificially feeding pollen patties to our bees. While bees fed artificially on these patties did as well as bees foraging naturally, the researchers found that the composition of pollen patties was unregulated and various substances were used, including fish residues. The issue with this is that they also discovered that the bees were putting 8% of the pollen collected into honey cells and therefore contaminating the honey harvest with a variety of unknown substances.

The April monthly branch meeting speaker, Bob Smith, gave a very informative talk on treating varroa infestations, and he outlined that as beekeepers we have a threefold duty of care; to the bees, ourselves as beekeepers and the public as consumers. What goes into the honey we produce is therefore important. Food for thought.

Bob Smith made some valuable observations about treating for varroa which we should all take note of. Firstly when using chemicals to be aware of what they contain and the hazards they can pose to both the beekeeper and the bees and the public. Information on the 14 Veterinary approved treatments and their risks, can be found on the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) website.

He also stressed the need to monitor for varroa and only to take action based on what the monitoring shows - not to just treat willy nilly or because this is the regular time for treatment. It is important, as with everything in beekeeping, to think about what is needed and to then to act accordingly.

Also, chemical treatments are not the only way to control varroa, and he outlined some of the mechanical means that can be used. I think I am correct that Maurice West does not use chemicals, but does use mechanical means, and he has kept his bees healthy for many years.

At the Warwickshire Beekeeping Association AGM, Celia Davis, who chaired the meeting, announced the deaths of several beekeepers, amongst them our John Handy, and also a Solihull beekeeper who was 107 - both of them good advertisements for beekeepers to live long and productive lives.

Regards,

Margaret Holdsworth