Dear Members,

While February is often a wet and windy month, this year with three major storms and extreme weather warnings in our area it has also been a difficult month for our bees. They should have been out collecting the pollen bounty on offer from the early Spring flowers (which too have been battered by the wind and rain), but instead, they have been confined to their hives.

Hopefully, you have had your hives either tied or weighted down so they have not been affected by the high winds. What is important this month is making sure that your bees have enough stores to see them through to the better weather and the early blossom. Queens will be increasing their lay and there is therefore an increasing demand for food to feed the young brood as well as the bees themselves, so make sure to put fondant or strong syrup on any light hives. I’ve noticed that the Prunus genus of trees are starting to blossom so here’s hoping the weather warms up sufficiently for the bees to take advantage of their nectar and pollen.

Six volunteers helped to clean equipment and get the Branch Apiary ready for the season. It was a cold but lovely sunny day and with good humour and lots of chat about bees, the work was finished in a couple of hours. Well done those who participated and the Apiary is now all set for our regular meetings and hopefully for those of you who intend to do your Basic Assessment this year.

Those of you who took part in the ‘Thriving Hive’ zoom lecture from Dr Barbara Smith at Coventry University who gave a report on the interim findings of the research study into the effect of particulates on honeybees will be aware that our hives are being affected by pollutants widespread in our local areas. These pollutants range from car tyre particles to cellophane, food film, nylon and various plastics and surprisingly, they found some hives in urban areas were not as polluted as those in more rural settings. It seems that there is no escape from the fouling of our planet. If you would like to learn more about this project look on https://www.thrivinghive.co.uk/

I recently also took part in a zoom lecture by Filipe Salbany the beekeeper/researcher/ecologist who has been investigating the ‘wild bees’ recently found on the Blenheim estate. He has discovered more than 50 colonies of bees living healthily and undisturbed in the tree canopy 20 - 30 metres above ground. One of the central points of Filipe’s lecture was that we need to consider the total ecological environment when introducing bees into a location and to be aware of the long term effects of introducing non-native bees into an area. Sourcing and keeping local bees has long been advocated by organizations like BIBBA and now the BBKA is also lobbying for restrictions on the importation of bees. Bees adapt to their environment over time and local bees are best equipped to take advantage of their known environment.

One of the disastrous consequences of the storms we have experienced this year has been the loss of an estimated 8 million trees. This will have an effect on the British ecology and together with concerns raised about the effect of tree felling on climate change, perhaps we should all consider planting more trees, along with encouraging wildflower areas and planting bee (that is all bees!) friendly plants.

Regards, and stay safe and well. Margaret Holdsworth