Paul,
Several quick questions, very much hoping you can help. Happy to report I’ve
managed to successfully take and hive one swarm that was in a tree near my
village church. However, I’ve had a number of calls today from people who’ve
only noticed swarms in the evening, all of which have run into the walls of
their respective houses. I have no idea how to deal with these. Is there
anything I can do? If not, do you know of anyone on the contact list who would
be able to help and whose details I can pass on? All those who phoned very much
want the colonies removed rather than destroyed but pest controller will be
their final port of call if nothing else can be done.
Very grateful for any advice you can give,
Regards,
Rich
Sent from my iPad
On 6 Mar 2019, at 2:27 pm, Paul Honigmann
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Assorted answers...
Jon (and others) - don't forget to bait your empty hives with old comb and
propolis so they smell like bee homes. Swarms sometimes move in of their own
accord, especially if you already have a colony nearby.
Richard - there are plenty of swarm collectors who don't answer the phone when
you ring, only collect at weekends etc. Bear in mind you can always say "I will
come round this evening". Yes, it is worth registering even as a part-time
swarm collector.
Jeannie - Beetradex is primarily for conventional beekeepers. If you want a
Warre or Top Bar Hive you may not find god quality ones there. (The ones in my
back garden are Warres, made of cedar at least 20mm thick, with windowed boxes.
My first hives were Top Bar Hives and whilst they are still going they are
definitely showing signs of decay as they are made of pine.) But you will
definitely learn loads so worth going. There's no absolute rule about hive type
for natural beeks, some members of this group use National or other frame-based
hives, but they tend to have larger internal volumes so the bees need to work
harder to keep them warm. Hive choice is a very personal thing, but once you
choose a type you get sort of locked in to it because the modules and tools
used in one tend not to be interchangeable with other types. (Framed hives have
one advantage here, there is a degree of standardisation and interchangeability
between them.)
General trick - tell your postman you are looking for swarms and give him / her
your mobile number.
I'll take some swarm collecting kit to the meeting at Mary's and we will demo
how to use it. Meanwhile, a really good way of seeing how it is done is to go
to Youtube.com<http://Youtube.com> and search for "swarm collection".
Paul
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Wednesday, 6 March 2019 11:37, Marc Sheikh
<marc.sheikh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:marc.sheikh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi Paul,
I would be interested in being a swarm collector for my area, i.e. Witney,
Bampton and general surrounding area, happy to help.
Thanks
Marc
On 5 Mar 2019, at 23:49, Paul Honigmann
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi folks, some bee news...
1. Swarms
We have quite a few beginners and others who have indicated they want swarms
this year. I seem to collect a lot, but there's a limit to how many I can get.
One of my main sources is through my registration as a BBKA swarm collector. If
you're a member of OBKA and are interested in being a BBKA swarm collector for
your area, please contact me. They need to know in the next few days. We can
expect the first swarms in April.
2. Alternative bee source
If you have a framed hive and money is no object, you could consider buying
bees from Ron Hoskins in Swindon. He is a large scale commercial beekeeper who
has been breeding local bees with very high varroa resistance since about 1993,
i.e. they thrive without chemical treatments. He can be contacted at
swindonbeeman@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:swindonbeeman@xxxxxxxxx> . Just to be clear, he
is known internationally for these bees, to the point that a delegation from
Switzerland including their government's chief bee inspector is visiting him in
June; but he has been cold shouldered by conventional beekeepers in Britain.
He's following a parallel path to natural beekeepers - we select passively for
mite resistance; he selects more aggressively by monitoring mite drops to
evaluate which colonies have the highest resistance, then breeding from those.
His bees are also selected for high honey yield so, I suspect they will be
different to ours in one way: continuously high numbers with no brood gap
during the forage dearth we normally see in June. So they may need feeding
then. But will produce masses of honey.
The reason this comes to mind is that a bunch of beekeepers in my village are
just starting / restarting the hobby, and have indicated they want swarms. I
just won't have enough swarms to go round, but it strikes me that if they want
to improve the bee stock round my area I'm not going to complain! (Note this is
different to them buying Italians or Buckfasts which would hybridise with the
local bees and cause aggressive colonies next year. Swindon is near enough that
the bee crosses should be essentially the same race, thus no more defensive
than the parents.)
3. Some bee research
Intriguing discoveries have recently overturned assumptions and shown we know
less than we think. I love these paradigm overturning things because it
highlights how some things in beekeeping are just arbitrary articles of faith:
- Last year it was discovered, varroa mites don't suck the blood (haemolymph)
of bees after all, they feed on the fat bodies of the bees. The latest results
show that if you only feed haemolymph to the mites, they starve!
- Up to now people have thought larvae develop into queens because they are fed
royal jelly. However it seems it's more to do with the absence of the normal
larval diet of pollen and honey! (Summary
here<https://www.wired.com/2015/09/royal-jelly-isnt-makes-queen-bee-queen-bee/amp>,
original article
here<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/7/e1500795/tab-pdf>)
4. Stings
I claim First Sting of the Year! About 3 days ago, put my hand on a bee which
must have been on the soil in front of our hives as I was gardening. No
particular reaction or pain so no sympathy needed for me - just the bee.
Paul
