Lovely to hear bee news!
I am going to the beetradex on Saturday and hope to get my first hive
there. Am really looking forward to starting up this year and on the look
out for a swarm.
Thanks!
On Wed, 6 Mar 2019 at 8:31 am, Helen Nunn <helenmaynunn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Paul et al
With reference to point four: the allotment next to ours is covered with
plastic sheeting at the moment, with puddles in the folds. Yesterday I
noticed bees hovering over these puddles, enough to draw my attention. I
guess they are needing moisture to access stored honey? But it underlines
the need to be aware of bees low down on soil, wet plants etc.
Helen
On Tue, 5 Mar 2019 at 23:49, Paul Honigmann <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 . 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
