Northern Lights THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH DEVON BRANCH OF THE DEVON BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION

MARCH 2012 www.northdevonbees.org

BBKA SWARM LIST On the BBKA website there is list of members who are willing to collect swarms arranged by post codes. The aim of this site is to enable any one with a swarm to contact direct a local beekeeper who can either remove the swarm or give advice on the best course of action. This site will be promoted by the BBKA as "Swarm Watch" in the press and social media. If you would like your details included in the list, please let me have your name, telephone number, and post code by return. Derek Hunter Hon treasurer

Membership renewal Would all members who have not renewed their mem-bership this year, please note that if their membership subscription is not received by the end of February their membership will cease along with the insurance and other benefits. Derek Hunter Hon Treasurer

CHAIR CHAT The weather has been against us again, but when we have managed to get out in the garden, the gardening and maintenance projects are being dealt with by our very eager band of Tuesday workers. For all those who can’t do Tuesday we are having a first Sunday work day on 25th March. So we hope to see you all then. To make swarm collecting more efficient and to help the public we are asking for all those interested to put their names on the help list. Please read the notice from Derek below. We have not had as many people pay their subscriptions as last year. I hope that we have a mad rush at the end of the month and that beekeepers do not get caught out with-out insurance and all the other benefits that go with the cost of the subscription; the ‘cut off’ date is 1st March. We have just had a very cold but productive committee meeting. It never ceases to amaze me how much work is involved in running a club and how many people are will-ing to give their time and effort on behalf of others. Many thanks to all those who do; if you want to be more involved with the day to day running of the club, we can always find a job for a willing worker. It looks as if we are in for another busy year, I am busy feeding my bees and keeping my fingers crossed that the cold weather doesn't last too long. Barbara

POLLEN UNDER THE MICROSCOPE with Brian Marchant on Saturday 31st March from 2-4pm. There is still a place left on this course so if you’d like to join in get in touch as soon as possible. Hopefully it will be a fine day and we will be able to collect pollen from the gardens at Horestone but you may like to bring some samples in. Pollen can be collected and stored dry, shake flowers over a sheet of paper and tip pollen into a small phial and seal. Brian suggests that a good way is to make a little flower press using 2 pieces of hardboard and squares of kitchen paper, place stamens onto paper, (separate sheet for each sample) and clamp the press to-gether with rubber bands. Brian will be bringing samples in case we get it wrong. Always record the colour of the pollen when you collect it as it soon changes colour.

There will be a charge of £5 to cover the costs of reagents and basic equipment. Julie Elkin

THE SHOOK SWARM THE WHAT, WHY, HOW AND WHEN OF THE SHOOK SWARM PROCEDURE A SIMPLE CHEMICAL FREE PEST, DISEASE AND SWARM CONTROL A PRESENTATION BY CHRIS UTTING - MASTER BEEKEEPER AT THE CASTLE CENTRE, CASTLE STREET, BARNSTAPLE THURSDAY 8th MARCH 2012 AT 7.30 pm

Nosema Samples As soon as you can get into the hives for the Spring inspection is the time check if Nosema is a problem. Infected bees show no signs of the disease but it can aggravate dysentery. They live only half as long as healthy individuals so it can hold back the development of the colony. It is referred to as ‘Spring Dwindling’. Infected queens cease egg laying and die within a few weeks. The death of a colony is rare. Viruses usually multiply in infected colonies. The diagnosis de-pends upon an examination under a microscope at x400 magnification.

North Devon Branch held a Nosema Clinic last August. Of the 132 samples examined 24% contained Nosema spores. We are planning to hold another clinic next August.

Take a sample of 30 bees from each colony, put it in a freezer for 24 hours and give it to one of the branch microscopists - Chris Utting, Julie Elkin or Kay Thomas for examination together with a £1.00 per sample for branch costs. Various treatments or procedures are available for the infected colony.

Emergency Feeding March is the month when many colonies will die. One of the most common causes is starvation. When the air temperature is low the colony goes into a tight cluster and food consumption is minimal. During a mild winter the colony is more active and consumes more food. The winter of 2010/11 was one of the coldest for many years and colony losses from starvation were low - only 18% in Devon. The Winter of 2011/12 was one of the mildest for many years so higher losses are expected. Some beekeepers prefer to keep a col-ony warm with thick insulation under the roof. Not a good idea for the reasons explained above. The food level can be estimated by hefting, a judgement that comes with experience - although you can actually weigh a colony. However, the interpretation can be misleading as there may be a quantity of stored pollen, granulated ivy honey that the colony can-not use, or even frames of brood. The history of the colony and the winter period is helpful. So the guide is - if in doubt then feed. Feeding with sugar syrup is not advised as this may stimulate the queen into laying too early leaving the brood vulnerable to chilling if there is a period of cold that causes the colony to cluster. The usual practice is to feed using fondant (mostly sucrose). This should be applied in 5 to 8 lb blocks (depending on which book you read – (see Sims. Brown or de Bruyn). Offering 8oz lumps is not enough as you want to get as much into the colony as quickly as possible. Yes it might drip down between the frames or not be used by some colonies but it is cheaper than replacing a dead colony. A new product that is being used by several experienced beekeepers is Am-brosia fondant. It is already ‘inverted’ into mainly dextrose and fructose for immediate consumption and conveniently packed in 2.5k flat sachets. Bitz4Bees has sold out but it is also available from David Pearce of Wiveliscombe 01984 623 851 - but it is more expen-sive. I am trying it on a couple of colonies and so is Horestone apiary. Is it too late for emergency feeding? This will depend on the March weather – who knows? When the dandelions are in flower starva-tion will be unlikely. Chris Utting .

EMERGENCY FEEDING, the story continues……… If hives are light and bees are in danger of starving at this time of year then of course it is necessary to feed them to get them through to better weather and regular income. In recent years there seems to have been a growing dependence on fondant feeding as a routine ‘stopgap’ in the critical period when the colony is starting to build up again and before there is sufficient natural income to sustain this. Fondant and previously Candy has in the past been regarded as a ‘ nec-essary evil’ by many beekeepers, see Manley ‘I would advise novices to have nothing to do with it’ and Yates ‘it is best not to feed either candy or fondant if it can be avoided’. Its use was considered to indicate very poor autumn/winter preparations &/or excessive greed by the beekeeper in leaving inadequate reserves of honey for the bees’ needs. Fondant prepared by inverting the sugars using acids such as Tartaric is toxic and should not be fed in large quantities. Newer feeds such as Ambrosia are formulated to meet the bees needs safely are an expensive alternative and still foster the attitude that bees can only survive if fed copiously by the beekeeper. We are always ready to bemoan the weather ( and I do my share of complaining about it!) and this very mild winter has certainly meant that more stores have been consumed than in a very cold winter when the bees remain tightly clustered for longer periods. Chris quotes 18% winter losses due to starvation last year after a long hard winter. I find this an un-acceptably high % lost to a cause which good autumn preparation should have largely avoided. The accuracy of these figures is debatable of course as ‘starvation’ is often recorded in the absence of any other obvious cause. If your bees do need a little help now don’t waste large quantities of fondant/Ambrosia when a small margarine tub or 2 over the crown board holes checked weekly will suffice and you won’t be throwing away large quantities of unused feed later on. The only justification for using larger quantities is in an out apiary that cannot be visited frequently. Most small scale beekeepers do not need to feed excessively at this time of year but can let their bees ‘go with the flow’ and build up as the weather and available forage dictate. Julie Elkin

Somerset Beekeepers Lecture Day 18th February 2012 Notes taken on the day by Graham Kingham The Desperate World of the Laying Worker. Dr Jim Tew from Alabama and Auburn University. A very humorous and knowable speaker who engaged his audience from the start! The premise of the talk was what to do if you find a laying worker? The correct answers is combine them with an-other hive, but be prepared that this colony might be on its way out! The reasons why a worker might be laying and the observation from the hive reflected the answer which we all knew to be correct, but not for the reasons we all suspected. There appears to some clanship within the hive, laying workers are aggressively attacked, they often have a retinue of fellow worker around them, they lay multiple eggs in brood comb cells, their eggs are eaten by other workers. 70% of colonies have laying workers during the swarming season, 45% have laying workers during the main honey flow. The balance of drones per colony per season is about 6000 per laying worker as opposed to 20,000 for a queen right colony. Each colony has differing amounts of laying workers. The effects from a loss of a queen or the weaker pheromones in a hive will prompt workers to lay, but most often it is too late to save the colony. Ventilation requirements in the Natural Bee World. How the Hive breathes. Why do bees constantly block up all cracks and crevices with propolis? What is their requirement for ventilation? These were the questions asked by Dr Tew. The visual signs of a hive would show, bees fanning with their abdomens pointing outwards, advertising the hive, bees staring outwards wings buzzing, wafting air in to the hive. What prompts these actions? Well, nectar arrival, pollen arrival and water all make the hive overcrowded and wet at times and it is these actions that require the bees to ventilate the heat/moisture away. Pools of moisture are often reused by the bees within the hive. It is at these times only that the bees ventilate. Within the hive bees also stand at the edges and also fan in coordination with the entrance bees. One suggestion for sealing the hive might be to keep the pheromones within the hive maintaining a status quo. Dr Tew ended his talk by declaring that there is so much we do not know about these social insects and he is now keeping a couple of hives for pleasure. His web site is well worth a view. www.onetew.com Apis through the Looking Glass - Graham Royle NDB Graham gave a fascinating slide show of the dissection of the honey bee, dem-onstrating six different systems, ranging from reproduction to feeding meth-ods; he used some automated cartoon drawings to demonstrate how various actions worked, such as the muscular action of flying. I wish my biology teacher was a good as his presentation. He provided a lot of information with tips and tricks for doing your own dissection. The final part of his show was about providing further information regarding books, equipment and avoiding common pit falls. Everything you needed to know in one presentation! His book has very clear pictures and diagrams. www.highfieldbees.co.uk The Asian Hornet the threat posed to beekeepers in the UK Dr Gay Marris Dr Marris is the chief scientific officer at FERA; she gave a talk about the RISK assessment of the Asian Hornet arriving in the UK. This was broken down into various factors, such as the areas that they inhabit in France in 2009 and their method of growth in 2011, now in Northern Spain, the borders of Italy and in Belgium. It was assumed that the hornet came in from China in a bonsai tree and all present day hornets derive from that one queen. She ex-plained their biology and feeding habits. For the honey beekeeper the problem is that they attack the bees in flight, removing the head and abdomen and taking that back to the nest for food for the brood. It is easy to distinguish them from our own native species by there all black back with a single yellow stripe and yellow legs. The risk of them arriving is Britain is High. The damage that they will cause is considered to be moderate at this stage, the only controlling method to date is to hang up traps, with holes in at the correct size. They build huge nests in trees, over 2feet diameter, which can easily be recognised and destroyed. France has yet to find any means of control. For further information and down loads see the Bee Base web site.

Nectar robbing - an interesting method of foraging by bees. Nic Charleton B Sc, M Sc. Nic is at present in his final year at Bristol University doing his Ph D on nectar robbing, with the long term aim of understanding how insects use nectar and how pollination works. We first need to understand what the definitions are and what insects use these methods. Primary nectar robbing is when an insect cannot reach the nectar with its proboscis as it is too short, it then eats a hole in the side of the flower which then enables it to reach the nectar (see picture above). The main culprit is the Bumble bee, but social bees and birds also rob. Secondary robbing is when another insect uses the exciting hole made by the original robber to reach the nectar. The honey bee will use this method on plants that it is unable to reach. Nectar theft is done by such insects such a butterflies and no damage is done. Nic went on to explain how plants attract pollinators. The bee orchid mimics female bee, snap dragons need a larger bumble bee to lift up the entrance, the hawk moth has a proboscis as long as it body. It is estimated that up to 22% of flowers are robbed of nectar. For more information ‘Google, Nectar Robbing’. Nic’s work is not published, yet! As it is part of his studies. I found this talk totally fascinating.

The Asian Hornet

THE LIBRARY AT HORESTONE. Another new book has arrived on the shelves, The Rose Hive Method by Tim Rowe. This describes a method where all the boxes are the same size with no segregation into brood and supers. Unlike other same size box sys-tems this has the advantage that the boxes can be used with standard National floors, crownboards and roofs. There are still some overdue books on loan so could we remind you that now B4Bs is open again you can return books there if you are unable to get to Horestone. Be warned, there may have to be a 'naming and shaming' in the next Northern Lights if these books do not reap-pear! We are very generous with our loan periods and absence of fines so do come and use the library to help prepare for the coming beekeeping season. Barbara & Julie

Unwanted Beeswax. If you have any unwanted beeswax in the form of cappings, scrapings, old comb etc then please do not throw it away. Get it to Horestone Apiary as a donation where we can render it down by using our solar wax extractor (or members steam extractors when the sun is not shining). We can then exchange it for foundation etc for the branch apiary. Please ensure that it is wrapped in a bee-proof rubbish sack so that there is no risk of transferring any bee diseases.

HORESTONE REQUEST: If anyone has any spare gardening tools that they would be willing to donate to the Gardening Team at Horestone - we would be very grateful. We bring our own spades, forks and hand trowels in each week but often don't have enough for the number of helpers. Thank you.

B4Bs is now open from 10.30 to 12.30—every Tuesday.

Sylvia Barber, Foxpark, Waddicombe, Dulverton, Somerset, TA22 9RX (01398 341624) E.mail sylviad.barber@dsl.pipex.com All contributions welcome, copy by 23rd of month for publication in following month’s newsletter. Articles in this newsletter remain the property of the author and may not be reproduced in part or in full without express permission.

INVASIVE NON-NATIVE PLANTS. At this time of year when plans for sowing and planting are well under way it seems a good time to reflect on those less desirable plants, many well loved by gardeners and producing nectar in abundance, that we have in our gardens. I was reminded again recently about these plants by an overheard conversation, yes, a beekeeper extolling the virtues of Hi-malayan balsam and offering seeds, highly illegal! Invasive, non native species are one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and even though plant labelling has been much improved lately it is still possible to buy many of them unknowingly .Non-native plants may be sold with a ‘Buy British’ slogan when they have been raised from seed in this country Under Section 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales since 2010 it has been an offence to plant or ‘otherwise cause to grow’ in the wild over 50 non-native, invasive plants. Unfortunately there is no statutory require-ment to remove invasive plants from your property but ‘if a listed plant is inadequately contained and is likely to have an adverse effect on habitats and biodiversity an offence may be deemed to have been committed’. If only this could be proved and some prosecutions resulted , preferably followed by extermination of both plants and offending grower! Most beekeepers kindly provide a pond for their bees to drink from but are all the plants in it native? Invasive non-native aquatic plants are creating havoc in ponds and waterways. Examples of these plants include all species of Elo-dea (waterweeds), Ludwigia (water primrose, but definitely not as pretty as its name) and Water hyacinth. In addition to the well known plants listed in Schedule 9 such as Giant Knotweed, Himalayan balsam and Rhododen-dron Ponticum there are others we haven’t been as aware of previously. These include several species of Cotoneaster, Montbretia, Rosa rugosa and variegated yellow Archangel. Removing invasive plants means that they must be safely disposed of, as with some of them, very small fragments can take root, eg Knotweed. More information including suggestions for alternative plants to grow can be obtained from:- Plantlife : plantlife.org.uk Non- Native Species Secretariat: nonnativespecies.org Environment Agency - environment-agency.gov.uk Julie

DIARY DATES Thursday 8th March - 7.30 at The Cast Centre, Castle Street Barnstaple. A presentation by Chris Utting on The Shook Swarm Procedure.

Sunday 25th March—at Horestone from 1.30 pm - work day and get together.

Friday 30th March - 6.30 pm - visit to Quince Honey Farm

Saturday 31st March - Pollen under the Microscope - with Brian Marchant - 2—4 pm

BBKA Spring Convention 2012 - April 20, 21, 22 - Shropshire

5th—12 th May - Branch information exhibit - Barnstaple Library

DBKA County Honey Show 17 - 19th May

Sunday 27th May - Members open day/ and plant Sale - please plant a few extra seeds and donate them to the apiary plant sale.

17th June - Dowland Country Fair

Sunday 1st July - Beekeeping Taster Day

Wednesday 1st August - North Devon Show - Umberleigh

Saturday 11th August - North Devon Branch - Nosema Clinic

Our Branch Honey Show, 15th & 16th September - St Johns Garden Centre