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NSBK Blog

Dan Basterfield - Preparing for a Better Season

4/3/2023

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Dan Basterfield was born into beekeeping, earning pocket money from when he was 6 years old clipping and marking queens in his father’s honey farm. Now many years later he has a National Bee Diploma and is a Master beekeeper and is a partner in that family business in South Devon. He lectures and publishes widely on all things beekeeping.

The George Theiry room at Shipham was packed, with extra seats required for the audience. Dan started by covering the usual advice for the approaching season: have a plan – what are your aims for the coming year - clean and repair equipment, and buy replacement frames and foundation at sale prices.

There was a fascinating insight into how Blackberry Honey Farm  operates. His parents, Ken & Maureen, started the business many years ago, and Dan is now a partner. They have developed a particular way of keeping bees, which I have seen first hand during a club visit last summer. All their boxes, those intended for brood and those intended for honey, are the same size. They are mostly standard nationals (Dan doesn’t like 12 x 14s, he thinks they are “too long”). Somewhat unbelievably, they also use commercial brood boxes as supers. If the super is too heavy to lift – and this goes for any super – take out a few frames to lighten it! These arrangements give them great flexibility. For example, there can be foundation drawn in a  brood box and then transferred  to a super for rapid honey storage, or vice versa.

A very interesting point was that in the early part of the season they do not use queen excluders. It is often advised to put supers on early, to try to avoid swarming. If you do this and leave off the queen excluder, the queen feels less confined, and the swarming urge is reduced still further. Because the colony wants to retain the structure of the brood nest, the queen rarely lays up into the super. In effect the colony regulates the size of the brood nest. If it rises into two or even three boxes, then it will get larger and stronger and deposit more honey.

For varroa control they deploy formic acid (Formic Pro) in the summer and oxalic acid in the winter, using a heat gun. He is also considering using Formic Pro in the short time between the spring honey being taken off and the start of the summer flow.

Dan advised that all queens should be clipped and marked by the end of the season. They have found that if a colony supersedes their queen at the end of the season, they are likely to do it again – in better circumstances – at the beginning of the season. (For marking, they use a pot of Airfix paint and a matchstick.)

Select your method of swarm control and prepare in good time. Most methods involve colony splits and the Pagden is as good as any.
Unite weak colonies in the autumn after the honey is taken off. It is far better to have a smaller number of strong colonies. You can increase again in the spring. Do not try to requeen in the autumn; let the bees decide what they want. Heft the hives in the winter and feed fondant if necessary.

It was an impressively informative talk; one of the best I’ve attended. Dan gave us a great deal of solid advice, speaking with the easy manner and confidence of someone with a lifetime experience of keeping bees and studying beekeeping.

Tony Slater

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BrAnch Honey Show, 2023

11/2/2023

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The annual NSBK branch Honey Show took place at Tickenham Village Hall on Saturday under the experienced guidance of David Capon, but with the assistance of Tony Slater who had bravely volunteered to learn the dark arts of judging honey and associated apiary products. About 20 club members attended bringing with them a variety of honey, wax blocks and candles, cakes, biscuits, fudge and a lone entry of mead. After the judging and critical commentaries, prizes were warmly presented by the club president, Garry Packer.
Let us look forward to another great year for our bees!

Rob Williams
12/2/23

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Brains TRUST, 2023

21/1/2023

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The NSBK 2023 monthly club meetings kicked off with an expert  [Brains Trust Panel] fielding questions from an audience of 30 members.  Of the dozens of questions put to the panel several evoked strong discussion:

"What beekeepiing myths most annoy the Panel?"
        The failure to warn new-comers about the massive storage requirements for beekeeping kit!
        That 'Natural Beekeeping' is kind to bees.
"What Varroa treatment methods do the Panel members now employ?"
         The essential activity is regular mite monitoring. Only treat when required.
          Thorough Oxalic Acid vaping in December.
          MAQs strips throughout the year.
          With sufficient colonies, leave alone and tolerate losses to breed tolerance.
"Have the Panel encountered an unexpected Winter colony loss recently?"
         Finding empty hives, with few or no live bees and extant honey stores is a mystery.
         Could Nosema be the cause?
         Ivy honey can be too crystallized for the bees to utilize leading to starvation.
"Do you prefer traditional wooden or polystyrene hives?"
         I stick to wooden hives.
         I use poly nucs but wooden hives.
         I am trying poly hives.

Many thanks to Garry Packer, the club president, who acted efficiently as session chairman.
Rob Williams
23/1/23
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NSBK Christmas Supper 2022, The George at Backwell

3/12/2022

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The club Christmas Supper was this year held in the George at Backwell. It had recently been refurbished by the new owners and the friendly staff, lead by Rob the Manager, went out of their way to be helpful and welcoming. 22 NSBK members booked for the evening meal and all had a good time swapping beekeeping stories with their neighbours and comparing the size of their recent honey harvests. Unexpectedly, at 9 o'clock, a live music session began in the next bar, which prevented the club Chairperson from delivering the annual synoptic speech (with bee-related joke). We were all vastly disappointed at this situation, and could only continue with our convivial drinks and chat.  Everyone enjoyed the food and company, and left for home only half thinking about their bees.
Rob Williams
8/12/22
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Communication and Bee Colonies by Dr Christoph grüter

12/11/2022

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This fascinating talk was exceptionally interesting for beekeepers not least for the many novel ideas and questions which arose from the differences between tropical stingless bees (Apis Meliponini melipona) and our more familiar honey bees (Apis mellifera mellifera).

In solving the complex problems of surviving within an ever changing and potentially hostile environment the different behaviours which have evolved were often amazing. Perhaps we have grown too accustomed to the ways of the honey bee to question its wisdom!

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Christoph began by summarising the modes of communication used by bees: chemical pheromones, physical dance patterns, and vibrational acoustic bursts. Immediately the discrepancies between honey bees and their stingless cousins became apparent: stingless bees don't dance. Rather, they appear to deploy a pheromone trail to mark the route to and from forage. There is also evidence that the honey bee dance is less effective in the recruitment of other foragers than originally thought. Let me list some other eye-catching facts about stingless bees:

The Queens are massive. No marking with paint blobs required!

The Queens are monogamous, mating only once with a single drone. So no genetically provided behavioural variation within a colony.

The larval stage is closed, they rely on food already stuffed into their cells before the egg is laid.

They can have a special Guard caste in addition to Workers, Queens and Drones. In defence they use their strong mandibles to bite, having no stinger.

Worker laid Drones are a common occurrence.

For mating, the drones congregate together on vertical surfaces.

The swarming action is progressive, with bees exchanging over a period of time between the new and old colonies.

A young virgin Queen leads the new colony, leaving the old Queen behind.

The worker bees communicate about forage through bursts of sound.

Honey can be stored in large, round wax reservoirs next to the brood nest.

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Comb is not reused, and each new brood cell is constructed and stuffed with food stock just before the Queen lays an egg in it.

Varroa has not infected stingless bees .... yet.

There are currently about 550 species of tropical stingless bees. I found the whole world of stingless bees thoroughly absorbing, offering new insights into the working of evolution. There is so much still to understand about  stingless bees which may help us with caring for our honey bees. The slide set used by Christoph is also available to download:

nsbk_2022_grueter.pdf
File Size: 9470 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Rob Williams
14/11/22
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Visit to Blackbury Honey Farm, 28th July

30/7/2022

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 A group of beekeepers from North Somerset travelled down to South Devon last Thursday (28/7/22) to pay a visit to the Basterfields at Blackbury Honey Farm. The last time we visited was before Covid in 2019 and the welcome and care offered by Maureen and Ken was again unsurpassed and we all enjoyed a beautiful afternoon looking round their gardens and honey production facilities.

At the start, Maureen described, never without humour, the historic background of their move from Plymouth to Colyton and the start of large scale commercial beekeeping nearly 50 years ago. The business has evolved since then and now has three principal arms: honey products (about 10 tons per annum), bee-related educational activities, and catering with the on-site cafe.

Then a tour of the gardens and expanding apple orchards led through wild flower meadows to the teaching apiary.

Ken is not short of strong views concerning many significant beekeeping topics. So, the over-stated effect of neonicotinoids on honey bees, the inappropriate use of Queen excluder boards, the poor performance of Porter Escape gates, the worthlessness of open mesh screen floors for brood boxes, all received a thorough analysis  from all sides. It should be said that Ken's opinions are solidly based on over 50 year's personal experience and cannot easily be dismissed.

The abandonment of Queen Excluders and the parallel decision to allow the bees themselves to determine the brood nest size is an interesting arrangement. But it has produced a remarkably low annual swarm rate of 7%, where 40% is the norm. We noted that large, adapted Commercial Brood Boxes were used, but even so, the brood nest often rises into the second box. This could make the honey harvesting process more complex but the time saved by reduced swarming will compensate.

The final section of the visit was time spent with Ken in his "Shed". This workspace is packed with special tools and devices invented and assembled by Ken specifically to help with the daily work of the beekeeper. No half-experienced beekeeper would fail to be impressed by the ingenuity and skill there on display.

Many thanks to Maureen & Ken for the time and effort they expended to make our visit so useful and enjoyable.

Rob Williams
30/7/22
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Bees & Teas, 22nd June, 2022

23/6/2022

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In the warm June sunshine members of NSBK met together at three different locations for tea, cake and chat. This actually recalled arrangements from the very beginning of the club, when there were no communal apiary facilities and far fewer members. Sometimes guest speakers were also invited to these home gatherings to give a talk on a chosen topic for the aspiring beekeepers.

The three groups for this year's NSBK Bees & Teas event were:

Zdenek, Tom, Yvonne, Val & Rob W. (Congresbury)
Annabel, Catherine, Mark, Rob F.  (Nailsea)
Martin, Sandra, Tony, Michelle, Ken, Keith.  (Portishead)

The generous supply of cake and flapjacks was universally approved, but in an unexpected move, Zdenek encouraged his Congresbury guests to participate in a PYO raspberry interlude, in support of which he supplied a generous jug of thick cream.  This innovation should certainly be repeated whenever possible in future events! 

All the discussions obviously started with bees and beekeeping, but then wandered off in many unexpected areas of personal involvement, the historic origins of NSBK, refugees in the UK (past & present), the redevelopment of Bristol Beacon (Colston Hall), Bees Abroad, educating newbies, etc.

Around 16:30 the groups departed with some new ideas buzzing around in their heads, and possibly some new friends to meet up with in the future.

Rob Williams


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Langford Apiary Celebration, May 21st, 2022

23/5/2022

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On Saturday, 21st May, over 60 club members came together and warmly celebrated the establishment of our new NSBK Langford Apiary with invited representatives from Bristol University and the local community. The good weather, cool drinks and delicious buffet lunch consolidated the success of the occasion. The atmosphere was relaxed and thankful for the excellent facilities we can now enjoy.

The apiary shed and hive stack had been tidied and well organised for people to admire while all the pesky mole hills had been flattened. There was a "Wall of Honey" display to show the range of labels that members use on their products.  Items made during the Winter Woodworking Sessions could be viewed, notably the Willmott Clearance Box which was much discussed. Jamie Llewelyn set up a stall for Waggle & Hum and engaged in bee discussions with anyone who had an interesting beekeeping problem.

The club President, Garry Packer, first welcomed everyone to the apiary and invited them to view the hives from a safe distance before enjoying the refreshments. He then introduced Ivor & Jan Davis and invited them to carry out the central activity of formally declaring the apiary open by unveiling a commemorative plaque. But before that Ivor gave a short historical summary of the background to the start and growth of NSBK. After inspection of the plaque a very smart Bristol Blue Glass decanter was presented to Ivor & Jan as a mark of the club's gratitude for many years' technical effort and personal support.

The Apiary Manager, Eric Sortwell, was also thanked for his magnificent work in building up and running the new facilities and having a major hand in organising the current celebrations.

We all enjoyed meeting old friends in a relaxed environment, and making new ones through the exchange of endless stories about bees not behaving as the books say they should.


Rob Williams
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Cooking with Honey

23/4/2022

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This year, after a break of 2 years, we resumed the annual "Cooking with Honey" session at Churchill Memorial Hall. Some dozen members attended, bringing with them an interesting range of cooked products all of which included honey as an ingredient. Everyone was encouraged to taste and discuss the dishes. Recipe cards were provided for anyone keen to have a go for themselves. In addition, some on-the-spot baking was possible for the first time as the hall's kitchen facilities have been completely renovated.

Alison brought a jar of tangy Orange Marmalade made with honey rather than sugar. Michelle offered elegant flapjack squares. David supplied a dark, sumptuous Ginger Cake which included honey as well as treacle. Sandra's Spicy Almond & Apricot loaf provided a tasty base for the marmalade. Martin raided Apicius, an historic Roman recipe book, for a peppery, stuffed date hors d'œuvre. Tony provided piles of honey flavoured fudge chunks. Rob produced an Apple & Honey tart with fresh double cream. And Annabel brought some lovely oatmeal flapjacks. Finally Sandra baked shortbread for us in the kitchen, which filled the hall with a wonderful smell of home-made cakes.

Over a cup of tea, after the various recipes had been well reviewed, the topic reverted to bees and how our colonies were performing. It almost seemed like we had reached pre-Covid normal at last. Long let it continue!

Rob Williams
23/4/22
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KickStarting Your Colonies by Stephen Brain

5/3/2022

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Following somewhat of a local tradition, Stephen Brain delivered his stimulating talk in time for the 2022 Spring explosion in apiary activities. A good humoured audience of 25 gathered to mark the end of Covid restrictions and begin the new season with expectant optimism.

Though his first remark that preparation for Spring should have started last August had many listeners shifting nervously in their seats, he continued by reviewing a range of activities which would assist the bees into the new year. He cautioned to carry out a thorough disease inspection before the colonies expand, and noted that EFB can be particularly evident at this time of year because the small number of workers cannot remove the affected brood as fast as later in the season.

Disease prevalence in the colony can have devastating effects. The Varroa mite remains the primary danger both by parasitically weakening the pupae and distributing viral diseases around the colony.
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The Queen's genetic inheritance, her age and mating experience are all significant factors governing the colony's Spring recovery. The weather clearly affects the colony's foraging activities, but poor flying conditions can sometimes increase the Queen's egg laying. Foraging bees depend on blossom and flowers being available in the neighbourhood, without which the egg laying will diminish and then halt.

Stephen spent some time on the topic of supplementary feeding. Hefting or weighing the hives can immediately alert the beekeeper to lack of stores. But colonies may be tempted to break out of the Winter cluster configuration too early, and suffer from the low temperatures. In addition, there is also a danger in over-providing the colonies resulting in too little space on the brood combs being available for egg laying. Nutrient balance was also discussed, with carbohydrates (from nectar) needing to be accompanied by proteins (from pollen).

In all there was a lot for beekeepers to think about!  Many thanks to Stephen for an excellent start to this year's club events.

Rob Williams
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How Bees detect Colony Size by Michael Smith

12/2/2021

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Dr Michael Smith (Auburn Uni. Alabama, USA) started by referring to his now famous IgNobel awarded project to rate the pain caused by bee-stings.
(https://www.theapiarist.org/ouch-that-hurt). He is currently leading the new Smith Bee Lab facility and is seeking students to join his research team (https://smithbeelab.com)
However the focus of this talk was his series of experiments to investigate the way that honeybees regulate the production of drone comb, and how this relates to their assessment of the size of their own colony.

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All organisms, including honey bees, balance the resources and effort dedicated to three primary aims: Survival, Growth & Reproduction. For the honeybee, the latter includes the production of drones and their dispersal for mating activities. A colony will start the necessary drone comb production as one of the first signs of maturity, long before Queen cells start appearing. This activity marks a developmental milestone, but how do bees determine this moment?

After a series of practical field experiments using enlarged display hives, it seems that bees are capable of assessing their own population density; so "squeezed up" bees make more drone comb.

One memorable experiment involved mechanically stroking the bees with slowly rotating tickling sticks. Though Ken Dodd would certainly have approved, the bees remained unaffected. Tickling is not their thing! Also, large, dense colonies produced more drone comb. Michael Smith then remarked that worker bees default to making drone comb when there is no active laying Queen.

It is remarkable that after centuries of beekeeping experience we still need to find good answers to such simple questions about honeybee behaviour.


The recording can still be viewed with passcode: M#^98!xN

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/2vCriVHLi-xiVBFDBt0HCFYhnGAwjU8deRVDyEGiZAlvxn50pi3Ftt5bpFOESOjO.aC2gBs4yrkp9-YBl

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Health & Importance of Wax Comb by Jennifer Berry

7/1/2021

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On Wednesday 6th January our latest zoom talk was delivered by Jennifer Berry, a Research Professional at the University of Georgia, USA, on a day when events in Georgia may well prove to be historically pivotal! A good audience of beekeepers from across Avon and Somerset watched the talk live, and it has been recorded for those unable to attend. [https://bees.caes.uga.edu/about-us/jennifer-a--berry.html]

The main theme of Jennifer’s talk was on Queen rearing, but she also talked about the importance of clean comb to the colony, and how the level of contaminants built up in the comb over several years. Her research also showed that much of the foundation bought from commercial suppliers was already contaminated, as a result of this Jennifer had changed to plastic foundation, itself a potential topic for discussion. Jennifer’s work shows that over time pathogens and pyrethroid deposits build up in the comb, the cell size becomes smaller and the colony less productive. She recommended the regular refreshment of comb, something that I think as a branch we are quite good at anyway. I think also it is likely that foundation produced in the UK would have much lower levels of pyrethroid contamination than that bought in the USA, but I have no figures to back this up. Jennifer’s methods of queen rearing were probably more relevant to larger beekeepers, but there were plenty of tips relevant to the smaller scale beekeeper. The importance of choosing queen cells from the youngest and best fed larvae for example.

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Jennifer placed the temperament of the Queen as the most important aspect of choosing breeding stock, something that I think most of us would agree with. She also emphasised the importance of developing good drone lines as well as good queen lines in our breeding programmes. She advocated inserting a frame of drone foundation into each good colony to ensure a plentiful supply of drones from these colonies. I think that many of us just assume that "there will be drones up there" rather than actively producing good drones.

One of the attendees at the meeting was Julia Common from the University of Vancouver, who had delivered one of our previous talks. I found it fascinating that we, as a small bunch of beekeepers in the UK, were able to facilitate a live discussion between a beekeeper who had kept bees in a Georgia jail, and a beekeeper who had kept bees in an inner-city area of Vancouver!


A recording of the talk can be viewed using the passcode rh!LR76f at:
 https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/dNelTNfRk17oSDL9zx9B4xqUc8JXx-yL3ZdtiwFAxtokSnlmiGii_Z7NxkM7Cc0C.xclt4at8LrgqzF7J
 
David Capon 7/1/20
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Sounds of the Honeybee by Dr Martin bencsik

18/12/2020

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On Thursday 17th Dec, the Avon 2020 Christmas Lecture was enthusiastically delivered by Dr Martin Bencsik of Nottingham Trent University. He outlined his on-going research into the use of vibrational communication by honey bees.

He started by showing a wonderful video of a lone leaf-cutter bee which had established itself in a home-made bee hotel. Using standard audio microphones the bee's vibrational activity could readily be heard. When moving on to study honey bees, the microphone was changed for an electronic accelerometer unit which eliminated background noise and increased sensitivity. This was embedded in the centre of a frame of wax comb and the signal monitored while the bees continued their daily activity.
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Honey bee investigates an embedded accelerometer
Martin then played acoustic recordings from three different activities: Queen piping, an alarm reaction termed "whooping", and the classic von Frisch waggle dance.

By simultaneously recording with a high frame-rate camera it was possible to identify individual bees responsible for the higher frequency (340Hz) whooping alert. The normal 250Hz wing movement is constrained by air drag, so to achieve 340Hz the bees use a rotational wing movement in place of the usual flapping. Two dimensional frequency plots highlighted the vibrational changes.

Honey bees appear to communicate more through substrate vibration than acoustic air waves. Indeed, they may not have any "ears" at all. They react by freezing all activity when subjected to higher energy vibrations. This was compared to the anecdotal accounts of beekeepers singing to calm their hives and beating saucepans ("tanging") to force flying swarms down to earth.

The prediction of imminent swarming was also an aim of this research. The indicators from vibrational data required an extended analysis over a period of time for this to be of practical value to beekeepers.

The talk was universally acknowledged to be fascinating and has stimulated several members to kit up and try their hands at vibrational analysis!

The talk and discussion can still be seen using the following URL with an entry passcode: vDWH8&9M.


https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/qXcG_sUzDppOG-NXON2pnxGwzYqpO0AC_KJ7cbsWSCRNVO9GcDRIC9OkJ16mL9u6.vx_53KpjbTdykkO3
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Hives for Humanity  by Julia Common

14/12/2020

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December 3rd

Julia Common, Master Beekeeper from the Delta area of the Frazer Valley just outside Vancouver, gave a fascinating talk.


Firstly Julia introduced Hives for Humanity, a society that she set up with her daughter, with the aim to connect people to nature, community and themselves.  It started with a single bee hive in central Vancouver and Julia freely admits she had misgivings and preconceptions of who she would be dealing with.  The project quickly expanded and involved at-risk groups of people with tasks like gardening, beekeeping and fostering connection to land and community.  You can find out more about this at the website www.hivesforhumanity.com
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Julia then went on to talk about large scale pollination with her bees and especially inside 6 hectare greenhouses where the bees were tasked with pollinating strawberry plants. Her honey bees were being used where the farmer had been unable to get the usual bumble bee pollinators. Julia now has this as a regular arrangement as her honey bees worked so well.


Finally Julia talked about beekeeping using nucs only and how she was focusing on this as it involves far less heavy lifting and the bees are doing as well for her as they did using full size hives.  Hopefully this will be a topic of another talk for us in the future.
Julia’s talk was recorded and can be viewed at this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/96IKHJWf3X0Hyksedl0nmFNSTMSA3OCYesqe7uXDXSslIw2tF7jXmU6Df_RgBMg.WyX87sGCCr-d65Sf
Passcode: zr83Uyj+


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Social Immunity in honeybees   by Dr Marla Spivak

21/11/2020

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We enjoyed an excellent live talk given through Zoom by Prof Marla Spivak (MacArthur Fellow and McKnight Distinguished Professor in Entomology at the University of Minnesota) and arranged by Somerset Beekeepers.

Honey bees use several strategies to protect themselves and their colonies from parasites and pathogens. In addition to individual, physiological immunity, the colony benefits from behaviours now termed: Social Immunity. Bees work specifically to control the spread of parasites and pathogens within the nest. Two examples of social immunity in honey bees are hygienic behaviour (the detection and removal of diseased brood), and the collection and deposition of antimicrobial resins (propolis) on interior nest surfaces.
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Propolis
Propolis is the apicultural term for plant resins that many species of honey bee collect and then lay down inside their nest cavities. The prophylactic property of propolis has been recognised and exploited by humans for many centuries. Both fungal and bacterial agents can be inhibited. Several active chemical components have been identified, but these vary according to the season and plant source. There is no clear, single molecular component providing the anti-microbial performance but flavonoids are significant in all types of propolis. Honeybee colonies have been shown to perform better if they are allowed/encouraged to lay down a full propolis envelope on the inner walls of their home in the same manner as wild bees. Roughening the internal walls of a wooden hive will encourage the bees to provide a propolis coating. Whether beekeepers should now refrain from flaming their spare brood boxes to kill pathogens, and so burn off all the protective propolis coating, was still an open question. Besides reducing the opportunity for infections to develop across the colony, it has been discovered that the internal microbiome, contained within the bee's gut, is healthier when a protective coating of propolis has been extended throughout the hive.

Hygienic behaviour
Early detection and removal of infected pupae is essential to avoid spreading spores throughout the hive. Both AFB and chalkbrood have an early "non infectious" phase before spores develop to spread the infection. Immature varroa mites simply need to be released from the pupal cell and exposed to predation. Honeybees use their probosis to detect dead or infected pupae, including those afflicted by mites and microbes, so uncapping and removal can then take place. Oddly, drone pupae seem not to be included in this hygienic behaviour, only worker brood.

The usual method of beekeepers assessing the level of hygienic behaviour expressed by a colony involves sacrificing an area of worker brood by freezing with liquid nitrogen and seeing what percentage of the dead pupae have been removed after a fixed interval. The correspondence between detecting dead pupae and those living but hosting mites is not perfect, but the freeze-killed brood assay has been judged a good way to screen colonies. Alternative experimental assay methods which avoided handling liquid nitrogen were also described. To breed bees to maximize hygienic genes, it is considered necessary to use instrumental insemination techniques. Just relying on wild drone insemination of chosen queens is not sufficiently effective.

Interestingly, Apis cerana, the eastern honeybee, does not collect and use plant resins but demonstrates vigorous hygienic behaviour to control varroa mites. It also has adopted the strategy of sealing in the infected pupae in such a manner as to prevent them emerging.

A very thought provoking and well presented talk, many thanks to Marla Spivak!

https://www.entomology.umn.edu/faculty-staff/marla-spivak
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NSBK Annual Brains Trust, 10/10/20

11/10/2020

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The annual Brains Trust took place this year through Zoom. Tony Slater acted magnificently as Chairman, and the Very Expert Panel comprised: Annabel Lewis, David Capon and Jamie Llewelyn. Though there was a disappointingly small number of login attendances (8), a good range of questions were submitted and thoroughly discussed.
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Varroa Control - Lynfa Davies

26/8/2020

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Lynfa Davies, a master beekeeper from Aberystwyth in Mid Wales, talks about the control of varroa. Starting with the life cycle of the varroa mite, she goes on to discuss the various ways beekeepers have devised to control the mite. This includes both the use of chemical applications and more natural methods. She concludes by answering questions from participants. This talk is an ideal introduction to the whole problem of varroa, both those starting the keep bees and for the more experienced beekeeper.
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Lynfa has been keeping bees since 2005 with her husband and currently has approximately 30 hives. In 2015 she became a Master Beekeeper after working her way through the modules and practical assessments and then in 2019 she achieved the National Diploma in Beekeeping (NDB). Lynfa enjoys teaching beekeeping and is passionate about helping new beekeepers to learn the skills required to keep bees healthy and productive. Covid-19 might have curtailed many activities but Lynfa has adapted to this and regularly gives talks via digital platforms. She also regularly writes articles for beekeeping magazines. Lynfa is a member of the Welsh Beekeeper's Association (WBKA) Learning and Development Committee and has delivered courses for the WBKA as well as being a tutor for the NDB short courses and contributing to workshops at the BBKA Spring Convention. In her day job, Lynfa is a Knowledge Exchange Manager on the Farming Connect programme in Wales.
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What you never find in books - Brian Campbell

7/3/2020

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Brian has been keeping bees since 1989, assisting as a Seasonal Bee Inspector for some of that time. He based his talk on some of the ideas and techniques he has picked up during 30 years at the Apiary Face. This is a quick summary of the main points for you to ponder:

1. Add 3 supers to the brood box way before the Q runs out of space to lay in. You will see a massive reduction in swarming with this method. You can insert a sheet of newspaper between the upper empty supers to encourage the bees to fill the lower frames first.

2. Double brood boxes will help provide enough space for keen layers, it all depends on the Q and the weather.

3. Don't name your Qs or grow too attached to them. Culling aging Qs is a necessary part of the beekeeper's job.

4.  Cover over the escape holes in crown boards to stop the bees entering the roof space. This gives you extra time to assess the hive, and more roofs, acting as bases, to stack supers on.

5. When assessing advice from other beekeepers take into account their "hive years" of experience. Try to increase and broaden your own experience by assisting your colleagues.

6. Bees generally flourish whatever the beekeepers think they should be doing.

7. Don't forget to clean your tools and gloves in the handy bucket of washing soda. Also have a container with lid  for the hive wax debris.

8. Are mouse guards really necessary?

9. Float a piece of wood in the water trough or feeder container to prevent bees drowning. An old tea towel can serve the same purpose.

10. Refill your honey jars!

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Branch Honey Show - Feb 8th 2020

11/2/2020

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The annual display of our best apiary products, with competitive categories including: clear and set honey, cut comb, home baked honey cake and biscuits, candles, and mead, took place on Saturday afternoon at Churchill Memorial Hall. David Capon kindly acted again as Judge and Commentator, with an audience of around 20 members taking notes as he progressed through a record number of entries for all the categories.
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Most points in show – Belinda Kumpel
After the judging had been completed everyone was invited to sample the cakes and biscuits with a cup of tea, while debating the results!
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Most points for a novice – Caz Bartlett
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Beekeeping as a Profitable SIdeline- Will Steynor

18/1/2020

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The first NSBK guest lecture of 2020 was brilliantly delivered by Will Steynor from Devon. He outlined the principal methods he has developed over many years of beekeeping for earning cash from the activity. His advice could be of interest to anyone considering setting up in business, or simply ensuring that their back-garden hobby funds itself.

Four basic business models to generate revenue were described, with estimates of annual income per hive displayed:

1. Honey sales
2. Commercial pollination service
3. Queen rearing for sale
4. Selling colonies obtained from swarms.

We were also given many useful tips to streamline our beekeeping, such as a Miller Feeder Tray which also had slots to accept Porter Gates, making it additionally serve as an Escape Board. The simple deployment of a stainless steel sink top as a decapping station was also notable. Then there was a Hive Entrance Block with a Snelgrove-style swing-gate to allow for easy variation in entrance size. Using a milk crate to carry 24 jars of honey was so simple. But the bespoke road trailer, with many adaptations to suit the needs of a beekeeper was the envy of many!

30 members attended the event and several requested that Will be asked to return and give a second talk just about his inventions.

Rob Williams
Sat 18th Jan 2020
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New Website

12/3/2019

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David Charles – A History of Somerset Beekeeping: 26 Jan ’19 at Shipham

15/1/2019

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David Charles – A History of Somerset Beekeeping: 26 January 2019 at Shipham Hall, New Road, Shipham, BS25 1SG.

David’s talk starts in 1870 when the first SBKA was formed. Somerset was then a large county which included the Bristol area. The SBKA is now on its fourth association and celebrated its centenary in 2006. The talk will be about the structure, activities, politics and personalities, including great men like L. E. Snelgrove of Yatton. The effects of WW1 and the IOW disease, followed by the restocking scheme will be described. More recent challenges, such as Varroa and the Asian Hornet, will be presented in an historic context. 
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Beekeeping Year – January

1/1/2019

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Here’s what you should be doing this month:

  • Clean and prepare spare equipment (Supers, Nuc boxes, Replacement brood frames, Spare brood boxes, Queen excluders)
  • Plan your activities for the year (Increase, maximise honey crop, queen replacement, queen rearing, new techniques)
  • Attend all branch meetings
  • Read some beekeeping books
  • Consider taking some assessments (Basic, Husbandry, Modules esp. Mod 3)
  • Heft your hives
  • Watch for staining at entrance
  • Expect some dead bees by hive
  • Emergency feeding (candy, syrup, frame feeders)
  • Must have Open Mesh Floors; screens can be removed
  • No work on varroa control
(Reproduced from “The Beekeeping Year” by Ivor Davis on the ABKA website)
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Beekeeping Year – December

1/12/2018

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Things to do this month:

  • Relax
  • Enjoy beekeeping from outside the hive
  • Drink some mead if you have it.
  • Treat colonies with Oxalic acid, once and when minimal brood present
  • Monitor total mite fall (~2-300)
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asian hornet

29/9/2016

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Asian Hornet

Vespa velutina or the Asian hornet, also known as the yellow legged hornet, is native to Asia and was confirmed for the first time in Lot-et-Garonne in the South West of France in 2004. It was thought to have been imported in a consignment of pottery from China and it quickly established and spread to many regions of France. The hornet preys on honeybees, Apis mellifera harming beekeeping activities. It has also altered the biodiversity in regions where it is present and is potentially deadly to allergic people. All beekeepers should remain vigilant and be on the look out for it in their apiaries.  For identification use the button below:
Asian Hornet (Poster)
If you think you have seen an Asian hornet, please notify the Great British Non Native Species Secretariat alert email address at alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk immediately. Additionally, you can report sightings on their website (http://www.nonnativespecies.org//alerts/index.cfm?id=4). As well as this function, the website provides a great deal of information about the wide ranging work that is being done to tackle invasive species and tools to facilitate those working in this area.
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