The Beekeepers No. 62 August 2000 · Parliamentary question on honey and GM pollen; Apimondia...

Editor

John Phipps

Neochori, 24024 Agios Nikolaos,,Messinias, Greece

email: [email protected]

Publishers

Northern Bee Books

Scout Bottom Farm, Mytholmroyd,Hebden Bridge, West Yorks. HX7 5JStel: 01422 882751fax: 01422 886157email:[email protected]

Advertising

J.Dower (above address)

Design

frogs graphic design

16 Blenheim StreetHebden Bridge HX7 8BUtel: 01422 845874email: [email protected]

Printing

Trafford Print, Doncaster

Cover photograph

95 year old Cephalonian beekeeper,Valentinos, amongst his bees duringthe 47o C heatwave earlier this sum-mer. He has experienced only foursummers when temperaturesremained high for so long.Photo - John Phipps

The Editor welcomes articles for inclusion in theBKQ, but please state when submitting a ms if ithas been sent simultaneously to any other maga-zine or journal

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher

© The Beekeepers Quarterly

ISSN 0268 4780

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL 2

ASSOCIATION NEWS 4Bees for Development, Helen Jackson; The Troy Trust, Helen Jackson; Bees Abroad, Claire Waring; The Brother Adam Trust, Glyn Davies; Apimondia - 2001 Congress, Apitherapy CD-ROM.

NEWSROUND 6New animal campaign seeks to prevent the illegal poisoning of bees; For farmers and growers - how to be bee friendly; ‘Bye Sue, Hello Geoff;Parliamentary question on honey and GM pollen; Apimondia Congress 2001; ‘Green’ burial site amongst the heather; ‘Killer bees under pressure.

BACK TO BASICS 8R. Raff - you don’t need to spend a fortune on equipment to make a success of beekeeping.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 10

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS: 14SCOTLAND - John Gleed; IRELAND - Phillip McCabe; BRITTANY - Job PichonSPAIN - David Cramp; PORTUGAL - Antonio Pouseiro; THE NETHERLANDS - Ko Zoet; POLAND - Maciej Winiarski; LITHUANIA - Rimantas Zujus; GERMANY - Herma Peterson; CANADA - David Dawson

BEES TO THE HEATHER 26C. Neil Anderson - some practical advice on how to make the most from this most sought after nectar source.

A HIVE FOR ALL SEASONS 28C. Neil Anderson gives a brief history of the most economical of British hives - the Smith Hive.

ENVIRONMENT 30Where has all the heather gone? Geoff Hopkinson NDB examines the issues.

SCIENCE REVIEW 33Janet Dowling FRES: Relative numbers of workers and drones; What do workers think of queens of different ages?

BREEDING MATTERS 34John Atkinson

WILD HONEYBEE COLONIES 36Ian Rumsey

BOOKSHELF 37Honey in the Kitchen, by Joyce White, revised by Valerie RogersI want to dance, by Liz Hall;

TALKBACK 38Albert Morris

COLLECTORS CORNER 39George Hawthorne’s items of interest this quarter are free and easy to collect - business cards with a beekeeping theme.

No. 62 August 2000BeekeepersThe

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The Beekeepers’ Quarterly

Issue No. 62

EDITORIAL

Heather HoneyDuiring my thirty years of bee-keeping I have derived most ofmy pleasure in the craft in myattempts to secure good cropsof heather honey. Derbyshire,the North Yorkshire Moors andNairnshire, have been the loca-tions of some of my heatherstances and, as is the experienceof others, my fortunes have var-ied enormously from year toyear and from place to place.Whilst refining one’s methodof managing the bees helps toimprove the chances of return-ing from the moors with a fullload, all too often the weatherlets the best prepared of bee-keeper’s down. Nevertheless,the journey to the moor eachyear finds me full of optimismand once the bees are settledand foraging, that first whiff ofthe scent of heather nectaremanating from the hive, givesme a feeling of expectancy.

Undeniably, heather going ishard work. Even then, though,our method of getting our beesto and from the moors anddealing with the crop, is mucheasier than our predecessorsexperienced. However, for thelone beekeeper, as I often wason some trips, much physicaleffort is demanded and, whenthings go wrong, coping onyour own can be very traumatic.Often, hives have to be carriedover rough ground or liftedover fences and both the weightof the hives and their awkwardshape make this a difficult task.Even if you normally really likeworking by yourself, I wouldsuggest that whilst transportingbees anywhere, it always pays tohave some one to accompanyyou.

This issue of the BKQ is a‘heather special’ and withinthese pages I hope that readerswill gain some insight into theproblems affecting the environ-ment from where the honey issourced as well as picking upsome tips which will help withtheir own management.

Whilst I do not want to pre-empt other contributors on thissubject, my advice to all poten-

tial heather-goers would be:

1. Find a suitable location, inthe sun, but sheltered from coldwinds and safe from sheep orpeople - and arrange everythingwith the owner well in advanceof the heather blooming.Remember, if you have to gothrough field gates, they may bedry in summer, but whenreturning from the moors thisarea is usually well-paddled bylivestock and may quickly bogdown a vehicle or trailer.

2. Stocks over-flowing withyoung bees and a young queenare essential. Tired clapped outcolonies will only lead to disap-pointment and frustration.

3. Try and have the area wherethe honey is to be stored wellinsulated, so carry any extracrownboards, blocks of foam,whatever, to replace the screen-board on arrival at the moors.

4. Freshly-built comb, empty ofhoney, will help to get storespacked in quickly. Combs fromoil seed rape could be used aslong as the bees have cleanedthem out thoroughly. (There isnothing worse than havinggood combs of heather whichgranulate because they areseeded with such honey).

5. Prepare your bees the nightbefore and set off as early as youcan in the morning. You areworking with the light that wayand not fighting tiredness.

6. There is no excuse today forbees to escape from hives.Foam, straps and well madescreen boards allow beekeepersto shut up the bees safely whilstgiving them adequate ventila-tion. However, sometimes thejourney can be longer than thebeekeeper anticipated due tocircumstances out his control.To stop the bees over-heatinghave some bottles of water tohand and sprinkle about a cup-ful at a time over the travellingscreen.

7. Once at the moors makesure that all hives are in theirdesired positions before remov-ing entrance blocks or foam -and count these so you knowthat all hives are opened.

Some useful items for heatherhoney production (see notesin text)

1 2

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8. It is a good idea to removeany hive straps. If there is a pos-sibility of colonies being stolendon’t make the thief’s job easi-er. I know of some beekeeperswho have a couple of holes in afloorboard into which corks orplugs have been fitted. Thesecan be removed after travellingso that any unsuspectingthieves would soon be foiled intheir attempt to take themaway.

9. Once the bees are on themoors, don’t forget aboutthem. Make sure you know howthe weather is faring and be pre-pared to go back and feed them- or to add more supers.

10. The time of flowering andthe main nectar flow changesfrom year to year. Ensure yourbees are ready if the flow is early- or be prepared to keep themon the moors longer than youanticipated.

Heather-going gives beekeepersthe opportunity to produce ahighly-marketable commoditywith a premium price. There isnever enough heather honey,whether in the comb or in thejar, and in a good year bee-keepers are well-rewarded fortheir efforts.

Beekeepers wishing to explorethe subject of heather honeyproduction in more detail thanwe can allow in these pages arerecommended to obtain a copyof ‘Heather Honey’, by ColinWeightman (NBB, NutshellBooklet) or Stanley B.Whitehead’s ‘Bees to theHeather’ (out-of-print, butsometimes available from beebook dealers). From a morenostalgic viewpoint there is

Herod-Hempsall’s ‘BeekeepingOld and New’ which is very wellillustrated and, again by ColinWeightman, ‘Border Bees’.

The photos show a wealth ofequipment is available for bee-keepers to take advantage of theheather - here a selection of justa few items from Thorne’s latestcatalogue:

1. Smith Cutter/Scraper A dualpurpose tool for getting heatherhoney out of the comb. Thetensioned wire is inserted intothe honeycomb at one end ofthe frame and drawn down-wards. The tool is then reversedso that the remaining honeyand wax can be scraped fromthe midrib of the comb.

2. Economy Heather Press(New for 2000). On a 14”square, 2” deep base, this stain-less steel basket has a size of 10”high and 9” in diameter.

3. Hand heather honey loosener- works on the same principle asthe perfor-extractor - the nylonneedles are spring loaded.

5. Heather Press bag - madefrom linen scrim - will holdthree deep BS combs, or 6 shal-low ones.

Contact Thorne’s for prices: 01673858555, email [email protected]

For the purist, heather honey isbest straight from the honey-comb. The Ross Round sectionframe and CirComb Rings(Photos, 4, 6 & 7) make a trulyprofessional package for dis-cerning beekeepers and theirclients. CirComb produce theround rings, to fit the RossRound frame, as well as the cov-ers, foundation and labels. They

have also collaborated withStanfordham to produce a sec-tion rack for the frames, thussimplifying the whole process ofworking for sections (and as rec-ommended by Eugene Killionin his book ‘Honey in theComb). One of the virtues ofround comb production, com-pared to traditional woodenones, is that more sections arelikely to be completed. The fin-ished combs are eye-catchingand will look good on any bee-keeper’s honey stall.

CirComb, 29 Glamis Road, DundeeDD2 1TS, Tel. 01382 660802

Pastures NewBy the time this issue leaves theprinters, my wife and I will beon our way to Greece. Ourhouse has been sold, my beeshave been disposed of and wewill be making our new home inthe Peloponnese. Whilst it is dif-ficult to leave friends and fami-ly after 27 years in the samearea, we are looking forward toexploring the Mani,where ourhouse is located in the village ofNeochori, just above the coastalresort of Stoupa. The region isfamous for its Kalamata olives(many of the growers turningnow to organic production)and, as well as the spring flowersand citrus fruits, there is anabundant source of nectar fromthe mountain herbs, particular-ly thyme, in the 8000’ TaygetosMountains, to the north-east.Neochori has a strong traditionof beekeeping and in this areathere are several good examplesof bee walls which accomodatedupto a dozen or so colonies.Needless to say, we are lookingforward to keeping Greek beesand working for different typesof honey (especially after deal-ing with oil seed rape for 28years) and meeting the bee-keepers in this area.

As regards the BKQ, I’m confi-dent that things will continue asbefore, despite my change oflocation. The vast majority ofcopy comes to me electronically,and given the rapid progress intechnology, transfer of materialon to the designer and publish-er should present no difficulty. Iam pleased, though, to receivematerial in any form and contri-butions can be made in the waywhich suits the author’s own cir-cumstances. We hope to beback in the UK two or threetimes a year and to be present atsome of the main beekeeping

events where we will be pleasedto meet subscribers to the mag-azine.

BKQ OnlineWith the establishment of a newweb page for beekeepers,www.beedata.com, it is hopedthat pages both from the BKQand Bee Biz, as well as a wealthof other material of interest tobeekeepers, will be on-line quitesoon. It is hoped that beekeep-ers will feed other links forinclusion on this site via thewebmaster, Steve Turner, [email protected]

Comments on articles fromeither magazine will be wel-comed and, hopefully, open upsome lively discussion. Pleasehelp to make this a useful utilityfor beekeepers everywhere.

Working on theHoof

The above heading would bestdescribe how this latest issue ofthe magazine was put together,so I would like to apologise nowfor any oversights or non-inclu-sion of any submitted material.Part of the work was done inToulouse, Prague Airport (along wait), Greece (47C!),amongst packed boxes andremoval men (and Central TVcamera crew), my sister’s homeand a friend’s retreat amongstthe Shropshire Hills*. Withouta quiet time at the last two loca-tions I doubt if I would havemanaged to get the BKQ fin-ished in time, so I am indebtedto those who made me so wel-come whilst I was ‘homeless’. Ileft Shropshire just as the lingwas turning pink on the LongMynd, and if anything couldhave persuaded me to lingerlonger, that certainly would.Let’s hope that after theappalling weather of most ofthis summer that beekeepersget a plentiful harvest from themoors.

John Phipps, July 2000

*Sally and Glyn Tudor welcome guests(with dogs) for bed and breakfast with a5% discount for beekeepers and vegans.Their home was once a water mill andthey provide comfortable and friendlyaccommodation in a peaceful location.They can be contacted at Lost Leet Mill,Hopton Heath, Craven Arms,Shropshire SY7 OQB. Telephone: 01547530384

Colin Weightman inspects a colony of his over-wintered Northumbrian HeatherBees - developed over fifty years ago for comb honey production in theNorthern pennines - from stock obtained from Robson and Cessford’s RidingMill Apiary in the Tyne Valley. March 1999. Looking on is present day Riding Millbeekeeper, Philip Latham, Liberal County Councillor.


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BUSY SCHEDULE FORBEES FORDEVELOPMENT The start of the new Millennium has beena busy time for Bees for Development withplenty of activity devoted to their aim ofpromoting beekeeping in developingcountries.

Celebrations in March, when NicolaBradbear was presented with the presti-gious AAA Award for her contribution toAsian apicultural development. The pre-sentation was made by Thailandís Ministerof Agriculture at the start of the 5th AAAConference, held in Chiang Mai,Thailand.

Bees for Development joined with theTropical Agricultural Association in Aprilto organise a one day Seminar on ìTheRole of Beekeeping in DevelopmentProgrammesî. The meeting took place atLong Ashton Research Station nearBristol and the participants listened to aprogramme describing many beekeepingprojects around the world by speakersfrom DR Congo, Kenya and the UK.There was also a presentation on GMcrops and their relationship with bees andbeekeeping.

Another in the Bees for DevelopmentìHelping People Overseasî series of cours-es took place in June in the village ofTrellech in South Wales. The settingencouraged an active day of discussionand explanation about development, andhow well beekeeping fits in as a means ofimproving livelihoods. Participantsenjoyed a lunch comprising only fair-trad-ed and local produce: of course thismeant there was plenty of honey for tea!

In September Bees for Developmentinvites you to take part in an InternationalSymposium on Sustainable Livelihoods:Exploring the Role of Beekeeping inDevelopment. The Symposium is beingorganised jointly with the Centre forDevelopment Studies at SwanseaUniversity. An excellent opportunity tolearn more about beekeeping and its asso-ciation with sustainable livelihoods.International speakers and case studiesfrom Africa, Asia and Central America willaugment a programme which will be edu-cational and very enjoyable. The datesare 18-20 September 2000 and early book-ing is recommended, so please contactBees for Development as soon as you can.

THE TROY TRUSTSince its foundation at the beginning ofthe year The Troy Trustees have beenbusy gaining support for its work. Alreadyhundreds of beekeepers in developingcountries have benefited from informa-tion provided through The Trust and a lotmore activity is anticipated during theyear. If you can support The Trustís workcontact is assured c/o Bees forDevelopment.

PS: There is still an opportunity to jointhis yearís Beekeepersí Safari to Tanzaniamentioned in the Spring edition ofBeekeepersí Quarterly. Contact Bees forDevelopment now if you want to go.

Bees for DevelopmentTroy, Monmouth, NP25 4AB

Telephone 016007 13648Fax 016007 16167

[email protected]

BEES ABROAD ADDSANOTHER PROJECTThey say that good news spreads. TheKom Beekeeping Project in Cameroonwas one of the original projects supportedby Bees Abroad. This project has beengoing from strength to strength with localtrainers becoming established in the area,building up expertise among the localbeekeeping groups.

Recently, Bees Abroad was approached byothers from Tombel and Bangem inSouth West Province, Cameroon. Thesebeekeepers had heard about the KomProject and wanted to know if BeesAbroad could help them in a similar way.After discussion, a small, three-year pro-ject has been agreed, and funding is beingsought. It is planned to start the projectin January 2001, with initial training beinggiven by teachers from the Kom Project.Further details will be reported to mem-bers in the Newsletter.

Following the success of our Prize Drawin 1999, Bees Abroad is RAFFLE 2000!You can support our work and have achance of a cash prize. 1st prize is £250,2nd prize is £100 and 3rd prize is £50.However, the guaranteed winners are bee-keeping groups in developing countries.Tickets are 50p each, with a book of fivefor £2.50. Send your name and address acheque for your tickets (payable to BeesAbroad) to Claire Waring, Stoneycroft,Back Lane, Little Addington, Kettering,

Northamptonshire NN14 4AX, and shewill put the counterfoils in the draw andsend you the tickets. We would like tothank the National Honey Show for allow-ing us to hold the draw there on Saturday18 November.

As reported in Beekeepers Quarterly, No60, Spring 2000, Bees Abroad was grantedregistered charity status (No 0179266) inFebruary 2000. We are very excited at thisachievement and believe that it will helpto gain support for our overseas beekeep-ing projects. ‘This means that our aimshave been accepted under UK charity lawand that Bees Abroad will be recognisedby the funding agencies it approaches.’said the Chairman, Jeff Bee. ‘It also meansthat anybody wishing to support us can doso through Gift Aid, ensuring that the UKgovernment adds its support too!’

Details of membership and gift aid donations areavailable from Pam Gregory, Honorary Secretary,

Pentrebwlen, Llanddewi Brefi, Tregaron, CeredigionSY25 6PA.

CONBA(UK) COUNCILOF BEEKEEPINGASSOCIATIONS IN THEUNITED KINGDOMBrother Adam Memorial TrustPatron: The Abbot of Buckfast Abbey

2000 AD The Trust is Established

The four years since the death of BrotherAdam has seen a continuing interest anddiscussion of the merits and achievementsof this most revered beekeeper of the 20thcentury.

The members of CONBA(UK) have estab-lished this year a fitting memorial to thememory of this great cleric and apiarist.Our target is ambitious, but not as daunt-ing as the challenge faced by BrotherAdam almost a century ago. He wanted toimprove the qualities of the honeybee atfirst in the Buckfast Abbey hives, thenthose throughout UK. Eventually he influ-enced bee breeders around the world andgave many ordinary beekeepers in manycountries, on both sides of the AtlanticOcean and of the Equator, a bee that isclean, calm, productive and healthy. Thetarget of the Brother Adam Trust is toraise at least £50,000.

The study of genetics, particularly beegenetics has moved on considerably inrecent years. Some say the Buckfast bee isnot appropriate now for modern com-

ASSOCIATION NEWS


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mercial methods and in todays changedforage areas. However, I know that aroundthe world many beekeepers still keep theBuckfast bee and revere its qualities. On arecent visit to the Buckfast Home apiary,visitors from the Seale Hayne Conferenceof Devon Beekeepers Association wereshown the Abbey hives and wondered atthe gentle and co-operative nature of thebees. Few visitors wore veils.

Brother Adams true legacy is that he stillinspires beekeepers to achieve what hedid. He developed a strain of bees thatconsistently showed the characteristicsthat he considered important. The pro-ceeds from the Fund will be used to sup-port advanced training for committedbeekeepers from anywhere in the world sothat they can be better prepared to devel-op beekeeping in their home country.There is an enormous growing demandfor honeybee products all around theworld. It should be possible for manycountries, rich and poor, to benefit from abetter skilled beekeeping community andwe hope that the Brother Adam MemorialTrust will contribute to that .

The Brother Adam Trust has the full sup-port of all the UK beekeeping associationsand also the support of the BuckfastAbbey authorities. The Abbot of Buckfasthas agreed to be the Patron of the Trust.During the coming year we hope that sup-port for the Trust will extend across theworld and that we will have a fitting per-

petual memorial for this great bee breed-er.

If you have a wish to support the Trust orrequire further information, please con-tact the Trust Secretary, Glyn Davies,Landscore, Eastern Road AshburtonDevon UK TQ13 7AR. email: [email protected] or write

CONBA(UK), National Beekeeping Centre,Stoneleigh, Warwickshire CV8 2LG.

To emphasise the international dimen-sion of Brother Adams influence the Trustis hoping to develop an archive of pho-tographs, events and achievements ofBrother Adam and the Buckfast Bee fromaround the world. If you can help this inany way please make contact.

Hon. Secretary to the Trust: Glyn R. Davies,Landscore, Eastern Road, Ashburton, Devon. TQ137AR United Kingdom

Telephone (44) (0)1364 652640. Email: [email protected]

NATIONAL HONEYSHOW 2000This year’s National Honey Show willonce again take place at the prestigiousKensington Town Hall from Thursdayafternoon of the 16th November toSaturday 18th November. Show schedulesare available from the Hon. Secretary. As

well as seeing hive products at their verybest beekeepers will have the opportunityof attending a range of interesting andinformative lectures, meeting representa-tives of national beekeeping associationsand the bee press and making purchasesfrom Britain’s leading beekeeping sup-pliers.

APIMONDIAThe 2001 Apimondia Congress will beheld in Durban, South Africa, from 2nd -6th September - see ‘Newsround’ formore details.

The Commission of Apitherapy ofApimondia will launch its first CD-ROMon Apitherapy, in October, in order tosupport its humanitarian action. A fullcontents list of this can be seen on thewebsite: www.beekeeping.com

The cost of the CD is 49 Euros each,postage paid, for a minimum of ten, or 43Euros each for 100 or more - post paid.The reommended selling price of the CDis 76 Euros.

Contact: Roch Domerego, Vice President of theStanding Commission of Apitherapy, Place Guy

d’Arrezo 1714, B-1180 Bruxelles, Belgium.Email: [email protected]

2 0 0 0Why not hire a coach to arrive Fresh & Buzzing? Thursday 16th November 2.30 pm - 7.00 pm

Friday 17th November 9.30 am - 7.00 pm

Saturday 18th November 9.30 am - 5.00 pm

Admission: Adults £4.00, Children under 16 £0.50, Members Free

Schedule details from Hon. General Secretary Revd. H.F.Capener

Tel. & Fax: 01303 254 579 e-mail: [email protected]

Registered Charity 233656

50-50 or phone a friend? Life’s decisions never end.

So make a beeline for our show And ask us all you wish to know

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Campaign seeks toprevent the illegalpoisoning of animals A new campaign to stop the poisoning ofanimals, including bees, has been set upas a result of the findings of the WildlifeIncidents and Investigations Scheme(WIIS) which is operated by MAFF.

As every beekeeper will be aware, the useof agricultural pesticides can pose a riskto bee colonies if they are not used withcare and in accordance with the labelinstructions. The Pesticide SafetyDirectorate (PSD), an executive agency ofthe MAFF, and the National Bee Unit ofthe Central Science Laboratory, are work-ing together in order to highlight thework being done by both parties toreduce these risks and to remind bee-keepers of the schemes and services avail-able to them.

In the UK, before pesticide products canbe marketed and used, approvals must begiven by Ministers to ensure that theiruses do not result in unacceptable risks tohuman health, wildlife or the environ-ment in general. Within MAFF theresponsibility for the assessment of theserisks falls to PSD and approvals are grant-ed under the Control of PesticidesRegulations 1986 (as amended). Theseregulations govern the use of pesticides inthis country and place statutory dutiesupon spray operators to ensure that allreasonable precautions are taken to pro-tect the health of human beings, crea-tures and plants and to safeguard theenvironment. Guidance on how opera-tors can meet these requirements is avail-able in the statutory Code of Practice forthe Safe Use of Pesticides on Farms andHoldings (available free from MAFFPublications Tel 0645 556000), but itremains the duty of the operator to assessa situation and ensure that conditions aresuitable for spraying safely.

In addition, the Code of Practice detailsfurther precautions which operators musttake to ensure that bees are not affectedby pesticide spray. These include liaisingwith beekeepers, giving adequate warn-ings, displaying notices and if appropri-ate, using ‘bee friendly’ products. Therisk to honeybees will have been takeninto account as part of the assessment ofthe environmental effects, initially carriedout by PSD. Products that pose a high riskto bees will be labelled as such. However,during those times of the year when bees

are at risk or when the operator decidesto use a pesticide as ‘high risk’ to bees,they are advised to inform the beekeeperor to make contact with the local sprayliaison officer (contact names are avail-able from local beekeeping associations).It is most important that operators followthe label instructions closely and ensurethat they do not spray where bees are for-aging, ie when crops are in flower. Thislast instruction is clearly marked on theproduct label, but spraying crops inflower or when weeds are present, contin-ues to be a key problem identified in beepoisoning incidents.

The success of the approval systemdepends to a great extent on an effectivefeedback mechanism that monitors use ofapproved pesticides. In order to monitorthe effects of pesticide sprays on bees, thePSD co-ordinates with the WIIS. Thescheme is primarily concerned with gath-ering information from beekeepers andspray operators about the effects of thesprays. It does not exist purely as a meansof enforcing the safe use of pesticides,though successful prosecutions have beentaken against spray operators who fail tocomply with the law. The informationgathered during a field enquiry is fedback into the regulatory system and canlead to a product approval being reviewedor revoked entirely if it is unsuitable orthere are concerns over safety.

Beekeepers can be proactive and reallyhelpful in assisting with collecting thisdata. If you suspect that your bees havebeen killed as a result of the use of agri-cultural pesticides, you are advised to con-tact either the National Bee Unit (01904462515) or the Farming and RuralConservation Agency (Freephone 0800312600). The incident will be investigat-ed, samples of your bees can be analysedfor pesticide residues and you will beinformed of any action that is taken. Anyinformation that you supply will be wel-comed and may assist in the formulationof more bee friendly products.

During 1998, the WIIS investigated 43 sus-pected bee poisoning incidents and ofthese, 16 involved pesticides. One partic-ularly interesting incident from the previ-ous year has resulted in a research projectbeing commissioned by MAFF to investi-gate the potential differences in toxicitybetween bumblebees and honeybees tocertain pesticides. The incident was inves-tigated after a beekeeper noticed anunusually high number of dead bumble-bees on a field of flowering oil seed raape.

The field had been sprayed two days ear-lier with a tank mix of alphacyperme-thrin, carbendazim and iprodione but nohoneybees had been affected. A sample ofthe dead bees was collected and analysedand found to contain a small residue ofalphacyermethrin which is thought tohave caused their death. The incident hasbeen recorded as being a result of anapproved use of pesticides, but as a resultof the affect on bumblebees, studies havebeen commissioned.

For farmers and growers -how to be bee friendly- is the title of a full colour A2 poster

given away free in a recent issue of‘Crops’ magazine. The poster is spon-sored by the makers of ‘bee friendly’insecticides such as Aphox and gives thecontact numbers (‘Who do you buzz?) ofspray liaison officers in England, Walesand Scotland. The poster informs farmersthat a minimum of 24 hours needs to begiven to beekeepers of intended sprayingand also gives some guidelines on how tomake both spraying and margins of fieldsboth safe and attractive for pollinatinginsects. Hopefully, farmers will pin theposter up in their chemical stores andrefer to it at the appropriate time.

‘Bye Sue, Hello Geoff’After many years of good service to theBKQ, Sue Ellison has decide that it is timethat there should be a change of corre-spondent from Australia. Over the yearswe have learnt a lot about antipodeanbeekeeping - the forage, the dramascaused by flood and fire, the people, thehumour, in fact , a huge kaleidoscope ofapicultural practice from ‘down under’.Whilst we will all miss Sue’s contribu-tions, I am pleased that she hasapproached Geoff Manning about takingover her role, a position which he hasgladly accepted. Geoff has been a com-mercial beekeeper for 25 years and hasbeen involved in the matters of the bee-keeping industry as executive member ofthe New South Wales Apiarist’sAssociation as well as its vice-president.New South Wales, he tells me, is the majorbeekeeping state and accounts for about40% of Australia’s honey production.However, Geoff’s contributions to bee-keeping are not limited to NSW for he is adelegate to the Australian Honey BeeIndustry Council and to the FederalCouncil of Australian Apiarist’s

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Associations

Apart from honey production,Geoff, with the help of his latewife, has built up a businesswhich manufactures productsthat contain beeswax. Heenjoys showing honey andbeeswax and he has had goodsuccess particularly with thelatter.

As Geoff lives in one of thewetter parts of Australia, hemoves his bees on a regularbasis into areas ofQueensland where there isless rainfall.

So, thanks again Sue; welcomeaboard Geoff - we look for-ward to hearing from you.

ParliamentaryQuestion– Honeyand GM pollenThe response to a written par-liamentary question tabled byJoan Ruddock MP has con-firmed that honey, containingpollen from genetically modi-fied crops, may be sold unlaw-fully in the UK and through-out the rest of the EuropeanCommunity.

Commenting on the presenceof GM pollen in honey, MsRuddock said:

“No matter how small thequantity, there is a very impor-tant principle at stake here,which should not be missed.Beekeepers across the UKwant to be able to offer thepublic a pure and naturalproduct. The presence of GMpollen in honey is an unwant-ed additive, outside the con-trol of the producers, andpotentially jeopardises theirlivelihoods and the industry asa whole.”

Written answer - Hansard,Tuesday 16th May 2000:

Joan Ruddock: To ask theSecretary of State for Healthwhen, and on what terms, EUmarketing consent was givenfor honey containing geneti-cally modified pollen.

(121699)

Ms Stuart: The EuropeanCommission, in response toquestions from the EuropeanParliament, has advised thathoney containing traceamounts of pollen from genet-ically modified crops is notclassed as a novel food, andmay therefore be lawfully soldthroughout the Community.Work carried out by theLaboratory of theGovernment Chemist, areport of which is available inthe Library, indicates that theamount of genetically modi-fied material in honey is likelyto be extremely small, at leastno more than 0.00000000003gto 0.000000005g in a 500g jar.

All GM crops intended fordeliberate release in this coun-try, and in the rest of theEuropean Community, have tobe thoroughly assessed forhuman and environmentalsafety before they are allowedto be planted. This assessmentincludes safety implications ofany exposure to pollenthrough ingestion or inhala-tion from the air, or as a resultof it landing on any othercrops.

New website forbeekeepersNorthern Bee Books, the pub-lishers of the BKQ, are in theprocess of establishing aWorld Wide Web site -www.beedata.com. - for thebenefit of beekeepers and oth-ers interested in apiculture.Readers of the BKQ are askedto contribute to this site byadding information or appro-priate links so as to make it anexciting world wide resourceon beekeeping. Please senddata to the web master, SteveTurner, [email protected],by email, on a PC disk or as aWord document or PC*.txt.

XXXVIIApimondia 2001 -Beekeepers meetin AfricaFor the first time, theApimondia InternationalApicultural Congress will takeplace in Africa, the locationbeing Durban, South Africa.The main Congress themeswill be:

Beekeeping Economy - localand international trade in beeproducts

Bee Biology - role of race char-acteristics in beekeeping

Bee Pathology - diagnosis andcontrol of varroa disease, anew pest in South Africa

Melliferous Flora andPollination - bee flora and pol-lination: apicultural resources

Beekeeping Technology andEquipment - appropriate tech-nology for professionals andenthusiasts

Apitherapy - the clinical appli-cations of apitherapy

Beekeeping for RuralDevelopment - beekeepingagainst poverty: achieving bee-keeping extension

The Congress will take placefrom 2nd - 6th September2001 and there will be pre andpost Congress tours so that vis-itors will have the opportunityto get a true feeling of thecountry.

For further details contact:

APIMONDIA 2001, ConferencePlanners, PO Box 82, (66 QueenStreet), Irene, 0062 South Africa.

Website: www.apimondia2001.comTel. +27 (0) 12 6673681, Fax + 27

(0) 12 6673680 Email:[email protected]

‘Killer bees’ underpressureIn South Africa, the Africanbee, Apis mellifera adansoni,continues to be threatened bythe Cape Bee, Apis mellifera

capensis, leading to the com-plete destruction of manycolonies where the two typeslive side by side. According toMadeleine Beekman ofSheffield University, the Capeworker honeybees, which arebeing transported northwardsand out of their own uniqueterritory, “invade the nests ofadosonii and start laying eggs.The adansoni bees get con-fused and think that their a remultiple queens, so they killtheir own queen and thecolony usually dies”. Theadansoni bees, renownthroughout the world for theirability to defend their nestsfrom the largest of predatorsare, however, unable to dealwith the Cape bees, whichcommonly drift from hive tohive. (New Scientist Vol 166No 2234)

Green burial siteamoungst theheatherThe renowned beauty spot ofBrimham Rocks, inNorthYorkshire, was recentlyfeatured on Radio 4(Saturday, 29th August, ‘OpenCountry’) and listenerslearned how the area wasbeing used as ‘Green’ burialsite. The deceased could beburied in shrouds or card-board coffins and the relativesand friends could take part inall the proceedings includingdigging the grave, organisingand conducting a service andthe placing of a boulder orsmall cairn over the complet-ed grave. Whilst it is importantthat the site, a conservationarea, is not changed ecologi-cally, graves have to be dugdeep enough so that organicmatter doesn’t enrich thepoor soil and, during inter-ment, even the top soil isreplaced at a lower level. Abefiting resting place, per-haps, for beekeepers, who likethe wild and restful beauty ofthis rugged area and wherebees forage amongst thestretches of purple heather.


Issue No. 62

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BACK TO BASICS

R.Raff

Last year I was speaking to a manwho had got lost in the centreof York. He was from one ofthe Hebridean islands in

Scotland and he and his wife were trav-elling to some place south of London tovisit their daughter. He was lost becauseit was a dull, overcast day and he couldnot get a sight of the sun and, becausehe could not see the sun, he could nottell which direction was south. I said tohim, “For goodness sake, don’t tell meyou set out on this long journey withouta road map or town plan or somethingto guide you!” I told him that for a fewquid he could have bought an electron-ic gadget that could have charted hiscourse step by step, every inch of theway from the Butt of Lewis to BeachyHead. He saw nothing unusual in whathe was doing and just laughed and saidthat all he needed was the sun and thatif he could get going in a southerlydirection it would not matter what roadit was because it would eventually leadhim to his destination. At the time Ithought he really was the giddy limit,but later when I had time to reflect Ibegan to see him in a different light.He was indeed a man after my ownheart. I cannot say how he fared whenhe hit London with his rule of thumbsolar navigation, but I like to think hewas equal to the challenge and madehis contribution to rolling back the tideof ever advancing technology. He was atrue disciple of ‘Back to Basics’ and Ireally should not have mentioned thatelectronic gadget.

When I started beekeeping Iwas so fired with enthusi-asm that I was writing offto every appliance dealer

in the country for their catalogue. Atthat time, apart from a few main deal-ers, there was also a host of smaller onesand one of these was the firm ofNATHANIEL GRIEVE in Edingburgh.While on holiday in that city I visitedthe premises but, like so many others,they have been out of business for manyyears. I still have their catalogue, nowhalf a century old, and as I look at it Iam struck by how few items were need-

ed in those days to pursue our craft.When you look at E. H. Thorne’s cata-logue today the amount of stuff isalmost bewildering. The majority ofbeekeepers are only interested in pro-ducing honey for their own use or forsmall scale selling, provided they canfind an outlet. So, just how much geardo we need to get our honey? We are liv-ing in an age when we are told the richare getting richer and the poor are get-ting poorer. Be that as it may, but if aperson is short of a bob or two itbehoves him or her to deal with this,and in beekeeping costs can bereduced. I can speak from experience.I’ve seen the day when there was not apenny in the house on a Wednesday andpayday was not until the weekend. It wasrough.

Here are a few items which come toalmost £120:

Asforth feeder £27.50

Hive tool £ 7.90

Gloves (cheapest) £ 6.60

Veil £ 4.34

Honey bucket £ 3.09

Smoker (cheapest) £20.29

Clip Queen catcher £ 3.85

Skep £42.30

Queen excluder £ 4.11

An Asforth feeder would usually beused in the autumn to give the bees agood and quick guzzle for their winterstores. £27.50 is a lot of money for somefolk to find, but there are alternatives.Say 4 or 5 2lb jam jars and the samenumber of saucers. The jar is filled withfeed and the saucer placed over it andthe jar and saucer are turned over. 3 or4 pieces of matchstick are pushed underthe rim of the jar to let the liquid flowout. The jars are placed on the crown-boards with the escape holes open andsoon there is a ring of bees, heads downand tails in the air and in no danger ofdrowning. Each jar holds about a pintand if the mixture is two pounds ofsugar to one pint of water, the five jarsare feeding upwards of ten pounds ofsyrup at ago. When trying this for thefirst time it is wise to have a trial runover the sink using plain water. You canusually get saucers in junk shops orcharity shops. People hand them in forputting pot plants on. In the Spring acontact feeder might be better so thatthe bees do not have to come up out ofthe hive. A big coffee tin such as usedin a cafe or canteen is good but it isunwise to use it for more than one sea-son. The metal is thin and if a rusty pin-hole develops the vacuum is lost andthe contents pour down through the

Photo 1. Nathaniel Grieve of Edingburgh’s catalogue

hive and out of the enntrance.

Hive tool? You can make one or get abig chisel at a junk shop.

Gloves? A pair of rubber ones such asused when washing dishes. The bees cansting through them, but they can alsosting through other types. It is quitesurprising the thickness of materialtheir sting can penetrate. You can, ofcourse, also don a boiler suit and rub-ber boots if you have them.

Honey buckets? Bakers are throwingout beautiful plastic pails all the time.Glad to get rid of them - but theyappreciate a jar or two of honey.

Smoker? Try getting one at a sale oth-erwise you will just have to cough up fora new one. I have made new bellows,but never tackled the tinware.

Clip Queen catcher? Use a matchbox.

Skep? Make one yourself or use a card-board box for catching swarms. FrankAlston’s book will tell you how to makea skep.

Queen excluder? In BKQ No 45 thereis a photo of a homemade queenexcluder that the editor saw at a sale. Asheet of zinc with a myriad of holes,

every two laboriously joined up. It ishard to believe that anyone wouldundertake such a task, but someonedid. When linoleum was used for afloor covering, a square of that materialwould be cut to the size of an excluderand at each corner a piece was cut outgiving the bees a space of about 11/2’”x 1 1/2” to let them up into thesuper. This small amount of space doesnot seem to hamper them in storinghoney in the super.

The scope for producing honey at littlecost is endless. Last summer a manphoned me wanting to know where hecould get foundation for shallowframes. This was a man who had keptbees for many years but has never reallygot beyond the beginner stage. He wasalways working for sections something,strangely enough, many of these bee-keepers do. However, he had now dis-covered shallow combs for cut-combhoney. These backward beekeepers usu-ally live in an area where there is anabundance of forage. They can’t helpgetting sections. The bees, indeed,would store honey in old wellingtonboots if they had to. Usually, you have tobe a skilful beekeeper to work for sec-tions and, if you only want honey for thetable, sections can be a big waste. Ithink he used sections just to avoidneeding an extractor and worked on ahit or miss basis. Definitely not for any-one working on a shoestring.

So, here we are with Nathaniel Grieve’ssimple catalogue of half a century agoand E H Thorne’s bulging one of today.It once again makes me think of SamuelGoldwyn and his alledged sayings. Onone occasion when he saw a sundial, hesaid, “What will they think of next?”


Issue No. 62

9

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Photo 2. You need to be a skilful beekeeper towork sections. The magnificent sections here werefrom one of Colin Weightman’s heather apiaries in

10


Issue No. 62

Dear John

The BBKA Spring Conventionfor 2000 could be regarded asa success in many ways, butthere was one aspect of theevent which caused me con-cern.

For many years I worked withphysically handicapped peo-ple and learned very quicklyhow hostile was the environ-ment for those in wheelchairs.Progressive legislation toimprove access in public build-ings has been welcomed byboth the chair-bound andtheir carers Wheelchairs,themselves, have improved inthe last twenty years so that thevery fit can travel at speedsover 30 mph by arm poweralone. There are even someelectrically-powered chairswhich can climb stairs - afriend of mine has one but itcost as much as a small car andvery few people can affordthem.

The venue is on two levels andwith trade stands on both.There were quite a few visitorsin wheelchairs and one or twowith crutches, also some par-ents with pushchairs. In pastyears there has been no prob-lem for them because therewas a wide ramp to the upperfloor which allowed easyaccess for those who rely onwheels rather than legs. Onthis occasion, though, theramp was not there, only steps.I saw no high-tech, self-pro-pelled chairs, nor the sophisti-cated multi-wheeled oneswhich can negotiate stairs.That meant that the onlyaccess to the top hall for non-walkers was round the outsideof the main hall. I do notthink there was a lift.

The outside route would bebad enough under good con-ditions but, this year, theweather was not kind to us. OnSaturday it was very cold and itrained quite a lot. On Sundayit was dry but at least as cold.There are enough difficultiesfor the physically handicappedwithout their having to go out-side in inclement conditions

when, after all, it is a legalrequirement to have access todifferent floor levels in abuilding.

This is, of course, the respon-sibility of RASE whose build-ing it is – and who, I believe,have recognised part of theproblem by installing a stairlift to get to the lecture the-atre. But people don’t justwant to hear lectures, they alsowant to see what the trade hasto offer. After all, it’s a longway to travel for many peopleand they deserve to make fulluse of what is available. Beingmade to be uncomfortabletwice - going to and comingfrom the upper level of thehall - is against the spirit of thelaw.

But I also believe that aresponsible organisation suchas BBKA, which hires thebuilding for its event, has arole to play in ensuring thattheir paying customers - prob-ably, indeed, their members -are not condemned to suchharsh conditions. Ignorance isno excuse, most of us havehad to push prams and knowhow awkward it is to go up anddown stairs with them, howmuch more difficult it must bein a wheelchair must be obvi-ous. A reconnaissance of thebuilding ought to have shownup this problem.

I hope that the BBKA willmake representations to RASEon this matter so that nextyear the situation will not re-occur. The utmost considera-tion for the well-being of allvisitors to the Conventionshould be the aim of theorganisers.

Yours, more in sadness than anger,Mary Fisher, Leeds

Dear Mr Phipps

Thank you for giving me theopportunity to reply to MrsFisher’s long letter of com-plaint about the temporarydisabled access facilities atStoneleigh this year. She useswords like ‘ignorance’ and‘hostile environment’ - neither

of which apply; let us examinethe facts.

During Stoneleigh 1999Convention the NAC LettingsManager informed me thatextensive alterations toStareton Hall were due tobegin soon. She hoped -butcould not guarantee - thatthese would be completedbefore our Convention in2000. In December, NAC con-tacted me to inform that alter-ations were about to com-mence and that I could visitlater when the installationswere in place. At the end ofJanuary I made an appoint-ment to visit NAC on the 8thFebruary. On that day themanager walked the WarwickComplex with me to view thenew TEMPORARY arrange-ments for disabled access. Idid enquire whether insteadof the steps (from Warwick toStareton - Hall 1 and 2) therecould be a slope, but I was toldthat the required gradientwould render the descent dan-gerous for wheelchair users.Of course, I would far ratherwe had better disabled access,but that was not in BBKA’scontrol.

My options were limited tocancel the Convention anddisappoint 2000 visitors wasunthinkable. To move toanother venue equally so. Toadvertise the development?Well in view of the fact thatBBKA and trade exhibitorshad so much invested in thesuccess of the Convention andthat temporary (if not ideal)disabled access was provided,it seemed wrong to publishanything which would detervisitors. I took the decision notto do so.

I had hired a wheel chair as weusually do and, on collection,it had a slow puncture. BillDartnell spent 2 - 3 hours onthe Friday taking it to variousfirms to get the inner tubesreplaced. On bothConvention days door stew-ards and the BBKA Chairmanwere apologising to disabledpeople at the entrance for thetemporary arrangements and

assuring them of permanentaccess for 2001. Also, a dis-abled beekeeper from Sussexwrote specifically to praise thehelp she’d received gettingher chair from one hall toanother (full details with theeditor).

Looking forward now to nextyear, full, permanent disabledaccess will be as follows: toWarwick Hall by the existingramp to the right of the mainentrance. Inside, fromWarwick to Stareton, accesswill be via the newly installedWIDE steps which havealready replaced the narrowones we experienced this yearor by a lift which is almost fin-ished. Stoneleigh 2001 will beon Saturday April 28th.

Yours sincerelyMary Dartnell

Convention Co-ordinator

Copy of letter sent to MrsDartnell

“Just a short note to say howmuch my wife Susan and Ienjoyed the Convention youorganised at Stoneleigh. Susanis the lady in the yellow wheel-chair, and we do appreciate allthe help we received in gettingher from one hall to another,as well as into the ‘ComputerEvent’. Everyone, especiallythose with ‘Badges On’ wereso helpful, opening doors and‘just’ being friendly.

Susan found the work on com-puters an ‘inspiration and bril-liant’, it says much that she was‘hardly aware of her disability’during those sessions. I foundthe talks and demonstrationsexceptional. Just listening andtalking to fellow beekeepershas given us lots of ‘new’ ideasas well as ‘solving’ some long-standing problems.

We stayed both days and, froma wheelchair users point ofview, the second day allowedeasier access rather than the attimes ‘frenzy’ of the first.

Many thanks to everyone andheavy supers.

John HuntSteyning, West Sussex”

LETTERS TO

Access issues at Stoneleigh BBKA convention


Issue No. 62

11

THE EDITOR

Ingredients for PollenPatties Dear Mr Phipps

It is some time since I havemade any pollen patties. Ihave made enquiries in thePlymouth area and find driedbrewer’s yeast is available fromhealth food shops or whole-sale establishments for thecatering trade. I have not beensuccessful in finding a sourcefor dried egg yolk, only eggsubstitutes are available.

I did find, in some of the lesssophisticated health foodstores, that I was unable toobtain any information on thetype of soya flour offered for

sale. As most soya flour origi-nates from the USA, I can onlyconclude that it comes fromgenetically modified seeds. Abook called “Some importantoperations in bee manage-ment” written by T.S.K. andM.P. Johansson and publishedby IBRA in 1978, has a veryinformative chapter on feed-ing honeybees pollen andpollen substitutes. Expeller-processed, low fat (5-7%) soyabean flour is recommended.

At this year’s BBKA SpringConvention, Professor M.Winston reported on somerecent experiments wherebees fed on pollen pattiesappeared to be more resistant

to both acarine and varroamites. He stressed that pattiesmade from pollen, not a sub-stitute, had a better effect.

Yours sincerelyDawn Yates, Plymouth, Devon

Old Ted and the spiritof beekeepingDear Mr Phipps

After moving to Cumbria, Ireturned to Eccles,Manchester to collect my bees.I found that vandals hadknocked over all fourteenhives. Thirteen colonies hadperished and the remainingone was in poor shape, so I re-hived it and took it toCumbria. The colony was with-

out a queen and was goingdownhill rapidly. I tried toobtain a queen but, with nolocal contacts, delivery fromdistributors at two weeks andnone of my acquaintancesbeing able to help, it looked asif I was going to have to startfrom scratch after over fortyyears of beekeeping. A chanceconversation, however,enabled me to contact TedDouglas and I telephoned himregarding my problem. Hisvoice was quavering with ageand whilst he said that hecould not help me immediate-ly, he would try his best withinthe next couple of days.

True to his word, I received a

A revolutionary hiveDear John,

I would like to suggest that beesdo not survive in conventionalhives because the brood nest is anellipse with the major axis hori-zontal. This reduces the distancesrequired to be travelled by thevarroa mite during its reproduc-tion cycle. (fig 1)

By rotating the brood framethrough 90o and thus obtainingan ellipse with the major axis ver-tical, the distances increase andenhance the grooming opportu-nities sufficient to limit the mitepopulation. (fig 2)

Photographs show an early proto-type.

Kind regardsIan Rumsey

fig 1

fig 2

(below) the complete hive

(below, left) Hive open toshow the arrangement offrames

(below, right) By openingthe 'box' beneath the hive, avarroa count can easily bemade


Issue No. 62

telephone call from him andhe said that he had only thatmorning taken a swarm fromBroughton which is severalmiles away and also that hehad a box under anothersomewhere between his houseand mine. It was thus that I dis-covered that we lived only 400yards away from each other!When I met him at his house,I saw that he was a frail, oldman and there he was comingtowards me with a couple ofveils under his arm. We shookhands and talked bees andlater, boxed the swarm in theprivet hedge and then talkedagain. It was obvious to methat he was so pleased to help.I learned that he was eightyand had kept bees for thesame number of years as me -though I started my beekeep-ing when I was only nine yearsold.

Whilst we were talking, Tedsuddenly fell over. He blamedhis glasses and said that theymade him dizzy. I helped himup, we continued our talkingand then Ted fell over again. Imanaged to get him into achair and he said that whilst hedidn’t feel too good, it couldhave been worse and thenenquired if the swarm was safe-ly in the box. I began to getquite worried about Ted, buthe still insisted that he was allright and carried on talking -then suddenly stopped. I was-n’t sure what to do so I calledan ambulance and it arrivedshortly after his daughter; theambulance men thought hehad a stroke.

Later that evening I was talk-ing to the publisher of theBKQ and told him about Tedand how much he had helpeda fellow beekeeper who was acomplete stranger. I cannotimprove on the publisher’swords -”What a gent,” he said.

I rang Ted’s house the follow-ing day for some news. I wassad to hear from his daughterthat Ted had not recoveredconsciousness and that he haddied from a stroke at quarterto four that morning. I amsure that there are many bee-keepers who crossed Ted’spath over his forty years of bee-keeping and I am sure thatthey will be saddened to hear

of his death.

The two swarms he helped mewith cost nothing - yet they arethe most valuable bees that Ihave ever owned.

Yours sincerelyEdward Linden, Salterbeck,

Workington

Approval of GM foddermaize onto theNational Seed ListDear John

I am writing to inform you thatI am one of the 68 peoplenationwide who have paid£90* in order to be heard at apublic hearing in September2000, where the aboveapproval will be discussed.

In all there were only 277 writ-ten representations (costing£30 each) of which only 4 werein favour. The four organisa-tions were Aventis (who havedeveloped the seed), theNational Farmer’s Union, theBritish Society of PlantBreeders and the UKAgricultural Supply TradeAssociation.

However, not one single bee-keeping organisation is repre-sented at this critical hearingthat will decide if the first GMseed can be grown commer-cially throughout Britain, with-out need of any notification orrestriction.

Now, I have the opportunity toreply to the above representa-tions by July 31st 2000, as wellas making a statement at thepublic hearing and even cross-questioning witnesses that Iam able to call to the hearing.

So far, I have been in contactwith the BBKA, the SBKA andthe BFA, who have allexpressed an interest in theproceedings. I would like tooffer all beekeeping organisa-tions and individuals to useme as a sounding boardthrough which to express anyconcerns about the rushedintroduction of this radicalnew technology.

There are still two years to gobefore the farm trials are com-plete. Already, this year, therehas been the Advanta oil seedrape disaster of GM contami-

nated seed, as well as theGerman research about GMDNA having been found in thestomach bacteria of bees.Honeydew from aphids hasalso been found to containGM DNA.

Consumers are known not towant GM ingredients in theirfood and this is affecting thesale of honey for more bee-keepers.

*The money was raised by 90 x£1 sponsors within two hours,standing in Totnes HighStreet.

Yours sincerelyKen Beagley, Totnes, Devon

Subduing beesDear Sir

I was rather surprised with RRaff’s “Back to Basics” articlein BKQ No 60.

The old beekeeper who taughtme beekeeping 26 years agoalways used a cloth wetted with

Jeye’s Fluid - this he referredto as his stink cloth. He used itfor subduing bees right upuntil his death some six yearsago.

Similar methods are on themarket today - for instance -the Liquid Smoke and the FabiSpray.

However, rather than havingto worry about subduing angrybees, I was introduced toBuckfast bees, which I saw firsthand and which the beekeep-er worked without veil orgloves.

Perhaps R Raff’s associationshould invite Peter Donovanof Buckfast Abbey to talk tothem about the breeding workwhich also includes selectionfor resistance to varroa.

I have heard him speak on twooccasions and I can recom-mend him.

Yours faithfullyJoseph Cremona

Fareham BKA

12

LETTERS


Issue No. 62

13

Windsor Sale DayAn essential part of thebeekeeping calendar.

September 23rd 10am – 2pm(be there by 10am to avoid disappointment)

Economy National Hive parts (cedar) andframes at very attractive prices.

Could you make 50B.S. brood frames for£17.50? That is 35p per frame and 60% off

the normal retail price! All this plus ourunrivalled quality and service.

THORNES......Helping beekeepers keep bees

THORNES OF WINDSOROakley Green, Windsor, Berks SL4 4PZ Tel. 01753 830256

From our Correspondents


Issue No. 62

14

SCOTLANDJohn GleedThe editor told me that he intendeddevoting part of the August issue of themagazine to heather honey production.To fill what he called “the nostalgia slot”he asked me to do a piece on heathergoing 50+ years ago compared withtoday’s operation. Today, almost all bee-keepers are using box type hives whichare easy for travelling. We have spansetsto bind them and foam rubber strips toclose the entrances. Roads are smoothand most of us have our own transportand hives can be moved from A - B at 60miles per hour.

I started my beekeeping in the ScottishBorders and any heather was a good dis-tance away and much of the way was overrough road or track. Many beekeepersthen were using big double walled hivessuch as the Glen hive. The Glen hive had15 frames in the brood chamber and forcarrying it was just dreadful. Since few ofus had our own transport we clubbedtogether and hired a lorry, but this wasoften a disaster. There was always the onebeekeeper who was not ready at theappointed time. The lorry was badlysprung for this purpose and the driverwas never a beekeeper. Because of this hehad little regard for the comfort of thebees. Securing the bees for moving was ahit or miss business and they frequentlyescaped. This is why so many hair-raisingaccounts of heather going would be relat-ed; something we hardly ever hear now.

Photo 1. In the past heather going wasmuch more difficult as the hives wereheavy and difficult to transport. Here,Margaret Logan, of Muir of Ord, is atShilford in July 1955. The hives areRobson and Cessford Heather Hiveswhich Colin Weightman had in use forworking sections.

Photo 2. The good heather season of1923. Acton Moor, near Blanchland,Northern Pennines, overlooking theDerwent Reservoir. All the hives are dou-ble-walled. Left to right: Isaac Watts andnephew (who appears in Herrod-Hempsall’s ‘Beekeeping New & Old’page 566, along with Frank Cessford,page 585 and 593) and, the Hexhambeekeeper, George Kay, with young BillyRobson, son of Bob Robson - who wasFrank Cessford’s beekeeping partner.Person at the end of the row unknown. .

Photo 3. William Herrod-Hempsall withDevon bee farmer, Jim Willoughby, April17th 1949, at Robson and Cessford’sRiding Mill apiary, with their old heatherhives. Note the hinged floorboards foreasy closing and handles on hive sides for

(left) Photo 1 .(courtesy of Colin Weightman)(above) Photo 4 (Photo John Gleed)(below, top) Photo 2 (courtesy of Colin Weightman)(below, bottom) Photo 3 (courtesy of ColinWeightman)


Issue No. 62

15

lifting. Jim Willoughby was born in RidingMill and died in May 1999at newtonAbbot.

In about 1951 a home-made device wasillustrated in The Scottish Beekeeper forbanding hives. The little plates were metaland the strap was the steel tape used forsecuring packing cases. It was vicious tohandle. Uncontrollable and razor-sharp. Ihave made lots of them since then usingmodern and friendly material. The platesare wood and the strap is the nylon tapethat can be found lying anywhere. Thetension this simple device can exert istremendous. You could call this the fore-runner of the spanset. When I move hivestoday I have one spanset and one of thehome-made bands on each hive. To closethe hives in those days we pinned perfo-rated zinc across the entrance and, look-ing back, this was a mistake. The beeswould be there scrabbling away trying toescape and I am sure they must have beenstressed and their life shortened.

Photo 4. Moving hives today is far simpler,though whilst I use a modern spanset forsecuring hives, I also use one of my homemade bands - but made out of far friend-lier materials.

For the last 34 years I have been up in thenorth of Scotland with heather practicallyon my doorstep. It is child’s play today forme going to the heather. A twenty minuterun on a lovely smooth road and a 50 yardwalk into the heather. As for processingthe crop there is no comparison. Goneare the days of laboriously pressing outthe honey, a most time consuming job.Today I use a small domestic spin drier -the type which has a spout emptying intoa bucket.

When the editor said he wanted a “nostal-gia” slot, I looked that word up in a dic-tionary and it said that nostalgia was alonging, a yearning to return to the daysof old. It is true. I can look back on manytrips to the heather with fondness - espe-cially those done in the early morning(although those morning trips were notoften). When I was working the moveshad to be made at night and I hatedthem. Stumbling about in the dark andtripping over things. Trying to adjust orrectify mishaps with the aid of a torch.Some may say “Well why not move bees ona Sunday . . . ?” But I don’t believe thatSunday is a day for doing that job.

For many years now my wife has been myhelper moving bees to the heather or else-where. She is scared of bees but she doesit and we have an understanding. I tellher that if anything goes wrong she is notto hang about; just clear off and leave me.54 years of trips to and from the heatherhold many memories, but I cannot in allhonesty say that I yearn for a return tothese old days. Nostalgia, if it is just look-ing back with fondness, yes, but if in itstrue sense - thanks, but no thanks!

There is one thing, though, that I woulddearly like to see again. Bringing homebees from the heather about 50 years agoleft me with a memory I have treasuredever since. There we were in that awefulbone shaker of a vehicle where it wasimpossible to have a proper conversation.Suddenly, the driver leaned over andpoked me in the ribs. He then pointed hisfinger. When I looked there was the mostbeautiful, enormous Harvest Moon that Ihad ever seen. It was perched on the sky-line and, although I have tried, I havenever again seen one that comes near itsequal. The Harvest Moon is the fullmoon nearest the autumnal equinoxwhich is about the 23rd September. This,for me, is certainly nostalgic but, sadly,you cannot turn the clock back.

IRELANDPhillip McCabe In Ireland moving bees is done on avery low scale when compared to othercountries in the world. Most beekeepershave very few hives and they keep themclose to where they live and even thosewho have 40 - 70 colonies will still havethe out-apiaries quite near to theirhome. A few beekeepers have between200 - 500 stocks and need to move themfrom time to time but, on the whole,migratory beekeeping is not a strong fea-ture of Irish beekeeping. However, itmust be pointed out that there are nec-tar flows which beekeepers could profitfrom should they be willing to go to thetrouble of moving their hives when thesource is in blossom.

Oil seed rape is an obvious example.Thankfully (and hopefully), we still havethe pure variety with us, but the movingof colonies to the crop can be a very haz-ardous experience for the novice bee-keeper. A few years ago, a friend of minedecided to move his ten colonies to arape field which was 5 miles (8 km) away.He was watching his bees building upand decided that the rape would boosthis colonies for the main flow. Without acare in the world, he blocked theentrance with a bit of foam rubber, putthe colonies on a trailer and headedwest. Now, it would only be fair to saythat he made a few mistakes thatevening. The first one was that he forgotto tie the hives down. Out he drove ontothe public road at a very gentle pace andmet, on turning the first corner, hisneighbour’s cows which were beingreturned to their paddock after milking.

Now, like all good drivers who meetwandering cows on a public road, he hitthe brake pedal and the next sound thathe heard was a hive roof landing on theboot of his car. This brings me to mistakenumber two: while moving bees neverforget to have your bee-suit to hand. It isno good having to get out of the car tosearch for it when there are already sev-eral thousand angry bees millingaround. As it happened, as well as havingto re-cover the hives with their respec-tive roofs, he also had to drive the fewcows that were unable to run to theirpasture. The farmer’s son, who hap-pened to be chief herdsman that night,had already fled and he was last seenheading in an easterly direction wavinghis hands in the air as if in training forsemaphore duties at a boy scout jam-boree. These problems apart, those of usin Ireland who have oil seed rape nearby,and if the weather is favourable, areguaranteed a crop of honey. It is alsogood for getting new comb drawn anddamaged comb repaired.

Another crop that attracts beekeepers isheather. We are blessed in Ireland withthe two main varieties - Ling, Callunavulgaris, and Bell heather, Ericacineraria. Both of these flower from thebeginning of August to the end ofSeptember and require a specialisedform of management. The honey fromBell heather is known to most beekeep-ers as being of ‘port wine’ colour and‘runs’, whilst Ling is jelly-like and willnot ‘run’. Extracting the latter is difficultas the honey is thixotropic and needs tobe stirred before it will behave as a liq-uid. For this reason beekeepers use aheather loosener - a piece of equipmentwhich resembles a scrubbing brush, butmade up of fine steel needles, which ismoved in a circular direction whenpressed down to the mid-rib of theuncapped heather combs. For many bee-keepers, though, the bees are taken tothe heather to secure their winter feed,but those who wish to specialise inheather production will find it reward-ing as long as certain factors are consid-ered.

If a colony has worked the normal flowand has produced a good crop for you,then it would be fair to say that you arepushing your luck to expect your bees toalso give you a crop from the heather. Itis better to make up a few nuclei withyoung, recently mated queens at the endof June. These should be fed well and byAugust they should be strong enoughfor the rigours of the moors. Such nucleican also be added to a strong colony,once the queen has been removed. Thetrick then, though, is to place all theunsealed brood in the centre of thebroodnest with the unsealed ones on theoutside. The reason for this is to ensurethat the queen continues to lay in thecells vacated by the emerging brood andthat the bees store the incoming nectarin the supers. Frames of brood can beadded from other colonies that are not


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being moved, if they are available anddisease-free. This method will give youthe strongest chance of getting a goodcrop from the heather.

Now, to go back to the problem of mov-ing colonies of bees. It is likely that anyjourney to the heather is going to bequite a long one so each hive should becarefully prepared for transportation.There are several precautions needed forthis operation to be successful:

1.Replace the crownboard and roof witha travelling screen to stop the bees fromover-heating.

2. Use foam rather than a wooden blockto close the entrance. This will permit airto enter and also makes it unnecessary tohammer in the block thus upsetting thebees.

3. Give the bees a super preferably withdrawn comb for extra clustering room.

4. Travel as late at night or as early in themorning as you can.

5. Secure the hive parts together with ahive strap. I have used rope, staples andmany other devices, but have alwaysfound faults with them and reverted tousing the strap.

6. Once the hives are in the trailersecure them together or to the trailer -for this there is nothing better than thestraps with ratchets and hooks.

Giving these preperations, hopefully, thejourney to the moors should beuneventful.

Finally, It is worth remembering to visitthe site before the hives are taken so thatadequate preparations are made -including the fixing of stands and theprovision of shelter and water, shouldthey be needed. Obviously, full permis-sion will have been sought in advancefrom the land owner.

BRITTANY

Job Pichon

The Moors in Britanny - theirEvolutionLike many other countries in WesternEurope, Brittany was covered with forests.The island of Ouessant,too, was denselycovered with trees, but now only willowsand broom remain. References to oaksand other common trrees in Breton vil-lage names do, however, give us some

indication of the species we have lost incertain parts of our region. Place namesalso indicate the presence of heathermoorland (Brug) and moors coveredwith both heather and gorse (Menez).

Early deforestation occured as agricul-ture became more important and landwas cleared for cultivation. On the poor-er soils farmers would burn the gorseand dry grass in Spring every three orfour years, just like they still do in partsof Africa today. As a result of the burningthere would be a flush of new grass andyoung shoots of gorse and heather.Whilst this system of moorland manage-ment was carried out for the benefit ofcattle, bees also made use of the impor-tant pasture. The wars between Britainand France also contributed to the lossof trees as huge quantities of wood wereneeded for the sailing ships built in Brestand Lorient. It is a similar story inGreece, Spain, Great Britain . . . . . . . .

Up until the 1960’s the farmers contin-ued to use the moors as pasture for theirlivestock but they scythed the vegetationevery three or four years, just before thestems became too difficult to cut. Thismaterial was then used for bedding forthe animals. In some of the better fieldsseeds of gorse would be sown as a foragecrop for horses. The plants were mownwhen they were two years old, crushedmechanically and then mixed with freshgrass. This was the ‘alfalfa’ of the poorfarmers who worked land with acid soiland they had to use their resources to thefull. I was born on a 40 hectare (100 acre)farm in Monts d’Arree and of this landonly 12 hectares could be ploughed, 4hectares were poor meadows for hay mak-ing and the remaining 24 hectares werecovered by moorland. In those timesfarmers were numerous and rarely veryrich.

After the 1960 the increasing use of trac-tors enabled the flatter moors to beploughed up and used for the cultivationof potatoes, grass and cereals and thestony hills were planted with coniferoustrees. However, on many occasions fires

broke out which burnt trees in these newplantations - for instance - in 1997 4000hectares were destroyed. Where burninghas taken place and trees have not beenreplanted and in areas of neglected moor-land, the local flora soon becomes promi-nent again - so birch, bracken, willow,broom, hazel and oak are spreading moreand more. Black alder particularly bene-fits from burning and is an importantmoorland tree, but Rhododendron,unfortunately like in Great Britain, is alsoon the increase. Now, in 2000, on ourfamily farm just 5 hectares of heathermoorland remains which is of any use tobees.

The main heather sites of Brittany are tobe found on stony cliffs like the CrozonPeninsula, Raz Head, Ouessant island andthe Monts d’Arree. Full-time beekeepersmove their bees to these regions (exceptto Ouessant where it is forbidden). Thismovement of bees is a great problem forhobbyists, like me, who have permanentapiaries there. The beekeepers bring withthem all sorts of bees whether they are yel-low, suffering from foul brood or even,perhaps, carrying resistant mites.

Both main types of heather are found inBrittany. The bell heather, Erica carnea,flows from about the 1st of July to 15thAugust and is especially good for honeyproduction along the coast. The ling,Calluna vulgaris, flowers from about the15th August to 15th September. It canprovide plentiful nectar in some years butit isn’t normally extracted as it is oftenpacked close to the brood nest. The lowproduction could be due to the fact thatmany beekeepers have large Dadant hiveswith deep frames. I use Langstroths onthe moors for honey production and usea super on each hive for the crop. Honeyfrom the moors is in great demand, so it iswell worth the effort to procure it.

In the future? Less and less heather sites?(though fires may help to keep somegood stretches of moorland good forbees). Breton hives in transit to Scotlandeach August? We shall see.

Some beekeeping terms in English, French and Breton:ENGLISH FRENCH BRETON

Bees Abeilles Gwenan

A bee Une abeille Eur wenanenn

Apiculture L’apiculture Gwenanerezh

Honey Miel Mel

Wax Cire Koar

Larva Alveole Kevig

Comb Rayon Folenn vel

Queen Reine Mamm, rouanez

Swarm Essaim Taol hed, taol gwenan

Hive Ruche Koloenn, kestenn, ruskenn

Mead Hydromel Chouchenn

Good health A ta sante Yec’hed mad


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The moors in Springtime - gorse andtrees. (J. Pichon)

The moors at Monts d’Arree, the conifers have been burnt and the area is now goodfor bees. (J. Pichon)

Ling, the typical flora on the Monts d’Arree, August 1999.(J. Pichon)

(above and left) The Conservation Apiary for BlackBreton Bees, Ouessant Island, June 2000. (J. Pichon)

(below) Isle de Ouessant at heather time

(below) Rearing queens at Ouessant


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SPAINDavid Cramp

Spring-sprung surprisesThis Spring has seen most unusual weath-er in our part of Spain. Hardly any rainover the Winter, followed by a very wetApril and May. There are two sides to this.To try to breed queens (unless by AI) tooearly results in failure. Loads of dronesmeans nothing in February if there arefew in late March or April and if theweather in this latter period is no good.On a the brighter side, it meant an excel-lent Spring crop of honey a few weekslater. During the short pleasant spellsbetween the rotten weather, the beesswarmed and what ever I did, I could notstop it. When I was working up in the oldpig sty area painting some hives, a swarmsettled into an old nuc box. I left them inthere. Two hours later another enteredthe same box and after another two hoursa third swarm did exactly the same. Allswarms had virgin queens. I have neverexperienced this before. During theentry of two of the swarms, the queenslanded at various places on and aroundthe box and occasionally tried to enterother boxes. Bees actively snatched at thequeens both whilst in flight and whenthey had landed and bodily lifted andpushed them around in attempts to directthem into the correct box. They succeed-ed in their attempts. Again, I had neverseen this behaviour before. I knew thatscout bees directed a swarm in some man-ner, but to actually see queen direction inaction right in front of my nose (and it lit-erally was) is quite something. Did thisrequire a degree of thinking intelligenceon the part of the bees? Then, the nextmorning, a vast swarm containing sevenqueens landed in an adjacent nuc andsurrounding area. There was one paintedlady (one of mine) and six virgins. I’venever seen so many queens in a swarmeither. I hived them all separately andonly one crowd absconded.

A bee is not always a bee . . . .The bees I deal with are, of course, Apismellifera iberica, now known to be partof a chain of races from North Africa toFrance and passing from sahariensis-inter-missa-iberica-mellifera. Iberica effects the

transition between Morrocan bees andFrench bees. (Cournet JM, Fresnaye J,1990). As a generalisation, the differencesare based on morphological features andwere looked at in the context of geo-graphical location. What the researchersdidn’t talk about was the defensive char-acteristics of the bees in question.Research does tell us, though, that theNorth African bee (often called theTellian bee) is very defensive. A. melliferamellifera is less so. My experience of thein between bee, the Iberica, certainlyindicates both characteristics, but inclin-ing more to the very defensive than theother way. I mention all this only becausesome of my expat clients arrive from theUK to take up beekeeping here thinkingthat a bee is a bee - and take a pasting asa result!

I did, though, have one Cecropian queencalled Rose. Mated in a test tube inGreece in 1997, she has behaved perfect-ly ever since. No swarming, much lessaggression and plenty of honey. However,whilst going through the colony recently,I found two queen cells near the top ofone frame. Hoping that the bees hadmade a mistake and didn’t really want tosupersede her, I cut them out and putthem into nucs. But soon there were twomore. I left them to it. Rose has now dis-appeared leaving a queen of such a bril-liant yellow colour that there is no need tomark her. Rose’s offspring exist in someof my colonies. They don’t swarm - whichis wonderful - but gentleness is not anoticeable feature. The Spanish tempershows through. So far. I must order moreof the original strain.

HeatherSpain is the second largest mountainouscountry in Europe and many of the‘cordilleras’ or hill/mountain chains thatcross the country have extensive areas ofheather. Of the two main types, the bellheather (heath) or ‘brezos’ in Spanish,cover a wider area than Calluna vulgaris,or the ling heather (biercol). The latterexist mainly in the upland areas of theNorth and West. Where either of theseheathers exist in sufficient quantity, thenbeekeepers will take their hives there.The bell heathers, of which there are abewildering number of varieties, flowertwice a year (April -July and October -November) and like the single floweringlings they are an important honey sourcefor the migratory beekeeper. Theirimportance, whilst varying with the loca-tion, is only exceeded in some areas byeucalyptus, retama and olives. From myexperience of bell heathers, they producegood honey crops very erratically.

I have been unable to ascertain theamount of land that has been lost to

heather as a result in the changes of landuse, but most of the heather districts arein areas of Spain which are protected.These are numerous and vary fromNational Parks like Coto Donana to ‘nat-ural parks’ (I live in one), to smaller pro-tected areas and places of special interest.However, abuse of the system often occursin such areas and land is illegally rippedup and used for building or agriculture.By and large, though, the system works inits own cumbersome and bureaucraticway and there shouldn’t be too much lossof heathland in the future. One beekeep-er I know reckons that the heather areasof Spain are an apicultural resourcewhich is seriously under utilised.

Reference:

Cournet J. M. and Fresnaye. 1990. Vida Apicola No13.

PORTUGALAntonio Pouseiro

Harvest halved due to heavyrainAs Portuguese beekeepers are now har-vesting their honey some disappointmentis arising as half the supers are empty ordisplay 40 - 50% of open and empty cells.The reason for this is due, once again, toirregular weather conditions.

The year began with sunny and warm dayswhich carried on until the end ofFebruary. Hives were strong and in cer-tain areas a new super had to be addedeach week as the first swarms were comingout and the eucalyptus nectar was copi-ous. However, these fabulous conditionsdidn’t last long and the first days of Marchbrought heavy rain and strong winds withtemperatures dropping to around 12 - 15C. These conditions prevailed until earlyMay when, at last, the improvement inweather allowed us to inspect our coloniesagain. The examinations revealed theinevitable: the strong colonies had usedthe surplus for their everyday needs asthey were unable to forage. The earlyswarms which I took in February andwhich were located in the mountainswere now starving and they had to betaken down to lower ground whereSpring flowers could still be found. Assome Portuguese beekeepers never feedtheir bees, some losses occured in poorerareas.

But not everything is bad news and hivesare recovering and strong once more -even if they are a bit short of honey. It isimportant to remember that the summerflow here is rather insignificant - except inthe mountains where the heather flowersthroughout August and September.



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Another exception is the Southern agri-cultural area where sunflowers are themain crop and these will provide bee-keepers with an extra harvest. As a resultof heavy rain and flooding these arablefields are now (in June) being replantedwith sunflowers. I shall move some of myhives to this area - especially the youngswarms for this will give them the oppor-tunity to build up to full size colonies.

Government initiative helpsvarroa treatments to becomemore effectiveThe Portuguese Government, unlikethose of some other EU countries, hasdecided not to tackle varroa by providingbeekeepers with monetary subsidies.Instead, they have decided to hand out toevery beekeeper one free treatment percolony per year. Whilst beekeepers willhave to pay for a second treatment eachyear it will help to cut the cost of treatingcolonies enormously. We are into the sec-ond year of this scheme and it is provingto be effective, for beekeepers are seen tobe giving the medication (Apistan orApivar) as soon as they are received inJune. This will certainly help to combatvarroa for the different treatments will beused in alternate years and beekeeperswill be synchronising the time of applica-tion. There is much optimism here forvarroa levels are dropping in coloniesgenerally and there are less losses ofcolonies each year. We all hope that thistrend will continue until we find a defini-tive solution for the problem.

Buckfast x Iberian Crosses Five years ago I was determined toimprove the behaviour of my bees - ie try-ing to reduce their defence instinct sothat I had gentler bees with which towork. I thought that the solution to thisissue had a lot to do with the race and ulti-mately with the strain within it. Whilst thefundamentals of my proposition wereright, my solution proved to be totallyinadequate.

I decided to go for a strain with provenquality and so I imported some Buckfastqueens from ‘Buckfast’ apiaries. The firstthing I noticed was that Brother Adamwas quite right when he wrote thatIberian bees do not accept strangequeens easily and so half of the Buckfastqueens were lost. However, despite thisloss I wasn’t deterred and soon the tworemaining queens began to lay.

From the two colonies now headed byBuckfast queens, I selected 40 larvae andgrafted them putting the two batches oftwenty into different starter colonies. Ofthese grafts 28 were accepted. Later,about 1 - 2 days before the new queenswere due to hatch, I placed the queencells into standard 5 frame queenless nucswhich had been made up 2 -3 hours earli-er and which had been closed up and

kept in the shade.

Next, the nucs were taken to a new apiary15 km away from the original site andthere the queens were at liberty to flyfreely and mate randomly with theIberian drones. 25 of the queens weresuccessfully mated and within two weeksthey had established a regular laying pat-tern. I then had an apiary in which eachhive was headed by a hybrid queen.

After some time I began to notice that thehives were showing some disproportionbetween them with some very good hivesand with others which were developing ata much slower pace. Compared with myIberian bees in other apiaries it was easyto see that the development of the thehybrid colonies was less advanced.Meanwhile, I had read that with honey-bees the so called hybrid vigour will notbe found in the F1 generation but onlythe F2. I therefore reared a new lot ofqueens from the best of the hybridcolonies.

This time things went much better andthe hives evolved much more quickly andsoon increased in strength. I had finallyachieved my goal - or so I thought.

One of the first drawbacks I noticed wasthat the hybrid colonies were far fromgentle. They were fierce and were alwayswaiting for the moment when I movedsuddenly or bumped the hive - thus givingthem an excuse to attack in great num-bers and, in the process, leaving a strongsmell of venom in the air. I was used tosome aggressiveness with my Iberian bees,but this was far worse and it took sometime for me to get used to it. Secondly, Ihad never noticed much robbingamongst my Iberian bees, but these newones went mad at the slightest drop ofspilled honey or when they spotted a weakhive.

I knew I had to consider the pros andcons of keeping such bees, but I found ananswer a few months later - the cross-bredcolonies produced 30% more honey thanmy Iberian ones. I decided to give themanother chance and kept them for anoth-er year. The result was the same. Last yearI gave a friend of mine 20 queen cellsfrom these stocks and he, too, is amazedwith both their propensity to sting andtheir ability to collect good quantities ofhoney. In order to add new blood to myBuckfast strain, last year I imported someBuckfast queens from Weaver Apiaries inTexas.

The colour of the hybrids is similar to theIberian ones (dark brown with lighterbands towards the end of the abdomen.From time to time I get an amber bee(similar to Buckfast), but strangelyenough these never evolve into big hives.I suppose the answer lies in their genetics- but we shall have to wait and see.

As for me, I’ll stick to these bees and willtry to select for greater gentleness by rear-

ing from less aggressive hives. Perhapsthat is what I should have done in the firstplace.

THE NETHERLANDSKo Zoet

Heather Honey ProductionThe heather regions of the North East,the South and the Central part of ourcountry have a long tradition of beekeep-ing. Many people may well have heard ofthe famous beekeeping market ofVeenendaal, which goes back to the mid-dle of the 19th century and is the oldestbee market in Europe, but few will beaware of the significance of its geographi-cal position. Veenendaal is situated in anarea where two distinct types of soil meetand it is this border which is the demar-cation line for different types of agricul-ture and land use. To the South ofVeenendaal are the rich clay soils aroundthe River Betuwe where fruit crops areproduced, whilst to the North are the acidand sandy soils which have given rise tosome important areas of heathland. Thebeekeepers in Betuwe are thus able toproduce good swarms in the Springwhich allows them to sell stocks ready forthe heather or buckwheat to beekeepersin the North. The market is always on thethird Tuesday of July and it still attractsmany beekeepers and tourists. Whilstskeps are still sold alongside othercolonies they are in a minority and usual-ly bought for fun.

Unfortunately, there is no longer anybuckwheat for Northern beekeepers andthe heather, too, also declining. The mainreasons for the disappearence of theheather moors are due to cultivation ofthe land and, more recently, to urbanisa-tion. Controlled burning of the moorshas long since stopped but, each year,large patches are burnt accidentally, usu-ally because of discarded cigarettes fromtourists. Lack of management over theyears has lead to heather being choked bydifferent types of grasses and also byAmerican Bird-cherries. However, smallgrazing projects have recently been start-ed in an attempt to get rid of the invasiveplants. Areas of protection have been setup with goats and horses being used tocrop the rogue plants. After a couple ofyears the grazed areas look like a desert,but then new growth from Calluna vul-garis begins to appear.


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Heather is common on the WaddenIslands and it is here that I have taken mybees for the last five years and obtainedgood harvests of comb honey (which Iprefer) as well as extracted honey.Interestingly, the date of blooming forheather seems to be getting earlier eachyear. For instance, last year the heathercame into flower on the 20th July, nor-mally it is around the 5th of August.

My MethodAt the start of the flow I aim to have allheather colonies with eight frames broodand the remaining outside combs to befilled with honey. Above a queen excluderI put one or two small supers on eachstock, the number being dependent onthe weather prospects. The type andarrangement of combs in the supers isimportant. I use three frames with drawncomb in each super and these are placedat each end and in the middle. The otherframes are just supplied with starter stripsof foundation so that I can get some goodcomb honey - I can never have too muchof this! Whilst the bees build avidly inwarm conditions it must be borne inmind that a balance must be kept of thebees’ need to hoard food and that of thetendency to swarm. I find that removingcombs as soon as they are completedhelps to check any plans the coloniesmight have to swarm.

At the end of August the supers areremoved and a floor board and broodchamber containing six drawn combs isput on the site of each colony. The origi-nal brood chamber is then placed on topof each new hive. Each colony is then fedabout 12 kg of sugar solution. The beesare then ready for winter. Using thismethod the bees fill the cells of emergingbees with sugar syrup and also settle onthe combs below. They then eat their wayupwards during the winter - feeding onsugar - and when the queen begins to layin Sping the bees will be in contact withthe remnants of the heather crop and themuch needed pollen. Over-winteringcolonies from the heather moors can betricky, but this system works well andthere will be no undue stress on thecolony to make cleansing flights untilSpring has begun.

Marketing Heather HoneySelling heather honey is never a problem.We have many tourists to our Island eachyear and it makes an ideal gift for them toreturn home with. Bee products with thelabel ‘Produced on Terschelling’ arealways sought out even though the pricesmight be high. Heather honey in thecomb sells at around f40/kg (about 18US dollars per kg) and extracted heather

honey at f14/450gm. Other types ofhoney usually sell for about f12/450gm,whilst on the mainland beekeepers mayget only f6/450gm.

The BeesThe right type of bee is important for suc-cessful honey production and on ourIsland we have the descendants of theoriginal black bee which was common toNorthern Europe. For 16 yearsTerschelling has been closed to importsof bees from the mainland in an effort topreserve our bees both from mongrelismand varroa. Whilst varroa has arrived wehope to be able to preserve our blackbee, but despite our efforts there was anillegal entry of Buckfast material last year.The Dutch authorities are alert to this sit-uation and will do all that they can tointerrupt any illegal movement of bees onto our Island, thus preserving a bee whichis important for taking the most advan-tage of the native flora.

POLANDMaciej Winiarski

Holidays on the Heather Moors I grew up in South Western Poland, onthe German border, where there were lotsof forestry areas. Amongst the forestswere enormous heather moors many ofwhich were used by the Soviet Army. Iwent on holiday year after year to thisregion and it was there that I was very for-tunate in meeting Anne, who laterbecame my wife; not surprisingly, there-fore, the area has great significance forme for it has helped shaped my life.Anne’s parents were traditional beekeep-ers, as had several of the generationsbefore them, their home being in EasternPoland, but which is now WesternUkraine. It was through them that I hadmy first contact with bees. I was very cau-tious to begin with and step by step myconfidence increased. By 1970 I was work-ing in a real apiary and since then a lot ofwater has flown from the Thames into theEnglish Channel!

Little did I know though, at that time, thatI would be returning to the holiday areaof my childhood again. My father-in-lawbelieved heather honey to be the best inthe world, so it was agreed that we wouldmigrate to these moors with our bees.Firstly, however, we had to choose a goodsite for an apiary and, next we needed thepermission of the Commander of theSoviet Army Troops for us to stay with ourbees on their enormous range. So, duringthe first week of August, 1978, we leftLipniki village (Opole Region) in two lor-

ries for the 150 km journey to LowlandSilesia. On board the vehicles were 75hives - all but three of my father-in-law’sapiary; the three which remained behindwere too difficult to transport. Even thenthough, the job of moving bees was diffi-cult, for our Polish hives of that time werenot designed for migratory beekeeping.Another problem was the people whowere working for us. Most of them fearedthe bees and were terrified when theyreceived the odd, accidental sting.Despite this we eventually managed tomake landfall in the paradise of my child-hood.

And it continued to be a paradise. Wepitched our very big tent which gave plen-ty of room for me, my wife and two smallchildren, Zoi and Maggie, and there westayed to watch over the bees. Here wefound peace and time to rest, too. Next toour tent was a stream with fresh, coldwater and, to keep the children happy, Ibuilt a dam for them. The weather wasexcellent - non-stop sunshine and verywarm. From time to time Anne got a bitagitated, but only because she didn’t haveall the ingredients she needed for makingher good, delicious dishes and makingfood on the open fire was not a simplematter. However, she was extremely happyto see how much the children enjoyedplaying amongst the trees and to see meso refreshed. We really felt like pioneersin the old time West USA. During theevenings we would sit around the fire andsing songs from our scout, student andarmy days. I loved, though, to sit amongstthe hives and to listen to the bees andwatch them as they worked.Unfortunately, we didn’t have a cameraat the time to record some of themoments during our unusual and idyllicholiday.

After three weeks the time came for us todepart. First of all, I took my family homeand then returned to see to the loading ofthe hives. We used the same lorries andworkers to transport the colonies andbecause of their stores of honey they weremuch heavier and more difficult to han-dle. My father-in-law had decided that wewould do all the extracting at home andwe ended up with quite a good return of8kg of heather honey per hive.

In 1979 we went again to the same placebut this time it was a disaster. It was coldand rained non-stop and I remainedalone in my tent as it was too unpleasantfor my wife and children. This was a sadand terrible time for me. Not only didn’twe have a honey crop, we also had to payout a lot of money for moving the hivesand then there was the expense of havingto feed almost starving colonies. Sincethat time we never did return to the



Issue No. 62

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heather moors.

Over the last few decades the status ofheather moors has changed enormouslyin Poland. In Prof. Dr. BolesbawJabBodski’s opinion, there has been atwofold reduction in the amount of landnow covered with heather. The mostprobable reason is the change of climate.Meteorologists now say that Poland is thedriest country in Europe - and heatherplants, of course, need a good supply ofwater. The average rain for Poland is thesame as Egypt’s! If it weren’t for the cold-er weather in Poland, we would soon havedeserts. In Lower Silesia the heathermoors have almost completely gone, sobeekeepers seeking a crop will have to goto the Zielona Gora Region in WesternPoland, or the Warmia and MazuryRegions in the North-East. Heatherhoney is seldom seen on honey stalls andthe small amounts which are still harvest-ed are sought out by people and treatedlike a special medicine.

LITHUANIARimantus Zujus

Heather honey production inLithuania

Heather, Calluna vulgaris, in Lithuaniagrows in marshy lowlands and covers up to15 000 hectares (1). The total area thoughfor the whole of Byelorussia amounts to

830 000 hectares (3). These heather areasare, however, in decline though largeexpanses of moorland can be found in theforests of Vilnius, Varna, Veisjai, Kazl Rda,Nemenin, Taurag, Druskininkai andJonava.

In our Northern Baltic countries (Latviaand Estonia) the heather blooms at thesame time as the lime trees, whilst inLithuania it follows the limes and lastsfrom the end of July to September (1).The main nectar flow lasts for about 16days (5) and the bees visit the blossoms allday though secretion is better before mid-day. Studies have revealed that the amountof nectar secreted by the plants varies bothgeographically and by soil type:

Looking at the results for Lithuania it isrecommended that 1 -2 stocks should beplaced on each hectare of heathland.Beekeepers are advised to take their beesto the heather even if the weather condi-tions aren’t suitable and the nectar flowis weak, for there will be odd opportuni-ties for bees to gather enough to keeptheir stocks going and to keep the queenlaying thus ensuring plenty of young beesfor winter. The pollen, too, will increasethe life of the bees (1).

The bees in Lithuania are taken to themoors at the end of July. Heaths withplenty of young growth are the most suit-able as long as they are not shaded bylarge trees which grow on the knolls. Agood location would have a source ofwater otherwise the beekeeper mustmake his own watering place for the bees.The bees are taken back to their winter-ing locations at the end of August and allthe heather honey is removed as it is notconsidered to be good food for winter.Instead, each stock is given 8 - 10 kg ofsugar syrup.

References:

1. Dr J Balzekas. Bitininko zinynas. Vilnius, 1987.(The Beekeeper’s Guide).

2. M M Glukhov. Medonosnye rastenija. Moscow,1974. (Nectar plants).

3. V.V. Radionov. Esli vy imeete pchel. Moscow, 1979.(If you have honeybees).

4. G F Bukharev. Albom ptchelovoda. MMoscow,1971. (The Beekeeper’s Album).

District Nectar secretion Reference

Non-black earth belt (Russia) 200 kg/ha (2)

Sunny forests of Karelia 151 kg/ha (1)

Latvia 36 kg/ha (1)

Poland 2.6 - 49.2 kg/ha (1)

Lithuania 7 - 20 kg/ha Agr. Univ. Lithuania

Photo: Rimantas Zujus

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Issue No. 62

22

CANADADavid DawsonOur editor, John Phipps, wasquite impressed with some of thephotos I submitted showing ourhuge fields of honey producingcrops. To complement those pic-tures I thought that readerswould be interested in the farmmachinery used in those fields.The photos show an enormous12-wheel tractor which was busythis spring. While I was takingthe photo, by luck, the farmerstopped to re-fill, so I asked hima few questions. The equipmentcovers 47 feet wide in one pass,cultivating the ground, applyingfertiliser, and sowing the seed allat the same time. I asked howmany acres it would cover in aday and his reply was that, with arelief driver, working 24 hours,he could sow 500 acres a day. Iasked how many acres he need-ed to justify this equipment andhe said he had two sets of equip-ment like this (!!). His brotherwas driving the other unit and hehad 10 000 acres.

We had a relatively mild autumnin 1999 together with an earlyspring this year which we allthought meant our bees wouldbe strong and healthy. Nothingcould have been further fromthe truth. Many beekeepers losthalf of thier stocks with themajority of the remainder veryweak with grapefruit sized clus-ters. Many hives had lots ofcrawling bees in front of themand analysis showed high acarinelevels. However, not all crawlershad acarine and it remains a mys-tery as to why those acarine-freebees were unable to fly. I amreminded of the ‘Isle of Wight’disease, but there is no evidenceof nosema at high levels. Thejury is still out.

In spite of high losses and weaksurvivors, most beekeepers havebuilt back their numbers, thoughit remains to be seen whetherthey will be strong enough tocollect a normal honey crop.

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Issue No. 62

23

GERMANYHerma PetersonJune 26th - and so far this year’s beekeep-ing season has turned out to be so differ-ent from other years’. During the secondhalf of April we had very sunny andextremely warm weather which lasted wellinto May. So nature ‘exploded’ - fruittrees, rape, wild flowers all burst intobloom at once and much earlier thanusual. On the 10th May we began extract-ing honey from the first supers which wasat least two weeks earlier than usual. Thismeant that our work plan for the seasonwas thrown out of schedule and that wehad to do many of our beekeeping tasksalmost at the same time. Needless to say,we managed - but only just! Our honeyyield was satisfactory and we even man-aged to extract some dark honey from thecolonies we keep near the woods. Again,the flow from this source was quite earlyfor normally we seldom get dark honey (ifwe get any at all) before July. As I writethis, the fields of barley in front of ourhouse are already being harvested andthis is two to three weeks earlier thanusual, but we are left wondering whetherthings will begin to slow down once againso that a state of normality returns.

August, of course, is just the month for aheather honey issue of the BKQ - but forme this is a little too early, for my familyand I are planning a holiday in theLuneburger Heide, in Lower Saxony, atthe end of August. Once there we will, ofcourse, contact beekeepers who live inthat area. I have no experience of‘heather going’ but I have learnt a bitabout the skep beekeeping that exists inthese areas of Germany both from my hus-band and from my visit to the BeekeepingInstitute in Celle.

The ‘Luneburger Heide’ in LowerSaxony is the largest German heatherregion and in earlier times I suppose mostof the professional beekeepers lived inthat area. The bees were kept in skeps -the ‘Luneburger Stulper’.

This skep is still in use although not asoften as in former times. It is made ofstraw and made air-tight with a mixture ofloam and cow dung. . The entrance is inthe upper part of the hive. To protect theskeps, they are kept in a sort of‘Freistander, the ‘Heide-Lagd, and theyare are in in two tiers.

Whilst these shelters are still to be seenthey were once an important feature ofthe Luneburger Heide. The reason forthe decline of the traditional beekeepingof this area is probably, like in most partsof Germany, that most beekeepers arenow hobbyists or sideliners and workingthis type of hive properly demands moretime than modern beekeeping. The beesare left to swarm which is, of course, main-

ly during the day time when most bee-keepers today would be in work, so suchhives would not receive the proper atten-tion.

Skep beekeepers aim to have their stocksin prime condition for a late honey yield,the heather blossoming usually fromabout the 10th of August until the middleof September. Before that time there ishardly any honey flow in the region. Forthis reason, some of the beekeepersmigrate to other areas earlier in the sea-son - perhaps fruit growing districts forinstance - so that their colonies can buildup. When they bring their stocks homethey are allowed to swarm, perhaps two orthree times, and the swarms are caughtwith a swarm catch net (see photo). So, bythe end of Spring or early Summer thebeekeepers would have the number ofstocks which they need for the heathercrop. This system was very effective aslong as there were large enough areas ofheather to ensure a good yield.

Nowadays, unfortunately, the heatherareas have declined. This has resulted inthe beekeepers being less dependent onthis one and formerly important sourceand made them exploit other sources foran harvest. This, in turn, has made themuse other types of hives, mostly multi-storey hives, for they offer better chancesof securing other crops. Nowadays, on theLuneburg Heide, it is possible to see allthe stages of beekeeping for there are bee-keepers with only skeps, those with skepsand modern hives side by side, or thosewho rely solely on their modern hives fora honey harvest.

In autumn when the heather blossom isover the beekeepers turn their bees outof those skeps which they don’t want tokeep over winter and break up the honey-combs. This may be left until quite late inthe autumn until any other necessarywork has been completed in the apiary.Until that time the skeps remain withtheir combs in the ‘Honig-Speicher’, the

honey store.

Skep beekeepers in the Luneburger dis-trict only overwinter 1/4 to 1/3 of theircolonies. For the colonies which they wantto keep they leave the upper part of thecombs in the skep and feed the colonieswell with sugar syrup for winter food. Thesurplus bees which have been driven outof the other skeps are added to the over-wintering colonies or else they are sold aspackages. In the past these bees were alsosold to firms which produce bee venom.If there was a glut of bees and the sugarwas deemed to be too expensive to keepthe extra stocks through the winter, thestrongest stocks headed by young queenswould be kept and the others would bekilled off. Anyone, though, who boughtbees from these beekeepers as packagebees would be aware of the swarming ten-dency of the stocks and also, since breed-ing was indiscriminate, they knew thatthey might not be the gentlest of bees.

Heather honey is one of the most expen-

(above) The Luneburger Stulper

(below) The Heide-Lagd


Issue No. 62

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Issue No. 62

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(opposite, top left) The Luneburger Stulper‘unfolded’ to show the inner part of the skep.(Beekeeping Institute in Celle)

(top right) An empty skep upside down on a tyrewith a full skep on top. The bees can be made toleave the top skep and move into the one below.NB the swarm catching net to the left of the picture.

(middle left and below) Apiaries with skeps as wellas modern hives.

(middle right) Honey press

(bottom left) A ‘Honig-Speicher’ - a honey storebelonging to the Beekeeping Institute at Celle.

(bottom right) A ‘Honig-Speicher’ - stored skeps inan attic.

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sive of German honeys. Despite its high price it has alot of devotees for many people like its distinctive taste,aroma and texture. Where possible the good combsfrom the skep are cut out and sold as comb honey, oth-erwise the combs are crushed in a honey press. andsold iin a jar.

It is not an easy job to harvest heather honey frommodern hives with frames as the honey is thixotropic.In order to be extracted from combs in a conventionalextractor then, first of all, the full but uncapped cellshave to be loosened before the honey will run out.

It seems to be possible to overwinter the colonies onheather honey, just as much as with blossom honey forthe consistency of the honey has no detrimental affecton the bees. The skep beekeepers always leave the toppart of the skeps full of heather honey and feed addi-tional syrup, though those using modern hives try andextract as much heather honey as possible and feed thebees amost entirely on syrup. Feeding can start as earlyas possible in September, especially when the flow hasnot been good. When there has been a good cropthere are usually plentiful young bees to go into winter,if not, then early feeding will stimulate the queen to laybefore it is too late.

The beekeepers who buy packages from skep beekeep-ers in Autumn are advised to enquire about the nectarflow that year so as to get some indication about theage of the bees they are buying. However, it is alwayswell worth the money to buy these bees to make upnew nucs even at that time of year. It is easy to multiplyone’s colonies this way without having to resort to buy-ing packages from New Zealand for the bees are thensourced from our own country.


Issue No. 62

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THE HONEY FROM LINGHEATHER (Calluna vulgaris) isunique. It is a very late in theseason crop which flowers dur-

ing August and September. In a goodyear, perhaps one in ten, the crop can behuge.

It is necessary to have the colony verystrong towards the end of the season butremember many of the summer nectar-gatherers will be worn out and so they willnot last a week on the moors. So, a colonythat has been backward in the Spring canbe brought on in various ways so that itspeak population is reached about the endof the main honey flow in July. Here, inSW Scotland that would be the flow fromthe lime trees. One can unite colonies tomake one strong one and frames ofhatching brood can also be given toheather-going stocks. However, it is point-less to give frames with eggs later than theend of June because the bees which even-tually emerge will not be ready for forag-ing until the heather is almost over. If youwant the queen to lay eggs which willresult in a strong foraging force thensyrup feeding must commence wellbefore this date.

It is necessary to use only a single broodchamber and even then a dummy frameshould be added so that bees do not packthe honey around the brood nest, buttake it up to the supers. My wife, Elspeth,and I have always used ekes to get naturalhoneycomb. The ekes are made from1/2” timber and are about 4 1/4” deepand these we make just big enough to fitinside a Smith brood box (which is 8 7/8”deep) with one eke on top of the other,but separated by a piece of thick plastic.

We take all our 10 -12 colonies to themoors. Those which do not manage to geta surplus are usually choc-full of heatherhoney in the brood chamber. We also takeany nucs if they are strong enough (ie cov-ering about 4 - 5 deep frames) becausethey manage to get much of their winterfood. We ensure, though, that all thestocks we take are fed full strength sugarsyrup on their return for whilst heatherhoney is all right for the bees in Spring itis unsuitable on its own as winter food.

We always shut our bees up the nightbefore we leave for the heather, using awire mesh screen across the 7/8” deepfront entrance and a heavy gage screen inlieu of the inner cover. The roofs areupside down in the trailer and the hivesare placed inside them for the journey.We always make sure that the frames areparallel with the wheels as the colonies

will travel more comfortably and with lessmovement of the combs should there bea sudden stop.

We begin our journey to the moorsbetween 5.30 am and 6. 00 am. If any-thing goes wrong during the journey wehave the benefit of light, and we also aretravelling when the sun is not too strong.The colonies get plenty of through draftduring their travels which is very impor-tant - especially if delays occur or if bee-

keepers are waiting for a lorry which theyare sharing or for a late-rising beekeeper.I have seen colonies which have beengiven inadequate ventilation and theresulting collapse and death of the colonywhen molten wax and honey pours out ofthe already restricted entrance. It is not anice sight. If you don’t like hangingaround its best to go on your own to themoors - for you and your bees.

The site on the moors is all important. WW Smith had steep heather covered val-leys near Innerleithen and he wisely sitedhis hives on the valley floor so that whenthe heather laden bees returned theywere free-wheeling downhill. This is veryimportant. A lovely hilltop moor besidean access road is very inviting but it canmean the difference between a crop andno crop.

The colonies once on the moors do needmanaging. Starvation can always be athreat and the beekeeper must be readyto supply his stocks, when the weather ispoor, with combs of food - from a previ-

ous crop or by filling the cells of emptycombs with sugar syrup. We have resort-ed to the latter on one occasion and itsaved the day and bees finally returnedfrom the moors with a reasonable croponce the weather changed. From time totime a quick look in the super might beworthwhile so that you can straighten upany combs - this will save you a lot of timelater on when you are at the packingstage.

We have a caravan in the field quite closeto our heather apiary and fortunatelyboth our temporary home and the hivesare wired off from the hive-toppling orirritating sheep. I have seen many hivesunprotected from sheep on the samemoor and it is wise to erect a small fenceround the hives - this could easily beagreed with the farmer who lets you placethe hives on his property. A jar of honeyper colony is the customary hire charge,but the Forestry Commission may chargeup to £15 per hive.

The return journey is much easier tem-perature wise. By the time we are ready toleave the moor, at the end of the first orsecond week in September, frost has usu-ally terminated the flow from the ling. Ifthere has been a good crop we wouldhave made an extra journey to get theheavy supers home before we tackled thebees. Even without supers of honey, thereis still plenty of weight in the brood boxesand the trailer will groan a bit. We put thesame screens across the entrances for thereturn journey but we leave the inner cov-ers and roofs in place. Again, we makeour departure early in the morning.

Whilst having full, heavy hives are a bee-keeper’s dream, the lifting of them can bea nightmare - especially for the solo bee-keeper. With this in mind I designed andbuilt a beekeeper’s hoist, a sturdy con-traption weighing some 45 lbs, but whichcould be easily moved from hive to hiveand could be folded when transported.When placed over a beehive it can be lift-ed completely, or just parts of the hive toaid the beekeeper during examinationsor inserting clearer boards, fresh supers,etc.. It certainly takes the strain off a bee-keepers back and makes life in the apiarymuch easier and enjoyable.

At one time we sold our honeycombsfrom the moors ‘loose’, but now eachpiece is packed into cut comb containerseach of which is weighed and priced indi-vidually. Last year the crop was poor andwe were selling comb honey for £10 perkg in our local shop. Do not , though, putliquid honey in the containers to try and

BEES TO THE HEATHERC. Neil Anderson

A Beekeeper’s Hoist, designed and built by C. NeilAnderson


Issue No. 62

2727

make up your weights to standards such as 270g or 400g - evenif it is of good quality. This loose honey often granulates prema-turely and seeds the whole of the lovely cut comb. I have seenthis in a very nice large consignment of honey from Meiklausdestined for England. Probably the beekeeper used oil seedrape honey as a filler and the whole lot was solid before it hadeven left the producer. Recently I discovered a carton or two ofcut comb which had been in the sideboard for two or threeyears. It was unadulterated heather honey and still looked goodalthough there were the ‘hailstones’ of granulation - a feature ofling honey.

If your chosen site has Bell Heather (Erica cineraria) you are veryfortunate. This honey is a dark colour like port wine and is,arguably nicer than ling heather. It can be extracted and soldseparately. It is also good mixed in with the ling honey and canstill be sold under the ‘heather’ label, but some purists wouldargue with this. At a honey show it would not (or should not)pass as heather honey as it is not completely jellied and wouldrun out of the jar when tipped to one side. When both bell andling are present on the same moor, you should move your beessome three weeks to a month earlier than if it was ling alone - soyou would need to be on site by the beginning of July.

Although in 56 years of heather going we have never had anaccident , we did have a puncture once on the trailer whichmeant leaving the bees shut up for an extra 12 hours. As this wason the return journey in September this didn’t create too muchof a problem. Be prepared though for every eventuality andhave with you spare veils (for police or ambulance crew) as wellas a smoker, matches, fuel, hive tool, tacks and some plasticine.

Here’s to happy heather harvesting.

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Issue No. 62

28

The SMITH hive is called so afterits inventor William WilsonSmith of Innerleithen who diedin 1969. In his early life in the

1920’s and 1930’s he was a chauffeurwhen few people had motor cars. It wasonly as a hobby that he kept bees and soldhoney locally. However, he was so success-ful with his sideline that in 1933 he start-ed full-time honey production with about50 hives. By June 1945 he had built thenumber of colonies up to about 150colonies. The returns from his hives gavehim a reasonable standard of living -enough, too, to buy his own motor carwhich by now was a necessity for visitinghis six or seven apiaries.

During the building up of his honey busi-ness Smith had tried various types of hivebut he found that the majority of themwere not suitable for commercial honeyproduction in his area. He was awarethough that beekeepers in the USA werefurther ahead in these matters and hetold me that of all the hives he had tried,he found the American Langstroth hiveto be the best and simplest. (Today it isused by 90% of the world’s beekeepers).It had, however, a couple of major disad-vantages. Firstly, it was too big for the typeof beekeeping he practised in his areawhere he needed to transport the hives tothe heather moors. This was not becauseit was cumbersome, but because toomuch of the precious heather honeywould be stored in the brood box insteadof the supers.

As Smith did some trade with other bee-keepers in supplying them with bees,whilst he liked the simplicity of theLangstroth box (it was only made of fourpieces of wood compared with about tenfor a British one) , a second disadvantagewas that he did not like having frameswhich didn’t meet the British Standard.

This lead him to keep the BS deep frame,but use the Langstroth spacing of just5/16”. (Langstroth had defined the beespace as being not less than 1/4” and notmore than 3/8”). He also used short lugsto the frames and made his boxes, as theydid, with 7/8” thick timber. This resultedin a brood chamber with outside dimen-sions of 18 1/4” wide, by 16 3/8” fromback to front and 8 7/8” deep.

As a good vigorous queen can more thanfill eleven BS frames at the height of theseason, Smith merely put two boxestogether, one on top of the other, with thesupers above. Colonies could then bereduced to just one box (overflowing withbees) for the all important heather crop.The hive was easy to transport and, likethe Langstroth, easy to get into for inspec-tions.

Smith was a big man, a gentle giant. I gotto know him through my father, CABA, asmall beekeeper who was a sales rep sell-ing Sailor Salmon, Skipper Sardines, etc.,to grocery shops. His five-week rota tookCABA to Innerleithen where he lodgedovernight with Smith’s neighbours. Thusit was that in 1942 I stayed there for aweek for my holidays - helping, I hoped,Mr Smith look after his honeybees. Ineach of his six or seven apiaries he hadtwenty colonies believing that number ofstrong stocks would saturate the area. Ido not know if Willie, as I then got toknow him, worked his bees on theSabbath, but I think not.

During these early days with him heexplained what I have written above andsaid that WBC hives are “out” and theWormit Commercial, with its rabbets, wasdifficult to work. When Willie moved hishive he got his son to help him and healso hired a couple of girls for extracting,bottling and labelling his honey crop. I

had only worked for Willie for two dayswhen I realised just how superior his hivewas. Everything was standard and inter-changeable. He used shallow boxes forhoney supers and had an ingenious sys-tem of heather honey production in nat-ural honeycomb which was stored in twoshallow crates which fitted inside a broodbox.

When I returned home I set about mak-ing some of these Smith hives, as I was tocall them. Up to then, my father CABA,James and John Braithwaite, Elspeth myfuture wife, and myself had been usingthe BTB hive which was a sort of modi-fied National using Braithwaite’s TeaBoxes (chests) to overcome a wartimeshortage of timber. They were all right,but a bit dodgy timberwise. I had ideasabout going into commercial beekeepingso I went with Elspeth McIntosh to see MrSmith for his opinion on two counts. So itwas that on the 9th April 1944 we cycledto Willie Smith’s home and then on toBroadmeadows Youth Hostel for thenight, where we stayed in separate dorms(changed days!). Mr Smith gave us goodcounsel. I should keep my job as an engi-neering draughtsman and increase mystocks gradually; he also approved ofElspeth! When we left Broadmeadowsthe next day, we were engaged to be mar-ried and our wedding took place inNovember of that year.

Early in my marriage when we lived atRose Cottage, East Newport, Fife, I wentto the sawmill for wood to make my Smithhives. I was told to “apply for a license fortwice as much timber as you want - theywill cut you down by half”. This in facthappened. The 18’ planks, rabbeted totake the the frame ends, were then laidout on the floor of Rose Cottage and cutby hand into 18 1/4” pieces for the backsand fronts and into 15 5/8” bits for the

THE SMITH HIVE

- its origin and development -C. Neil Anderson

Photo 1. Smith Hives. Tom and Pat Bradford of Castle Morton,Worcester, at a heather stance on Blanchland Moors which ColinWeightman shared with Donald Sims - when Tom was President of theBBKA and Colin Weightman was Secretary of the Federation of Beesand Honey Associations. August 21st 1964. (Photograph courtesy ofColin Weightman).


Issue No. 62

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sides, dodging knot holes as much as pos-sible. I had already asked Mr RobinsonSnr. whose Steele and Brodie, WormitWorks were only three miles away, if hewould make them for me and others.“Laddie,” he said, “We’ll never make it.There’s nothing to touch our WormitHive.” Well, they are out of business andthe Smith hive still marches on.

Mr Smith at one time had plinths on thebottom of his original brood chambers,perhaps to keep out draughts and/or tomake the hive more secure. Anyway, inhis letter of 21st June 1945 he tells me hehas “knocked them off and cut handholds on all sides of each box with my cir-cular saw”. I cannot ever remember see-ing the plinths.

The hives which I made were so muchadmired by the members of the East ofScotland Beekeeper’s Association that Iwas always making sketches with details ofsizes on envelopes, so eventually I drewup complete working plans of the Smithsystem. First of all though, I had to obtainMr Smith’s permission to attach his nameto it. This he readily did saying that “upto now I have just called it my hive”.

I then advertised the Smith Hive Plans inthe bee press magazines for a modest costwhich included postage. I had my linentracing blueprinted and then Ozalidprinted (photocopiers were not yetinvented) but these were expensive. SoonI was sending plans out to beekeepers inEngland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales andabroad and was pleased that after receiv-ing his copy Willie Smith, in his letter of21st June 1945 said “it is a first class job . .. . and worth more than you are charg-ing”. I was chuffed when the BritishStandards Institute sent for a copy, butnot so pleased when they didn’t send me

the one shilling and sixpence which I usu-ally charged. However, it was good thatthey received the plans and the sizes Igave them were eventually contained inthe BS Specification No 1300:1960.

The Smith hive was by now becoming wellknown and I must have sent a plan toDonald Sims, an advocate for the hive inhis book ‘’Sixty Years with Bees” for hementions Neil Anderson in it severaltimes. (It is a good read, but somewhatrepetitive). The MAFF Advisory Leaflet445 was also very good for the further-ance of the Smith hive. A Mr J I Carswellalso produced a blueprint of the Smithhive in 1946 using lock cornered joints inlieu of my half checked corner joints. Theformer, though, were apt to let in morewater and hence rot the corners. I gluedthe half check joints using Chas.Tennants & Co’s aero-propeller glue, awater based resin which set rock hard.They could not sell it to me because ofwar restrictions - but “here is a free sam-ple”. I was delighted. the surplus I sold toESBA members for a small charge - theytoo were equally happy.

When making up the hives I would tryputting the boxes together first and afterthat glue the corners and fix with 2 1/2”galvanised nails. Before the glue hadchance to set I would square up the boxesby measuring the diagonals and makingany necessary adjustments. The broodbox on its side makes a useful temporaryseat (with a choice of two heights) wheninspecting colonies. It also has theadvantage of having a top bee spaceunlike National hives.

Willie Smith had his boxes painted white.Paint, however, does not breathe and forall the years we’ve had Smith hives I haveused creosote on their outsides andedges. We believe that it keeps bugs andthings away and is antiseptic. We evencreosote the hives when the bees areoccupying them, just a little care needs tobe taken. We have never, ever detected

the slightest whiff of creosote on the hon-eycombs during all the time that we haveused it as a preservative. Over the yearsthe brood box has shrunk from 8 7/8” tomaybe 8 3/4” so, were I to make more(unlikely at my age) I would start with 815/16” timber - but not more.

Many beekeepers know that we use dowelpegs in the sides of brood boxes andfloors to stop them swivelling in transit.However, nothing is needed if the hivesare not to be transported. Nowadays,though, this is not so important for thereare many efficient methods of keepinghive parts secure should colonies needmoving. However - never use ropes - Ispeak from bitter experience.

I must at one time have had a stock ofbees from Willie Smith for in my shed Istill have a plywood cover with a 10” x 9”gauze ventilation screen. On it shows thata consignment of live bees was sent fromInnerleithen Railway Station (LNER)bearing parcel stamps amounting to 8s 7dto 30 East Hadden Road, Dundee, whereI lived with my father.

I have good memories of Willie Smith, hewas such a nice man. I remember one day,whilst I was ‘helping’ him in 1942, Ibumped into a hive as I was entering oneof his apiaries. Out flew the bees, theywere soon everywhere. Willie didn’t rep-rimand me,be he just said “Run for it tothe car”. He said it didn’t matter we couldgo to another apiary and come back tothis one the next day. Willie showed meby his actions that day that being bravedidn’t count - even experienced beekeep-ers run for it - sometimes.

The Smith Hive is one of the easiest hives to make.It is economical in its use of timber and is extremelylight - especially if made from cedar. The plans herewere published in Alexander Dean’s ‘A Guide toBeekeeping’

(below) Smith HIves (except one at the end of therow) on one of Basil Waller’s heather stances nearOtterburn, Northumbria. Note small entrances.(photo courtesy Colin Weightman).


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My beekeeping career began inthe late summer of 1948when I was volunteered toassist in the movement of

hives down from the North Derbyshiremoors at the conclusion of the great trib-al ceremony of ‘going to the heather’.Since that time 30% of the heather moor-land has been lost in England and Wales -a trend that is also mirrored in theScottish uplands. This loss has been main-ly due to the changes in agricultural prac-tices and in the demands for sheep andcattle grazing alongside the influences ofsubsidies within the CommonAgricultural Policy. William Hamilton inhis 1945 book “The Art of Beekeeping”noted that ‘heather honey is seldom aneasy crop to obtain’ and one can onlyspeculate on what his comments wouldhave been were he alive today.

In looking at the management of heathermoors and heathlands, it must be notedthat beekeeping is a relatively small com-ponent within the economics of the pre-sent situation. However, within an ecolog-ical overview, all the various species ofbees have a part to play. The 1992 Rio

Conference led to a UK Bio-diversitySteering Group which identified ourheathlands and blanket bogs as being keyhabitats requiring special protective mea-sures. It was felt that they not only had‘aesthetic sporting, cultural and touristvalues’ but that they were also rare out-side the British Isles. Although their floraldiversity is relatively poor, the EuropeanCommunity Habitat Directory has listedcertain rare or under represented plants,

in addition to bird species, half of whichare threatened or receive special protec-tion. Thes include twite, golden plover,merlin, golden eagle, and red grouse.

The beekeepers are, therefore, as in thelowland areas, sitting on the touchlines ofa classic use of land dilemma in whicheconomics and/or market forces willdetect the outcome. In that context, weshould remember that the moors andheathlands of this country have been

WHERE HAS

ALL THE

HEATHER

GONE?

Geoff Hopkinson NDB

ENVIRONMENT

KEY TO MAPScotland1. Caithness2. Sutherland3. Ross-shire4. Moray-Nairn5. Inverness-shire6. Skye and Raasay7. Aberdeenshire and Banffshire8. Argyllshire9. Kincardineshire10. Perthshire11.Dumbartonshire,

Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire12. Ayreshire, Wigtownshire,

Kirkcudbrightshire,Dumfriesshire

13. Pentland Hills14. Lanarkshire15. Lammermuir Hills16. Moorfoot Hills17. Selkirkshire18. Cheviot Hills.

England and Wales19. Cumberland, Westmorland20. The Pennines21. Bowland Forest22. Cleveland Hills, York Moors23. Derbyshire24. Cannock Chase25. North Wales26. South Wales27. Norfolk

28. Hampshire, Surrey29. Sussex30. Hampshire31. Dorset Heights32. Exmoor33. Dartmoor34. Bodmin Moor35. South Cornwall

Ireland36. Mountains of Kerry37. Connemara38. Wicklow Mountains39. Dublin Hills40. Mourne Mountains41. Sperrin Mountains42. Slieve Bloom Mountains

The Heath and HeatherAreas of the British Isles

from ‘Bees to the Heather, by Stanley B.Whitehead, and taken from Dr C LWhittle’s report which appeared in TheScottish Beekeeper, September 1950.


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(above) Bell heather, Erica cineraria. The earlier flowering heather whose honey isdescribed as being of a deep ‘port wine’ colour.

(left) Ling heather, Calluna vulgaris, the most important source of heather honey.The honey is thixotropic and is ideal for selling in the comb.

(below left) Carefully controlled burning, though primarily done for gamemanagement, helps to provide plentiful young shoots - good for both bees andgrouse.

(below). Bracken if it is not controlled can soon choke a good heather moor.

(bottom) Afforestation - an important factor in the disappearence of some of ourheather moors (Scotton Common in North Lincolnshire)


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ever-changing since the first removal of trees and scrub tookplace from 3000BC onwards and which gave rise to the scenerywithin which Hamilton successfully worked his bees in bothScotland and Yorkshire in the 30’s and 40’s.

So, what are the factors that may help to check the reduction inheather acreages? It is perhaps ironic and unpalatable to somethat the conservation of moorland for grouse shoots is one ofthe most potent forces at work at the present time. Rotationalburning produces a constant flush of young heather shoots asopposed to worn out, overgrown areas. At the same time this hasa bonus of improving bee forage. The effect of sheep is variablebut, under the CAP subsidy agreements, there have been somewell documented examples of severe over-grazing that has beendeleterious to wild life. There are, however, some very firm viewsfrom within the farming community, many of them tenants with-in large estates, and John Maxwell, Chairman of the BlackfacedSheep Breeders Association, claims that “When managementunderstands the requirements of both sheep and grouse, thereneed be no conflict betwen the two enterprises. What is good forone is good for the other.’

Alongside these continuous issues is that of coniferous forestplantations, with their short-term finacial returns, creating anenvironment in which heather has no part to play. Of equalimportance is the insidious spread of bracken which is highly-resistant to control measures and, therefore, costly to keep incheck.

Referring back to the 1992 Rio Conference and Governmentoverall policy on Sustainable Development, there is a clearrecognition that all is not well and there are many schemesafoot that should result in better bee pasture in the future.Paragraph 4.2.3 of the Habitat Action Plan, in one of its manyrelated proposals, seeks to increase dwarf shrubs to at least 25%cover where they have been reduced or eliminated due to inap-propriate management. The target for such restoration is that ofbetween 50 000 and 100 000 hectares by 2010. Obviously, thismust be good news for some beekeepers.

An important component in such a proposal is that of theHeather Trust, founded in and working specifically on therestoration of upland areas but driven by a mainspring of enthu-siasm generated by shooting interests rather than the more con-ventional wildlife trusts. They note that the heaths and moor-lands are declining at a rate of 1% per annum and, to furthertheir work, they have established a demonstration site in theSouth Pennines and a further three in Scotland.

Local initiatives are also important. An example of this is thework in progress on a small section of the fragmented remainsof the once extensive dry heathland that runs from SuttonColdfield almost to the foot of the Pennines. Funded by theHeritage Lottery Fund, English Nature and the County Council,this ‘Save Cannock Chase’ project with a budget of £725 000starts with the knowledge that the county has lost 90% of itsheathland over the last twenty years. Already, certain areas ofCannock Chase are being cleared of scrub and bracken in orderto bring about improved habits for wildlife. This will increase thevolume of heather that once existed in sufficient quantities tobring the migratory beekeepers out of the Black Country. It’smost unlikely there will be a run on honey presses in a year ortwo, but some beekeepers are likely to reap the bonus ofincreased winter feed.

Scotton Common in North Lincolnshire (see picture p 31) wasonce a large low lying area covered with blown sand. After theSecond World War much of the surrounding heath was plantedwith Scots and Corsican Pine by the Forestry Commission. A fur-ther set back was a decline in the rabbit population in 1953 dueto myxamatosis. The proliferation of seedling pines and bichesand no rabbits to eat them led to this important habitat rapidlybeing covered with scrub and mature trees. Since its manage-ment by the Lincolnshire Trust for Nature Conservation, the

large trees have been cleared from the centre of the site andusing sheep, the heath is recovering well allowing a good rangeof heather species to survive. Other important plants and faunainclude gentians, sundew, nightjars, grayling butterflies andadders.

In all this, the beekeepers are a disparate group of ‘camp fol-lowers’, paying no rent for the land they forage over other thantoken payments for the rights to site hives. They are dependenton the skills and labours of others for the harvest they gather inany one year and complain vociferously to anyone who will listenwhen things go awry. On the other hand, ‘beekeeping is a vitalbarometer of changing conditions in the countryside’. Whenspecifically applied to moor and heathland habitats, then hill-sides covered in calluna and erica, overburnt on rotation andgiving a profusion of healthy young growth, brings happinessto the beekeeper (always provided that the sun shines!). We, thebeekeepers, have never truly existed in isolation and we should,therefore, applaud these positive moves as part of our nationalSustainable Development Strategy. There is a sting in the tail forsome, however, and if the shooting of grouse were to be banned,then a large part of the impetus to mainatin the moors in a bal-anced condition would go. Remove the money-spinning shoot-ing syndicates and the need for management becomes largelyirrelevant.

As always, there is more to this craft of ours than ‘stings andhoney’.

BKQ Heather Moor SurveyIt is half a century since Dr C L Whittle’s report was publishedin The Scottish Beekeeper and in that time many of our moorshave declined enormously. It would be good to have a morerecent picture of the status of heather moors in the UK (andworld-wide) and of their value to bees.

Readers could participate by sending to the Editor detailsincluding:

1. Location of the moor

2. Heather species and their ratio

3. Current threats - afforestation, bracken, over-grazing, landcultivation, building/development.

4. Value for bees - on a ten point scale (10 high) - based on anumber of seasons.

JOIN UP TO MARKET YOUR HONEY

Details of membership and scheme from:17 Warton Lane, Austrey, Atherstone,Warks CV9 3EJ

Telephone/Fax 01827 830 955e-mail: [email protected]

web: http://members.aol.com/FhoneyCoop/Home.html

with

FIRST HONEYCO-OPERATIVE


Issue No. 62

33

What do workers thinkof queens of differentages?Some simple experimentshave been devised to find thedegree of attractiveness toworker bees of queens of dif-ferent ages. It has been estab-lished that secretions from thequeen’s mandibular glandsand abdominal tergal glandsare involved in her attractive-ness to workers and that theirfunctions are age-dependent.The responses of workers toqueens change during hermaturation and eventual age-ing. The following categoriesof queen were investigated:

0 - 1 day old2 - 3 day old4 day old5 & 6 day old16 & 18 month old.

Caged, live queens of theseages were placed on top of thecombs of a colony and, aftertwenty minutes, the number ofworkers surrounding eachcage were counted.

The results show three distinctlevels of attractivenessamongst the different agegroups of queens. Thechanges were step-wise, not

gradual. It also suggests, con-trary to a generally held view,that the attractiveness isunconnected with mating.

Effects of queen honeybee ageing onher attractiveness to worker bees.

de Hazan, Lensky & Cassier. 1989

Comparative Biiochemistry andPhysiology. Vol.100.3.

The honeybee queen’spart in the regulationof the relative num-bers of workers anddrones.My generation of beekeeperswas taught that the colony wasruled by the workers collec-tively and the queen did whatshe was allowed to do. Theworkers regulated the num-bers of male and female eggslaid by the queen. They exer-cised this control in responseto seasonal factors and fluctu-ations in the economy of thecolony. Very small colonieswith less than 5000 members,rarely produced drones. Moredrones are produced justbefore and during the swarm-ing season than after it.Drones are reared in prosper-ous times and not when timesare hard.

The workers achieve their con-trol through their construc-tion of the two sizes of cell,positioned either centrally orperipherally in the brood nest,and by cleaning them inpreparation for the queen tolay her eggs in them. After theeggs have been laid, the work-ers can exercise a second stagecontrol by feeding or not feed-ing and by either eating eggsor throwing out the resultinglarvae. This paper suggeststhat the queen also has somecontrol over the sex ratio bychoosing whether she will layeggs in drone or worker cells.

The experiments employedsome specially preparedbrood combs built on droneand worker foundation andarranged with the patches ofdrone and worker cells in a

chequer board pattern. Thesecombs were introduced intoexperimental colonies inwhich the queens were alreadyestablished layers of bothworker and drone eggs. Theprocedure was repeated at dif-ferent times during the year,so as to take account of thebees’ seasonal preferences forrearing different proportionsof drones and workers.

When a queen’s laying waswell established, she was trans-ferred with bees and a che-quered comb into an observa-tion hive. It was found thatqueens did appear to exercisechoice over laying in the dif-ferent sizes of cell, passingover some cells to seek one ofa different size that was prefer-rred.

In one series of experiments,

the queen was confined to oneor other size of cell for sometime, before being put intothe observation hive with che-quered comb. In such cases,the queen would exercise herchoice in such a way as toredress the imbalance thathad occurred, or to achieve asex ratio appropriate for thetime of the year. So it wouldappear that the sex ratio in acolony is not entirely due toworker control, but that thequeen exerts some influence,perhaps by acting in accor-dance with her own intrinsicannual rhythm.

The queen honeybee has the potentialability to regulate the primary sexratio.

Ken Sasaki, Toshiyuki Satoho andYoshiaki Obara. 1996.

Applied Entomology and Zoology. Vol31 (2).

SCIENCE REVIEWJanet Dowling FRES

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Bar graph to show the num-ber of workers attracted


Issue No. 62

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BREEDING MATTERS

John Atkinson

Selection and Selection CriteriaPart II

Writers on this subject haveincluded, amongst others,the following characteristicsas desirable:

Wintering ability. Colony size (i.e. num-ber of adult bees). Brood area. Brood via-bility. Length of foraging day. Lowest tem-perature at which colonies forage.

They go on to suggest that the bee breed-er should select for these specific charac-teristics: Not only these criteria of course,but including these.

Those that harvest propolis may prefer abee that produces a lot of the stuff. Therest of us are not so keen. Similarly, thereare those who harvest pollen or royal jelly.These too may have selection criteria notof interest to the rest of us. All of thisinvites the questions, ‘What should theselection criteria be? How many criteriais it feasible and effective to have? What istheir relative importance and how shouldthey be scored?’

Common sense tells us that the simplerwe can keep things, the better. On thatbasis alone I think all nine criteria men-tioned so far can be struck through, ruledout, not (directly) considered.

The last three mentioned, namely thoserelating to the production of propolis,pollen and royal jelly are minority inter-ests, by definition of little interest to mostbee breeders. Also, propolis, pollen androyal jelly are by-products. It is not sensibleto jeopardize selection for a main productby including criteria for by-products(unless you are a by-product producer ina big way).

About the first six criteria I can see read-ers bristling with indignation at my sug-gestions as some of the criteria, and incertain circumstances perhaps all ofthem, must contribute to a bigger crop ofhoney.

Indeed, that is so, but the goat countingstory is decidedly relevant here. You donot know the story?

A long time ago I spent some time inEgypt and lived in a ‘pension’ a few milesfrom the centre of Cairo. I well rememberthe drawn out street cry of ‘Laban, laban’.Round the corner would come a herd ofgoats and out would come the housewiveswith their jugs for the goatherd to fill

straight from source. I often used towatch as the Arab goatherd used to milk,not from the side, but from the rear. Thisstruck me as risky, but I never saw disasterstrike.

I am getting away from the point. Theherds were quite large; two or threedozen, I suppose, so a single goat couldeasily be missed and periodic countingwas necessary. According to the story Iheard, the goatherd operating inHeliopolis where I was stationed, when hegot back from his round, sent one of hissons out to count the goats. This was thefirst time this particular son had beengiven the task. When he had been gonean unconscionable time, the son who usu-ally did the counting was sent out to seewhat was up. The second son when hefound out how the problem was beingtackled berated his brother. ‘Fool, idiot.Fancy counting their legs and dividing byfour. You are just making work. All youhave got to do is count their horns anddivide by two.’ I do know a few clean sto-ries.

In this light look at, say, wintering. Acolony that does not winter well will comethrough the winter in a weak conditionand not get as much honey as one thatdoes winter well. The same argumentapplies to the other criteria affectinghoney production.

If you select for honey production itselfyou automatically select for any and all cri-teria that affect honey production. Apartfrom saving a lot of work, you avoid thequestion of deciding how many marksyou should award to wintering, how manyto brood area and so on.

Unfortunately, using honey production asa main selection criterion is not quite assimple and straightforward as this. Thingsvery rarely are entirely simple andstraightforward.

Selecting for honey production can meanselecting for just robbing ability. However,just remembering this goes some way toavoiding catastrophe.

There are criteria which, irrespective ofany effect they may have on honey yield,because of their importance, do definite-ly need to be considered on their own.

Temper and swarming are two such. Ifyou do not consider these as vital, yournon-beekeeping neighbours certainlywill. They will not want to be stung. Theywill not want your bees ‘following’ their

children. They will not want your swarmsin the roof space or chimneys of theirhouse. Their wants in these regards arewholly reasonable. Even if you take theregrettable attitude of ‘to hell with theneighbours’, it is in your own interest as abeekeeper to have non-following beesthat are reluctant to sting, that are quieton the comb and disinclined to swarm.

Just as there is more than one componentof ‘temper’, so ‘swarming is not a singlecomponent issue. There are two quiteseparate meanings of the word ‘swarm-ing’. To most it means the issue of aswarm. To the commercial beekeeper andto serious amateur beekeepers, it means,or used to mean, the signs at the periodicsummer inspections that a colony intendsto swarm. It means summer queen rear-ing by a colony. This summer queen rear-ing by the colony can give the beekeeperthe opportunity to avert swarm loss andavert further swarm preparations by thatcolony. This is not the place to considerthe relevant merits of requeening, artifi-cial swarming, nucleus making, packagebee production, etc. as ways of achievingthis end. It is, though, the place to pointout that, although the only proven fore-warning of the issue of a swarm is queenrearing by the colony, about half of allsummer queen rearing by colonies isaborted by the colonies, if they are giventhe opportunity.

It is often argued that a totally non-swarm-ing bee is impossible, since a totally non-swarming bee could not survive in thewild. Some frequency of colony reproduc-tion, which is what swarming is, is builtinto the bee, it is alleged. The argumentsounds conclusive, but it is nothing of thesort. The same argument could be usedregarding the ‘brooding’ of eggs by birds,yet non-sitting breeds of poultry havebeen bred.

I am not going to go off, well not hereand now, into the byway of the feasibilityof breeding a non-swarming bee and thelikely cost of doing so. Such a byway,though interesting, would take too longto describe, and thus make this articlemuch longer than usual, a very dangerousprecedent for a lazy person to set.

Provided that the breeding population isnot small, it should be possible at least toprevent excessive swarming being bredinto a strain. The breeding populationneeds to be a fair size to provide enoughto choose amongst.


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Earlier articles in this series have defined‘breeding population’ and discussedbreeding population size. You can alsofind their detail in the book, Backgroundto Bee Breeding. Here, let me just simpli-fy selection against swarming. This can bereduced to two questions, neither ofwhich needs marks as answer, as theanswers to each is either yes or no. Thetwo questions are: Has a swarm issued?This question can be altered for conve-nience to, ‘Is the marked queen that wasthere at the beginning of the season, stillthere at the season’s end? The secondquestion is, ‘Has the colony engaged insummer queen rearing? Those that arenot as meticulous in summer inspectionsas to know the true answer to this ques-tion could argue that the second versionof the first question is all that is necessary.Bear in mind that selection against swarm-ing needs to be confined to selectionamongst strong colonies. There is no sig-nificance in weak colonies failing toswarm.

Strictly speaking, ‘Temper’ can be held torefer only to stinging propensity. However,it may be convenient to give the term awider meaning to include quietness onthe comb and ‘non-following’. All threeattributes are desirable.

Non-following and low stinging propensi-ty have little chance (that I can see) ofbeing selected for in the wild (i.e. byDarwinian ‘natural selection,’). NaturalSelection would favour bad temperedbees that would follow a would-be preda-tor and see it off. Quietness on the combin the wild is, I believe, immaterial and sowould, in nature, neither be selected fornor against, so selection for this compo-nent as well as the other two is for the beebreeder to do.

To sum up my points so far, most selectioncriteria affecting the beekeeper, but nothis neighbours, can be eliminated byselecting for honey production only.

Temper and swarming with their sub divi-sions need to be selected for separately.

The selection process itself can be mademore efficient, if it is regarded as a twoseason affair. In the first season the choiceshould be as wide as possible, preferablycovering all the pure bred colonies of allthe members of a breed society, to use theterminology of farm animal breeding.The selection would be entirely on thecolony records, and those records wouldnot need to be much more complicatedor detailed than the ones in the recordssystem of a competent commercial bee-keeper, though, for the convenience ofthe person collating the records of the dif-ferent beekeepers it would help if therewas some standardisation. On the minusside is apiary size. Each apiary wouldneed, for statistical purposes to have aminimum of ten colonies; twelve would bebetter. For a different reason the maxi-mum number of colonies in any partici-pating apiary would need to be far belowthe sort of numbers current fifty yearsago, in the Manley era when commercialapiaries could have forty or fifty stocks.

Selection in the second season would beof the top scorers of the previous seasonand would involve regular weighing, toeliminate high honey yields caused by rob-bing

So far I have not said a word about colourIt is frequently, but not correctly, pointedout that colour is not a factor of econom-ic importance. Just try selling, say, queensof native bees in Britain, if those queens’workers have a lot of yellow about them.Colour is the attribute that most standsout in recognising a bee race.Unfortunately, it is far from a reliable indi-cator. Again too much emphasis can beplaced on biometry. This, I understand,was revealed when it became feasible touse DNA analysis. I believe, though, thatwhilst it can be feasible to use DNA analy-sis for research purposes, this technique is

likely to remain too expensive as a run ofthe mill bee breeders’ tool. I hope I amwrong, but if I am not, a change of strate-gy may be the only way out of the difficul-ty. Instead of hoping that mating has allbeen with the desired drones and usingbiometry as a not very satisfactory way ofseeing if that hope was justified, it couldbe better to ensure effective mating con-trol in the first place.

As I wrote at the beginning of the earlierarticle on Selection, I have avoided thissubject in the past because so many othershave written about it. My aim now is to putforward facets that others have not putforward, which should give subjects forperhaps several future articles.

********

I have just space for a (probably infuriat-ing) further snippet.

I have mentioned before how valuable the‘National’ can be for picking up news andopinions. One of the opinions expressedto me by two quite separate people at the‘99 National was disillusionment with II,instrumental insemination.

This disillusion does not in the least sur-prise me. The problem was wonderfullyexpressed in my hearing nearly twentyyears ago by an Australian. He said, ‘Theproblem is no longer how to inseminate. Itis what to inseminate. Disillusion is boundto result before long, if you get the answerto that question wrong. Even if you re-phrase the question as, ‘What to mate towhat?’, the answer may not be easy toapply, but it is nearly always short. Sevenwords. You have got your Lush Numberwrong.

No space here and now to assuage yourfury by giving an explanation in this arti-cle. However, the explanation will be (Ihope) in the next one.

The national honey show2000

Appointment of stewardsOnce again, may I appeal for volunteers to act as stew-ards at the 2000 National honey show. If you have anhour or two to spare would you please write to me giv-ing some indication of the day and time when youwould be available. All stewards are given free admis-sion to the Show and grants for refreshments.

If anyone wishes to be considered as a judges’ steward,would they please write to me before the end ofSeptember. Priority will be given to those who aspireto the judge’s or associate judge’s certificate.

H.F. Carpenter, Hon. General Secretary, 1 BaldricRoad, Folkstone, Kent CT20 2NR

email [email protected]


Issue No. 62

36

Varroa Survival: Modern Hivesv. Natural Nest SitesThere has been much interest shown inthe survival of feral colonies of beesdespite the fact that they may occur inareas where varroa is rife and yet theycontinue to thrive without treatment. Thereason for these colonies’ survival must beof some importance and, once the factorshave been recognised, it would, of course,be beneficial to incorporate what is learntinto conventional beekeeping practice.

It is very difficult to monitor what goes oninside a natural colony of bees when it islocated in a church, chimney, tree, orother obscure site but, by simulating theconditions usually found in such a wildnest, it may be possible to find some of theanswers we are looking for.

It is my contention that bees in a contem-porary hive are at a disadvantage wheninfested with varroa. The design of mod-ern beehives allows varroa mites, whichmay have been groomed from bees, to re-establish themselves on other bees as theyarrive or leave the nest, because the hiveentrance is commonly at the base of thehive. Many management procedures, too,may cause stress to the colony and distractbees from their normal patterns ofhygienic behaviour. The combined effortsof these factors favours the survival of var-roa mites within the hive.

When bees take up residence in the wild,the number of varroa mites is limited onlyby the bees’ inherent ability to groomthemselves free of mites and also byuncapping and removing dead, infestedbrood. To test bees under more naturalconditions a Hollow Tree Hive could bemade. It consists of about 6” deep and 14”across (including the 2” thick walls).Several supers stacked together will makeup the hive and with more supers beingadded beneath the colony as it expandsand so that there is always at least a spaceof about 6” between the bottom of thelower-most comb and the floor of thehive. Both the roof and the floor are 16”square boards about 2” thick. Twoentrances/ventilation holes are providedby drilling 1” holes in a couple of thesupers. I found that my Hollow Treecolonies built comb to a depth of 32” inthe first two years, after that little increasewas observed.

HONEYBEE COLONIES

IN THE WILDIan Rumsey

Fig. 1. (left) The Hollow Tree Hive.

Fig. 2. (below, top) Weekly varroa drop in untreated Hollow TreeHive No 8.

Fig. 3. (below bottom) Weekly varroa drop in untreated HollowTree Hive No 12.

Fig. 4. (opposite page) Colony population and availability ofvarroa nest sites in (A) Parent Colony and (B) A swarm.


Issue No. 62

37

Honey in the Kitchenby Joyce White (2nd edition, revisedby her daughter, Valerie Rogers)Published by Bee Books New & Old,£7.99. ISBN 0 905652 50 9.

I was given this little book to review whilston holiday and, after much rich food, wasquite keen to return to the simple andtasty recipes it contains. The introductionis most informative to the novice honeycook, giving brief notes on honey compo-sition, history, colour, viscosity, aroma &flavour, and storage, together with basichoney-cookery tips.

Many of the recipes are seasonal and onlyuse ingredients to be found in the averagekitchen. There are old favourites, newrecipes (especially the delectable crunchyhoney mustard) and steamed puddingscooked at low temperatures to avoid spoil-

ing the honey’s aroma and flavour.

This book is as suitable for anyoneunused to honey cookery as for the expe-rienced cook wanting to return to healthy(and extremely tasty) and simple food.With its ‘wipe clean’ cover, it would makean excellent gift, especially if it wasaccompanied by a selection of the giver’sown honeys. It should be borne in mindthat the recipes are inexpensive only if asupply of ‘friend and family’ honey isavailable, many monofloral honeys fromshops being too expensive to use in quan-tity, unless for a special treat.

I want to dance by Liz Hall, illustrated by ChrisGeanely. UK price £5.99. www.minerva-press.co.ukISBN 0 75410 835

Designed and written by an experiencedprimary school teacher and beekeeperfor young children, this book allows thereader an anthropomorphic glimpse ofthe interior workings of a hive from thepoint of view of Belinda Bee. She emergesfrom her cell, a newly-hatched worker,and entices the small reader through allher many and, sometimes, dangerousactivities, longing all the time to realizeher ambition to be a bee who dances,becoming an adult who can leave the hiveand experience the intense joy of nectarcollection.

Delightfully illustrated, my one criticismis that some text clarity is sacrificed by itsbeing superimposed over the pictures,making this a book to be read with a child(more satisfying to both parties!), ratherthan by the child alone.

BOOKSHELFBook revievs by Val Phipps

BIBBABEE IMPROVEMENT AND BEE BREEDING ASSN.

Conference 20001st - 4th September

University of Sheffield

Speakers include : Steve Taber USA, Dr FrancisRatnieks, Adrian WaringPractical demonstrations and apiary visits.Book todayTom Robinson, 71 Broadway, York. YO1 4JPTelephone 01904 626170

Join BIBBA today and Bee Improvement quarterlymagazine is free as a benefit of membership.

Membership is £15 per yearBIBBA Membership Secretary:

Brian Dennis, 50 Station Road, Cogenhoe, Northants NN71LU Tel:01604-890117

Internet: http://www.angus.co.uk/bibba/bim01.html


Issue No. 62

38

It was interesting to read the Research News from theJournal of Apicultural Research, reviewed by David Cramp,regarding the ‘reverse’ hygienic behaviour of Apis ceranawhich seal over varroa infested cells. However, regarding the

hope that a ‘non-hygienic’ bee with these qualities could bebred, one would imagine that it would take as long as it did forCerana to evolve this method of varroa control. Nevertheless, inthe battle against varroa, everything which might be seen to beof use must, at least, be investigated.

Now varroa is found in New Zealand - but wasn’t this inevitable?When varroa was found in Devon - with its high level of infesta-tion - it became apparent that varroa had been present for manyyears. The same seems to be true in New Zealand. One wonderswhy it was so difficult for beekeepers not to have detected themites sooner, in both countries. All right, the mite is tiny, butthere are other indicators, too, which should have alerted bee-keepers that something was wrong. Wouldn’t there have beenmis-shapen bees, perhaps with malformed wings and beingunable to fly? Surely, something, at least, to make beekeeperscurious?

I was saddened to hear of the death of Rev. Eric Milner. Someyears ago our paths crossed several times when we both wote forthe British Bee Journal regarding some observations on the OldEnglish Bee and whether or not it still existed. Eric gave detailsof the morphometric measurements he had made of the wingsand body hairs of bees and encouraged people that, throughselection and breeding, they might be able to revitalise thisbreed - for it had attributes which many beekeepers favoured. So,having passed on, Eric joins other beekeepers who contributedto the BBJ in its olden, golden days.

Newsround informed us that new research shows that beekeep-ers are PRONE to arthritis - that is, it is not cured by bee venom,but brought on by it. So, all those young women in the 1930’ssitting for hours besides bee hives, picking up bees with tweezersand touching each one onto a sheet of inch thick blotting paper,were wasting their time. The bee venom was then pressed outfrom the blotting paper, centrifuged and then used as a serumfor treating arthritics, yet apparently all this treatment did wasto excarcabate their condition. Hopefully, the venom collectors’work was not all wasted for some of the extract was used as anantidote for snake bites.

How I enjoyed the article by R. Raff - mainly because in manyways I can identify with much of it. Firstly, about creosote. Asreaders will already know I have used this substance for over 60years. It has been invaluable to me in the apiary for stopping orpreventing robbing and for keeping mice, waxmoth and otherundesirables out of the hive. I, too, was told some years ago thatit was carcinogenic, but would echo R Raff’s words that if youtake heed of all that you read and hear - that it’s hardly worthwhile getting out of bed in the morning. Anyway, as stated, I haveused the stuff for a long time and I’m in my 79th year. And asfor a swarm of bees - they will choose a freshly creosoted hive asreadily as a non-treated one. Secondly, the price of cigarettes.When I was ten they were eleven pence and a ha’penny for 20and there was a dispensing machine not far from where I lived.At that time, the country was flooded with one Franc coinsbrought back to the UK by WW1 British soldiers. We discoveredthat they were exactly the same size as a one shilling coin, so youcould get a pack of twenty for one Franc. Not that we smoked,no, there was a greater prize we sought, for taped to the packetof cigarettes was a ha’penny coin as change. This is at a timewhen farthings (a quarter of a penny) had monetary value. Earlyon a Sunday morning, when few people were about, we put our

Franc coin in the machine, detached the ha’penny and threwaway the pack of Capstan or Players. I often wondered what thelucky smokers thought on finding the full packets. At this timepetrol was just 10d a gallon for the cheapest and 1s for the best.

In Letters, George Batey MRPS writes about being breathed onby countless people in the course of his work as a pharmacist andis given to thinking that this has led to him having developed animmunity to colds. This may be truer than he thinks as one the-ory is that there are just over a hundred variants of cold virusesand when you have gone trhough all of them, your immune sys-tem is fully primed.

Finally, the other day a couple of beekeepers approached mewith a bumblebee in a jar. They pointed out its strange shape asit had a somewhat elongated abdomen when compared to otherbumblebees. As I am interested in all kinds of bees and wasps, Iwas able to tell them that their specimen was a drone bumblebeeand that the elongated abdomen was needed to accommodate itsgenitalia. The antennae, too, were longer than those of a work-er bumblebee. Wasp drones’ abdomens are also longer and theirantennae and abdomens are much darker than the workers’.The antennae are also more curled and thicker than a workerswasp’s. In warm weather wasp drones, I have discovered, congre-gate in dozens, mainly on apple tree leaves, not far from wherethe wasp’s nest is located.

TALKBACK

Albert Morris

BEE DISEASESINSURANCE

The only insurance available forcolonies and equipment destroyed as

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Scheme A39 colonies or less are insured through your local

Association to whom enquiries should be addressed.Scheme A manager & stockist of Fumidil B

Bernard White, Honey Croft, 10 Park House Road,Low Moor, Bradford BD12 0QB

Tel: 01274 678522

Scheme BNon-Association beekeepers with less than 40

colonies and Association Members with 40 coloniesor more can insure by applying direct to:

Scheme B ManagerMrs Margery Homer, Eadie Cottage, Cutnall Green,

Droitwich, Worcestershire WE9 0PQ Tel: 01299 851637


Issue No. 62

In the last BKQ GeorgeHawthorne looked atpostal covers. He now turnshis attention to business

cards with a bee theme.

Business cards are things wetend to keep for a while andthen throw away. But, alongsidepostal covers, bills, receipts,event programmes, show sched-ules and other items of beeephemera, they can in futureyears prove to be of much inter-est. Here are just three from theeditor’s collection.

The Chairman of the FinnishHoney Producers Ltd uses thehexagon and honey colouring.Has English become the inter-

national language? - or is thiscard especially designed for theEnglish speaker?

John Adams of Bee BustersIncorporated vows to “save thegood B’s and eliminate the BadB’s”.

My favourite, though I am not apub man, is from ‘The Beehive’pub, Castlegate, Grantham.Formerly known as ‘The Sign”.Notice the WBC up in the treeon the left. The pub sign carriesthe verse:

“Stop traveller this wondrous signexplore And say when thow has viewed it o’erThat Grantham now two rarities arethineA lofty steeple and a living sign.”For how many years, I wonder,has the ‘sign’, the WBC, houseda colony of bees?

George Hawthorne is reducing hiscollection of beekeeping collectablesand has quite a few items for dis-posal. He hopes that these articleswill find homes amongst the bee-keeping fraternity. Much of his col-lection has featured in CollectorsCorner over the years. It is suggestedthat anyone interested should tele-phone George expressing interest ingeneral or in specefic items - he willtell you then what is available.

Ring George on 01491 680484.

COLLECTORS

CORNER

Classified15p per word (plus VAT). Minimum charge £3Advertisements for this column must be accompanied by remittancesand must reach us one month before publication.

Please send cheque/PO to Northern Bee BooksScout Bottom Farm, MytholmroydWest Yorkshire HX7 5JS

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BEEKEEPER’S HOIST

10’ tripod, block and tackle, all weatherproof, will easily lift 6heavy supers. £200. Neil: 0141 7762763

Classified Advertisements


Issue No. 62

40

BEEKEEPING

PERIODICALS

THE IRISH BEEKEEPER -The newsmedia for Irish Beekeepers. Officialorgan of the F.I.B.K.A. published month-ly. Subscription £10.00 (sterling) perannum post free. Sample copies andsubscriptions: Mr. Graham Hall, Weston,38 Elton Park, Sandycove, Co. Dublin,Ireland

GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUREIs easy to read. A magazine that bringsyou new and better ideas for keepingbees. Published monthly. Enjoy and prof-it from your bees by reading Gleanings. 1year £18.50, 2 years £35.00. Payable toE.H. Thorne (Beehives) Ltd. BeehiveWorks, Wragby, Lincoln LN3 5LA.

IBRA - Bee informed with IBRA! TheInternational Bee Research Association isthe world’s premier information serviceon bees and beekeeping. We producethree respected journals and have anunrivalled library and information ser-vice. Support this work and enjoy all thebenefits of membership. Further infor-mation from IBRA, 18 North Road,Cardiff CF1 3DY UK. Fax (01222)665522. Telephone (01222) 372409 (24 hours).

BEE CRAFT the official monthly journalof the British Beekeepers’ Association,covering all aspects of beekeeping in theUK. An annual subscription includes thebenefit of third party insurance cover.Details from the Secretary, Mrs S. White,24 Dogger Lane, Wells-next-the-sea,Norfolk NR23 1BE

THE SCOTTISH BEEKEEPER. Monthlymagazine of the Scottish Beekeepers’Association. International in appeal,Scottish in character. Membership termsfrom: Enid Brown, Milton House, Mainstreet, Scotlandwell, Kinross-shire KY 139JA, Scotland. Sample copy on request.

GWENYNWYR CYMRU - THE WELSHBEEKEEPER - The quarterly magazine ofCymdeithas Gwenynwyr Cymru - theWelsh Beekeepers’ Association. Local andNational news of beekeeping in Walesand abroad. Subscription details from theSecretary, BD Rowlands, Trem y Clawdd,Fron Isof, Chirk, Clwyd, LL14 5AH

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