Natural Beekeeping

Dear BeeAlert subscriber, (Bee Alert is run by Phil Chandler)

News just in provides compelling evidence that Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides are a significant cause of bee deaths in Britain and elsewhere, supporting the case that we have been making for years.

The British Bee Keepers Association must now climb down from the fence and clearly state their opposition to the use of these deadly chemicals on agricultural land, or face even more derision and condemnation from beekeepers and other associations both in the UK and abroad.

A key study, published in a respected scientific journal, demonstrates that neonicotinoids are routinely found in lethal doses in samples of dead bees, in seed planter exhaust, in fields where seeds had been planted and in dandelion flowers growing nearby. This shows clear pathways by which bees are being poisoned and removes any last shred of an excuse for the BBKA to continue to toe the pesticide industry line that these substances are ‘safe if used correctly’.

If you keep bees within flying distance of agricultural land where maize, oilseed-rape (Canola) or other crops are grown using clothianidin-coated seed, YOUR BEES ARE IN DANGER. Likewise, all other pollinating insects – including endangered bumblebees – that live on or near that land will be poisoned, as will the birds and reptiles that feed on them. There is also growing evidence of possible long-term effects on human health.

SUGGESTED ACTION

Read the paper here – http://tinyurl.com/776y97v

PLEASE write to the BBKA and ask them to put their weight behind efforts to ban these deadly toxins from our countryside, while we still have some bees left.

Send an email to bbka@britishbeekeepers.com asking the BBKA to STOP supporting the pesticide industry and to work to have neonicotinoids banned in the UK. (More BBKA email addresses below)

If you are a BBKA member, pass this email around your local association – the more people who understand what is going on, the better. Make sure this issue is discussed and a resolution is passed to BBKA HQ.

If you are a gardener, look out for neonicotinoids in household sprays and compost: the common ones are Imidacloprid, Clothianidin, Thiamethoxam and Fipronil (also found in pet flea treatments). Return all such sprays to the shop and tell the manager why you will not buy them. Make sure your local gardening club / allotment association are aware of the dangers.

Gardeners may also be interested to know that Glyphosate (Roundup) has recently been shown to be much more toxic that Monsanto would like you to believe. In this report, Don Huber, Emeritus Professor at Purdue University and senior scientist on USDA’s National Plant Disease Recovery System, links glyphosate to reduced nutrient availability in plants, increasing plant diseases, the emergence of a new pathogen, animal illness and possible effects on human health.
See http://www.i-sis.org.uk/USDA_scientist_reveals_all.php

EXTRACT FROM THE PURDUE PESTICIDE RESEARCH PAPER

“Our results demonstrate that bees are exposed to these compounds and several other agricultural pesticides in several ways throughout the foraging period. During spring, extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We also found neonicotinoids in the soil of each field we sampled, including unplanted fields. Plants visited by foraging bees (dandelions) growing near these fields were found to contain neonicotinoids as well. This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by the root system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during the spring sampling period were found to contain clothianidin as well, although whether exposure was oral (consuming pollen) or by contact (soil/planter dust) is unclear. We also detected the insecticide clothianidin in pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive.”

“These findings clarify some of the mechanisms by which honey bees may be exposed to agricultural pesticides throughout the growing season. These results have implications for a wide range of large-scale annual cropping systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments.”

BBKA EMAIL ADDRESSES

PRESIDENT – Martin Smith – martin.smith@bbka.org.uk
CHAIRMAN – Brian Ripley – brian.ripley@bbka.org.uk
VICE CHAIRMAN – Dr David Aston – david.aston@bbka.org.uk
TREASURER – Michael Sheasby – michael.sheasby@bbka.org.uk
BBKA News and Year Book Editor – Sharon Blake m-s.blake@overstratton.fsnet.co.uk
Examinations Board Secretary – Val Francis valfrancis@blueyonder.co.uk
Public Affairs Director – Tim Lovett tjl@dermapharm.co.uk

TRUSTEES
Dr David Bancalari – david.bancalari@bbka.org.uk
Doug Brown – doug.brown@bbka.org.uk
Chris Deaves – chris.deaves@bbka.org.uk
Brian Dennis – brian.dennis@bbka.org.uk
Dawn Girling – dawn.girling@bbka.org.uk
John Hendrie – john.hendrie@bbka.org.uk
Roger Patterson – roger.patterson@bbka.org.uk
Julian Routh – julian.routh@bbka.org.uk
Michael Young – michael.young@bbka.org.uk

Let’s make 2012 the year that British bee keepers take positive action to clean up our countryside – for the sake of the bees.

Best wishes
Phil Chandler

www.biobees.com
www.naturalbeekeeping.org
www.friendsofthebees.org

For many of our Natural-Beekeeping Warre beekeepers this will be the end of your first or second season of beekeeping.

Experience will be gained, more questions raised: Practical procedures for wintering, judging winter stores, spring build up…

Please do let us know how you are getting on, shared experiences, and practical natural beekeeping questions, do feel free to email or telephone me.

Happy Christmas,

David

The Natural Beekeeping site is dedicated to helping beekeepers adopt a natural beekeeping methodology. By selling quality Warre beehives and providing our unique and now well established Free telephone helpline with every new hive, we trust we are doing our bit to help improve bee health, through bee friendly hives and helping beekeepers with practical advice and tips when requested.

Keeping our hives affordable to allow more beekeepers to keep bees on natural comb, rather than frames remains an ongoing task, and I am pleased to say we have been able to reduce costs whilst maintaining quality.

Our renowned cabinet maker has kindly agreed to oversee my own hands on assembly of his / our or rather your Warre Beehive.

Simply put, my time is free so we have reduced some man hour costs.

Considering Warre beekeeping, do call with your questions, if we can help we will.

Very best, David

I am being asked questions relating to Christmas Beekeeping gifts: what to give the natural beekeeper for Christmas.

Well other than a Warre beehive, or a Top Bar Horizontal beehive, not much!

Suggestions could include a Warre spring feeder, a bee escape, more top bars, natural beekeeping books… A nucleus of bees in the spring…

Do feel free to contact our helpline or email us if you’re struggling to find suitable gifts or book titles. Even if they are not of our supply we can generally give you the right contact details to help you with your Christmas gifts.

Happy beekeeping, David

The ideal text book configuration for wintering Warre Beehives is-

. A Two Box only configuration

. Turn the hiveboxes90deg so the comb is square onto the hive entrance rather than comb end on.

.The bees have ample stores of their own

Whilst most of our Warre Beehives we will configure as above, a few of our beehives we will do different.

You must also assess your beehives individually; any questions always call on our help line. Somebody told me this is probably the original natural beekeeping telephone helpline (not internet forum) and still unique in its openness and availability to all. So do please call.

So what are we going to do different- Two of our Warre hives have comb right down to the floor of the bottom hive box (Previous year the bees would beard if the bottom box was anything other than empty. Next blog I will tell you why this was possibly the case, but I want to check a few theories first)

The hives we are referencing were originally four boxes high (each box full of comb) and I have only harvested the honey in the top box, the Warre beehive remains heavy and I judge they have ample winter stores.

Therefore I will leave these beehives as a Three Box configuration (if the bottom box had been empty or only partial comb I would have removed it and wintered on two boxes) the theory being the broad nest is in the bottom box.

Also I am not going to turn the boxes, instead leave in the summer configuration. Reasons for this, the bee nest / colony in the wild would not change orientation and also I’m wanting greater ventilation to avoid the possibility of damp.

I will also put a slither of wood between the top of the quilt box and the Warre roof to aid the breathing (not ventilation) of the hive, again to avoid the possibility of dampness. I also have the beehive tilted forward by a degree or two so moisture can run out of the hive entrance rather than puddle on the beehive floor.

Finally over the next couple of weeks I will fit a mouse guard. Please do check these guards as they can become blocked.

Now, I am not too worried by a cold winter, the Warre provides the best warm environment of all available beehives. A cold winter is actually better than a mild winter. What we should wish for is a good Spring on-time with a gradual improvement in weather and temperature leading into Summer 2012.

Best wishes,

David

Out of the four Warre bee hives and two Horizontal Bee hives we currently run I believe we will remove truly excess honey from two of the Warre Bee hives. The other hives we will leave undisturbed.

However one of the Warries (new colony this year) is currently looking low on stores; I am trusting in a good autumn to avoid the emergency requirement for feeding.

To remove the honey I am going to use a bee escape, this time of triangular design and inset below the top box only. In theory the bees will return to the queen / broad nest leaving the top box of excess honey relatively free of bees, making honey harvesting easier and less stressful for the bees and I hope the beekeeper.

As I recently discussed via email with a fellow beekeeper, I recommend inserting the bee escape the day before harvesting, checking the weather so you’re pretty certain you know this is going to happen.

If you find when you open the top Warre bee hive box you have a lot of bees I suggest you gently remove the bee escape and leave the hive undisturbed.

The reason for this is that possibly the queen was actually in the top box when you inserted the escape. I would generally leave the hive alone for two or three days before trying again.

Any questions on harvesting excess honey do please call.

Best wishes,

David

Recently I attended the first Natural Beekeeping Conference. Unknown to me at the time, you can see me in the David Heaf Video; I am the person with the red jumper. I would like to say I am not standing up-straight because my head was touching the tent roof! See the Biobee website- www.biobees.com.

The conference itself was excellent and well attended- beginners, experienced beekeepers, bee farmer and academics. Certainly it was an excellent stage for voicing a variety of view points and bee husbandry methodologies that arguably are encompassed by the banner natural beekeeping.

Speakers included Heidi Herrmann of the Natural Beekeeping Trust who inspired us with her hive and biodynamics presentation, David Heaf discussed Apicentric beekeeping, the Warre beehive, a leaning towards sustainability and Phil Chandler passed on his leading practical natural beekeeping skills, guidance and vision.

I now look forward to the next Natural beekeeping event. Until then I leave you with Phil Chandlers encompassing natural beekeeping guidelines-

• Interference in the natural lives of the bees is kept to a minimum.
• Nothing is put into the hive that is known to be, or likely to be harmful either to the bees, to us or to the wider environment and nothing is taken out that the bees cannot afford to lose.
• The bees know what they are doing: our job is to listen to them and provide the optimum conditions for their well-being.

Best wishes, David.

This year two of our hives have comb filling the bottom box; previously the bees had always bearded even when the bottom box seemed only ¼ full!

However, I have held off from adding a 5^th box for the following reasons:

• The brood chamber of the colony is no longer expanding
• There has been no sign of bearding
• The additional comb built in a new bottom box would only be partial at this time of year and require removing for the winter
• The weather over the last week and a bit has been mixed for the bees
• This is the time of year that the bees tend to be more aggressive, defensive of their winter stores

Ideally, I wish to winter the colonies on two hive boxes only. This helps to maintain greater heat within the hive and reduce condensation and the possibility of mildew in the comb. Again compact (not crowded) being the best option.

At the moment I expect we will over winter on three boxes, potentially the top box truly being excess honey (No Sugar).

I will let you know more about this later in August. However we will only remove honey if it’s defiantly safe to do. Our goal is not to feed any sugar unless it’s a true emergency.  (If you like, we are bee guardians not beekeepers, honey for our toast is a real luxury.)

Fingers crossed for a good August.

Questions welcomed, or if you wish to privately (not an open forum) discuss your own beehive status please call our natural beekeeping helpline.

Tel. 01736 785777.

Many thanks,

David

Relocating Warre beehive, very early one summer morning

With the help of a few friends we relocated two of our Warre Beehives to a quiet corner of an organic farm. Many thanks for the kind generosity we have received.

We moved the bee colonies in the early hours of last Saturday morning; in fact I was out of bed at sun rise! approx 4.30 am to quickly staple in place a bent section of verroa mesh over the entrance of each Warre beehive before any bees started foraging for nectar and pollen.

Now both these bee hives have been doing really well, hence they are four boxes high. This meant they would only just fit into our beehive delivery van with the pitched roof removed. Therefore, we removed the roofs and taped plain lining paper over the top of the quilt box to help maintain the temperature. Then we strapped the whole bee hive firmly together with a ratchet strap. Through the top of this we slid a carrying pole and then lifted the bee hive. The hive remained perfectly upright and we walked slowly to the van.

As a precaution we did dress in our bee suits, but I am thankful to tell you the whole operation went smoothly and I would use this method of slinging the Warre beehive the next time I have to move any beehives.

If you should have any questions reference the positioning of your beehive, or relocating a Warre beehive please do not hesitate to call.

Best regards,

David

We now have a new Apiary within a short walk of our house in a wonderful copse, many thanks to our neighbours kindness and hospitality.

The new apiary has three beehives spaced wide apart and consists of two new Warre bee hives and one horizontal African top bar hive. We also now have for sale horizontal top bar hives, please do call for details.

Whilst two of the colonies were nucleus allowed to develop on the correct size top bars for our hives the third colony was a swarm.

Now I had been keeping a close eye on the garden south beehive that has over wintered without Varroa treatment and on its own stores. Despite having a higher Varroa level than I would have wished this hive just seemed to go from strength to strength and very quickly went from their wintering Warre beehive two box setup to three and then four boxes.

Suspecting a swarm I positioned several bait hives hoping to slightly increase my chances of capturing the swarm. Now I can see the hive from my office window so I felt relatively happy I had a good chance to observe the bees if they should swarm and be ready to catch them.

As they say bees will be bees and nature has no consideration for the fact that I might be out of the office for the day. Yes, unobserved by me a swarm landed in our neighbours’ garden, ignored the bait hives and was eventually captured by a neighbouring beekeeper who very kindly handed the bees over to Melanie in my absence. Many thanks!

Stop Press- This weekend we are also repositioning the garden beehives again thanks to a very kind offer. I will let you know how we moved our two Warre beehives, both of which are four boxes high to their new bee apiary location.

Best wishes,

David