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Why do people import queens?

March 14, 2010 in , ,

I just dont understand it! Why oh why get a queen from abroad? I mean what possible benefit can be gained from doing so, or is it easier to get queens from abroad? Im not sure I mean how difficult is it to phone your local beekeepers association and see what they say? Failing that a chat with local beekeepers should provide fruitful and perhaps queens can be found at no cost.

Not only that if you find a queen locally it gives you a chance to see the hive and discuss with the owner the temperament and other traits.

The Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Associations (BIBBA) are offering to help beekeepers to rear queens that are more suited to their geographical locale. The areas covered are England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

All the National BKA’s advise to source bees locally and NOT to import. The reasoning is that the bees may carry disease and pests but are also unsuited to live in the country’s weather conditions.

There are still experienced beekeepers who think that all bees are the same! This is not the case and bees can be more suited to certain weather conditions or forage availability.

So we are all in agreement that bees and their queens should be sourced locally. So the Local Queen Programme is being setup to encourage beekeepers to raise their own queen from the best thats available in their locale. Your local BKA will hopefully play a big part in this scheme and help you every step of the way.

The aim of the scheme is a pyramid system with member beekeepers in the base with them teamed with a local BKA doing the propogation of queens. It is also hoped that specialised breeding groups will form locally with a more keen interest in this area of beekeeping.

BIBBA has annouced it will help local BKAs. More info can be found on their website and lectures and tuition is available.

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Jonathon Goodwin the escapologist

January 6, 2010 in ,

Jonathon Goodwin the escapologist uses bees to “entertain”. Below is a video of him playing bee roulette and in his new show on the Discovery channel he is covered head to toe in bees while he escapes a locked box. At least he gets stung a lot! Numpty.

Im unsure if I agree with what he is doing as his over reaction to bee stings in the below video teaches people nothing about how they should react (which is dont flap your hands and arms around like an idiot). It also increases peoples fear of bees as they scream and dance around in pain from a sting!! Come on guys its really not that bad, for me a wasp sting hurts so much more!

Anyway watch the video below and keep a look out for his big bee stunt on Discovery channel and let me know what you think and if hes doing the plight of bees any favours!

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Feeding Bees over the Winter – Using Fondant or Feed Paste

October 7, 2009 in , , ,

Well its getting to that time of year again when liquid feeds are no longer an option, by the end of October the cold weather should have taken hold rendering the bees unable to cope with syrup feed.

Depending on how much honey has been harvested or the strength of the hive will depend on the required feeding. If you have a strong hive and you have not taken any honey it would be fairly safe to say the bees have stored enough honey to get them through the Winter. Although checks should be made throughout the season to make sure (generally done by lifting the hive to determine weight, if its light feeding must be done).

However lets assume you want to feed your bees anyway. Using fondant or feed paste is the suggested feeding strategy in Winter, however its not, as a lot of people think just ordinary cake fondant (Im sure a lot of people use this successfully though). The fondant can be made up at home or can be purchased from somewhere like Thornes. Thornes supply fondant called Apifonda and it contains extra sugars like fructose and glucose. What you will notice about this fondant mixture is that it is in no way as hard as ordinary cake fondant, its much more malleable and will actually absorb a little moisture when placed in the hive.

This is why I would suggest either making your own fondant or buying something ready made like Apifonda, plus it has extra sugars that will help the bees. Ordinary cake fondant tends to go to hard when left in the air.

So now we have our fondant what exactly do we do with it? Well it is advised to place it on top of the brood frames (if the super is to remain on with honey you could place the fondant on top of these), spread it out and push it down between the frames slightly, so the bees dont need to move far to get it. A pack of Apifonda combined with their honey stores should tide them through until Spring but remember to do the weight check just in case.

When adding the fondant to the hive you should notice the bees hightened aggression, this is to ensure the safety of their stores, so make sure you have all your gear on to prevent stings.

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Bumble Bee Identification Poster – Cuckoo Bumble Bee

September 27, 2009 in ,

Below is a poster that can help you identify Bumble Bees. There has been some recent talk about the not very well known Cuckoo Bumble Bee.

I must admit I never even knew the existence of the Cuckoo Bumble Bee. Seemingly it finds a different bumble bee varietys nest then it will either kill the queen bumble bee straight away or hang around the nest for a while picking up the scent and then get rid of the queen.

The workers are sterile and dont really have much other choice but to accept the new Cuckoo Bumble Bee Queen and rear its young instead. The new queen will lay as many larvae as the workers can cope with these then mature and leave the nest and the cycle begins again.

The main difference between a Cuckoo Bumble Bee and other varieties is that the Cuckoo has no pollen sacks on its legs. Because it is parasitic in its nature it does no work and therefore does not need the pollen sacks!

Amazing. Anyway below is the poster which I hope you find useful. Click on it to enlarge it (you may have to use the zoom in bottom right if using Internet Explorer):

Bumble Bee Identification Poster

Bumble Bee Identification Poster

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Do Bee Stings Reduce Arthritis Symptoms?

August 27, 2009 in , , ,

Apitherapy or BVT

Apitherapy or BVT

Bee stings or apitherapy (The term comes from the Latin apis, which means “bee”) as it is known or BVT (Bee Venom Therapy) is thought by many to reduce the effects of arthritis. The bee venom is administered either by needle or actual bee sting. The theory has been banded around for years, with the main concept being the bee venom reduces inflamation. This is of course true as South Korean found that the principle peptide in bee venom (melittin) blocks the expression of inflammatory genes that can cause painful tissue swelling in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Another anti inflamatory subtance found in the venom is adolapin. Melittin stimulates the body’s production of cortisol, a natural steroid that also acts as an anti-inflammatory.

BVT is also used to treat a number of other ailments such as tendonitis, bursitis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms, and even pevent and treat cancer.

Of course with anything there is a risk involved, an allergic reaction to the stings could result in Anaphylaxis (anaphylatic shock). This can lead to death in extreme cases.

The history of apitherapy reaches back to ancient China, Egypt and Greece. Hippocrates, the Greek physician known as the “father of medicine”, used bee venom to treat arthritis and other joint problems. The Austrian physician Phillip Terc initiated the modern study of bee venom and intentional bee stings when he published his article “Report about a Peculiar Connection Between the Beestings and Rheumatism” in 1888. The late beekeeper Charles Mraz of Middlebury, Vermont is credited with popularising bee venom therapy over the past 60 years in the United States. Today, thousands of medical professionals and lay practitioners use apitherapy acroos the globe.

I realise this infoi isnt anything new but I think its very interesting and wondered if any of my readers have tried it? Or perhaps you get stung regularly while beekeeping and you notice the health benefits? Please let us know by using the comment form below:

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Using a manipulation cloth to keep your bees calm

July 29, 2009 in , ,

Manipulation Cloth Shot 1

Manipulation Cloth Shot 1

A great aid when carrying out hive manipulation is a manipulation cloth. Its a very simple design with a rectangular metal frame and two pieces of cloth attached to each long side of the metal frame.

As I took the pictures you can see I was amazed at what a great bee calming tool this is, especially useful for beekeepers in more built up areas. Work through the gap in the manipulation cloth and when finished in that area simply slide the cloth to a new bit or if you require to walk away from the hive for something fold the longer flap over the gap.

What this does is stops the bees from flying straight up from the hive, except through the gap in the manipulation cloth, covering the gap or moving it to a new area then stops them flying up through it. This means there are less angry bees flying above the hive and around you.

The one featured in the photos is from Thorne but if you look at how its designed it really is very simple and even someone with poor DIY/Sewing skills could make it themselves.

Manipulation cloth shot 2

Manipulation Cloth Shot 2

Manipulation cloth shot 3

Manipulation Cloth Shot 3

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Give your bees a drink – Beekeeping tip

July 5, 2009 in ,

Drinking Bee

Drinking Bee

A good tip for beekeepers is to keep an accessible water source for the hive to use. Rather than an open water source like a bird bath or similar, bees prefer to suck the water from a damp area.

The absolute perfect solution would be a small sandpit (even a bowl or flowerpot of sand) near the hive and kept moist. However if you dont have any sand the bees will settle for other things! Have you got some seed trays with compost?

As you can see from the picture they will drink from compost in a seed tray quite happily.

So by hardening of your seedlings outside, keeping them moist your giving the bees a perfect source of water. However try and get a few cups of sand to make a more permanent watering hole.

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Bumble Bee Explosion

June 29, 2009 in , ,

Whats with the bumble bee explosion over the past month? Their numbers seem to have boomed this month; last week I thought one of the trees in my garden might actually take flight it had so many bumble bee wings beating on it! The buzzing was so loud you could hear it 10 metres away.

The numbers are incredible and give me hope, as the poor bumbler hasnt seemed to be doing terrificaly well in recent years, perhaps its the media attention of the plight of the bumble bee and the upsurge in purchasing of bumble bee nest boxes. Maybe the weather conditions have just been ideal for them this year; no flash flooding and windy conditions like last year!

At a recent trip to my allotment I discovered a bunch of poppies absolutely teaming with bumble bees, there was about five bees on each flower head (not many honey bees though :( ) and I stopped to have a quick look. I spotted atleast two different varieties:

White Tailed Bumble Bee – Bombus Lucorum
Garden Bumble Bee – Bombus Hortorum
Possible even a Buff Tailed Bumble Bee – Bombus Terrestris although Im not sure.

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Is it a good idea to harvest all the honey?

June 14, 2009 in , , ,

A recent conversation with my Mum has sparked this post and I think it raises and interesting point regarding the health of bees.

Obviously one of the benefits to keeping bees is the crop of honey provided but lets not forget why the bees make the honey in the first place….its certainly not for us to put in our tea? No, it is of course to help them survive the harsh winter months. But we can supplement their food/diet with sugar syrup and fondant I hear you cry! This I imagine is especially prevelant in more commercial apiaries but perhaps its a common practise with beginners through to experts. If so, should it be?

So we come to the crux of the issue. Is harvesting all the honey and the supplement of bees food detrimental to hive health; their immune systems in particular? The beneficial effects of honey have been well documented and we know it is a natural antiseptic. Surely honey as a complex solution that has evolved alongside the bee over tens of millions of years, cant be replaced with a simple sugar solution without having a detrimental effect on the bees.

Perhaps the lack of their natural food source is effecting their ability to combat disease and parasites? Could aggressive and greedy beekeeping techniques be contributing to the demise of the honey bee?

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Planting for bees

June 4, 2009 in ,

Well it seems that we have to do all we can to help aid the bees survival. One of the things we can all do to help whether you have a garden or not is providing bees with the flowering plants they love.

I say you dont need a garden because you can utilise your window ledges and balconies by using window boxes and pots etc.

So what can we plant that bees love?

Well from my own experiences watching bees in my garden they love wild flowers, herbs (especially rosemary and thyme), escallonia, catmint and buddleia.

I strongly advise creating a wild flower and herb patch in your garden or why not create a window box of herbs. You get nice herbs to use in cooking and you help bees, everyones a winner!

Perhaps we should petition our local councils about planting more for bees. Although Perth and Kinross to plant wild flowers on some roundabouts I have seen.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Here is a good book on the topic:


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