We are getting lots of hits on the website for people who are looking for native locally adapted bees.
If you have queens or nucs available that are raised from local stock, then you can market them through the website: https://bibba.com/bees-for-sale/
If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.
Nick Mawby membership@bibba.com
And I thought that I was the only beekeeper in the world that does not clip queens’ wings. So, what a nice surprise when Michael Main said to me the other day, “I don’t clip my queens; I did so only once and felt terrible for the rest of the day.”
But, to be a bit more serious.
There is a well-known bee farmer, David Cramp, who managed 4000 hives in New Zealand in the early 2000s. He wrote an article (on queen clipping) in the November 2009 issue of Beecraft.
The article begins:
“I consider this a method of swarm control which is as ineffective and old fashioned as sulphuring bees to obtain honey…” It continues “…Clipping wings is one of the best ways of introducing uncertainty into apiary management that I know of… Honey production was my chief income for many years with many hives. I literally couldn’t afford swarming so had to find the best ways of limiting it. Damaging my production units and introducing uncertainty into my apiary/hive management definitely wasn’t on the list”.
You can read a copy of David Cramp’s full BeeCraft article below.
In his book, A practical Manual of Beekeeping, (2008, p. 10), he says, “Clipping wings should have no part in beekeeping. On a large scale it would be far too time consuming, and on a small scale it achieves nothing anyway”.
I personally am really not prepared to mutilate a beautiful queen in order (it is claimed) to reduce the chance of losing a swarm. You will see that David Cramp feels that the generally assumed advantages of clipping are negated anyway.
As with many things in which we get involved in life, clipping, in general, is often unquestioned – it’s just what you do. As another example, I recall the often repeated “fact” that a queen lays 2000 eggs in 24 hours. If you look thoughtfully into this, and apply a bit of simple arithmetic, that seems extremely unlikely to happen on a regular basis.
Comments, please! Geoff Cooper
In the picturesque region of northeastern France, a group of beekeepers encountered a curious and colourful dilemma in August 2012. Their bees, known for producing honey of the purest golden hues, began to return to their hives with nectar that transformed their harvest into shades of blue and green. This unusual occurrence puzzled the beekeepers until they discovered the source of the vibrant colours: a nearby M&M’s factory.
The factory, which processed waste from candy production, had been disposing of sugary residues in a manner that attracted the local bee population. The bees, drawn to the high-energy waste, incorporated it into their nectar collection routines. As a result, the honey produced bore the unmistakable mark of the confectionery’s bright dyes.
While the honey retained its natural sweetness, the unconventional colours rendered it unsaleable, leaving the beekeepers in a sticky situation. The incident highlighted the unintended consequences of industrial waste on local wildlife and the importance of responsible waste management. In response, the biogas plant responsible for processing the candy waste implemented measures to prevent future bee access, ensuring the integrity of the region’s honey production and the well-being of its invaluable pollinators.
This reminds me of something I heard a number of years ago during a talk; I have no idea who the speaker was. He said, “We really must look after our young beekeepers. One told me that he had harvested green honey from his hive”. I think that the above article may well be relating to the same incident. Oh well, what goes round comes round (as they say).
Thank you, Frank Crosnier, for this alarming item.
Frank included a photo of a frame containing blue-green honey, but it can’t be reproduced here as it’s from Facebook. If anyone would like to see it, I can send the whole item.
You will probably think that foundation costs rather a lot of money; it does. For example, 20 sheets of wired foundation for a BS broodbox plus fifty sheets of wired BS shallow foundation would cost you £55.00. By saving your unwanted wax from melted down old combs, etc, and exchanging 8.53 lb of it, you would get your foundation for nothing. Or by presenting Thorne’s with 3.93lb lb. of wax plus £14.45 you would get the foundation for a discount of 74%.
This arrangement applies to Thorne’s Premium grade wax only.
Similar deals are offered by other foundation suppliers.
I have been surprised more than once to discover that some beekeepers of many years standing do not know about this. of this way of getting your foundation for nothing, or at a discount of at least 70%.
In general, depending on the exact wax order, discounts of between 70% and 85% are obtained with the wax plus cash arrangement, and of course the foundation is free with the ‘straight swap’ system, but in this case, you need to trade in about twice as much wax as for the ‘cash plus wax system’.
When trading in wax, it does not need to be pristine, just reasonably clean as from a solar extractor.
See Thorne’s current catalogue for the full details.
Geoff Cooper
As some of you may have picked up on the NBU website, or had email notifications, EFB has unfortunately reared its head again in Surrey this year. It has been found in the WBK area of NBU designated square TQ06, with 3 cases. TQ06 according to the NBU webpage is Weybridge, but in reality covers the area based on the 10 square kilometre grid intersects with the settlements of: Addlestone, Brooklands, Burwood Park, Byfleet, Charlton, Chertsey, Cobham, Egham, Laleham, Littleton, Littleton Common, Lyne, New Haw, Ottershaw, Penton Hook, Pyrford, Row Town, Sheerwater, Shepperton, Shepperton Green, St George’s Hill, Staines-upon-Thames, Stonehill, Stroude, Sunbury-on-Thames, Thorpe, Thorpe Green, Trumps Green, Upper Halliford, Virginia Water, Walton-on-Thames, West Byfleet, Weybridge, Whiteley Village, Woking & Woodham. Although there were no cases reported in Surrey in 2023 (noted that the SBIs were very busy on Asian Hornet activity), in 2022 there were 12 cases; 7 again in TQ06. It is crucially important that Beekeepers:
Ordinance Survey TQ06 grid reference map: https://www.sqkm.co.uk/tq/tq06
David
Thank you to members who have collected empty Bonne Maman conserve jars (not their compot jars), which will be used to make live capture Asian hornet monitoring traps. If we are to have enough jars to monitor every one-kilometre square in our part of Surrey, we will need about 250 jars so more are needed. Asda and possibly other supermarkets use similar jars for their own brand conserves, so they can also be used. The critical dimension is a 73mm internal diameter at the top of the jar where a plastic insert can be placed to complete the trap. Ask your friends and neighbours if they have jars of this type.
Asian hornet sightings are likely to increase during September-October as nests reach full strength. You can keep track of the current situation by going to the National Bee Unit website https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/about-us/beekeeping-news/asian-hornet-2024-rolling-update
This item came via Andrew Halstead in his role as Asian Hornet Coordinator for our Division. Please keep the jars until requested.
This is the title for a group of talks given approximately monthly by Roger Patterson, who works live and unrehearsed on his colonies while being recorded and filmed. This is an unusual approach and the sessions are always interesting.
For details look up Live@tTheHive on the BIBBA website.
The next instalment in the BBKA lecture series will take place on Tuesday 17th September at 7pm on Zoom. See the website for details.
Further lectures are being planned, so please do put a date in your diaries.
October 15th
November 19th
The above dates will be lectures on bee pests and diseases, discussing a different subject each month.
January 21st 2025
February 18th
March 18th
The above dates will be lectures and sessions to help newer members progress towards the basic assessment.
Jane Medwell BBKA Trustee and Chair of Education & Husbandry
This two-day fair is always well organised and fun to attend, with its animal events, craft displays, classic cars, fairground rides for children, and of course lots of stalls. We set up our trademark yellow gazebo and offered thirteen(!) different honeys for the public to taste and buy. The demonstration hive of live bees was a big hit as always. All our lovely volunteers (but not some of the cut comb) managed not to melt in the 30°C heat, so well done and many thanks to everyone.
More seriously, we talked to a lot of people about how to identify and report sightings of the yellow-legged Asian hornet. There was a great deal of interest and we met some very well-informed members of the public. It seems the message is getting through.
Tip: the Craft and Produce shows usually include classes for honey and beehive products, but they had received no entries this year, so they were cancelled. Perhaps we could help to fill their show benches in future years?
Jane Hunter
National and International News
Beekeepers urged to Stay Alert to Accurate Updates
There have been some sightings of AHAT nationally – mainly in Kent ( including a single hornet caught in trap near Four Oaks some 3km from the nest discovered in 2023), and the North.
It’s also worth noting that queens have been found even earlier than last year in Jersey.
There can be quite wild speculation across social media and tabloids – so we recommend all beekeepers stay alert to accurate updates from the NBU and BBKA. It’s always worth keeping up to date by visiting the BBKA’s online Asian Hornet Incursion Map
There were several Asian “Yellow Legged” Hornet lectures at the BBKA Spring Convention and recordings are being made available – we will circulate links to all as soon as we can.
Southern Water Joins the Fight
Southern Water employees have teamed up with community action group Asian Hornet Alert to install selective traps to catch AH Queens around the company’s wastewater treatment sites in Kent and East Sussex.
Asian Hornet Alert approached Southern Water last autumn. The group realised the treatment sites – with water, trees and hedges (particularly brambles) – were the perfect places for Asian Hornets to build their nests.
“Being able to team up with Southern Water for this pilot scheme means we will be able to monitor areas that the public would not normally have access to,” says Michelle Elliot, Volunteer for Asian Hornet Alert. “We are now entering the active season for Asian Hornets, and it is hoped that the
traps set up late last year will catch their queens. Each queen caught stops a nest being established, which if allowed to happen can result in the production of a further 300 queens for the following season.”
Matt Wagstaff, Southern Water’s Environmental Advisor says: “Our Asian Hornet pilot scheme aims to help the Asian Hornet Alert group monitor more areas across nine sites in Kent and one in East Sussex. If the scheme proves to be successful, it has the potential to be rolled out to a wider area.”
French Senate agrees “National Control Plan”
The French to English online news service, The Connection, has reported on a new bill passed by the French Senate to help in the country’s fight against Asian Hornets. The bill aims to “organise the fight and prevention against this species” by means of a “national strategy implemented at departmental level”.
A new ‘national control plan’ will be created which will include a committee comprising state officials, hornet experts and other scientists, as well as beekeepers (who will also receive compensation for the destruction of hives caused by Asian hornets). In this way – with an increase in monitoring – local authorities will be able to locate, report, and destroy hornet nests with greater autonomy.
AI takes on AH in Jersey
A team of biologists and data scientists have developed an AI system that they claim can accurately identify Asian Hornets as an aid to their eradication before they can gain a foothold.
The system, VespAI, uses deep learning technology, a method of computation inspired by the human brain, to identify Asian hornets attracted to a bait station, capturing images and sending automated alerts to the beekeeper, landowner or government official using the system.
A team of scientists (Thomas A. O’Shea-Wheller, Andrew Corbett, Juliet L. Osborne, Mario Recker & Peter J. Kennedy) worked with the Jersey Asian Hornet Group and the island’s government to conduct field trails with prototype systems in areas where Asian Hornets, European Hornets and other insects were abundant.
As reported in the journal Communications Biology, the team analysed thousands of images collected by the prototype systems, manually checking each one to ensure that the AI algorithm correctly identified all Asian Hornets without mistakenly identifying other insects as hornets.
So far, the results have been promising. VespAI correctly detects Asian hornets with more than 99% accuracy.
The trials indicate that the system could transform ways in which Asian Hornets are managed in at-risk regions such as the UK. Traditional baited traps can kill substantial numbers of native insects including many pollinators. They do little to meaningfully reduce hornet numbers, as colonies continue to survive unless the queen is destroyed. By avoiding harm to visiting insects, VespAI provides a crucial advantage over trapping. Asian Hornets detected by the system remain alive and can be tracked back to the nest – the only proven way to destroy colonies.
Further trials of the VespAI system will take place in the UK over the next few months, as we work with government authorities to bolster eradication efforts at this crucial juncture.
Outreach Officers Update
Zoom Meeting: Engaging with the Media
Kirsteen Thorne, BBKA’s Outreach Officer is hosting a zoom meeting to give advice and guidance for AHAT Teams on how to Engage with the Media and make the most of AH interviews. The meeting on Tuesday 30th April at 6.00pm will include:
To attend the meeting click this link: Engaging with the Media In the event that the meeting exceeds the Zoom limit, it will also be streamed live on YouTube.
For those are planning on contacting their local media, the BBKA website carries an AH Fact Sheet that provides the basics to (hopefully!) prevent any inaccuracies in reporting.
Children’s Resources and Chelsea Flower Show
Kirsteen is working closely with Lottie Buckland, who sits on the BBKA Shows Committee. She has created some exceptional children’s activities to use at shows and other events.
“A number of you had requested more of this kind of resource that could engage youngsters when at public events,” Kirsteen says. “Lottie has kindly agreed to share some of her work. We’re aiming to get that put together in a downloadable file soon.”
The Animal and Plant Health Agency APHA, have invited the BBKA to join them on their Asian Hornet awareness stand at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Kirsteen will be there on Thursday 23rd May. Please do spread the word or come and say hello if you’re planning to be there.
You can contact Kirsteen at outreach.officer@bbka.org.uk.
Budget Request Update
At its Quarterly Zoom Meeting on Tuesday 9th April the Committee of the Surrey Beekeepers Association took time to consider a renewed proposal from Surrey AHATs for funding for planned activities of AHAT Co-ordinators in 2024.
Trustees and Chairs debated: the pros and cons of generating greater public awareness by joint working across the county, the possibilities of drawing down from the financial resources available to the SBKA; and the possibility of creating a ring-fenced account for AH Fundraising.
The Committee decided not to create a co-funded package of support. Rather, beyond the purchase of new bait once existing supplies run low, the Committee elected to allow each individual division to make its own decisions as to the extent of AH awareness expenditure and activity at each location.
The AHAT Co-ordinators thanked the chairs and trustees for their words of continued support. They are grateful to Bob Maurer for the kind offer to purchase sets of pull up banners for divisions to have a fresh and visually impactful presence at Asian Hornet Roadshows across the county throughout the summer.
Surrey AHAT Co-ordinators are working on plans to hold roadshows at large public events across the county, so we have more eyes looking for AH and knowing how to report sightings. If you are aware of a well-attended public event in your locality, please ensure your Co-ordinator also knows of it so we can spread ourselves across as many as possible.