WBK Division News

The meeting was introduced by Andrew Halstead, Weybridge Chairperson, who reminded us that Varroa arrived in the UK in 1992.

There were two talks, one by Jonathan Brookhouse of Guildford division and the other by Marion Cooper of Weybridge.

“Searching for resilience in our honeybees” by Jonathan Brookhouse
Jonathan started by stating that he was aiming for resilience and not resistance to Varroa. Bees already have to cope with diseases, pests, climate change, environment change and modern beekeeping practices. Jonathan stated, ‘our bees need to be allowed to evolve together with the parasite.’

Why not treat bees for Varroa? There were various reasons posed, such as: residues in wax and honey, miticide damage to bees including queen longevity, drone development and disturbance to gut biome. His main concern is that the bees will become reliant on beekeeper intervention and that treatments will become ineffective when the mites become resistant to the treatments as has already occurred in many parts of the world.

Jonathan then looked at how bees are coping with Varroa. One study of 150 colonies on an isolated island that were untreated for Varroa between 1999-2005 resulted in only 13 surviving colonies. He looked at various studies on hygienic behaviour, which is measured by the efficiency with which bees remove dead brood from comb. More recent studies have placed Varroa mites under living capped brood to see if the bees will uncap and remove the larvae (and therefore the mites as well, interrupting the reproductive mite cycle). Ron Hoskins of Swindon Conservation Group has not used miticides since 1995. His bees apparently attack and remove Varroa mites.

They have also been shown to have Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) type B, which is not virulent and confers protection against virulent types A and C. Could this DWV variant be the answer to the problem of vector viruses?
Jonathan is also against importing bees as the European descendancy of bees from Africa takes a different route from that of the Eastern European and Middle Eastern bees. Debbie’s notes: (1) although speciation has not occurred so crossing should result in hybrid vigour. (2) All of this was very interesting, but I can see no way forward other than to stop treating your bees and cross your fingers!

‘Are there Varroa tolerant bees?’ by Marion Cooper

Marion gave an excellent recap of how Varroa was found across the UK in 1992, pointing out that Varroa became resistant to pyrethroid insecticides by 2006. Many Weybridge members suffered colony losses, although it was noted that there was not always a correlation between mite numbers and the state of the colony. There were various theories at the time about how some bees were surviving without treatment. Mostly this was championed by Ron Hoskins and his ‘bee to save all bees.’ However, if one of his queens was introduced to a distant colony there appeared to be no protective effect. It may be that isolation on Salisbury Plain was his saviour (as well as DWV type B).

In the late 1980s and 1990s Varroa was found to be a vector of viruses, the most pathogenic being DWV. Research on this is ongoing, much of it being continued by Prof Stephen Martin at Salford University and some others, and Marion suggested that we look out for the papers that he will no doubt continue to publish. Marion pointed out that without controlling Varroa we cannot control viruses. Colonies will survive for two to three years but will eventually collapse.

Summary

Most people attending treated their bees for Varroa. Marion advised to do mite counts, treat colonies if necessary and rotate treatments used to limit resistance developing.

Jonathan suggested that if the whole of Weybridge stopped treating their bees, then eventually we might get Varroa tolerant bees! Most people would find their losses high, however.

There appears to be no true ‘Varroa resilient bee’ as yet. However, organisms evolve and this is eventually possible but on a much longer time frame for the bees due to their slow generational turnover. How long? Who knows?
In the meantime I shall continue to treat my bees as necessary and keep abreast of current research and methods.

Robert Crosley – Bees with no baggage.

After moving his bees to an out apiary with limited access Rob decided to cut down his beekeeping kit to the minimum. He described how he runs his hives on brood boxes with no use of supers, queen excluders, smokers or chemicals. This leaves him to carry just a few frames and his bee suit for every visit. Robert does not have long honey extracting sessions; he removes frames as they become full, extracts them straight away in his permanently set-up extractor, then replaces them in the hive.

Andrew Halstead – Solitary bees.

Andrew described some of the 250 solitary bees found in this country; they have no social organization so a single female builds a nest, lays eggs, feeds the larvae and dies before the next generation hatch. They have great names such as the hairy footed flower bee, green eyed flower bee and the hairy legged pantaloon bee. Not to mention the cuckoo bee, which is a brood parasite laying its eggs in others’ nests.

Kat Abate and Mark Wood – 1 and ½ years beekeeping.

Kat and Mark, who took the beginners course in 2018, told of the steep learning curve of their first 18months with the excitement of new colonies quickly turning to multiple queen cell culling, swarm control, success at queen harvesting, replacing poor laying queens only to have the new queen disappear and bees that went from calm, to jumpy, to grumpy to downright evil. Needless to say Kat and Mark haven’t been put off! They recognised the importance of notes taken at the time of inspection and of planning ahead.

David Parker – Honey bees of Laos

David gave an illustrated talk about his trip to a remote part of northern Laos where he visited a beekeeper who was keeping local Apis cerana in homemade small wooden boxes with pieces of bamboo to support the comb. Very few people keep bees, there is no kit available to the locals and they were proud of their veils made from mosquito netting. Harvests are small and they cut off pieces of comb, crush it, and put it in recycled beer bottles for sale. David provided 2 samples of honey for us to taste. They received a mixed reception.

We are pleased to report that the West Byfleet branch of Waitrose passed on £250 to us as part of their green token scheme. Thanks to everyone who donated tokens.

The WBK stall at this event was a great success. Verbal contacts were made with a good number of people including an interview with Richard for the Brooklands Local Radio Station. We sold over 80lbs of honey, plus cut comb and wax wraps. Many thanks are due to all those members who helped, but especially to Jane Hunter and Paul Bunclark who organised, set up, and dismantled the stand, and spent the whole day in attendance. A great time all round.

This was an amicable meeting and there were many appreciative comments; full details will be in the Minutes, which will be sent to all members. Congratulations to Ruth Gordon, who was the winner in the Honey Tasting Competition, so she has the trophy for one year.

A great series of summer meetings was held in 2019 with attendance generally up on 2018.

Hosts	Date	Main Subject	Attendance
Michael Main	28th April, 2.30 pm	Start of the Season: Bailey Comb Change, Shook Swarm	40+
David and Jenny Nield	26th May, 2.30 pm	An Inspector Calls, Bee Disease inspection	25+
Aslam and Kishwer Aziz	8th June, 2.30 pm	Preparing for the Flow	25+
Geoff and Marion Cooper	13th July, 2.30pm	Harvesting the Honey and What can go Wrong, an education in  things that go wrong but should not	20+
David Parker	15th September 2.30pm	Surviving Winter	20+

The Weybridge division’s teaching apiary has been in the grounds of St Georges Junior School in Weybridge since 2015.  In August 2017 the hives were damaged by vandals on three occasions, so the decision was made to move the hives into the garden of a member for the winter period.  The original plan was to move the hives back to St Georges in the spring but an alternative site in Ottershaw has since become available.  Hopefully this will be less vulnerable to vandalism and will provide a temporary home until a more permanent site can be secured.

On Sunday 12 April a working party of Weybridge members went to St Georges to load paving slabs and the contents of the shed on to a trailer.  The shed was then dismantled ready for the journey to Ottershaw.  In the evening of the same day, the hives were transported from their winter quarters and placed in the new apiary site.

The 24 students on the 2018 beginner beekeepers’ course began the practical part of the course in the new apiary on 21 April.

Our Nosema clinic was well attended where members were shown how to prepare samples and examine them under a microscope to detect the presence of Nosema.  High concentrations of Nosema will cause problems for our bees and appropriate action, such as a shook swarm, may be necessary.

As part of the planning application for our new apiary we ran a well attended public consultation to explain our plans.  The evening was very well attended by local residents and included some honey tasting.

Our theory course for new members for fully subscribed.  A crash course in honey bees in preparation for the coming season.