- If you have not already done so , you may want to extract this month. Give the bees space to go into or push down into the brood box by putting clearer boards on Place supers back on the hives they came from.
- Remember honey is a food product and should only be stored in food safe buckets or sterilised jars.
- If placing supers back on colonies for cleaning up, place above the crownboard with a reduced entry . (Old CDs over the hole make an ideal entrance)
- Monitor varroa levels if treating. Use the BeeBase calculator to judge the level of infestation. Treat all colonies at the same time in the apiary.
- Consider the timing of treatments and feeding. Varroa treatments are temperature sensitive. This refers to the ambient temperature and not the brood nest temperature.
- Remember any chemicals used in the hive must be recorded with dates of use and batch numbers etc.
- Ivy has still to come in, but if all the honey has been removed you may want to feed. Assess the amount of stores the colony has and feed accordingly.
- The bees need to reduce the water content of any 2:1 syrup you feed to avoid dysentery from fermenting stores. This is harder as the weather gets colder.
- Wasp traps will probably be needed now. reduce entrances and put out beer and jam traps away from the bees.
- Check the hives are sound and will not allow wasps in through joints or ill fitting equipment.
- Do a full health check by removing a couple of frames and shaking all the bees off the brood frames to inspect. Pay attention to the cappings. Investigate any off centre perforations with tweezers not your hive tool. Put anything suspect into the smoker.
- Go into the winter with strong colonies and unite after doing your full health checks any small colonies. Cull queens who have not been productive.
- Swarming is probably over but keep an eye for queen cells that might indicate supercedure.
- Still keep an eye out for Asian Hornets searching for protein and monitor traps daily.
Local Asian Hornet Reports
The invasive species ‘Asian Hornet’ (Vespa velutina) poses a significant threat to bee keeping and public safety, it is an aggressive and voracious predator that has been spreading across Europe and now threatens to cross the channel. This danger is being taken very seriously and the NBU (DEFRA/APHA) teams respond rapidly to any reports of individual insects or nests. A local report, even an unconfirmed one is extremely worrying – please could we all association members familiarize themselves with the identification of this species, install the Asian Hornet Watch app on their phones and if local to the reported areas of Sudbury and Leavenheath set up traps/monitoring stations. Read on for further details.
The APHA writes “a member of the public has reported two sightings of Asian hornet, one near Sudbury and another near Leavenheath. It would be helpful if Beekeepers and Asian Hornet Team members could be on high alert to monitor between these areas, we don’t want to narrow surveillance too much as Asian hornet can fly considerable distances.”
Full report reads: “No photos. I’m afraid I was simply not quick enough with my phone in order to take a photograph, neither am I an entomologist by any means, but I am a professionally trained, wildlife sound recordist with a lifelong interest in wildlife. I am also a member of the Bumblebee Conservation Society among others. None of this makes me an expert in any way of course. My first response was to check your ID sheet along with other ID tools from reliable sources, and I have no doubt in my mind that these were both Asian hornets (I submitted 2 reports of sightings 1 day apart) Nonetheless, thank you for taking the time to check my reports and to reply to me. I will continue to keep an eye out and endeavour to be quicker with my camera or a container of some sort in the future.”
Setup of monitoring stations are described in this article: https://aphascience.blog.gov.uk/…/asian-hornet-week…/
This links takes you directly to a handy ID sheet:https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/…/01_ID_Vespa_velutina…
Links to the Asian Hornet Watch app:iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/…/asian-hornet-watch/id1161238813
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details…
Association Apiary – Open Sessions 2023
The remaining association apiary open sessions will be held 12:00 – 14:00 on the following Sundays:
July 23rd
August 6th
August 20th
September 3rd
Please do let us know in advance if you’re planning on attending (email wsbka@yahoo.com or post in the Facebook Group) and if there is anything specific you would like to get out of the time. N.B. Mike Graystone will be running the session on the 20th so undoubtedly this will be a popular event.
This Month in the Apiary – July
- Keep an eye on swarming with regular inspections. Bees that have been cooped up in bad weather may swarm when the sun shines.
- Check the queen has space to lay, you may have to remove stores and if disease free give to another colony or freeze. Replace with drawn comb or foundation placed in the middle of the brood nest.
- Keeping adding supers if 6/7 fames are full, the bees need space to spread the nectar to reduce the water content.
- Consider the performance of your queens with a view to replacing them or uniting colonies.
- Prepare for extraction at the end of the month, . If you need to book the association extractor do it early.
- If jarring or bucketing honey make sure you have enough and they are cleaned and sterilised..
- Remember honey needs to be below 20% it should either be capped or no nectar runs out when shaken. Use a refractometer to check the water content.
- If extracting get clearer boards ready and with large colonies provide space for the bees to move into when you put them on.
- If possible mark each super with the hive it came from so it can be returned to the same colony. ( You can use coloured drawing pins )
- After extraction shake the bees off the brood frame s and do a full health check. Check for small off centre holes and brood that doesn’t look right. Put anything suspect in to your smoker. Look especially for EFB and AFB.
- Monitor varroa levels ready to treat. Follow treatment instructions carefully to avoid resistance and record . Remember you are required by law to keep these records for six years.
- Watch for wasps and reduce hive entrances. Put out wasp traps away from the hives.
- If you have Asian Hornet traps, change bait to protein such as cat food or tuna. You must monitor the traps daily and change the bait regularly.
This month in the Apiary – June
- Extract Oil seed rape before it sets in the comb
- If you remove supers make sure there is enough stores in the brood box and feed if necessary
- Make sure the queen has space to lay and the brood box doesn’t fill with stores
- Swarming has been increased this year as the weather was so variable keep checking for queen cells
- If you have done an artificial swarm watch for the new queen to establish a good laying pattern
- Do a full health check by shaking the bees off the frames ( not with a queen cell waiting to emerge)
- If you think the varroa load is high think about drone removal with an uncapping fork and look for varroa uncap a 10×10 group of cells
- Make sure you have enough jars etc for your honey crop
- Think about your varroa treatment now so as not to be caught out
- If you have collected a swarm use them to draw comb for future use
- Swarms can be treated for varroa while they are broodless, you can use oxalic or a frame of open brood from a colony. once sealed remove and destroy
- If the weather becomes stormy or forage ends colonies can become defensive watch to see if behaviour improves if not consider re-queening
Queen Raising Course – First Session
The weather held out to give us a lovely warm evening for the first part of the Queen Raising Course yesterday. The course was very well attended and everyone found it an informative and enjoyable session. We discussed the theory of queen breeding, equipment, methods and selecting for desirable traits before getting stuck in ourselves: preparing a ‘swarm box’ and cell raising colony, picking frames of young larvae and grafting them into the prepared cups. It will be exciting to see our success rate from this first go, not that it is a competition at all but everyone did initial their grafts…!
This Month in the Apiary – May
- Normally there would be a nectar flow but if it has been cold and the bees aren’t always able to get out, watch stores and feed 1:1 syrup if needed
- Make sure there is room for the queen to lay. If filled with stores remove a frame or two and replace with drawn comb or foundation
- If brood box i is 7/8 frames of brood put the excluder in and a super
- If the first super is filling swap frames around to ensure they get capped and place another if only a frame or two left of space . remember nectar needs more space then honey
- If you need to get supers drawn alternate the new foundation with those already drawn
- The presence of drones and queen cups indicate in a position to consider swarming, be ready
- If a cup contains and egg or a larva with royal jelly perform your swarm control either by artificial swarm like Pagden or removing the queen and making up a nuc
- Maintain 7 day checks and look carefully on frames for queen cells especially in holes and gaps.
- Remove full supers and test with a refractometer. You need to remove frames of OSR (oil seed rape) before it sets in the comb
- If April was very cold and you were not able to do a shook swarm or Bailey comb change , try now on stronger colonies
- If replacing a few frames place the foundation at the edge of the brood nest in front of the stores
- Do a full health check this month by shaking the bees off the brood frames and inspecting for disease
- Put the board in and monitor for varroa. Use the Beebase varroa checker to see if you need to treat.
- Monitor Asian Hornet traps if using
Association Honey Jarring Day
Our thanks to the group of volunteers who gave up their time to help with jarring up honey produce at our apiary ready for sale at shows, fetes and other events coming up this year. We think the labels and jars look great and it was an excellent opportunity to learn some of the nuances of dealing with the sticky stuff! Special mention to Rebecca for hosting the day and Chris for running things.
BBKA ‘Friends of the Honey Bee’ initiative
The BBKA are offering a ‘Friends of the Honey Bee’ pack free-of-charge to any schools who are interested. We encourage anyone who is connected with a local school to share this link with them: https://www.bbka.org.uk/friends-of-the-honey-bee
This Month in the Apiary: April
- If this is your first inspection check the colony is queenright. Look for the queen or eggs
- Make sure the queen has space to lay, you may need to remove a frame or two of winter stores and replace with foundation
- If it is warm enough do a full health check , shake the bees of each frame of brood and look for for brood disease, do a varroa check ( use the BeeBase varroaachecker)and look for deformed wing virus
- If the colony is strong you could do a shook swarm to move the bees on to clean foundation or consider a Bailey comb change or start removing old frames or working them to the side for removal. and replacement. Change the floor
- Look to see if the bees are building drone comb or you see drone cells, this indicates you need to do careful weekly inspections to watch for queen cells
- Prepare equipment to be ready for swarms
- Be ready to put supers on as the colony builds to about seven frames of bees, to give the bees space to move in to
- Mark and clip the queen if this was not done in the Autumn , it has rubbed off or she has been superceded