The speaker was Graeme Sharpe, an Apiculture Specialist and Scottish Bee Advisor from the Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruive, Ayr.

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1 Rambling Extractions We have recently visited the Caddonfoot and the Lamancha Beekeepers clubs. Each had a guest speaker on the evening we visited. Here are a few notes to give a brief outline on the content of the speaker s presentations. Norman, Jennifer and Bill, and Jim also attended. Caddonfoot meeting at the new Primary School 4 October The speaker was Graeme Sharpe, an Apiculture Specialist and Scottish Bee Advisor from the Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruive, Ayr. Graeme s talk was titled My Method of Beekeeping and focussed around his personal methods of tending his 75 colonies. Starting with bees in 1992 and becoming serious in 1995 he now advises commercial and individual beekeepers, runs a series of courses and is a regular speaker on a wide range of bee topics throughout Scotland. He keeps bees mainly to satisfy the local need for honey. He expressed the importance of expanding the number of small apiary beekeepers as there is still a vast shortage of honey bees. He noted that ½ of the beehives in Scotland are run by 20 commercial beekeepers. His method involves single brood box colonies for ease of moving and he will only breed from his carefully selected best bees. The importance of record cards was emphasised as the only sure way of being able to recall the history of any particular hive. Wintering conditions were summarised: Sound and weatherproof hive. Ideally south facing. The sun will encourage cleansing flights. 30 to 40 lbs of liquid stores equating to 7-8 frames of stores. Miller feeders used on all hives. Disease free. Varroa already treated with Apivar (he has used this treatment for several years) Mouse guard on. Oct to Mar no disturbance except oxalic acid trickle. Jan/Feb heft. Contact feed Ambrosia. In spring he relies on rape, hawthorn and sycamore as early food sources. If on rape, he will continue to feed in the early days when pollen is coming in as nectar may not be in abundance at this stage. A continuous monitor of mite drop is carried out, and a check of drone brood is reckoned to signify treatment is needed if 1 mite is found in 10 brood. Deformed wing virus may spell a danger of colony weakening.

2 March, April or May, weather dependent, inspect colony for presence of queen, laying, stores. Remove mouse guard. Remove excess frames of food stores and replace with drawn comb/foundation to give sufficient laying room. Expect to take 5 minutes per hive. April/May When 7 frames of brood present fit queen excluder and 2 supers. Clip and mark queen before large build-up of bee numbers. The colony increase will be rapid. His crop of honey this year from rape seed was approaching 1 ton. ( This high yield from rape fields did not seem a common result as we learned from our next meeting.) Demaree method of swarm prevention. His standard method for swarm prevention: I made sketches of the sequence of moving brood boxes and supers but will need a bit more reading up before I would confuse you with them! Colonies attempting to swarm give reduced honey production. Use before queen cells are produced. May/June time in Ayr Only use on very strong colonies. Method based on natural swarming. Advantages: Relieves congestion but colony must be ready. Less % chance of swarming. 95% will not swarm. Increase honey production. Build up stock of drawn comb. Disadvantages: Need spare equipment (brood box, 7 drawn combs, 3 foundation) Got to find the queen. Have to release drones. ( We were caught out with this when we recently united two colonies using an excluder to hold the paper between two brood boxes. An inspection on the second day revealed a host of drones stuck in the excluder and unable to release themselves. This was the first occasion when we had heard of this possibility and still have not read about it in any of our books. We will be prepared next time.) Attempting to avoid swarming: Add supers early. Young queens. Always ensure room for egg laying. Adopt 7-14 day inspection. Deal with queen cells when found. Keep records. Top 10 tips Overwinter with lbs of stores Varroa control

3 Final chat covered: Uniting colonies. Supers on usually by April. Treat colonies individually they each have their own character. Keep records meticulously. Don t split too early, sufficient bee numbers are important. Breed from best stock, not just 1 parent colony. Don t restrict egg laying April-June. Learn and practice swarm control and stock increase methods. Stock quality = More honey. Wasps can cause colony loss if not controlled Varroa warm winters show increase in mite numbers. To get drawn comb Bailey comb change system explained on BeeBase. Drawn comb storage acetic acid solution on sponges to sterilise and to kill wax moth. A very interesting talk for us newcomers and Graeme seems to have a large number of bee topics for his talks. He is soon to be at Lamancha discussing Varroa. Hoping to attend. Lamancha meeting at MacFarlane Hall Peebles 8 October 2012 The speaker was Richard Ball, A beekeeper since 1984 and a National Bee Inspector until 2009 he was on a SBA lecture tour of Scotland. He has pioneered the raising of awareness of integrated pest management against Varroa. He now manages his own colonies at Waxingold Apiaries in Devon. His talk was titled A History of Bee Disease Where is it Leading. Bee losses are nothing new: Reports in 950, 992 and 1124 gave large amounts of bee deaths due to murrain (an ancient word for disease/death usually associated with cattle) 1897 Foul Brood and the wrecking of many beekeepers reported by Samuel Simmins (a beekeeper and hive designer) 1901 and 1905 Significant losses in Italy, Brasil, USA and Canada The great epidemic for bees. Isle of Wight disease.

4 1919 An appeal to Cornish beekeepers to destroy all infected hives at once. 30 years ago beekeepers employed a let alone system of management. There was a good supply of varying forage, there was no medication and a 10% winter loss was regarded as very high. Today all varieties of bees are at risk. What has changed? Soil fertility Crop yield. An interesting observation that much of today s rape seed is far less productive. It has been bred such that its nectar flow is short lived and much of it is self-pollinating. Thankfully, some new varieties are reverting back to the old style of being entirely bee friendly. An audience member said that his recent rape seed honey yield had been just a few lbs per hive. Acreage of apples, pears, soft fruits etc. Bulk crops are slowly returning with the likes of borage and hemp. He emphasised the importance of encouraging Associations to teach diseases more thoroughly. Some feel that the truth about diseases may deter the potential novice beekeeper. An understanding of disease leads to low colony loss. Varroa resistance to Pyrethroids found in It peaked in 2008 when over 3,000 colonies were found to be resistant. Still very few cases of resistance in Scotland. 534 colonies lost to foul brood in 2012 (England and Scotland) 40% of Devon apiaries have nosema. Winter bees may survive 5½ months if healthy and only 4 months if not. Varroa control well documented on BeeBase. The procedure of putting a super frame in the brood box to encourage drone comb being drawn beneath it was discussed. The resulting drone brood would be laid up by Varroa and the cells could then be scraped off and destroyed. This could be repeated three times. Some concern as to the reduction in number of drones within the colony. Key to Varroa control: Minimize mite in winter. Management controls. Beware mite invasion from bees arriving from close colonies. Remove honey crop in August then, Use approved varroacide.

5 Feed good quality sugar and pollen. Examine for and control nosema. Assess and effectively control varroa. Raise husbandry standards. Husbandry: Personal hygiene Hive hygiene Restrict hive parts to one hive! He marks frames with hive number. New stocks, check quality. Bee suppliers must adhere to code of conduct. Recent reported problems: More queen losses before mating. More failure of laying queens. More queen replacements carried out. The chemical coumophos is used in USA as a varroacide. It penetrates the wax where at 100 ppm it has been found to give 30% queen failure after 6 months. Importing queens from the EU is giving possible problems because of their unknown pedigree. Some 12,000 queens are imported into the UKeach year. We should consider raising our own queens. Keep accurate records to help ensure qualities such as Temperament, Honey yield, Colony strength, Disinclined to swarm, Resistance to disease. Invasive plants and critters: Although invasive, Balsam is well liked by bees. Asian hornet now in France. No control will result in 70% colony loss. With trapping, then a 20% loss can be expected. Is it heading our way? A fly seen around the Mediterranean is laying its eggs on bees and the resulting grub will rapidly affect the bee. Will it spread? Is there a roll in the bee research world for us amateurs? We have plenty of bees, plenty of enthusiasm, and with guidance we could possibly form a UK Bee Research Group. In summary, while beekeeping will become more difficult in the short term, we are hopeful that research will lead the way towards combatting varroa. A book for beginners: Principles of Practical Beekeeping by R Coulston. An interesting talk which made it obvious that we are to a great extent responsible for the destiny of our own bees by learning about and applying the integrated management systems that are recommended. Whatever else, don t despair. The enjoyments brought by beekeeping far outweighs the disappointments.