Bee Health

‘Bee Improvement for All’

apiarymanager Bee Health, Education & Training, Training

We are looking forward to the ‘Bee Improvement for All’ day, aimed at encouraging beekeepers to improve their bees!

The event is being presented by Roger Patterson of the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association (BIBBA) in conjunction with Pembrokeshire Beekeepers’ Association (PBKA) tomorrow (Saturday, 22nd November) at the Picton Centre, Haverfordwest.

The event starts promptly at 9.30am and will finish at approximately 4.30pm.

The entry fee is £10 and there are still some places available, so if you are interested please contact Paul Eades, the PBKA Apiary Manager on 07988 037571. Note that tea and coffee will be provided, but please bring your own lunch.

BeeOnLavender

Varroa Alert and Group Purchase of MAQS

apiarymanager Bee Health, PBKA, Varroa

Please read to the bottom of this email to find out how you can get MAQS to treat your hive.

This email arrived in my inbox this morning from the NBU.

“We have received reports from our Appointed Bee Inspectors that many colonies are showing signs of high Varroa infestations and consequently bee deformities.

If you have not already done so, it may be worthwhile to treat your colony with a registered varroacide. When administering a treatment, please use a registered veterinary product and ensure that the label is followed and not deviated from. Beekeepers may find a list of registered products in our advisory leaflet, ‘Managing Varroa‘

After colonies have been treated, beekeepers should then reduce colony entrances and assess whether feeding needs to be carried out. Lift the roof off of the colony and heft the hive from each side of the brood box. If the colony has sufficient stores, then it should be difficult to lift. Each colony should have between 20-25 kg of stores for the winter.

If feeding needs to be carried out use either inverted sugar syrup or a 2:1 solution, i.e. 1 kg of granulated white sugar: 650 ml water, or 2 lb of sugar to 1 pint of water.

Please note that if any of your colonies are showing signs of both Varroa damage and lack of food, it may be useful to feed and treat simultaneously. This should not be done if there is a honey flow on, only in emergency cases.”

Pembrokeshire BKA members wishing to take prat in a group purchase of MAQS should follow this link.  Password required, if you have forgotton the password you can find it on your 2014 printed programme, if you cannot find that then follow this link.

Honey Bee Losses in USA – White House Demands Federal Action

apiarymanager Bee Health

On June, 20th a Presidential Memorandum was issued by the White House  titled Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. 

The memorandum states that:

“Over the past few decades, there has been a significant loss of pollinators, including honey bees, native bees, birds, bats, and butterflies, from the environment. The problem is serious and requires immediate attention to ensure the sustainability of our food production systems, avoid additional economic impact on the agricultural sector, and protect the health of the environment.”

On May 20th, National Geographic Daily News covered a USDA report that Losses over the 2013-2014 winter in the USA were lower than most previous years.  But commented:

Even so, the USDA’s survey of beekeepers found that nearly a quarter of the bees in managed honeybee colonies—a total of 23.2 percent nationwide—perished from October 2013 to April 2014.

That was far better than the average annual loss of 29.6 percent reported since 2007, and the 30.5 percent loss recorded during the winter of 2012-2013. But it’s appreciably higher than the threshold of 18.9 percent losses that beekeepers consider economically sustainable, the USDA said.

“This year’s survey results, while encouraging, do not provide much comfort because it is not known why the bees seemed to do better this past winter than previous winters,” said Gene Robinson, director of the Institute for Genomic Biology and an entomology expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “We can’t rest until we really understand the factors that drive differences in losses.”

The White House Memorandum requires a “National Pollinator Health Strategy (Strategy)” to be developed within six months.

The food industry in the USA is huge and has become reliant on intensive use of chemical pesticides included neonicotidoids which have been banned since late 2013 for a two year trial period in the EU.  Will be interesting to see what action results from this – is it too little too late?