Bee Health

Are Your Bees Short of Supplies?

apiarymanager Feeding Bees and Starvation, PBKA

Remember to keep an eye on the stores in your hives by giving them a heft periodically. The queen is likely to start laying in earnest soon and the remaining winter stores can soon get used up. Late winter and early spring are the danger periods for lack of stores, so don’t risk your colonies. If you need to feed them now, use candy or fondant. You can use light syrup (1:1 by weight) in a contact feeder once the weather warms up and the signs of spring start to appear, especially if you want to build up a colony for queen rearing, or to split. Don’t use a rapid feeder, or pan feeder as NBU now suggest we should call it, though as it may be too cold for the bees to come up. For more information see BeeBase’s Best Practice Guide to Feeding Sugar.

Remember too that bees need energy food (sugars) and protein (pollen). Raising young bees takes a lot of both. So in addition to making sure that sugar is available in liquid form stored from last year (honey or fed in late summer as sugar syrup) or in fondant form make sure that pollen or a pollen substitute is available. See this Feeding Pollen and Pollen Substitutes guide on BeeBase for more details.

Neonicotinoids Pose Danger to Bees Concludes EFSA

apiarymanager Bee Health, Neonicotinoids

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), an independent body, released its report into the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on bee health on Wednesday (16 January).

The report concluded that:

  • Exposure from pollen and nectar. Only uses on crops not attractive to honey bees were considered acceptable.
  • Exposure from dust. A risk to honeybees was indicated or could not be excluded, with some exceptions, such as use on sugarbeet and crops planted in glasshouses, and for the use of some granules.
  • Exposure from guttation. The only risk assessment that could be completed was for maize treated with thiamethoxam. In this case, field studies show an acute effect on honeybees exposed to the substance through guttation fluid.

Read press release on EFSA website.

A separate report released earlier this week warned that up to £630m could be lost from the UK economy each year if neonicotinoids are withdrawn.

The study, independently commissioned by EU’s Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture (HFFA) was financed by Syngenta and Bayer CropScience,

Lords Debate Honey Bee Decline

apiarymanager Bee Health, PBKA

On January 9th the House of Lords debated the decline of honey bees. Some interesting statistics were mentioned: the number of beekeepers has doubled in the past ten years; the number of [colonies] has reduced by 75% over the past 100 years – [but this should be seen against Leslie Bailey’s conclusion in 2000 that the so called Isle of Wight disease problem was due to too many hives in any given area leading to starvation and spread of disease: ed]; and that it is significant that the UK has lost a staggering 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s.

Find out more here.

Keeping Medicine Records

apiarymanager Bee Health

Honey bees are currently defined as a food producing species and current legislation requires that you keep a record of the purchase, use and disposal of any honeybee medicines.

Owners or keepers of food-producing animals intended for the food chain, must keep specific records:

  • at the time of purchase;
  • at the time of administration to the animal;
  • and if the product is disposed of, other than by treating an animal

There is further detailed guidance on the requirements on the Veterinary Medicines Directorate website. Please see Veterinary Medicine Guidance Note number 14.

The National Bee Unit have also produced a Fact Sheet entitled Bee Medicaments (Number 44).  In the document there is an example of a veterinary medicines record sheet which meets all record keeping requirements laid down in the Veterinary Medicines Regulations which you can copy and use. You may wish to incorporate it into your apiary records. Make sure you record all the mandatory requirements listed and that you keep them for at least five years.