On March 3rd members from across Dorset gathered to support the AGM of the Dorset Beekeepers Association.
Caroline Dilke has recorded the key points from the presentation by our guest speaker, Ged Marshall.
Ged Marshall, a commercial beekeeper since the 1980s, runs 200-400 hives and reaps about 10 tons of honey in a good year. Based in Buckinghamshire, he moves bees to Kent, Derbyshire and Northumber-land to follow crops such as borage and heather.
He buys in 1,000 queens annually from Denmark and selects for honey production, aiming for large, hard-working colonies. He also buys in Buckfast drones, to saturate the area with good genes. He gives his bees plenty of space – often with a spare super above the crown board – feeds heavily and breeds for slow swarmers.
With so many hives to care for, the main disease inspection is in late summer. When the drones are gone he introduces new queens, replaces old combs and feeds the colony. In early spring, again he feeds his bees (with candy such as Apifonda). The next inspection is in mid-March. “When the pussy willow is out and I hear the first cuckoo, I count my colonies: they’ve made it through the winter.”
In May comes the first disease inspection of the year, and a check for signs of supersedure, and to make sure the queen has space to lay. Ged now pulls out frames of brood from prolific hives to boost the mediocre ones – but not the weakest hives.
He emphasises that supers are to house bees, and the top one should be not more than half-full of bees to ensure there is enough space. He does little note-taking but scribbles on the boxes, numbering each hive’s supers from the bottom up.
Poor May weather may lead to feeding with fondant (not syrup, which would contaminate the hon-ey), even if there is a big crop out there. But if the bees have full supers of honey they stop working so hard, so Ged takes it off as soon as it is sealed. If a colony swarms, its honey goes on to another strong hive. He leaves half a super of honey on all summer to ensure against starving.
When moving hives he does not screen them or block entrances; the wind keeps them in, and if they have enough space they are fine. He finds field beans, though not a huge crop, are useful to plug the “June gap”.
At the end of May Ged stops doing swarm checks, but finds it is worth walking round on a sunny day following two weeks of rain and checking in the trees. He later transports all the swarms together to a new site, and subsequently changes the queens and finds he gets three strong nuclei from each four swarms. He also changes the queen in the parent hive.
He puts out spare equipment as bait hives – as high up as practicable — each with only two drawn frames and an empty frame between. If he catches a swarm, he fills it up with new foundation. He watch-es for scout bees at a bait hive: one of the colonies may be about to swarm.
When chasing heather honey, Ged chooses a sheltered spot and provides just one super on each hive. He says borage is a wonder crop with heavy honey flow, although it does tear the bees’ wings. He mixes in lime honey to improve the flavour of other honeys.
Ged’s no-nonsense approach gave us lots of practical ideas to try. For example, if he detects signs of swarming and there is a nectar flow, a quick fix is to add more supers. Also, he says that in the early days he hugely improved his stock by killing the worst 25% of queens each year.
Following Ged’s talk we enjoyed a wonderful range of homemade sweet and savoury dishes before the AGM business element of the afternoon commenced.