West Dorset Beekeepers

11/04 :  The Art of Producing Honey

  

Jamie Ellis has a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Georgia (UGA). In 2004, Jamie was awarded his PhD in Entomology from Rhodes University in Grahams-town, South Africa. At Rhodes, Jamie studied the biology, behaviour, and control of small hive beetles. After finishing his PhD at Rhodes, Jamie worked as a post doctoral research fellow at UGA. At UGA, Jamie investigated IPM control of varroa and small hive beetles. In 2006, Jamie joined the Entomology and Nematology faculty at the University of Florida (UF)  as  an  Assistant  Professor.  Jamie  has  responsibilities  in  extension,  instruction  and research. Regarding his extension work, Jamie created the AFBEE program (African Bee Extension and Education Program), the UF Bee College, and the UF Master Beekeeper Program. As an instructor, Jamie currently supervises 1 PhD and 2 masters students. Ja-mie’s  research  interests  are  diverse.  Currently,  Jamie  conducts  research  on  pollination ecology of honey bees, varroa mite control, small hive beetle behaviour/control, nosema, honey  bee  nutrition,  bumble  bees,  honey  bee  chemical  ecology,  sublethal  effects  of chemicals  on  bees,  biological  control,  sociobiology,  and  general  honey  bee  behaviour/ecology.  Jamie  is  also  a  bivocational  youth  minister  at  Mt.  Pleasant  Baptist  Church  in High Springs, FL. Jamie and his wife Amanda are the proud parents of Mathias James Ellis.

Directions: The Roman Catholic Church Hall is up Victoria Road, a turning off the roundabout in Bishops Waltham (the northern roundabout).  As the slope flattens out there is a turning to the left signposted to the Catholic Church.

The lecture is followed by a finger buffet and a glass of wine.

04/04 :  Saturday 3rd April 2010 Apiary Meeting

   Once again a very cold and wet monthly meeting - when 24 members attended – which was excellent – they only came for the tea and cakes really!!

Colin Clark, our Chairman, did the introduction to this month’s meeting and gave a warm welcome to everyone.  He then handed over to Sarah More who gave a very informative talk on what to do before and during a first inspection of our hives.  Read the rest ...

31/03 :  BBKA rejoins Fera talks

   Following a positive meeting held on the 17th February 2010 between Martin Smith, Tim Lovett and Brian Ripley with Helen Crews, Head of Inspectorates, and Tony Harrington, Director of Policy and Regulation of the Food and Environment Research Agency, the BBKA Trustees voted that the BBKA should rejoin the project board at the earliest opportunity.
Following the vote at the Trustees meeting held on the 27th February 2010 this decision was relayed to Fera and the BBKA will be attending the next scheduled meeting of the Healthy Bee Project Board.

07/03 :  Saturday 6th March 2010 Apiary Meeting

   On a cold sunny afternoon we had an excellent turn out of 20 people for our first Apiary meeting of the year, all showing an interest on how our bees have faired over the very cold winter.

We went into winter with 5 hives –

Hives 2 & 4 are on Nationals Brood Boxes
Hives 6 & 7 are on 14x12 Brood Boxes
Hive 3 National (Double Brood Boxes)

As it was so cold no bees were flying.  The varroa trays were taken out so that the mites could be counted – all showed debris and a few mites, except for Hive 3 – the tray was empty which caused concern - the Hive was opened up and all the bees were dead clinging to the frames in the bottom brood box – after a thorough inspection it was decided that this Colony of bees died of Isolation Starvation - bees die surrounded by an area of empty comb, seemingly unable to cross over to neighbouring combs or areas of comb that still contain stores.  This Colony had plenty of stores in the super below the brood box – the brood box where the bees were found (in the outer frames only) and the brood box above was full – giving the beekeeper a false impression on what was really going on in hive itself by hefting the hive.  It cannot be stressed enough if you have a hive that has died to do a post mortem on the bees before dismantling the hive for disease control measures to commence.

The varroa trays had been put into open mesh floors the previous Saturday giving 7 days of mite drop – we were pleasantly surprised that all the hives were showing well under 2 mites a day (which is the recommended guide for action if over this number for this time of the year) – but in saying that the weather is still very cold which means the bees are not so active to make the mites drop off – so monitoring will continue on a monthly basis.

As the cold weather is destined to continue for a few more weeks we decided to give each Colony a Kilo of Fondant just in case they get short of winter stores.
Hopefully see you all again at the next Apiary Meeting on Saturday 3rd April 2010 at 1430hrs - when we intend to open up all the hives for a good assessment of the bees – plus tea and cakes!!

Thanks to Carole Brown for sending through this report.

09/07 :  Bees at Hampton Court Flower Show

   This year's RHS Hampton Court Flower Show features a garden designed around an apiary, to highlight the current concerns over the honey bee, and to demonstrate what gardeners can do to help.  The BBC programme on 9th July featured this, and showed the garden designer Nicola Hills as she learned about beekeeping while preparing the design (a pity that most of the shots of bees on flowers seemed to feature bumble bees!)
Click here to go to the BBC website to see some of the programme and to find out more about taking up beekeeping.

26/06 :  Melplash Show 2009

   Our big event of the year is fast approaching!  Melplash Show will be held, as ever, on the Thursday before August Bank holiday - 27th August this year.
It's a grand day out for all the family, and an opportunity for everyone to visit us in the Bee Marquee to find out more about bees and beekeeping - well, they have been in the news a lot this year, haven't they!
To find out more about the show itself, visit the Melplash Show web site by clicking here.

10/06 :  New auction website for beekeepers

   A new web-site called bid4bees has just been launched specifically for beekeepers.  It seems to follow the same kind of model as e-bay, with bids being accepted over a specified period.  It carries everything from hive tools to books to colonies.
It's early days yet, with only a couple of dozen items on it, but if anyone does use it, do let us know what you think.

21/04 :  "Who Killed the Honey Bee?"

   Thursday 23rd April, 9:00pm, BBC4

Hot on the heels of the latest announcement of funding for bee research, There's a one-hour programme to be screened on Thursday in which Martha Kearney  "examines the decline in bee colonies, and explores the implications that the extinction of the insect would have on nature and the world's food supply."

25/07 :  A great opportunity for "Newbees"

   You probably saw in our May newsletter and also in the Spring Bee Unit update that our Seasonal Bee Inspector was offering to give new beekeepers the benefit of his experience with a visit to their apiary or a "bee safari" where he'd be happy to visit a number of apiaries - an opportunity for all to get a good view of what was going on in the area. Well, we took him up on the offer. David Packham visited us at the end of June and checked through our hives. I was almost offended when he said we'd be bound to find some evidence of chalk brood - after all our bees would be perfect wouldn't they? But I soon got over that. I would never have noticed those very early signs but by pointing out what was a mild case in its early stages, I've now got a good idea of what's right and what's not. Invaluable for the "newbee" and good to get things into perspective. Our bees certainly seemed to have it in hand and probably know much better that us what to do but far better for us to know what's happening early should we need to take action. Thanks for that David. So, probably a bit late in the season this year, but next year, if the offer is still open from the Inspector, I suggest those newer members might like to work out a good circuit between our apiaries and organise one of those "safaris".
Submitted by Sally