I can now declare that we are into the swarming season. Helen has been over to Hartfield where one of our members has Carnoleon bees and the biggest hive had queen cells in it and she carried out a split. Temperatures are gradually going up this week and the pollen from trees is at a high level. Conditions are becoming ideal for a strong hive to want to divide. My own strongest hive has seven frames of brood in a 14 x 12 box. There are a lot of bees but due to chalk brood my colony is not quite as strong as it might be. However I intend to do a shook swarm on this colony and one other next Saturday. The super I have on each of these hives, and in which there is a little nectar, will be removed and then given back to them once they have drawn out the wax foundation and built a brood nest.
Despite there being wild garlic, bluebells and blackthorn at the trout farm (and therefore a source of nectar) I will still put a rapid feeder on them and keep feeding them syrup until they have drawn all the wax out. Bees need a lot of syrup to draw out the wax foundation. A queen excluder will be put below the brood box for three days so they don't abscond. One needs to take this precaution as because there is no brood ( you are removing and burning it), there is nothing to anchor them to your box. The drones will be caught inside the hive but after three days, once the bees have committed to stay, I will remove the excluder and let the drones fly out. This is important because many of the drones will impale themselves on the queen excluder in their eagerness to get out and mate. Obviously this stresses the bees!
The month of May is the busiest season for our bees and for the beekeeper. However if you have plans of doing anything with your bees the month of May is the ideal time to do so. Our French colleagues say that any manipulation done in May usually works, even when done badly or wrongly.

Let me also take this opportunity to remind everyone about the Heathfield bee market on Saturday, May 14. Paynes and also the Pratts will be there selling equipment and giving advice if you need to ask experienced bee farmers any challenging questions. Keith will be there and Helen also will be there. There is usually a bee inspector or two as well! The Association has a plant stall and there will be lots of bee friendly plants on sale. Maggie Whittaker will have her own table. She used to work at  RHS Wisley and if you want to buy interesting varieties of tomatoes or zucchini or possibly something interesting for the garden Maggie is your woman! She is also a beekeeper and a member of our association and will certainly be able to advise about plants.

There is a talk by Dave Goulson about bees and pesticides. He is a fantastic speaker and this will be worth going to. I have heard him speak and he is brilliant. It will be interesting not just for beekeepers but partners or friends of beekeepers.
In the afternoon there is the auction. Certainly worth a look but don't get carried away and buy things more expensively than if you bought them brand-new! If you have recently joined the association or are just a new beekeeper learning on Keith's course, then it is worth coming along and getting a feel for what is on sale and what beekeepers are doing.

A final word of warning. Someone's bees always seem to swarm  on the day of the Heathfield bee market. Make sure those are not your bees! I look forward to seeing people and offers of help on the day on the plant stall will be gratefully received. Even if it is just to go and get those of us behind the stall a cup of coffee.

May 2016 Malcolm Wilkie

> Many of the association members attended the session held at the Rose and Crown last week about swarming. All of us, even those who are more experienced, can always improve how we manage our colonies. I hope the session proved thought provoking and those who were present will now correctly carry out the artificial swarm technique. Beginners so often misunderstand what it is they have to do!
>
> If you think that you have mastered what is required of you to do an artificial swarm, I will show you at bee banter on 26 April how you can use the artificial swarm technique to clean up your bees. To clean up the box with the old queen, the foragers and the fresh frames of foundation a simple Biotechnical method can be used (gosh that sounds complicated but it is so simple you will be amazed).
>
> The technique to clean up the old brood box and all the emerging bees is a little bit more complicated however. You may only want to use this method if you consider you have a high varroa count. So, of course, you need to be monitoring your inspection boards now in order to make the decision about whether your colony has a high infestation or not (and you are all using the varroa calculator on bee base, I hope). I have been searching for the last year or two for something that I can do at this stage of the season which does not involve putting oxalic acid onto the bees. The reason for not putting the chemical on them is that the emerging virgin queen may somehow get damaged or be affected later in her life and that I do not want to risk.
>
> The solution has come from an eminent beekeeper in Sussex called Jonathan Coote. If you think I have an attention for detail, you haven't yet met Jonathan. He is a bit of a maverick and taught himself beekeeping and has, in consequence, come up with really interesting ideas. He uses a solution of dilute lactic acid which he sprays on to the bees. This is quite a benign procedure. It certainly won't damage the virgin queen. The reason for this is that the dilute solution is so weak that you can even put it on your own tongue without it causing any problems. I am quite prepared to put it on my tongue for you! Jonathan says that it's acidity is like lemon juice.
> The reason why it works is that the varroa mite has very delicate mouthparts. Once the solution has been sprayed onto the bees they evaporate off the moisture and this concentrates the acidity of the solution and damages the varroa. I will show you how to use this and Helen is going to bring up to bee banter several bottles of the dilute solution which will be sold at a very cheap price. Jonathan's Association all use lactic acid. However it is not a recognised product. Perhaps it should be,though, because it is such a weak, dilute solution that is actually sprayed onto the bees by the beekeeper.
> So if you do have a varroa problem you might like to come to Bee banter on Tuesday 26th April 730pm Rose and Crown Mayfield
>
> Malcolm Wilkie April 2016

The weather has suddenly begun to warm up and several of us have had a quick look into the brood box to see what the bees are doing. If you put in your inspection boards as I suggested last time you will know, anyway, how many frames of brood you will find in your box. If you are in the lucky position of having a strong colony Helen suggests that you put a queen excluder and a super of drawn comb on top of the excluder so that the bees can begin to fill this up with nectar.
How do you decide if you have a strong colony? Out of my six hives I have two colonies that I would consider to be strong colonies. Remember I have 14 x 12 brood boxes. These two colonies already have five frames of brood and the Queen will soon be laying up more frames. If you are a beginner you will not have drawn super comb. You will need to put a box of foundation on top of your brood box. Remember that the foundation needs to be fresh and if you made the frames up a couple of months ago you will need to refresh the wax lightly with a hairdryer. Personally if I only had foundation I would not put a queen excluder on top of the brood box. I would wait until the bees had started to draw out some of the foundation. At that point I would slip an excluder between the brood box and the super. Drawn super comb is like hen's teeth but once you have got some you will be able to use it for several years.
Now how about colonies that are not strong colonies? Many of us will have colonies with just two frames of brood. Is there anything that we can do to ameliorate the situation? Perhaps you have put on fondant or Neopoll and the bees just do not seem to show much interest. This is not your fault : it just means that the bees are not numerous enough to take advantage of the offerings that you are giving them. Experience teaches one that a hive needs to get to a point where they feel they can
expand. You might be tempted to give them sugar syrup. Keith, however, would tell you that this will only place a small unit under even more stress. If they have got honey stores they will use those when they are ready. And sometimes a small unit,once it reaches the tipping point, can expand extremely quickly. It might seem at the moment like gloom and doom but things can turn around in the space of three weeks. In this scenario you won't get a honey crop from spring flowers.

This month the weather will  allow you to look into the brood box. Please check, beginners, that the queen does in fact have enough space to lay. If you overfed your colony in the autumn and there are a lot of frames of honey, you may need to take out a  frame of stores and add a frame of foundation. Place this on the edge of the brood nest and the bees will draw it out so that the Queen can lay in it. Remember one of the triggers for swarming is congestion in the brood nest and if your brood box is loaded with old honey stores then the poor Queen has nowhere to lay! Once you have allowed the bees to get congested they will probably go down the path of swarming and there will be very little you can do about it even if at that late stage you give them extra space.

And we are now coming into swarming season. I say this because I opened a colony on Saturday and there was a whole frame of drone brood and several drones were already walking around on the comb. If they have just hatched they will take 12 days to reach sexual maturity. So, theoretically, if a virgin queen flies in the middle of April there will be drones around with which she can mate. I would not be surprised to see swarms in late April this year. Be warned, and make sure you give the Queen space now so as to delay this swarming as long as possible. And make up those brood boxes and frames of foundation if you have not already done so! I am afraid this is a case of do as I say, don't do as I do because I still have got boxes to sterilise and frames of foundation to make. Once you have your hive ready, go and place it in your apiary ready to do the manipulation you have decided upon. You will add the frames of foundation at the last minute. A timely reminder that we have a session on swarm control on Thursday April 14th. This is at the Rose and Crown in Mayfield and will start at 7:30 PM. Keith and I will cover once again the artificial swarm and I will quickly show you another technique which can be used if you have a strong colony and want to do something before you go away on holiday.
Malcolm Wilkie
3rd April 2016

Subject: Topical Tips - Shopping list for Heathfield
Here are a few ideas for anyone who has just started keeping bees or has only been keeping bees for one or two years. It will help you plan for the season ahead. Perhaps also a reminder for those of you who have kept bees for a longer time.
Essential
Apiguard (a type of thymol gel) to treat colonies in August for varroa
An eke for each colony (to apply the Apiguard). If you are good with your hands you can make one yourself
Super frames and wax foundation (in the hope your bees will make you some honey)Make up the frames but don't add wax until you are ready. Keep the wax indoors in a dry but cool place but not near a heat source. Under a spare room bed is ideal.
A contact feeder. Everyone should have one. This is the feeder with the fine mesh covering a central hole. To use you need to have an empty super placed on top of the crown board.
2 Queen clips. Make sure the spring works really well. If in doubt ask Helen or Keith
A spare hive tool. As brightly coloured as possible
What would be good
A polystyrene nucleus box. Contact Paynes beforehand so that they put it on their lorry. Specify size ie ordinary national, deep national, commercial, WBC. The owner of a nucleus box can get themselves out of so much trouble. Every new beekeeper should have one. They are not that expensive
A plastic rapid feeder for each colony. Never buy wooden; they leak and that causes robbing. Make sure the feeder you are buying is the right size for your hives!
What I would be cautious about buying
Bad quality equipment in the auction
A honey extractor in the auction that does not work. Why do they allow them to go into the sale?
A colony of bees without a Queen. How can beekeepers allow a beginner to waste their money in this way?
A colony of bees on the wrong sized frames for the hive type you have purchased. Only a strong colony can be shook swarmed.
If you are thinking about buying bees at least check on the Internet what price a colony or nucleus usually is going for. Don't pay a lot more than you need to pay. Don't get carried away by the fact the bees are being auctioned.

As far as equipment to make increase is concerned, far better to wait until October and get the equipment at the national honey show, or wait until one of the autumn sales and buy the equipment at a fraction of the price at that moment( unless you have a strong colony and will have to divide it to stop swarming). But a nucleus box would get you out of this difficulty. Remember most beginners who manage to buy a whole colony at this time of year loose most of them in a swarm about a week after they have bought them Your choice, but not having the possibility of dividing a colony will get you into trouble. Beginners you are warned.

Paynes 01273 843388
Ben and Maggie Pratt 01323 841249

And finally some plants for the bees. Or just some plants. Keith always comes up with something quirky.

Malcolm May 10th 2016

Diseases

Traditionally beekeepers do not start to think about treating disease in their colonies until August. The reason for this is varroa takes time to build up in a colony and it is at this stage in the year that you will really begin to see bees with deformed wings.

Varroa which is causing DWV (deformed wing virus) is only one of many viral, fungal and bacterial infections that are probably present all the time at low levels in every colony. Varroa is the number one enemy at present and I will be suggesting some strategies for dealing with it, but other infections should not be ignored and at the beginning of this missive that it what I shall be dealing with.

The worst infections from a novice's point of view are EFB (European Foul Brood) and AFB (American Foul Brood). Outbreaks of AFB don't seem to be that common but EFB has been a problem in this area.

Suffice it to say that if you see in your hive melted down larvae this could be EFB. The larvae look like 'snot'! When EFB starts to take a hold you may not see many larvae like this as, to begin with, the bees remove them. However it is the very act of removing the larvae and cleaning out the cells that is spreading the disease further. If nothing is done to treat eventually the hive will start to smell fishy, as bacteria start to hasten the decomposition of the melted down larvae (these are not being removed by the colony as they have become overwhelmed by the disease).

The above scenario would entail you contacting firstly someone in the association and then the bee inspector who comes out, and using a lateral flow device tests for the presence of EFB. A simple test you can do yourself is to take a pair of tweezers and pull one of the suspicious larvae apart. If a ball of yellow pollen can be seen, then probably everything is alright. This is because EFB is a bacteria that feeds off pollen in the gut of the larva and if EFB is present the bacteria will have already digested the yellow pollen.

Yellow pollen in the gut = larva hasn’t died due to starvation; EFB may be present at an early stage or you are mistaken and it is sac brood or another fungal infection.

White snotty mess when the gut is pulled apart = larva has died of starvation; EFB likely

One of the commonest diseases for beginners is chalk brood. . In the initial stages you will see dead larvae in the frames that have died. These larvae have become mummies that are hard and look like chalk. This is a fungal infection and if left unchecked the mummies of the dead larvae turn from looking like chalk to a dark blue colour and this indicates that the fungus is producing spores, which will further pollute your hive and slow up its expansion. You will find dead mummies on the inspection board if you have it in. If you leave well alone the bees usually clear out the mummies, but only if the colony is strong. I have found that beginners often leave their inspection boards in and the lack of air circulation seems to worsen this problem. If you have open mesh floors, then let the bees have plenty of air. The inspection boards are not intended to be left in for any great length of time!

In cold summers sac brood can become a problem. Beginners muddle this with EFB. The larvae curl up in an odd way and it has been suggested that this looks rather like a Chinese slipper. The larvae do have a slightly melted down look but you can still see the Michelin tyres on them. They tend to turn a dark brown colour as they die. Once again this usually clears up.

If you have the luxury of keeping several colonies, I personally would try and combine two or three hives, as with more bees they will better be able to cope with these fungal infections. EFB, of course, is another matter. If you have a number of colonies the best bet when EFB is confirmed in one hive is destruction (inspection floor added, entrance sealed with gaffer tape, petrol poured through the crown board at night). Remember to seal up the hive so your other hives do not go and rob out the infected honey. Then burn all frames. The box should be torched as should the crown board, floor and roof. A Beekeeper should have a blow torch anyway so as to regularly clean his equipment. Remember hot water and soda crystals are insufficient to kill the bacterial spores of EFB, which can only be eradicated by using a blow torch. Bacterial spores are even resistant to boiling water!

Now to varroa. Some of you will have read the article in the BBKA news and will be thinking you should perhaps just do nothing and the bees will find a way of dealing with it. Don't! Unless you have got a huge number of colonies.

Colin Stocks swears by icing sugar and dusts this onto the frames each time he looks at his colonies. This will knock off a small percentage of phoretic mites and delay the build-up of mites in a colony. He does nothing else and that can only work, in my opinion, if you have a really good strong colony. Something beginners rarely have.

A late summer treatment with thymol. The bees try and remove the thymol from the hive and this irritates them so they keep cleaning themselves. Probably the thymol gets transferred to the varroa mites damaging their delicate outer carapace and this causes the demise of most of them. However beginners make the mistake of not starting the treatment early enough. To be really effective temperatures for the whole period of the treatment need to be well above 15 degrees. So you will only get the best out of the product if it is put on mid or even early August. By the time we visit the French in Normandy in late August their winter treatments are already complete. The inspection board needs to be put in, and I have even resorted to putting gaffa tape over the back of the hive so as to guarantee as little ventilation gets into the hive as possible. You want the volatile oils in the product to irritate the bees to the maximum as this will try and make them remove it from the hive and in so doing pass it around among themselves thereby guaranteeing a good mite drop. An eke is needed for the tray of Apiguard. If you have no eke , buy Apilife Var, the biscuits of which are laid directly on top of the frames. So if you have not yet got your late summer treatment from Paynes or Ben and Maggie Pratt, then order it now in readiness.

When a colony swarms you also have options. If you have a virgin and she is about to come into lay, Oxalic acid is an option. I have never wanted to do this fearing I might damage the new Queen. However inspired by Jonathan Coote in West Sussex I am now using a weak solution of lactic acid. This is no stronger than lemon juice but when sprayed on the bees they concentrate it down and this damages the delicate feeding parts of the varroa. This knocks off 70% of the mites on the bees. However bees need to be excluded from their supers. This will hopefully mean that in August I won't have the huge numbers of varroa in these units that I have had in the past. Helen has mixed up the correct quantities and you should contact her if you want to try this option.

If you have a number of hives, you may be able to take a frame of eggs and young larvae and introduce it into a hive where the Virgin is about to come into lay. Mark the frame clearly and when it has been sealed remove it. It will be full of mites as they will not have been able to breed for at least five weeks, so will have been desperate to dive into the nearest brood cell. Uncap the sealed cells and you will see the number of mites you have trapped.

I won't now deal with winter treatments. That will be for another time. As ever I hope the above is helpful.