Gwenynwyr Cymru The Welsh Beekeeper

www.wbka.com Rhif/No:184 Gwanyn/Spring 2014 Gwenynwyr Cymru The Welsh Beekeeper

Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 5 Gwanyn 2014

Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 9 Gwanyn 2014

Come and see us at our stand at the Welsh Convention The Welsh Beekeeper #184 10 Spring 2014

we will see later, some of what they do contain is completely wrong (they are many years out-of date). This article is based on evidence that has been garnered from many sources; books on bee biology, articles in journals, scientific papers and, perhaps most importantly, beekeeping experience over a number of years. Contents The article is divided into four parts:- 1) How bees know when to swarm (what triggers the process?) 2) At what point does the intention to swarm start? 3) The process from the start of swarm cells up to the issue of the prime swarm 4) Events after the prime swarm until a new queen is established (and this includes cast swarming) There is no attempt to cover swarms and their behaviour because an excellent account is available in Thomas Seeley s book, The Honey Bee Democracy. PART 1 How do honey bees know when to swarm? There has been much discussion about this topic in beekeeping books and magazines and every so often someone claims that they have discovered the secret of swarming. In real-life the trigger for swarming is almost certainly multi-factorial; a function of colony size, brood area, space for the queen to lay, the adult population and its age distribution (large population with low mean age), brood nest congestion (number of bees crammed into the available space), weather (has an influence on both foraging and congestion), hive temperature and ventilation, nectar and pollen availability and day length take your pick!. Through management the beekeeper can have a major influence on internal (hive) conditions but has no control over external conditions - except possibly through apiary siting. The main trigger for swarming is thought to be the production and distribution of queen substance. As the queen ages she produces less queen substance and this is supposed to predispose a colony with an older queen to swarm. Congestion is the main cause of poor distribution of the queen s pheromones. Conditions below the queen excluder are more important than those above. Even with generous supering, adverse weather can cause the bees to cram themselves in the lower part of the hive and cause congestion. Typically a colony perceives itself as ready to swarm when it is at the peak of its seasonal build-up, at which time up to half of the workers can be less than 8 days old. PART 2 - At what point does the intention to swarm start? A number of stages in the development of a colony have been cited as the start of the swarming process:- Drone brood in the colony Adult drones in the colony The Welsh Beekeeper #184 12 Spring 2014

Queen cups constructed Eggs laid in queen cups Queen cups with young larvae in a pool of royal jelly The first four of these stages can be found in colonies that will never (during that season) progress further and attempt to swarm. Eggs in queen cups are a serious warning but they can be observed to come and go without being in place long enough to hatch presumably they are prematurely removed by the workers so progression from egg to larva is not a certainty. Finding young larvae in a pool of royal jelly is a sure sign that the colony is triggered to swarm. Very occasionally the process seems to selfabort for reasons that are not obvious. Radical brood nest management can stop the process but too rarely to afford a practical solution. Destroying queen cells (even repeatedly) does not prevent swarming. At best it may delay swarming by a few days and at worst it can result in loss of the colony. So when queen cells have been started it is best to regard swarming as inevitable. But is this the real start of the swarming process the point of no return? Until fairly recently I would have said a definite yes. However, studies carried out at the University of North Carolina using observation hives to try and understand tactile communication (vibration dances and signals) within the colony suggest otherwise. Commencing about 14 days before queen cells are produced, and seemingly related to increased congestion in the brood nest, worker behaviour towards the queen changes. Starting gradually, but increasing in frequency with time, the queen becomes the target of what is called the vibration signal. The worker giving the signal grasps the recipient (in this case the queen) between her front legs and vibrates her own body up and down for 1-2 seconds. It seems to be a multi-purpose signal because it is also executed on workers (of all ages), virgin queens and even queen cells. Its meaning is non-specific and is interpreted as being a sort of gee-up (stimulatory) signal. In the period leading up to the production of queen cells, and allied with increased feeding of the queen, the vibratory signal is thought to stimulate the queen to lay presumably to maximise the amount of brood in the colony at the point of swarming. After queen cells are present the same signal allied with reduced feeding is aimed at slimming-down the queen in preparation for flight. In summary, this change in behaviour and its continuity strongly suggest that the decision to swarm is actually taken about 2 weeks before queen cells are seen in a colony. This is bad news for beekeepers because we apparently have no way of knowing when this decision has been taken. It means that we may often be applying pre-emptive swarm Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 13 Gwanyn 2014

control (such as comb management) to colonies that are already triggered to swarm when there is little (or no?) hope of success. So in practical terms is there anything we can do to switch off what could be termed latent swarming? All I can say is, that when colonies are split (either for pre-emptive swarm control or to make increase) the problem, if it actually existed (and we have no means of knowing), seems to be stopped in its tracks, ie. the queen-right part of the split never sets up to swarm (at least within the next month). PART 3 The process from the start of queen cells up to the issue of the prime swarm This is where things get murkier and the exact sequence of events over this period is poorly understood. Maturation of the queen cells is the most obvious development; the continued feeding of the queen larvae by nurse bees and the extension of the cell walls until they are sealed on day 8 after the laying of the egg (or day 5 after the larva hatched and started to be fed royal jelly). How do the eggs get into the queen cups in the first place? - The majority opinion is that they are laid there by the queen but others claim that workers transfer eggs (laid elsewhere) to queen cups. Both origins are possible but it does not seem to be of any practical significance. Who decides that an egg in a queen cup should be allowed to hatch and who does the initial feed of royal jelly? - This is not known but the prime suspect is what are called messenger bees. This is a role (an activity) undertaken by a small number of nurse bees up to 10 days old. For a period of a few days they show a strong attraction to queen substance. They seek out the queen, lick her body and then disperse throughout the colony making numerous antennal contacts with other bees. These are presumed to be the bees that inform the colony that they are queen-right and failure to get their message across with sufficient strength (probably because of congestion) is what may kick-start the swarming process. Do the messenger bees do the initial feeding or do they trigger other bees to do it? -This is not known but the latter seems more likely. Once the initial feed has been given to an intended queen larvae, all subsequent feeding seems to be done on auto-pilot. This why in some queen rearing methods, transferring grafted queen cells from a queenless starter colony (which does the initial feed) to a queen-right finisher colony works. Despite being queen-right, the cells continue to be fed (no questions asked) until such time as the queens are nearing maturity when (if not harvested) the cells are torn down by the workers and the occupants killed. Which bees in the colony know they are going to swarm and make advanced preparation for the great day? - Who tells them and at what stage in the process do they know? Is it done on a need to know basis is it progressive? There are no clear answers to these questions but it should be emphasised that at least 25% (and usually more) of the workers in a colony at the point of swarming were not even born when the queen cells were started. What changes take place in the colony on the lead up to swarming? - As already noted, the queen is slimmed-down by the weight-watcher team in readiness for flight; she is stimulated to run around by the vibration signal and is fed less. Most activities in The Welsh Beekeeper #184 14 Spring 2014

the colony gradually go on work to rule (they slow down) and this includes foraging and comb building. Many workers gorge themselves with honey (a swarm needs to march on a full stomach) and stand around doing nothing in particular apparently waiting for the signal to go. Some bees activate their wax producing glands and are actually carrying mature wax scales at the time of swarming. Timing of the swarm Swarming normally occurs soon after the first queen cells are sealed. It can occur earlier, well before any cells are sealed, but it is not known why - they just do it! Peak time for swarming is 12.00-15.00 hours. Swarming can be delayed by poor weather and the colony gets more anxious as time progresses and may decide to leave at the first glimpse of sunshine. Initiation of the swarm - Preparation for swarming (the warm-up period) takes at least one hour. The colony becomes increasingly active, there an explosion of vibration signalling and some workers emit piping noises. Finally, certain workers make what are called buzz runs in waves across the combs and this is the signal for the swarm to emerge. Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 15 Gwanyn 2014

Which bees control this process (initiate the swarm)? - Again it is not known but it is obvious that whoever does it must be in possession of two essential pieces of information:- 1) The maturity of the queen cells 2) The prevailing weather conditions If it is the same bees that hold both types of information, it implies that they must be flying bees bees that have knowledge of conditions both inside and outside the hive. Looking at the behaviour as a whole, it seems likely that there is a controlling group of bees that orchestrate the process of swarming. The most convincing evidence for this comes from artificial swarming. If all flying bees are removed from a colony with queen cells by moving it to a new position the impulse to swarm is lost. This evidence suggests that there is a group of bees that act as swarm organisers. They are obviously flying bees but only a minority group (perhaps numbering as few 100-200) because the majority of the dedicated foragers remain with the parent colony after swarming (see next paragraph). How does the population of the colony split when it swarms? - This is the single most important piece of information as far as practical beekeeping is concerned. All the beekeeping books with British authors (that I have come across so far) say that the old queen departs with the flying bees. Of course bees are capable of flight from a very early age but, in this context, the term flying bees is taken to mean bees that have reached the age when their main task is foraging. Scientific studies of swarming show that this is totally incorrect and that a prime swarm is dominated by young bees, with up to 70% being under 10 days old and that includes individuals as young as 4 days old (barely out of the cradle!). It is difficult to see how this knowledge (which has been available for over 40 years) has failed to be incorporated into the British beekeeping culture because the information is readily available (Biology of the Honey Bee, by Mark Winston, p. 186). The idea that a swarm consists only of flying bees is so illogical that it is difficult to understand why it has been so widely believed. If true, it would mean that a swarm was primarily composed of bees that were in the last third of their life span. To increase their payload, dedicated foragers shed up to 40% of their body weight and this is mostly achieved by atrophy of their glands a condition that is partly reversible but only with difficulty. The mission of a swarm is to find a new nest site, build some comb (perhaps from scratch), forage and get the queen laying not to mention collecting sufficient stores to survive the winter. Even when the new nest has been established, it will take at least 21 days before the swarm gets its first new recruit by which time a high proportion of the bees would be dead and gone. As far as beekeeping is concerned, this explains why a natural swarm is so vigorous and hard-working compared with a (beekeeper created) artificial swarm. The natural swarm has an age structure that is ideally suited (fit for purpose) to the task it has to perform whereas the artificial swarm is just a gang of older bees, some of whom have to re-invent themselves to carry out the duties normally performed by younger bees. This article does not cover artificial swarming but it is the continued and persistent urge to swarm The Welsh Beekeeper #184 16 Spring 2014

(come hell or high-water) of the swarm organiser bees that makes this management procedure so unreliable. If only we beekeepers could split colonies in the same way they split themselves during swarming (could achieve similar age structure in both parts of the split) it would be a really effective form of management but we can t. How the colony does it for itself is something of a mystery. At the point of departure individual bees have to decide whether to stay or go and this does not appear to be pre-determined. Most of the bees in the colony ( stayers and goers alike) gorge themselves with honey so this is not a sign that a bee is going to join the swarm. Also, if the swarming process aborts for some reason (usually because the queen does leave the hive), the swarm will return home and try again later but not all the bees that participated the first time will join the swarm for the second performance (and vice versa). Swarming is clearly a very complex and variable process and at the current state of knowledge we are at a loss to understand some of the details. PART 4 Cast (or secondary) swarming Now we are really entering the world of the unknown because this aspect of colony behaviour has been very little studied. In nature (without the help of beekeepers) a prime swarm has no better than a 20-30% change of survival ie. making it through its first winter. The survival of cast swarms has not been studied but with their inherent disadvantages - that they issue about 10 days later, contain fewer bees and have a virgin queen who has yet to mate before she can start laying - means that their chance of survival must be minimal. So why do colonies cast swarm? Some beekeepers claim that a colony can swarm itself to death, so is this true? One view of cast-swarming is that it is a hangover from evolution in a tropical climate (where it has a a much higher probability of success) but there have been so many generations of cold-temperate bees that this does not seems to be a viable explanation. If cast swarming (in temperate bees) were not adaptive it would have been eliminated by natural selection long ago. So what is adaptive about cast swarming? - The probable explanation is as follows:- A swarming colony always has abundant assets bees, brood and stores After swarming the parent colony has a large reserve of brood so numbers are on the increase again Having issued a prime swarm, the only aim of the parent colony is to survive so that it can do the same thing next season Cast swarming reduces the number of mouths to be feed and helps conserve existing stores The colony only needs enough worker bees to support the new queen, get her mated and laying The colony then re-build its numbers, is possibly able to top-up its stores and produces plenty of well-nourished winter bees Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 17 Gwanyn 2014

Some people claim that cast swarming is an artefact of beekeeping (creating extra-large colonies) but in my experience feral colonies almost invariably do it. As far as colonies swarming themselves to death, I think this is just a soft explanation for colonies that fail to re-queen something that can happen regardless of colony size. The next question is who organises the cast swarm - have all the swarm organiser bees been lost with the prime swarm? The evidence is that all the swarm organisers DO depart with the prime swarm because unless a colony has issued a prime swarm there will be NO cast swarms. This implies that the process of swarming triggers a fresh group of bees to run the cast swarm. Like the prime swarm organisers, this group of bees is very persistent and the only way to prevent a cast swarm is to thin the un-emerged queen cells to one. To be completely safe this has to be done when there are no longer any eggs or young larvae from which the bees can construct additional emergency queens cells. If this precaution is not observed the colony can cast swarm with the single queen left by the beekeeper because there are reserve queens in the emergency cells. Left to its own devices, a colony will usually issue a second cast swarm and this quite often contains more than one virgin queen. Losing a prime swarm is a serious blow to the potential honey crop but losing cast swarms is nothing short of a disaster. Crossing your fingers and hoping cast swarming will not happen is not an option! Afterthoughts In the lecture delivered at the Convention last year there was a final section under this heading but space limitations preclude coverage in this article. I think it would be useful to return to this topic in more detail in a later article. The Welsh Beekeeper #184 18 Spring 2014

8th November 2014 then please fill in the exam entrance form at least 6 weeks before these dates. All modules will be available to take on both dates and the application form is now up on the web page. The syllabi for all the modules can be found on the BBKA web-site (please note that they have recently been updated), as we purchase the BBKA module papers. 60% is the pass mark for these assessments. If you are planning to take the WBKA General Husbandry certificate this year, please apply by the beginning of March. Those who wish to take the Advanced Certificate in Beekeeping Husbandry on the 14 th /15 th June organised by the BBKA will need to apply to Val Francis val. francis@bbka.org.uk by the 28 th February 2014. The BBKA also have a Microscopy exam which will be held on 15 th /16 th November. The turn round time for marking module papers will be approximately 8 to 10 weeks this year. We are very keen to encourage more candidates to take the practical and written assessments and I would like to thank all the assessors and invigilators who gave their time to support the 2013 WBKA assessments, it was much appreciated. Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 21 Gwanyn 2014

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bewildered bees groggily trying to come to terms with this unexpected awakening brought about by exposure to warm sunshine. A handful of bees were quickly collected to keep the queen company before I attempted rescuing as many of the mass of bees as I could. This I achieved by putting the framesthat the bees had been occupying in their hive, into a nuc box along with a frame of sealed stores that was available from another hive. I then scraped up several scoops of bees with a plastic pot, along with grass, moss, twigs etc., and tipped these into the box. I now set about painstakingly picking up individual bees and let me say that even in a small colony there are a lot of bees. When I had collected as many bees as I felt it was practicable to do, I moved the nuc box into the greenhouse before putting the queen back with them. So the bees quite eventful day moved into a new phase as they were given the impression it was now summer. After a period of frustrated activity (the door to the greenhouse was shut) the bees settled down in their new home. It might be of interest to know that the next day some of the bees I had failed to gather up from the ground,were still alive, even after spending over twenty four hours in the open, most,of that time with the temperature well below zero. Over the following week or more, as the weather continued its pattern of freezing nights and cold but sunny days, I moved the bees out to their old position during the day and then each evening shut them up and moved them back into the greenhouse. I have no idea how necessary this regime was but an inspection of the colony carried out ten days later, revealed a good number of worker bees, the queen and even to my myopic eyes a good number of newly laid eggs. I realise that this example of my beekeeping has more in common with a chapter of Bill Turnbull s book The Bad Bee Keepers Club than any other manual on beekeeping, but in the seven years that I had kept bees prior to this incident, I had never come across any mention of this phenomenon in any of the numerous books, magazines, internet articles etc. that I had read. Searches on the internet give plenty of results for suspended animation or torpor in bees, and there are accounts of individual bees coming back to life on being warmed after having been chilled or frozen, but not whole colonies. So did I rescue my bees from the brink of death or did I unneccessarily jeopardise their survival? Well I believe they would have all perished without my intervention, and actually a month or so later the old queen disappeared, presumably having died, and leaving only drone brood behind her. I managed to get the colony to requeen themselves with a frame of brood from another hive and they are now settled down for another winter, with many more bees in the hive and much more stores than a year before. The Welsh Beekeeper #184 24 Spring 2014

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harvest was taken, chickens in a house on wheels was pulled onto the fields to clear up the left-overs. My naughty terrier killed a chicken once, it cost my mother 1 = 25-30 today!! So you can see that food then was not only rationed because of the war but very expensive. For me that farm was heaven, for the farmer it was tremendously hard work for a very low income. I helped them as best I could with no question of payment. By the late 40s agriculture was advancing fast, more machines met the need for more wheat and other arable crops and this brought the beginning of the agro-chemical industry as the seed for these crops was being attacked by weevils and other insects. DDT killed all the creepy crawlies much to my mother s delight. A migrant worker who arrived with the hired threshing machine had a bed roll and made a mattress from sacks filled with straw and sprinkled with DDT. Nothing will bite me now he said as I stood and watched him. Treating corn seed was becoming more important due to the huge demand for more food to feed not only the nation but the ever increasing number of farm animals. These chemicals seeped into water courses and birds ate the spilt seed and suddenly in East Anglia, the breadbasket of England, foxes were being found dead as were fish and then thousands and thousands of birds were littering the countryside and in 1962 Rachel Carson wrote the world famous book The Silent Spring with the preface by Albert Schweitzer: Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall, He will end up by destroying the earth. Ever since then treating seeds has been a problem, we are right now in the middle of the latest fight with Neonicotinoids. By the late 60s I afforded a smallholding mainly because my children had ponies but then there was room for poultry and perhaps a sheep or two. We bought some pet lambs to learn on. I was invited to a lecture on improved chicken farming and went on a visit to one of the first battery houses, the modern way to produce more eggs to meet the ever increasing demand. We went into this huge building and the noise was the first thing that hit me, thousands of happy chickens chatting away, each one had a large cage where it could flap its wings, preen its feathers, be warm and dry and talk all day to its friends, it was impressive and commercial. THEN the downside, the cages were so big you could put two in each, then three, then four, then with no room to flap their wings and preen they got ratty and pecked each other, a bloody mess, never mind - chop off their beaks! Well, cheap eggs were important. Its better now with deep litter houses or out in the mud to call them Free range.then I went to the local agricultural college to learn about pigs. I always fancied a pig! The lecturer met the group outside and took us to the dry sow house. It was about 60ft long with iron bars going from end to end and shorter ones going the other way forming cubicles. In each one was a pig chained so they could stand or sit down but not turn round, the chains rubbing sore patches into their backs. A boar was wandering about to mate with them as necessary. They were kept in the dark to keep them calm, and put in slightly Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 27 Gwanyn 2014

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bigger crates when they had their piglets. Well, we wanted cheap pork and bacon, that was the demand. Pigs are now kept in large open sheds in deep straw with reduced income to the farmer. The 12 cows I learned to milk by hand turned into 20-30 once milking machines had been invented, and now by the late 70s my dream came true I could afford a farm not in England where it was mostly arable, but in Wales where stock farms were the norm. Mr Jones was retiring and this unspoilt original family farm was just perfect. No water inside but who cared the tŷ bach was up the track over a stream, the automatic flush I called it. Dairy herds were rising in number as silage and milking machines improved. But I had beef cows which reared a calf a year and I bought in more calves to rear by hand for beef. I also had sheep, various breeds to try. That s not a flock of sheep, that s a collection said the disgusted vet. The woods were full of foxes and badgers and wildlife and with bees now part of it all I was once again in heaven. And although TB was in the dairy herds round me I never had any at all. But the 80s came at a price, all the extra dairy cows had to be fed grass silage and dry feeds from the feed merchants. They were short of protein for their feeds but, never mind, science was at hand, they could use all the droppings and waste from the battery chicken houses and all the offal and waste products from the sheep in the abattoirs. It would be sterilised of course. Ideal. This was followed by BSE(mad cow disease) the most horrific thing ever seen in dairy herds; it ruined the beef trade and we would all be dying from it in 20 years time. At the same time it became law that all sheep had to be dipped twice a year under inspection to eradicate sheep scab which was a real problem. It was hard to afford the installation of a dip but it had to be done and the dip was Organophosphate. The sheep did very well but it nearly killed the farmers, so that was the end of that. But the number of dairy cows kept rising and herds are now are 200-1000. And the next problem rears its head with these big herds; TB now on the upward march, it s the badgers, of course it is, or not. Consider this, the cows are kept in huge crowded sheds with slatted floors through which falls all the waste, so the rising gasses are inhaled by the cows, they also breathe each other s breath and the whole atmosphere is damp. Remind you of something? How about the soldiers in the first and second world wars in the trenches in similar conditions. They came home in the thousands with TB and died slowly at home. I saw that myself. But the boy from a wealthy family in the village who caught it, was was sent to Switzerland high in the fresh air and came home cured. Extractor fans would surely help to let them breathe fresh air, no, no it s the badgers. So how about this, cows make droppings on the field and cow slurry is spread on the fields, this attracts bugs beetles and worms and the staple diet of badgers is bugs, beetles and worms, perhaps the badgers are catching TB from the cows? No not possible, don t say such things; the TB Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 29 Gwanyn 2014

business is huge, a multimillion huge!! The vets paid for testing, the hauliers for carting, the abattoirs for killing, the vets for after-testing for only 60% of those killed have it and the compensation to the farmers for lost stock makes up for the low price of milk. And of course we want cheap milk. Never mind that cows go lame on concrete floors or the huge cost to the taxpayer. And with pasteurisation of milk what risk is TB to the human population? In 1995 entomologists were saying habitats for hymenoptera other than honey bees were being lost. Lack of woodland management meant flowers and those dependant upon them were going. When did you last see a glow worm? So here is a little plea, if you are a keen gardener could you please not tidy up your garden of dead leaves and other stalks and overgrowth from last year until the end of March for who knows what eggs are laid in the old stalks or who is safely sleeping in that pile of dead leaves. So here we are in 2014, in 2009 we lost 40% of bees and with all the advances in science and technology in 2013 we lost 45%. If you have 1-3 hives and are still reading, think for yourself, they are your bees after all, are you going to pour poisonous acid onto them in the middle of winter and feed them bought-in feeds containing heaven knows what when a bag of sugar is the best thing out. And bees don t die from varroa. Less is more in the long run; three hives will be there when the hundred and three are gone Facts are sad but if you had no honey in a bumper year, the best since 2006, something is wrong, are they in the wrong place? Are there too many other beekeepers near you or do the bees just not like you, it s a possibility, they have 30,000 chemoreceptors and know far more about you than you will ever know about them, if they go for you a lot and on many occasions. What do you smell of? Aftershave, scent, shampoo, fabric conditioner? They hate anything from a chemist s shop. Keep your bee suit in a carrier bag with some old wax. Talk to them, they like that. The Victorians thought that was very important and told the bees all about the doings of the household. A bad tempered colony is difficult so get some help to re-queen it. But if they sting a lot, abscond and swarm a lot consider perhaps you should give it up; we can t all be lion tamers and some people are just not meant to be beekeepers. And finally a fact that none of us want to consider: does Britain now have too many beekeepers and too many bees? The balance of nature or population dynamics will dictate what happens next. If the bigger beekeepers keep fewer bees in one place they might find they have the same amount of honey, if the new beekeeper had a good year with his one hive and now wants a lot more, he might be disappointed. We won t lose honey bees as a species, they were here before man and will be here after we are gone. So for those with one or two hives, love them, cherish them,and just enjoy them, you might be amazed at the result. The Welsh Beekeeper #184 30 Spring 2014

This year marks 25 years since Conwy BKA started organizing the 700-year old Conwy Seed Fair every 26th March, and the Conwy Honey Fair every 13th September. The Fairs were struggling back in the 1980s, with just a handful of nondescript stalls, very little publicity or organization, and hardly any visitors. They just happened. We had good honey crops in 1989 and in 1990, and we realized that the Fairs would fizzle out unless we took them in hand. We ve built them back into major events, without losing their essential character. We ve had great support from the town traders and residents, and from the town and county councils. We re very pleased! Conwy is well-known for its World Heritage Castle and Town Walls, and now it has become well-known for its many successful events. The successful Gwledd Conwy Feast was a spin-off from the Honey Fair in 2004 and now it s a massive event, packing Conwy with visitors every October, and it s one of the biggest food festivals in Wales. The 2013 Honey Fair was one of our best so far, with about 30 beekeepers selling their honey in the High Street, including several new beekeepers selling for the first time. We recommended a minimum price of 6 per 454g jar. Some stallholders sold at higher prices, and we sold over a tonne of honey. I doubt if there s anywhere where you can sell honey so quickly. Some keen buyers buy a jar from every stallholder. Stall space is free of charge. That s written into the Royal Charter of Edward 1st. We invite stallholders to make a donation towards Bees for Development. We collected 970 at the two Fairs in 2013. BfD always like hearing from us. One long-term resident told me a few years ago that Edward 1st would be proud of me, and Conwy BKA. That s the nicest thing anyone has ever said! Conwy Honey Fair 2014 Peter McFadden, Conwy BKA We welcome beekeepers from all over North Wales who want to sell honey and hive products, and some from further afield. We always turn away plenty of enquiries from inappropriate stalls. The Seed Fair in March is a great early season tourist event in Conwy. It attracts plenty of specialist plant and seed stalls, and local crafts and home produce stalls. Why not pay us a visit this year? You ll be made very welcome. Conwy Seed Fair, Wednesday 26th March 2014; Conwy Honey Fair, Saturday 13th September. See www.conwybeekeepers.org.uk for information for visitors and stallholders, and the history of the Conwy Honey Fair. The Welsh Beekeeper #184 32 Spring 2014

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Terry says I never had a mentor so I had to learn the hard way, it took me longer and of course I am still learning. Working with Barry and now Dennis is great, we share a challenging interest which is continually developing and our friendship is a bonus. Currently we are applying winter Varroa control and two or three people working in a process can minimise the time a hive is open for the application of Oxalic acid when someone is opening and closing the hive, another applying the treatment while a third makes sure smoke is available when needed and syringes have the right volume of acid ready for application and of course nothing goes quite to plan like if when hefting we find some urgent feed is needed. Terry has an out apiary and we all have hives in our gardens so the three of us can move bees and this year we started queen rearing with mating nucs so with the total number of hives we can select breeder and builder colonies for the character and productivity we aim for. Thanks to Terry and Barry my progress as a beekeeper has been fast and truly enjoyable. The Conwy Honey fair was a real eye-opener for me, our honey literally flew-off the tables it sold so fast and it is good stuff. I took a couple of frames with stiff honey as dip-in tasters but the visitors insisted I cut it into chunks and sold the lot. Working in our small team has made the world of difference to my progress and I have another couple of dodgy mates, says Dennis. We hope this year to concentrate a bit more on honey yield and further selective queen rearing. We are over-wintering some of the wooden hives on brood and a half with supers below. Our advice to existing and new beekeepers is to actively form a cluster copy the bees, it works for them. Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 37 Gwanyn 2014

Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 39 Gwanyn 2014

Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 41 Gwanyn 2014

In order not to lose sight of the mellifera programme I obtained a pure bred Queen from Norway, This Queen s progeny have been Wing Morphed and fall well within the accepted guidelines for the breed. I have used some of her progeny in further trials and must report that they appear to be susceptible to Chalk brood, but can build up well, and produce honey from a single brood chamber without a strong swarming urge. However they are not in the same league as either the pure Carnica or the Carnica X melliffera which behave quietly on the comb, produce better crops of honey, and on a double brood chamber swarm less than our ordinary bees. Beekeeping friends of mine asked if they could try my hybrid queens, and by and large they were impressed with them. I then decided to sell some queens to cover my expenses, this I have done. However I have continued to search for some pure Apis mellifera mellifera (Amm) queens to add to the equation, as by now I was line breeding pure Carnica and also line breeding a mongrel Amm type, crossing the progeny using instrumental insemination ( I.I.) to produce my breeder queens. These I tested for temperament, honey production, and winter hardiness. All the while I continued my search for pure Amm queens, and at last I have in my possession three beautiful dark native queens, two from a Scottish island and one from France. These have all been genetically tested and also wing morphed,and came out with flying colours. Using A.I. I will endeavour to create a family to give me purity in that side of the hybrids that I produce for sale. As a member of BIBBA this has been my ultimate goal. On the breeding side of Carnica I now use queens from three sources, two from Germany and one from Austria. I use only random mated Carnica x Amm queens in my honey producing colonies, these give me large stocks to produce bees to populate my mini neucs, and give me some extractable honey from the spring trees and flowers. I have been asked why I have gone for the Carniolan bee as opposed to the European dark bee, and the answer is that the fizzy temperament, swarminess and running around the combs put me off completely. On the other hand the calmness, and low swarminess coupled with good honey gathering caperbility of the Carniolan convinced me to go with it, and I see no reason to change now. May I please state that I do not sell imported queens and I have no intention of doing so in the future, my aim is to line breed a pure Amm, keeping it pure and use it to cross breed with the Carnica for honey production. PEMBROKESHIRE BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION CYMDEITHAS GWENYNWYR SIR BENFRO The Annual Sale of Bees & Beekeeping Equipment will take place on SATURDAY 3 rd MAY 2014 Brithdir Hall, Withybush Showground, Haverfordwest SA62 4BW To commence at 1 pm. Viewing from 11.00 am Refreshments will be available. Buyers No System operating Enquiries and entries to Tom Pegg: 01437 563392 Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 43 Gwanyn 2014

Gwenynwyr Cymru #184 47 Gwanyn 2014