The Essex Beekeeper

THE ESSEX BEEKEEPER

In this issue:

Report on Ted Hooper Memorial Lecture Save the Bees Conference details Asian Hornet Traps My Colony is Queenless! A Rose by any other Name Hives for Large Colonies Meeting Dates

A prime swarm resting in Wisteria in a friend’s garden

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Issue No. 642 June 2018

Divisional Meetings - June and July 2018

Meetings in June:

Sunday Saffron Garden Party and talk by Darren Lerigo - Helping 3 June 2.30pm Walden the Honey bee. Radwinter CB10 2TQ

Wednesday Honey Extraction & plant exchange. W.I. Hall, 6 June Southend 7.30pm Bellingham Lane, Rayleigh SS6 7ED

Wednesday Essex Schools Food & Farming Day - Writtle College 6 June Chelmsford 9am - 4pm Contact: Tim Pegrem 01245 471 878

Thursday The importance of Drones - Chad Colby-Blake. Kings 7 June Harlow 8.00pm Church, Red Willow, Harlow CM19 5PA

Thursday Top Bar Hives - Peter Aldridge. Chadwick Hall, Main 7 June Romford 8.00pm Road, Gidea Park RM2 5EL Queen clipping & Marking. Divisional Apiary, Hylands Tuesday 12 June Chelmsford Park, Chelmsford. 6.30pm Contact: Jon Beasley 07776 180 524.

Thursday Saffron Showing your honey - tips for success. Mike Barke. 14 June 7.30pm Walden Great Dunmow Day Centre, Great Dunmow CM6 1EQ

Epping 16 June Saturday Apiary visit - Peter & Barbara Dalby. Forest

Reception to celebrate 100 years of Division. Monday 18 June Chelmsford Drone laying Queens & laying workers - Jane Ridler. 6.00pm Chelmsford Museum, Oaklands Park, Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 9AQ.

Wednesday Dengie 100 Marking Queens - why do it? Arcadia Apiary, 20 June 6.00pm & Maldon Burnham-on-Crouch

Thursday County EBKA Bee Health Day - Langham Community Centre, 21 June 10 - 4 Event School Road, Langham, Colchester CO4 5PA

Thursday JAR COLLECTION DAYS 21/22 & Friday at Chelmsford June 10 - 4.30

Sunday Apiary meeting & gardens tour - Cressing Temple 24 June Braintree 3.00pm Barns CM77 8PD. Jan French 07725 166 609 2

Meetings in July

Tuesday Saffron Preparing for Winter. Thaxted Day Centre, Vicarage 3 July 7.30pm Walden Lane, CM6 2RL

Monday Honey Show Preparation - Jim McNeill & WI member. 16 July Chelmsford 7.30pm The Link, Rainsford Road, Chelmsford CM1 2XB

Wednesday Dengie 100 18 July Requeening - is it too late? Carters Apiary, Maldon 6.00pm & Maldon Epping Honey Show Preparation - Peter Beacham. 21 July Saturday Forest Wanstead Apiary.

Wednesday Pitsea Waste Management. A representative of 25 July Southend Veolia on the considerations of the environment. W.I. 7.30pm Hall, Bellingham Lane, Rayleigh SS6 7ED.

Apiary Meeting - Great Totham CM9 8BR Sunday 29 July Braintree Contact: Jean Gill 01621 891 422 or Joyce Wells 3.00pm 01376 518 541. Would each Division ensure that their meeting details - topic, venue and time are notified to the editor at [email protected] by the 4th of the month so that a comprehensive list is available to members.

EBKA Annual Honey Show - Orsett on 1st September 2018 Show Schedule and Entry Form accompanies this issue or download from EBKA website

The Bee Shed Approved National Bee Supplies Stockist and Distributor A Range of Frames and Foundation Hives and Hive Parts, Tools and Equipment Open by Appointment: Please call Wendy on 07764 609 803 or Email: [email protected] f The Bee Shed Stock Meepshole, Great Prestons Lane, Stock, Essex CM4 9RL

The Ted Hooper Memorial Lecture Sunday 22 April 2018

The first of the two eminent speakers at the third Ted Hooper Memorial Lecture was Professor Richard Pywell. Richard is the Senior Principal Scientist at the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. He outlined the structure of the CEH and spoke of the many threads of the research with which he is involved, including - Pollinator conservation - Since 1999 he has worked closely with Defra and the farming industry to develop practical and effective means of conserving and enhancing pollinator populations within the intensively farmed countryside. This has involved designing new pollen and nectar- rich habitats to support bees and engaging with the farming industry to encourage their creation over large areas of the countryside through initiatives such as Operation Pollinator. Agri-environmental research – Quantifying the effectiveness of existing agri-environment practices and policies, developing new and innovative approaches to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem function on commercial farms, and demonstrating the importance of farmer training and engagement in the delivery of policy objectives. He is currently leading several projects commissioned by Defra to improve the effectiveness of agri-environment management measures in conserving farmland biodiversity, and protecting water and soil resources. This involves management to improve the quality of hedgerow habitats on farmland and to conserve declining arable plant species. Working closely with the farming industry and Natural England to design economically viable and environmentally sustainable means of controlling commercially important weed species, such as Blackgrass. Experimental Farm Platforms - He has designed and implemented a large- scale ecological experiment on a 1,000ha commercial arable farm in Buckinghamshire. The aim is to test the potential for environmentally sustainable increases in agricultural production by enhancing species (pollinations, pest control species) and ecosystem functions that support crop yields. 4

This 10 year experiment in so-called ‘ecological intensification’ is funded by Defra, Natural England and the farming industry. National Honey Monitoring Scheme - CEH research has shown that, despite the implementation of the EU moratorium limiting the use of neonico- tinoid seed dressings on mass flowering plants, there are still detectable levels of neonicotinoids present in UK honey. Although the detected concentrations aren’t harmful to humans, the exposure may pose a threat to bee health and survival. The National Honey Monitoring Scheme invites beekeepers to collect honey samples so that the pollen content can be analysed and screened for any pesticide residues to provide an early warning of any changes in bee diet and new threats from pesticide exposure. More details if you are interested at: www.ceh.ac.uk/honey. It was a fascinating talk by a very knowledgeable man at the forefront of monitoring and quantifying the threats to pollinators and seeking solutions.

The second speaker was Norman Carreck — Norman is the Science Director at the International Bee Research Association (IBRA) based at Sussex University and spoke about the work of IBRA and, the impact that its founder, Eva Crane, had made in the world of beekeeping. The International Bee Research Association (IBRA) promotes the value of bees by providing information on bee science and beekeeping worldwide and communicating science to the general public. Its database and information services, including journals, teaching aids and other publications, embrace all bee species whether managed by man for pollination or their products, or truly wild.

Eva Crane was born in 1912 and was educated at Sydenham school in Kent and won a scholarship to read mathematics at King's College London. She completed her degree in two years, then took an MSc in quantum mechanics, and received her PhD in nuclear physics from London University in 1938. In 1941 she was appointed to a lectureship in physics at Sheffield University. A career in the rapidly developing world of nuclear physics beckoned. 5

However, in July 1942 she married, and one of the wedding presents was bees, the purpose of which was to provide honey at a time of sugar shortages.

Eva's curiosity was aroused, and she set about finding out all she could about these fascinating insects, starting with an immediate subscription to Bee World. She then became a member of the British Beekeepers Association and soon took over as secretary of its research committee. In 1949 she founded the Bee Research Association, an international body in outlook and membership from the beginning, though it did not add the word international to its title until 1976 when it became the IBRA. Between 1950 and 1990, Eva's pursuit of all things related to bees took her to more than 60 countries and resulted in a number of discoveries. These, along with her ability to put together clues and then report her findings lucidly, have made her work (more than 180 publications in all), inspirational. A Book of Honey (1980) and the Archaeology of Beekeeping (1983) reflected her strong interests in nutrition and the ancient past of beekeeping. She retired from the IBRA in 1984 to concentrate on two seminal tomes, Bees and Beekeeping - Science, Practice and World Resources (1991), and the World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting (1999). In 1985 Eva was awarded an honorary doctorate from Ohio State University and was made an OBE in 1986. She died in 2007 Norman went on to outline the work of IBRA in the 21st century which is staffed by 8 scientists in 7 countries and publishes its research papers, journals and books through Taylor & Francis online.

Extractor for Sale £190

National Bee Supplies Stainless Steel 4 frame Tangential Manual Extractor. 4 Years old – looks new.

Contact Lorna: 01277 824741 mobile: 07760176074

Romford Division Member Image from NBS catalogue

Save the bees Andy Bennett - Braintree Division

Today we spent a few hours saving some bees.

A bee friendly home owner was having a dying Ash tree removed and wanted to save the bee colony which had made a cavity, some 20 foot up its trunk, home.

The day involved 2 tree surgeons, 2 beekeepers, 2 home owners, 2 dogs and lots of tea. It all started with a cold morning, smoke, rags to block the holes in the trunk and some clingfilm to block all exits.

Next the 1/2 tonne trunk was cut off with a chainsaw and lowered to the ground. With the bees apparently unworried by the whole process, we decided it was time for a second cup of tea.

A couple of very careful cuts later and we had access to the colony. We had initially thought the colony had made its home down the centre of the dying trunk, but it became clear that they had made their home in a medicine ball sized cavity, which looked like it had been a woodpecker nest.

Finally came the easiest part. The pieces of comb came away quite easily, all well filled with brood, larvae and eggs. The last of the bees were brushed carefully into the hive and we were done. An hour later and the hive was installed in our apiary to settle down after the excitement of the day.

Whilst the weather, cold and drizzly, was perfect for moving bees, we were quite amazed just how docile they were. Having been subjected to the noise and vibration of a chainsaw, swung from a rope at 20 foot up, and then pulled around, they barely needed the smoke, they just sat there good as gold and let us move them around.

3 hours after we started, the job was done and the rain came down.

EBKA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2018

‘Bees and Well Being’ The theme of our conference is the ways in which bees enrich our lives and make a difference to our world. Bees promote biodiversity by providing essential pollination for a wide range of crops honey is becoming a powerful new weapon in the battle against hospital-acquired infections being around bees can raise a person’s self-esteem and the educational benefits are now being recognised. Let’s learn more from our three speakers. Speakers: Bunny Campione, Daws Hall Trust Many of you will know Bunny from the Antiques Roadshow, but you may not be aware that she is a fellow beekeeper. Dr Rowena Jenkins, Swansea University Medical School, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Rowena is a lecturer in microbiology.

Chris Newenham, Managing Director, Wilkin & Sons Ltd Chris will be speaking about the importance of bees as pollinators and the collaboration between beekeepers and agriculturists.

Date and venue: Payment: Saturday 3rd November 2018 By cheque payable to: EBKA Braintree Division. 10 - 4pm Send to: Neil Reeve, Hilly Ley, High Chelmsford City Racecourse Easter, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 4QZ Great Leighs, CM3 1QP BACS Transfer: Tickets £25 Sort code 20-97-40 Account number 80089230 • Registration and view trade Reference EBKA Conference. stands from 9am Send an email to • Three excellent speakers [email protected] • Coffee and Danish pastries on to advise transfer has been made and you will receive an e-ticket by return. arrival. Cash: • Buffet lunch Cash to Braintree Committee members • Afternoon tea and cakes when visiting Divisional meetings • Raffle and trade stands (a ticket will be given immediately)

Asian Hornet Traps. Make your own (see the beebase website) or buy commercially available traps. A couple featured, one from Thornes and another from Amazon.

Asian Hornet Trap with 5 lures £6.00 + p&p A simple and effective trap known to attract Asian hornets. Simply add the attractant to sugar and water. Install the trap on a tree or other support. Use in late winter/early Spring to attract Queen hornets. Use an average of two traps for every five hives. When the trap is full, or three weeks after installation, replace the attractant solution. Pack contains one trap and 5 sachets of attractant. Full instructions are included. For more information visit: http://www.veto-pharma.com/products/trap-and-hornet-attractant/

 Specially developed to trap hornets.  The yellow bowl colour is known to attract hornets.  The shape of the trap concentrates the odour of the attractant and allows better diffusion and efficacy.  The trap lid provides two entrances, both covered with a tunnel that focuses and directs odours, shields ambient light, and prevents hornets from escaping.  The trap is easily suspended from the hook included in the packaging. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• Wasp Trap (4 Pack). • The colour attracts Wasp and hornet. They come in by the holes. • The Trap is sold without the jar below. The cup is environmentally friendly as you can recycle the glass with the honey or fruit in syrup. • Reusable and therefore economic.

The recipe for the attractant is just half water/syrup or half water/Beer.

Price: £18.47 & FREE UK Delivery

MY COLONY IS QUEENLESS!

Celia Davis – Warwickshire BKA - via ebees

How many times have you heard this plaintive cry? It is true that colonies do sometimes ‘lose’ their queens, but this is more often the fault of the beekeeper, who may have dropped her in the grass or inadvertently squashed her. This is a very good reason for marking queens so that they can be easily spotted.

Queens can go missing on mating flights: they may have been eaten by a bird, lose their way back home or entered the wrong hive. Swarms can sometimes prove to be queenless, but leaving all that aside, the most common time that queens appear to be absent is round about the time of swarming/re-queening and this is where I want to pause while we consider the timetable for a new queen to be functional following a swarming event;

Day 1 - The day the swarm departs.

Day 8/9 - The day the first young queen emerges from her queen cell.

Day 14 – Queen is mature

Day 14 - ? Queen mating flights, dependent on weather.

Day 18 - ? Queen starts to lay eggs. (A few days after her mating flights)

Look at this calendar carefully. From A virgin queen hatching. when the swarm departs, it is at least 18 Photo courtesy Gerry Collins days before the new queen will be laying. If casts emerge it will be even longer before the colony settles down with one queen and if the weather is poor, it may be much longer before the queen is able to mate. Remember, she can mate during the first month of her life although, given favourable conditions, she will mate as soon as she is mature. A rough rule of thumb is that the new queen should be laying by the time the last of the sealed brood from the previous queen is hatching.

During the period when an unmated queen is in the hive, there is a distinct possibility that she will fly off the comb if disturbed by looking for her and bear in mind that she will be much harder to spot than a mated queen. She may not come back and the colony will be well and truly queenless, with no 10 hope of making a new one. The answer is to leave well alone for two or three weeks and allow the bees to do their job of nurturing the new queen and getting her safely mated.

Even newly mated queens can be quite flighty, so take extreme care when inspecting and always be ready to close the hive up quickly and do not be in too much of a hurry to mark them. When a new queen starts to lay, she does it slowly at first, just a few eggs and it takes about a week for her to build up to a good rate. It is very easy to miss these first few eggs. I speak from personal experience!

Another point to consider is that new queens often lay two eggs in a cell. It seems that they need practice before they perfect their technique. This can lead beekeepers to think they have laying workers when they have no such thing. So be very cautious before you decide that you have no queen following swarming. It is unusual for a laying queen to just disappear from a hive. She is such an important individual that the bees will always ensure that they have a new one, or a queen cell, before they will risk the existing queen. Queens can get sick and die, but in my experience, this is quite unusual.

So, the rule is to always ensure that the queen is in a safe place when the hive is being manipulated. I use a small nuc’ box with a fixed floor and lid and I always put the frame containing the queen in it as soon as I find her. I have to remember where this frame came from so that it goes back in the same place, (I also have to remember to actually put it back!), but it means that I know where the queen is if I need to find her for any reason and she is protected from fingers, hive tools and general beekeeper clumsiness.

As a last resort, I always try to have spare replacement queens in nuc’s at all times of the year. Remember that you can test for queenlessness by putting a frame of eggs and very young larvae from another hive into the suspect colony. A queenless hive will usually draw out some queen cells but often as not, they will ignore it and later you will find a perfectly good queen.

PETER DALBY - PEBADALE APIARIES For all your beekeeping and apitherapy supplies Large Stock held - all year round Competitive prices; any item not stocked to special order 37 Cecil Road, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire EN8 8TN

Tel: 01992 622645 Email: [email protected] Open Mon - Sat Telephone before calling (any reasonable time) CLOSED SUNDAY Agent for E H Thorne and Northern Bee Books

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Celia Davis - courtesy of Warwickshire BKA via eBees

A big family of plants with some important bee plants as well as the national flower of England and a group of plants that epitomise the English country garden as well as that same garden when it becomes completely neglected: the Rosaceae. The range of plant types in this family is huge: trees, shrubs, climbers, low- growing annuals and perennials, some of great economic importance, others regarded as weeds. The flowers are symmetrical in appearance (actinomorphic) and generally have 5 sepals and 5 petals with numerous stamens, and these parts are usually carried above the ovary. The roses we grow in our gardens, though undoubtedly beautiful, are of little use to bees of any kind as they tend to carry double flowers which contain no nectar and may not even contain pollen. Even the single roses, which allow bees access do not contain useful nectar but produce pollen in copious amounts. So the wild roses of the hedgerow and single cultivated varieties are useful. Apple (Malus pumila) Apart from the rose itself the most familiar member of the family is probably the apple, and bees are vitally important as pollinators of apple crops, as each individual tree needs pollen from a tree of a different variety in order to set fruit. In commercial apple orchards a proportion of a different variety called a ‘polliniser’ is planted along with the variety being grown to ensure that pollen is available for cross-pollination. Sufficient bees are needed to do the job effectively, usually between 2 and 3 colonies per hectare. Other bees such as many solitaries and bumble bees, also use apple as a source of pollen and nectar but, within commercial orchards, there may not be sufficient wild bees, hence the need to transport honey bee colonies to them. In a garden setting, neighbours’ trees usually provide the essential pollen so variants are not so important. Varieties of crab apple (M sylvestris), provided that the flowers are single, are just as attractive to bees as the fruit trees. The apple flower is typical of the family. 12

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) and Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) What an important plant blackberry is. There are more than 300 varieties of wild blackberry in the UK and flowering extends from June through until October. They are deep-rooted plants, as any gardener will tell you, so that drought rarely affects their ability to produce nectar and they are totally unfussy as to soil, growing just about anywhere. All nectar and pollen feeding insects seem to love them and bees are no exception. Raspberry is very similar in many ways to blackberry and honey bees can collect a lot of nectar from it. Pollination, however, seems to be more efficiently achieved by bumblebees. Because raspberry flowers hang down the nectar inside them is less affected by rain than erect flowers such as apple. Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) This is the normal species of Hawthorn, but there is a second species, which, although not common, can be found if hunted for. This is C. laevigata. For all practical purposes they look much the same although they can be easily distinguished by close inspection of flowers and leaves, and they also form hybrids. It is a strange plant as far as honey bees are concerned as it seems to be an intermittent provider of honey. The usual term applied to Hawthorn is ‘fickle’. There is no clear answer as to why this should be. The honey is beautiful, thick and amber, with a lovely aroma, but I have only obtained it once in any quantity, despite living in an area full of Hawthorn trees and hedges. Other members of the family ….

Cherries, pear, rowan, strawberry and meadowsweet are a few more examples from the Rosaceae and there are many others. Meadowsweet often has very pretty pale green pollen and is rarely an important plant although in some damp areas it can be very abundant. Strawberry is not very attractive to honey bees but insect pollination is necessary to produce well- shaped fruits as large numbers of pollen grains are necessary to produce all the little seeds and, if they are not all pollinated, the fruits are misshapen. This can happen in other fruits with more than one seed in them.

The Rosaceae is a diverse family which is important both to honey bees and beekeepers, on a commercial, as well as a small, scale. As long as the fancy double varieties are avoided, many are very useful for both pollen and nectar.

HIVES Of all the apiaries I have visited, one in particular was most memorable: an apiary which had a FOR Dadant - the largest hive in general use, the largest frame, and it was full of bees. LARGE For many years my bees were in National brood COLONIES and half, which has the same area as Dadant, but the results were poor. Why? This was partly due to Richard Alabone poor Essex mongrel queens, which would Chelmsford Division occasionally throw a prolific colony, but even then the management of the frames was difficult. The half box on top was nearly always full of stores and the bottom box had to be kept clear of sealed stores in summer and replaced with foundation. So what is the secret of the large Dadant frames? At Buckfast, to make best use of their own queens, they used 12-frame Dadant boxes but closed the bees down onto seven frames in the winter, and this was the key to success. By March most of the stores were consumed with a brood nest in the middle. After that the outer frames of stores were removed, or moved outwards to be replaced, slowly and only as necessary, with drawn comb or foundation from April to June. In this way the full area of the frames was used for brood while the brood nest increased in size. This is the key to producing large colonies. It's no good having sealed stores on a brood frame, you can't use it, and nor can the queen. The beekeeper has to ensure that the brood nest can expand easily, without sealed stores at the top of the frames except perhaps on the outer brood frames. From the Buckfast experience their own queens needed 12 Dadant frames, and this equates to 14 frames of Commercial or 20 frames of National. So you see, our standard brood boxes are just not enough for a prolific queen. The trick of reducing the number of frames for winter ensures that the summer build-up uses the full height of brood frames, while the beekeeper doesn't get lumbered with frames half full of sealed stores which bees are reluctant to move. Instead of end boards, two full frames of stores may be used by sliding them to the end when inspecting. The space outside the brood should be filled with clear combs or foundation but don't let them be filled with stores. A good queen needs a large brood box managed to always give her room to lay, by avoiding sealed stores which bees are very reluctant to clear; so you have to be even more careful on a small box like the National. It's no good leaving full frames of stores in the summer; more than a small arch of stores will limit the queen's ability to increase colony size, leading to swarms.

WHO’S WHO & HOW TO CONTACT THEM

President of EBKA Pat Allen Hon CLM EBKA Trustees:

Ian Nichols Chairman: 17 Dyers Hall Road, Leytonstone, London E11 4AD email [email protected] tel. 0208 558 4733 / 07980 299 638 Chad Colby-Blake Secretary: email [email protected] Tom Keeper Treasurer: Kingfishers, 2 Chandlers, Burnham-on-Crouch CM0 8NY email [email protected] tel: 07722 454 974 / 01621 784 626 Stuart Mitson [email protected] Braintree Jan Tutton [email protected] Chelmsford Tony Rand [email protected] Colchester Kate Tuerena [email protected] Dengie Hundred & Maldon Don McHale [email protected] Epping Forest Nick Holmes [email protected] Harlow Paul Wiltshire [email protected] Romford Vanessa Wilkinson [email protected] Saffron Walden Jean Smye [email protected] Southend Divisional Contacts: Braintree: Jan French 07725 166 609 Chelmsford: James Curtis 07940 757 831 Colchester: Morag Chase 01206 522 576 D.H. & Maldon: Carlie Mayes 07979 862 952 Harlow: Nick Holmes 07730 735 752 Epping Forest: Robin Harman 07971 237 312 Saffron Walden: Vanessa Wilkinson 01799 542 337 Romford: Pat Allen 01708 220 897 Southend: Pat Holden 01702 477 592

EBKA Education Secretary: Jane Ridler Old Barn House, 36 Walden Road, Sewards End, Saffron Walden, Essex CB10 2LF 01799 218 023 [email protected]

EBKA Examinations Secretary: Pat Allen 8 Franks Cottages, St Mary’s Lane, Upminster, Essex RM14 3NU 01708 220 897 [email protected] The Essex Beekeeper Magazine:

Editor: David Smye email: [email protected] tel. 07710 197 078 Advertising: Jean Smye email: [email protected] tel. 07731 856 361 Mailing Secretary: Michael Elliott email: [email protected] Printed by Streamset, 12 Rose Way, Purdeys Industrial Estate, Rochford, Essex SS4 1LY Web site: Nick Holmes email: [email protected] Regional Bee Inspectors for EBKA Region:

Epping Forest and Romford Divisions (excluding Brentwood):

Peter Folge [email protected] tel. 07775 119 433 All other Divisions: Keith Morgan [email protected] tel. 01485 520 838 or 07919 004