Midland & South Western Counties convention of Beekeepers 2011
Beekeeping for all
The Midland and South Western Counties Convention of Beekeepers
]9th to 11th September 2011
To round off an eventful first year beekeeping I decided to book in to go along to the entire conference since it was being organised by the local Gloucestershire Beekeeping Association. The conference is organised on rotation by the Beekeeping Associations with Derbyshire in 2012 and Herefordshire in 2013.
Whilst I arrived with some trepidation as a beginner, I soon relaxed, as there were all sorts of beekeepers there, from beginners to several larger scale beekeepers and commercial keepers. The entire weekend was absolutely cram packed with lectures as well as workshops and opportunities to network.
I had a great time and came home completely exhausted and all bee’d out. I would definitely recommend it and hope that Derbyshire manage the same trick next year. I am excited by the prospect of Herefordshire taking the reins in 2013 and the chance for us to both round up the same wide ranging beekeeping network; but also to seek support from our wider community of suppliers and organisations with an interest in bees and honey.
My weekend split into sections:
- Beekeeping generically
- Bee health
- Anatomy of the Bee
- Bees – the wider picture
Beekeeping generic
Are current problems really that new? Pam Hunter:
A fascinating review of both historic and current literature that revealed that many of our current problems (weather, disease, queen viability) are all age old beekeeping issues. Whilst we may have differing problems or factors that complicate our beekeeping lives, we are among many generations of beekeepers to experience this.
One whole new area of discussion to me was the importance of drone rearing alongside queen rearing with strong evidence pointing to the need for multiple matings and varied gene pool supporting the best possible queens. The gene pool of drones is particularly significant bearing in mind their haploid nature which can result in them sharing too many common alleles with the queen they mate, resulting in poor genetic quality of offspring. There was also evidence to suggest that reduced pheromone levels in queens can result in supercedure even when it is not necessarily related to their egg laying ability.
“A Professional Beekeeper is a beekeeper whose love of bees and outgrows his ability to treat it as a hobby.”
Murray MCGregor gave the first after dinner lecture on the Friday night. Murray has 2700 colonies of bees in Scotland and has apiaries also in the early stages in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire where he is working with the Cooperative. Murray talked us through the year in the life of a commercial bee outfit. It was a fascinating insight as he had the health of the bees at heart and the same cycles and seasons that the small beekeepers deal with – but with a clear commercial focus and large scale operation.
If Heath Robinson had been a beekeeper Graham Royale
Graham has a background as an engineer and general tinkerer and so gave an entertaining presentation of the varied inventions and devices that beekeepers use. One of my particular favourites was his device for collecting swarms that heavily borrowed on Ghostbusters design when it came to impressive vacuum collection of high up swarms. However, the more prosaic and useful adaptations of old fridges (honey warmer) and the use of a wallpaper stripper as a wax melting device for old frames had many of the beekeepers jotting down design plans. Graham’s main motto was to keep it simple and ensure that the invention added interest and saved time for the busy beekeeper.
Bee mused, Bee devilled and Bee wildered Dave Maslen
On Saturday night Dave provided an entertaining talk that kept us all in our seats and laughing, despite the lateness of the hour. It appears that Dave has a way with cartoons and anecdotes as well as an extensive history as a seasonal bee inspector as well as Bees Officer. However, the highlight was possible the long and rambling anecdote about having to perform to camera having buckets of bees thrown over him, whilst he kept the queen bee he had found safe in his mouth, if somewhat drowned in saliva.
Bee health
Reading the Bees – Richard Ball
Based on long experience as a senior bee inspector, Richard outlined the way in which you can read the bees from the moment you enter the apiary. It was very interesting how much a bee inspector, or person in the know, can learn about the state of the bees before they even lift the lid of the hive! I also learned to dread the smell of fish glue or dog faeces as indicating foul brood, as well as trying to read the seasonal variations in hum, roar or piping noises that the bees make.
Where is it all heading? Richard Ball
Richard ran through the past, present and future of bee health, noting that in 1905-19 there was a great bee epidemic recorded that was probably down to virus attack. He noted world losses at 30% generally a few years ago but also how the constant fight agains varroa continues with pyrethroid resistance complicating matters. He quickly outlined some of the benefits of biotechnic control measures that did not involve chemicals whilst emphasising the importance of hive hygiene and moving into a discussion of foul brood diseases. He closed by looking at the future and beginning to warn us of the impending doom that future wasps may bring us as they move up from Europe.
Anatomy of the bee
The lectures on bee anatomy on Saturday and on Sunday also supported Saturday afternoon workshop opportunities to practice anatomy in real life.
Apis through the looking glass Graham Royale
Graham had developed, through 1000s of hours, a detailed set of slides of honey bee dissection which he discussed alongside an encyclopaedic knowledge of the honey bee. Areas new to me included the way in which the flight muscles squeeze the thorax of the bee and the wing moves as a result of levers rather than as a direct result of muscles attached to them. A detailed examination of the method of pollen collection and the way the bee actually passes pollen through the knee joint was incredible.
The world from the honey bee’s point of view Pam Hunter
Pam related how the honey bee can perceive the world through sight, sound, humidity, taste, smell, carbon dioxide levels, gravity, stress in its cuticle and stretch in its muscles.
I learned about how each of these senses operate, from the the potential roles of the oscelli in the eye area to the omatidia in the compound eye in detail and through electron microscopy slides.
I also learned about the sense organs (sensillae) which include: peg sensors (basiconicum); plate sensors (placoid); Hair sensors (Trichoid) sensors; internal sensors (chordodontal); bell sensors (campaniform); as well as the sensillae which are united into large ones (Scolophora); and the Johnstons organ.
Microscopy and Bee dissection
The workshop that I attended on Saturday afternoon saw me absorbed, fascinated and attached to a microscope from which I emerged blinking several hours later. I set a bee in wax and then dissected it under a binocular microscope to examine its internal organs with advice and support from Graham Royale. I then examined nosema samples and searched for nosema in crushed up bee samples with Pam Hunter.
The anatomy work in particular referenced and followed up the lecture by Graham (Apis through the looking glass) which showed us great detail of the internal working of bees; followed by Pam’s lecture that focused on how the senses of honey bees work
Bees – the wider picture
Bringing farmers and beekeepers together – spray liaison Chris Hartfield
Chris is the National Farmers Union (NFU) horticultural advisor. He discussed how agricultural pollination was huge business worth over £200million a year and the significance of the Defra Healthy Bees Plan. He then provided a perspective on how the NFU tried to work with farmers on education and spray liaison to focus on best practice that was about balancing what is reasonable and practicable for farmers versus what is known science and impact on bees due to the use of pesticides and herbicides. He also focused on proven science and the difficulty of being sure of the real impact of agricultural practices on bees. Needless to say this area is a hot topic for discussion with strong views and a common desire to make things better.
Bee Guardian Foundation Dr Adam Hart www.beeguardianfoundation.org
Adam gave an impassioned presentation that asked us, as beekeepers, to consider the wider scope of solitary bees, bumble bees and wasps among others. He presented on how the Bee Guardian Foundation was working on education and awareness to spread knowledge about the role of pollinators and he emphasised the important part that beekeepers have to play when educating the general public but also when encouraging the wider public to engage with and become aware of the need to protect and support pollinators in the bee and wasp families. He defined the bee as a hairy vegetarian wasp and outlined other species, such as the 24 UK bumble bees as well as UK leaf cutting bees.
September 12th, 2011
Topic: General, LAN meetings & courses Tags: None
