Apiary Meeting

Uli Gerhard hosted an apiary meeting .

Uli adding feed to a hive.

We had an excellent meeting with Uli on Sunday and I would like to thank him for the effort he made for us.
We started with discussing his method of racking frames with comb for the winter and then we moved to the nearby apiary to watch Uli remove the varroa treatment, the plastic varroa boards (they are left off for the winter) feed the bees with apikel in washing up bowls with straw on top to stop the bees from drowning.
He used a elegant fitted cover board with built in insulation and then a steel roof. No through draught here.
There were lots of differences from our normal way of looking after bees but it all made sense and gave us plenty to think about. That is what it is all about.
Thanks again, Uli. for a fun afternoon.
Tony Yeats
26/09/2022

Stored frames

Meetings

Varroa mite winter treatment with Oxalic Acid

Steph and Brian talking us through the various methods of treatment.

On the 18th September, a small group of us gathered at Steph Green’s home for a meeting about oxalic acid treatment, a valuable process for lowering the mite count over winter and supporting healthier bees in time for spring.

Although the treatment was traditionally done around Christmas, we have quite mild winters now. We know the colony needs to be broodless when treating, so it may well be that late November is the best time, around the winter solstice.

Steph demonstrated the dribble technique first. Gloves and goggles on, you dribble 5ml of the warm Api-Bioxal and sugar syrup solution between each frame of bees. And yes, that does mean having the roof and crown board off. As a newbie, straight away I could see the session was invaluable. Beforehand my thought had been, how do you not let the warm air out? Well clearly this does happen but it also means that this isn’t the end of the world, just for the treatment. It’s a cheap and simple method if you have one or two hives.

Steph then demoed sublimation of Api-Bioxal under the floor of a hive with a Varrox vapouriser. The Api-Bioxal powder is measured into a little pan (a good tip was to line it with foil first to make cleaning easier). It is then connected to an 12v battery and it heats up to around 300 degrees. The crystals disperse into the hive.
Before you do this, all entrances need to be closed and you must have a proper mask and goggles on. You could stand upwind too. After two or three minutes of the pan directly underneath the hive, it’s done, although everything should be left alone for 15 mins. The plus side of this method is that you don’t have to open the hive. But it does take more time, can cost more with the equipment required, and you need to lug a battery about.

Brian Kiddy then demoed a gas vaporiser (Gas-Vap, I believe). This is his preferred technique since he has more than 50 hives at Olmstead Honey! He sets a little cap of the oxalic acid solution down on each hive in the apiary he’s at so everything is prepared and he knows which hives he has and hasn’t treated.

With a vaporiser kit powered by a butane blow torch, Brian pops the spout of the heated vaporiser in the entrance of a hive (his entrances are always a couple of inches wide), tips the cap of solution into the vaporiser (it steams) and waits 30 seconds. Done. On to the next. Brian doesn’t worry about blocking entrances up. It is essential that this method is done with a proper mask (see the Gas-Vap website) and protective clothing, and is another option where you don’t have to open up the hive. It used to be more expensive but you can get these vaporisers for around £40 plus gas. It’s not as heavy as moving a battery about either. Whilst this may have seemed like a method for a large apiary at first, by the end some of us felt like it was the way forward even for a couple of hives. I know I’d be tempted by that vaporiser given the ease of using it and not needing to open the hive. Brian did use the dribble technique for a couple of years before the gas vaporiser. He shared an entertaining thought with me about it being a bit like being warm and then rolling around in the snow and hopping back in. But they do cope of course!

It was great to see the equipment and instructions in use (with water and no bees of course). So thank you Steph and Brian! Thanks Helen for also rewarding us with tea and cakes! Really hit the spot. I was feeling a bit delicate having been in the queue to see the Queen lying in state. We had a lovely chat with a spot of banter around “who had the most supers on a hive” at any time, given that some of us aren’t that tall.

Ali Norden 26/09/2022

Looking forward to Helen's tea and cake after the talk.

New Beekeeper Training

Beekeeping taster session with Deryck Johnson

"Always blow your nose before donning your beesuit!" Good advice from Deryck.

Sunday 18th September 2022

On a cold, windy afternoon, ‘neath lowering skies, a hardy band of prospective beekeepers gathered in the garden of Meadowfield, Wimbish to be regaled with Deryck’s attempts to deter them.

As in earlier years, Deryck explained that he saw his role as protecting our honeybees from any potential beekeepers who did not share our love of the insects and would not be dedicated to their welfare.

All the various deterrents such as initial cost, time, lack of practical skills and stamina and an unpreparedness to continue learning failed to work successfully and the group only seemed to become more enthusiastic.

A display of hives, ancient and modern was explained along with the other essential equipment which was not normally found within a household’s usual inventory. An hour or so of discussion was followed by the donning of protective clothing for a visit to hive number 4.

As usual, the girls were impeccably behaved and just calmly sat on the frames as they were passed between Alison, Andrew, Ashley and Ryan who looked at sealed honey stores, open nectar, brood in various stages and a queen.

The apiary visit was followed by tea on the patio where the visitors tasted different sorts of honey and keenly devoured Fran’s customary delicious home-made cakes.

Deryck Johnson

Deryck and guests playing follow-my-leader through the hives.