Monday 7 February 2011 Mr Stephen Sunderland came to Dundee to talk about ‘The Honey Bee Health Strategy.’
BeeBase
Steve began by encouraging the beekeepers in ESBA to register with BeeBase and you can do that by visiting the website (nationalbeeunit.com) his email in the contacts page. This website shows what the Bee Inspectors do and is updated daily and gives accurate information on the results of inspection. It has the ability to send disease notification alerts to beekeepers with current email addresses, notifying them of disease found with 5km of their apiaries. Slides of the website showed the map of inspection in Scotland he is hoping many more will register and thereby increase the dots on the map. Run by the National Bee Unit in York, they hold Technical Training Workshop’s for their Inspectors and this has been of great interest to Scottish Inspectors.
Inspections
Slides were part of the talk and he began with one of the ‘team bus’ used by the Inspectors. (Land rover) Then we had the pictures of the diseased old dirty frame that harboured disease. The year 2009 foul brood was found in our area and they treated with oxytetracycline (an antibiotic) but in 2010 used shook swarm and a follow up inspection later on. He spoke about used to sending the samples of suspect larva to the laboratory using a sampling tube called an Eppendorf tube making it easier to have a report back quickly. He stressed to us to get to know what is normal then you can spot the disease. A slide of a comb showing AFB scales in the comb and asked how long was it infectious? The Czech Republic have been testing affected comb for 100 years and is still infectious. A slide of before and after the matchstick test was shown; this test is 90% proof correct. If you see that give the Inspector a phone. A table of results compared 2009 with 2010 and improvement was made last year although the winter had been severe and losses were great.
Bio-security
It is so important to stress that good old-fashioned cleanliness will do a lot of good. This is good apiary practice.
Steve stressed the importance of clean wellies clean bee suits, gloves, tools. He showed a slide of soda crystals and the importance of cleaning the hive tools between hives. The amount was 1kg per 5 litres.
Showed good frames with beautiful white wax and told us replace old every 2/3 years.
Get stock ready for spring visit scorch spare floors and chambers, if you have polystyrene wash with soda crystals, also the smoker can be cleaned with soda solution.
Shows and Training
At the Royal Highland Show there were stands in the Bee Tent on Bee Health Strategy. The show is good giving education to the public he encouraged us to volunteer at the bee tent, you have a free pass and plenty of time to see the show.
At the Carlisle Bee Disease Training Day 80 beekeepers attended 2/3 of them from Scotland. They had lectures in the morning and practical demonstrations outside in the afternoon. An interested observer was Graham Sharpe so he can replicate the training in Scotland.
Steve was sent early in his appointment to Prague Czech Republic last May along with 40 others for ‘Better Training for Beekeepers’. Showing the importance of bees in Europe. They visited an institute that had a ‘flight tunnel’ where the scientist studied the affect of chemicals on the bees.
Bee losses.
Bees are being imported from New Zealand to commercial beekeepers in cardboard tubes. Inside is the queen in a cage and about 15,000 bees with her. They are fed before their travel and stacked vertically having ventilation on the top and bottom of the tubes. The Paperwork is checked through the Border Inspection Post in Heathrow and then sent on to the buyers who put them into new hives. As hobbyist beekeepers we are advised to get our bees locally. The Inspectors do not inspect the bees before buying and some in the audience felt there was a need in Tayside as it has been a hotspot for foul brood. Some of our members are able to supply to beginners and they should stick to the area.
As our talk-closed questions were asked and Steve was congratulated at passing the SBA modules and he encouraged us all to have a go, he found the modules 5, and 6 fascinating. Emphasised the importance clean suits and tools showed his suit and equipment and told us not to forget the old fashioned diseases as we inspect our colonies. When we see anything we suspect is a notifiable bee disease in the hive, phone Steve or one of the Bee Inspectors to discuss and possibly come and visit.