Notes

Wednesday 2 October 2008
   The autumn touring speaker Brian Hateley, he had been to Edinburgh, Glasgow, us at Dundee, then on to Aberdeen, Inverness and finally to Fort William in one week!   He is a member of the Cleveland Beekeepers Association. We were delighted to benefit from his 35 years of experience and enthusiasm for the untapped acres of Ling Heather in our moors, which as beekeepers we should be taking an advantage.   Heather honey is in great demand and worth trouble in its preparation.
   The target is to get bees on the heather by the first week of August to obtain a maximum honey crop. Essential to have strong stocks boiling over with foraging bees, that are at least 21 days old.   Fine sight to behold. After the frosts start feed syrup late March / early April.
   Before mid May give queen room for laying by removing last years old comb with honey. (These can be reused elsewhere.) Add another a top brood box with drawn comb, lift one frame of brood upwards, the house bees will go up to nurse the brood.
   Waldron queen excluder and supers can go on for the Rape before June. Eggs laid in June will provide the foraging force for the heather. The top box will have the majority of frames full of eggs and brood.
   July 24^th rearrange brood and bees into one box any spare brood frames given to other hives. Put the eggs to the sides and sealed brood in the middle. No need to look for the queen as all bees are carefully arranged on the frame in bottom box; the rest brushed in with them. Remove queen excluder and place 250mm square of plastic sheet in the centre over the brood frames; this will prevent the queen from rising but the foraging bees can get by around the edges. Supers with starter strips of foundation placed over the brood box.   Bees should be taken to the heather site soon after; Brian stressed that permission from the land-owner must first be obtained.

In a booklet that Brian has prepared he explains fully the preparatory work for the beekeeper obtainable from www.teesbees.co.uk for Ł1 plus packing and postage.

Monday evening 8 October MY BEEKEEPING EXPERIENCES by Marion Lang
Marion was our ex rep for the Scottish Beekeepers giving information two-way from beekeepers and the powers that be and back to us.
Her interest in bees began in a Kenya farm as a girl, a tribesman that worked as a joiner for her father kept bees. His interest was the honey that made an alcohol called Pombee. He had a natural ability to observe nature and passed that on to the girl. Log hives made from hollowed out trees were hosted up into the trees. Harvesting with out clothes was hazardous.
At a college she later attended she was given lessons using a microscope and she had to draw the parts of a bee. Interest was grown and Marshall took her on as a pupil and go-for. He started her with a swam and basic hive, her start was difficult as the weather was hot and the frames had thin unwired foundation. Learning the difficult way she found that all beekeepers have their own methods and adaptations of equiptment.
Marion uses National Hives, easy to lift with handholds and has a platform on a wheelbarrow beside her to ease the strain of lifting. She uses a double brood system having a maximum of six hives , going down to three in winter.
She has been keeping bees thirteen years and noticed the difference this summer with the poor weather. No sun, rain through May to August, bird numbers diminishing, no white flies on cabbages. She had strong convictions about the radar signals being bounced from Tealing, the harm (although not proven) they could be doing on our environment, bees and ourselves. A neighbour beekeeper lost 4 out of 5 hives and an listening member said he had lost half his colonies. (I myself lost 4 colonies but only because the queen hadn't been mated due to the rain.)
Questions were asked at the end and Marion thanked by the president.

22^nd October Clive de Bryun
A lively talk about pollination of plants by bees.
   As beekeepers we were instructed that successful honey production depends on a good knowledge of plants in your area. Know which plants produce good honey and marketable honey. Flowers produce nutritious pollen that the bee carries back in bags on her legs, this is important for bees to collect.
   Weather, geology, plants the beekeeper must know when flowers are in blossom. Between the main flows of honey are there pollen fillers in between flowering? Your bees are the chief pollinator in your area; talk to neighbours about what they grow. Talk to the local Council encourage them to plant bee trees and bee flowers.
   Clive earns a living from taking his colonies to orchards and fields for pollination and rewards the farmers at the end of the year with some pots of honey. He asks them to cut the dandelions that compete with the Cherry and Apple flowers. Farmers constantly change their crops and with seed crops comes insecticides. We need to be able to have a friendly dialogue with them to persuade them to use less harmful sprays. Ladybirds are natural predators for aphids and these can be lost. Some farmers use a machine to blow the pollen onto their trees. Bees are dedicated to do it as they dust their hairy bodies with pollen and fly about they cross-pollination naturally.
   We were encouraged to find out where our bees go to by examining the pollen using a microscope. (We tried last year but enthusiasm waned in the dark days of winter and knowledge was lacking.) We can see by the pollen brought into the hive, but with books and other slides to compare we can make an accurate analysis.
   Flowers good and bad were mentioned Rose Bay Willow Herb and Ragwort. Phaceilia grown around fields good for insects and bees, Budlia, Cedars are good. Borage flowers all day and goes on until November, no need to autumn feed bees beside Borage.
Interestingly Clive had a theory for the American losses of colonies. As the honey there is very cheap many beekeepers do not extract the honey and only use the bees for pollination. They are constantly moved from crop to crop thereby stressing the bees that causes their immune systems to be impaired, then they are prone to disease.

Monday 3 December 2007.
Mr Paul Latham gave a talk accompanied by video and slide pictures entitled
“The top beehive in Tanzania”.
   The top beehive is a step up from the log. It is hollowed out trunk of a tree with a lid (roof); it is shaped to hold wooden bars that have a starter strip of wax. They are shaped to give the distance of 33mm to prevent the bees from being crushed. The nest is started at one end and the honey harvested the opposite end.   A paper clip is used as a queen excluder at the entrance!
   The video showed two women beekeepers, simple tools and great care was displayed. The smoker was a tin lit by charcoal, fuelled by cow dung; this was swung around the entrance hole and when the hive was open around each frame to be examined.   They cut the capped honey into a bucket kept covered to prevent robbing. The women wore veils and these African bees showed were very docile. They do not use swarm control but will collect swarms and use a frame of eggs and food from their hives. These are put into an empty hive then fed with syrup in a jam jar. They do not have varroa as we do; ants are a pest, wax moth, honey badger and hive beetles. Bees are kept up high in trees. Those kept nearer the ground their bases are coated in old engine oil to prevent the termites.
Paul worked in the agriculture teaching people to work the land and avoid erosion of the soil. He encouraged the growth of napier and guatamalar grasses that the women cut and feed to the penned cattle; the cattle fertilise the land - so on. Their diet is vegetables, maize, sugar cane, rice, peanuts, sweet potatoes and caterpillars - 46% protein!   He said we can help these people to help themselves by giving help with marketing, jars and labels for the honey.

Beginners night 7 January 2008
One of our members Stan brought with him an actual hive to show the six beginners and a gathering of experienced members. Discussion with audience participation covered the aparatus needed to keep bees and how to treat varroa destructor. Afterwards we were showed how to construct a frame for the wax sheets to be then insterted.
Our library is being restocked at present and the old books still of interest was offered the the members to take away. Members with bees discussed how their bees are fareing this cold wet weather. Mine are quite rightly staying indoors; I raced down to see the apairy after strong winds last week and all was quiet and dry. After hefting the hives I was satisfied they had food and that all is well.

Monday 4 February 2008
Video Night with Willie Taylor.
   Questioned first the members about CCD he had one hive out of ten, where the whole colony of bees had completely left the hive; leaving eggs, larva, sealed brood. He found the dead bees on the ground a distance away the queen with them. One of our members had that happen to a number of hives and he said one word “Tragedy”.
   There was a breakdown of the film show technology and that caused a delay with audience comments and helpful suggestions being called out.
   Our first film was beekeeper in New Zealand who was showing a group queen rearing. We were amused at the dress, shorts and no veils their bees were very well mannered.
   Next we saw Dave a Fife beekeeper. He had brood on 1 ˝ boxes with 2 supers. His reluctance to get into the bees, lighting his smoker with corrugated cardboard, taking his time, collecting ekes, cleaning the queen excluder, smoking the bees over and over, getting comfortable sitting on sacking. Sorry Dave but it was so funny!
   Other clips were of bees being hived from a skep onto a sheet and they walked into the hive. Also beekeepers were showing off their bee beards. Lastly we saw the wise Buddhist beekeeper who lured his bees using an orchid plant and because the bees were wild of the Japanese country they could deal with the hornets and survive. Wonderful we were entranced. Thanks Willie.