Willie Taylor 1 February 2010 Beekeepers Make Changes, Breed Bees.
We are at a turning point in our beekeeping. In Aberdeenshire this has been a disastrous season for honey, Willie has just managed to pay rent for the bees. It has been the worst for 40 years, so what will happen? Most of us are not going for honey production this year; honey is a dream of the past, a pipe dream. What we will be selling this year are bees because there is a shortage of bees. Aberdeen has just begun a beginner’s class, 83 first night and 93 second night - 70 people don’t have bees and a lot of beekeepers themselves have lost bees. Think of the figures and beekeepers in Aberdeen are counting up; 100lbs of honey sell £400 but if you have two or 3 nuclei sell £200 each or you have whole hives of bees to sell - wow. Advertised is a new Roof Top Hive the German company calls it ‘Bee Hoose’ their sell 5 frame nucleus 0.5p and 1.5p per bee (work that out). Thorne’s sells a 5 frame nucleus for £200. These years we need bees - without bees there is no honey and there is not a great amount of honey about. Willie had a poor summer for honey and took his bees to Dufftown and got a great crop of clover honey from 7 hives - but he was lucky. This year we must sell bees and the going rate for bees £125 five framed bees as in a year the cost of bees jumped up the scale.
First film was shown, ‘Last of the bees’, an American beekeeper loosing bees 70% of her bees was incredible. As a large commercial beekeeper she had a contract for pollinating the Almond trees in California and were first shown the boxes stacked in a warehouse in Montana, thousands of boxes were over wintered together. Bees shut in and not allowed to relieve themselves on milder sunny days. Huge lorries carried the boxes to California in the spring and then the two beekeepers inspected the colonies. She was crying at the lost and the distance covered to discover that loss was an over a thousand miles. When did they die? In the warehouse, before, or the stressful journey? She lost everything it would take years to recover, heartbroken she had to tell her mother who she’d taken over the business; it had been in the family for many years. Added to this film was the rough way of handling packaged bees brought from Australia. At night the packs were opened and just dumped into the hive, tired, confused, stressed from travelling bees struggling to live.
Next we saw a film of 50 years ago black and white, no sound, about the days before Varroa and many supers on top of the brood box, halcyon days of meadows and plenty. The beekeeper weighted the hive with scales; we just heft the hive to see if there is enough food. Swarm control show was moving the parent box to side door facing away 45° angle, new hive put in its place and the super from parent box on top. Daily the parent box was moved, angled towards original way, then when the flying bees and queen were established, the parent box is moved to another site in the apiary.
A county file film in 1995 talking about the new thing called Varroa, a mite that lives off the bee. We had a laugh when the comment was make about as a bee only flies three miles the Varroa won’t cross the English Channel; amazing that it was only 15 years ago. Also a short bit of film showing the products from the hive such as Avocado and beeswax cream, polish, honey, soap and mead. The Lindisfarne monks passed on the recipe for mead; the word Honeymoon comes from the time when couples would take the mead for 30 days after their wedding.
After the film show Willie continued with his theme that beekeepers need to change with the times.
Man has shifted bees all over the place and given them stress induced illnesses. Kept in warehouse over winter the bees were shut in until they are taken to California and there are miles and miles of Almond trees. When the flower are gone there is nothing for them so they are moved again to another crop. The beekeeper in the film didn’t know her colonies were dead until she had got to California, when did they die? In the warehouse or before? Pollination so important in this country (Scotland) we need it for our carrots, parsnips, next year’s seeds. As a human race we are interfering too much with nature. What are we going to do about it? We have to make sure that we have bees to continue.
Where he lives at Drumlithy the fields are barley, the next field is barley, the next field is barley and the next field is wheat but there is never a weed a poppy charlock, there is nothing but grain. There is nothing for the bees. Then the farmer comes to me and says I’ve put clover in with the mix for the grass: great huge flowers on the clover. Not a bee in the field (their tongues are not long enough to reach the nectar.) These varies are coming on to the market are not for our bees. Fifty years ago the clover was a small white flower that the bees could work. Willie is hoping to contact seed merchants he met at the Royal Highland Show and put this case to them. To sell the appropriate seed selection and it will be a win, win situation we tell the farmer he will get his nitrogen fix and he will be helping the environment - I mean bees. Is this the way to go forward? Is the government aware of the troubles with bees, is it just commerce gain. If the bees go we will be largely responsible for it.
Beekeepers need to keep the bees alive; we need to feed them, although there maybe no need to feed pollen substitutes in Scotland. (If there is no brood in the hives there is no pollen and there are no flowers). We are going down this road as a society, why - are we trying to keep the food cheap (using insecticides), maybe the food will be cheap for a year or two. Is it worth keeping food cheap for two years and no food thereafter? Isn’t the old expression ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’ a fitting saying? As beekeepers we need to take every opportunity like at the Highland Show the SBA try to get information across to the general public and indeed anyone who is going to listen. We need to get the general public educated in what? The bees don’t sting unless they have to, some people are paranoid, they say, “They sting!” Only if you are doing something that you shouldn’t like going into their hive or shaking the bees. In actual fact you can do most of that if you do it the right way. At the Royal Highland Show the people see the observation hive in the tent and say “Look at the wasps!” They can’t tell the difference between the wasps and the bumblebees.
This year Beekeeping classes are started in Aberdeen and he asked them if they had seen the wasps collecting wood to make the paper hive? How many bumble bees in your garden? How many different kinds of bumble bees are there? To tell the difference look at the colours, take notice. Ever seen the wasps taking back insects to their hive. You pass on information you know, and you know more than most people. To find more information read the books we have on our subjects. Progress in your knowledge so you can talk about bees that are in danger, environment is in danger, we ask is humanity is in danger? Give information that they shouldn’t be killing bees, and shouldn’t be objecting to beekeepers keeping bees in their gardens. Willie kept bees at for time in his garage and a few nucleus in the garden for about four years, then the neighbour found out that the bees were there, the very next day there was a complaint - was it a coincidence? Whenever they find out there’s a row, when they don’t know - there’s no problem. But we have to educate people that bees are so important that even when there is a problem, put up with it. This is your contribution to the future of humanity.
We are at a turning point in our beekeeping. In Aberdeenshire this has been a disastrous season for honey, Willie has just managed to pay rent for the bees. It has been the worst for 40 years, so what will happen? Most of us are not going for honey production this year; honey is a dream of the past, a pipe dream. What we will be selling this year are bees because there is a shortage of bees. Aberdeen has just begun a beginner’s class, 83 first night and 93 second night - 70 people don’t have bees and a lot of beekeepers themselves have lost bees. Think of the figures and beekeepers in Aberdeen are counting up; 100lbs of honey sell £400 but if you have two or 3 nuclei sell £200 each or you have whole hives of bees to sell - wow. Advertised is a new Roof Top Hive the German company calls it ‘Bee Hoose’ their sell 5 frame nucleus 0.5p and 1.5p per bee (work that out). Thorne’s sells a 5 frame nucleus for £200. These years we need bees - without bees there is no honey and there is not a great amount of honey about. Willie had a poor summer for honey and took his bees to Dufftown and got a great crop of clover honey from 7 hives - but he was lucky. This year we must sell bees and the going rate for bees £125 five framed bees as in a year the cost of bees jumped up the scale.
First film was shown, ‘Last of the bees’, an American beekeeper loosing bees 70% of her bees was incredible. As a large commercial beekeeper she had a contract for pollinating the Almond trees in California and were first shown the boxes stacked in a warehouse in Montana, thousands of boxes were over wintered together. Bees shut in and not allowed to relieve themselves on milder sunny days. Huge lorries carried the boxes to California in the spring and then the two beekeepers inspected the colonies. She was crying at the lost and the distance covered to discover that loss was an over a thousand miles. When did they die? In the warehouse, before, or the stressful journey? She lost everything it would take years to recover, heartbroken she had to tell her mother who she’d taken over the business; it had been in the family for many years. Added to this film was the rough way of handling packaged bees brought from Australia. At night the packs were opened and just dumped into the hive, tired, confused, stressed from travelling bees struggling to live.
Next we saw a film of 50 years ago black and white, no sound, about the days before Varroa and many supers on top of the brood box, halcyon days of meadows and plenty. The beekeeper weighted the hive with scales; we just heft the hive to see if there is enough food. Swarm control show was moving the parent box to side door facing away 45° angle, new hive put in its place and the super from parent box on top. Daily the parent box was moved, angled towards original way, then when the flying bees and queen were established, the parent box is moved to another site in the apiary.
A county file film in 1995 talking about the new thing called Varroa, a mite that lives off the bee. We had a laugh when the comment was make about as a bee only flies three miles the Varroa won’t cross the English Channel; amazing that it was only 15 years ago. Also a short bit of film showing the products from the hive such as Avocado and beeswax cream, polish, honey, soap and mead. The Lindisfarne monks passed on the recipe for mead; the word Honeymoon comes from the time when couples would take the mead for 30 days after their wedding.
After the film show Willie continued with his theme that beekeepers need to change with the times.
Man has shifted bees all over the place and given them stress induced illnesses. Kept in warehouse over winter the bees were shut in until they are taken to California and there are miles and miles of Almond trees. When the flower are gone there is nothing for them so they are moved again to another crop. The beekeeper in the film didn’t know her colonies were dead until she had got to California, when did they die? In the warehouse or before? Pollination so important in this country (Scotland) we need it for our carrots, parsnips, next year’s seeds. As a human race we are interfering too much with nature. What are we going to do about it? We have to make sure that we have bees to continue.
Where he lives at Drumlithy the fields are barley, the next field is barley, the next field is barley and the next field is wheat but there is never a weed a poppy charlock, there is nothing but grain. There is nothing for the bees. Then the farmer comes to me and says I’ve put clover in with the mix for the grass: great huge flowers on the clover. Not a bee in the field (their tongues are not long enough to reach the nectar.) These varies are coming on to the market are not for our bees. Fifty years ago the clover was a small white flower that the bees could work. Willie is hoping to contact seed merchants he met at the Royal Highland Show and put this case to them. To sell the appropriate seed selection and it will be a win, win situation we tell the farmer he will get his nitrogen fix and he will be helping the environment - I mean bees. Is this the way to go forward? Is the government aware of the troubles with bees, is it just commerce gain. If the bees go we will be largely responsible for it.
Beekeepers need to keep the bees alive; we need to feed them, although there maybe no need to feed pollen substitutes in Scotland. (If there is no brood in the hives there is no pollen and there are no flowers). We are going down this road as a society, why - are we trying to keep the food cheap (using insecticides), maybe the food will be cheap for a year or two. Is it worth keeping food cheap for two years and no food thereafter? Isn’t the old expression ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’ a fitting saying? As beekeepers we need to take every opportunity like at the Highland Show the SBA try to get information across to the general public and indeed anyone who is going to listen. We need to get the general public educated in what? The bees don’t sting unless they have to, some people are paranoid, they say, “They sting!” Only if you are doing something that you shouldn’t like going into their hive or shaking the bees. In actual fact you can do most of that if you do it the right way. At the Royal Highland Show the people see the observation hive in the tent and say “Look at the wasps!” They can’t tell the difference between the wasps and the bumblebees.
This year Beekeeping classes are started in Aberdeen and he asked them if they had seen the wasps collecting wood to make the paper hive? How many bumble bees in your garden? How many different kinds of bumble bees are there? To tell the difference look at the colours, take notice. Ever seen the wasps taking back insects to their hive. You pass on information you know, and you know more than most people. To find more information read the books we have on our subjects. Progress in your knowledge so you can talk about bees that are in danger, environment is in danger, we ask is humanity is in danger? Give information that they shouldn’t be killing bees, and shouldn’t be objecting to beekeepers keeping bees in their gardens. Willie kept bees at for time in his garage and a few nucleus in the garden for about four years, then the neighbour found out that the bees were there, the very next day there was a complaint - was it a coincidence? Whenever they find out there’s a row, when they don’t know - there’s no problem. But we have to educate people that bees are so important that even when there is a problem, put up with it. This is your contribution to the future of humanity.
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Notes: East of Scotland Beekeepers
