Reading this and not a member? Bees need your help, so even if you don’t wish to keep bees you could become an Associate Member. Only £5 per year which includes for an online monthly newsletter. FORTHCOMING EVENTS Friday 27th March. DECH. “Bees Abroad” by David Evans. Saturday 2nd May. Disease check at Winterbourne (10.00) and Highbury (14.00) Saturday 2nd May. Plots to Plenty at the Black Country Living Museum in conjunction with Winterbourne. Saturday/Sunday 5/6th September. Martineau Gardens Birmingham’s Biggest Honey Show and Competition. Sunday 13th September. Community Food Fair at Winterbourne Saturday 10th October. Toy, Steam and Hobbies Day at Winterbourne A re you a beekeeper who has a hive at either Highgbury and/or Winterbourne apiaries who hasn’t renewed your subscription? If you are, do you realise that if a notifiable disease breaks out none of the hives at the apiary would be covered by insurance! Think about it! Y ou may remember that in the last issue I mentioned that I once collected a swarm from The Dingle street nameplate in Selly Oak, but couldn’t find the photo. Well, looking for something else I found it, so here it is. Perhaps the existing name should be changed to The Dangle? A Despite its price, Fortnum & Mason are confident the individually numbered jars will sell out and may even one day become a collectors’ item. “I’m certain our customers will love it,” said the retailer’s chief executive, Ewan Venters. The Duchess of Cornwall, who celebrates the 10th anniversary of her marriage to the Prince of Wales next week, has never sold Ray Mill, her house in Wiltshire, which she still regards as very much her home. Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to alert their owners, who live with potentially life-threatening health conditions, when they are about to experience a seizure or other health episode, using their sense of smell. (Recent article from the Daily Telegraph) M ember Stephen Browning reports that Warwickshire Trading Standards have been targeting butchers, one of which was selling honey labelled Pure Arden Forest Honey. The analysis was Description - Sweet, aromatic polyfloral honey Number of pollen grains counted 500 Number of pollen types identified 17 Other components - crystalline substances, yeast, spores, bee hairs, starch grains, honeydew indicators. Frequent pollens- brassica napus/rape 27% Single pollens - anthriscus type, borage, phacelia, mattihola spp, Stonecrop, vicia spp, sweet chestnut, St John’s wort, lime, currant, pome fruit, bramble, sweet woodruff, horse chestnut, maple and white clover. The website for Arden Forest Honey states the bees forage on dandelion,willow, apple and cherry blossom in spring, and borage, clover, wild flowers and lime from the remaining forest through the summer. G arden centres are being urged to withdraw products which contain a type of pesticide linked to bee declines. In its latest product guide, magazine said that nine of the UK's leading garden centres, including B&Q and Homebase, were selling Provado Ultimate Bug Killer, which contains a neonicotinoid chemical known as thiacloprid. Environmental campaigners say there is growing evidence the chemical is harmful to bees. Jane Turner, co-researcher on the product guide to garden centres, said: "Gardeners will be shocked to discover that by using these insecticides they are unwittingly introducing dodgy chemicals into their gardens.” Dr Julian Little, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience, the makers of the product, said: "The reality is that the active ingredient of Provado, thiacloprid, is extremely safe to bees when used according to the label instructions, and users of it can be assured that they can control the destructive pests that would otherwise spoil their gardens in a way that will have no effects on bees." (Heard all this before) Right Royal Duel! If you like your honey to have a flavour of royalty about it, you are about to be spoilt for choice. The Prince of Wales, who sells Highgrove Honey made on his Duchy Home Farm, has a new rival in the premium honey market - none other than the Duchess of Cornwall. The Duchess has launched a partnership with Fortnum & Mason to sell honey produced by bees that live in her private garden in Wiltshire, a short drive from the Prince of Wales’s home at Highgrove. Luckily for the Prince, the Duchess’s own honey is limited to just 250 jars, selling for £20 each (no weight given on the Fortnum & Mason website), with 100 per cent of proceeds being donated to the Medical Detection Dogs charity, of which the Duchess is patron. But that isn’t likely to prevent a little friendly rivalry between the Prince and the Duchess over whose honey tastes better. Fortnum & Mason describe the Duchess’s honey as being made from “delicately perfumed nectar with subtle hints of chamomile, making it the ideal accompaniment to ice cream on hot summer days, or for sweetening tea”. The Highgrove farm shop in Tetbury, Glos, (again no weight ember Ray Bowers is interested in buying a nuc, so if you have specified on the Highgrove Farm Shop website) sells runny honey for one please let me know and I will advise accordingly and a £5.50, described as “a mixed floral type produced from hives sited member of the public, Elmena Saunders, wishes to buy honey. If on Duchy Home Farm where the bees forage on clover, wild berries, you can help please email her on [email protected] dandelion and orchard fruits”. And if that isn’t enough honey for any sweet-toothed royalist, Duchy rench car crash with a sting in the tail. More than a million honeybees Originals, the organic food brand started by the Prince of Wales on were killed, drowned in their own honey, after a van carrying 72 hives the Duchy of Cornwall estate, makes Scottish Heather Honey, gathered from beehives on the Balmoral estate, which sells for £4.99. crashed in southern France - but hundreds of thousands of the insects survived and angrily turned on rescue workers called to the scene. The Duchess of Cornwall Honey is on sale today in the Fortnum & "In the shock of the crash, the hives were prized opened," said Mason stores in Piccadilly, Heathrow Terminal 5, St Pancras InternaDominique Miras, the beekeeper driving the van. As the honey was still in tional station and online. M F President:- Sharif Khan. Secretary:- Jan Willetts, 0121 249 1965 Editor:- John Gale. email:- [email protected] snailmail:- 65, Oakfield Road, Selly Park, Birmingham. B29 7HL. 0121 471 1267. liquid state, tens of thousands of the insects became trapped in the sticky substance and drowned, or were crushed. "They were stuck together in a kind of puree," said Mr Miras. He and the driver of the other car involved escaped relatively unscathed. H ey up! Whose this? Well it’s Alan the Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) he recent spell of warm weather (it was when I wrote this) hoping to visit enabled me to have a proper look at my bees who were flying well, you soon! My both in the garden and at Martineau Gardens. One of my hives in the special trap is up garden is a full sized poly National made by Paynes, but has wooden in my garden supers. The supplied entrance block is also made of a plastic material apiary already and has 4 - 9mm holes to provide a restricted entrance. However, it but no sightings also acts as a pollen trap as evidenced by the amount of pollen on yet. But they are the landing board and on the ground. As a result I’ve substituted a across the wooden alternative as the I slot in the plastic version is to my mind channel as this Daily Telegraph article reports. As it’s name suggests too wide. Incidentally, there is to be a new rule for both WG and HP it is an invasive species from Asia and was first spotted in Bordeaux, apiaries that entrance blocks should be in position all year, to prevent France, in 2005 and is now spreading rapidly. It is a highly effective robbing and giving the bees a smaller entrance to patrol. After all, a predator of insects, including honey bees, and can cause significant wild colony will only inhabit a space having a small entrance. losses to bee colonies. Although it is not yet present in the UK, it is considered likely to arrive soon, possibly across the Channel from France or accidentally imported in pot plants, cut flowers, fruit or timber. It is active between April and November. Oueens can be up to 3cm in length and workers around 2.5cm. It has a dark brown or black velvety body bordered with a fine yellow band, a black head and an orange-yellow face. The Asian hornet is a day-flying species which, unlike the European hornet, ceases activity at dusk. It nests in tall trees in urban and rural areas, and nests can also be found in sheds, garages, under decking or in holes in the wall or ground. An Asian hornet's sting is thought to be no more painful than that of a British hornet to humans but the article then goes on to state that six people have already died from anaphylactic shock after being stung by the obert’s contribution for this month. Colonies will be building up insects which originally come from China but have spread across the fast in this unseasonally warm weather, and swarm time world. approaches. I always think the most important thing when it comes Next month the Department for Environment's National Bee Unit is to swarm control is to make sure queens have plenty of room to lay. to meet in Suffolk for an emergency seminar to tackle the predators, If the broodbox is half full of stores, make sure you’ve got supers on, which can devour up to 50 honey bees a day. UK beekeepers have so the bees can move them out of the way. If they’re in a single been sent email alerts by Defra asking them to be on the look-out National, do they need more space? Experience suggests that it’s for the menaces. Members of the public are being urged not to aplikely, so add a super, below the excluder. I don’t like ‘brood and a proach nests, which are usually found high in trees or on the sides half’ as this method is known, as it makes inspections awkward, but of buildings. Being stung a number of times can cause a heart attack it’s far better than losing half your bees one sunny afternoon. or multiple organ failure, even for those who are not allergic to the If they make swarm preparations despite having ample space, they predators. One victim was a 54-year-old man who died after he dismay need requeening. The first bees I had were like that. They turbed a nest and was attacked by a swarm in the Loire Valley. swarmed. I gave them space, and they still swarmed. I couldn’t stop Carolyne Liston, chairwoman of the Norfolk Beekeepers' Association, them; in the end I got some more bees. I’ve never come across anything like it since. No doubt they could have been kept in the hive said Asian hornets are thought to have arrived in France in a consignment of pottery imported from China in 2005. "They are a very, with a bit more experience, but it would have been extra work, and very aggressive predator," she warned. "They wait by the entrance who needs it? Right now, they’ll be on the dandelion; after this, and grab foraging bees as they come back into the hive. "They can there’s more diversity of honey plants available, and from our point absolutely decimate bee colonies. "We are concerned they are goof view, what they’re on starts to become important. Right now, ing to come into Britain on someone's caravan who has been travelthey’re going full blast, raising as much brood as they can in order to expand the colony. Everything they bring in is used for brood rearing. ling in France." The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories If bees ever store dandelion honey at all, it’ll be seriously rare. A little Agency is on standby to kill the hornets using special chemicals. later in the season, once colonies have finished expanding, they start Experts say the UK's recent hot summers provide the perfect climate for the creatures to thrive. storing honey again, and the bramble nectar they bring in then is the April is on course to be one of the hottest in a century in the south major constituent of the honey I get. Someone else might have of England and temperatures reached 25C in Kent last Wednesday. something completely different. Meanwhile, colonies don’t always The Met Office said more hot air from Spain will arrive this week, have much in the way of stores at this time of year, and in this case warming up the chilly conditions experienced by many areas over they’ll be vulnerable to starvation if we get a long spell of bad the weekend. weather. The other possibility is starved brood, where the colony A Defra spokesperson said: "There have been no confirmed sightsurvives, but brood doesn’t. The answer is a gallon of syrup on any ings of Asian hornets in the UK. We are aware of the potential imcolony which is short of stores. A contact feeder is ideal for this, as they won’t need a lot. Or alternatively, my favourite solution of a bag pacts they could have on honey bees and have plans in place to of damp sugar on the top bars. It saves a bit of effort, and works well. remove them if they are identified. This includes comprehensive monitoring and teams ready to destroy any confirmed nests." Has anyone ever tried trapping rodents around beehives? I’ve used poison for years, but I’ve two worries about this. First, it breeds resistant rats. Second, the poisons they use are persistent. I don’t our branch, yes your branch has been contacted to provide want foxes or birds of prey killed by dead or dying animals. The displays at the following venues, so a little help would be problem with traps is that I have both mice and rats. To be precise, I appreciated. have house mice, wood mice, and field voles, with a minority of rats. 17th May. Woodgate Country Park 10 - 3 The latter do the most damage, as you might expect, and as we can’t get the Council rat man out after the cuts, they’ve become a menace. 25 - 29th May. Birmingham Botanical Gardens approx. 10 - 3 (we will only do as many days as we have help. Poor weather last year Rat traps will kill them, but what usually happens is that mice steal resulted in a low attendance but who knows what it will be like this the bait, leaving a trap which will still work if a rat steps on the year?. trigger, but this is unlikely. Mouse traps will get the smaller rodents, but usually end up disappearing attached to rat limbs. I’m trying to 21st June. Dads Lane Allotments find a way of using both types of trap together, and catching 5th July. Party in the Park at Warley Woods 1 - 6 everything which comes along. 10-12th July. Kings Norton Village and Canal Festival 10 - 4. T R Y
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