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Apis-UK Issue No.6 October 2002
A skep covered in bees
Catford Beekeeper Gregory Boon holding a Skep or Hat?


EDITORIAL
Winter is approaching rapidly and already we have been producing this newsletter for 6 months. Time goes faster each year. Here in Spain there is news in that there is no news on the bear/beekeeper problem, and efforts continue in attempts to conserve the one without ruining the other. The web beekeeping sites continue to blossom and you can spend weeks glued to a screen reading up on all the latest ideas and views. In fact you hardly need real bees anymore!

Bear damage to an apiary by the
Bear damage to an apiary by the European Brown Bear, Spain. (Photos courtesy of FAPAS)

In this issue: THE GM controversy rages on. GM issues are still to the fore in many journals. This newsletter has received an excellent letter spelling out a few of the facts of the matter from John Phipps, the editor of the Beekeepers Quarterly (see letters). More of this is needed if the 'ordinary' man in the street (and I count myself as one) is to make up his mind on the issues involved. I still think however that the whole thing is often obscured by arguments about 6 mile limits, and labelling requirements. I may put myself in the firing line here (through ignorance) but what on earth is the point of a 6 mile (or the EU recommended 5Km or 3 mile) limit? I doubt that wild bee colonies or other pollinators will abide by them and so ultimately you will not know when your own bees will be bringing home GM pollen, and in any case, if required, your own bees will fly to long distance sites. I know that bees routinely fly shorter distances but in extreme cases, 13.7Km has been recorded (Eckert 1933), and researchers have noted that long distance foraging flights can be a feature of an agricultural landscape where attractive crops are planted in widely dispersed fields (Gary 1992). I strongly suspect that any devised limits will have as much effect in containing the incidence of GM pollen in honey in the UK as the old varroa limits did in containing varroa, i.e. not a lot. I am sure, that you either have GM crops and accept everything that goes with them, whilst ensuring adequate safety legislation and labelling, (because there is no other choice), or you don't have them at all. I don't think that there is an in between.

NEW BEE WORLD REPORT ON GM CROPS
The latest Bee World from IBRA offers some excellent information on the subject in a third article written by Ingrid Williams on the Cultivation of GM crops in the EU, farmland biodiversity and bees. As I have mentioned before in previous newsletters, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to fully understand the possible effect of GM crops on our bees and in fact on us. And remember, whether we like it or not, they are here.
In two previous article also in Bee World, Ingrid H Williams of the IACR Rothamsted examined the regulatory framework that controls the release and marketing of GM crops and GM foods in the UK with particular reference to risk assessment in relation to bees and bee products. In this article Ingrid focuses on the new GM cultivars of oilseed rape and maize which are already commercially available in the EU or are being grown in large scale field trials prior to commercialisation. She considers the likely impacts of these crops on bees and bee products and describes the farm scale evaluations being undertaken to investigate how crop management affects farmland biodiversity, including that of bees. The article as one would expect is complex, but anyone seriously wanting to get an insight into the possible effect or non effect of GM technology at a practical level (because it is here already) should read this. Full report from: www.ibra.org.uk

PUBLIC OPINION
Something that is often quoted in any discussion about honey as a food, is the public opinion and the public demand for purity. I often wonder where this demand is. Has a public opinion survey on honey ever been conducted? As a part of my work I meet many hundreds of well educated and well informed people out from the UK. Very often, in conversation, I mention that I keep bees and am often asked for a pot of honey. I haven't counted, but I would say that around 50% at least of these say (and I quote the last person exactly) 'It's nice to get some real honey for a change. You can't get it in England now you know. They put sugar in it.' Now I know that I'm not providing any statistically sound consumer survey but here we have a common and total misconception about probably the most pure product on offer amongst many well informed people. Then when I mention GM pollen in honey, I might as well be talking in Basque.

A GREEN SITE
A site that does address the subject of organic beekeeping and GMOs very seriously is Michael Thiele's website, http://beekeeping.org/thiele/ This site offers a series of books on these and other beekeeping subjects and even offers an internet course in beekeeping. It really is worth looking at and I'm grateful to Michael for drawing my attention to it.

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON BEEKEEPING LIFE
A long way from all of this, we have a report (see articles) from the Republic of Baskortostan (often referred to of course as Bashkiria) where far from worrying about what is in the honey, the authorities are attempting to save the local bee and a great and fascinating beekeeping tradition.

THOSE RUSSIAN BEES AGAIN
And whilst mentioning Russia, (in case you were wondering), we have a recent report on those Russian bees again. This time displaying a resistance to Acarapis woodi. (In the News).

OTHER WEB SITES TO LOOK UP
Software download. Varroa is brought to mind with a kind and easy method for testing varroa mite levels (in the News), and if you want to delve into the subject in greater depth, go to http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/soft/vpop/vpop.html Here you will find downloadable software that enables you to simulate the growth of varroa mite populations in honeybee colonies and see the way mites influence colony population growth throughout the year. Using the menus included in the software, you can change many factors eg initial population size, queen egg laying potential etc and so see how these factors affect population growth and mite development. This really does give a brilliant insight into the affect varroa is having on your colony and can help you to better control the beast. Not only all this, but you can also click onto a slide show of close ups of varroa. Ever seen a peritreme? (Vital for the mite's survival). See one here.

A Field trip. Another site to look out for, especially for beginners or upper secondary school students is the Virtual Apiary Field Trip at http://levftn.vftn.org/projects/bryant/ from Texas. Informative and interesting, this can easily be used as a good educational tool for beekeepers.

As I mentioned before, there are more and more worthwhile beekeeping and bee related web sites appearing on the web and here, we'll try to keep you up to date with those that are most interesting. Again, I hope that you enjoy the newsletter, and here's to another 6 months. Keep in touch. Even write an article if you want. David Cramp Editor.

References.
Eckert, J.E. (1933). The flight range of the honeybee. JAR 47 257-285.
Gary, N.E. (1992). The Hive and the Honeybee. 318-319.


NEWS
IBRA UPDATED WEB SITE
Over the last couple of months IBRA has been hard at work updating and redesigning its web site using a professional web site design company aptly named Honeycomb Internet. The new site has several features allowing members and customers to pay for membership, books and other services using a secure online server. See it at www.ibra.org.uk

INTERACTIVE LEARNING
An interactive computer assisted learning package on the subject of pollination by Dr William Kirk, an IBRA council member and author of the book A colour guide to pollen loads of the honey bee (IBRA), is now being used by students of the Open University. The pollination unit has been updated and published as a CD ROM and covers many areas of pollination with photos, video and spoken commentaries. It also has several interactive components: the pollination simulator allows students to design flowers and explore and understand the consequences of seed production thus gaining insight into the evolution of flowers.

HIVE THEFTS.
Beehive thefts hit the news recently and on both occasions, the thefts were in Scotland. In the first case, the thefts were of hives belonging to a Vice President of the Sutherland Beekeepers Association. A man has now been charged with the thefts.

HONEY BEES MITE! BREATHE EASIER
Tracheal mite infestation is thankfully not such a serious problem in the UK or much of Europe, but in the USA is an important factor on the beekeeping scene. This information from the pages of Agricultural Research magazine tells us of another opening in the fight against this particular mite in the form of a mite-resistance testing service. It also shows what improvements can be made by breeding.
Researchers are creating a service that breeders can use to check their bees' mettle against the parasitic mite, Acarapis woodi. Scientists behind the plan expect it to speed efforts to pinpoint tracheal mite-resistance traits worth breeding into the entire U.S. honey bee population, whose crop-pollinating duties are a $15-billion asset to the nation's agriculture.
Under the plan, Agricultural Research Service entomologists in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are providing a Shelbyville, Tennessee, beekeeper with the scientific expertise necessary to conduct mite-resistance testing as a commercial service.
Through such a service, for example, a client could decide to cull a susceptible queen breeder colony or further propagate one that fares well against the mites. A similar service operated in Ontario, Canada, helped the industry there reduce the mite-to-bee ratio from 13 mites per bee to 1.5.
The researchers at baton Rouge believe the most effective way to enhance resistance is to make certain that breeding colonies can be tested for resistance and encourage U.S. breeders to test their colonies. They have used a protocol for testing and characterizing the relative resistance levels of bee stocks subjected to heavy mite infestations. Through such research, for example, they've discovered one resistant honey bee strain that fends off the mites through a behavioural trait auto grooming.
The results of this work are being judged as successful for all beekeepers interested in reducing the effects of the mite. The next news item adds to the discussion with news of the resistance to this mite of the Russian Primorski bee.
This research is part of Crop Production, Product Value, and Safety, an ARS National Program (#305) described on the World Wide Web at http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov
The researchers are Robert G. Danka and Jos D. Villa who are with the USDA-ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory, 1157 Ben Hur Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70820, USA.


THOSE RUSSIAN BEES AGAIN

In the last edition of the newsletter we mentioned the ongoing testing and evaluation of the Russian primorsky bee and in particular its ability to better resist varroa than other bees. Well the same bees also appear to be more resistant to Acarapis woodi and the research on this aspect is shown in full in the August September edition of Apidologie. An abstract is shown below.

Resistance to Acarapis woodi by honey bees from Far-Eastern Russia. Apidologie 33 (2002) 411-415

Lilia I. de Guzmana, Thomas E. Rinderera, Gary T. Delattea, J. Anthony Stelzera, Lorraine Beamana and Victor Kuznetsovb

(a) USDA Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory, 1157 Ben Hur Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70820, USA
(b) Institute of Biology and Pedology, Far-Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostock 690022, Russia.

ABSTRACT
Honey bees from the Primorsky region of far-eastern Russia were evaluated for their resistance to Acarapis woodi. Results from a field test in Louisiana showed that Primorsky honey bees showed strong resistance to tracheal mites. The Primorsky honey bees maintained nearly mite-free colonies throughout the experiment while the domestic stocks were ultimately parasitized by high levels of tracheal mites.

SUGAR DUST IN THE FIGHT AGAINST VARROA
Several times over the past few years letters have been written to the bee presses of the world mentioning the use of dusts including sugar dust to foil the activities of varroa. Little if anything has been published by researchers on the efficacy of this method but here is an item extolling the use of sugar dust to test for varroa mite levels. The test was developed by a University of Nebraska graduate student, Paula Macedo who was looking for an easier way to separate mites from bees to conduct assays in the lab.
It is a method that lets beekeepers determine varroa mite levels without harming bees (unlike many other methods) and is nicknamed the powdered sugar shake, the technique separates the tiny, deadly body mites from bees so that the mites can be counted and the bees live on.
Entomologist, Marion Ellis, Macedo's faculty advisor, said many beekeepers start treating for varroa mites as soon as they see some. "We've learned that that's a bad game plan, that you have to do the same thing farmers do and that's establish (treatment) thresholds."
Ellis said that prior to the powdered sugar shake, beekeepers had three ways to check for varroa mite levels. All three are either destructive or have shortcomings.
The most popular of the three, called the ether test, calls for putting 300 bees in a jar filled with ether. The mites fall off and stick to the insides of the jar, which is made sticky when the bees regurgitate and die in the presence of the ether.
The ether method is only 30 percent to 50 percent efficient, and you're sacrificing the bees, and the researchers pointed out that squirting ether around a burning smoker, is not always a good idea. And the smell of ether will cause colonies to become quite defensive."
Macedo was able to separate about 80 percent of the varroa mites from bees in a very short period of time and longer shakes can separate up to 90% of the mites. As most beekeepers will know, varroa mite legs have a sticky pad that helps them adhere to the bee. It's believed the powdered sugar breaks down that bond. It is also believed that powdered sugar also stimulates the bee's grooming behaviour, which knocks mites off. Although they live for only a few weeks, worker and drone bees are considered pets (? Ed) by beekeepers who are reluctant to kill off 300 at a time.
The researchers are hoping that the sugar shake method may also have further reaching benefits such as opening up some interesting questions about using the technology to actually control mites."
This would require separating the entire population of bees from the colony before the powdered sugar is administered.
Another approach would be to treat bees with the sugar dust as they leave the colony to forage. With the use of sugar, beekeepers may be able to reduce the number of varroa mite treatments to every other year.
(It seems that more and more 'methods' of sorting out the varroa mite are being investigated scientifically. Ed).

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Event organisers are welcome to forward dates and details of their events to the editor (by e-mail) for incorporation on this page.

14th, 15th, 16th November 2002 - The National Honey Show the biggest honey show in the world at Kensington Town Hall, Horton Street, London, England UK. The show schedule files are now available for downloading in PDF and Word97 formats. This Wimbledon of BeeKeeping attracts interest, exhibits and entries from UK and abroad from all ages and sectors of communities. Here is to be experienced exchanges of ideas, demonstrations of master skills, a brilliant lecture convention, spectacular displays, trade and other stands featuring all the appliances, crafts, information, sales of every product of the beehive in an exciting, friendly, festive atmosphere. Extensive opportunities are afforded at this famous show and venue to see and learn about the fascinating, rewarding art of beekeeping, to view related crafts, consumables and purchase a range of equipment and gifts. Beekeeping Associations, Organisations and Traders are invited to participate in promotional activity to celebrate this Golden Jubilee Year by contacting the publicity officer. Much more information on our website www.honeyshow.co.uk

Opening Ceremony
His Honour Judge David Smith QC Thursday 14 November 1.45pm.

Admission
Non-members £10 (Tickets in advance @ £8).
Members and accompanied children, 16 years and under, free.
2 for 1 and low cost entry to non-beekeepers/public/families on Saturday

Show Times
Thursday 14 November 2.00 pm - 7.00 pm
Friday 15 November 9.30 am - 7.00 pm
Saturday 16 November 9.30 am - 5.00 pm

Mo Davies NHS Publicity Officer 020 8940 6070 E-mail:mojane4@onetel.net.uk
E-mail Mo Davies using Outlook Express

2-7 December 2002 - Canada/United States 2002 Joint Apicultural meetings. This series of meetings brings together The American Association of Professional Apiculturists; The Apiary Inspectors of America; The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists; The Canadian Honey Council; The Empire State Honey Producers' Association and the Ontario Beekeepers Association. For more information: http://www.honeycouncil.ca or http://www.ontariobee.com

Saturday 11th January 2003 - West Sussex Beekeepers Association present 'Managing Bees with Minimum Medication' at Brinsbury College on A29 north of Pulborough. Lectures and Workshop to enable beekeepers to plan for the coming season. Lecturer/Facilitator Maurice Field with Glyn Davies, Chairman BBKA. From 10am until 4pm. Tickets £5 in advance or £6 on the day from Andrew Shelley, Oakfield, Cox Green, Rudgwick, West Sussex RH12 300. (sae appreciated) Refreshments available in the College Restaurant. Further details on 01903 815655 or e-mail john_bateman_hunt@hotmail.com

Saturday 22 February 2003 - SBKA 2003 LECTURE DAY. The Somerset Beekeepers' Association will be holding their Lecture Day on (Those who already have their 2003 diaries, please note this is a different date to the one announced at the 2002 Lecture Day) We are putting together, what we think, is an interesting programme of lectures. Finalisation of the programme has been delayed as one of the lecturers had to withdraw, but the programme should be available early in October. The lecturers are Dr Ruth Waite (nee Spinks), Dr Michael Keith-Lucas, Roger Phippen, Margaret Thomas NDB and Richard Ball, RBI. The cost for the Lecture Day for non-SBKA members is £12 and this includes a ploughman's lunch with dessert and refreshments during the day. The venue is the St. Ivel Lecture Hall at the Bath and West Showground near Shepton Mallet. If any of your members would like to attend, tickets will be available from the SBKA Education Officer, Mrs Caroline Butter, The Old Manse, Draycott, Cheddar BS27 3SF from 8 January 2003. Prior to that date tickets will only be available to our SBKA members. From 8 January 2003 tickets will be available on a "first come, first served" basis as we are limited to 100 seated in the lecture hall. If you require any more information, please do let me know. Mrs Sharon Blake e-mail: m-s.blake@overstratton.fsnet.co.uk
PROGRAMME
9am - Coffee
9.30am - Opening by The President
9.35am - Have All Your Colonies Survived the Winter? - Margaret Thomas NDB
10.40am - On the Honey Trail - Dr Michael Keith-Lucas
11.45am - Coffee
12 noon - Bugs, Bees and Disease: Research in to Bee Diseases at the NBU - Dr Ruth Waite
1.05pm - 1st Lunch followed by Pyrethroid Resistance and EFB: Implications for Bee Husbandry - Richard Ball at 1.50pm
1.05pm - Pyrethroid Resistance and EFB: Implications for Bee Husbandry - Richard Ball followed by 2nd Lunch at 1.50pm
2.35pm - Another Use for Bees Wax - Roger Phippen
3.40pm - Tea
3.55pm - Bee Husbandry (title to be confirmed) - Margaret Thomas NDB
5.pm - Close

1st March 2003 Bucks County Beekeepers Association ANNUAL SEMINAR To be held on March 1st 2003 at Wendover Memorial Hall from 10am to 4.0pm. Speakers:- Glynn Davies - Chairman BBKA 'The bees knees' Celia Davis -Gardening for Bees Andy Johnston -"Never trust an expert" (thoughts on Queen rearing) Cost:- £10 for BBKA members, £11 for non-members Ploughman's lunch included For details contact S. Chamberlin, 61 Wordsworth Road, High Wycombe, Bucks HP11 2UR.Tel. 01494 522 082. E-mail: Sylvia Chamberlin

24-29 August 2003 8th International Congress of Apimondia. Ljubljiana, Slovenia.
Slovenia is to host the 38th Apimondia beekeeping Congress. The congress will be held in the City of Ljubljiana and the congress invites the submission of papers. Details of subjects and more information can be found on : www.apimondia2003.com

22-25 February 2004 Apimondia Symposium on Tropical Beekeeping: Research and Development for Pollination and Conservation. Heredia Costa Rica More detail is available from: Isanchez@una.ac.cr

23-27 February 2004 7th Asian Apicultural Association Conference Los Banos College, Lagunas, Philippines. More information from: cleofas.cervancia@up.edu.ph

6-10 September 2004 8th IBRA Conference on tropical Bees: management and diversity. Ribeiro Preto, Brazil.

THE BEE PRESS
BEECRAFT
The latest issue of Bee Craft offers a wealth of information, advice and items of interest for all beekeepers in its monthly columns. The following is its contents list:

Beecraft October 2002

Beecraft October 2002 Volume 84 Number 10
http://www.bee-craft.com/
Editorial
'Help! look what I've got!' - Ann W Harman.
Beginners' Bazaar - Matthew Allan, NDB.
Pesticide poisoning - Libby Barnett
The MG extractor - Peter Hayward
Apiary sites - Adrian Waring
The Bee Craft Beekeeper's Christmas Menu - Michael Young
Beekeeping in Ireland - Eddie O'Sullivan
In the Apiary - black holes and bee books - Karl Showler
Book reviews
Ask Dr Drone
Letters to the Editor
Around the colony
Classified advertisements
Calendar

APIDOLOGIE Vol.33 No.5 (September-October 2002)
Behavioural Methods to Assess the Effects of Pesticides on honey bees p.425 Minh-H Pham-Delgue, Axel Decourtye, Laure Kaiser and James Devillers.
Parasitism in the social bee Apis mellifera: quantifying costs and benefits of behavioral resistance to Varroa destructor mites p.433 Remy Vandame, Serge Morand, Marc-E. Colin and Luc P. Belzunces.
Effects of ingestion of a biotin-binding protein on adult and larval honey bees. p.447 Louise A. Malone, Emma L. Tregidga, Jacqui H. Todd, Elisabeth P.J. Burgess, Bruce A. Philip, Ngaire P. Markwick, Joanne Poulton, John T. Christeller, Melissa T. Lester and Heather S. Gatehouse.
Report of the 49th seminar in Celle (25-27 March 2002) p.459 Association of Institutes for Bee Research

BEE WORLD. Vol 83/3 2002. IBRA
Guest Editorial. Existing and future Networks.
New Record of the Small Hive Beetle in Egypt and notes on its Distribution and Control.Honey bee losses during mowing of flowering fields.
Cultivation of GM crops in the EU, farmland biodiversity and bees.
IBRA News. Including a resume of the 6th European Bee Conference: bees without frontiers. Conference calender. (Included in dates for your Diary). IBRA also point out that the full Proceedings of the 6th European Bee Conference: bees without frontiers held at Cardiff in July is about to be published and will cost (TBN).

ARTICLES
EXTINCTION'S
Written by Matthew Allen.
As the months pass, I confidently expect our esteemed editor to rise in wrath from his swivel chair, push his green editor's eyeshade back over his fevered brow, crash his fist onto his blotting pad, sending pens and photos flying, stifle an oath, and exclaim, 'This must stop! No more of this will be published under my name!' And yet, what happens? Not only does he continue to print my offerings, but they are syndicated. So welcome to my new readers - both in ink on page, and in electrons on the screen. I shall try to provoke you into some sort of response, either in agreement or disagreement.

I would like to thank Denis May, a member of Meridian, who has regularly brought to our attention wider issues concerning the environment, that he thinks we should get involved in as beekeepers. Recently at his encouragement I attended a public meeting on the proposed South Downs National Park. This is a scheme to bring a large part of East and West Sussex and Hampshire under the control of one authority. A lot of the discussion at the meeting was concerned with planning, development, finance and leisure. I would like to throw in a few thoughts about the proposals, and why I think now it is a Good Idea.

I have to go back 600 million years. In that time the fossil evidence shows five major extinction's when large proportions of the life forms on earth disappeared suddenly. The last, 65 million years ago, wiped out the dinosaurs and allowed mammals, up till then comparatively insignificant beasts, to inherit the earth. The most compelling evidence points to an asteroid smashing into the Gulf of Mexico. Dramatic and violent - and yet we are in the midst of an extinction that will exceed the effects of that catastrophe, and we are doing it. In the blink of eye, geologically speaking, we are wiping from the face of the planet countless species, including many that we have not even identified. We are doing it in many different ways, but the most damaging is destruction of habitat.

What we have done in the UK, and will end up doing everywhere, is splintering up the 'wild bits' so that habitats for anything that isn't a farm animal will end up as small unconnected parcels of land. This has two results. The first is that a small area cannot sustain a large variety of species, whether plants, insects, algae, lizards, whatever. A number of species will disappear - without anyone noticing.

A second, and subtler effect occurs. Every species is constantly evolving. We ourselves are engaged in an unceasing battle against viruses, bacteria, parasites, whatever, and so is every other living thing, and we all do this by altering our methods of defence and attack. When you get a small population isolated in a packet of land, then there is insufficient depth of gene pool to enable beneficial changes to take place and also spread through the population.

So, the larger and more unbroken the area of land that we can leave available for the species that share our world, the slower the extinction of species will take place. And that is why I advocate the South Downs National Park Scheme, in the undoubtedly naïve view that a single authority will be able to make bigger decisions than a number of conflicting authorities.

Thank you for reading this far. I shall try to lighten the tone next month, when - if I remember - I shall talk about English Nature, and Why Honeybees Are A Bad Thing.


BEEWINGS MORPHOMETRY PROGRAM
Written by Albert Knight E-Mail: a.knight.blackbees@talk21.com
Some of you will have already received the instructions from me on how to use the Beewings program. The file is an updated version with corrections and additions based on the use of the program
over the last few days. http://www.beedata.com/files/beewings-morphometry-prog.pdf (36kb PDF needs Adobe Acrobat 4 and above) Those of you that are wondering what the Beewings program can do. It is a computer program demonstrated at our conference at Sheffield by Cecilia Costa, and carries out measurements on bee wings.

A demo copy of the program can be obtained from Beedol in Czechoslovakia by requesting a copy by E-mail. It is better to ask for a copy to be posted to you rather than have one attached to E-mail as it can create 'timeout' problems during downloading. This version will limit you to 5 wings per session, but you can repeat this ad infinitum. There are virtually no instructions or a help file, and for that reason I have written the instructions.

You can obtain a demo copy, or a full version with a license disk from:- Dalibor Titera at the Beedol research Institute at Dol in Czechoslovakia by sending an E-mail to:- dalibor@beedol.cz The full version costs 90 Euro and you pay by credit card, it is not charged to your account until you E-mail back you are satisfied.
(A quick search on Google found the BeeWings developers website where you can download BeeWings for MacOS 9, MacOS X, BeeWings for Windows and BeeWings Test Image
http://www.jonatan.com/software/?category=custom The package was in ZIP format @ 365KB which was a pre-release version. When I downloaded the PC version and tried to install, I found the trial period had expired E.d.)

Latest update from Albert Knight. Having used the Beewings program almost daily for the last 2 weeks, I can say I am impressed with it. It is easy to use once one has mastered the process, but it differs in one important aspect to the way we have read the wings to get Discoidal Shift. Our readings are degrees, whereas the Beewings program results is a measured in millimetres which was the way Goetze did it, he was the pioneer of this measurement.
When the BIBBA members John Dews and the Rev. Eric Milner researched this subject using the translations of Goetze's works by Ashleigh Milner, John Dews came up with the idea of using angles and plotting Discoidal Shift against Cubital Index to get scattergrams. This took off and has been adopted widely, and with the design of the BIBBA spreadsheet by my son to automatically produce the graphs and the averages etc. it has made Morphometry a valuable tool in our beekeeping.

The obvious step was to use the Beewings Program to produce the data, then paste it into the BIBBA spreadsheet to produce the graphs. But the rub was the Discoidal Shift being in millimtres instead of angles.

John Dews and I have used a conversion factor to apply to the Discoidal data that will result in the correct value that can be applied to the spreadsheet. We have modified the spreadsheet so that the D.S. data is pasted into one column, and another column uses that data and multiplies it by 7 to give it the equivalent D.S. value.
We have checked this by measuring the D.S. of each wing on the monitor screen using a transparent measuring device, and also used the co-ordinates produced in the program in another spreadsheet designed to accept co-ordinates of a wing to produce both C.S. and D.S. Beescales program from: http:\\www.beeworks.com
We found that it is important to use a set frame size to scan each wing. We chose 4mm X 2.7mm as this gives excellent definition of the wing on the screen if scanned at 2720dpi. Of course the scan size is important with D.S. being a measurement, for if a different frame size was chosen the conversion factor would be different. With C.I. being a ratio this does not matter.
I am attaching a file of the spreadsheet we used to check if we had got the conversion factor right. This allows comparison between the Beewings results, the Beescales results and the results obtained by the actual measurements using the transparent measuring device. This is a messy spreadsheet but it was only used for that one purpose. The new spreadsheet for use by pasting in the C.I. and D.S. from the Beewings data is also attached. Download files: Comparisons.XLS [27.7KB] BIBBA-Morph.XLS [25.6KB]
The accuracy in positioning the fine cross hairs used in the Beewings program gives D.S. to three decimal places, and the bonus is that one is very unlikely to get two wings with exactly the same C.I and D.S. which means that the scattergram now has 30 points in it, whereas before with these indices only being to one decimal place, we often had several results occupying the same point on the scattergram.

The process is not as quick as the old projector method, but one is sitting at a computer to do it, and it is much more precise. we have long ago stopped sampling all our colonies, we only sample those that show promise of being used for breeding, so it does cut down the amount of odd sampling.




MINI NUCS

Written by John Yates. There has not been a lot written about mini-nucs and there is certainly no meaningful information about them in the classical bee literature. I mentioned them very briefly in a past edition of Apis-UK and I thought that it would be instructive to relate my limited experience of them in the UK. Others reading this may well be able to add something to our present knowledge base.

To the best of my knowledge the mini-nuc took off in UK when one was marketed as the Apidea some number of years ago. It was manufactured in polystyrene for cheapness, the extruding moulding process being ideally suited for such a hive. Large queen rearing organisations in the USA had been, prior to the Apidea, using mating nuclei much smaller than the conventional 4/5 frame Langstroth nucleus hive; they were, however, constructed in the more traditional material, wood. The favourable weather patterns in the US, permitted this economy of using small hives with their equally small number of worker bees.

In common with many other beekeepers I tried the Apidea but because Nosema was always present, due to the stress that the workers bees are subjected to, it was not a simple task disinfecting them. I am a great believer in the blow lamp and this method of disinfection cannot be used with polystyrene. I decided that a similar design in wood would fit the bill and considered a suitable specification. The first prototypes had sloping sides hoping that it would approximate to a catenary, the natural shape that the bees build their combs, and save me the trouble of making special frames. The first off had 1.375" spaced top bars, 1.062" wide, with a starter strip on the underside (my apologies for decimal measurements but fractions in ASCII over the net are unreliable). These were hopeless, the bees joined the combs to the inside walls of the hive and I then had to make some special frames to fit; since these frames were not square they were a pain to make.

The final design was square sided with 4 frames (4.75" x 5.75" wide) with a bee space clearance all round the outside of the frames except under the bottom bars where it is 0.75" to give a bit more room for bee parking in bad weather. The frames were made from 0.375" thick timber, 1.062" wide and again spaced at 1.375" (Hoffman spacing). The 4th frame is a half frame, that is with the lower half missing. The reason for this is for ease of stocking the hive; a cupful of bees is put into the top of a specially shaped funnel which just fits the space of the one half frame at its lower end. The half frame can be replaced immediately after filling without damaging any bees. This we find very effective.

Filling Mini Nucs

The two middle frames have a semi circle cut out of the centre of their top bars so that when the frames are in place there is a circle of exactly 1" diameter. This circle will just take a 35 mm film cassette, a re-loadable type where the end screws off. We have used these for many years as queen cell protectors with the tip of the queen cell just protruding from the centre hole of the cassette. They work a treat and just fit nicely in the circle, mentioned above, allowing the queen cell to be suspended between two frames. The circular hole in the frames serves another purpose; it just takes a Butler cage which should have a cross section of 0.75"x 0.5" (ie. 2 bee spaces of 0.25"). With a frame spacing of 1.375" the distance between the comb faces is 0.5". I had to make all my Butler cages from wire mesh 7 or 8 to the inch using 28 SWG wire. In order to fix them easily to a comb I soldered a 1.25" panel pin across the closed end leaving 0.75" protruding to press into the comb. In the mini nuc frames with the half circle cut-out I have drilled a small diameter hole in the centre of the semi-circle to take the pin on the Butler cage. This works much better than pressing it into the comb; more about the use of the Butler cage later.

The entrance is in the middle of the wall adjacent to the half frame. It consists of 3 holes each of 0.375" diameter on the radius of a circle which is covered by a small rectangular piece of Formica with the screw (round head, s/s or brass) in one corner. When the plate is rotated it exposes either 1, 2 or 3 holes selected on the strength of the nuc. They also provide mouse protection for over-wintering.

At the other end of the nuc directly adjacent to the one normal frame (the other 3 have modifications) is a slot 2" long x 0.375" to provide an entrance into an in-built Ashforth feeder which holds about 0.75 pints. Candy or fondant as a food for nucs is, in our opinion, quite useless and for a variety of reasons only sugar syrup with a 50:50 ratio (1 litre of water with 1kg of sugar) should be used. The honeybee can only metabolise sugar solutions of this strength. We are finding that we can now overwinter queens in these nucs in a protected location from the prevailing westerly winds providing they are regularly fed with syrup throughout the winter.

The roof covers the hive and the inbuilt feeder; it has a very generous thickness of insulation (1" polystyrene) on its underside. The top is made of the cement equivalent of 0.25"asbestos sheet which has a variety of trade names, one being Master Board. The insulation is very important both in the summer and in the winter.

The little crown board has no holes in it, just a bee space on its underside as the frames are flush with the top of the hive walls. To provide the necessary ventilation I have installed a mesh floor which is about a third of the floor area. All mine were provided with a slide to close the mesh floor but in practice they now remain open winter and summer and allow any debris to fall straight through which relieves the bees of another cleaning task.

Finally, on the outside of the two sides walls of the hive I fixed a small clip in order to attach a piece of shock cord for transportation purposes. This robust fixing keeps the roof hard up against the crown board.

That roughly describes our mini nucs made from cheap builder's shuttering 0.75" thick; now a little bit about their use. Originally we used ripe queen cells in the cell protectors but now we always introduce virgin queens as we can see what is happening at all stages. Once we have sealed queen cells the only thing they need to take them to emergence is the right temperature and humidity. I have built an incubator out of a junked steriliser from my son- in-law's surgery; it required a very accurate thermostat (+ or - 0.5 degrees C). A bank of queen cells is put in and Dawn inspects them every morning. When a queen emerges she is transferred to a Butler cage plugged with a solid wooden plug, fed with a dab of run honey on the cage which is then placed on a wet sponge in the incubator. The queen has food and water before being transferred to a mini-nuc which is usually the same day. The longest that we keep them in the incubator after emergence is 3 days.

I made a special container for collecting bees for filling the mini nucs made out of x-ray film with a curvature at the bottom the same radius as a plastic filling cup; it works well. For more information see page 173 of Beekeeping Study Notes Modules 5 to 8, the diagram is shown below. The queen in the Butler cage is put in the mini-nuc before filling with bees but the plug is changed to one with 0.312" diameter hole in it for the queen to emerge. The hole is packed with queen candy made by mixing icing sugar with run honey until no more sugar can
be absorbed.

At the end of the season the queen can be used and then the mini nuc is united to a full stock by turning it upside down over a bit of newspaper. A spare empty brood chamber is needed for this operation. The nuc can then be sterilised and it will be ready for use next season complete with comb. This saves an awful lot of bee work rebuilding new comb. The only comb destroyed is the bit built below the half frame to allow re-stocking. JDY. October 2002.



BEEKEEPING IN THE WILD
Whilst we concern ourselves with GMOs, varroa, labelling requirements and other such mundane issues, far away in deepest Russia, they are trying to save a bee and a way of life. This fascinating description of beekeeping in Bashkiria offers an insight into life as a truly 'wild' beekeeping family.

Beekeepers in Russia's Bashkirian Republic are saving the Burzyan honeybee and the ancient tradition of keeping wild bees.
Sagit Galin, 69, saddles up his chestnut mare, strapping a long, braided leather rope and small wooden vat to the horn. He calls to his son, Sabit, 35, who is readying a horse in the next stall. Together, the two Bashkirians, descendents of semi-nomadic keepers of wild bees, lead the horses out of the small barnyard encircling their log home.
They gallop out of the village and through a rolling meadow flowering with fireweed, angelica, and buttercup. Soon they disappear into the surrounding woods, which extend up the gentle slopes of the ancient Urals. Securing their horses beneath a towering pine tree, Sabit hangs a jumble of handmade tools over his shoulder and from his waist. He throws a braided rope around the massive tree, slightly above his head, catching it with his free hand, and pulls himself up. He grabs a foothold in a subtle notch in the tree's trunk. He releases the rope and quickly snaps it around the tree higher still. With the swiftness of a startled bear cub, he scales the tree in seconds. Sending the rope around the tree one last time--just below his feet--he attaches a narrow wooden footrest. Now supported by a sturdy platform 30 feet above ground, he turns to tend his wild bees.

Sabit learned the art of keeping wild bees from his father, who learned it from his father. Wild beekeeping has endured for nearly 1000 years in these remote forests of the southern Ural Mountains--passing from father to son. Wild beekeeping in Bashkiria was at its peak in the 18th century, but the art was nearly lost by the middle of the 20th century. Exiled and purged by Stalin in 1936, killed on the front lines during World War II, and enticed to leave forest villages for more promising livelihoods in burgeoning cities in the 1970s, few beekeepers remained in Bashkiria to carry on the tradition.

Survival of the distinct population of wild honeybee the Bashkirians depended on for their honey was also problematic. The Burzyan honeybee, found only in Bashkiria, is known for its resistance to disease, its uncanny ability to survive in cold climates, and its extreme proficiency in gathering large amounts of nectar from the linden tree, which blooms for only three weeks in July. Sweet linden honey is prized all over the world, and Bashkiria harbors 36 per cent of all linden forests in Russia. Like the Bashkirian beekeepers, the wild bees came under fire in the 20th century. The large trees the bees require for their nests fell to make way for agricultural fields and development. Other, less resilient subspecies of honeybees from the Carpathian and Caucasian Mountains were introduced to the region, causing the bees to hybridize. Weakened populations began to die out. Thus, the future of the honeybee and the wild beekeeping tradition were at stake.

In 1958, Russian scientists created a protected area at the core of the bee's natural range to save the distinct population of Burzyan honeybees. Originally a division of the Baskhiria Zapovednik (strict nature reserve), the protected area was reorganized in 1986 as the Shulgan Tash Zapovednik to preserve the last remaining habitat of purebred populations of Burzyan honeybees. Just saving the bees was not enough for Mikhail Kosarev, however, now Director of Shulgan Tash Zapovednik. Kosarev sought to save the local tradition as well.
Kosarev knew that Burzyan honeybees occupy natural cavities in trees but are readily attracted to dens carved out by experienced beekeepers. By maintaining artificial hives in the forest, more families of bees could be supported within the protected bounds of the nature reserve. Yet, creation of a federally-run, strictly protected nature reserve limits the types of activities permitted within its boundaries. Consequently, many beekeepers were precluded from tending the specific trees their forefathers cultivated. To preserve ancient tradition and win the support of the local community, Kosarev created a new position in the reserve: ranger-beekeeper. He hired 12 ranger-beekeepers, all descendants of Bashkirian keepers of wild bees, to tend bee trees in the reserve and to protect the forests and its inhabitants from poachers and other intruders. Sabit Galin is one of the reserve's ranger-beekeepers and cares for the same trees that his family harvested for centuries. Today, because they are within the nature reserve, the trees are granted protection in perpetuity from loggers and developers. Since good bee trees take centuries to mature, Kosarev says that drawing on local experience and resources was crucial for saving both the bees and the tradition. Climbing down from the tree with a vat full of golden honeycomb, Sabit Galin describes how his great-grandfather must have picked out this pine tree for his progeny nearly 100 years ago. He would have selected a tree that was 150 to 200 years old, making sure that sufficient flowering plants and fresh water were nearby. Next he lopped off the crown of the tree 15 feet from the top and capped it with a flat stone, forcing it to grow in circumference rather than height.
After carving the family's insignia into the trunk to lay unofficial claim to the future bee tree, he opened up a clearing to let in the light. Seventy years passed and the pine tree grew broad enough to house a beehive. That is when Sabit's father carved out a hollow cavity high up in the tree, using traditional instruments that have remained virtually unchanged for 1000 years. He made the den nearly three feet high and a foot wide, smoothing out the inside with a sharp blade. He carved a small entry hole for the bees on one side and a removable door on the other to allow access to the hive and its honey. He rubbed the inside of the den with grasses to give it a natural smell, and hung lattices of honeycomb to attract wild bees.
Evidently, the Galin dynasty has a knack for attracting bees, because over the years wild bees have occupied all of their more than 30 trees at one time or another. When Sagit became too old to scale the trees himself, he passed the trade on to his son.
Now Sabit cares for the bees, while readying new trees for his own sons and grandsons. The Galins are grateful that their trees are now protected in the reserve. Logging and roads would have surely destroyed them by now.

To save the Burzyan bee and beekeeping tradition, more is needed than simply protecting the land where the trees are located.
Today, the Zapovednik is taking proactive measures to shape the future. The reserve's head ranger-beekeeper, idrat Yumaguzhin, is dedicated to preserving the genetic integrity of the hardy Burzyan honeybee. His research and breeding efforts are helping the Burzyan bee regain its foothold in the region and resettle its former range. With encouragement from Yumaguzhin and the
Shulgan Tash Zapovednik, the Republic of Bashkiria passed a law in 1995 prohibiting the import of other strains of bees.
Yumaguzhin provides local people with Burzyan bee "starter kits"--a queen bee laden with eggs and a few of her workers. By encouraging local beekeepers to use the hardy Burzyan bee to make honey, the population of Burzyan bees in the region is increasing and its range is expanding. This approach keeps locals from using other strains of bees, which can hybridize with Burzyan bees and weaken the population. In addition, some bees kept by locals will inevitably escape and move to the dens in trees maintained by the reserve or to natural dens to help boost the wild bee population.

Thanks to the efforts of the Shulgan Tash Zapovednik and generations of keepers of wild bees, people now understand the importance of saving the Burzyan honeybee. They value these bees, which are more resistant to disease and pests than domestic bees, and which produce award-winning honey. The reserve's honey has won gold medals at international beekeeping exhibitions in France, Germany, and Russia. Preservation of these hardy and proficient bees and their forest habitat is in turn saving the ancient tradition of wild beekeeping in Bashkiria. Hard work and courage are needed to tend wild bees. These two traits, always valued in Bashkirian culture, are now paying off for the bees and their keepers.



NEW BOOKS
New from IBRA are two extremely interesting and useful publications which should find their way onto most beekeepers bookshelves (discshelves?).

NEW ON CD - Directory of Important World Honey Sources. This Directory covers over 450 nectar-producing and 15 honey-dew producing plants that are reported to be major sources of honey in various parts of the world. The entry for each plant is in alphabetical order of its botanical name and contains information on the plant and its economic uses, its flowering period, its honey and pollen production as well as the physical properties and chemical composition of its honey. There are two plant indexes to the entries, under synonyms and the 1350 common names cited.
Quantitative data is included wherever possible and includes honey yield per colony, honey potential per hectare, nectar and pollen ratings, flowering period, nectar secretion (mg/flower/day) and sugar concentration.
The Directory should be of value to honey producers and traders, beekeepers, nutritionists and scientists as well as specialists in horticulture, agriculture, agroforestry and environmental sciences. It is intended to help improve honey production world wide.

Members £7.50 Non-Members £15.00
UK postage add £1.00, Europe add £1.50, Rest of World add £2.00

Pollination Directory for World Crops This directory contains information on more than 400 important plants. In the main section entries are arranged alphabetically under the common name for the crop. Each entry gives a brief description of the plant, main areas of cultivation, crop products, methods of propagation, reproductive characteristics, pollination mechanisms and requirements and, for most crops, pollinating agents. The entries are written in a narrative style, with few technical terms and those that are used are defined in a short glossary. The directory should be useful to apiculturists, beekeepers, crop growers, agronomists, horticulturalists and foresters. It will be of special interest to all those concerned with food production and rural development programmes.

Members £4.00 Non-Members £7.50
UK postage add £1.00, Europe add £1.50, Rest of World add £2.00

Contact IBRA on www.ibra.org.uk for further information or to order.

Beekeeping Equipment by John Yates This monograph by John Yates on the inadequacy of existing beekeeping equipment will be of great interest to all who have a serious interest in the craft. He shows how significant improvements can be made to existing equipment with very little effort and expense providing a short term solution, while the long term solution can also be achieved without undue expenditure. Available from Northern Bee Books, Scout Bottom Farm, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, HX7 5JS, UK Phone + 1422 882751 Fax + 1422 886157 at a price of £6.50 post paid or from your usual book supplier. Buy online from http://www.beedata.com/nbb/yates.htm

LETTERS
Experienced Fund-Raiser Required
The Bees for Development Trust provides subscriptions for the educational magazine Bees for Development Journal to those who live in developing countries and who wish to increase their beekeeping skills.

To helping in this work, the Trust is looking for someone who is experienced in fund-raising and who will be able to increase substantially the funds to provide these subscriptions and to broaden the Trust’s activities.

If you have this experience and have a few hours available each week or month, and wish to help in this most worthwhile cause, please contact: David Smart, 9 The Pines, Spital, Wirral CH63 9FH. http://www.beesfordevelopment.org

Dear David,
Subject: Book Request
A Mrs Jane Whatley of Woodside West, Wood Lane, Hipperholme, Halifax Hx3 8HB has asked about a book ( which I have never heard of ) by her Grandfather J A Claxton , who was Head Master of Doncaster Grammar School in the 20s and later became vicar of Barnby Dunn.
Could this request be put in the October Apis-UK please. E-mail: "J J Burbidge" jeremy@recordermail.demon.co.uk

Dear David,
Subject: London Beekeepers Association
The LBKA has been revived. At a General Meeting on 8 October we formed a new Committee: John Chapple is Chairman, I am Secretary and Charles Stanley Treasurer. Clive watson is on the Committee. There will be Full Membership (£30) and Associate (£7.50). Our meetings will be at Roots and Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, Lambeth E11, where there are 2/3 hives kept by Clive Watson. We shall start beginners courses there in January. An apiary site may become available in Brockwell Park. I shall send you a copy of the minutes of the meeting. E-mail: "Julian Lush" JulianLush@amserve.com

Dear David,
What an impressive issue is the recent instalment of the Apis-UK Newsletter. Beekeepers are fortunate indeed to have such a service, updated so frequently, free of charge.
However, as you no doubt might have expected of me, I must take issue with some of the things you said relating to GM crops.

Firstly, regarding the 'debate' or lack of it, I would like to say that there is always space in the BKQ for people who wish to write favourably about GM crops or to disagree - or dismiss entirely - some of the points which I, or other contributors, have raised against this new technology. In the past several people have done so. However, what many readers do not realise is that I do get contrary opinions, but for particular reasons on top of the letter are the words 'not for publication'. Sometimes the letters originate from prominent researchers in well known establishments. My hands are tied. So really your comment that any "attempt to debate the issue is stifled by the outraged cries of 'No' from those honourably and vehemently opposed to the entire concept" is not strictly true.

Yes, I do cry "No!" And why shouldn't I? The Scottish Beekeeper does the same, yet another magazine makes no effort at all to air the issue - which makes one think that they would like the problem just to go away. Unfortunately, we are faced with this problem for a long time to come and beekeepers are the first to be really affected by the issue.

I could, should you wish, write a list of my main objections to GM technology, its real, not apparent affect on the environment, and the likely consequences on beekeeping and honey sales - not to mention the cavalier attitude of the GM companies (whose record on care and safety has been appalling even in the trials). Many eminent scientists have sufficient data to back up their claims - all of which is published.

You say that GM crops can help to feed the starving. I think this argument, often quoted, is naive. GM crops are officially known not to live up to their expectations even where growing conditions are excellent - in some cases yields were worst than conventional crops, often more sprays had to be applied and whilst some degree of protection was given to targeted crop pests, other unknown problems developed. Volunteer plants of GM origin were extremely difficult to manage within conventional crops and became a new generation of super weeds which swamp native flora on headlands and roadsides. And this is not from anti-GM crops but from a recent United States Department of Agriculture report (see next Bee Biz). No doubt, like me, you listen to the BBC World Service - you might have heard about this when the report was discussed just over a week ago. Also on the programme was a farmer from the USA/Canada who had flown over to the UK especially to speak to farmers about his experiences with GM crops and to try and prevent them from growing them should commercial licenses become available.

Do you really think that the people responsible for GM crops are philanthropists? They are after one thing - money. And they will get it, because a farmer going the GM way will need support chemicals from the same company and meanwhile smaller conventional suppliers of seeds and agrochemicals will go to the wall. Saying that GM crops will feed the world's starving is no different to saying that if such and such a drug is made available it will help cure the Africans dying of AIDS. The problem is the drugs are available - but those who most need it just cannot afford it. I fear the same will true of GM crops.

John Phipps
Editor
The Beekeepers Quarterly
Bee Biz


HISTORICAL NOTE
From The Aberdeen Free Press December 1920.
The true cause of the Isle of Wight disease has now been discovered. It is a mite which it is proposed be called "Tarsonemus woodi" which enters a particular breathing tube of the bee, feeds on the bees blood, blocks the air passage and thus cuts off the supply of oxygen from certain muscles and nerve centres concerned with locomotion.(I wondered how it all started, Ed).

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