Apis-UK August 2005

The BIBBA Stand and the Irish Honey Queen at Apimondia 2005

EDITORIAL Back to top

And another Apimondia ends with I suspect the Irish beekeeping organisations feeling very satisfied with a job well done. In this issue we report on this bi-annual beekeeping extravaganza by our intrepid reporter on the spot, Steve Turner, and I hope that for those who didn’t manage to get there (like me), we can meet up in Australia in two years time where for a change, as I will be in the right neck of the woods, I hope to attend. Well done those who won medals; it’s always a hard task to persuade judges of the excellence of your product, and to get them to do so indeed requires a product of supreme excellence. And of course, commiserations for those who came away empty-handed. The judges obviously just didn’t understand.

If you were a plant root, would you be able to tell if the root of another plant was invading your private space? And if you were a pea in a pod, lying there happily with a bunch of siblings, would you turn against them once you were planted? We report on this below. Plants are essential components in the beekeeping world and for this reason we will keep you up to date on appropriate plant research, and this in a month when Swiss scientists find a plant that is as effective in treating hay fever caused by pollen as conventional treatments but without the side effects. We report on this as well (see research news). Hay fever, plants, flowers, pollen, bees; they are all linked and they all demand the thoughtful attention of thinking beekeepers.

In our increasingly urbanised world, we as beekeepers have a duty to ensure that the average insect fearing citizen is not terrified by, or God forbid, actually stung by our little charges (or by any local wasps, because your bees will still get the blame). If you want to see the havoc caused by not taking care in this regard, see how a Dutch beekeeper did it in style in our news section below. Probably best to try and avoid this sort of situation.

The subject of infant botulism caused by honey has popped up again with advice from a parenting organisation that gives the impression that honey is so deadly to infants under one year that it is surprising that any of them are still alive. Certainly it is a surprise to myself after reading the leaflet that I survived my first birthday since evidently my mother fed me copious quantities of the stuff during my first year, and I don’t think she was trying to poison me. But there again ….. of course, reasonable precautions must be taken with all foodstuffs especially when dealing with very young babies, but in the Fact File this month, we try and put the botulism/honey affair into some sort of perspective. If anyone has any new or different facts to share with us, please write in and let us know. We balance the report with one from Australia showing how honey can be used as an antibiotic.

GM crops provide us with some news in a report that really says that if you want to grow them and get them well established in the UK, you can, and whilst GM companies appear to have suffered reverses in their fortunes recently, and many have stopped trials, the reasons for stopping them show that ethical concerns never came into the decision making process.

Also in this issue, we look at bees as lovers of fine art (evidently they are and research proves it); new advances in insecticides; we learn a bit more about our old research friend the fruit fly; we can follow to our doom another delicious and calorie laden recipe, and in our historical section, we learn of early capitalism in beekeeping – and long may it continue. Our usual regulars continue to educate and delight us with their articles and also in the articles section we take another look at propolis in an interesting piece of writing on the subject by Russian scientists. We also plug on with bee genetics which we are attempting to keep as simple as possible, mainly so that I can understand it, and we see in the press section the launch of a new CD Rom version of IBRAs Bibliography of Commonwealth Apiculture. This is a welcome addition to our library but on a sadder note, IBRAs Buzz Extra which carries the news of the CD may not last as a publication. In fact the editor tells us that this may be the penultimate edition. Any loss of a quality beekeeping publication is a loss to us all.

Finally an apology for the lateness of this edition but we wanted to delay publication so that we could compile the photographs on Apimondia. So welcome to the ‘late’ August Issue of Apis-UK and I hope that you have pleasure in reading it.

David Cramp. Editor.

NEWS Back to top

SPONSERED RUN FOR BEES ABROAD
Beano Moran, a former beekeeping student at Hartpury College, Gloucester, is running the Chicago Marathon on Sunday 9 October. Beano is using the occasion to raise money for Bees Abroad. He has set himself a target of £1000 so, if you can, please help him reach this with your contribution, small or large. Beano is using the charity-giving website, justgiving, to make it easy and safe to make a donation. Just go to www.justgiving.com/beano to find his page and then follow the links to add your donation to the list. Bees Abroad supports beekeeping projects in developing countries for the relief of poverty through beekeeping. For more about Bees Abroad, please visit our website www.beesabroad.org.uk Many thanks and Good Luck Beano! If you prefer not to make donations on line, you can send a cheque (payable to Bees Abroad UK Ltd) to our Treasurer: Nick Bishop, The Elms, Painswick Road, Brockworth, Gloucester GL3 4RP.

DAN DEASY R.I.P.
I have just heard the sad news of the death of Dan Deasy who passed away peacefully last night. Regarded by many of us as the father of modern beekeeping in Ireland, he was also the oldest surviving member of BIBBA in Ireland. He celebrated his 95th birthday on the first of April last. Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam uasal. Micheál (Quoted from the BIBBA mailing list).

ONLOOKERS STUNG AT HONEY-MAKING WORKSHOP
Six people were taken to hospital as bees attacked bystanders during a honey-making workshop in a residential district in Breda (Holland) on 29 August.

The bees became aggressive when the bee-keeper was showing his students how to remove the honey from the honey-combs. The people attending the workshop were wearing protective clothing but the bees also turned on other onlookers and the bee-keeper’s neighbours. Six people were taken to hospital for treatment for stings. Police intervened when some of the victims tried to exact revenge on the bee-keeper. Several officers were also stung. One onlooker described seeing thousands of bees heading in his direction. He estimated 30-40 people were stung. “Some people were stung 50 times, others 30 times. I couldn’t save my son,” he said.

He said he would lodge a police complaint against the bee-keeper on Monday, claiming it is beyond belief that the bee-keeper, dressed in protective clothing, worked on the bee hives in the middle of a residential area. At the request of the police, the bee-keeper has left the area and has taken his hives with him.

AN EU-FUNDED PROJECT BEE BREEDING CENTRE TO OPEN AS PART OF EU-FUNDED PROJECT
A special educational bee breeding centre has been established as part of an EU-financed project aimed at preserving the Carniolan bee. The Zelenica centre is to be home to queen bees of the indigenous Slovenian type of bee, head of the regional beekeeping association Bostjan Noc told a press conference on Tuesday, 16 August. The project, which is to be wrapped up later this month, encompasses the cooperation of beekeepers from the Slovenian region of Gorenjsko and the Austrian province of Carinthia. Within the Phare programme, the EU contributed SIT 12m (EUR 50,087) for the 9-month project, while the other SIT 3m (EUR 12,521) were contributed by donors and the Zirovnica municipality, which considers the project important for preservation of the indigenous species and the work of legendary beekeeper Anton Jansa.

"The Gorenjsko region is the home of the Carniolan bee, therefore it is important for its breeding to continue here," Mayor of Zirovnica Franc Pfajfar said, adding that the municipality will use beekeepers to promote Zirovnica as a tourist spot. The beekeepers used the funds to restore Jansa's amelioration station in Zelenica, in the Zavrsnica Valley, northern Slovenia. The overhauled 40-year-old station, in which the breeding capacity for queen bees is to increase from 200 to 1000, will be opened at the project's official conclusion on 20 August. Purebred queen bees, priced at EUR 40 each, are to satisfy the needs of Slovenian beekeepers. However, they also raised a lot of interest abroad, where they are hard to obtain, according to Noc.

The project also includes an educational seminar attended by 32 beekeepers and other interested parties. The focus of the seminar was on practical education of beekeepers in the Karavanke area. Meanwhile, this year's honey yield is expected to be the lowest in the past 20 or 30 years due to the lack of nectar in plants because of abundant rainfall and the cold summer. Source: Slovene Press Agency

LATEST CURE FOR POLLEN ALLERGY
If its help with hay fever you need, then new help could be at hand: Butterbur. In a double-blind study of 330 patients, Andreas Schapowal of the Allergy Clinic at Landquart, Switzerland, and colleagues found Butterbur extract was as effective as conventional antihistamine, without any of the unpleasant side effects, such as drowsiness. Over 10 years Schapowal and his colleagues have bred a special version of the Butterbur plant, with high concentrations of petasine in its leaves.

Butterbur

“The extract from the modified plant has a significant effect in blocking the allergic reaction and is at least as effective as antihistamine,” says Schapowal. Butterbur is available in Switzerland and likely to be licensed across the rest of Europe and the US within two years.

MORE EVIDENCE LINKS HONEY TO HEALING
Australia
Australian researchers have found it is effective as an antibiotic cream to prevent infections when applied to catheter sites in kidney dialysis patients. Kidney specialist David Johnson said honey also had an advantage over the commonly used antibiotic ointment, mupirocin, in that hospital "superbugs" such as staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as Golden Staph, had not developed resistance to it. "There are no documented cases of honey-resistant bacteria," Professor Johnson said yesterday.

GM CROPS? GROW THEM IF YOU WANT
There have been many articles on the rights and wrongs of GM technology especially that applied to food crops and most readers opposed to the use of this technology were happy in the knowledge that even though the situation in the UK was ‘ambiguous to say the least, growing Gm crops was at a minimum because of both regulation and public opinion. It seems however that in placing their hives in the countryside, beekeepers and their charges are not as safe as they thought.

In a recent report published in the Guardian newspaper it appears that GM crops can be grown in the UK without farmers having to notify the authorities or their neighbours, the Guardian has discovered after testing a loophole which allows enthusiasts to grow their own GM maize. Supporters of GM crops can legally grow them in Britain by applying to the biotech company Monsanto for a sample pack of GM maize to test on a British farm.

When the Guardian put this to the test, Monsanto offered to send a small quantity free provided the farmer sent the test results and undertook to protect the company’s interest by not breaching patents, for example, by selling the seed to a third party.

The government admits there is nothing to stop some GM crops being grown in the UK. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says no regulations exist to prevent farmers growing GM crops approved for cultivation elsewhere in the EU because “it seems unlikely that anyone would want to do so”.

The gap in the regulations which would allow Monsanto maize to be grown in the UK without notifying Defra arises because a number of varieties were approved for cultivation in the EU in 1998, before public concern forced governments to rethink their policies.

On the subject of GM crops, in an interesting survey carried out in 2003, the French INRA organisation looked at reasons why trials of GM crops were halted for one reason or another. Ethical reasons didn’t appear to come into it. The graphic below shows the survey results.

Graph showing survey results

BEE BOYCOTT IN NEW ZEALAND
Imidacloprid rears its ugly head again. The Poverty bay ‘Flats’ sit on a large silt plain behind the town of Gisborne on New Zealand North Island. A large export crop of squashes is grown on these flats and the reliance on bees for pollination services is vital to the growers, especially as varroa has effectively killed off feral bee colonies. But beekeepers are boycotting the squash growing fields despite the efforts of Bayer Crop Science to persuade them that there is no link between heavy bee losses and squash crops grown from seed treated with the systemic chemical imidacloprid. Beekeepers can walk away from this crop but the mainstay of the honey season for many beekeepers is the clover crop and there is an increasing use of the chemical to treat clover seed. There has been much discussion on the issue with some saying that as bees started dying in April, and the squash flowering period ends in February (remember that in New Zealand the seasons are the wrong way round), it is unlikely that the cause of bee deaths is due to the chemical. YET, we have all heard similar arguments in Europe about the safety of the chemical but France still banned its use on many crops (though many say this was politically inspired like the BSE/beef ban), and Spanish beekeepers were panicked into avoiding sunflower crops using the treated seed.

In the meantime the New Zealand authorities have another fight on their hands and that is to try and defend the South Island of the country from the threat of varroa. The rules pertaining to taking beekeeping items to the South are strict and the public are well informed on the matter through education and wide publicity such as the leaflet shown below.

Keep the South Varroa Free leaflet

Will it all work? Probably not, but at least it will delay the problem and give scientists more time to come up with answers to the problem and any delay will give South Island beekeepers a few more dollars in their pockets at the end of the season. Ed.

BEES AS ART CONNOSIEURS
Bees prefer floral paintings - even if they have never seen flowers before, scientists from the University of London's Queen Mary believe. Researchers put four paintings - two of flowers - beneath bees' flight paths, and tracked where they landed. The bees landed on the two most floral. Van Gogh's Sunflowers was favourite. The study, made on three colonies raised in captivity and which had never seen flowers, was reported in the journal Optics and Laser Technology. These features are recognised by bees that have never been exposed to flowers before said Professor Lars Chittka.

Sunflowers

About 11% of approaches to the flower paintings ended with a landing, compared to just 4% with the other paintings, the study found. As well as Sunflowers, the team showed the bees Paul Gauguin's A Vase of Flowers, Patrick Caulfield's Pottery, and Fernand Leger's Still Life with a Beer Mug. The bees flew towards the Van Gogh picture 146 times and landed on it 15 times. A Vase of Flowers produced 81 approaches and 11 landings. Caulfield's Pottery produced 138 approaches but only four landings. And Still Life with a Beer Mug attracted bees on 117 occasions, but again only four landings.

Professor Lars Chittka said: "The results show that the flower paintings have captured the essence of floral features from a bee's point of view, and that these features are recognised by bees that have never been exposed to flowers before. "Flowers contain all the goods that a bee needs to thrive - pollen and nectar - and selection has therefore favoured bees with 'aesthetic preferences' for those flowers which offer the best bonanzas."

A bee's favourite colour is blue, he added, which is associated with high-nectar flowers. This could be why the bees were strongly drawn to the blue "Vincent" signature in Van Gogh's painting, as well as the blue blooms in A Vase of Flowers, and a light blue square in Still Life with a Beer Mug.

RESEARCH NEWS Back to top

FOUR POPULATIONS OF APIS MELLIFERA MELLIFERA L. IN URALS
Ilyasov R.A.

Apis mellifera mellifera L. is a very interesting honey bee. Its high cold endurance and high capacity for work had made it indispensable for northern beekeeping in the Urals. The climate of the the Urals is very inhospitable with long winters and short summers. The bees of the Urals are therefore special dark European bees adapted to the region. Unfortunately, many areas were hybridizated by Apis mellifera caucasica.

In the biochemistry and insect adaptability laboratory we carry out research into these autochtonous honey bees. We use different methods for the identification of the dark european bee population. We found in the Bashkortostan republic and the Perm oblast (Russia, South and Middle Urals) four unique not hybridizated populations of Apis mellifera mellifera by morphometrical, molecular methods. We investigated by PCR analysis of the intergenic region COI-COII; microsatellite locii 4A110, Ap243, Ap049; the locus of gene antibacterial peptide defensin; locus of 2 subunit NADH dehydrogenase (ND2). We sent sequences of the ND2 gene to GenBank. Future plans include identification of new dark european honey bees in other regions of Russia.

Our investigations will also help to restore the native gene pool of Apis mellifera mellifera L. in the hybridizated regions. We would be glad to collaborate with other European bee researchers and beekeepers. We think, all subspecies of bees must live separately and must not be hybridized. We must save unique dark European honey bee. Our Address for contact: Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics. Ufa Scientific Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences. Russia, Bashkortostan, 450054, Prospekt Oktyabrya, 71. Laboratory of Ph.D. A. G. Nikolenko. E-mail: apismell@hotmail.com

Bees and beekeepers depend on plants and flowers and the more we know about these fascinating forms of life the more knowledgeable we become in our craft. This piece of research news shows that plants have many stratagems for self defence and survival including having a good idea of who’s who in the area. Ed.

NEWER, SAFER MORE POTENT INSECTICIDES
Insecticides and advances in insecticide science are of vital importance to beekeepers and we should all have an idea of what is going on in this critical area of our lives. Here is some research news of the development of so called safer yet more potent insecticides.

Bayer Crop Science and DuPont have developed two new classes of broad spectrum insecticides that show promise as a safer and more effective way to fight pest insects that damage food crops. The insecticides, which represent the first synthetic compounds designed to activate a novel insecticide target called the

Many of the most widely used insecticides today act on only a handful of exploited targets, including the organophosphates, which block acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that helps control nerve activity. Some experts are concerned that these older, less-selective insecticides could pose heath risks and there’s a growing effort underway to find safer replacements. Targeting the ryanodine receptor may offer a promising alternative, researchers say. Ryanodine, a natural alkaloid discovered years ago in a species of tropical plant, has been used to study muscle physiology in a wide variety of organisms, including insects and mammals. Ryanodine receptors regulate muscle and nerve activities by modifying levels of internal calcium in these cells. These receptors exist in both mammals and insects but have distinct differences. Researchers have known that ryanodine itself has insecticidal properties, but no synthetic molecules had previously been identified that potently and selectively target these receptors in insects, until now.

Nihon Nohyaku Co., Ltd., based in Japan, and Bayer CropScience AG in Germany have jointly developed Flubendiamide, the first example of the phthalic acid diamides, a novel class of insecticides that activate the ryanodine receptor. The insecticide is highly effective against many different species of caterpillars, says Masanori Tohnishi, a senior research scientist at Nihon Nohyaku. In early tests, the compound showed high activity against the tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens), which is known to cause serious damage to cotton, tobacco and other crops, the researchers say. The compound did not have any measurable effect on mammalian ryanodine receptors, according to Peter Lümmen, Ph.D., a research scientist at Bayer CropScience.

DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., is developing another group of compounds that target the ryanodine receptor. Called anthranilic diamides, these novel compounds show excellent control of pest insects with exceptional mammalian safety, according to the researchers. They were the first to demonstrate the mode of action of these ryanodine receptor-active molecules, says Daniel Cordova, a researcher at DuPont Crop Protection.

Both classes of compounds are believed to have high potency, the researchers say, although they are structurally different. Both insecticides are still in developmental stages. The research team at DuPont says they have cloned ryanodine receptors from several insect species and that these receptors may help provide a better understanding of their role in calcium signaling, which could lead to new insights into human diseases.

(This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Chemical Society)

SUPERFLY
Resistance to chemical insecticides is a problem faced by all bee keepers especially in our fight against varroa. The use of chemicals generally is of vital interest to us all whether they are for the protection of our bees or whether they cause massive bee losses, and we are all aware of the problems that may arise in their use. This has now been exemplified by the discovery by scientists of a ‘superfly’ which defies current understanding of how resistance to drugs and pesticides can spread. And yet again it is our old friend the fruit fly, that most experimented on of animals. Scientists suggest that the genetic factors that enable some insects to withstand insecticides such as DDT may be the same as those that are hampering attempts to control the hospital superbugs. They found for instance that DDT resistance in fruit flies confers an advantage when inherited through the female, ie by becoming DDT resistant the female flies are passing on some unknown advantage to their progeny.

WHO NEEDS BEES?
Scientists at Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu have produced artificial honey in laboratory by mimicking the process that takes place inside honeybees.

As most beekeepers know, honey is composed of around 80 per cent sugars (fructose and glucose) and 20 per cent water and the sweetness is mainly due to the presence of fructose. The bees produce honey by vigorously mixing the nectar collected from flowers with their saliva. In this process, enzymes from yeast cells in the salivary glands help to increase the level of fructose in nectar turning it to sweet honey.

K Kathiresan and K Srinivasan at the university's Marine Biology Centre in Parangipettai have recreated this process in laboratory. They have produced honey-like substance by inoculating yeast cells isolated from the bee salivary glands into a flask containing a solution of ordinary sugar (sucrose). Their experiment showed "a substantial increase in the level of fructose within 24 to 72 hours."

"The present experiment shows that the yeast cells convert sugar (sucrose) solution onto honey-like solution," they reported in the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology. In terms of fructose, glucose, free amino acids and pH value (which is a measure of acidic or basic nature of the solution) the artificial honey is very similar to the natural honey, they reported.

According to them, honey can therefore be produced artificially using yeast cells and "there is great scope for developing this honey making as an industrial venture."

We are in the process of using yeast (a strain of bakers yeast) to invert sugar for feeding to bees. Invert sugar has many advantages when used for feeding bees and this enzymatic conversion process is much safer, more controllable and generally more successful than acid hydrolysis used by many beekeepers. I believe that there are several methods for detecting ‘honey’ manufactured in the above article and few could agree that it is a threat to beekeepers and their product. Interesting though. Ed

PLANTS DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN SELF AND NON SELF
How does a root recognise another root?

Two peas in a pod may not be so friendly when planted in the ground and even two parts of the same plant, once separated may treat the former conjoined twin as an alien "enemy," according to a Penn State researcher.

"We were looking at how plants determine who is a competitor when competing with other roots for limited resources," says Dr. Omer Falik, postdoctoral researcher in plant ecology. "There is no reason for roots to fight if they belong to the same plant."

The question was, do plants recognize their own roots and avoid competing with them and how do they do this? Working with common garden peas, Falik worked with Dr. Ariel Novoplansky at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. The researchers used plants that had two roots and planted them in a chamber that forced them to grow a specified distance from each other and from roots of a neighbouring plant.

"We found that the roots grew significantly more and longer secondary roots on the non-self side," Falik told attendees at the 90th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America today (Aug 8) in Montreal, Canada.

The mechanism for this self/non-self discrimination could be based on either individually specific chemical recognition -- such as that known from plant reproductive systems -- or physiological coordination between roots that belong to the same plant. To test this, the researchers used plants that had two roots and two shoots and split them into two separate plants that were genetically identical, but physiologically separated. The plants acted as if their separated twin was a non-self plant, even though genetically it was identical. "This eliminated the possibility that the mechanism was based on specific chemical recognition," says Falik. "The results prove that at least in the studied plants, self/non-self root discrimination is based on physiological coordination between roots belonging to the same plant. Such coordination might be based on internal pulsing of hormonal or electrical signals which desynchronize when the plants are separated."

BUZZ EXTRA AUGUST 2005
No Need To Reinvent The Wheel. The latest edition of Buzz Extra brings us news of the launch of a CD-ROM version of the update of IBRAs Bibliography of Commonwealth Apiculture. When the first edition came out some quarter of a century ago, the bibliography has grown and the new volume covers more specifically the countries of the Commonwealth rather than concentrating on the third world countries and now includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and of course the UK. The information should form a vital resource for beekeepers, farmers, agriculturalists, agronomists, foresters and a host of others involved in land management and conservation. Once read, it could save much reinventing of the wheel. http://www.ibra.org.uk

BEECRAFT
Beecraft August 2005 Volume 87 Number 8
Claire Waring Editor. www.bee-craft.com
Beecraft Subscriptions http://www.bee-craft.com/shop/
Contents: Defra’s proposed bee health cuts; Bee medicines: put pen to paper; Queen mating problems Roger Pattenson; Apiguard questions and answers Seb Owen; Other bees: mining bees Neil A Robinson; Variations: part 2 Celia Davis, NDB; A year in the apiary: robbing and wintering David Aston, PhD, NDB; Your FREE Gift; The Bee Craft Photo Competition; From the Lab: a collective raincoat Adam Hart, PhD; Moving to France: part 2 Max Westby; In the Apiary: having fun with bees (part 15) Karl Showler; Book and DVD reviews: Sweetness and Light, Hattie Ellis, Traditional Irish Honey Recipes, Brigid Barrett, The Monk and the Honeybee (DVD), Field Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland, Mike Edwards and Martin Jenner, The Complete and Easy Guide to Beekeeping, Kim Flottum, Honey: A modern wound management product, Richard White, Rose Cooper and Peter Molan, Bees Besieged, Bill Mares; The ‘B’ Kids; Around the colony; Classified advertisements; Calendar.
Editorial: On Monday 11 July, the BBC Today programme invited anyone who wanted to be a reporter for a day at the Yorkshire Show to contact them. I am sure that many stories were received, but the one they chose was BBKA’s concerns about Defra’s proposed cuts to the Bee Health programme, submitted by Michael Badger. Lord Bach, the new Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food, was also interviewed on the Today programme (see page 5). He stated that if the shook swarm method for European Foul Brood (EFB) control was shown not to be effective, there will be no cuts in the Bee Health budget. I know that some of you will, unfortunately, have found EFB in your colonies this year. Anyone making a claim through Bee Diseases Insurance will be included in their statistics. However, if you have not made such a claim, please let me know how many of your colonies were treated by shook swarming and how many were destroyed on the advice of your Seasonal Bee Inspector. I would also be very interested to hear of your experiences following use of the shook swarm technique. Did it work? Did the colony build up as expected afterwards? Did EFB recur in the following or subsequent years? We need factual reports of your practical experience of this technique and we need information from as wide an area as possible. Only you know what has happened in your apiary. Please share it with us. All subscribers will find the second free Bee Craft Apiary Guide with this issue (see page 29). This covers American Foul Brood (AFB). A new set of five Apiary Guides on Integrated Pest Management is also available – see page 30 to order your set. Claire Waring

Beekeeping and conserving biodiversity of honeybees Sustainable bee breeding and theoretical and practical guide. 180 pages A5. ISBN: 1-904846-14-9. This is a new title reporting the work of 6 bee labs in Europe who have participated in the BABE (Beekeeping and Apis Biodiversity in Europe) project. The lead lab is that of Dr Robin Moritz in Germany and there are contributions from: Jean-Marie Cornuet, France; Cecilia Costa, Italy; Pilar De la Rua, Spain; Stefan Fuchs, Germany; Annette Bruun Jenson, Denmark; Marco Lodesani, Italy; Robin Moritz, Germany; Bo Vest Pederson, Denmark; Jose Serrano, Spain Michel Solignac, France. As such it is a very important contribution to the literature in this area. £11.00 UKPP. Available from Northern Bee Books online URL: http://www.beedata.com/nbb/babe.htm

Bees in America - How the honey bees shaped a nation by Tammy Horn "Horn shows how beekeeping and honey have influenced so much of our U.S. history and culture. American beekeepers will be grateful that Horn is sharing the story of their love affair with the honey bee to the general population. Bees in America is a welcome respite from our fast-paced, technology-driven society." Joe Graham Editor American Bee Journal £23.50 UKPP. Available from Northern Bee Books online URL: http://www.beedata.com/nbb/horn.htm Photograph by ST Tammy Horn on the Northern Bee Books stand at Apimondia 2005.

A method of possibly influencing gravitomagnetism, and in consequence the East-West comb alignment, could be by the introduction of a vertical magnetic field.

A magnet from a loudspeaker is a circular disc with a hole in the middle with one surface being a north pole and the other south. When laid flat on top of the inner hive it provides a strong vertical field as shown in (fig 1) The green horizontal lines represent the Earth's magnetic field prior to the introduction of the magnet and the red lines the resultant field of their combined effect. To enable a scale of magnetic influence to be obtained the green lines have been plotted 6 inches apart.

This diagram represents vertical magnetic fields crudely measured with the aid of a simple compass.

The second diagram (fig 2) has been similarly constructed to the same scale but represents the resultant horizontal fields 7 inches below the roof of the inner hive. In both cases the distortion of the magnet's field by the Earth's magnetic field, would appear to be quite overpowering.

Let us introduce into the inner hive a swarm, place the magnet on the roof inscribed with the compass bearings N,S,E,& W, and position the outer hive, (numbered 6-4) over the top.

For well over a century modern science has progressed at a startling rate. With this increase in knowledge has come medicinal and healthcare benefits that have seen ages peak and diseases eradicated. These medical advances were based around the paradigm of the “magic bullet”, isolating the active ingredient and using it to alter the chemistry of a single molecule/protein to elicit a change of state in the patient.

Success however has turned to obsession as cracks appear in the armoury of disease fighting drugs at our disposal. MRSA is rifling through our hospitals as antibiotics become ineffective and severe side effects of modern drugs are becoming common place now years after their introduction. A direct consequence of a one dimensional strategy, it is maybe the time to acknowledge the synergistic health benefits of natural medicine.

Propolis is a unique natural medicine because of its breadth of action. It has antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and immunomodulatory effects, it could help treat asthma, allergies, arthritis and joint disorders, eczema and dermatitis, ME, viral infections including HIV and even cancer. This medicine could help treat an illness or keep you fit and healthy.

Propolis: Defender of the City
Propolis is a mainly resinous substance that bees collect from trees and plants. Being made up of waxes, resins, fatty acids and even amino acids. Aristotle reputedly coined the name Propolis meaning “defender of the city”. This is exactly what Propolis is for the hive, it acts as a bee population’s external immune system keeping the hive sterile and free of microbial invaders

Evidence Based Medicine
In the following paragraphs I will describe to you the pharmacological properties of Propolis. Before I do so I must explain where this evidence comes from. All the properties and actions of Propolis have been witnessed and detailed in scientific studies which have subsequently been published in journals. The bulk of these scientific studies have been performed in vitro (i.e. in a test tube) or in vivo (i.e. in a host animal for example rats), a much smaller proportion of these studies are clinical trials tested on humans. The abstracts of these papers can be found on the Medline and pubmed databases on the Internet.

Propolis: A natural antibiotic
Propolis is probably best known for its antibiotic properties. Even as early as 1960 French(1) research demonstrated the bacteriostatic action on Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris and Bacillus alvei. The results have been replicated many times and Propolis has even been shown to be effective to MRSA(2), the same antibiotic resistant bacteria that has infected up to 70% of our hospitals. A 1997 study by Calder et al. at the University of Oxford concurred with these results and found that the cinnaminic acids and flavanoids present in Propolis in particular show bacteriocidal action. This action believed to be as a consequence of Propolis uncoupling the bacterial energy respiratory chain. Interestingly this action may be involved in a synergistic action with antibiotics when used together, boosting the effectiveness of the drugs.

Anti-Viral and immuno-stimulatory
Viruses present a unique dilemma in the quest for good health, they are not affected by antibiotics and mutate so frequently that vaccines are hard to produce. They also cause illness by hijacking cells and using the cells machinery to replicate. Modern drugs aim to slow or stop the virus from the replicating and subsequently because they are attacking host cell machinery they have certain side effects. Viruses perhaps pose the greatest threat to humans’ health, we are currently in the middle of a HIV pandemic with “39.4 million” people infected world wide. With a Flu pandemic overdue and certainly on its way and predictions of world wide casualties and chaos, a solution is needed.

The bioflavanoids in propolis have a unique approach to combating Viruses, instead of trying to combat them once they have infected a cell, they lock the virus in its protein coat. This means that the dangerous machinery and DNA/RNA of the virus is nullified and the infection stopped.

Propolis has been shown to be more effective than the pharmaceutical anti-viral acyclovir in treating genital Herpes in a clinical trial conducted in the Ukraine(4) and there is growing evidence that Propolis could help treat people with HIV(5).

Propolis also works hard as an immunomodulator which is of interest for all of us. It does this by altering the way cytokine production and release is managed. Cytokines are the chemical messengers that allow immune system cells to communicate. By altering the cytokine system, it primes the immune system to be ready to react to antigens quickly and effectively.

As well as this, bioflavanoids within Propolis stimulate the production of interferon which can help people recover from ME, stimulating their immune system. This alteration of the cytokine and interferon systems means that your body is ready to fight off infection and keep you healthy, making a case for using propolis as a supplement for good health, like vitamins. Prevention is better than the cure.

Anti-inflammatory and anti-allergen
A survey of Propolis consumers showed that arthritis was the health problem that Propolis was used to treat the most. This is because of the potent anti-inflammatory properties of the propolis constituents in particular CAPE (Caffeic acid Phenyl ester), CAPE has been shown to suppress T cell activation. A paper by Marquez et al in 2004(6) evaluated this to mean that since T-cells play a key role in the onset of several inflammatory diseases, CAPE is important because the this phenolic compound is a potent inhibitor of early and late events in T-cell receptor-mediated T-cell activation. Results like this have led other researchers to propose that CAPE is a worthwhile agent for reducing the severity of conditions associated with inflammation.

Many of the experiments performed on CAPE were done so in vitro, however the anti-inflammatory properties of Propolis have been documented in rats when treating rat adjuvant arthritis. A paper by Park et al in 1999(7) concluding that the ethanolic extract of propolis had profound anti-inflammatory effects on both chronic and acute arthritic inflammations.

These anti-inflammation properties extend to other illness and disorders such as asthma and allergies reducing both smooth muscle airway contraction(8) and allergic responses. Any disorder or illness related to inflammation could be helped by Propolis.

Anti-tumour/cancer
Propolis and CAPE have been shown to reduce the size of tumours and to selectively destroy and to curb the proliferation of malignant cells of many different types of cancer. As recently as June 10th 2005 Cancer researchers have been given a grant of a million dollars to investigate the therapeutic value of Propolis for cancer. Costas Koumenis the lead investigator for the study was quoted as saying, “ a very interesting property of these compounds is that they have been shown to cause cell death in tumor cells but not in normal cells." This study along with other current studies promises to propel Propolis into the limelight in the field of cancer treatment.

Current Propolis Research in the UK
BVR (BeeVital Research) recently won a major government Research and Development Award, part of a £250,000 research programme looking at the chemical, biological and clinical properties of propolis.

How to use/find propolis products?
A large range of propolis products are available on the market ranging from tablets, capsules, tinctures and liquids to specialist products for skin care – soap, lip balm, creams and oral health care – toothpaste, mouthwash, lozenges and tooth and gum liquid.

Traditionally these have been available through health food stores but are increasingly available in independent pharmacies.

Choosing the best products is not always easy. Current regulations means manufacturers cannot make any kind of medical claim for products that have not been licensed as medicines despite the fact that there is a sound evidence basis for such claims. Part of the reason for this is that no single body is responsible for ensuring that product offered for sale actually are what they say they are.

For this reason the BVR (BeeVital Research) programme is targeted at developing full medicines licenses for some key products. In the meantime BVR have formulated a number of products for the health food market based on their research. Consumers, when purchasing products should look for those products produced by companies who can back up their products by good manufacturing practice (pharmaceutical standard manufacturing) and research.

(2)Anti-Bacterial properties of propolis. Grange, J. M., Davey, R. W. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 83: 160-1 (1990)

(3)Anti-microbial action of propolis and some of its components: The effect on growth membrane potential and motility of bacteria. Mirzoeva, O. K., Grishanin, r. n., Calder, p. c. microbial – res, 152: 239-246 (1997)

(4)A comparative multi-centre study of the efficacy of propolis, acyclovir and placebo in the treatment of genital herpes (HSV).Vynograd, N.; Vynograd, I. ; Sosnowski, Z. Institute of Epidemiology , Lvov State Medical University , Lvov , Ukraine . Phytomedicine (2000), 7(1), 1-6. CODEN: PYTOEY ISSN: 0944-7113.

(5) Current lead natural products for the chemotherapy of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. De Clercq, Erik. Rega Institute for Medical Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven , Louvain , Belg. Medicinal Research Reviews (2000), 20(5), 323-349. CODEN: MRREDD ISSN: 0198-6325

(6) Caffeic acid phenethyl ester inhibits T-cell activation by targeting both nuclear factor of activated T-cells and NF- k B transcription factors. Marquez, Nieves; Sancho, Rocio; Macho, Antonio; Calzado, Marco A.; Fiebich, Bernd L.; Munoz, Eduardo. Departamento de Biologia Celular, Fisiologia e Inmunologia, Universidad de Cordoba, Facultad de Medicina, Cordoba, Spain . Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (2004), 308(3), 993-1001. CODEN: JPETAB ISSN: 0022-3565.

(7) Suppressive effects of propolis in rat adjuvant arthritis. Park, Eun-Hee; Kahng, Ja-Hoon. College of Pharmacy , Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul , S. Korea. Archives of Pharmacal Research (1999), 22(6), 554-558. CODEN: APHRDQ ISSN: 0253-6269.

(8) Bulgarian propolis induces analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects in mice and inhibits in vitro contraction of airway smooth muscle. Paulino, Niraldo; Dantas, Andreia Pires; Bankova, Vassya; Longhi, Daniela Taggliari; Scremin, Amarilis; Lisboa de Castro, Solange; Calixto, Joao Batista. Grupo de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento de Biofarmacos (BIOFAR), Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Tubarao , Brazil . Journal of Pharmacological Sciences ( Tokyo , Japan ) (2003), 93(3), 307-313. CODEN: JPSTGJ ISSN: 1347-8613.

About the author: James Fearnley of BeeVital Research is one of the worlds leading authorities on Propolis He has written extensively on the subject and published a major review of all the current research up to 2001 - Bee Propolis – Natural Healing form the Hive Souvenir Press. http://www.beevitalpropolis.com

George Bernard Shaw (a beekeeper) must have had me in mind when he said - "A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." (GBS, 1856-1950.)

I am sure I am not the only one who puts clearer boards on their hives and doesn’t get back to them for several weeks. As you would expect, it usually means that the bees have learnt to bypass the escapes and there are a fair number of bees back in the supers. That is just a nuisance that can be solved by moving the supers some distance away and vigorously smoking each in turn to drive out the last of the bees.

I used New Zealand/Canadian clearer boards on some of my hives. Those are the ones with either four or five holes capped off with a wire “gate” or plastic cones. The received wisdom is that these clear the bees quicker than Porter escapes. All very well unless it takes you three weeks to get back to them. By that time the bees are almost certain to have worked their way back into the supers. I had a different problem. The problem I had was that on one or two of them the high sides created quite a deep space between the actual board and the brood box.

On one clearer board in particular, the bees had filled the entire space (about 17-18 inches square) with brace comb absolutely crammed with the darkest honey I have ever seen. There were also about two or three thousand bees in the “lid.”

I toyed with the idea of leaving this board on top of the brood box in the vain hope that the bees might take it down but in the end I decided to try to harvest the honey. With a combination of brushing and smoking I did get most of the bees out and cut the brace comb into a spare bucket. When I got it home I literally crushed it over a sieve and collected 10lb of almost black honey. I don’t intend to repeat the mistake of leaving the clearer boards on too long but it was a useful bonus in that case. Incidentally the rest of the hive yielded 108lb of extremely light coloured honey!

Now that Autumn is here and the honey is coming off the hives, the hard work is beginning and hopefully the honey-money should start rolling in. If you give your wet supers back to the bees to clear out it will probably take a week or two before you can lift them off again to store. Last winter I put four mothballs in each super and wrapped it in a black plastic bag sealed with parcel tape. That kept the wax moth away and it was a cheap solution; if it appeals to you – try it.

After the supers are cleaned and in any case as soon as possible, in go the Varroa strips or Apiguard. I have decided to alternate the two, so this year will be Apiguard. The feeders full of sugar syrup will need go onto the hives too. The gurus say feeding should be completed by the end of September, though with the milder autumns recently I am not too fussed if I am still feeding a few weeks later. In any case I also adopt the Peter Springall practice of feeding each hive with fondant on Boxing Day.

Once you have all that delicious honey safely bottled you will need to decide which room in the house to fill with it – as long as She Who Must Be Obeyed lets you get away with it. I find that it is psychologically stimulating to build a huge skyscraper in the sitting room – directly in front of the television set. That way I have to get marketing before I can watch “Spooks.” A tip from Steven Turner – if you are storing your jars of honey where it might get damp; fit the jars with plastic caps (they can be recycled a good few times) and only put metal caps on when you “send them to market.”

It is not too early to start planning for next year. The start of my year is the beginning of November when I begin to renovate and clean supers, constructing floors and crown boards (I stopped buying them when I found out how easy/cheap it was to make them myself), making up frames, cleaning queen excluders (carefully) - checking that the space between wires/slots has not become enlarged.

A quick story before I leave you. My beekeeping friend, the one I have told you about before, who would be out of his depth in a puddle– of whom his wife once said – “ you’ll have to knock on his head to see if he is at home, ” asked me to help him move a hive from a friend’s garden to his house – a distance of about 6 miles.

When I reached the friend’s house I found that, impatient as ever, he had already got the hive into his car – also….the bees. The interior was so dense with bees that if they had beaten their wings slightly faster they could have lifted the car with them. Travelling screen? Wassat?

Fully clothed against the horde, I carried the hive back into the garden, left the doors of his car wide open on his friend’s driveway and gave him a lift home. The following day when we returned the bees had gone back to the hive in the garden but a fox had got into his car during the night, ripped up the upholstery and crapped on it whilst cleaning up the spilt honey.

And the moral to that story is - The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams. (Henry David Thoreau) Mike Oliver

Build Your Own Wasp Trap

I had a massive attack of wasps last year - to the effect that they actually robbed out a weak hive before I realised what was going on. I tried a variety of wasp trap designs before arriving at the one I use now. It takes 5 minutes to make each trap and I have caught several hundred wasps a day using this design. It's based on the principle that wasps are attracted into the trap by smell of sugary fruit juice and alcohol (wine dregs and ribena work well). Once inside the trap wasps fly upwards towards the light - which is their weak point.

Materials
1 two litre plastic milk container or pet coke/ fanta/ juice bottle.
1 roll of black (or light proof) duct tape.
1 Sharp stanley knife.

cover the bottom half of the milk container/ bottle in black duct tape.

Cut Through the duct tape and the plastic bottle to make Letter Box type hinged flaps - on three sides of the bottle. Important - do not cut off the flap to make an open slot. Leave the flap attached at the bottom so you can push it in slightly. Size of slot - experiment - I find about 5 cm long by 1 cm high works well. The flap should be slightly springy - so wasps can push their way in.

Safety Note: Cutting through a shiny pet bottle can be dangerous if knife slips - takes a lot of pressure and control. Be sure to tape the bottle first - tape gives the knife more grip and stability. Do not cut on your lap - use a table and cut away from your body.

Pierce top area of bottle and sides above the slots with a sharp point - a dart is perfect - to allow scent of juice to drift out. Make fifty or so small holes near top.

Fill bottom third of bottle (in the darkness) with sticky fruit juice, coca cola, old wine, sugar syrup, bit of vinegar etc.

How It Works
Wasps smell the fruity juice through small holes or hinged flaps.
They enter via the hinged letter box flaps and try to get juice.
They are surrounded by darkness except above, so fly upwards repeatedly.
Eventually they fly into the liquid and drown.

This is so effective that you must clear the bottles every few days or the mass of wasp bodies stops wasps drowning. Throw dead wasps on compost heap. Remember this only works well if you cover the bottom half of bottle with black duct tape (or other opaque tape) and cut your slots so that they make a hinged flap. I made 6 or more traps in about 45 minutes - placed one near each of my hives. Caught literally thousands of wasps in a single week.

For the full article and colour photographs visit the URL: http://www.dartingtonhive.co.uk/wasptrap.html
Graham White

Despite the fairly complicated family structure of a colony outlined in part one (Apis UK July 05), and the fact that a male bee emerges from an unfertilised egg, the basic principles of genetics still apply to bees, and now we go beyond generalities and plunge into chromosomes, genes and alleles. We know that queens and workers hatch from eggs containing two sets of chromosomes, one set of 16 from each parent (diploid), and that drones hatch from eggs containing one set of chromosomes (haploid). This latter process of drones hatching from unfertilised eggs is termed parthenogenesis.

The chromosomes contain hereditary units called genes. The specific place on a chromosome where particular genes are found is called a locus. On rare occasions a gene entering an egg or sperm has changed or mutated and will have a different effect than the original gene. All the forms of a gene that occur at a locus are called alleles. Allele is just a word that means a version of a gene. For example, genes for blue eyes and brown eyes are alleles (or different versions) of the eye colour gene. There is a gene that controls the sex of a bee and is of course called the sex allele. If there are two different sex alleles present, the bee will develop into a female (worker or queen). If there is one allele present, the bee will develop into a drone. There are two ways that only one sex allele could be present. Firstly as we have explained, the egg may be unfertilised and so will only contain one sex allele anyway; and secondly, both the mother and the father may contribute the same allele in a fertilised egg and this egg even though fertilised will also develop into a drone. The drone will then have two sets of chromosomes instead of the normal one (i.e. a diploid drone) and will not be able to function as a normal drone. These diploid drones are always destroyed by workers who eat them on hatching from the egg in the cell. When therefore inbreeding occurs and it is more likely that mother and father will have the same allele, the queen will lay eggs in worker cells that are in fact diploid drones. These will be eaten and so the brood pattern will be full of holes alternating with normal larvae. We’ve all seen it. So the closer the relationship between mating partners, the fewer the viable brood. A brother/sister mating will produce only 50% viable brood.

Genetic variability is therefore paramount and the idea behind queens flying to a Drone Congregation Area (DCA) to breed with as many drones as possible from as many different and widespread colonies as possible now takes on a greater validity. Scientists believe that there are around 19 versions or alleles of the sex gene and the more such alleles that are present in our bee population, the more solid will be our brood patterns and so the more bees will be available to collect honey.

While sex determination is therefore generally complicated, other characteristics can be even more complex. Different combinations of alleles at a locus can result in many different expressions of characteristics and all these different events result in complex genetic systems that produce a wide variety of character expression in bees. Alleles at other loci can also affect a characteristic. For example, workers exposed to a component of the alarm pheromone, isopental acetate was estimated to be influenced by at least seven to eight genes and this variety is some of the raw material necessary for the genetic improvement of bee stocks.

In the next part we will look at how, using this raw material, ancestry can be communicated and how breeding plans can be devised by bee breeders to produce a variety of improved strains.

Below: No more lifting heavy supers during inspection of the brood.
I might be worried about having my head or fingers guillotined if the support wires failed!

Thank goodness for the small hive beetle. Now that we've got that varroa mite under control we were running the risk of having nothing new to talk about, speculate or worry over. Those experts in spin at DEFRA teased us with that pyrethroid resistance rumour that sent us scurrying off to our suppliers, but they have really out-done themselves with this new alarm; what a master stroke: the 'deadly' small hive beetle, such weapons of mass destruction. Branch meetings and publications would be devoid of new material if it were not for this new potential threat. (Please remember that it is so much of a risk that they are going to cut back on the funding of regional bee inspectors, but here's a nice pamphlet on how to deal with it instead.) I once had the scare-mongering procedure explained to me over lunch, by a DEFRA official who had drunk too much and let a few things slip. 'Government departments will generate a period of expectancy,' he told me, 'lasting anywhere from 6 months to 6 years, the prelude to the beetle's arrival for example. This is followed by an alleged invasion and colonisation period lasting from 6 to 10 years.' During this period the drug companies will be urged to be seen to be doing something and we'll be conned into buying their latest beetleicide or coleopteracide which is just dilute vinegar in a fancy bottle. Then, in the twilight of the beetle's notoriety, when everyone has realised that the small hive beetle is nothing but a rather jumped-up, innocuous wax weevil, they will reveal another threat: the Great Hive Beetle (GBH.) Oh Lord, there will be mass panic. But at least (or maybe at most,) we will have something new to talk about. Face it; we British thrive on worrying about what might invade our island next. it's in our island-loving blood. What is just over the horizon? They could strike us in 45 minutes. For this deep-seated neurosis we can thank the Vikings. Constantly waiting for the church bells to ring: the invasion has started, when we can rally around and look earnest. Whether or not a threat really exists, who cares? A man told me that a man he knew had a friend who was told by someone who knew a man that thinks that the small hive beetle has arrived in Portugal.

We island apes, sitting on the beaches looking out to sea, worry constantly if we might catch a glimpse of the oars of marauding long boats veiled in mist, or small hive beetles, gathering in their thousands on the beaches of France, making their last minute preparations before an attack. We will have months, if not years of speculation and anticipation.

The propaganda machine is already in action. Like the local glazier who found that the answer to his lack of custom lay in buying his son a catapult for his birthday, there will be some that suspect DEFRA themselves of starting these little rumours if not the outbreaks themselves! Maps will be produced that will chart the beetle's blitzkrieg advance across southern Europe. Urgent branch meetings will be held at five minute's notice to discuss the latest advance by the enemy. Won't we just love it? They're coming, batten down the hatches. There will be contingency plans: I will remove the road signs at the end of my lane, becoming suspicious and informing the police if I see newcomers at beekeeping meetings. I will sit next to the radio of an evening waiting for Ian Homer to address the county. This is the BBC; today SHB has been reported in Kent. And I will pat my wife's hand and say, 'everything will be alright,' as she dries out the tealeaves to be used again before opening the Spam(r). Think of all the things I will be able to make do with and mend. John Chamberlain will be able to draw a water-saving line in his bath tub, I will be able to draw a pencil line down the back of my legs, (no, I didn't say that.) Bring back the extra sugar rations for we beekeepers. Bring it on SHB, our island is ready! Crikey! The church bells are ringing... Chad Cryer

Amalou (Morocco)
Something novel for this month’s recipe; a spread to put on bread but also delicious with toast.

Ingredients:
8 ounces Blanched white almonds, toasted.
4 fluid ounces oz walnut oil.
1/2 teaspoon Salt.
2 fluid ounces oz thick honey.

Directions:
In a blender, mix pulse the almonds with the walnut oil and salt. When smooth, spoon in honey and blend for 30 seconds. Keep in an airtight container.
Simple, tasty and nutritious.

'Unsuitable for infants under 12 months." Almost every jar of honey sold in the UK now comes with this warning, with no explanation as to why and the Food Standards Agency strongly advises against giving honey in any form to under-ones.

It was in 1978 that honey became a forbidden food for infants. In 1976, a very rare syndrome called infant botulism had been diagnosed for the first time, after some babies in California were found to have traces of botulism spores in their stools.

Two years later in 1978, an epidemiological study was done by the California Department of Health Services. They tested more than 550 samples of food, drugs and miscellaneous environmental substances for botulism. They found botulism organisms in five samples of soil, one in dust from a vacuum cleaner and nine of honey.

Don’t confuse the illness with adult botulism. Although they are caused by the same Clostridium botulinum spores, the two illnesses have widely differing effects. Food-borne adult botulism occurs when preformed toxins enter the system in food. Hours after the contaminated food is eaten, the patient will have difficulty with walking and swallowing. Their muscles may become paralysed. In up to two-thirds of cases, patients will die.

Infant botulism is much less extreme. The baby consumes botulism spores which in themselves are not harmful, only becoming toxic in immature intestines. (If an older child ate the same spores, they would be fine). As many as 30 days after ingesting the botulism, he or she may become constipated and listless, unable to suck as strongly or to cry as loudly as usual - all the symptoms of “floppy infant syndrome”. If taken to hospital in good time, the odds are strongly in favour of them recovering. The mortality rate is about 1.3%.

Statistics show that botulism almost exclusively affects those under six months, who, on current advice (at least in the US), shouldn’t be consuming anything other than milk.

In the UK, there have only ever been six cases of infant botulism, none of which implicated British honey. In the most recent case, in 2001, formula milk was to blame.

Most beekeepers have at one time or another been asked to take a swarm and some will charge for this service (correctly in my view) but as we can see from this month’s historical note, charging for this skilled service is no new thing. This is an advert placed by Robert Sydserff of Leigh on Mendip in his Treatise on Bees written in 1792. If any of you are lucky enough not to recognise the coinage used, ask at any beekeepers’ association meeting. Like me, I suspect most will be familiar with it. Ed.

Advert
P.S. Any gentleman whose bees have omitted swarming until the latter end of June, and are desirous of increasing their stock, may have swarms taken out of any old Hive, by Mr Sydserff, the author, which shall do as well, or better, than those which come forth of their own free choice. In like manner, Bees are taken out of hollow trees, walls, or any other places on the following terms, if not farther than four miles from his house.

For taking a swarm from an old Hive……………………….......5s 0d
Out of a hollow tree, or other place of danger……………….2s 6d
Taking the honey and comb without hurting the Bees……1s 6d
For taking a common swarm from a bush or tree………….. 1s 0d

Most readers will now be aware of the talents of Emily Dickinson who is often featured in Apis-UK. Here is another poem from the pen of this delightful American poet.

A Bee his burnished Carriage
Drove boldly to a Rose—
Combinedly alighting—
Himself—his Carriage was—
The Rose received his visit
With frank tranquillity
Withholding not a Crescent
To his Cupidity—
Their Moment consummated—
Remained for him—to flee—
Remained for her—of rapture
But the humility.

Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th September 2005 - Midland and South Western Counties Convention and Conference. It will be held on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District at the Hayes Conference Centre near Alfreton. It will be packed with hot topics from shook swarming and small hive beetle to breeding strategies to meet current challenges. We have an excellent list of speakers which currently includes: Pat Mills, David Kemp, Norman Carreck, Adam Hart, Graham Law, Bernard Diaper, Albert Knight, Claire Waring, and Alistair Battersby. Full 2 1/2 day attendance including all meals and overnight en suite accommodation will cost £180. Day visitors will be welcome at £30 to £40 depending on the day. A full programme and booking form can be obtained by post from Peter Cash e-mail: peter @ cash42.freeserve.co.uk or in pdf format from me email: steverose @ tiscali.co.uk. Everyone is welcome; not just members of the 10 counties directly involved. Steve Rose

24th & 25th September 2005 - West Sussex BKA Honey Festival. The West Sussex Honey Festival will be held on Sat/Sun 24-25th September at Manor Nursery, Runcton, Chichester. This has now become an annual event to publicise bees and honey, and this year the theme is Bees in Your Garden. The venue is a well laid out garden centre with a restaurant, and last year attracted around 1400 visitors from far and wide. It has become a major beekeeping event. There will be displays and demonstrations as well as 40 competitive classes, many of which are innovative including a Black jar, presentation gift pack, limerick, speciality honey, honey mustard, art, and children’s classes. There will of course be the usual traditional honey show classes. For those travelling some distance there are other places to visit in the area including The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Fishbourne Roman Palace, and Uppark. For details log on to www.wsbka.bravehost.com and click Honey Festival. For a schedule contact Graham Wells 01403 700317 or download from the website. For other details contact Steve Kennett 01798 831 010 steve@profact.co.uk or Roger Patterson 01403 790 637 r.patterson@pattersonpressings.co.uk

20th October 2005 - Central Association of Beekeepers. Social Evening (drinks and buffet) and Lecture at the Wax Chandlers’ Hall, City of London. Speaker, Dr David Aston, Yorkshire. ‘Plants and Honey Bees; their relationships’. For details and to book contact Mrs MR English, 6 Oxford Road, Teddington, TW11 0PZ. Tel: 020 8977 5867 http://www.cabk.org.uk/

Thursday, Friday, Saturday 20th-23rd October 2005 - The 2005 National Honey Show will be held at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, London, UK. Judging of more than 200 classes of honey, beeswax, candles, mead, art-work, essays etc begins at 09.00 on Thursday 20th and the Show is open to the public from 14.00 until 18.45 that day. On Friday 21st it is open 09.30-18.45, and on Saturday 09.30-16.50. Admission for members is free, but for non-members it is £7.00 payable at the door. In addition to the competitive classes, there is a full programme of lectures, given by speakers of world renown, There are also many trade and educational stands. For the latest news see our website: http://www.honeyshow.co.uk

11th-13th November 2005 - Central Association of Beekeepers. The Autumn Conference of the Central Association of Beekeepers will be held in the Falcon Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet other beekeepers in congenial surroundings, with good food and hear a number of experts talk on a wide range of topics. The talks confirmed to date are: Biological Control of the varroa mite with pathogenic fungi, by Dr David Chandler, Warwick Horticultural Research International. Spatial Modelling of bumble bee populations by Dr Judith Osborne, Rothamstead. For details and to book contact Mrs MR English, 6 Oxford Road, Teddington, TW11 0PZ. Tel: 020 8977 5867 or E-mail norman.carreck@bbsrc.ac.uk http://www.cabk.org.uk/

Sunday 13th November 2005 - Integrated Varroa Management Workshop. Hosted by Melksham & District Beekeepers Association at Cooper-Avon Sports & Social Club, Melksham House, Market Place, Melksham, Wiltshire. Entrance Ticket £6.00. For more details Download Leaflet and Download Programme (Both PDF files which need Acrobat Reader 4+ to open).

13th - 18th November 2005 - International Beekeeping Congress 2005 India. Le Meridien Bangalore, India (Organized by: Century Foundation, Bangalore). On behalf of the Organizing committee of the International Beekeeping Congress, it is our privilege and honour to extend a warm invitation to you to participate in the deliberations of the scheduled congress to be held from November 13-18, 2005. The main aim of the congress is to bring together the beekeepers, honey traders and International Scientific Community involved in research and development of beekeeping for sustainable livelihoods and rural development. The proposed congress will disseminate advanced information on beekeeping for further improvement. Bangalore is a beautiful city, the capital of Karnataka in India. Karnataka has unique flora and fauna including important honeybee species. This congress will be an opportunity for the delegates to visit various biodiversity hotspots in the country. We are sure; the congress will present a unique opportunity to share the recent trends in beekeeping and development. Also, you can enjoy the wonderful hospitality of Indian people. The local organizing committee and Century Foundation will try their best to make your stay comfortable and enjoyable during the congress. We are looking forward to meeting you during the Congress. Organizing Secretary Chairperson – Scientific Committee Dr. V. Sivaram Email: info@cenfound.org Web: www.cenfound.org/IBC-2005/indexpage.html

Saturday 26 November 3pm - Kent Education Group Guest Lecture Celia Davis: Mr Bee. To be held at Langton Lecture Theatre, West Kent College, Brook Street, Tonbridge.
Celia Davis is the widely-respected author of ‘The Honey Bee Inside Out’ - a lively, detailed account of the anatomy and physiology of the honey bee presented in a clear and concise format. She has a degree in agriculture and has been ‘fascinated by insects’ since childhood. She has kept bees for over 20 years and gained her NDB in 1996 having previously won the Robert Hammond Award and the Wax Chandlers Prize. She spent six years on the BBKA Examinations Board, is a correspondence tutor and continues to lecture on beekeeping, insects and environmental aspects to a wide range of groups. Her talk to Kent beekeepers promises to be one of great interest. Mr Bee - This talk attempts to change the average beekeeper’s view of drones as useless, expendable members of the bee community. It will cover all aspects of the drone’s life and its importance to the colony. Drawing on her experience in beekeeping and her wide knowledge of the insect world Celia will relate the structure of the drone to its function, stressing how perfectly adapted the drone is to its role. She will also discuss aspects of the relationship between the life cycles of drones and Varroa.

The lecture starts at 3pm and there will be refreshments, a stand from Northern Bee Books and more. Doors open at 2pm. There are excellent parking facilities at the college, good links to the motorway and it is only a 10 minute walk to the mainline station and the town centre. The venue has disabled access. Tickets £3.00 available in advance and further information from Terry Hardy telephone 01622 832066 or email theresa.hardy@virgin.net Terry Hardy (Kent BKA) 6 Springrove Cottages, Goudhurst Road, Marden, Kent, TN12 9JU. Download Celia Davis Lecture Leaflet PDF

20th - 24th March 2006 - Eighth Asian Australian Apicultural Conference 2006 Perth. Western Australia. For all information please visit the website http://www.beekeepingwestaus.asn.au or contact: Debrett's Conference & Event Management PO Box 441, Nedlands, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6909 Telephone: +61 (08) 9386 3282 Email: honeybee@debretts.com.au

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