Hon. Secretary Hon. Treasurer Hon. Editor CONTENTS

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1 Co. Dublin Beekeepers Association Winter Newsletter 2009 Hon. Secretary Liam McGarry 24 Quinn's Road Shankill, Co. Dublin Hon. Treasurer Zoe Hayes 10 Glenvara Park Ballycullen Road Kinocklyon, D Hon. Editor Mary Montaut 4 Mt Pleasant Villas Bray, Co. Wicklow CONTENTS Editorial CDBKA Honey Show News About Bees Addiction and Extraction, by Joe Kelly Notice Buddy Scheme Dates for Your Diary Annual General Meeting Notice Nomination Form for Committee Membership Subscription Form 1 p 2 p 3 p 5 p 8 p 9 p 10 p 11 p 12 p 13

2 May your bees never swarm in poisonous yew trees. - Virgil, Eclogue XI EDITORIAL It has been another difficult year for Beekeepers in Ireland, with our old problem the weather. Although there was an excellent honey flow in the early part of the season, the rain in July and early August had a devastating effect on the crop, as the bees were forced to eat up whatever stores they had at that time. The better weather in September produced enough pollen and nectar for most of us to feel that the bees would be able to survive the winter, but too little, too late, for us to have a good harvest this year. In fact, the weather in the so-called summer was so bad for bees that many of our colleagues were giving their colonies sugar syrup, long before the usual autumn feeding. Ever optimistic, beekeepers reported that the hives were becoming quite heavy as the crop of ivy flowers helped the bees to gather enough stores for the winter. However, it would be wise to check whether your hives have a good weight in them, even at this late stage. It is very important not to let your bees starve! At this time of year, you must not feed syrup to the bees. There are long periods when they may not be able to leave the hive to void, and the risk of nosema ('bee diarrhoea') is greatly increased if they are given syrup at this stage. It is becoming quite difficult to source sugar fondant, or candy, which is suitable for feeding the bees now. I gather that it is available from cash and carry stores, but in very large blocks. Perhaps members could club together to buy a block between them, if one of the group has a card for a cash and carry store. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year may 2010 be a better year for Bees and Beekeepers alike. Mary Montaut, Editor Ukrainian Postage Stamps wtih Bees and Hives 2

3 CDBKA HONEY 2009 CDBKA HONEYSHOW SHOW 2009 We are pleased to publish the results from the CDBKA Honey Show held in Christ Church Hall, Rathgar on 7th November Considering how awful the summer was, we were delighted at the overall entries. Although some classes attracted fewer entries than last year, the 24 jar and 12 jar classes made up for the losses in other classes. Our thanks to all who entered, but especially to the Co. Tipperary Association who made the long trek to Dublin and back on the day. Judges: Mr John Donoghue, Mr Redmond Williams and Mr Jim Power. Class 1 24 x 1lb jars all the same type No Awards Class 2 12 x 1lb jars all the same type with 1st J Summerville (Offaly) 2nd K Pierce 3rd M own label Ryan (Tipp) VHC T Moore Class 3 2 x 1lb jars light honey 1st J Summerville(Offaly) 2nd I Power Class 4 2 x 1lb jars medium honey 1st J Summerville 2nd R McDonald VHC I Power (Limerick) Class 5 2 x 1lb jars dark honey(excl.heather) 1st J Summerville 2nd J Martin Class 6 2 x 1lb jars heather honey 1st J Summerville Class 7 2 x 1lb jars granulated or creamed 1st N Robens (Kildare) 2nd B Power (Tipp) honey Class 8 2 x sections floral honey 1st T Lynch 2nd J Martin 3rd E Martin Class 9 2 x sections heather honey No Awards Class 10 2 x 1lb jars chunk honey 1st M Ryan 2nd J Summerville Class 11 2 x containers cut comb honey 1st J Summerville 2nd K Conway Class 12 Frame comb honey (extracting) 1st M Ryan Class 13 1 cake beeswax 1st M Ryan 2nd K Pierce 3rd B Power Class 14 Honey biscuits 10 on plate 1st M Ryan 2nd A O'Sullivan Class 15 Honey cake 1st I Power 2nd A O'Sullivan 3rd M Ryan Class 16 Beeswax floor/furniture polish 1st M Ryan 2nd J Summerville 3rd B Power Class 17 3 Beeswax candles moulded 1st J Summerville 2nd D Ryan 3rd M Ryan Class 18 3 Beeswax candles not moulded 1st D Ryan 2nd B Power Class 19 1 full bottle of Dry Mead 1st J Power Class 20 1 full bottle of Sweet Mead 1st J Power 2nd J Summerville Class 21 (spiced) 1 full bottle of Michelin/Melomel 1st J Summerville Class 22 Photograph (b/w or colour) 1st K Pierce 2nd M Ryan Class 27 1 x 1lb dark jar honey any type 1st J Summerville 2nd M Ryan Novice Class 25 1 section not heather No Award Novice Class 26 1x1lb jar (light/medium) VHC R McDonald 3rd G Pedlow Gourmet Cup awarded for most points in classes 1-11: J Summerville John Kerney Supreme Run Honey Cup (class 2) : J Summerville Dan Deasy Cup Cut Comb Honey (class 8) : T Lynch 3

4 Honey Show Moments: Chairperson Simon Rees with Eileen Power, Honey Queen Judging the Honey 4

5 SURVEY OF LOSSES OF HONEY BEE COLONIES IN IRELAND Early in 2010, Dr Mary Coffey of the University of Limerick will be conducting a nation-wide survey of losses of honey bee colonies. This will be the first time that such a survey has been undertaken in Ireland, although such bee surveys are regularly conducted in most other European countries. It is high time that our own Dept of Agriculture took the value of apis mellifera to the economy seriously. Dr Coffey's work is part of the COLOSS project in Europe, the main object of which is to understand bee losses and to prevent them occurring on a wide scale. She has requested the participation of all Beekeeping Associations in collecting preliminary data and intends to conduct a trial run of her questionnaire through a small number of Associations before sending out the full survey next spring. It is important that beekeepers who are not members of Associations should also be encouraged to take part in the full survey, so if you know of anybody like this, you should mention it to them. REVISED PESTICIDE REPORT FROM 'BUGLIFE' The Revised Report on 'The Impact of Neonicotinoid Insecticides on Bumble Bees, Honey Bees and Other Non-Target Invertebrates' from the organization, Buglife, is continuing to create controversy over the role of these insecticides in colony losses of honey bees. However, the report makes grim reading for beekeepers and calls for the banning of neonicotinoids in these islands seems a sensible approach. The report concludes that there is a serious discrepancy between the results of research published by the industry (Bayer) and independent research, into the effects of these chemicals on the nervous systems of bees, and that the approval for their use given by the EU was based on Bayer's own apparently suspect figures. In particular, Buglife's new report quotes recent studies which show adverse effects on bees feeding, reproduction and immune systems at very low levels of neonicotinoid contamination. The report cites the precautionary principle of not using new products which are scientifically shown to involve reasonable doubts about their side-effects. It states: 'Given the essential nature of pollination services provided by the Honey bee and wild bee populations and the current precarious state of these animals, any additional risk to their populations from pesticide use represents an unacceptable influence on the environment.' It identifies key weaknesses in the EU approval process for neonicotinoid products. Although these products may not be in use in Ireland yet, we must actively contest their introduction here. There is little point in permitting products which claim to advance agriculture, but at the same time, kill off the bees. 5

6 THE FLIGHT OF THE HONEY BEE A team of scientists at the All-Weather Bee Flight Facility at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra is conducting investigations into bee navigation, and their findings are to be applied to programming robot model helicopters to stay a fixed distance from the ground and avoid bumping into anything. This could have applications for military use and other purposes. Bees' eyes are very close together, so (unlike ourselves) they do not use triangulation to calculate distances, but instead they use the perceived motion of their surroundings (as they fly) to negotiate their way through small gaps without bumping into things. They perform smooth landings by means of keeping the apparent motion of the ground at a fixed level, which means that they slow down as they come closer to the ground and reduce their speed to zero as they actually land. This is a useful trick for a helicopter to copy. Their investigations have also revealed information about the way in which bees can calculate distances. The bees were trained to find and communicate about a food source located in a tunnel, so that various hypotheses could be tested. Were the bees counting wing-beats, or time, or the amount of energy it took to reach the food? The team found that the bees which received the waggle-dance communications in the hive went straight to the food source without difficulty when the tunnel was lined with vertical stripes, but failed to find it when the stripes were horizontal. With horizontal stripes, there is no perception of the environment moving past, so this suggested that perception of motion was an important factor in judging the distance travelled. By giving the bees a head wind, or a tail wind, it was established that they still found the food without difficulty and so they were obviously not calculating the energy they needed to expend, or wing beats, or the time required. So then, experiments were done using a tunnel with moving sides to simulate the motion experienced on a much longer flight. When bees exposed to this regime communicated to other bees in the waggle dance, the recruited bees looked for the food source much further away than it actually was, but in keeping with the distance it would seem to be, taking into account the apparent movement of the tunnel. The team concluded that perception of motion was the mechanism by which a bee determined how far she had travelled. Their team leader, Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, commented: 'After all, bees are only human.' [Compiled from notes from ANU All Weather Bee Flight Facility] 6

7 NEW SUSTAINABLE APPROACHES TOWARDS ELIMINATING VARROA Researchers at the University of Warwick are examining naturally occurring funghi that kill the varroa mite. They are also exploring a range of ways to deliver the killer fungus throughout the hives from bee fungal foot baths to powder sprays. University of Warwick researcher Dr Dave Chandler said: We examined 50 different types of funghi that afflict other insects (known as entomopathogenic funghi) to see if they would kill varroa. We needed to find fungi that were effective killers of varroa, had a low impact on the bees, and worked in the warm and dry conditions typically found in bee hives. Of the original 50 funghi, we are now focusing on four that best match those three requirements. It well known that bees world wide are suffering serious declines and one of the causes of that decline is the varroa mite, Varroa destructor. Varroa mites feed on the circulatory fluid of honey bee pupae and adult bees, and in so doing they activate and transmit diseases which reduce the life expectancy of the bees and cause the colony to decline. In the United States, another approach to controlling varroa is to breed for hygienic behaviour in honey bee colonies. This is done by selecting the best breeder colonies, that is those that have excellent honey production, winter well, are gentle, and display characteristics desired by the breeder. The method entails freeze-killing a small section of brood, which is then returned to the hive. The bees will remove the frozen brood. The colonies which remove the most freeze-killed brood within 48 hours should be propagated by rearing queens from them. If these queens are then mated in an isolated area where all the surrounding drones are from hygienic colonies, the genetic advantage will be retained. The researchers rather hopefully say in time, if many bee breeders select for hygienic behavior, the frequency of the trait should increase in the bee population generally. This sustainable approach would be greatly advanced if there were 'hygienic' queens and drones available commercially. Notes by Editor. 7

8 ADDICTION AND EXRACTION JOE KELLY I am an unashamed honey addict. I indulge in my addiction morning, noon and night. It goes well with nearly everything A.M - with porridge, and piled high ( if crystallized) on toastnoon - in the salad dressing; and piled high on bread, it sweetens the coffee beautifully and goes very well with cheese ( a taste I learned during a visit to Italy,- but have never tried it with Cashel or Danish blue! Ugh)NIGHT - with dinner in sauces aromatic and smooth, with chutneys, dressings and any condiment you fancy and for dessert with yoghurt- Oh what ecstacy! AND -then before bed a honey laced whiskey ( Irish) and there to dream of nectar rich fields of clover, sweet smelling limes and hawthorns loud with the murmurings of noontide bees. Is there a cure for such an addiction? Yes- Autumn!! I detest the honey harvest. I go off my food-and honey - develop frayed nerves, spouse and family desert me, my world becomes an abomination of stickiness, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, and everything from phone to TV control has a thin film of stick one molecule deep; even the divorce papers are delivered with a very fine sweet- and sour -garnish. Do I exaggerate? Maybe a bit, but not about the addiction! You have to admit that extracting honey is an awful thing, it nearly takes the good out of beekeeping. It is a messy, laborious, accident prone, hot operation, - it s not an operation it is a military campaign! And can only be carried out under the one roof with those who love you dearly and that love can be stretched by wax on the floor and sticky door handles ( whether the non-beekeeping spouse be male or female). But for me this year capped all years. Never have I experienced any year so bad. There were about 30 acres of oil-seed- rape near my apiary on which my bees worked diligently and reaped a fine harvest. I was unable to extract it in June and in July the weather was so abominable in Wexford that the blackberry, usually my main crop, failed completely. All the brood chambers in my 8 productive colonies were empty at that stage so I decided to leave all supers on to keep the colonies alive. They lived, ate half the rape honey and then worked sedulously in August and September filling the blanks in the supers and brood chambers with a mixture of some beautiful honeys and ivy honey. The result a mixture of three quarters crystallized and one quarter liquid honey in 15 supers 25 to 30 pounds in each super. In total it turned out to be about 400 pounds. I decided that the only way to deal with the situation was to cut out the entire comb in each frame, heat it and press out the honey. Sounds easy. Just try it. Ivy honey sets like a rock and even cutting it from the frame is difficult. My heating cabinet only takes two 20 litre buckets at most, which are limited in the amount of honey comb they can accommodate, roughly 25 pounds each. It takes more than 24 hours at 30 to get the honey into a reasonable state to press, so it is, with interruptions, a slow process. Now the frames have to be cleaned and re-assembled and foundation put in again. 8

9 So indeed have the door handles, TV and phone controls to be unstuck. It s enough to drive one back to honey. I think I ll start back on the addiction with a nice hot whiskey and some of this 2009 mixture which has proved to have a lovely flavour. See you under those sweet scented blooms sometime in A happy Christmas to all. Joe Kelly NOTICES FOR MEMBERS Volunteers for the 'Buddy Scheme': The outstanding success of the Beginners' Course in encouraging new members to join CDBKA means that we need volunteers to assist with the 'Buddy Scheme' for The first year of beekeeping can be challenging for a beginner, and so the CDBKA will again run the 'Buddy Scheme' to support new beekeepers. Each beginner who applies for a buddy will be paired with an experienced beekeeper, ideally in the same area, who can provide advice, support and encouragement. The experienced beekeeper will be asked to: Bring the beginner to their own apiary for a visit to do an inspection of the hives together at least once Visit the beginner s apiary at least once and do an inspection of the hives together, and Be on hand to provide help over the phone, to suit both. It is not expected that bees be supplied as part of this arrangement. In return, the beginner will be asked to Come to the CDBKA demonstrations at St. Columba s college (a buddy is no substitute for instruction) Commit to enter something (honey, wax, cake, a photo, etc.) in the CDBKA honey show in November Any member who wishes to take part as either a beginner or an experienced beekeeper should contact me. Maeve Clissmann Phone: maeve@clissmann.com PS: Suggestions for a new title for this scheme, please! 9

10 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 25th January CDBKA Annual General Meeting: CDBKA AGM will be held in Leeson Park at 7.30pm on Monday, 25th January The New Constitution will be in operation, following the EGM which adopted it on 7th December 2009, and a copy is included with this Newsletter. Nominations for the Committee should be received by Liam McGarry, Hon. Secretary, by 15th December Nomination form on the back page of this Newsletter. CDBKA LECTURES Lectures will take place at 7.30pm on Monday evenings at Leeson Park. Topics to be announced. February 1st Eamon Magee March 1st Patsy Bennett April 12th Dr Mary Coffey 10

11 Co. Dublin Beekeepers Association ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING will be held on Monday 25th January 2010 at Wesley Church Hall, Leeson Park, Dublin at 7.30 pm (the usual lecture venue) We hope to see you all there AGENDA Minutes of last AGM (2009) Chairman s Address Officers Reports Election of Officers & members of committee Motions Appointment of Auditor Any Other Business Chairman Vice Chairman Hon. Secretary Hon. Treasurer Hon. Librarian Committee EXISTING OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE: Simon Rees Tessa Dagge Liam McGarry Zoe Hayes Eithne Clarke John Killian, Joe Kelly, Rita Brezina, Norman Butler, Ann O Sullivan, Graham Hall, Simon Rees, Mary Montaut, Maeve Clissmann. 11

12 NOMINATION FORM FOR CDBKA COMMITTEE, 2010 Your Name: Your Nomination: Seconded: I,..., am a paid-up member of the County Dublin Beekeepers' Association and I wish to nominate,..., who is also a full member of the Association, to stand for election to the CDBKA Committee for the year My Nominee,..., has accepted nomination. Signed: Please send your nomination to Mr Liam McGarry, Hon. Sec. CDBKA 24 Quinns Road Shankill Co. Dublin e: Liam McGarry <LMcGarry@nba.ie> NOMINATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 15TH DECEMBER

13 Co. Dublin Beekeepers Association SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR 2010 Membership Insurance An Beachaire TOTAL : Name: Address: Phone : (m) Please fill all contact details above with your subs so that all our records can be updated & return to : Ms. Zoe Hayes, 10 Glenvara Park, Ballycullen Road, Knocklyon, Dublin 16. SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE NOW DUE FOR