VOLUME 17 ISSUE 9 YBKA NEWS. SPECIAL OFFER. page 7. YBKA Calendar page 10. YBKA Committee page11. Your Area Reps. page 12. Manuka Buzz page 13

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1 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 9 YBKA NEWS THE NEWSLETTER OF THE YORKSHIRE BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION IN THIS ISSUE Chairman s Thoughts September in the Apiary page 4 BBC Countryfile & YBKA page 6 I VERY NEARLY HAD ALL MY SUPERS IN USE THIS YEAR - WHAT A NICE THING FOR A BEEKEEPER TO BE ABLE TO SAY. I HOPE THAT WE HAVE ALL HAD A BUMPER CROP THIS YEAR. SPECIAL OFFER. page 7 The Winners page 8 Jar Offer extended page 9 YBKA Calendar page 10 YBKA Committee page11 Your Area Reps. page 12 Manuka Buzz page 13 More Than Honey page 14 Bulk Purchase page15 National Honey Show page 16 Education & Training page 18 Countryside Live page 19 In reality I know that not all of us will have had a good honey crop - you can divide my colonies into 2 groups: Those that have produced honey have produced a lot of honey - the other group are colonies I have had to work at building up into strong and healthy one. A little bit of re-queening has helped too. It has also been an interesting year for me as far as chalk brood is concerned - my colonies that are in shaded or slightly claustrophobic situations (mostly in the city) have all had a fair bit of chalkbrood - especially those near the river. My intention was to perform an autumn shook swarm on these colonies to remove all the old comb. To do this I moved all affected colonies to a single apiary in the middle of on open field - 3 days after moving them I find that all the chalkbrood has been thrown out and two brood cycles later there is no sign of the disease. I ll still replace all the comb but I ll wait until next spring now. It is things like this that keep me fascinated with bees. In the past I ve also found that moving aggressive colonies to a different aspect can change their temperament considerably. If any of you have noticed any effects like this please do share your experiences. Bill Cadmore Chairman & Editor

2 A thought for our new members Many of our newest members will only have received their nucleus colonies in late June or even into July this year due to the very poor spring. The lucky ones received nucs prepared last year and over-wintered to be ready for early sale - the others got an early lesson in just how weather dependent beekeeping is. Queens can t mate if there are no drones nor if the sun fails to shine. Those who did receive late nucs will be worrying about preparing colonies for winter - making sure that as many frames in the brood box are drawn out, making sure that you have a nice strong colony and making sure that the bees pack the food stores in. 20Kg is a lot of food stores. The National Bee Unit provides an excellent leaflet, via the Beebase website, on preparing bees for winter but having seen some of your colonies I think that additional advise is needed. Remove any honey supers you might have - these will be a mix of un-drawn foundation, partly filled new comb and filled comb. There is not enough time left for your bees to fill a super for you to get a big honey crop - Borrow an association extractor to spin off any unsealed liquid and store this in a container ready to give back to the bees. If you have some capped honey then uncap this and spin it out, strain it, bottle it and celebrate even a couple of pounds of honey. Carry out a varroa drop test - count the number of varroa on the mesh floor insert and if there is a high count then give some form of varroa treatment - leave the insert in for at least 3 days and then do the count.. Again Beebase is useful here as it will do any calculations for you. If in doubt treat anyway - but follow the instructions very carefully. If your colony was treated for varroa before you purchased it then you will probably not have a problem and you can wait until mid-winter to do an oxalic acid treatment. This is a bit tricky so get some advice on how do do it well. Also take this opportunity to make sure your colony has a nice laying queen - you don t need to see her so long as you can see eggs, larvae and pupae. If you can find no evidence of a queen being present then contact an experienced member of your local association for help. This does not have to be a disaster - an experienced beekeeper will advise based on your colony based on observation.

3 If all of the frames in the brood box have been drawn out you are doing well. If you still have some frames that are just foundation it would be good to get them drawn out as soon as possible - if we can. In both cases, if you haven t already got a feeder on you need to put a feeder on the colony - a direct feeder is best but use whatever you have - frame feeder, contact feeder, rapid feeder etc. Then feed your bees with a thick sugar syrup (make your own - 1 Kg of sugar dissolved in 500 ml of water - or buy ambrosia syrup). If you are using a small feeder (2 or 3 litres) you may have to fill the feeder every evening. Bigger feeders can be filled at less regular intervals. The important thing is to get a continuous feed of thick syrup onto the hive and to continue to feed until the bees have filled the brood box or until they stop taking the food down. Do this even if the weather is nice and the bees are bringing in lots of stores. This may seem expensive but buying sugar or syrup is cheaper than buying another nuc next year. If using a rapid feeder remember to dribble a little syrup down the entrance so that the bees know the food is there - they can be a little thick at times. Do not put candy on the hives at this time of year. When you put the feeder on make sure the bees have only a small entrance to the hive; If necessary put in the winter door. Wasps will try to attack the hive if they can get to the food - one of the reasons we feed in the evening. If you have a lot of wasps put a simple 'jam and jar' wasp trap near the hive. You do not need to look through your hives every week at the moment but I understand the temptation so have a quick peek if you have to but otherwise let the bees get on with what they know how to do. Be aware that you are not going to look through the hive once the weather starts to get colder - patience is a virtue in beekeeping - and you ll not lift those frames out of the hive from October through to March or April. Remember - if in doubt about anything - ask for help Bill Cadmore Chairman & Editor

4 Jobs in the Apiary for September (Roger Chappel & Len Mutton : Darlington BKA) We are now approaching the end of the active year. All the honey supers will have been removed, except for those containing heather honey which may take another week or two. Most of us will have already considered what varroa treatment is required, having monitored the mite drops. If you are unsure about how to do this our recommendation is that you introduce something in to the colony which will cause problems for the varroa. At this stage it may need something a little more abrasive than just Hive Clean and we would advocate the first Apilifevar or, for weaker hives a tray of Apiguard. If you have been carefully monitoring the varroa over the summer you may already have a view about what infestation there is, if any. We use Hive Clean now on every occasion we visit the hives and we also regularly monitor the mite drop. We haven t noted any significant infestation (i.e. 30 mites per day) for some time but, rather safe than sorry, we decided to apply the first treatment and carefully monitor the mite drop. So far, there hasn t been any and, in the majority of cases, we have decided to abandon any further treatment there s no point applying chemicals when it isn t necessary. We are of course, aware that varroa may still be lurking within the deep sanctuaries offered by the brood cells but we are confident that our oxalic acid dose in mid-winter will put paid to these. It is also worth bearing in mind that we didn t use any treatment at all in the spring deeming that our oxalic acid treatment in mid-winter (December last year) was enough. It is worth noting that for the last 2 years we have cut our varroa treatments down to only one in the autumn and even this has only been partly carried out this year. Regular hive-cleaning plus the mid-winter oxalic acid dose is the only treatment we need to use now so this is great progress against the debilitating effect of varroa destructor! What else? There are certainly lots of wasps about and the weaker colonies are having their work cut out fending them off. For this reason it is essential that entrance blocks are reduced to a minimum to help the bees fight them off. It won t be long before they are gone now however. Next weekend we start our marathon honey extraction programme we seem to have a long order book full of potential buyers already so we don t anticipate any problems off-loading our honey this year. With costs mounting (we ll probably spend in the region of 100 on sugar 20 colonies - this autumn) it is quite important for most of us to recoup some cash back. We have turned our attention to feeding now because we only have a narrow window of opportunity. Most varroa treatments tend to be less effective if given at the same time as you are feeding syrup but if it is deemed essential that the bees need to build up their stores in time for the winter then this should be the priority. Remember, however, that the bees cannot take the higher water content in syrup so feeding 2:1 syrup as recommended must stop by the end of September. Preparations need to be made then for settling the colonies down for the winter. In our harsher northern climate we find it vital to give the bees a little extra protection and use wbc-style lifts to surround our nationals where they are in full view. For those hives we have tucked away we tend to use anything at hand but as long as they have some barrier against the fierce winds we get up here and insulation against the rain and cold then they usually seem able to survive. In addition to the syrup we feed to them we also try to give them frames of honey and a

5 supplement of candy which we place under a plastic tray on the crown board. It s worth remembering however, that when the bees go in to their tight winter cluster they will often ignore food which is not immediately above or near the cluster so it s always worth trying to identify exactly where they are inside the hive and ensure the food is placed accordingly. The final problem to deal with are the mice. We had an amusing incident last year at our River Bank apiary when a family of mice secreted their way in to the hive roof before we d had a chance to get the mouse guards on. We dealt with it by laying traps but not before they had wreaked havoc with the polystyrene insulation which we d packed round the outside of the hive. Mouse guards are definitely a must certainly by the end of October especially if your hives are in a remote area. The only other decision to be made is the size of colonies going in to winter. Generally speaking the stronger and larger the colony going in to October the more likely it will be that it will survive. However, we have identified 3 or 4 colonies which are nuc-sized (i.e. on about 5 frames) which we feel will be OK to over-winter and thus be available for new beekeepers in our small relatively new association to make an early start in the spring. The crucial element which will help these smaller colonies through is to bring them inside and we have a small brick shed which will be ideal for this purpose. The new polynucs which were purchased earlier this year will also provide ideal extra insulation. If you don t have this facility or you don t require small colonies for use next spring you should consider uniting them as they will definitely have a better chance of getting through the winter. We can all now spend the rest of the winter preparing for the spring lots of thinking to do and piles of equipment to clean up and repair. Happy beekeeping, Roger & Len BBC CountryFile in Staithes We look forward to seeing Tony Jefferson and co. on BBC Countryfile in September - probably September 8th - all about the British Black Bee and producing Heather Honey.

6 Special Prices Bradford Beekeepers are happy to offer the following bargains to all beekeepers who are members of YBKA Ambrosia Liquid BeeFeed 12.5kg jerry 16. Ambrosia fondant 4.25 MAQS Mite Away Quick Strip Bradford BKA is an official supplier of this new varroa treatment product. Available Now. for limited period per bucket enough to treat 10 hives Order vis Bradford website

7 YORKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY COUNTRYSIDE DAYS 2013 The annual event for schools throughout Yorkshire and Humber was held at the Great Yorkshire Showground on Tuesday 11 th and Wednesday 12 th June. The event is aimed at bringing aspects of the countryside to primary school children in Yorkshire and Humber A total of 226 children came into the Normanby Pavilion to look at live bees, spot the queen, taste honey and look at pollen under microscopes and general have a great time. As usual a bee based competition was held with this year s topic being THE LIFE CYCLE OF A BEE. Twenty schools rose to challenge and after some interesting entries three prizes were awarded:- 75 to Hookstone Chase Primary School 50 to Steeton Primary School 50 to Follifoot CofE Primary School The winning entries were displayed over the three days of the Great Yorkshire Show with both Hookstone Chase & Follifoot schools coming along to collect their prize money. Hookstone, who won the competition in 2012 with a Jubilee Garden, took things literally and used a bicycle tyre to depict the bee s life cycle! Each child also made a contribution to an accompanying booklet. An exhausting two days but enjoyed by all who visited and, more importantly, those trusty band of helpers who gave up their time. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. Phil Gee Schools Day Organiser

8 YORKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY COUNTRYSIDE DAYS 2013

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10 Y.B.K.A. CALENDAR 2013 September 13th October 19th/20th YBKA GPC Meeting YBKA Honey Show Countryside Live October 31st November 22nd December 7th National Honey Show YBKA GPC Meeting YBKA AGM Yorkshire Showground Note: Training dates are not shown - all programmed events are fully subscribed. See future issues for new events.

11 Yorkshire Beekeepers Association GPC Chairman Mr W P Cadmore bill.cadmore@ntlworld.com Vice Chairman Tony Jefferson stoneleabees@yahoo.co.uk Hon. Secretary Brian Latham brian.latham@ntlworld.com Hon. Treasurer Bob Hunter rmwhunter@blueyonder.co.uk Equipment Officer Paul Winder jpawinder@hotmail.com School Day Organiser Phil Gee pjgphilgee@aol.com Honey Show Organisation & YAS Liaison Dave Shannon daveshannon.aca@me.com Newsletter Editor Bill Cadmore bill.cadmore@ntlworld.com 104 Hall Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5JG Examinations Wendy Maslin beewendi@gmail.com Education, Training & Information Graham Crerar graham.crerar@civica.co.uk BBKA ADM Delegate Tony Jefferson stoneleabees@yahoo.co.uk Web Master David Lamont dave@mtvhosting.co.uk NBU Representative Ivor Flatman ivor.flatman@fera.gsi.gov.uk YAS Representative Ivor Flatman ivor.flatman@fera.gsi.gov.uk Simon Maslin maslin@maslin.karoo.co.uk Robin Tomlinson Roger Chappel rogerchappel21@gmail.com GPC Working Groups Annual Conference Organisers Bill Cadmore Brian Latham Graham Crerar Constitution Review Group Brian Latham Simon Maslin Bob Hunter Michael Badger National Honey Show Representatives Ivor Flatman Michael Badger Gerald Moxon Beecraft Named Shareholder Representative Brian Latham Other Responsibilities - Beecraft Directors Michael Badger Chris Coulson Reminder - any member of YBKA can stand for election to almost all of these posts - contact the Secretary for details.

12 Yorkshire BKA GPC AREA REPRESENTATIVES Why not invite your area rep to one of your district meetings? Airedale, Wharfedale & Bradford David Lamont Leeds & Barkston Ash Robin Tomlinson Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Sheffield Dave Shannon Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Pontefract Phil Gee Beverley, York, Easingwold Simon Maslin Northallerton, Thirsk & Richmond, Darlington Roger Chappel Whitby, Scarborough, Malton & Rydale Tony Jefferson What do Area Reps. do? We want to make sure that every YBKA member, in every district knows what is available to them through YBKA... has the opportunity to have a say in what YBKA does and what services it provides... can be represented by YBKA at the national level through debate with BBKA YOUR area rep. is your link with YBKA and BBKA.

13 The Manuka Buzz It seems that Manuka honey really is a miracle crop. According to the Sunday Times* ( ) the typical annual production figure for the New Zealand manuka harvest is 1700 tons while the average annual consumption of manuka honey in the UK is 1800 tons and average world consumption is tons. Where does all that extra manuka honey come from? Clearly other honey is being mis-labeled. Invert syrup might well be involved. It is true that manuka honey is the only New Zealand honey to contain (Unique Manuka Factor) UMF properties. UMF honey contains a large percentage of manuka (no honey is from a pure floral source as bees visit any flower they fly past). Around 3800 New Zealand beekeepers operate approximately 400,000 hives. The major honey producers and the major chains selling manuka all test and label their honey and most like to be able to trace the product to the producer. Clearly though not all manuka honey on sale can be traced in this manner. As we all know all honey has an anti-microbial activity, often referred to as peroxide anti-bacterial activity. Genuine manuka honey, almost all of which comes from New Zealand, has a unique additional anti-microbial activity known as non-peroxide activity. Sterilised manuka honey has been shown to help skin heal when used in wound dressings. However there is no clinical evidence that eating manuka honey aides health. In October 2011 Fera tested five brands of manuka honey sold in the UK - only one of these showed the nonperoxide anti-microbial properties that is unique to manuka. In further tests of 23 manuka-labelled honeys 11 failed the non-peroxide test. In 2012 Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association (UMFHA) commissioned more tests in Britain, Singapore and China. Of 71 samples tested 41 showed no non-peroxide activity. Manuka honey has been a real bonus for New Zealand beekeepers and they are keen to ensure that all manuka honey sold is the real thing. Given that it can sell for anything from 5 to 45 for 500g there is a lot to be gained from selling fake manuka honey.

14 The labeling of manuka honey is very interesting. There is no agreed standard for rating the anti-microbial power of the honey and at least four different systems seem to be in use. One gives a rating based on the special nonperoxide activity of the honey while another gives a rating based on the combined peroxide and non-peroxide activity. This makes it very difficult for the public to know what they are buying. I have made several copies of this article so that, at the farmers market, each time somebody tells me they only eat manuka honey because it is so much healthier than other honey I can make them read it. I just need a nice learned article o the benefits of local honey to go with it. *I hope all of the facts in the article were accurate - I was a little worried that the photograph accompanying the article showed what looked very much like a hoverfly to me with the caption a bee collecting pollen from manuka flowers. Bill Cadmore A super piece of film that is worth logging on to watch. More Than Honey A male honey bee is essentially a winged penis doomed to die immediately after losing his virginity. On summer afternoons, male bees - the drones emerge from many different hives and gather in a small swarm. No one is sure exactly how drones pick their congregation areas or why they are often in exactly the same place year after year, but the answer likely has something to do with fragrant chemical messages known as pheromones. The drones wait for a virgin queen from a nearby colony to make an appearance and compete for the chance to mate with her mid-flight, crashing into one another as they race after her alluring perfume. If a drone is successful, the act of copulation rips his penis and entrails from his abdomen, so he falls to the ground and dies. The queen mates with as many as 20 drones in a single flight and stores millions of their sperm in an internal pouch called a spermatheca sufficient supplies for a lifetime of egg-laying. Imagining what a mating flight might look like is all well and good; watching it happen as though you were a drone flying alongside the queen is so much better. The fascinating and gorgeous new documentary More Than Honey offers just such a bee s-eye view.

15 Y.B.K.A. BULK PURCHASE FOUNDATION FOR 2014 Y.B.K.A. will once agin be offering a variety of types of beeswax foundation for sale at reduced prices. Be ready to order your foundation for 2014 The order forms will be distributed in the late autumn Group, individual & digital subs available Northern Bee Books for the widest range of books see Scout Bottom Farm, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge HX7 5JS (UK) Phone: Fax: Website: Regional Bee Inspector Ivor Flatman Tel or

16 The National Honey Show Newsletter The 82 nd National Honey Show is just weeks away. It is the U.K s gold standard honey show the equivalent of Wimbledon for tennis players. It will be held in Weybridge, Surrey from 24 th to 26 th October. There are almost 250 classes and beekeepers come from all over the world to enter so it is truly an international show. Why not book a ticket now to see the best of the best? What s on? Apart from the world class honey show there will be a full programme of workshops and lectures throughout the event and a wide selection of trade stands with lots of equipment and books to buy. You can see the line-up and download the show schedule on the NHS website and you will receive all the details in the programme that comes with tickets purchased in advance. Advance tickets plus the 2013 schedule of classes and show entry application are available now. New for this year is Class 57, a microscopy slide plus there are even more lectures and workshops. So there is something for everyone. Nicola Simcock, a PhD research student in the honeybee lab at Newcastle University, will be visiting this year s National Honey Show. She needs our help for her research, which is primarily focused on trying to understand what honeybees are able to taste. She has recently begun work on assessing the contents of honey in order to compare what the bees can taste with what the bees actually eat. In addition, the data collected will be used in a larger project: the insect pollinators initiative, that involves a number of labs across the UK. To accomplish this goal, Nicola is appealing to any beekeeper willing to get involved, to please provide her with a small sample of honey from their hive, and complete the collection sheet downloadable from:. (there will be copies available at the show if you don t have internet access). Once published, this data will be accessible to the public. How much does it cost? You can become a member of the National Honey Show for 12 and then entry for the duration of the show is free. Admission for non-members is 15 per day. Accompanied children of 16 years and under are free. You can join the NHS by filling out the form at membership.shtml. You can also pay on the door but it is better to get an advance ticket and avoid the queue. The official closing date for show entries is 1 st October but late entries will be accepted until 20 th October on payment of a 5 late entry fee. Entry forms for classes i.e. Video, Photographic, Microscope Slides and Essay Classes must be received by 9th September; late entries are not accepted. How do I get my entries to the show? Exhibitors delivering personally to the show must bring their entries on Wednesday 23rd October between 2.30pm and 6pm. You hand them over to a steward who will stage them for you. You could use a courier or post. In this case your entry must arrive at St Georges College after Wednesday 16 th October and before noon on 23 rd October. Why not persuade one member of your association to bring all the entries from your association to the show. You could split the fuel costs. Don t forget someone will also need to collect them on Saturday 26 th October after the show closes at 4.30pm. Thornes have,

17 once again, kindly agreed to take exhibits to the show on your behalf. You can drop your entries at any Thornes agent south of the Scottish border. Jeremy Burbidge of Northern Bee Books has kindly offered the same facility to anyone who can deliver to him by Monday 21 st October and please call him before you visit. Scout Bottom Farm, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire HX7 5JS Tel: Where is the show? The show is at St Georges College, Woburn Hill, Weybridge, Surrey, KT15 2QS Opening times: Thursday 24 th October 9am to 6pm (open in the morning but limited to lectures) Friday 25 th October 9am to 6pm Saturday 26 th October 9am to 4.30pm How do I get there? By road: from junction 11 of the M25 (marked Chertsey) follow signs to Weybridge. At the roundabout, take the third exit, A317 to Weybridge. Turn left at the next roundabout into the college. By rail: Either take a taxi from Weybridge Station or change at Addlestone. From Addlestone, turn left and the College is approximately 5 minutes walk on the far side of the roundabout. The Trains leave from Waterloo Station. Rail connections from Weybridge to Addlestone are not guaranteed. For further details Tel: or If you apply for membership before the show you will receive a programme which includes maps and directions or visit the website National Honey Show 2014 St Georges College has been our best venue yet, but the show is so successful we are outgrowing the venue. Look out for details about the 2014 venue at this year s National Honey Show. See you there!

18 Education, Training and Examinations Please note the Education Forum which was planned for September has been postponed and we hope to hold this event in the Spring. Website We are working on the education page. This should have information on people who are available and able to lead teaching or training events. In addition we hope to have a calendar with information to be shared about individual association events. Please advise Graham if there is anything that you feel should be placed on the website. Modules Closing date for modules which will be held on November 9th is September 30th These will be held in The YBKA Normanby Pavilion, Harrogate Modules available in November are 1,2, 3, 5 & 7. All applications to: Mrs W. Maslin, 36 Packman Lane, Kirk Ella, Hull HU10 7TL Winter Tutorials. Module 2 Honeybee Products & Forage October 5th, November 16th, January 11th Module 7 Honeybee breeding October 12th, November 23rd, February 1st. These will be held in The YBKA Normanby Pavilion, Harrogate from 10am until 12 or The sessions are specifically intended to support those wishing to undertake the modular examinations If you are interested in coming along please could you Wendy Graham Crerar, Education Officer. Wendy Maslin, Examinations Officer Graham.Crerar@civica.co.uk beewendi@gmail.com

19 Y.B.K.A. HONEY SHOW at COUNTRYSIDE LIVE Contact Dave Shannon to find out how you, as a YBKA member, can become involved in the Countryside Live event at the Great Yorkshire Showground and.or enter Y.B.K.A. s very own HONEY SHOW Dave Shannon is our Countryside Live Chief Steward and Organiser