Apiary News & Book Reviews.

I’ve had another small harvest of pale-yellow honey that might be from phacelia across the river where it’s being grown again this year as a green manure. The vibrant purple pollen on the brood frames and bottom board is a give-away. The honey is a delicate sweet one with a floral/confectionery fragrance, and a taste which reminded me of Parma violet sweeties, if anyone remembers them?

Did I tell you that I down-sized and gave up the wonderful out-apiary near the river? Well, it is going to make beekeeping a lot easier for me, and my friends who no longer need to give me lifts across with all the equipment one must carry to an out-apiary. I plan on keeping six colonies at home.

Varroa.

The swarms that I caught at the local distillery and merged need another varroa treatment as the alcohol wash test last week revealed 14 mites/300 bees. I’d trickled oxalic acid during the broodless period, but this week I removed the honey super and applied a tin of Apiguard as it is still warm enough for that to be effective. What to do with the nearly, but not quite fully capped super of cut comb? I was tempted to leave treatment another week or so but decided to get it started now to better protect the winter bees. I also decided to try out a new tip posted recently on the Beelistener Facebook page by respected beekeeper and friend, David Morland.

Since we have no varroa treatments in the UK that we are permitted to use with honey supers in place, this must be a dilemma for a lot of other beekeepers too. David says that, contrary to what one might think, if you place a super full of bees on top of another colony’s super, they will not fight. I know what you are going to say, I risked the letting other colony getting more varroa! Well, maybe so, and I might regret not using a clearer board but the super was too heavy to lift by myself and sometimes you have to compromise, There was no trouble between the bees. I put my ear to the super several times during yesterday and all was quiet and normal.

Torrential Rain.

It’s been pleasantly warm and dry for most of the week, apart from Monday when a terrific electrical storm ripped apart the sky and made the loudest crashing I’ve heard since we lived in Hong Kong. A house in Aviemore was hit by lightning and burnt to the ground which was quite shocking.

This photo of Jane in her apiary was the last picture I took before I lost my camera. We were uniting a couple of her colonies and feeding dry sugar, moistened with a little water to discourage robbing, to a nuc.

A week later I’m looking for my camera and realise it’s nowhere to be found. I search everywhere; absolutely everywhere, the bee shed, the garage, the fridge, just in case!! I have a bit of a panic. Regular readers may remember I left it out on Dava moor overnight a few years ago when I got sidetracked by finding some unusual plants.

Jane was in the south but Cynthia volunteered to drive me to the farm since I wouldn’t be able to drive myself there until the weekend when Linton would be home with our vehicle. We drove through the recently mown clover field and up the hill, but not quite as far as Jane’s parking spot to avoid running the camera over, if it was there on the ground. I had an idea that the camera might have fallen out of my pocket as I climbed the fence and helped Jane pack the car with hive parts.  Sure enough, there it was on the tracks in it’s double-layered, but not waterproof, pink bag. I was so relieved to find it unharmed by the rain. Cynthia gave me a spare waterproof camera cover of hers which is kind and I hope never to mislay it again. That’s what I said last time!

Once I extracted the honey, the rest of the week has been restful sitting in the garden reviewing books for Northern Bee Books, and I want to share a couple with you today.

BBC World Service.

Last Friday, the BBC World Service programme I mentioned in a previous blog aired. I’m on around the 36 min mark if you want to hear how I handled the question about how many plants there might be in a jar of supermarket honey. The only disappointment was that they cut my advice to buy honey from a local beekeeper. But, as my friends say, at least it got them talking about honey fraud. Click on the link and go to BBC Sounds and scroll down till you reach, Unexpected Elements “Let The Eat Crab” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5q24 _

Book Reviews.

Title: Honeybees, a natural and a less natural history

Author: Jacques van Alphen

Publisher: Northern Bee Books, 2024

ISBN: 978-1-914934-83-4

Softback, 149 pages

Cost: £22

Available: Northern Bee Books and other good book stores.

Evolutionary biologist and Emeritus Professor Jacques van Alphen wrote Honeybees, a natural and a less natural history primarily to help non-biologist understand the complicated nature of the social behaviour of honey bees. In particular, he hopes that beekeepers might have a better understanding of how unmanaged honey bees thrive in in the wild, and be better informed and enabled to improve their management practices in ways that are “healthier and more respectful of bees”. van Alphen’s study area has been varroa and the fight against it, and he is mindful that, although our knowledge of bee behaviour, ecology, genetics, and evolution has vastly increased due to scientific endeavour, not much has really changed in the beekeeping world to reflect this. At least, not in many countries including the UK. He showcases South Africa as a country that has dealt with varroa in such a way that it is not a problem, and they have never used chemical treatments.

There are 26 short chapters with a recommended reading list and references at the end of each which increases the value of this work. An index is to be found at the end, and there are several illustrations and a couple of useful explanatory diagrams.

This is a fascinating read, and one learns so much from each of the essays which explain important complicated topics such as honey bee genetics, and the pitfalls of instrumental insemination and isolated mating apiaries in such an easy-to-understand lucid way. I now understand completely a topic that has puzzled me for years; why does the old queen leave in a primary swarm (in most situations)? A new queen brings new alleles to a colony that can cancel out, through evolution, pathogen adaption and increased virulence of diseases. So, a colony that is allowed to swarm is going to be healthier, and not just because of the brood break reducing varroa reproduction.

van Alphen encapsulates health, disease, and nearly every other challenge in modern beekeeping in his discussions. He tells interesting stories and explains problems in sociobiological terms weaving in some geography and social history. For example, we learn the origins of varroa and exactly how it became such a global problem. The varroa lifecycle is explained in simple terms which will resonate with beekeepers not wanting to delve too deeply into the biology of this arachnid.

The work of many other important scientists such as Seeley, Spivak, Harbro, Harris, and Mondet have been drawn upon to help inform the science behind all the recommendations for beekeeping.

Topics close to many beekeeping hearts such as promoting native dark Apis mellifera mellifera honey bees, and whether beekeepers cause a threat to the biodiversity of other pollinators are discussed from an unemotive scientific perspective.

Honeybees, a natural and a less natural history achieves its goals and will be of great interest to many readers. It will be an important publication for every beekeeper wanting to progress and utilise all the available scientific research and make changes in beekeeping management based on van Alphen’s advice.

Another Engaging Read.

Title: The Golden Age of Beekeeping

Author: Peter Loring Borst

Publisher: Northern Bee Books, 2024

Softback, 234 pages

ISBN: 978-1-914934-82-7

Cost: £27

Available: Northern Bee Books and other good bookshops

The Golden Age of Beekeeping is a fascinating history of beekeeping in the USA from the early pioneering days to the modern beekeeping world of the 20^th Century. Author Peter Borst has done a thorough job of researching and selecting detailed information, and presenting it in a very readable way. Borst lives in Upstate New York and has had a long professional career in beekeeping, and contributes to various beekeeping journals, including the American Bee Journal, on a regular basis. Some of this work has already been published separately in magazine articles, which have been seamlessly woven into this history to flow fluently as a story of the development of beekeeping primarily in the US, but Borst touches briefly on Central and South American beekeeping.

There are 21 chapters with a useful reference list at the end of each one. Throughout the book there are old photographs, advertisements, newspaper articles, and quotations from famous beekeepers to give substance to the stories.

We learn how the early settlers obtained honey from chopping down bee trees before they started managing bees in straw skeps. There is a chapter on Langstroth who was one of the most influential beekeepers in American history at a time when new inventions were gathering momentum and the patent wars began. As beekeepers moved away from skep beekeeping, designing the ideal hive was key and many different types were invented and tried out in those early days. The Harbison hive, for example, was designed with a back opening similar to the Slovenian hives of today.

The Harbison brothers were the real entrepreneurs of their day, which was the Californian gold rush days of 1848-49. They knew that most of the real money to be made was by supplying provisions etc to the gold prospectors and diggers. So, they move south to California. They revolutionised honey by using extractors and producing liquid honey which quickly gained popularity over comb honey. They shipped train-loads of sage honey back East and influenced agriculture in the fertile Central Valley of California. Farmers at the time lacked knowledge around pollination and thought that honey bees were bad for their crops. It is intriguing to consider how beekeeping influenced both social change and agriculture.

Every aspect of beekeeping history is explored from the early scientific discoveries of the late 1800’s, with contributions from Riley and Benton, to the literature and development of journals and conferences to share early science-based information.
Did you know that large scale beekeeping was first practiced by the early Egyptians? We discover how the new motorised vehicle designs of the early 1900’s facilitated moving bees on a large scale and contributed to the development of commercial beekeeping in the US.
Women beekeepers feature in this beekeeping history. We read about colourful characters such as Ellen Tupper who was a great champion for women in beekeeping though not always accurate in her facts, and prone to making false claims.

The Golden Age of Beekeeping should be on the recommended reading list of every Master Beekeeper Course in the US. It is an important book for beekeepers interested in the heritage of their vocation, or avocation, especially those in the US. However, anyone interested in beekeeping and history will enjoy it as it provides a marvellous insight into our past, and how we arrived at the present state of beekeeping in the 21^st Century.