The theme of this evening’s meeting was ‘Preparing for Swarming’. Last year the first swarms were reported in April and I have heard of sealed queen cells already being found in colonies.
We were back at Cherrington Village Hall for this meeting in the upstairs gallery. We like the location and, whilst it is not quite as ‘central’ as we would like, are hoping it will become our permanent home for 2nd Monday meetings.
Asian Hornet
The evening started with an update from our Asian Hornet Co-ordinator, Graham Franklin.
The Warwickshire Beekeepers Association Branch AH coordinators are working closely together with the WBKA AH coordinator, Bernard Brown. There is considerable knowledge and experience available on how to monitor and deal with the Asian Hornet. There is a lot of best practise that can be, and is being, shared and there is no need to be reinventing any wheels.
Graham took us through some of the traps that are available, reminding us that at this time of year the aim is to trap, and kill, Asian Hornet queens. The traps included the Gard’apis trap, Vito Pharma trap and something as simple (and cheap, at £1) as a cone with slots of a specific size that screws onto jars. One of our members has indeed 3D printed something similar.
There is also an increasing range of detailed and well presented leaflets that members are encouraged to have and distribute to local notice boards and various groups that may be interested such as gardening clubs and allotment associations. And of course all members should have by now downloaded and installed the Asian Hornet Watch app onto their smartphone.
Asian Hornet ‘verifiers’
We then had a discussion on ‘verifiers’; these are (were) beekeepers who had passed an online test in AH recognition on the BBKA website and who were then prepared to be contacted to visit someone who had caught what they thought might be an Asian Hornet to positively – or otherwise – identify it. The test was necessary for insurance purposes, especially if the member was working as part of an Asian Hornet Action Team (AHAT) supporting nation Bee Unit inspectors looking for AH nests. However the BBKA negotiated a change to their 3rd party liability insurance policy, that covers all Full (and Partner) members, which means that passing the test is no longer needed to be a verifier or a member of an AHAT.
At the moment we only have 4 verifiers registered to Shipston Beekeepers. We need many more so that when the public becomes more aware of the AH and the threat it poses we can respond to members of the public asking for help in identifying insects they have caught believing them to be an AH.
If you would like to become a verifier the online test is still available and a link to it can be found on this page on the BBKA website
https://www.bbka.org.uk/asian-hornet-teams
Or just contact Graham Franklin who can brief you about the role of verifiers.
In summary Graham reminded us that our Asian Hornet priorities are currently:
- Continue to raise awareness in the general public
- We need more members prepared to be verifiers, and
- Putting out traps (now) and monitoring (later in the year)
Preparing for Swarms
When I was a new beekeeper one of the scariest things to find on an inspection was queen cells. Because that’s when I realised I might not have been paying as much attention as I should have in the swarming sessions – who’s Pagden, what’s a Demaree, if only I’d bought a Nuc……
David Blower MB took us through the principles of swarms and swarming so that we all can better understand what is going on, and how to prepare to deal with it. I’m not going to go through the details that David covered because, you know, come to the 2nd Monday meetings, but the headings were:
- Why do bees swarm
- The impact on the colony
- How to control the swarming impulse
- What to look for to see if a colony is preparing to swarm
- Types of queen cells
- Swarm Management principles
Reading a frame challenge….
David also challenged us to work out what was going on in this frame……..
……answers on a postcard to…
Thank-you
We thank Graham and David for taking the time and effort in preparing their talks to us.
We also thank Julia and Paul Neal for doing the refreshments.