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Beekeeping - An Introduction - CALU Technical note 040401 (compiled
by CBKA)
Conwy Seed and Honey
Fairs, information for stallholders.
News:
CBKA Honey Show Rules
CSL Advisory Leaflets:
1.
Managing Varroa
2.
Foul Brood recognition & control
3.
Foul Brood statutory procedures
4.
Small Hive Beetle factsheet
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FAQs - Some frequently asked questions……
How many bees are there in a hive?
 | One queen, about 50,000 worker bees in mid summer, and a
few hundred male drones. |
How much honey do they make?
| A hive consumes about 150 pounds of honey in a full year,
plus about 50 pounds of pollen, which the bees feed to the young bees. |
How much honey does the beekeeper get?
| This depends on the weather, the performance of the bees,
and the skill of the beekeeper. We usually expect about 30 pounds of honey
per hive per year, plus an extra 30 pounds if the bees are moved to the oil
seed rape in May or the heather in August. |
What flowers should I grow in my garden to attract bees?
| There are many books that recommend flowers to grow for bees. Some of the
flowers do indeed attract the bees, but they seem to fly over the others –
as we say, they haven’t read the books and so don’t know which flowers
they should be visiting. So, this is a top ten list of flowers which are
grown in a Conwy beekeeper’s garden and which bees definitely visit to
find nectar and pollen. Bees like full sun, so grow them out in the open. |
- Apple blossom
- Ceanothus
- Cotoneaster (cotoneaster horizontalis)
- Crocus
- Heathers – summer and winter
- Hebe
- Poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii)
- Raspberry blossom
- Sedum (sedum spectabile)
- Wallflowers
How many beekeepers are there locally?
| Conwy BKA has about 80 members, from Bangor to Abergele,
and inland to Penmachno. There are also neighbouring associations in
Anglesey, Llyn & Eifion, South Clwyd and Flintshire. A few beekeepers
prefer to keep bees without the support of an Association. Conwy BKA is
affiliated to the Welsh Beekeepers Association. |
What do I need to start beekeeping?
| A National beehive, a colony of bees, a smoker, a hive tool
and a bee suit and gloves. Total cost approx £250, if you get a second hand
hive, but you must blowlamp the old hive clean all over. Burn any old
frames, they may contain spores of Foul Brood Disease, which can only be
destroyed by fire. |
Do you often get stung?
| Not if we can help it! Some bees sting more than others.
Beekeeping is a lot more fun if your bees are gentle. We recommend that you
wear an all in one bee suit and gloves, costing about £100 and well worth
it. We can lend you a bee suit and gloves for use during our apiary
meetings. |
| If you do get stung, you should scratch the sting out of
your skin, to prevent the sting pumping venom. Most beekeepers become immune
to stings within their first season with the bees. |
When is the best time of year to start beekeeping?
| We recommend that you get your bees in May. Then someone
else will have brought them through the winter. |
Where can I learn about beekeeping?
| We hold monthly evening meetings at St David's College near
Llandudno on the last Monday of the month from September 'til April. We meet
outdoors with the bees at the Association apiary at Tal y Cafn on weekend
afternoons, every 3 or 4 weeks from April to August. |
| We highly recommend the CBKA beginners’ beekeeping course
to be held again in 2008/9, starting in September. |
| Courses are also held each year at
Coleg Llysfasi near Ruthin, over three weekends, starting in
April. |
Where can I get my first bees?
What is a swarm?
| Swarming is the bees’ way of increasing the species. When
the hive becomes crowded with bees, the colony raises a new queen, by
feeding a worker grub with royal jelly. The new queen emerges after 15 days. |
| The old queen then flies from the hive, with about half of
the workers. The swarm settles on a bush, wall or tree, while scout bees fly
around looking for a home. At this stage, the swarm can easily be shaken
into an empty hive. |
| The young queen is still in the original hive. She flies
out after a few days to mate with several drones, returns to the hive, and
then starts laying eggs. Thus, one hive becomes two! |
| We can usually let you know of local Swarms
awaiting
collection in May or June. |
What is a nucleus?
| A small stock of bees, 4 or 5 combs of bees on frames, a
young laying queen and a few drones. We recommend a nucleus raised by Arwyn
Davies from Abergele, who is one of our members, and costing about £70. You
supply an empty hive and Arwyn transfers the nuc to your hive. You collect
the hive of bees and build it up into a full stock during the first summer,
adding frames and feeding as required. |
I’ve heard of a beekeeper who’s packing up. Should I
buy his/her bees?
| Yes, but do ask the Seasonal Bee Inspector (Jonathan Garrett, Tel: 01248 361576 or by e-mail at busybees@care4free.net),
to inspect the
bees for disease before moving the hive home, and ask the inspector to
advise on the condition of the hive and combs. |
Should I buy bees from outside the area?
| Not ideal. Locally raised bees will usually
out-perform bees from far away. |
Can I keep bees in my garden?
| Some of our members do keep bees in their garden, but it
helps if the bees can fly out onto open country. Your neighbours will not
enjoy being stung. The hive should face south, to get the early morning
sunshine. |
Why is some honey liquid and some set?
| All honey starts out as a clear liquid. Some honey stays
liquid, and some granulate very quickly, depending on the types of natural
sugars in the honey, eg. Lime honey stays clear for many months and oil seed
rape honey granulates very quickly. |
How do you get the honey out of the comb?
| We spin the combs round in an extractor, 4 or more combs at
a time, and the honey flies out by centrifugal force into the extractor
tank. We then strain the honey through muslin, let it settle for a day or
two, and then bottle it. |
Do you add anything to the honey?
| NO! |
I saw lots of different honey at the Conwy Honey Fair.
How do you know which type is which?
| Only a handful of different flowers produce large
quantities of honey. The first honey of the year is from the sycamore trees
in May, then the lime trees in July, and then we move the hives to the
heather in August. Sometimes, we also move the hives to fields of oil seed
rape in April. Other areas may get honey from clover or borage. |
Do you ever move the bees?
| Yes, we close the hives and strap them tight in the evening
when the flying bees have returned to the hive and then move them in the
back of the car. |
Moving bees in the car, isn’t that dangerous?
| It can be risky, but with practice the moves are usually
fairly trouble-free. |
Don’t they just fly home?
| We move them more than 3 miles and then they don’t fly
home. The old 'dictum' is, less than 3 feet or more than three miles! |
Don’t people disturb the hives?
| Very rarely. We always try to site the hives well away from
footpaths. |
What was this problem with Chinese honey a year or so
ago?
| The EU banned all Chinese honey, because samples were found
to be tainted with antibiotics. Antibiotics are not allowed in foodstuffs,
because they will lose their effectiveness if they join the food chain, i.e..
We’ll become immune to their good effects. |
How did antibiotics find their way into honey? I thought
it was a pure product.
| Chinese beekeepers had fed antibiotics to their bees to try
to treat foul brood. In the UK, foul brood is a notifiable disease and
infected hives have to be burned by the Bee Inspector. |
How many cases of foul brood have been found in the
Conwy BKA area in the last 25 years?
| Just two. In both cases the bees and combs were burned and
the beekeepers were compensated by Bee Diseases Insurance, which is included
in members’ subs. |
Tell me about this mite affecting the bees.
| Varroa mites now affect hives of honeybees throughout the
world. The mites are a parasite living on the bees and on the developing
brood, weakening the colony. There is no cure, but the mites can easily be
controlled. We place medicated strips in the hives for 6 weeks in late
summer, after the honey crop has been removed. |
| The medication kills the mites. If a hive is not treated
the untreated colony will collapse within a year. Bees from other treated
hives will then rob any honey left in the collapsed hive and they will pick
up mites, which then re-infest their treated hive. We treat the hives every
year to keep re-infestation to a minimum. We vary the treatment from year to
year, to prevent the mites becoming resistant. |
How much time do you spend with the bees?
| One hive takes just a few hours work per week from April to
September. The regular checks are: Are the bees healthy? Is there
enough room for egg laying and honey storage? If not, we add another box of
combs. Are they preparing to swarm? Have they got enough food? What flowers
are they working? |
What are the best aspects of beekeeping?
| Working outdoors with nature, producing a valuable
foodstuff, long local history of beekeeping |
| Sharing experiences with others, visiting beekeepers
abroad, studying history of beekeeping, only 6 months work per year. |
Is beekeeping addictive?
| Yes. We have many local beekeepers with 25 years experience
and two with over 50 years. We all look forward to the start of the next
beekeeping season. |
Where can I buy beekeeping equipment?
| Our local stockist is Wynne Jones of Ruthin, who is a
member of this Association. He delivers locally. The Association stocks some
consumable items. |
What are the benefits of joining Conwy BKA?
| See our list of reasons to join. |
OK. You’ve sold me on the idea. How do I join?
| Contact the secretary: Peter
McFadden, "Ynys Goch", Ty’n y Groes, Conwy LL32 8UH. Tel: 01492
650851. E-mail: peter@honeyfair.freeserve.co.uk or
visit our website www.conwybeekeepers.org.uk |
FAQs provided by Peter McFadden & Ruth Bethell.
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