2003 will surely linger in the memories of most people as the ‘year with a summer’ and what a summer. How can we forget waking up to glorious sunshine, morning after morning, pouring in through the bedroom window, of birds singing from first light and perhaps the best ever show of butterflies, many of which are still to be seen. Many people experienced worse weather abroad than those of us who stayed at home. It’s the year when farmers harvested their (record) crops a month earlier than they usually do and when our gardens produced an abundance of everything. Yes, 2003 will go down as a record year for beekeepers in this area too, for there are stories of bumper honey crops right across the region. Several people tell me of supers being filled faster than they have ever known before; I have had five supers on one hive in my garden and I’ve heard of someone with five supers on a hive on the moors. After a very early start and then a break for a short period of bad weather our bees, our gardens and the Yorkshire moors have never looked back. Have we ever seen the moors looking so beautiful? There should be more than enough honey to go round this year and to provide the spare required for the family Christmas presents.

It’s also been a bumper year for swarming. My first swarm caught me napping on the 18th of April, very early by anyone’s standards. I had not started to look in the brood boxes at that time, though I had been feeding to get the bees ready for the rape crop. As with all my swarms, they come out and then go back in again for the queen, being clipped, can’t follow them. That meant that I had to set to at once and check all the hives and they were all so full of brood that I was completely taken by surprise at the strength of the colonies. It was not long before I was having to artificially swarm several others. While the honey just kept coming in without any sign of a break, the new queens were very reluctant to mate and I have had two that just became drone layers. It is difficult to understand why when the weather was so good and bees were flying so freely.
I have been very surprised at the large number of swarms I have been called out to deal with elsewhere, several of them in the centre of Stockton. I have taken seven and have passed several on to others to collect. Even more surprising was the fact that several of the ‘wild’ swarms were not carrying any varroa, though others were infested with it. To collect swarms and get them out of the way of the general public is vital and I believe we beekeepers have a responsibility to see it is done and done well. But, in this age of varroa it is expensive, for each swarm must immediately be treated for varroa at a cost of something like £5-00 a time. Up to now I have not charged for collecting swarms but after this years experience I have decided there will be a nominal charge in future.

I also found this year that my bees were reluctant to fully cap the honey, several supers only being ¾ capped after many weeks. It was only at the end of the summer that they capped supers completely but by then much of the earlier honey was in jars. As I use unwired (thin) foundation in all my supers it was an easy job to cut out the unsealed honey before extracting that which was sealed. The unsealed honey is then fed back to the bees in a specially converted super where they make very short work of cleaning out the comb and reducing it almost to dust in no time. This puts the uncapped honey right back into the hives where the bees can once more store it in their supers. It also makes dry, clean wax that can go straight into the solar wax extractor to produce blocks of wax to exchange for (more than enough) new foundation. It must not be forgotten that our bees not only produce lots of honey, they also produce lots of beeswax. I have been convinced for a long time that people do not make sufficient use of the wax produced by bees. I’ve seen recently where old wax has been put into plastic bags, cardboard boxes or just dumped in dustbins and this is a dreadful waste of a very valuable resource. A reliable solar wax extractor and a little bit of thought and effort can produce a very useful product from what starts off as an unsightly, sticky mess.

Well that was the good news, now for the bad. I learned only a week or two ago that varroa mites immune to treatment with Bayvarol and Apistan have been found in the Darlington area. This is a serious problem and one that was bound to happen sooner or later. It is sad that it has arrived in this area so soon after only being discovered in Devon about two years ago. If we are to continue to keep bees we will have to change our approach to the treatment of varroa from now on. A much more integrated control will be required in which several methods are used instead of just using Bavarol or Apistan. Those who have had bees on the moors for the heather may have Apistan or Bayvarol in their hives now they are back home again. Do ensure it is left in for just the recommended six weeks and not a day longer. Remove it after six weeks and throw it in the refuse bin, do not attempt to reuse it. There is little more we can do at this time of the year but I will be giving more details of what to do early next year. One thing you can be doing this winter is to build open mesh floors; one for each hive. There is clear evidence that open wire mesh floors help to reduce the incidence of varroa in a colony. I leave mine on throughout the year and have done so for several years.
To our beginners this may all sound rather daunting, but you can rest assured that varroa has not turned out to cause the death of beekeeping, on the contrary, after an initial period of concern with some beekeepers giving up there is now a new and flourishing interest is the ‘sport’, long may it continue. Beginners in particular should note that Rob Andrews is intending to run his beginners course again this year. It is called ‘Introduction To Beekeeping’ and will be held at Nature’s World, Middlesbrough on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th May 2004. The cost of the course will be £25. Further details can be obtained by contacting Rob Andrews or through this website.

Now, with all the honey removed, is the time to feed sugar. Feed at the rate of one kilo of sugar (1 bag) to 1.2 pints of water. Feed them this until they can take no more. That should set them up for winter and well into spring. Have all feeding completed by the end of September. Reduce the entrances to one beeway to reduce the possibility of robbing and leave them alone until early spring.

What a superb time we had at the summer meetings, though it is such a shame that so few people turned up to them. Just what do we have to do to get people to turn up to the summer meetings? Our hosts go to enormous lengths to arrange an excellent meeting only to find so few folks turn out. If any of you have any ideas of what we can do to make meetings more attractive please let us know.
The weather prevented us getting into Rogers bees but we gathered for a very friendly chat in his workshop and with all his friends there as well we had a wonderful time. A quiz and super refreshments helped to make the night, he now insists we do the same again next year, - thank you Roger.

Thanks must also go to Mark and Gill for they had only been in their new house a short while but still managed to conjure up an excellent evening for us. Finally, last month in Steve and Lynda’s ‘field’ at Bishopton, we saw an excellent layout for an apiary, in amongst trees and well away from people. It’s the sort of layout that lots of folks would give their front teeth for. After a real practical beekeeping session we were entertained to an à la carte menu, in a specially constructed ‘dining room’ no one will readily forget. Thank you Steve and Lynda.

Then, of course, there was the Cleveland Show in July. Once again Bill managed to arrange for excellent weather and the show went without a hitch. The show this year was held in conjunction with YBKA and a good job too, for had it not been for the additional YBKA exhibits our part of the show would have looked very thin indeed. Ian Brown has already asked for more folks to enter next year and as he says it does not require much effort to give your honey an extra filter and what a surprise you get if your entry does win. Thanks go to all the folks who helped on the day, I feel sure many will have gone home with very sore throats after manning the observation hives for so long answering the questions of all the young (and not so young) children.

It’s now time to be looking at what we are going to do next year and Roger Chapple has offered to produce the programme. Before we finally make up our minds, is there anyone with any ideas of what we might do; that ‘thing’ you have always wished we would do but you never get chance to suggest it in time. Now is your chance to be famous don’t be shy.

Last, but by no means least, I feel sure you will all join me in wishing both Kevin Clinton and John Wade a speedy and total recovery from the serious illnesses they have both suffered this summer. We all wish them well and look forward to seeing them again soon at our meetings.

Kindest regards to you all,
Bryan Hateley