I shall not be with you for the December meeting as we are going away for a few days, so I am having to make an early start on this Newsletter. It’s not yet the end of November but we have already experienced two or three nights of severe frost and very strong winds. The ground is covered with fallen leaves and birds are having a wonderful time ferreting among them all. The berries are disappearing very fast off the hawthorne, cotoneaster and whitebeam; it’s a laugh to watch their antics as birds endeavour to gather berries from the ends of the branches. But those same birds that make us laugh also cause havoc with our bees when they come out to fly on mild days. I have watched members of the tit family flying to catch bees as they appear at the hive entrance. Just how many they catch and whether it has a dramatic effect on the bee population I shall never know. Once again I have poked thin sticks into the ground in front of each hive to break up the birds flight path, so they have to wait now for the bees to throw out any dead and just pick them off the ground. The dead bees are never on the ground for long and must provide our birds with additional protein in the winter-time. There’s still a lot of winter weather yet to come and on mild days our bees will be making many more cleansing flights during that time, so make it just that little easier for them to get out and back again by preventing birds from taking bees too readily.

What an interesting meeting we had last month. Several people took part if only to comment on the items being shown. It was a clear indication of just how inventive beekeepers can be. The evening started with a modified wheel barrow which is used to transport a hive to where-ever Unal wishes to take it. Fitting it with a larger wheel makes it so much easier to negotiate rough terrain and the fact that it will fit into his car is an added bonus. Moving hives single handed over rough ground is never easy and a task not to be undertaken lightly, for if we get stuck there is very rarely anyone on hand to help, but Unal’s device must be very useful at such times. Since it’s roughly the same height as his hive stands there is little lifting to do.
Then there was John and Unal’s nucleus hives with the ‘slide out’ base used for uniting colonies over a sheet of newspaper. No need to shake bees or even disturb them as they are united to another colony - an excellent idea. The lightweight, folding nucleus hives made of ‘plastic’ created considerable interest - if ever swarms are in awkward places, and they often are, such boxes will make it so much easier to collect the bees than having to use a relatively heavy wooden box.
Of course Philip’s black plastic bin liner is a perfect device for knocking swarms into, particularly if fitted with a ring to hold it open - I’ve used one myself attached to the end of a long pole to knock bees out of a tree; I don’t climb trees for swarms any more.
And then there was Philip and Kevin’s deep ‘plastic’ hive lids used to cover hives almost completely during the winter. They’re lightweight and stackable one inside the other when not in use. The inside of the top is lined with 50mm of polystyrene to keep out the cold. If only I had known about them all those years ago when I made my wooden ones. I must have been wooden myself for I never thought to make mine stackable to save space during the summer. I keep telling myself that I will modify them but it’s the old ‘roundtuit’ job.
Then to round off the night Roger held his ‘sale’ of old equipment. It raised about £16.00 for association funds for which we must thank Peter Gale who donated the gear in the first place.
Philip also announced that we still have one copy of Ted Hoopers Guide to bees and Honey for sale at the reduced price of £10-00. It is still available if anyone wishes to buy it - probably one of the best books for beginners, and long term beekeepers, ever written.

We have just about managed to overcome the worst ravages of Varroa, though I am convinced that we are not out of the wood yet, when we learn of another and potentially more damaging threat from the Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida). It is a serious pest of the honeybee and once in an apiary spreads very quickly. It consumes larvae, honey and pollen and totally destroys the honey comb. The larvae of the beetle crawl out of the hive in hundreds and pupate in the ground preferring soft sandy soils. The adult beetle fly's upwards of 10Km from the apiary to infect other bees. Up to the present there have been no sightings of the beetle in this country but, just as with Varroa, it will come in time. We beekeepers must keep a lookout for it, and just as with Varroa once it’s here we will not eradicate it, we will only control it to below damaging population levels. It is clearly visible in the hive being about a third the size of a worker bee, some 6mm long and 4mm wide and brown/black in colour. They have club shaped antenna and shortened wings that do not reach right to the rear of their abdomen. We will probably notice the larvae first for they are about 12mm long and gather in enormous numbers on the face of the comb. The main danger of infection is from imported bees from Europe where the beetle has now been found, for many European beekeepers are still importing bees from Australia where the beetle is rife. Most of you should already have a copy of the DEFRA/NBU booklet ‘The Small Hive Beetle’ but if you haven’t please see me, I have one or two spare and can obtain more. It’s during the coming cold winter nights that we should be reading and understanding our bee books so as to be ready for the events of the year ahead. If you even think you may have the beetle in your hives do not hesitate to be in touch.

And in a not too dissimilar vein, I have now received a reply from our local MP Mr. Frank Cook regarding the proposed reduction in funding for the National Bee Unit. He says that "bees have not, to the best of my recollection, landed in my in tray in twenty one years as an M.P. but now they have, I do not minimise the importance of this matter". He has passed my letter direct to Lord Whitty, the Parliamentary Secretary in the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs and asked for a reply. So ‘watch this space’.

Well, since writing that I have received another letter from Mr. Frank Cook enclosing a copy of a letter to him from DEFRA in which they say "Your letter is being dealt with at present and a full reply will be sent to you as soon as possible". So once more ‘watch this space’.

Kevin tells me that he will be bringing the Bulk Buy order forms for the Wax Foundation and Jars this month. Will you please complete and return them by 31st of January 2005 at the latest. Late returned forms cannot be considered.

The annual ‘get-together’ of Richmond, Newcastle, Durham, Weardale, Hexham and Cleveland Beekeepers was held last night (1st of December) at Houghall College and what a magnificent turnout we had. There was the usual light hearted quiz, once again run by Judy Wilkinson, and I give you only one guess as to who won it again for the second year running. The quiz may be ‘light hearted’ but it does help many beekeepers by pointing out to them things they may not normally think about. The other big ‘plus’ is that it gets people together once a year in a spirit of friendship to discuss various topics that affect them locally. There’s little doubt that the main topic people talked to me about was the proposed cuts in the NBU budget. Clearly people see very little of the NBU inspectors now, we will see even less of them if this proposal is allowed to go ahead. But it was a super evening spent with friends we may only see once a year. Thank you Durham BKA for arranging it, Ian and Pat Copinger for preparing the copious quantities of food and Judy for spending so much time preparing the quiz. Mark December the 7th 2005 in your diary for the next get-together.

Finally, several of you asked me to find out where we can obtain the Nassenheider Evaporators for use with formic acid for the treatment of Varroa. As far as I can make out there is non available in this country, but I have managed to locate the German manufacturer and I feel we could order some from there. They seem to be considerably cheaper, at about £3-00 each, than the ones I bought recently. If there’s sufficient interest I feel we could send for some.

Kindest regards to you all,
Bryan Hateley