ArchiveMonthly meeting June 2006
On Saturday June 17th, we had the second of our outdoor meetings this year, at Richard & Linda's apiary in Overton. 33 members attended on a glorious day. Richard commenced with a brief report of the previous committee meeting, updating everyone on the progress with the grant application, the new constitution and child protection policy, and a demonstration of the new web site.
Roger then welcomed guest speaker Northern Regional Bee Inspector, Ian Molyneux. Ian is our forthcoming examiner. He gave a most informative and educational step by step tour of the whole basic bee exam syllabus both practical and theory. We started with the reasons for opening a colony. An interesting discussion followed, with a demonstration of lighting the smoker and the various fuels we use. He discussed how to methodically go through a colony emphasizing gentle handling of the bees, and keeping them under control.
This led onto the second part of Ian's talk on Integrated Pest Management. Each separate aspect of IPM for varroa control, such as drone brood pulling, open mesh floors, thymol treatment etc. has poor results compared to pyrethroid treatment, but used collectively as an integrated plan it is now an important part of mite control. He emphasized our responsibility to monitor our varroa levels, and to check for pyrethroid resistance in our own colonies, using VRT kits. Resistance is moving fast and is now on our doorstep having been found recently in Cumbria. After alarming information last month from Cumbria beekeepers regarding Varroa mites resistant to pyrethroids, (Apistan and Bayvarol) having been found for the first time South East of Penrith, this month sees news of a second apiary in Cumbria infected with resistant mites. The location of the new resistant mites is map ref NX91 (10k square) which covers from Parton Bay North of Whitehaven and to the South to just West of Egremont. The mites are naturally developing a resistance and beekeepers should now be adopting alternative control methods (Integrated Pest Management) The clear message is we will not be able to keep using just the pyrethroid strips for much longer. Cumbria beekeepers are proposing to arrange a second IPM day in November 06 in South Lakes. We will all need to refresh our IPM techniques and practices for the future.Ian brought some testing kits with him for our use.
Ian then moved on to the use of organic acids, particularly Oxalic acid, explaining that this is currently an unauthorized medication in the UK, and therefore its use is not currently legal. However, with the emergence of increasing mite resistance, we need new and effective methods to counter the increasing threats to our bees. He gave us a practical demonstration of how it can be used safely by trickling, with low risk to the operator.
He finished his talk by talking about Queen Trapping, Shook Swarm and Artificial Swarm techniques, and gave us some literature & fact-sheets on various aspects of IPM. Roger then gave a vote of thanks to Ian. He commented that it was one of the best technical afternoons he could remember ever having had at a club meeting, a sentiment with which we all agreed. Most of us about to take the exam felt much more confident having listened to Ian's excellent and comprehensive run through the syllabus, and those beekeepers not sitting the exam felt they too benefited from such an informative talk. We are grateful to Ian for the time he has put in to help us. Thanks to Richard & Linda for their hospitality.