The day was divided into two sessions, one for beginners and beekeepers with less than 2 years’ experience and the second for improvers and those preparing for the BBKA Basic Assessment. The programme was built around the following topics:
Beginners
The aims were:
To carry out a safe, efficient inspection with confidence, to recognise the signs of swarm preparation and actions to take. Finding a queen, practice good apiary hygiene procedures. We also covered lighting the smoker and keeping it alight, basic inspections, hive tool handling, use of smoke, keeping the colony under control, reading the colony, the countdown to swarming and the logic of swarm prevention and control. The dangers of varroa were discussed and drone brood uncapping demonstrated.
Despite torrential rain showers and the threat of thunderstorms which unsettled the bees, the session went smoothly, and the objectives achieved.
Improvers
The aims of this session were:
To carry out an efficient health inspection, know what healthy brood looks like, describe brood & adult bee diseases, methods of varroa IPM and treatment, understand the countdown to swarming and take appropriate action.
The bees were becoming increasingly agitated due to the weather and the sudden interruption of the summer nectar flow, but the objectives were achieved. One colony was found to have some evidence of chalk brood and one or two examples of Deformed Wing Virus were noted. The signs of all the main adult and brood diseases were described, and the recommended treatments discussed. A Pagden artificial swarm was carried out and the Heddon Variant was explained. The technique of obtaining drawn comb in a flow was observed. IPM by drone brood uncapping and drone brood sacrifice were seen as well as counting the drop on the varroa board, sugar roll and alcohol wash, and calculating the percentage infestation using the NBU calculator.
Conclusions
It is useful to divide into two groups with different levels of experience.
Rain can be dealt with but stormy conditions and interruption in the nectar flow are unsettling for the bees with the risk of grumpiness, even in the calmest of colonies.
A plan B is always a good idea to ensure that the time isn’t wasted. e.g. what to do if you can’t find the queen and the bees are becoming defensive but you still need to carry out swarm control.
Recommendations
- A series of coaching sessions throughout the season with a structured programme of activities, perhaps based on the Basic Assessment syllabus, would be beneficial for improving the general standard of beekeeping in the Association.
- Higher level sessions could also benefit and encourage those wishing to progress further to the General Husbandry Assessment or doing the Modules.
- Other sessions for volunteers to become mentors would help both the mentors and the mentees benefit from their work together.
Alan Baxter
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