Blog – bees, beekeeping & other sticky subjects

26 miles for 3 water tanks

Sebastian blows kisses to his children supporting him at the roadside.

Sebastian Owen, Vita’s Commercial Development Manager, ran a personal best in the London marathon yesterday and in the process raised sufficient funds for three water tanks in Uganda. It was no stroll in a Royal Park though!

Along a route passing many of the great sights of London and urged on by enthusiastic crowds, Sebastian managed to run every stride of the way. That in itself was one of his main targets for the day — to achieve a Personal Best time on top of that made it very special.

“The crowds along the way were superb. Going across Tower Bridge, I think the noise they made caused everyone to increase their speed. And towards the finish line, they were definitely a huge boost as I was flagging, but still determined to run every step of the way without a single walking stride!”

Along the way, Sebastian passed the broadcaster Chris Evans, a chap carrying (and struggling!) with a 36 kg backpack and three extraordinary runners masquerading as the boat out of Toy Story.”

Sebastian has been training for the marathon for almost a year and a few months ago discovered that he was one of the  lucky 30,000 to win a place by charity ballot to run in the London Marathon.

Three men in a boat

Starting off with a fundraising target of £2,000, Sebastian raised a total of £4500 — enough for three water tanks in Uganda to be installed through Mityana a charity based near Vita’s offices in the UK.

It’s not to late to donate and respect Sebastian’s achievement.

You can donate here.

Honeybee bite in action

Honeybee biting a wax moth

Recently Vita’s research revealed the secrets of the honeybee bite and this weekend I saw it in action.

I spotted a wax moth larva trail underneath some brood cappings and “released” the wax moth larva. You can see the wax moth trail that I uncovered in the top right of the photograph.

The waxmoth larva was immediately set upon by a bee which, instead of stinging it, started biting it.

The honeybee bite contains a natural anaesthetic that helps honeybees fend off pests that it cannot effectively sting. Once stunned, the pest can be ejected from the hive.

Vita has a biological control for wax moth: B401.

Turlough
Vita’s Guest Beekeeper Blogger

Secrets of swarming discovered

Now that spring has arrived in the northern hemisphere, swarming looms and Vita swarm lures are being readied for action. But how do those swarms find their way to their new home?

Tom Seeley (author of Honeybee Democracy) has discovered how scout bees direct a swarm to its new home in a fascinating piece of research just published in Bee Craft April 2015.

Question 1: Do pheromones from the nasonov gland guide the swarm to its new home?

Question 2: What are those streaker bees flying rapidly at the top of the swarm?

The answers are fascinating and the research design is rather special.

In short: scents from the nasonov gland seem to help the bees move more quickly to their new home. They arrive there twice as quickly if their nasonov glands aren’t temporarily disabled. But clearly they are not the only guiding factor.

The streaker bees appear to be the guiding lights. They are the scout bees — just 4% of the swarm that actually know where they are going. They fly at the top of the swarm very quickly and pull the “ignorant” bees on to the straight and narrow towards the final destination.  They act almost like a Tour de France peloton, flying speedily at the top of the swarm where they can be clearly seen, then dropping down into the swarm and making their way to the back before launching streaker flights up top again.

The article is well worth reading for the greater detail and for the questions that remain unanswered.

Tale of three apiaries

The nucleus now in a full-sized brood box.

The importance of site location even within a few kilometres has been dramatically demonstrated to me this spring. I have three apiaries — one in a garden in a village and two on agricultural land, four and six kilometres away. Guess which is striding ahead despite being the smallest starter?

It’s been too cold to inspect colonies hives in this area so far this season — quite a contrast to previous years when I could open hives in mid-March — but, from what I can tell, this is the situation:

Apiary 1 in a windy exposed site: they’ve been gobbling food quite quickly according to the hive debris and hive-hefting, but their numbers are low. Nonetheless all seems healthy.

The garden nucleus ten days ago.

Apiary 2 in a sheltered copse: they have plenty of food, not consuming as much as colonies  and seem to be progressing steadily.

Apiary 3 in a sheltered garden with village forage: has rapidly expanded from a nucleus to a full-sized (Langstroth) brood box. And since being given more house-room they seem to have stepped up a further gear!

Turlough, Vita’s Guest Beekeeper Blogger.

The Asian Hornet threat – new video clips

New short video clips released by the UK Animal Plant and Health Agency show the Asian Hornet in action in SW France and the challenges of nest destruction.

The final video from Vita shows Max Watkin demonstrating the Vita Apishield hornet trap to protect individual hives.

Here is an Asian Hornet patrolling or “hawking” a hive (in Andernos-les-Bains, South West France) and then carrying off a honeybee.

A close-up of the Asian Hornet showing its distinctive yellow-tipped legs, orange face, dark brown abdomen and yellow/orange band on the 4th abdominal segment.

And the challenges of finding and destroying nests. The Animal Plant and Health Agency says the destruction was done later than the advised time of dawn to allow filming to take place. A extendable rod enables the nest to be filled with sulphur dioxide to kill the wasps. The nest is then taken down.

The Vita ApiShield protects individual hives. In this Vita video, Max Watkins demonstrates its use: