Blog – bees, beekeeping & other sticky subjects

Meet Vita this spring

Firstly at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire on 1 March

and then at the BBKA Spring Convention in Shropshire 4-5 April.

Vita Photo Gallery expands to more than 650 photos

Spring inspection

Thanks to Vita Photo Competition entrants, more than 100 new photos have been added to the Vita Photo Gallery bringing the total available for free download for your beekeeping presentations to 656!

It’s free to use for approved purposes:

Photos and images may be downloaded free of charge on condition that they are used only for educational purposes and not for commercial gain or published in any form (including web and newsletter publication). If you have any queries about usage, please contact .

But keep sending them in please! We would especially like photos of beekeeping management. They are usually very difficult to photograph, but very popular with our users.

Lots of people use the resource to learn more about beekeeping. How do you use the Vita Gallery? What would you like to see included? Please tell us!

Tanging doesn’t do it

A cover in the Moir Rare Book Collection http://digital.nls.uk/moir/tanging.html

You could almost hear the groan of disappointment as beekeepers read the latest research on tanging — it doesn’t work!

Tanging is a traditional, if eccentric, way of attracting swarms. The idea is that if you bang pots and pans or other suitably noisy instruments together as a swarm emerges, it will settle quickly and can then be re-hived instead of flying off into the great unknown. Tanging also has the benefit of alerting (and almost certainly annoying) the neighbourhood when a swarm has taken to the air.

Alas, Michael L Smith in the December 2013 issue of IBRA’s Journal of Apicultural Research has trashed the notion in a small study of swarms. He says tanging has no effect.

Beekeepers are distraught! As someone on the Bee_L discussion board noted: “Such noisy antics help us beekeepers to maintain our image of eccentricity”.

But perhaps a little more research is needed, given that some Vita research with its swarm lure has indicated that prime and secondary swarms behave in a different fashion.

There could be hope for tanging yet! Meantime, we suggest that you try Vita swarm lures.

Test Yourself: Beekeeping in the European Union

Insight into European beekeeping is presented in a fascinating article by Marie-Pierre Chauzat et al in PLOS ONE,  the highly respected biology publication. A few questions and answers should show why it’s such a good read:

Which EU country has most colonies?
Spain: almost 2.5 million.

Which EU country has the highest percentage of professional beekeepers?
Kosova: 88%

Which country has the highest yielding colonies?
Finland: 4 tons per 100 colonies

Which country gets most honey for its size?

Hungary: 20 tons per 100km square

Which country exports most honey?
Germany: 20,000 tons per year

Which country imports most honey?
Germany: 90,000 tons per year

Which country produces most Royal Jelly?
France: 7000 kg

Which country produces most queens?
Italy: 350,000

No longer under close observation

Bees gone, just the crud to clear up.

In the end I decided not to attempt to overwinter the bees in the observation hive and they were moved to a nucleus in an out-apiary to see out the winter without prying eyes — assuming the mice don’t try to get in of course.

It is a very small colony, so I’m not sure how they will fare.

And with hundreds of workers gone from the office, there will inevitably be a drop in productivity … How will I ever cope?

First of all I will have to clean out the hive ready for another colony of bees next spring.

You can see a summary of the story of the observation hive in December’s BeeCraft magazine.

Turlough, Vita’s Guest Beekeeper Blogger