And just like that, spring is here, March is over, and the bees are buzzing! In the following month we will (hopefully, please Boris!!) be opening all of our branches to our customers once again. The Scotland branch will be opening on Tuesday 6th April, Rand and Devon on Monday 12th April, and then Stockbridge and Windsor on Tuesday 13^th April.

Following our last newsletter, we had lots of interest in our memory sticks that we offer if you are planning on organising a beekeeping related course. These are still available and are pre-loaded with some useful PDFs and a digital version of our catalogue, perfect for course notes. For more information, contact Rebecca@thorne.co.uk

In house, we are starting to plan our annual BBKA Spring Convention Sale. Even though we will not be attending the event in person, we will still have second quality British cedar frames and hives, and other bargains too! This will be running 10^th to 18^th April.

We are offering 15% off Apivar for the month of April, a perfect time to stock up and plan your integrated pest management for the year.

Apivar (10 strips):  £31 £26.35

 

Asian hornet traps

Spring is the time our beekeeping really gets underway and unfortunately nowadays it is also the time to start monitoring for Asian hornets. This invasive pest has decimated colonies across Europe and has made its way into the UK over the last few years. Early detection is crucial, so by setting up a trap now, you may be helping to prevent huge numbers of queens establishing new colonies in nests that are often hard to reach and dangerous to extinguish.

This monitoring trap by Véto-pharma will help you to keep an eye on whether hornets are visiting your apiary without having to be there all day every day. We use them here at Thornes to make sure we are playing our part in the eradication of this pest.

The trap is easy to set up. Simply add the sachet of attractant to sugar and water and hang it on a tree or other support. Monitor the trap regularly to make sure you are releasing any other insects that may have found their way in. We have not found that it traps honeybees but you may occasionally find moths or European hornets. Leave the trap for three weeks (checking it and releasing other insects regularly), then replace the attractant solution and hang it back up in your apiary.

Asian Hornet Trap – complete with 5 lures:  £6 £4

Lures only for Asian Hornet Trap x 10:  £5 £3

If you think you have seen an Asian hornet, please notify the Great British Non-Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) immediately. In the first instance sightings should be reported through the free Asian Hornet Watch app. Other methods include using the NNSS online notification form. Finally, you can send any suspect sightings to the Non-Native Species email address alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk . Where possible, a photo, the location of the sighting and a description of the insect seen should be included.

 

Equipment Focus – Organic Bee Suit

This month we take a closer look at these organic bee suits. The article below has been written by Martin Kunz, the inventor of the suit.

Some like it hot – beekeepers don’t!

It is a well known fact that if you ask three beekeepers how to treat against Varroa – you’ll get four answers at least. And chances are, that if you ask them whether they consider themselves to be in the forefront of protecting nature – their answer will be a unanimous: Of course. After all: Beekeepers are among those who feel the impact of global warming most directly: Plants flower too early (when there are no bees available for pollination); bees start breeding too early and starve when a late cold spell leaves them without nectar, etc.

But take a closer look, e.g. at the bee suits and what they are made of: Naturally, anyone keen on giving nature a helping hand won’t even consider one made from polyester and EVA: Both are made from fossil fuels (i.e. plastic).

Unfortunately, most suits made from cotton also have significant negative impacts on our environment and that of the bees: “2.4% of the world’s crop land is planted with cotton and yet it accounts for 24% and 11% of the global sales of insecticide and pesticides respectively.”

 

On top of that there is the issue of ventilation: Until now, ventilated suits were only available in plastic (see above). So what can a bee and nature loving beekeeper do?

Fortunately, there is now the first bee friendly ventilated bee suit made from certified organic cotton available, which avoids all the problems outlined above: no pesticides and no fossil and toxic artificial fibres.

But don’t take our word for it. J. Glisson, the vice chair of the Irish Beekeepers Association wrote: “The first thing to note about these suits are that they are fully biodegradable, made from certified organic cotton. How cool is that!
As a beekeeper I am acutely aware of the environment and the effect of pesticides on our pollinators, so already I am feeling warm and fuzzy about this idea, but not so warm and fuzzy that I am happy to be stung. 
So when the Irish temperatures finally reached 17 degrees at 9.30 in the morning, I decided to head out to the apiary for a hot sweaty day at the bees, and give the suit a go.
The first thing that struck me was that I could see. The visor is great quality. No more of that nausea inducing change of focus as you are trying to see eggs through the mesh with glasses on. That alone is a winner for me.
Once I started working with the colonies all my senses were focussed on them, but every now again a random thought went through my mind, where is that breeze coming from? 3 hours later I realised that I was not sweating; the suit was allowing a breeze to come through and keeping me comfortable. Most importantly, I didn’t get stung.”

In the UK the bee friendly bee suits are available exclusively from Thornes. We stock all sizes from small to XXL, click the link below to shop!

Organic All-in-One Bee Suits: £60

For more information on what makes these suits so special please visit www.beefriendlybeesuits.com

 

Ask the Expert

We have yet another guest to our Newsletter this month, the following article has been written by Ulrike Marsky at Vetopharma…

Springtime – Embrace the New Season!

Anticipation builds… As the days become longer and warmer, our curiosity gets the best of us as beekeepers for that inevitable new season visit to the bee yard.  Our mind flooded with questions – “Did they survive? Are they going strong?” and so much more.  It is indeed an exciting time as the initial life-giving saps start to plump up buds in eagerness for a grand and colourful winter emergence.  The new bee year has begun.

After we take notice of our hives, the initial work begins with a yard visual inspection.  Safety first!  They may not be the most stylish facet of our wardrobe but footwear with traction is important.  Soggy grounds may be waiting to greet us as well as obstacles such as fallen tree branches or slick grasses. Attentive ground maintenance, while wearing a veil, and having a smoker lit in the background for safety, are the essentials.

Take heed and observe your hives.  Do you see activity in all of them or are there some doorsteps that are quiet?  Many times, the quiet hive has a plethora of activity within, unsuspecting to us, as we quickly pry off open the cover to satisfy our curiosities! Now that we know the life condition of our apiary, it is time to delve in and aid our bees in what they are doing best.

• Inspect each hive quickly, looking for life
• Look for animal visitation signs near or around the hives
• Notice the location and size of the cluster and check for adequate food reserves
  • Lifting (tilting) the back of the hive can be a good indicator on resource amount
• Scrape and clean bottom boards from overwintered debris
• Straiten or level hives as needed
• Take note of equipment condition and make a note to replace or repair for the next visit
• Think about future hive expansion space (for those splits or swarms)
• Physically remove dead-outs

The initial inspection is simple, giving us a gauge on what to expect in the near coming weeks. Feeding our bees a 2:1 (water:sugar) syrup will stimulate brood rearing under the right warm spring conditions and will reduce starvation.  Even though pollen and light nectar may be coming in, the spring build-up can cease due to starvation and lack of nutrition as carbohydrate and protein resources are in high internal demand to build up the future army of foragers. Unexpected frost might be lurking around the corner, too. This is the “spring turnover” when a new generation of bees replaces the “survivor bees” that held down the fort during winter or extended pollen dearth.

As the temperatures become warmer and more extended, our hives will require a full colony inspection: 

• Open the hive and look for the cluster location, note the size
• Move the frames and centre the brood chamber allowing for expansion on outside frames
• Examine overall bee health looking for pearly white larvae floating on pillow of white pristine jelly
• Notice the amount of eggs, up-capped brood, and examine the wax caps of capped brood (no piercings)
• Note the amount of resources, feed as needed
• Do a varroa mite monitoring (sugar shake, alcohol wash or CO₂ injection) for documentation and benchmark purposes (or use sticky boards!)
• If varroa mite counts are at or above threshold consider an early spring treatment, such as Apivar, to reduce initial mite load numbers encouraging a healthy foraging season – keep in mind that mite numbers will build up, as the bee brood builds up

 

The foundation of a successful bee year starts with bee health and giving our honey bees the opportunity to expand and prepare for the honey season ahead.  These initial inspections and simple husbandry techniques will begin leading the way for more intensive inspections, prolific population growth, and perhaps a robust honey harvest.  As beekeepers, each year starts with a routine but soon those set of tasks change meeting the needs of each and every one of our hives.  We learn, experience, and have a new adventure each visit.  It may cause us to reminisce that today is like year’s past, but we can never predict – such as that upcoming unexpected swarm……  Happy Beekeeping. 

 

Blog

This month we have been focusing on preparing the bees for the active season ahead. We’ve checked again for stores to make sure they have enough to go into spring, adding HiveAlive fondant this time to any that looked like they might need a bit more. This is a really useful patty in that it is nice and thin so it can sit under the crownboard on top of the frames without needing to be squashed down. The protein patties we put on the hives in February seem to have gone down a storm as well with the bees munching their way through them, as you can see in this photo.

We have also been preparing ourselves and the apiary for the next few months by putting out any extra equipment we have in anticipation of doing artificial swarms. This means when we have to carry out tasks like this, we don’t have to go searching for equipment in the cabin, we will have it to hand right there in the apiary.

All the hives have been graded, depending on how many bees it looks like the colony has so far. At this time of year, of course, we don’t lift out frames and go through the hive as it is too cold and it would perhaps do more harm than good. All we do is: one person hefts the hive whilst the other person looks underneath and quickly counts how many frames are covered with bees. This also gives us a chance to clear the floor of debris and make sure the entrance is clear. Each hive is then allocated a colour code so that we can monitor their progress over the coming months. The aim is to go from red to yellow to green!

As an aside, we also found a whole heap of these little critters hiding up in the roof! We love being able to be outside with the bees and all this other wildlife that we come across during our inspections.

We are really looking forward to getting going with the bees this month, albeit with a sense of trepidation about what the season will bring. Fingers crossed for some good weather, healthy colonies and successful queen rearing.

 

Review - Smoker boxes

Make sure you check out this review from the wonderful Gruffydd at Gwenyn Gruffydd! He looks at both of the smoker boxes we sell, and tells us what he thinks of them. 

 

BBKA Press Release

This month we have decided to include a recent press release from the BBKA regarding the importation of package bees into mainland UK via Northern Ireland.  We have never made a secret that we believe bees bred in the UK are better suited for the majority of British beekeepers – in fact the last time Thornes imported package bees was in the 1960s.  All nucs and packages that we supply are British bees with British bred queens

British Beekeepers Press release March 2021   HONEY BEES THREATENED BY TRADE LAWS BEING FLOUTED. We need Your Help There is intention to bring bees into the UK via Northern Ireland. This is to circumvent the law that prohibits Package bees, Nuclei and Colonies entering the UK and is a result of a loophole allowing direct entry into Northern Ireland from the European Union and free access to the UK. Bee imports into Northern Ireland were minimal, therefore there is not a strong inspection service available. If honey bees are imported to Great Britain via Northern Ireland, the NI inspection service would be challenged to inspect the high numbers of packages and the risk is that uninspected colonies will then be shipped into Great Britain. Historically, most packages of bees have come from Southern Italy. These were largely imported and subsequently distributed around the UK by a small number of companies which are based in England and Scotland. The Small Hive Beetle Aethina tumida  has been endemic in Southern Italy since 2014, and although there are restrictions on the export of bees from the infested regions, those regions where the package bees are sourced are relatively close to these infested areas.  All imports are recognised by the UK government as presenting a risk to the health of bees within Great Britain which is why there was a rigorous inspection routine until December 2020. Were SHB to be imported into Great Britain, the risks to the bee population would be very great. These beetles can multiply to huge numbers within infested colonies, The beetle larvae, that look similar to maggots, eat brood, honey and pollen, destroying combs and causing fermentation and spoiling of the honey. If beetle infestations are uncontrolled, they ultimately destroy the colony. Bee diseases such as the foul broods and the Varroa mite were introduced through importing bees and these have caused immense damage and thousands of colonies have been being destroyed. Varroa is now endemic and the SHB will establish quickly if it arrives and cause even more devastation. The BBKA has set up a Parliamentary Petition: Stop the importation of honey bees into GB from the EU via Northern Ireland Please share the link  https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/577603   Anne Rowberry BBKA Chair

 

Bees for development

We thank all of you Thornes' customers for giving your super support for our work.  We are now seeking your donations to help beekeepers near to Digya National Park in Ghana.  Covid-19 has had the unexpected consequence of making people return to rural areas as urban employment disappears.   This means increased numbers of people in rural areas needing feasible ways to create income - and beekeeping fits the bill.

Bees and bee forage are plentiful here, and with your funds, we will be able to train at least 200 people to become good beekeepers, and we will provide a centre for them to trade their honey and beeswax.

We are delighted to announce that this vital work has been accepted by The Big Give's Emergency Green Match Fund.  This means that during the week beginning Thursday 22 April, every donation will be doubled.  Please give generously to help people now - their beekeeping will help to retain this natural forest environment for ever. http://link.beesfd.org/greenmatch

Nicola and the team at Bees for Development

 

Win perfect plants for pollinators

You* can win plants for you, for bees and many types of pollinator in our free-to-enter Spring Draw. Choose from a range of flowering plants to a value of £100, which will be provided by specialist growers Bee Happy Plants.

Go to https://beesfordevelopment.org/win-plants-for-pollinators/ for your chance to win. Good luck!

* Sorry - plants can be sent only to winners in UK.

 

HONEY SHOW

 

Register Now!

For The BBKA Spring Convention, 15^th – 18^th April: A ‘virtual’ armchair event 

Just around the corner! The 43^rd BBKA Spring Convention, Evening of Thursday 15^th – Sunday 18^th April.  With over twenty practical and scientific presentations, attendees should find the mix of speakers and their topics every bit as broad, interesting and relevant as usual, whatever their experience of bees and beekeeping.  Highlights will include the George Knights Memorial lecture, ‘How honey bees use genetics to solve their problems and what we can learn from it’, given by Prof. Keith Delaplane on Saturday 17 April.  There are more social events planned too, including ‘Locked Down’ with Bill Turnbull on Friday evening and the Jimmy Doherty Interviews, plus the Bees-A-Buzzing quiz final, on Saturday.  The full programme can now be downloaded from the Spring Convention pages of www.bbka.org.uk.

Registration is needed to take part, but free-to-view content includes a Keynote Address by Dr David Aston, 7.30pm, Thursday 15 April, plus Beacon School presentations on Sunday at 15.30.  Access to the Market Place, for your favourite beekeeping equipment suppliers (Thorne included) and other exhibitors, is also free of charge. 

Paid registration is needed to watch all live content (presentations, Q&A etc) and to view content later, on demand.  In advance, this costs £10.00 (£12.00 on-the-day). Complimentary registration is available for BBKA Junior and School members.  Further Information at www.bbka.org.uk/Pages/Category/about-spring-convention and register now at www.springconvention.bbka.org.uk. Please use the SAME e-mail address for access thereafter. 

A great event, not to be missed, which this year comes to you!  Best viewed on a full-sized screen, but available on phones and tablets too…… 

Upcoming events

Remote Wax Conversion and Straight Swap service             Throughout April

Thorne of Scotland re-opens                                                  6^th April

BBKA Convention Sale                                                            April 10^th – 18^th

Rand & Devon branches re-open                                           12^th April

Windsor & Stockbridge branches re-open                             13^th April

 

Branches Spring Opening Times

Rand: Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 12pm

Windsor: Tuesday – Friday 10am to 5pm

Scotland: Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 12pm

Stockbridge: Tuesday – Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 4pm

Devon: Monday – Saturday 10am to 5pm