Editorial and Contents : 3 7 From the Editor
Neonicotinoids year. Colonies are preparing to swarm, hopefully the honey fl ow is in full swing and we are kept busy checking our colonies on a regular (seven-day) basis.
May can be one of the busiest months of the beekeeping 22
Beekeeping in Tanzania and Kenya
30
The Flow™ Hive: 20 Questions
This month will be peak swarming season for many of us. This is a natural part of the colony’s life cycle and some would advocate letting swarms depart from the hive and fi nd new nest sites where they will. Others consider that allowing this to happen is likely to result in a lower honey crop and possible nuisance to neighbours and the general public. I hope that all readers will act responsibly during the swarming season and, if called to collect a swarm, will do so willingly and use the opportunity to inform any spectators about the fascinating honey bee.
COVER:
A beekeeper’s garden. (Photo: Ella Arwyn Jones. May’s winner in our cover photo competition)
Soon we will have to be thinking about extracting supers and the work that this entails. On page 30, we have answers to 20 questions about the Flow™ Hive, the Australian invention that has caught the imagination of people all round the world. Neonicotinoids continue to spark debate among beekeepers. On page 5, there are two apparently contradictory reports about the effect these pesticides have on honey bee colonies. On page 7, Falko Drijfhout describes his work to try to answer some of the outstanding questions – and ends up with even more that are as yet unanswered. In his series on queen rearing, Clive de Bruyn reaches the stage of transferring sealed queen cells into mating nuclei (page 11). Dinah Sweet offers advice on splitting colonies to raise a few new queens (page 24) and Duncan Simmons describes queen rearing on a commercial scale (page 32). Do you keep bees in Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent or Surrey? If so, you can help Liz Samuelson by getting involved in the ‘Bees in the City’ project. Read all about it on page 19. It is good to remember that there are fellow beekeepers around the world. On page 22, Julian Willford gives us an update on the Bees Abroad project in Kenya which has raised the living standards of over 900 families through the introduction of beekeeping. Isn’t it great what a small insect like a honey bee can do?
Claire Waring, Editor
Contents
5 Around the Colony 7 Neonicotinoids Falko Drijfhout
11 Mating Nuclei Clive de Bruyn
16 SmartBees
Katherine E Roberts and Jason Learner
19 Bees in the City Liz Samuelson
20 The Art of NOT Being a Helpless Bystander
Andrea Woolley
22 Beekeeping in Tanzania and Kenya Julian Willford
May 2015 Vol 97 No 5
24 A Simple Method of Making Increase
Dinah Sweet
29 Small Hive Beetle Latest Bee Health Policy, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
30 The Flow™ Hive: 20 Questions Stuart Anderson
32 A Year on a Honey Farm: May Duncan Simmons
35 The Mannequin Colony Andy Bacon
37 Henrietta Goes South The Stoneleigh Shows Committee
38 From the Lab 39 Bee Plant of the Month: Thrift Bridget Beattie
40 Oxalic Acid in the USA Rusty Burlew
41 Book Reviews
Melinda’s Bee-Hive, Volumes 1 and 2 ST Dempster
The Principles of Bee Improvement Jo Widdicombe
42 The ‘B’ Kids 44 Letters to the Editor 45 Classified Advertisements 46 Calendar
www.bee-craft.com
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