DRIFTING


Like drones drifting from colony to colony, we interview beekeepers and ask them to nominate the next to be featured.


Brian P Dennis


Brian P Dennis has kept bees for over 45 years. He is an honorary member of BIBBA (Bee Breeders and Bee Improvers Association), BBKA (British Beekeepers’ Association) and Northamptonshire BKA. He is the author of Good Health & Long Life – Meanderings of a Mead Maker (2011).


How did you get involved with bees?


For some reason that I can’t explain, in my first teaching job I borrowed Bee-Keeping Practice by FS Stuart from the school library. I didn’t understand a word of it, and it didn’t make me want to keep bees. A few years later, I went to beekeeping evening classes with a friend – just to keep her company really – and I quickly became obsessed with bees. At the height of my obsession, I had about 40 colonies but now I keep around 20. I’m embarrassed to admit that I never returned that book to the school library!


What do you do about varroa?


Varroa was first seen in Northampton in 1994. We used to see masses of varroa on hive floors, and some colonies collapsed. I always treated as recommended but colonies soon became re- infested. In recent years, I started seeing fewer varroa and I noticed some of my bees clearing out varroa-affected drone larvae and bees with deformed wings. I began to wonder if my bees were learning to cope with varroa. Then I read Tom Seeley’s books and it convinced me to stop treating and let the bees take their chances. I stopped treating in 2016 and expected heavy losses but haven’t had any so far.


As a former president and chair of Bibba, what is your opinion of imported bees?


I cannot understand why people want to import foreign races of bees. It just doesn’t make sense. A bee that evolved in a Mediterranean climate isn’t going to be suited to the climate of the UK. In my experience, the darker, more native bees do beter here. Although the black bee was assumed no longer to exist, I have collected some swarms of very dark bees over


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the years. I used to test bees using morphometry [measuring wing venation to determine heredity] and one swarm came out as 100% native. I think you can question the accuracy or morphometry, but it did show that the bees were prety close to native.


What is your favourite book?


I have so many books that I keep promising that I won’t buy any more – but it’s very difficult not to! My favourite classic book is The Lore of the Honeybee by Tickner Edwardes. His use of English to evoke beekeeping in a bygone era is beautiful. He too was an advocate of the native British bee, referring to Italian bees as “yellow-skirted invaders”. The practical book that I refer to most is The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Beekeeping by Roger Morse and Ted Hooper (1985).


What are your favourite and worst beekeeping tasks?


Like many beekeepers, I have deep pockets and short arms – I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a new piece of hive equipment. Aſter a long dreary winter, I love geting out on a spring day to work on my brood boxes and supers – filling holes, sanding down, giving them a good coat of preservative and greasing the runners ready for the season ahead. I love doing that.


My worst task is extracting – I’m interested in the bees not the honey. I once leſt the tap open on the extractor and the whole lot went onto our ratan carpet which then had to be thrown away. I was in trouble for a long time because of that!


What is you advice for beginners?


Don’t try to sterilise a polystyrene hive with a blow torch! Perhaps more usefully, I say you should always spend some time with a cup of tea watching your bees at the hive entrance – you can learn a lot from that. And if you can’t sit next to your hive with a cup of tea, you need to get some beter bees!


Hive type? BS National


Smoker fuel? Wood shavings


Next time Brian has asked us to interview Joe and Chris Ibbertson


Bee Craſt April 2020


THIS OR THAT?


Favourite honey? Heather


Favourite speaker? Professor Robert Pickard


Jar or comb? Jar


Run or set? Run


To clip or not? I don’t clip – but I’m not against it


Favourite piece of kit? Easy Bee melter


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