November 2023
At BIBBA’s first conference since COVID, Steve Riley who is well-known for his work in Varroa resistance, spoke on how ideas of how brood patterns can indicate Varroa tolerance have been turned on their heads. While a lot of empty cells can indicate Parasitic Mite Syndrome, he pointed out that a mild pepper-pot pattern might actually indicate varroa-resistance, rather than a poorly mated queen. On the other hand, while we usually see wall-to-wall brood as the output of the perfect queen, it may well be a production line for huge numbers of mites. These ideas fly in the face of what we thought we knew, so if you see these patterns, it might be a good idea to keep a close eye on them to see if Steve’s ideas ring true.
As of 29th September, there have been 60 Asian Hornet nests found in 47 locations in the UK, most of them in the Southeast, with a few along the south coast and a couple in the Northeast. This enormous increase, with far more this year than previous years combined, has let many to fear that they have lost the battle with these predators. The optimists hope that many of these are from hornets that arrived this year – let’s hope that this is the case and that they haven’t established themselves next door. What’s really concerning, though, is that DAFM don’t appear to have reacted to this imminent threat to our beekeeping and our wild pollinators: we need a thorough network of sentinel traps across the country, especially around ports and businesses that could be susceptible to having unwelcome hitchhikers in their products, such as timber yards and garden centres.
This month’s Bee Craft focuses mainly on the Asian Hornet, unsurprisingly, as well as the UK National Honey Show which celebrates its centenary this year from 26th to 28th October. There is a nice article on the history of the event, and I was surprised to read that the current location in Sandown only started in 2016, with the show being held in a range of locations in the London region before that, with no preferred home. Funny enough, the show’s website has an interesting picture of the Irish contingent, presumably the judging team for the event.
This month, the American Bee Journal has a couple of articles on the issue of competition for resources between honey bees and wild bee species. Of course, in the US, honey bees are looked on as an “alien” species. This is a topic that causes some people to see beekeeping as being bad for the environment. An article by M.E.A. McNeill looks at this issue from four aspects: it appears that direct interference is unlikely to be an issue, that competition for forage is sometimes an issue, competition for nesting sites is an issue because of other bees, but not honey bees, and that spread of viruses may be a problem close to hives. From the conclusions, the article is not particularly damning of honey bees.
Another very interesting article by Scott McArt from Cornell University, on the research around this competition looked at the peer-reviewed scientific literature. It turns out that of 102 peer-reviewed articles, a third have found that there was no issue. However, almost half of the studies manipulated the environment and, unsurprisingly, most of these found that there was a problem. The article focused on one particular study from France which was more rigorous than others, although their conclusions were inconclusive. From the discussion, it appears that this topic needs more investigation, so the jury is still out.
Another very interesting article by Scott McArt from Cornell University, on the research around this competition looked at the peer-reviewed scientific literature. It turns out that of 102 peer-reviewed articles, a third have found that there was no issue. However, almost half of the studies manipulated the environment and, unsurprisingly, most of these found that there was a problem. The article focused on one particular study from France which was more rigorous than others, although their conclusions were inconclusive. From the discussion, it appears that this topic needs more investigation, so the jury is still out.
A recent piece of research in the Journal of Applied Ecology by Balfour and Ratnieks entitled “The disproportionate value of ‘weeds’ to pollinators and biodiversity” took a close look at how bees forage on various deliberately sown pollinator-friendly wildflower mixes and the plants designated as Noxious Weeds, ragwort, dock, and thistle, which it is illegal to grow. They compared the numbers of pollinators that visited each group and found that pollinators visited these so-called noxious plants twice as often as the recommended mixes. Similarly, twice as many species visited the evil plants as the good mixes. Clearly this whole banning of native plants needs to be re-evaluated, to help pollinators which are already under threat, and especially the cinnabar moth whose caterpillars enjoy munching on ragwort.
I’ve just come back from a holiday on the island of Corfu, which reminded me of a previous holiday on another Greek island, Crete, where a visit to the museum in Heraklion introduced me to the wonderful pendant of Malia. Malia is a holiday town further down the coast, often full of younger revellers, but it’s also the site of ancient archaeological excavations of ruins from around 1800 BC. This beautiful ancient pendant has two honeybees facing each other and the level of detail is amazing, a testament to the abilities of those ancient artisans who created it.