Colour in the gardens for bees

February brought the longed-for colour to gardens and fields with spring bulbs in the former and gorse in the latter, writes Ethel Irvine, from Fermanagh Beekeepers' Association (FBA), for her report for February.

Crocuses, daffodils, hellebores, spring heathers and snowdrops are valuable as sources of pollen especially at this time of year as fresh pollen is prized by the bees as they feed the brood in the expanding brood boxes.

This is especially true in Fermanagh where we are mostly small-scale beekeepers, with hives close to our gardens, and the bees do not have to travel far to collect the forage in the still, short days when the temperatures are still hovering in single figures.

It is always a surprise to see them flying at such low temperatures on dull days, but it is one of the characteristics of our native honeybee.

Most of the foragers which we are seeing are bees which were born last autumn and the energy which is stored in their bodies in the fat cells is being depleted, so they are in the last stages of their lives.

This gives another reason why we should make it easier for them by growing as many pollen-producing plants as we can close to our apiaries.                                        

It is not only honeybees which benefit, but also queen bumble bees.

One of our members spotted one in mid-February, but in March hopefully they will be seen in greater numbers.

Beekeepers tend to concentrate on providing pollen sources at this time of year as honeybees prefer fresh pollen to that which may have been stored in the cells over the winter months.

We can easily supply the carbohydrate which they need, but not the fresh pollen.

The carbohydrate should be in the form of fondant at this time of year.

While beekeepers are encouraged by the sight of flying bees, the danger of winter colony loss is not yet past in Fermanagh.

While ‘winter’ bees are coming to the end of their lives, there may not be enough new bees being produced to replace them.

This is a situation we can do nothing about, so we should not be tempted to open our colonies as explained in the January report.

What we have to do is watch the entrances carefully to ascertain which colonies are flying.

Do not expect to see all colonies begin to fly at the same time each day, or in the same numbers – colonies differ, and as Professor Tom Seeley has said, "There are some bees which are lazier than others".

The last meeting of FBA was devoted to what we should or shouldn’t do at this time of year.

It was very interesting to hear opinions from the meeting and from those joining online via Zoom.

The Ulster Beekeepers' Association conference, held at Greenmount Campus of CAFRE, was excellent.

There were lectures on new developments and research into the world of the honeybee, pollinating insects and how to help them, practical beekeeping, lectures devoted to those starting out and a variety of workshops.

It was impossible to attend everything on offer, so hard choices had to be made!

Prof. Lars Chita spoke on the intelligence of the honeybee and the fact that some bee behaviours can be learned, describing the experiments which had been carried out to prove this.

We have all believed that the ‘hive mind’ was the all-controlling factor, but he has shown that the individual bee has an enormous capability to learn by observing other bees, to use simple tools and to solve problems.

Associate Prof. Dalial Freitak’s lecture described her work on vaccinating bees against harmful pathogens by priming the immune system of nurse bees through feeding.

The nurse bees pass on the immunity to the queen as they feed her, and her offspring inherit it via the eggs she lays.

This is my much simplified version of what is a fascinating topic, which Dalial described in great detail.

She also led a very interesting discussion session which she introduced by describing how beekeepers were vilified and accused of being responsible for the world-wide decline in insect life on social media.

Prof. Robert Paxton described how advances in modern technology had advanced the understanding of the range and virulence of viruses in honey bees, deformed wing virus  (DWV) genotype B being of particular impact in temperate regions.

It also affects a variety of other insects.

Varroa mite, its feeding habits, in the cell as it breeds, feeding on the bee larvae and during the phoretic phase on the adult bee, adding to the virus load on an individual bee, is the reason that the more virulent DWV B has become such a problem.

It is thus very important to keep mite loads in a colony at low levels. In a later lecture, he talked of some of the ways of keeping varroa mites low, the drawbacks of (including of the build-up of resistance to) hard chemicals, and the efficacy of other control methods.

In conclusion, he and other researchers believe that breeding from colonies which have low mite loads will provide the solution.

He also gave beekeepers a pat on the back, as he believes that without us, there would be no honey bees!

This is just a flavour of what is to be learned from attending the conference.

It neglects to emphasise the value of the trade stands and the importance of interaction with beekeepers from other parts.

The full report can be accessed at, www.fermanaghbeekeepers.com