Apiary layout

• Sometimes worker bees can spread infection by drifting into one hive from another (drones do pay visits to other hives but not much can be done about this). To try and minimise drifting by the workers, arrange the hives to help bees easily find their own colonies. The entrances should face in different directions and be spaced well apart –  at least 1.2-1.5 metres is recommended. Different colour hives can help too.

Housing swarms and unknown bees

Be wary of swarms. As noted in my previous ‘how to begin beekeeping‘ revision post, they may carry disease. Occasionally they may not even be a swarm in the usual sense – bees from colonies infested with varroa have been known to abscond and find a new nesting area.

• A swarm should be housed away from other colonies at first and monitored for any signs of disease. Keep in isolation until the health of the brood can be assessed.

• It helps the colony if you feed them a weak sugar solution, but wait 48 hours until wax-building and foraging are under way before feeding. This ensures that any disease contaminated honey brought in the bees’ honey stomachs is used as energy for wax secretion and not stored in the frames.

Comb replacing

You wouldn’t lie in the same unwashed stinky bedsheets for several years running…

• Brood frames should be regularly replaced – ideally annually. Nosema spores, bacteria and other pathogens can build up in comb and act as a source of infection. AFB spores are extremely resistant to ageing, heating and chemicals and infection can be carried within comb for as long as thirty-five years (Ted Hooper, Guide to Bees & Honey). 

You can tell when comb is old as it appears dark brown or even black in colour. A good rule of thumb is to hold the frame up to the light; it should be replaced if light cannot be seen through it (Aston & Bucknall, Keeping Healthy Honey Bees). The brood comb below looks pretty old.

In the Ealing apiary we replace all our brood comb each spring, either by doing a shook-swarm or the more gradual Bailey comb exchange. An even more gradual (but not as effective) method is to just replace a few frames each year and colour code your frames using the WYRGB queen marking colour codes to keep track of how old the frames are.

• Money conscious beekeepers can destroy the comb in the frames and boil the woodwork in washing soda solution before reusing. Personally I would rather just pay the 80p or so for a new frame! But then I only have two hives. The comb should be burnt in a bonfire or thrown away in sealed domestic rubbish bags to prevent bees being attracted to the combs and possibly picking up diseases from them.

• The brood boxes should be scorched inside with a blowtorch until the wood begins to singe coffee-brown, paying particular attention to the corners and crevices.

• Super frames with clean unbroken comb which has not had any brood in can be reused for several years. Keeping the super frames saves the bees the effort of rebuilding the wax, letting them get on with honey production. However the frames should be stored carefully to avoid damage by wax moth or mould.

Frame storage

• A good way to store super frames overwinter is to stack outside with a queen excluder on the bottom and another on top as a crown board below the roof. This allows air to circulate whilst keeping out mice and preventing mould. Spiders can get through to control wax moth, which should also be killed off by winter freezes.

• If you are storing brood frames, these are more attractive to wax moths so you need to be more careful. Put the frames in a freezer for 5 days to kill off any hiding moths, then return outside and seal the boxes containing the combs. Sulphur dioxide strips, Certan spray and Acetic acid can be used to sterilise comb and control wax moth.

• PDB (paradichlorbenzene) should not be used to control wax moth as it can accumulate in wax and transfer to honey. Neither should moth balls or any product containing naphthalene as they are poisonous to bees.

(Reference: Module 1 Study Notes, Mid Bucks Beekeeping Association)

What you’re trying to avoid – the slimy mess caused by wax moth larvae travelling through comb, excreting black mess as they feed. Photo from article by London Honey Shop – “Wax moth infestation – 5 ways to prevent this“.

Feeding

• Don’t leave a pile of honey frames out in the middle of the apiary for bees to clean up after your honey extracting. It gets the honey cleared off but it also encourages robbing frenzies and the spread of disease. Only feed bees back their own honey within their own hive, not imported honey or honey from other colonies.

Records

• Keep records of what you’re doing each week, especially after doing treatments. In the UK beekeepers are required by law to keep records of all substances they use to treat honey bee colonies for disease, including: the name of the product/substance used, manufacturer name, lot/batch number, expiry date, rate of application of the product, start and end time of the treatment period, how the treatment and packaging were disposed of. This is in case any concerns are raised about honey or other products from the treated hive.

Emma and I have paper records in the hive, which have the advantage that other people can see what we’ve been doing if we’re away on holiday.  For this year I have purchased a Beecraft ring binder and record card set, which will keep the record cards nicely clean and neat. I like having the blog as an electronic record too, as taking two buses to a dark apiary isn’t too convenient on a cold winter’s evening when I want to remember what I did this time last year.

Does anyone have any hygienic tips they want to share to help me pass my exam? I’d love to hear them.

References:

• Collin’s Beekeeper’s Bible (2010)
• Guide to Bees & Honey, Ted Hooper (2010)
• Keeping Bees and Making Honey, Alison Benjamin & Brian McCallum (2008)
• Keeping Healthy Honey Bees, David Aston & Sally Bucknall (2010)
• Module 1 Study Notes, Mid Bucks Beekeeping Association

Other Module 1 revision posts:

• 1st Honeybee Management revision post: hive types and frame sizes used in the UK
• 2nd Honeybee Management revision post: how to begin beekeeping
• 3rd Honeybee Management revision post: criteria used in selecting apiary sites