Wax moth is a consistent and vexing problem

Some sources quote Galleria mellonela as the wax moth. Comparing photos with the moths on the comb, Achroia grisella is a closer physical match.

"Wax moth is a consistent and vexing problem in stored comb; the rate of moth development in a stack of stored supers rivals the imagination! "

Quote from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beekeeping/Wax_Moth, pic from http://www.uniprot.org/taxonomy/7137

Moth disaster photos

And see the rest of the gory mess on the web (last few pics).

_____Diary of an_____ Incompetent Beekeeper

Failed hive: the culprit...

Over the weekend I took the failed hive apart, comb by comb... and the culprit was Achroia grisella, or wax moth. [OK, the real culprit was my incompetence, but let's skip daintily onwards...]

The infestation was truly total. Oddly, despite killing off the colony, there was not a single dead bee in the hive. Had the bees flown back to the original hive (this was a shook swarm), or had they chosen not to return to the hive and died elsewhere?

The combs were *covered* in fine filaments, forming a dense, cottony network supporting the cocoons and that (I guess) bees cannot navigate. The whole hive had an intensely perfumed, almost headily sweet, smell.

Good info at http://www.honeybeelab.com/wiki/Fact_Sheet:Wax_moth_control_in_bee_hives and at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_wax_moth

Pic from http://www.vc66.co.uk/mothweb/bnf1.htm, run by James Duffie

Beehaus & caravan accessories

A new version of Beehaus has been launched. It's a pity that it looks like a 1970s caravan accessory.

In my view, Beehaus is a good idea, because (a) it promotes beekeeping and (b) hive design has been static for years, and Beehaus may move it onwards. The basic design changes in Beehaus are (1)rectangular boxes of five frames each, which allows incremental expansion, and (2) full-depth division board to allow two hives on the same stand.

I use WBC hives - the ones with the sloping sides - probably the worst and most annoying. If I'm feeling flush, I might buy a Beehaus one day to try it out.

More details from http://www.omlet.co.uk/, and that's the photo source, too.

World News

Bee photos...

Found these excellent shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nautipuss/show/.

Yet another excellent bee blog

Try out http://muratakin26.blogspot.com/

I am embarrassed even more than usual to say that the language is entirely foreign to me; I'm guessing at Turkish...

I often intend to post explanatory pictures about the techniques of beekeeping, but the pictures on http://muratakin26.blogspot.com are waaaaay better than I could hope to produce.

Top-bar hive: diary of a novice beekeeper

I particularly like this blog, for its incompetent sub-text... "So I have built the top bar hive to his design + a few deliberate changes and few inadvertant modifications."

Visit http://novice-beekeeper.blogspot.com/

Great photos, and here's an example: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN1PTq_p-IF3GEuCOTJ7vETtmOimPIPEe8aaam1KzjhFMQ6qJZNtTF84uOKuR51pay7zuzNJqIKX_46LVO3ovEfIo1v_N2z9eqU_gO6l1-PyBO3efBUZD6l3_f0flOc3NTl69j/s1600-h/IMG_7107.JPG

Regina Mortuous Est? Vivat Regina!

Despite my reshuffle of the boxes on my last visit, I discovered that there are still larvae above the queen excluder in Hive Bravo.

(See http://mellifera.blogspot.com/2008/06/time-will-tell.html and following. Do you ever get the feeling that history is repeating itself?)

Owing to stupendous incompetence, my last visit (see http://mellifera.blogspot.com/2009/04/chancing-it-yet-again.html) failed to solve the problem. On today's visit, in effect I moved the excluder rather than messing about with individual boxes, and swapped everything top to bottom. I am fairly confident that her majesty is now below the excluder.

Incompetent coda: Though these are WBC hives, I have a couple of second-hand National boxes (they kind-of fit) with no castellation lugs and the frames to not have spacer tabs, either. When I picked up the first box the loose frames all slid down together, concertina-style, squishing lots of bees and, possibly killing the queen, too.

If that's the case, let's trust in good weather and the bees' instinct to re-queen. Regina Mortuous Est? Vivat Regina!

Super photo from http://www.beemaster.com/site/honeybee/qpage.htm a really useful site.

Accuracy not a strong point in BBC bee report

The announcement of a new beekeeping course also contains the usual hand-wringing about bee decline. The report includes the following:

"A decline in the number of flowers as food sources has led to a poorer environment for honeybees and is likely to have been a major factor in the 75% decrease in the number of hives over the past 100 years."
and

"The number of bees has decreased by 75% over the past 100 years."

Well, which is it? Were all bees in hives in past 100 years? Or perhaps the 75% of hives that went were the only full hives, and the remaining 25% devoid of bees?

None of the statements are sourced. For example, has the number of flowers (how do you count 'em?) declined? What about the vast fields of oilseed rape?

Chancing it, yet again!

Checked the two hives today, and found that both are busy and have active queens.... except that in one hive she is above the excluder.

With limited time - my excuse is the arrival of a new daughter, 23 March - I reshuffled the supers and trust to luck that I have moved the queen below the excluder in the process.

Time will tell.

Image from http://www.brown.edu/Courses/BI0032/partheno/beelink.htm

MEΛΙΣΣΟΚΟΜΙΑ ΜΑΡΑΘΩΝΑ

No idea what's going on here, but it looks pretty interesting. See http://marathon-honey.blogspot.com/

MEΛΙΣΣΟΚΟΜΙΑ ΜΑΡΑΘΩΝΑ

Woodpecker damage, top left above the porch

What the beekeeper did

Well, Thank You Phil!

While I was on holiday, Phil captured the (enormous) swarm and popped them into the hive! Great work. I must go away more often.

I visited this evening, and found the bees in fine form. Curiously, the girls have set up home all crammed down one side of the hive (see pic), leaving the central frames and opposite frames untouched.

Looking through the brood frames, I could see no larvae or capped cells. It could be that the queen is above the excluder, or that she has not had enough time to lay. Will revisit.

Blog of Anatolian Beekeepers Society

Look up http://anadoluluaricilartoplulugu.blogspot.com/, or follow the link from TUNCAY ERDEM :

• We are a group of Turkish Beekeepers. Blog of Anatolian Beekeepers Society provides knowledge and discussion atmosphere about beekeeping for members and our guests. We also try to protect our native bee races diversity. Turk’s land (Anatolia) has Apis mellifera anatolica, Apis mellifera caucasica, Apis mellifera carnica, Apis mellifera meda, Apis mellifera syriaca. If you are not from Turkey and interesting about our beekeeping techniques and our honey bee races. Don’t hesitate to connect with us. Our Language is Turkish. But we can communicate with you English.

Further down the blog there are some great photos of Turkey - a beautiful country

What's "Ouch!" in Turkish?

The images of beekeeping and bees on http://ben-gittim.blogspot.com/ are really outstanding. Unfortunately, my Turkish is even more limited than my beekeeping skill. The photo here needs no explanation, and there's a fine video on ben-gittim.blogspot.com of the deed being done!

Video Diary Of An Incompetent Beekeeper

You can see more videos, photos and all the images from mellifera.blogspot by visiting http://picasaweb.google.com/tobychapmandawe/_____DiaryOfAn_____IncompetentBeekeeper

Ellas

How little I know: round sections in frames are Old News

Turns out that round sections in hive frames are Old News. In fact, there is pretty much every kind of doohickey, gizmo and and semidemihemispherical customisation you can think of.

The owner of Ross Rounds (http://www.rossrounds.com/), Lloyd Spear, was kind enough to write, "Thank you for your inquiry. We have three dealers in the UK. Thorne, Kemble Bee Supplies, and National Bee Supply. Email for Thorne is gill@thorne.co.uk; Kemble is kbs@btinternet.com; and National is info@beekeeping.co.uk.
"I am a little surprised that you have not seen them in shops. We spend a couple of weeks in the Midlands about five years ago and were very pleased to see them several times. They are fun to produce, and a lot easier than the wood sections.
"All the best, Lloyd Spear, Owner"

Take a look at https://secure.thorne.co.uk/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/millhouse/thorne/shop/shania?ACTION=thispage&THISPAGE=page11.html&ORDER_ID=248518693

I cannot think why Paul sold it to me

The only good thing going for this manual extractor ... it's clean.

Well, it was at this stage, anyway.

Made out of thick polythene (like a homebrew beer bucket) and with a metal brace across the top for the winding gear, it is utter rubbish.

The gears do not mesh properly (incorrectly made). To clean it you have to take it to bits using spanners (poor design). The bearing at the bottom protrudes (poor design), which means the whole thing skitters about on the floor (generally useless). The tap at the bottom does not seal properly (poor design). The lid (which comes in two halves) does not seat on the rim properly (poor design).

Apart from that, I cannot think why Paul sold it to me. After I am done, I will chuck it on the muncipal tip.