Roundup

Just a quick round up on the latest news about .........Roundup and its special ingredient glyphosphate.

German and Argentian researchers have published work on the effects of glyphosphate in the  Journal of Experimental Biology.

In the study, researchers evaluate the effects of recommended concentrations of glyphosate used in agricultural settings on honey bee navigation and found that a single exposure to a concentration of glyphosate within this range delays the return of the foraging honey bee to the hive.

Flight trajectories were also affected after successive exposure to the herbicide, suggesting that the spatial learning process is impaired by glyphosate ingestion during feeding.

So, Roundup probably causes cancer in humans, possibly responsible for the mass deaths of  monarch butterflies and impairs honey bee navigation.

Available in a 1ltr easy to dispense bottle for £4.99 from Homebase.

WTF - Part II

Now I'm really, really confused.

 Do you humans know what you're doing?

An article in the New Scientist reports on the recent banning in America of a neonicotinoid sulfoxaflor.

'A worldwide dispute over the threat to bees posed by the class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, took a dramatic new turn last week, when a US court overturned federal approval for a new formulation called sulfoxaflor. Judges found that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had relied on “flawed and limited” data, and its green light was unjustified given the “precariousness of bee populations”.
As a result of the US decisions, rules on the controversial chemicals in the US and European Union are in bizarre contradiction. The US has approved most neonicotinoids while now banning sulfoxaflor.
But the EU has banned most neonicotinoids for use on flowering crops and spring sown crops since 2013, but approved sulfoxaflor in July on the basis that it would not have any unacceptable effects on the environment. “The public will be justifiably confused and concerned,” says Matt Shardlow, CEO of Buglife, a British group that campaigns against neonicotinoids.
The US ruling against sulfoxaflor, which is manufactured by Dow AgroSciences, was made by a federal appeals court in San Francisco and applies nationally. The court found that, in granting approval for sulfoxaflor in 2013, the agency had violated its own rules on obtaining safety information, and should collect more data on its effects on bees before granting approval for its use.'

My head hurts.

In other news the World Health Organisation has decided that glyphosphate is 'probably carcinogenic to humans”.
Several European countries, including Holland, Denmark and Sweden, have banned or restricted the use of glyphosate herbicides by local authorities, because of alleged links with a variety of health problems – not just cancer – ranging from birth defects and kidney failure to celiac disease, colitis and autism.
Another study, in Argentina, suggests a correlation between glyphosate use and the decline in activity in honeybee colonies. And in New York, an environmental group is suing the Environmental Protection Agency for ignoring the dangers of glyphosate which, it claims, has resulted in the demise of the monarch butterfly population.

Glyphosphate is a major ingredient in Roundup one of Monsanto's best selling lines. Monsanto, you know, the neonicitinoid people.

Roundup is easily available from B&Q, Homebase, Tesco's and all good shops everywhere.
Just pop in and ask them 'Have you got any Roundup - you know the stuff that probably could give me cancer and kills bees and butterflies?

Varroa - Episode 4 of a two part trilogy

The Varroa Mite

After spending many years carefully reviewing all the scientific evidence, reading articles, forums and blogs about them, discussing it with other bee keepers to form a considered and mature opinion on the subject, I am of the opinion that there can be little doubt that Varroa are bastards.
Real bastards like utterly useless nasty bastards that have nothing going for them and deserve to be repeatedly punched in the face.
Admittedly they are only a couple of millimetres big and don't actually have a face but you get what I mean.

Varroa is a small reddish mite that originated in Asia. However in our ceaseless demand to consume what we want when we want it, not only do we import things from all over the world, we also import diseases from all over the world.
It arrived in Japan and Eastern Europe in the 1960's, South America in the 1970's, Europe in the 1980's, America in 1987 and England in 1992
Its now found everywhere in the world except Australia [its in New Zealand so this won't last]  and it is considered to be one of the major causes of bee decline.

Its full Latin name is Varroa Destructor and anything with Destructor in its name gives you a good idea of what you're up against and it isn't going to be good.
Something with a name like Varroa Fluffykins or Varroa Mostly Harmless wouldn't have quite the same impact as something called Varroa Destructor.

The female mites enters an open cell in a bee hive, just before the cell is about to be capped where it will hide in the brood food situated under the larva. There it will wait for 2-3 days, breathing from a respiratory organ known as a peritreme. Once the food has been consumed by the larva, the female mite will begin reproduction inside the sealed cell, laying her first egg (generally male) and later, in intervals of around 1-2 days, the female will continue to lay up to seven eggs which are usually female mites. These hatch into immature mites of which only two to three reach adult stages.
While inside the cell, the mites will feed on the developing pupae, transmitting viruses which can shorten the life span and stunt the pupa’s development. After 21 days, the worker bee emerges (24 for male drones) along with any surviving mites which attaching themselves to the bee’s dorsum until they reach a new open cell with a larva in it.

Varroa mite attached to larvae

Varroa mite on pupae

Varroa mites on adult bee

OK you say, not great but whats so bad about that. Well, the mites attach themselves to the bee and insert a spiracle into the bee and drinks its blood [haemolymph to be precise].

Its a vampire mite

Imagine if you will having several dinner plate sized objects attached to you that sticks a spike into your veins and drinks your blood. It takes out proteins from your blood and puts nasty blood back into you again.

Not only that but like rats they also spread other diseases notably one called Deformed Wing Virus

You can see from the picture what this means for a bee.
This all combines to weaken a hive and if it isn't treated the hive may die.

Therefore Varroa are bastards. I rest my case.



So, as they almost certainly didn't say in The Sound Of Music, you might reasonably ask,

More to come in the next blog.

The Bees are starving

Given the less than perfect environment bees have to live in, its not surprising that there are times where food is in short supply and now is one of them.
At the moment, although the countryside is green and verdant, there are few flowers around. Fewer flowers mean less nectar. Less nectar means less honey. Less honey the bees are hungry and might not have the stores to last the winter.
An organisation called the National Bee Unit recently issued an email to all bee keepers registered with it saying:-

In many areas of the UK nectar flows have ceased and reports are coming in from Regional and Seasonal Bee Inspectors of starving bee colonies, where the beekeeper is not aware that the bees are severely short of food, or the colony(s) have already starved to death.

By now any honey harvesting should have stopped, honey supers taken off and a bee keeper should be checking to see if if the hive has enough honey stores to get it through the winter. If not steps should be taken to feed the bees.
'How do you feed bees?' I am often asked.
'With a very small spoon' I say churning out Standard Bee Joke No 394.

The stuff bees are fed with at this time of year is normally sugar syrup made up with 2lb of sugar to 1pt of water.
The syrup is then put in feeders of which there are a huge variety of shapes and sizes. I use what are called rapid feeders

The feeder is put on top of the crown board of the hive and has a cone in the middle . The bees climb up from the hive over the top of the cone and feed on the syrup in the resovoir.  The cone is ridged to help the bees climb up it and has a plastic cup over it so the bees don't drown in the syrup and there is a lid on the feeder.

What is called an eke is then put on top of the hive so the roof can go back on.

There are different opinions on how much to feed. A very experienced bee keeper I know says he gives his bees a gallon a hive and no more whereas another says they should be fed until they don't take it up anymore.

Each feeder takes about 2 pints and most of the Ravensden bees took this up in 2 days but one hive has scarcely touched it.

Feeding also gives a bee keeper the opportunity to give the bees a pre winter 'tonic' which is added to the syrup.

I use something called Vitafeed Gold, It is  'A biostimulant, enhanced liquid feed. Based on beet extract and molasses it strongly stimulates the development of colony population, particularly if weak'.

It also combats the seven signs of aging and gives the bees lovely glossy dandruff free bristles, and an extra 10% off their favourite sofa in the DSF Winter Sale, because they're worth it.