BeeLines - February '25

“It’s the sun wot done it”!

Please excuse the grammar; the phrase came to mind a few days ago on the morning of 25th January when I caught the distinctive sound of working bees as I came out of the house. It was 11am, the air was still, and although the temperature was only 5°C (ambient in the shade) bees were visiting a patch of winter flowering purple heather that we have near the front of the house. Recently we have had a lot of grey, dismal, damp days and although the temperature on those days may have been higher, no bees could be seen out of their hives. Bright sunshine makes all the difference. On closer observation of the working bees it was of particular interest to see that some of them were collecting pollen; having little loads of the buff coloured pollen on their legs. Does that suggest some hives have larvae needing feeding? We guess it might. Last year we noted that the queen in our temperature monitored hive: https://beemonitor.org/ started to lay on, or thereabouts, 28th January 2024 (as detailed in BeeLines March 2024). It will be interesting to see if we can, again, estimate when the queen (the same queen) starts to lay. This winter the temperature monitored hive has thick insulation, and it will be interesting if this might affect the queen starting to lay. The often quoted breeding temperature of a bee hive is 35°C. That high temperature, only slightly below our own core body temperature of 37°C, is only required for the metamorphosing pupae; eggs can tolerate a lower temperature, and larvae generate their own temperature which is also lower than that required by the pupae.

For the record we had seen bees collecting pollen on the same patch of heather flowers a few days earlier on January 15th. On that occasion the temperature was briefly at 11°C near midday, and as it was also sunny caused a brief period of bee activity. One pollen that is now widely available is from the male flowers of the hazel. We noted our first ‘lambs tails’ of fully open catkins that freely shed their yellow pollen when shaken, on 19th January. And, the first flowers are welcoming the new bee season on the crocus and snowdrop plants.

At the beginning of February we weighed our 7 hives nominated for this exercise, and found they had all lost weight. The average loss over the 7 hives was 1.37kg. The largest loss was 2.87kg, and the smallest loss was 0.45kg. All the losses were over twice the losses that were recorded on 1st January. For whatever reason, we noted that the greater losses were from the heavier hives that are over-wintering with a super of honey. We know other members are weighing their hives, and in due course we can collate all the data and show the weight changes.

We speculated in the last BeeLines on the possibility that Treatment-Free (TF) beekeeping and Varroa-Resistant (VR) honey bees will this year be generally accepted as ‘normal’ by beekeepers in the UK. After an academic lifetime of studying insects, and particularly the ‘varroa problem’, Stephen Martin, recently retired Professor at Salford University, has dedicated his time and effort to promoting this cause. Since giving a lecture to LLEBKA in October 2023, he has done the same to many BKAs around the UK. At the moment I understand he is in Hawaii concluding a varroa research programme, before returning (I hope) to lead the co-presentation with the varroa resistant team at the BIBBA Conference on 15th February: https://bibba.com/varroa-resistance-through-bee-improvement/

And on top of that he is involved with the publication of a major new book with the title ‘Resisting varroa’. Joining Stephen Martin to co-author the book is another world famous expert on varroa, Professor Marla Spivak. If that is not enough expertise, the two Profs are joined by a younger academic Dr Melissa Oddie. Melissa has played an exceptionally important part in understanding the science of ‘how honey bees deal with the varroa mite’. It was Melissa, who had an eureka moment when she recognised the significance of ‘uncapping and recapping’ used by bees to disrupt the cycle of breeding varroa. The book is subject to a kickstarter fund-raising programme and much more information on this forthcoming important book is here https://melissaoddie4.wixsite.com/resistingvarroa

A browse of this site will also show that Melissa has artistic ability - having done the rather eye-catching artwork for the cover and for a poster - kickstarter reward - promoting the book.

We were interested to read an article in BeeCraft February 2025 about an ancient oak tree that contained a 1,300 year old honey bee nest. The tree trunk was found submerged in a gravel pit in Poland. https://bit.ly/3W4oVoP The preservation was exceptional; “It still contained remnants of honeycomb, honey and even bees and their wings. Until now, the oldest preserved honey bee specimens dated to the nineteenth century”. It is being speculated that the ‘box-like’ construction of the cavity might even be a preserved example of a man-made cavity for bees. Tree-hive beekeeping is traditional and still being practiced in parts of eastern Europe.

If you have comments, information, a bee story or tips you would like to share with members please let us know and we will include them in BeeLines.