Beverley
Beekeepers' Association
The local
Beekeeping Association for East Yorkshire
Evening
Meeting 12/03/08
Members’ Advice Evening
Lester
Quayle described techniques for extracting rape and heather
honey, Gerard Baker followed with a description of bee
stings, and Gerald Moxon was to have given a Power Point
presentation on preparing honey for show but unfortunately
no computer was available on the night so we will have to
look forward to that in the future.
Techniques
for dealing with rape honey - Lester Quayle
Lester started by saying that all beekeepers could not
always get to their hives quick enough to remove frames of
rape honey before it had set hard in the frames. This then
meant cutting the foundation from the frames and warming to
redissolve the crystallization. He suggested the use of
unwired thin foundation as an alternative to the normal
standard wired foundation. This was cheaper and avoided
complications caused by the wire. Unwired thin foundation
was better fixed into the frame using beads of molten wax
run along the joint between foundation and top-bar. Without
this the foundation tended not to be held by the wedge as
there was no wire for the nails to catch. There was in fact
no need for the wedge when molten wax was used. Frames of
rape honey brought back to the honey house could then be
assessed as suitable for extraction, suitable for cut comb,
or in need of cutting out and warming. Extracting thin
foundation frames required a little more restraint in
extraction speed but was possible.
A further tip was to cut ¼ inch of all foundation rather
than find that some had been manufactured too large for the
frames and had to be trimmed to fit.
Techniques
for dealing with heather honey - Lester Quayle
Lester described the thixotropic nature of heather honey
and the difficulties that gave in removing heather honey
from the combs by the usual extractors. Several techniques
were offered with various degrees of difficulty and
expense.
A spin dryer fitted with a medium gauge filter bag
supported with a ring of dowel rods worked well if the
safety mechanism was defeated to allow the drum to revolve
without the lid in place. Comb, cut from the frames was
dropped in a piece at a time. Don’t try this at home!
Obviously the comb was destroyed and the wax fragments
would need rinsing and melting down.
Rollers with steel pins attached were available. When
rolled over the frames the thixotropy was broken allowing
extraction, but only in a tangential extractor. The rollers
were only available in a size rather too large for national
super frames. The combs were often badly damaged and were
not reusable.
Lester had bought a honey loosener, which, after uncapping,
agitated the honey in each cell by an array of plastic pins
to break the thixotropy before extraction. This cost around
£2000 but really made the job easy. Lester said that for £5
a box he would extract members’ heather honey for them. The
loosener did not damage the combs so the frames could be
reused.
The traditional honey press did a good job on heather honey
combs cut from the frames but took a lot of time and sweat
from tightening the screw.
In general discussion Alan Walker advised that heating the
heather combs to 37C made pressing or spin dryer operation
much quicker, but warned that heather was easily spoilt by
higher temperatures. There was disagreement as to whether
pressing or the spin dryer produced the most bubbles in
heather honey. Gerald Moxon suggested hessian was a better
media than nylon for use in the press and that people
intending to show heather honey used a scraper to scrape
the heather comb back to the foundation mid-rib for the
highest quality. [The author uses this method to deal with
frames of partially set rape, after first extracting the
mobile honey. It works well but I would not want to do more
than a few frames.] For those wanting to show, Gerald
advised it took about 3 weeks for heather to gel fully.
Bee
Stings - Gerard Baker
Gerard Baker explained that he became interested in bee
stings when two of his friends suffered bee sting shock and
needed urgent medical attention. One had given up
beekeeping whilst the other had undergone anti-venom
therapy and intended to carry on keeping bees. The therapy
has lasted 18 months and involved being subjected to
extremely small injections of bee venom in an incremental
fashion until the dose reached the equivalent of two bee
stings. A further 18 months of treatment is required to
complete the therapy. Gerard was intrigued as to how the
bee venom was collected. Apparently bees are stimulated to
sting through membranes and the venom collected and dried.
Bees sting to minimize a threat to their hive. They can be
more likely to sting if the weather is humid or the
beekeeper is wearing blue trousers but the main stimulus is
the alarm pheromone which encourages other bees to join in
the attack. 500 stings can be fatal. Worker honey bees are
the only species of hymenoptera to have a barbed sting
which unfortunately for them is caught by animal or bird
tissue and results in the sting apparatus being ripped from
the bee causing its death. A single sting contains only
1/30th
of the venom present in the bee. A detailed sketch was made
available to the audience showing the location of the
poison glands, poison sack, and alkaline gland which
produced lubricant for the lancet.
It is melittin, present in venom which causes pain. The
normal human response is from mast cells to release
antibodies containing histamine which results in local
irritation and swelling. In those who unfortunately develop
an allergic reaction, the immune system goes into overdrive
with serious and potentially fatal results. Epinephrine
injection can help the situation and affected beekeepers
carry syringes and self-inject. John Thompson identified
himself as an allergic beekeeper who carries an ‘Epipen’.
I certainly received the message that it is wise to
minimize bee stings, wear good protection, not to bee keep
alone, carry a mobile phone, and know the exact location of
my hives.
Stewart
Beckett
March 2008