1 minute read
Dear friends
Swarming bees are healthy bees – this message may come as a surprise to beekeepers who have been taught to rigorously prevent their bees from swarming. However, as Wolfgang Ritter explains on the next pages, honey bee colonies have selfhealing capacity, and swarming, by providing a break in brood rearing, helps to limit parasite increase. Beeswax and comb creation also play crucial roles in limiting the progress of pathogens. Of course there are good reasons why beekeepers have been taught to prevent swarming – to maximise the work force for honey production, and to prevent bees from swarming in areas where thousands of potentially stinging insects will not be tolerated - in this case, the beekeeper can best help the bees by anticipating swarming – Wolfgang explains how to do this.
No such problems for the honey bee colonies living wild in Arnot Forest, which have been studied for forty years by Professor Tom Seeley. In his latest book, destined surely to become a classic, he describes the (almost) lost art of how to discover the tree homes of wild honey bee colonies – read more on page 18. Finding wild bee colonies is surely a sport ready for resurgence amongst bee enthusiasts, and this fantastic new book might well be the trigger. In earlier days the trees would be cut down and the honey bee colony plundered for its honey and beeswax. Now of course trees and bees are limited resources, and finding the nest is ample prize enough. As George Edgell wrote in 1949: ‘the reward is when, after hours or days of trial and error, your eye catches the flash of wings in the tree and you are able to say checkmate in one of the most difficult, complicated and fascinating games in the world.’
Tom Seeley watches during the Ulster Beekeepers fundraising auction in support of Bees for development in March 2016. Also in this picture is UK beekeeping expert Margaret Thomas.
