Category Archives: Previous Articles

From Bee Craft: July 2009 Nigel Raine, PhD Bumblebees that learn rapidly are able to fight off injection bt more slowly BUMBLEBEE COLONIES which are fast learners are also better able to fight off infection. Dr Nigel Raine from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, and Akram Alghamdi, Ezio Rosato [...]

From Bee Craft: July 2009 Professor Jurgen Tautz and Olaf Gimple Integrative biology which has practical relevance IT IS widely unknown that the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the third most important domestic animal in Europe, after cattle and pigs and before poultry (Fig 1), not because of its honey and wax production, but because of its invaluable contribution [...]

From Bee Craft:  July 2009 David Allen Beekeepers get the chance to learn about queen rearing Forty beekeepers attended this second queen rearing course run by Clive from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday afternoon. It was a day and a half of practical work encompassing grafting larvae, filling mini nucs and placing ripe queen cells. [...]

From Bee Craft: July 2009 Fingers crossed that we will obtain better honey crops this summer than the last two years JULY IS the time for the main nectar flow. The bees collect more food than they need for maintenance and start to build up their stores of food for winter. You have cared for [...]

From Bee Craft: July 2009 Paul Kirk A new beekeeper looks at the current bee situation Recently, I watched Martha Kearney’s programme on the BBC and was shocked by the rough way some of the American commercial beekeepers treated their bees – they were very rough with the frames and then while loading hives onto [...]

From Bee Craft: July 2009 Andrew Gibb Bee Craft’s fourth editor, Arthur Dines, lived from 1904 to 1995 and was a Director of Bee Craft Ltd from 1949 to 1987 CONSUMMATE BEEKEEPING POLITICIAN On his marriage to Annie in 1932 he moved to Kent. Arthur joined the Dartford branch of the Kent Beekeepers’ Association (BKA) where [...]

From Bee Craft: July 2009 Robert Burns, Bursar, The Wallace High School A school in Northern Ireland takes part in an exciting global project A meeting followed a couple of days later when Michael Young, MBE, and Sam Baird put forward their proposal to a very interested, if somewhat sceptical, audience. As the meeting progressed, [...]

From Bee Craft: July 2009 The Co-operative supports research into native honey bees THE BEE Improvement and Bee Breeders’ Association (BIBBA) has recently been lucky enough to receive a grant of £10,000 from The Co-operative. Most of this money will go towards funding the genetic testing of bees that are examined using morphometry and found [...]

From Bee Craft: June 2009 A selection of your personal comments and questions on published items and areas of concern Although The Soil Association and others are overjoyed at the recent European decision to remove many crop protection products from the market and, indeed, many beekeepers are applauding this decision, I think we should exercise [...]

From Bee Craft: June 2009 Andy Pedley When extracting you need to make sure your extracting room and personnel are clean reviewing your equipment to make sure it is in good condition and serviceable clearing up – kitchens are usually the hub of the home and used for food preparation, pet care, laundry, etc. You [...]