Free Sugar!

[Eric McArthur]

Hi All
What could Scotland's beekeepers do with upwards of 30 tonnes of free sugar?

[Trog]

Well, we could certainly use some here on Mull if you're offering!

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Trog
The Countryside Rangers based in Pollok Park in Glasgow are 'straining at the bit' to help the bees of Scotland to recover from the recent year on year on-going colony losses. They are geared up to actively look for any feral colonies in the Park during their every day activities during the summer months. They are also very keen to emulate the 'Sugar Bag' Action taking place in East and West Dunbartonshire at present. The plight of the bees in these counties has caught the public imagination and to date around 700 kilos of sugar in kilo bags has been donated by the general public to the Breeders Group working to increase colony number in the counties - starting from a very low base - I may add! We are travelling hopefully! Every beekeeper in these counties has been encouraged to harvest bees this year instead of honey and has received an initial 10 kilos of sugar to supplement their own feeding input. The aim is to at least double the number of colonies presently surviving and to ensure by good management using a novel queen rearing technique, that every colony enters the winter of 2010 /11 with a current year queen and to feed the colonies heavily in the autumn, again augmenting beekeeper input with the supplementary donated sugar. The hope is that the beekeepers will be encouraged to carry more colonies through the winter than otherwise.
Given the weather we can match incoming pollen with properly monitored 1 : 2 ( kilo sugar to 2 litres of water) syrup feeding, especially during the June Gap. At this 1 : 2 syrup strength the colonies will use the syrup to breed, however even at 1 : 1 they will store it!!

If the Rangers got the go ahead that an infrastructure was in place - just by e-mailing the 30 000 staff in Glasgow City Council and asking them to help themselves and the bees (we need the bees to pollinate the food we eat!) - there is a potential for 30 tonnes of sugar almost instantly available - if a response similar to the Dunbartonshire public response were to be matched - and it could very well be. People are now so tuned into the parlous state of our honey bee population Scotland wide and keen to do their bit for the honey bee.

An Emergency General Meeting has been called for the Clyde Area Beekeepers' Association for the 11th May to determine if the beekeepers want to take the Rangers’ offer up.
The honey bee is now totally dependent on the resourcefulness and ingenuity of today's beekeepers for its continued survival. Varroa has decimated the feral colonies which supplied the latent (unsung!) component which has allowed the honey bee population to recover after many setbacks in the past. These ferals are now history and the beekeepers now have only the gene pool under their hands with which to propagate new colonies with all the, now not quite so, hidden dangers of inbreeding, due to an increasing number of cases of apiary remoteness from the nearest apiary..
United the honey bee and beekeepers stand. Divided – the outcome is unthinkable!

Eric