Lancaster Bee Keepers are organising a mini-workshop given by two experts in honeybee microscopy. Session run by Shirley and Richard Bond.

Date & Time: Saturday 7th July 2018, starting at 2pm.
Venue: Lancaster University, Bowland Hall  = Building BLH on the map

LBK members free.
Non-members £5

Please email training@lancaster-beekeepers.org.uk to book a place.

Title: Introduction to Microscopy for Beekeepers

We will give a brief introductory presentation on the types of microscope required and how they are used for beekeeping microscopy.  We will demonstrate the preparation of pollen slides. We will also demonstrate acarine dissection, abdominal dissection and nosema testing.
We have plenty of kit so everyone can try making pollen slides and preparing nosema slides.
Depending on how many stereo microscopes are available (we can bring 3) people could also have a go at acarine/abdominal dissection.

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Aftermaths

The 3h workshop provided an excellent opportunity to learn about the main two uses of microscopy in beekeeping: pollen analysis and bee disease identification. Shirley and Richard started beekeeping in 2010, and now Shirley is already a master beekeeper, whilst Richard still needs to pass a few modules (see here for information).

Shirley and Richard Bond started with an informative presentation on the use of a compound microscope to identify pollen under the microscope using a reference book (e.g. Rex Sawyer, Pollen Identification for Beekeepers, Northern Bee Books, 1981). Participants then were helped to make their own pollen slides and looked at pollen grains (or tried to…) under different magnifications of a compound microscope.

The second part of the workshop consisted in a lecture on how to dissect a bee and check for nosema and acarine. Shirley did a dissection that all could watch projected on a big screen, and she showed us how to expose the trachea of a bee. Prior to the event, participants were asked to bring their own bee samples if they wanted to check on the health of their own colonies. And so most of us did! The abdomens of the insects were squashed and checked for nosema spores under a dissection (or stereo) microscope, whilst we “beheaded” our (dead/sacrificed) bees and exposed the trachea to check for possible presence of acarine. Not surprisingly, many of us found traces of nosema, but nothing to cause any concern; as for acarine… none to report!

To sum it up: that was a successful event and LUBK are thankful to Shirley and Richard Bond and to Lancaster BeeKeepers for bringing more bee-science on our campus!

(Credits for the emoticon: CC BY-SA 3.0)