WBKA Module training

Exams and Assessments

• All applications are now completed online. If you plan to take an assessment or exam please contact your branch Membership Secretary who will provide you with the link to the website.

Future Plans

• Modules Winter 2021/Spring 2022. The plan is to run a Module 3 course starting in late November. (See below)
• Microscopy Group. Hopefully we can re-start the monthly meetings of the Microscopy Group in the New Year.
• Please contact Richard Oliver if you are interested. ">

Module 3 (Honey bee diseases, pests and poisoning)

Topics include:

• Signs and diagnosis of American foul brood (AFB) and European foul brood (EFB), lifecycle and development within lavae, within colony, how they are spread and authorised treatment;
• Features that identify Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) and the notifiable pests, small hive beetle (Aethina tumida)and Tropilaelaps mites;
• Statutory requirements relating to the importation of honey bees;
• Life cycle of Varroa destructor including its development within the honey bee colony and its spread to other colonies;
• Signs of Varroosis and detection of the varroa mite in honey bee colonies;
• Treatment and control of Varroosis
• Causes, signs and treatment (if any) of adult bee diseases currently found in the UK, including Nosema, Dysentery, Acarine and Amoeba;
• Structure and function of the alimentary, excretory and respiratory systems of the adult honey bee and of the life cycle of the causative organisms of adult honey bee diseases;
• Causes, signs and recommended treatment (if any) of chalk brood, sacbrood, chilled brood, bald brood, neglected drone
  brood and stone brood;
• Laboratory methods of diagnosis of Acarine, Nosema and Amoeba diseases in worker honey bees;
• Fumigation of comb using ethanoic acid (acetic acid), including safety precautions;
• How to transferhoney bees onto clean comb, including a shook swarm and Bailey comb change;
• Effects of chronic bee paralysis (both syndromes), acute bee paralysis virus, black queen cell virus, sacbrood and deformed wing viruses together and the effects of other viruses affecting honey bees;
• The life cycle of Braula coeca, its effect on the colony and the differences between adult Braula and Varroa;
• The signs of poisoning by natural substances, pesticides, and herbicides and the action to take when notice of spraynig has ben given.
• The action to be taken when spray damage is suspected;
• The damage caused to colonies and equipment by mice, woodpeckers and other pests and ways of preventing this;
• Wax moth damage and the life cycle of both the Lesser and Greater wax moth (Achroia grisella and Galleria mellonella);
  Methods of treating or storing comb with particular reference to preventing wax moth damage;

Download the syllabus and reading list from here: www.bbka.org.uk/exams-and-assessments-of-the-bbka