G. v.d. Velde

v. Loghemstraat 67

9731 MD Groningen

Tel. 0031-50-5421794

mobiel 0031-06-20819881

E-mail: gvdvelde@tiscali.nl

 Marcel van der Meide

Menkema's Uiterdijk 7

9981 TM Uithuizen

Tel. 0031-595-432838

Tel. mobiel 0031-6-25272875

E-mail: buckfastameland@online.nl
AMELAND

The island of Ameland belongs to the Netherlands and is a part of the small islands in the north of Holland.
On Ameland Buckfast bees are kept since 1987.

The breeding station is one of the queen breeding groups licensed by
the Dutch Buckfast Association called Buckfast Belangen Verenigd.

On Ameland combinations of different lines are bred, tried and tested. In the future it is our intention
to introduce new traits into the existing Buckfast lines bred by Brother Adam,
by crossing these "old" Buckfast lines with other geographical races.
Every year several queens are bred for our own use, to be tested and for sale.

ISLAND AND BREEDINGSTATION "AMELAND".

When you are driving across the dike near Holwerd, a small village on the border of the coast from Friesland, you can see the island of Ameland when the weather is clear. When this happens in spring, you definitely get excited and you are looking forward to a stay on the Wadden-island Ameland.

By ferry it takes approximately 50 min to the small harbour of Ameland. The island has very much to offer, such as the beach and the sea, woods and dunes, bike and hike roads and the nature on the island and on the Wadden. In the north the island is bordered by the North sea, where you can find the beaches and in the south we encounter the Wadden sea with its special flora and fauna. The Wadden district ranges from the west of the Netherlands to the north of Denmark. It is a very special nature reserve.

The island is pretty old in our notion. Some 5000 years ago, sandbanks emerged in front of the Dutch coast from which the Wadden islands ontstonden. Of course it took a very long time to reach the state in which the islands are now. Before the year 800, there were already people living on the island, but very little is known about how they lived.

Especially it must be mentioned that Ameland raised a lot of whale catchers in the past. Until after the Second World War fishermen went out to go for whale fishing. One of these whale catchers was the father of Jan Kienstra who now is the bee-keeper on Ameland together with Gosse van der Velde.

The Oerd

On the east side of Ameland a big and old dune area is situated called the "Oerderduinen". East from these dunes "de Hon" is located, a vast area existing of beaches with young dunes and on the Wadden sea side a big salt marsh. Together they form a nature reserve of international significance.

It is a very alternating landscape with high dunes and low valleys with small lakes. From the high dunes you have a beautiful view over the neighbouring salt marshes, where thousands of birds have a rest during the high tide.

The short-eared owl lays eggs there and the sea lavender is flowering in abundance at the end of the summer. This flower turns big parts of the area in a purple glow.

The birds on Ameland From the north pole to the humid jungles of the equator, there are living billion birds. The bird population is, although hardly detectable, on the move. One winter from one species there are a lot of them present whereas the next year the population, who was rather stable over the years, slowly decreases. Sometimes an unknown bird visits the island, which causes the bird lover to take his field glasses and books. This is what the island has to offer the bird lover and makes it so attractive. The reason for the fact that so many birds come to the Wadden islands is caused by the different biotopes who are present on the island of Ameland, such as the Wadden sea, meadows, beaches and dunes, forests and heather, salt as well as sweet water. Especially during spring and autumn, there are numerous birds visiting the island to increase there body weight and the birds profit from the enormous food supplies on the bottom of the Wadden sea and in the dune areas.

The sea, the beach and the dunes

Is there anybody who does not like the beach and dunes? Especially when they are white and vast like they are on Ameland. The first is coming to the beach to have a walk in the wind, the other is coming to look for shells and the third one is coming for sunbathing to colour his skin brown. The funny thing about the beach is that there always is going on something. Whether or not it is a sunny day or on a stormy day in autumn.

The Wadden and the Wadden sea

From the south coast of Ameland you have a magnificent view over the Wadden sea. In mid summer there is still a chance to feel totally alone on the island, although there are about 35,000 tourists present. During high tide, the Wadden sea is filled with water but at low tide it presents a complicated landscape of mud-flats, salt marshes, trenches, sandbars and alluvial plains. This relatively warm sea is filled with some cubic kilometers "fresh" sea water twice a day, which gave rise to an incredible variety of animals and flowers. In the Wadden sea there are 30 different species of fish present, from which 10 species are of economic importance, . The Wadden sea is also important for skrips and mussel fishing.

The island is about 30 km long. On the western side it is rather broad but in the east it is narrow

THE BREEDING STATION AMELAND

Since 1987 we keep Buckfast bees on Ameland. During the 90's, we got a lot of help from Thomas Ruepel, which can be found back in our pedigrees of course. With the approval of the "Domeinen Rijkswaterstaat" and two nature reserve organisations, being Staatsbosbeheer and It Fryske Gea, we can put our colonies everywhere on Ameland.

In this wonderful environment, Jan and Gosse keep their Buckfast bees.In spring the willow is flowering on the "Oerd" and the west side of the island. The colonies can develop on the flow of pollen. Next the dandelion starts and the colonies are rather strong at that time. In spring the weather on Ameland is often very good. The development on the willow and the dandelion is necessary because after these flows there are not much honey and pollen delivering plants on Ameland. For about 7 weeks the colonies must endure often under very severe circumstances. For the most part, the colonies must be fed so the queen keeps laying eggs and the colonies stay strong.
At the end of Mai, some plants start flowering again. At first the black berries on the warm places start to bloom, followed slowly by the. At the beginning of July the willowherb is in full bloom which is a lovely sight. In certain areas you can walk between mans tall willowherbs.
It is a pity that the willowherb not always gives enough nectar. However as a pollen supplier the willowherb is very important. The black berries are also flowering abundantly now and when the weather is fine it yields a lot of honey. We keep our bees on dandant hives. In favourable year this is no problem.

Half Mai we start breeding new queens. After stimulating the drone colonies, the breeding can be started, although the weather must be fine at that time. Our virgin queens are bred in queen less colonies, where all the brood combs have been discarded. In such a colony one frame with 45 queen cells containing a larvae is brought. Most of the time the acceptance is good. About 40 queen cells are being nursed by the bees. When the queen cells are closed by the bees, they are transferred to the incubator. Immediately a new frame with queen cells is put in this colony. After the second series we put the old queen back in her colony and another colony is used for breeding.

The past autumn we have wintered about 60 queens on so called "mini-plus" hives mostly consisting of 3 boxes. These colonies we use as mating nucs. We take 1 frame containing sugar and two frames containing some brood with the bees and one frame with foundation. These 4 frames are put in an empty box and this box is put on a bottom board. On the bottom board we put some candy to supply the bees with some food during the time these hives are closed. We give these described nucs a hatching queen-cell. Before we bring these mating nucs to the mating station and open it, we check whether these queen-cells have been hatched.
The advantage using these "mini-plus" hives is, that we do not have to take bees out of the honey producing colonies for queen breeding purposes. During the active season approximately 300 larvae are grafted, which results in 150 to 200 mated queens. These mated queens under go another selection. Queens who are not healthy or have any imperfections are discarded. A part of these queens are sold to other beekeepers and the rest is kept for our own use. The different sister groups are observed during the next season and some of these new queens are being used as breeder queens in the future.

In the course of the active season the queens in the dadant hives and in the "mini-plus" hives are evaluated. A colony in a "mini-plus" hive consisting of 3 brood boxes can be readily compared with a colony in one brood box of the Dutch standard hive (spaarkast). During the summer the colonies grow until they occupy 4, 5 or 6 brood boxes of the "mini-plus" hives and in this way the fecundity of the queen can be checked. Also the hygienic behaviour of the colonies is tested several times. When it is necessary (for instance due to winter loses) new splits are made during the season. At the beginning of August, the last virgin queens are mated. At that time we start to unite the "mini-plus" hives to make strong colonies who can survive the winter. The production colonies gather nectar from the willowherb which bloom has almost come to an end at that time. By then some of the colonies are brought to the "Oerd" where the nectar flow of the sea lavender has started.

Because the temperatures are fairly high on the island in autumn, the colonies get there winter food in September. The colonies always get through winter very well, which, we think, is due to the sandy soil on the island resulting in a rather dry atmosphere.
After the winter feeding has finished it is time to do the administrative work and to deal with the buyers of queens from Ameland. This also includes that the pedigrees from our breeder queens must be delivered to the different breeding organisations where we belong to as a member.

It is worthwhile to visit the island of "AMELAND".

If you want more information about the island Ameland please visit www.ameland.nl 
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Laatste wijziging op 22-october 2010