Robert "Bert" Orlando Beater Manley (1888–1978) was a British

beekeeper A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees. Beekeepers are also called honey farmers, apiarists, or less commonly, apiculturists (both from the Latin '' apis'', bee; cf. apiary). The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees i ...

, an authority on commercial

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

farming and developer of the popular Manley moveable frame hives and frame systems.

Career

In 1904 a

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

Acarapis woodi ''Acarapis woodi'' is an internal parasite affecting honey bees, the symptoms of infestation was originally observed on the Isle of Wight in 1904, but was not species description, described until 1921. ''Acarapis woodi'' mites live and reproduce ...

that originated on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

extended over the UK devastating all the native bees and only the

Apis mellifera carnica The Carniolan honey bee (''Apis mellifera carnica'', Pollmann) is a subspecies of the western honey bee. The Carniolan honey bee is native to Slovenia, southern Austria, and parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Hungary, ...

and

Apis mellifera ligustica Apis or APIS may refer to: *Apis (deity), an ancient Egyptian god *Apis (Greek mythology), several different figures in Greek mythology *Apis (city), an ancient seaport town on the northern coast of Africa **Kom el-Hisn, a different Egyptian city, ...

colonies survived. While

Brother Adam Karl Kehrle OSB OBE (3 August 1898, Mittelbiberach, Germany – 1 September 1996, Buckfast, Devonshire, England, UK), known as Brother Adam, was a Benedictine monk, beekeeper, and an authority on bee breeding, developer of the Buc ...

travelled to Turkey to find substitutes for the native bees for the first Buckfast strain (a very productive bee resistant to the parasite), Manley began breeding Italian bees and the pair quickly became the most influential bee-keepers in Britain, with Brother Adam concentrating on a breeding programme and Manley developing modern commercial honey farming methods. In 1948 R.O.B. Manley became the first man to manage 1,000 colonies in England, having kept bees through the fine summers of the 1920s and 1930s (A W Gale of Marlborough at his height in the 1940s ran 2000+ hives). As well as inventing the Manley frame system (still in common use today), R. O. B. Manley is the source of the practice of feeding sugar to bees in its modern form, stating that "all hives that have been to the moors should be fed 10lb sugar as a precaution against dysentery caused by long confinement during severe winters". This advice is not found in earlier publications (A. Pettigrew 1870, Rev Thomas WM Cowan 1881). Manley adds that while heather honey was not suitable as winter food during periods of confinement, he 'knew of nothing better to encourage a rapid spring build-up'. R.O.B.'s family continued to keep and study bees. The studies carried out by Dr Robyn Manley are of particular interest with regard to viral disease risk to pollinating insects.

Thymol Treatment

R. O. B Manley propagated the idea of using

thymol Thymol (also known as 2-isopropyl-5-methylphenol, IPMP), , is a natural monoterpenoid phenol derivative of ''p''-Cymene, isomeric with carvacrol, found in oil of thyme, and extracted from ''Thymus vulgaris'' (common thyme), ajwain, and vario ...

in syrup intended for winter feeding to prevent fermentation and the growth of mould. Manley's thymol recipe has also proven useful in controlling

Varroa mite ''Varroa destructor'', the ''Varroa'' mite is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on the honey bees '' Apis cerana'' and ''Apis mellifera''. The disease caused by the mites is called varroosis. The ''Varroa'' mite can reproduce o ...

s. Manley's recipe has become a standard and even if the requirement is for a stronger solution, this is often specified as '3x Manley strength' or '4x Manley strength'. His original recipe was one ounce of thymol crystals dissolved in five fluid ounces of surgical spirit to make the stock solution. Then half a fluid ounce of this mixture was added to 1 Cwt (112 lbs) of sugar, which he dissolved in 7 imperial gallons (8.75 US Gal.) of water for direct use as winter feed.

Bibliography

*''Honey Production in the British Isles'' (1936) *''Honey Farming'' (1946) *''Bee-Keeping in Britain'' (1948) *''The Practical Bee Guide – a Manual of Modern Beekeeping'' (1949 with J. G Digges)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manley, R. O. B. 1888 births 1978 deaths British beekeepers British nature writers