Beekeepers Friend

I finally replaced the brood frame with foundation in the observation hive. Yeepee! I had put it off as long as I possibly could. I made all kinds of excuses for not doing the thing I should have done a month and a half ago. First, I was not feeling well, then it was too hot, after that, I was going to let my young protegee help me so she would get some more experience in an area that she has not been in yet. All this was to be on a Saturday. But that didn’t work out as she had company, then I was  on a bee talk, then it was Mother’s day weekend and she was out of town, then it sprinkled enough that I called it off, then she didn’t answer the phone, and so forth and so on. I really needed to work the OBH so today I did it.

The bees had plugged the two frames with honey and left no empty cells for the queen to lay eggs in. The top frame was capped and I decided today to remove the capped honey and put it outside for the bees to rob and put the brood frame up stairs so the bees could finish the honey and cap it out.

I had a frame already put together with a Duragilt foundation ready for  installation. For those of you who have an inquisitive mind, Duragilt is a very thin piece of wax coated plastic that has been ran through the imprinter that has two pieces of metal, tin I think, on the two narrow  sides.  The imprinter embosses the starter cells  for the bees to built the comb upon. I really don’t use that kind of foundation anymore, but I have a box of it left so I use it occasionally for emergencies.

Let’s get back to the story. After putting the brood frame into the bottom section of the observation hive, I then proceeded to put the top story back on the stack and snapped it together with screen door latches. I really looked for the queen, but there were so many bees everywhere that I didn’t find her. I would really prefer to get her marked so the kids would stop asking where she is and I wouldn’t have to say, ” I don’t know”. I would just say, “She is marked, find her.”

But alas! I didn’t find her and I really don’t think I will be tearing down the OBH before the honey is capped. And at that time, I will probably just replace the top frame and let it go at that. hehe

By the way, I have gotten one of my other observation hives fairly cleaned and almost ready to put some bees in. My partner in bee talks and I could have used the extra OBH today as the 4H leader split us up to do two different age groups. We only had one hive between us and I got it for the k-2 grades. His older students didn’t get to see the bees today and that was a bummer for them. But maybe the next time.

Okay, I have to get outside and make sure the bees are working on the new foundation and make sure that most of them are in the hive, so I’ll talk to you later and give you a  report on the meeting tomorrow.

Good night and have a good weekend.

Today, I had a young beekeeper and her husband over to get ready to pull honey and extract. I was disappointed to say the least. I had visions of about 100 pounds of raw honey.

First we had to clean the extractor by piecing sections of pipe from the extractor out the door and to a five gallon bucket with a strainer to catch any wax we flushed out.

I had somehow left 4 frames in the extractor the last time I used it and had forgotten about it. We found that the wax moths didn’t want anything to do with the frames, but there were several spiders that did.

After wiping the webs out and washing the extractor with cold water to keep from melting the wax that was stuck on the basket and sides, we decided to let the extractor air dry while we checked the three hives in the back yard. I was already planning on boiling some water to sterilize the extractor when we moved the honey supers into the honey house.

As it was, when we checked the first hive, which was in the past, a pretty rambunctious colony, we found that the bees had probably replaced the queen that might have been missing the last time. This time they were really nice and docile. We didn’t find the queen, but we saw young larvae and lots of sealed brood. In fact, the queen had been laying in the honey super. We moved the deep super that we had put on the top of the hive down to the top of the deep brood box and forgot to bring up a frame of honey to encourage the bees to check out the new cavity. At the time I thought that the bees would find it anyway as they crossed the new deep on their way up to the honey super that had some brood in it. I will have to check it in a day or two before I make a judgment.

By the time we finished the first hive, lunch was being put on the table so we broke and ate. After lunch, my young protege, who is pregnant by the way, was not feeling so good so we just sat there and talked about the bees and how to super without using any foundation.

If you have some drawn comb then alternate comb and empty frame. The bees will pull the frame out and make a descent comb there.  As it was, I didn’t have any drawn comb and only had limited waxed plastic inserts. so I was planning to use foundation alternated with empty frames just to see if it would work. I will have to check the other two colonies before I try this as I may still have some honey to extract and that will give me some drawn comb to spread around to the colonies so I can get some more supers into the works.

My wife and I ended up going over to our friends’ house to look at their 3 hives to see what I could see and tell them if they were working the bees correctly. Here is what I found.

One colony had swarmed and was holding it’s own trying to rebuild it’s numbers. The second colony had been split and was still looking very strong. The third colony was the split moved to the other side of the yard and turned 180 degrees so the door was facing North. Actually with the trees and brush on the north side of the yard, there was a good wind block and the door could have stayed that way, but we still turned the hive 90 degrees and will leave it that was for a day or two so the bees can find the door again. Then they will turn the hive another 90 degrees so the door will face South so the sun can hit the door in the early morning and get the bees to working faster. They will have to work hard because most of the workers that was transported to the split have already gone back to the mother colony.

Time will tell. That is the neat thing about being a beekeeper, you can always experiment or not as you wish. This is one way to learn your bees and what they are capable of doing.

Summer is here so that means the bees are in their Fall. Just keeping them alive from here to August will be an accomplishment. If they are weak on food at that time, you need to feed them so they can have lots of babies going into our Fall which is their Winter.

More on that subject coming soon. Until then, keep you veil handy, your smoker lit, and you hive tool sharp.

I guess that I have not gotten too far behind in posting. I see that the last post was on the first of this month so that means that I need to think of some reason to post another one soon. I have let the bees rest for 3 1/2 weeks since I split and/or went through them. I did put the honey I took off of the bees on the new split so the beetles wouldn’t get too rambunctious. However, since the split was really a nuc, I may not have had enough bees to patrol all the extra rooms and space. I may have let the honey be destroyed! That would be my fault, and my just reward. I knew better. Well, since I have not yet looked at the honey, I may be surprised.

My thoughts were to extract this past weekend, but my darling spouse decided that we could afford to take off the weekend and go to Texarkana to a family reunion that had been brewing for some time. We rented a little Chevy compact, I forget what model, and left here about 7:00 am and arrived about 7:30 pm. For a trip that was supposed to take 9 hours, it wasn’t hard to make it last over 12 hours, but we did get 30.9 mpg. My brother-in-law rented a midsized sedan and got 35+ mpg. Who would have guessed? Anyway, we had a grand old time and renewed acquaintances and shared memories with several people.

The trip back was just as uneventful as the half going up there. We took all of yesterday and this morning just resting up from the trip. Now it is time to get to planning my visit to the bee yard on the other side of the swimming pool in my back yard. Probably wouldn’t hurt to mow the grass so I can at least walk on the grass rather than through it. hehe.

Be sure to not take all the honey from your bees at this time. In some places it is a drought from now to November. That is unless you are planning to feed sugar syrup or corn syrup. Then you need to keep on top of the situation so your bees will not starve to death. Also check the pollen supply. You may have to think of feeding some pollen substitute.

Otherwise, sit back and enjoy your little girls. Sometimes I set a chair close to the hives so I can just sit there and watch the little buggers come and go and watch the interactions at the doorways. You can learn a lot if you just sit back and smell the roses and watch.

Until next time, keep your veil handy, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

Well…just thought you might like to know, the observation hive of the last post surprised me. All the brood had hatched out and I just let the bees chill for a couple of days (more like a week and a half). I finally got around to deciding to call my beekeeper friend to see if I could have a frame of brood. But before I did that, I thought that I should check on the bees so I could answer any questions that he might have about the condition of the observation hive and bees within it.

I went out to the patio and opened both customed built solid sideboards to check on the bees. WOW! There was a frame of sealed brood on both sides! At least one of the two queen cells carried a developed queen in it. I have seen her two times since then and wished that I could have gotten her out to mark her, but to me, it is more trouble than it is worth. In fact, she has a small brood area in the honey frame up stairs. I am so happy I could jump up and down if it didn’t hurt so much. (Remember, I am 5′ 7″ tall and carry 325 plus lbs on two very used 70 year old knees.)

This is not my observation hive. I am just the custodian of it with the use as my payment for keeping it alive. I will have another one ready soon (my own this time) and will be working on another one just to say that I have an extra one or two to swap out so the one will not get too stressed out from over use in the schools.

I still do not have a camera to help get some pictures into my posts, but I can’t quite remember to get one until I need it and by the time I get home, I have forgotten about it.

Gallberry and Privet are blooming in my area now and the Tupelo flow is over or, at least nearly over with now. Palmetto Palm is getting ready to bloom in the next two weeks or so. I hope you have your extractors cleaned and ready. Some of you will be be extracting now and some will be extracting off and on for the next four to six months depending on the different honey flows and if you want to keep the specialty honeys separated.

Also, you can melt your wax down to 25 lb. blocks and send them to the supply house that you use primarily and they will trade supplies to you for your wax. I say this because I found that I have accumulated something like six 5 gallon buckets along with several of my wife’s pots and pans of wax cappings. These cappings are real good for making candles for gifts and sales.

There I go mixing several subjects into one post and I will probably be hearing from my Number 2 son. He will be trying hard not to chew my uh huh out for doing a no-no. I have no intentions of changing this post now. I worked too hard to get it finished as it is.

Have a good day and remember, you need to read–read–read.

Just in case you are new to this site, my back yard has been the deposit point for several observation hives in the area. I seem to be the only one able to keep the bees alive for any length of time. I did have three last year, but they finally died in November. Not enough bees to keep the place warm. I have been thinking of some kind of wrap that might help keep them warm.

I now have an OBH that all the babies have hatched out before the queen cells hatched. They might not anyway because I think the cells were squashed against the glass when I put the OBH in the front seat to strap it in. I forgot to stand the back straight up.

I don’t have a frame of brood to spare so I may have to go to one of my beekeeping friends and beg a frame from him. I wonder if I have a good friend left now.

If you would like to know a little more about me, go to the top of this page and you will see some links that will help you understand where I am coming from.

By the way, I hope you have some extra boxes ready because the swarm season is in full swing and you will need those boxes to collect the girls in.

Keep you veil handy, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

Since my last post, I have had the privilege of talking 16 times to: 4 H groups at seven different schools, three different festivals, and 2 different garden clubs that spanned six weeks. I am getting ready to do some more promotion on bees at several more festivals in the near future.

I just went through three hives with two new beekeepers explaining what I was looking for (basically anything that was not normal in the hive),  splitting, and pulling honey at the same time. On the first hive, I found about 6-10 queen cells still capped. No need of splitting them. I will have to monitor this hive to be sure that I keep the brood level replaced until the new queen can start laying.

The second hive was pretty hostile and the brood frames were not filled out as much as I had hoped. I may have to replace the queen and see if I can get the meanness knocked out of them and get their numbers up.

The third hive, that all I have done to it in the last five years was to pull honey and replace the supers, was gone through with some regrets. I really didn’t want to destroy the relationship I had with this colony. However, it is a survivor and I really want some more colonies just like it. In order to to that, I must split and develop some queens from the parent hive.

I put deep supers on all three hives and I will wait until the split is strong and put one on it if we still have a honey flow. I did this just so I could have some extra comb for future splits and/or swarms. I also replaced the solid bottom board with screened bottom boards (1/8″ hardware cloth). Only one was not replaced. It was screwed to the hive body and I didn’t take a Phillips screwdriver with me.

I did see Small Hive Beetles in all my colonies. I will have to go back and treat for them soon unless I can get the bees strong enough to corral them. I really did not see any Varroa Mites but, I will be treating with powdered sugar in the near future. When I get time, I will take a Phillips screwdriver and a screened bottom board and exchange the one I didn’t get to the last time.

I did pull 3 medium supers of honey and then put them on the split so the hive beetles would not work on them before I was ready to extract. That is scheduled to take place this next Saturday.

Gotta go and get ready for bed. Dr’s. appointment in the morning.

I answered a forum question with a short and sweet answer. I think that I might have been kinda insensitive and quick. The question was:

Peaches,

I transferred my bees to all new hive equipment. I put a new box on top of each the new colonies I am starting from the nucs I brought home. ( I have all medium supers) Everything looks great except that they are consuming sugar water at a crazy rate …..but what do I know I am very , very new… Is this normal?

The longer answer is two fold. 1) Yes, if the bees are in a nuc form and there is a dearth going on. 2) And yes, this is normal if the bees are in a package and just came from the shipper or you just hived a swarm.  Either way you will probably have some new foundation that needs to be drawn out.

1) The bees are putting the sugar water up for storage. The bees know there is no food out there. They have already had scouts out looking.

2) As far as the second answer, here is what I tell the new beekeepers that I am mentoring. You really don’t know how long the bees have been caged up and how long they have been in transit. You don’t know how much honey they had a chance to tank up on before they were caged up for shipment. They need some of that honey for energy. Sure, they have been sent to you with a can of sugar syrup, but do you know the mixture? Was it 1:1 or 2:1 or was it cut to 1/2:1? Second part: if you have a swarm how long ago did they swarm? How far have they flown? What are their honey reserves at now?

Bees manufacture everything in the hive except for propolis. In order for the queen to be able to lay eggs, the workers have to build a comb so she has a place to put her eggs. Here is the way I understand it to happen.

Whether a package or swarm, the bees have to have honey, sugar syrup, or high fructose corn syrup for energy to live, to fly, and to manufacture wax. When you receive a package, you need to feed lots of syrup, preferably 2:1 (2 parts of sugar and 1 part water). the same for a swarm.

The young  worker bees will chain themselves to each other and are fed honey or syrup so they can manufacture flakes of wax from eight wax glands located in the abdomen, four on each side. These flakes are almost water clear and the older worker bees will take these flakes and mold them with their mandibles and start construction of the cells, usually in the center of the frame or cross ways of the branch. As a cell is started, the queen will begin laying eggs forcing the workers to hurry and finish the cell. In the meantime some of the older forgers will start to collect nectar and pollen forcing the construction of honey cells away from the brood area.

There will not be a whole lot of extra nectar to store at this point as it takes anywhere from 6 – 8 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax. So the majority of the nectar brought in is fed directly to the wax manufacturers. At this point, there is limited nectar so the beekeeper needs to feed the bees. The food in this case is real close to the colony and they can work faster. If the bees have to look for the food any distance from the colony, then it will take more time to build the comb.

Now you have an idea of why we need to feed new colonies. If we already have comb, then the bees don’t have to build so much and can devote their time and resources to filling up the cells with minimal wax repairs.

If you still have questions, then the best place to get them answered is your mentor or at your local bee meeting.

You need to check your hives for weight and add empty supers if need be for the extra honey. Enjoy the new Spring time honey flow.

Right now, we have only two mites in the United States that we are concerned with. Trachea Mites and Varroa Mites.

Trachea Mites are minute eight legged critters that I think are arachnoid in shape. They live in the trachea tubes (breathing or air tubes of the honeybee). They attach themselves to the inside walls to suck the blood of the bee and they usually congregate in mass and actually close off the airflow. However, they have not been as bad in the last 10-15 years as they have been prior to that time. They are considered a secondary pest now.

The Varroa Joccobe (sp) now known as Varroa Distructor is the one we are most concerned about. They also have eight legs and are red to nearly black. With the Varroa D., we now live with several viruses. However, it seems that with a few Varroa mites, the viruses are not as many or as strong as they would be as with an infestation of mites. Also, since the Varroa are parasites (you can see them with the naked eye), the bees also have to deal with a major blood loss.

Imagine if you will, a blood sucking frisbee about the diameter of a flat volleyball attached to your back between your shoulder blades. Maybe even two just asuckin’ away at your blood and making you weak. Pretty soon you would start feeling tired and rundown and just don’t want to do anything. That is the way the bees feel and pretty soon they will be so lethargic that they will not clean house, feed the babies, and guard the entrance to the hive.

Editor’s note: The Small Hive Beetle came to the USA by way of cargo ships from sub-Saharan Africa. Now I am assuming that is in the region of the Sahara Dessert.

Normally a strong colony of bees will build a fence of propolis around the edges of the frame’s top bar all the way to the underside of the top board and herd the beetles into the corral and close the entrance except for a small opening in one end. They will feed the beetles through this opening as the beetles have learned to mimic the baby bee larva’s hungry pheromone. When we beekeepers open the box to check the bees, we break the corral and the beetles scatter to parts unknown.

That is when they find out that the bees have gotten slack in their vigilance and begin to move around and start laying eggs. The larvae hatch and enter into the honey, shoot a breathing tube up to the surface through which they can breathe air. Then the larvae eat some of the honey and then defaecate in the honey and it starts to ferment and to run, ruining the honey. That is when it is okay to cry. 🙁

Some of the beetle larvae then start crawling over the top bars and leave a slick slime on the wood. When you see this, then you cry some more. Your honey harvest in this hive is lost and you have to clean it out with a water hose, washing the slime and honey out on the ground.

However, before you get to the hive to clean it out, you will find the Lesser Wax Moths have moved in and started to lay eggs and the little larvae have hatched and is eating their way through the wax comb and the honey is running out of the front entrance. You might even find that the larvae have spun silk webbing all through the frames and tying them together. Now it is major cleanup time.

Please do not accuse the Small Hive Beetles and Wax Moths of killing your hives. Both of them are creatures of opportunity. If the bees were not weakened by the Varroa Mites, they would have kept the beetles and moths controlled. Refer to the two posts preceding this one to refresh your memory about controlling or thinning out the mites. Thing to remember is if you control the mites, then you control the beetles and moths.

Now that I have written a book in this post, I will let you get back to your other jobs and ponder my words of wisdom. At this point, I tell you that this post is based upon my memory and it is considered faulty at best. You need to research my information and talk to and ask questions of your mentors and association members. They are still your best source of information.

Let me go so I can start thinking up excuses for not splitting my hives again for the third week in a row. Remember, swarm season is upon us and your colonies will swarm if you do not split them first. Bee sure to keep your veil handy, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

There are three ways to test for mites. Actually two, one kills the bees using one of two approved solutions, and one where the bees continue to live.

Using a half pint jar with a canning top and ring, gather about an inch or two of bees and using ether spray liberally into jar and close the top. Shake the bees until all are dead and drenched but not floating with the liquid ether. Then roll the jar horizontal so the bees will touch the sides. As you roll the jar, look for the little red or black mites sticking to the side. Or you could use Isopropyl alcohol and repeat what I just said. Using Ether and Alcohol will kill the bees.

The other way to check for mites is to get a half pint jar with ring and cut an 8 mesh hardware cloth (wire screen 8 squares to the inch) to fit inside of the ring, scoop about an inch or so of bees into the jar and put the screen and ring on. Put about a 1/4th cup of powdered sugar in through the screen and shake for about a minute (gently) and then let rest a minute. Shake the sugar over a white plate, bowl, paper, etc and count the mites.You can also put a little water in the bowl and when you shake the powdered sugar into the water, it will disappear and you can see the mites quite readily. You can release the bees and they will just fly back to the hive and live to a ripe old age of 42 days +.

Count the mites and if you have 1-5 mites in the jar you are okay. Just keep monitoring and check again in 2 weeks.

If you have 6-10, then you need to treat the hive within 2-3 weeks.

If there is 10-20 mites, then you need to treat as soon as possible.

21+ mites means the hive is near collapse. You need to treat now. That means that when you go to the apiary to check the mite count, you need to take the treatments with you just in case you need to take immediate action.

There is another method for testing for mites. You need a screen bottom board for this (again 8 mesh). And you need some way to attach a sticky board under the screen. Supply houses have these kinds of bottom boards. You can purchase one and use it for a pattern to make as many as you need. I would recommend screen bottoms for every hive.

You need to purchase commercially produced sticky boards with 1″ grid lines so you can count the mites per square inch. Or you can make your own by getting a poster board or something like that and smear grease or vasoline on the board. When the mites drop naturally, they will stick to the board and die. Leave the sticky board in or under the hive for 24 hrs. or you can leave it there for 3 days. Count the mites and then divide by how many days you had the sticky board applied.  Use the same formula as mentioned above.

Remember we are going chemical-less. Your treatment will consist of white powdered sugar. Dust all the bees you see in the hive until they are ghost white. Since we are not killing the Verroa Mites, the powder coats their little suctioncuplike feet and they lose their grip on the bees and fall off. I you have a solid bottom board, the mites will just wait until another bee comes by and jump on. Did I tell you the mites cannot walk too good but they are excellent jumpers, at least for about 3/4″.

If you have a screen bottom board, then the mites will fall to the ground and then the ants will get them for food. Screen bottom boards are good for ventilation (temperature and moisture) control. You don’t even have to cover them up in the winter time. There are some beekeepers in Canada that have screened bottoms and report that the bees seem to be stronger for it.

That’s it for now. New post in a few days.

In order to be chemical free, there are some things you must do  first.

1. You must train yourself to not think of what chemicals you need to put in your hive. You must think what can I do to help the bees overcome the chemical dependency.

2. You will want to think of ways you can encourage growth and strength of your colonies.

4. You will need certain modifications to your hive bodies.

A. Screened bottom boards.

B. Migratory top boards with a hole cut in top for a feeder jar (if a full sized hive or entrance feeder if it is a nuc. (There are various methods of feeding.)

Some of the other supplies and equipment you will need will depend on how you want to test your bees for mites: ether, alcohol, powdered sugar, screened jar, or closed jar, white pan or saucer. You also need some Small Hive Beetle traps to gage the amount of beetles you have in your hives.

This is where I will wait for your questions or input to this post before I explain what these things are used for. I really don’t know if I do have any readers or not, because I have gotten very few comments lately.

Until then, I will bid you adieu.