June 2023
www.TheBeeSupply.com
THE BEE SUPPLY
Monthly
Cover Photo: Galyn Kluckman
Featured Topics Preparing for Harvest Honey-Bound Hive Why Aren't My Supers Filling? Snakes in the Bee Yard!
Edition 36
Contents
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Table Of
We welcome your feedback and submissions! editor@thebeesupply.com Beekeeping Questions: help@thebeesupply.com
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6 Monthly Tips 10 Preparing for Harvest 16 My Queen is Laying in My Honey Super 19 When & How to Add Another Super 20 Expert Interview: Jake Osborne 22 Inspecting Honey Supers and Spacing 23 Why Aren't My Honey Supers Filling? 24 When to Harvest Honey 26 Identifying & Fixing Honey-Bound Hives 28 How to Fix Excess Comb or Incorrectly Drawn Foundation
June
32 Snakes - Co-existing with Bees & Beekeepers! 34 What's Bugging You? Small Hive Beetles! 38 Keeping Colonies in Single Deeps 40 Bearding Bees - OK or Not OK? 42 What's the Buzz? Dr. Lamas & Varroa Mites on Drones 46 Recipe: Blueberry Coffeecake 48 Webinar Q&A 50 U.S. Drought Map
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2023 BEGINNING BEEKEEPING CLASSES
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By: Blake Shook
June Tips
In most southern areas the honey flow will continue into early June, and in some areas begin tapering off in mid-June, fully ending by late June – while most northern states can see honey flows extending into July. Continue adding honey supers when the existing super becomes 75% full of honey. In areas where the flow stops by the end of June, stop adding additional supers by mid-month. When the major nectar- producing plants in your area begin dying, that is a signal that the honey flow is ending. You will also begin noticing your hive is bringing in less nectar. Bees typically cap honey once it is cured, but there are several scenarios where the honey may be cured, but not capped. To see if uncapped honey is ready to harvest, simply hold the frame of honey horizontally over your hive and shake it vigorously. Uncured honey will rain out of the cells. Cured honey will not come out at all, or only a few drips can be shaken out. If the latter is the case, the honey is ready to harvest. There are many methods to remove bees from your supers once the honey flow ends and you are ready to harvest. In warmer states, we recommend fume boards, a bee brush, or blowing with a bee blower or leaf blower. If your area has an abundance of small hive beetles, avoid using bee escapes. Smoking the hive extensively is also not recommended, as over smoking is not very effective, and can give the honey a smoky flavor. Remember to extract your honey immediately after harvesting. Storing honey supers for several hours, or days, gives small hive beetles a chance to ruin your crop. Once your honey is harvested, place your supers back on your hive to let the bees clean up the excess honey. Remember, your bees will be “robby” since there is very little natural nectar available. Make sure to put your freshly harvested honey supers back on your hives late in the evening thus giving your hive all night to clean and remove the excessive smell of honey. This will help prevent other hives from robbing your hive the next day. Once the supers have been cleaned, you can remove all but 1 box above your brood nest and store the rest in Para-Moth for the next season. Begin providing a water source for your bees as shallow natural water sources dry up for the summer. Post-harvest care of your hive is the most critical time of the entire beekeeping year. Watch for details in next month’s Tips.
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1st Thursday of Each Month Monthly Buzz Webinar June 1st, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
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Live in the Bee Yard Tips June Tips Preparing for Summer Bottom Supering Venting Hives How to tell when the honey flow is over
Why did the bees go on strike? Because they wanted more honey and shorter working flowers!
Preparing for Harvest
By: Chari Elam
June and July are known as “Honey Harvest” months for most beekeepers - some with totes full and others with buckets full! Remember: This is not a contest! Any harvest is a GOOD harvest!! Here are some tips to help you get ready for that harvest and make it easier once you begin. Extraction equipment Extractor – Depending on the amount of honey you will be extracting, a small unit (holding 2-4 frames) may be sufficient for short term use. For larger quantities and better quality for any scale beekeeper, Maxant (industry leader in extraction equipment) has several options. Bee clubs will often have equipment to loan to members, as do other club members willing to help out. Uncapping Bucket, tote, or restaurant style bus tub for catching the wax cappings. Capping Scratcher Uncapping knife Food grade 5-gallon bucket– Most hives will produce at least 1 medium super of honey weighing from 35-45 lbs. A single bucket holds 55-60 lbs. so purchase accordingly. Bucket honey gate – Avoid storing in the bucket with a honey gate. It will leak… IT WILL LEAK! Use this bucket for bottling only. Tip: Perhaps install the gate on the lid and not the bucket. This allows you to move the lid with the gate from bucket to bucket for bottling. Simply lay the bucket over on its side (with lid on securely) to fill bottles . Strainer or Filter – For “Raw and Unfiltered” honey designation, straining would be your choice over filtering. Otherwise floating your honey would also qualify. This method is simply letting your honey sit for a period of time (a few days) allowing all of the impurities to float to the top to be skimmed off for bottling. Bottles – There are a number of honey bottles to choose from in various sizes. Purchase what best suits your market. Note: Only bottle ahead what you can sell quickly. Honey crystallizes rapidly and is much easier to liquify out of larger containers than smaller ones. Next, choose your extraction location. Fortunately for small scale beekeepers this can be your kitchen! You will of course want to have it spotlessly clean, just as you would want any product you eat packaged in a clean area. Using plastic on the floors and counter tops can make clean-up much easier. Tape down the plastic with blue painter's tape to secure it and prevent a tripping hazard. Tip: Have a bucket of water and rags or towels handy to wipe your hands and any spills throughout the process. Another tip: Avoid extracting honey outside. Consider the consequences…bees will find you - even in a screened enclosure. Gathering supers Most experienced beekeepers have developed their favorite way to gather supers without bees. Here are methods to remove bees in order of slowest to fastest: Bee escape – This method allows bees “out” but doesn’t allow them back in – often taking over 24 hours to work. This method is not highly recommended in Texas. Bee brush – An item already in your tool box is used to simply brush the bees off your honey frames. The main problem is, it’s a bit like herding cats! It takes significant time and you never really get all the bees off. Leaf Blower– somewhat fast and a bit aggressive, but a gas powered blower can quickly vacate bees from a honey super. Note: Bees will hang on even with this method and the gas blower is a bit cumbersome for some people to use. Solar Fume Board– The fastest way for most beekeepers (large or small scale) is to use a fume board. Whether you use Honey Bandit (smells good) or Honey Robber (smells bad), the solar fume board will work within minutes when most other methods take much longer. In next month's issue, I'll go into detail on how to extract honey when you don't have access to an extractor, including the Combcapper and the crush and strain method... plus a few more!
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What do I do now?!
Uh-Oh, My Queen is Laying in the Honey Super!
It just happens sometimes! I’m going to address this from two perspectives: You did not use a queen excluder, and the queen is laying brood in your honey super during the honey flow & you are trying to figure out what to do before extracting. You have already extracted honey, and the queen is laying in the honey supers you added back to the hive after harvest. For #1, that is very common! You have a few simple options. If the frame(s) with brood are less than ⅓ covered with brood, and the rest is honey, you can proceed with extracting. Just leave the brood alone and put it back on the hive after you extract the honey from the frame. Some of the brood can survive the extraction process if it is done the same day and left capped. If your honey super is a deep box, simply swap the frames of brood in your super with frames full of honey from your brood box. If your honey super is a medium box, you can follow step #1, or leave the frames with brood in the super, extract the frames with honey, and replace the empty extracted frames post extraction. For #2, again, this is very common. Many beekeepers let their queens lay in the supers post-extraction. If your hive already has 2 brood boxes, and the top box is not more than 80% full of bees, you don’t need to leave the supers on the hive. The only issue with allowing queens to lay in the super is, it ages your comb and makes it a bit more attractive to wax moths as the developing bees shed their cocoons as they develop. However, this is a minor issue, and most supers end up with some brood in them over time. If the queen is actively laying in your supers, and you want to remove some of the supers, you can consolidate all the brood in the supers into just 1 super and leave that on the hive above a queen excluder. Once all the brood hatches, you can remove & store the super. However, if the top brood box on the hive is more than 80% full, and you are more than about 2 months from your first freeze, it is a good idea to leave the extra super on top of the hive to help prevent swarming. You used a queen excluder but there is still brood in your supers! Unfortunately, this can happen occasionally! A couple of things could have happened: Your queen excluder has a broken or bent bar allowing the queen to pass through and lay in the super. If this is the case, simply replace it or fix it. At this point you will need to find the queen or shake all the bees out of the super into the brood boxes to ensure she is no longer in your super. Smoking the supers, then gently brushing or shaking the bees off the super frames into the lower boxes is also sufficient. Your queen was trapped in the supers when you put the queen excluder on the hive. The quickest way to tell if this has occurred is to see if there are eggs & larva in the lower brood boxes. If not, she was trapped in the supers. If there is, follow the previous suggestions in #1.
When and How to Add Another Super
The when is pretty simple! It’s time to add another super when the first one is 80% full of honey, or 80% of the comb is drawn out if it’s a new super of foundation. The one exception would be if you are nearing the end of your honey flow. The how can be very simple as well! The most common thing to do is simply place another super on top of your current super. The other option is to do what we call “bottom super” and place the new super under the full super. This will help the bees fill the new super, or draw out the comb a bit faster than if it’s on top. But it does not make a tremendous difference either way. If my second super is only foundation, I do tend to bottom super. If it’s drawn comb, I usually just put it on top. It may look like I had the ultimate honey production year in this photo from when I was a teenager – but I think it’s obvious by the other boxes around I may have been exaggerating just a bit, Ha-ha!
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Talk with the Expert Introducing Jake Osborne Kentucky Honey Farms
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This universal Frame Grip can be used on both Plastic and Wood frame foundations. With comfortable grip handles and strong metal construction, it securely grips the frame without slipping even while holding horizontally.
It's always great to pull in old friends to meet you and gather helpful tips from! I'm happy to introduce Jake Osborne (Kentucky Honey Farms) and pick his brain on what has worked and not worked over the years. We talked about how he got started, honey production, his overwintering in Florida, mean bees, and hot summers! Plus a super tip on how he's testing an overwintering technique - Plus so much more! This is a good interview - Check it out!
with Chari Elam
Little Mule Non-Locking Frame Grip
Why Aren't My Honey Supers Filling?
Inspecting Honey Supers and Spacing
As the nectar flow in your area builds, inspections to determine the need to add another super become an every 7-10 day task. Watch as Blake shows us exactly what we're looking for and a helpful tip on spacing the frames to get more honey per frame - as well as making it easier to uncap when extracting.
QUICK TIPS
This one can be really frustrating, but it’s pretty easy to diagnose in most cases. Here are the most common reasons your bees aren’t filling your supers with honey. The hive isn’t strong enough. This is, by far, the most common reason. If your top brood box isn’t 80% full of bees, and pretty full of brood and honey, they aren’t going to put much in your super. They will work to fill up the space below first. The hive is queenless. While a queenless hive will still bring in and store nectar, their declining population will not bring in as much nectar as a healthy hive with an increasing population. The primary nectar flow is weak, hasn’t begun, or is almost over. It’s key as a beekeeper to identify the flowers in your area that your bees produce honey from. When these start and stop blooming are indicators for the beginning and end of your main nectar flow. Local beekeepers should be able to quickly tell you what flowers are responsible for the primary surplus nectar flow in your area. The weather isn’t cooperating. Even with great hives and great flowers, if it’s unusually cold, hot, wet, or dry, some flowers just won’t produce much nectar. Some areas have more resilient flowers than others.
There are a handful of indicators to help you know when to harvest your honey. For some of you this will start as early as mid-June, while others in mid-July. Regardless of when, the same indicators apply.
The major nectar producing flowers begin to die. What those flowers are will vary by region, but every region has one, or a handful of flowers which produce large amounts of nectar which the bees store as a surplus for us to harvest. Visiting with local beekeepers to determine what those flowers are is incredibly helpful. When they begin to die, harvest time is right around the corner. Thankfully, this usually happens about the same time each year within a week or two. Once you discover the time the flow typically ends in your area, you can often harvest roughly the same time each year. What are your bees doing? When the nectar flow completely ends, you will notice that the bees begin to uncap the capped honey and eat it. Ideally, you want to harvest before that happens. You will also notice the bees are no longer storing large amounts of fresh nectar in the cells, but are capping honey, and there are fewer uncapped open cells of honey in the hive. Bees will also become more “robby” and robber bees from other hives may try to steal honey as you open and inspect hives. We’ll talk more about robbing in the next issue. The bees have capped and cured the honey. This is often one of the most confusing aspects for new beekeepers since bees will often not fully cap every cell on every frame. That’s OK... sometimes the flow ends suddenly, and bees don’t cap everything. Pay attention to the factors above and then do a shake test if there are large amounts of uncapped honey. This entails holding a frame horizontally over the top of the opened hive and shaking the frame. If nectar rains out of the frame, the honey is not yet cured, and you should wait another week before testing again. If no nectar rains out, or only a couple drips after vigorous shaking, it’s cured and ready to harvest. A full super of uncapped frames is often not ready to harvest, but if half of the cells are capped, and it is the end of the honey flow date wise, it’s typically fine to harvest.
When to Harvest Honey
Check out this video on doing the shake test to see if your honey is cured.
Identifying and Fixing Honey-Bound Hives
A honey-bound hive is one which brought in so much nectar or stored so much syrup, it has run out of room to store it and is beginning to fill the brood nest with honey/syrup to the point the queen has nowhere to lay. This is very detrimental to a hive since the queen can no longer lay a sufficient number of eggs to sustain the hive. A honey-bound hive can begin to dwindle in population, abscond and even eventually die if there is no intervention by the beekeeper. Identifying a honey-bound hive: All the boxes above the first brood box are completely full of honey. It’s between February and September, and the lower brood box has multiple frames of capped honey, and only a few frames of brood. Open cells even on those frames of brood are filled with nectar/syrup. There are no open spaces for the queen to lay eggs in the brood nest. The bees are drawing out excess burr comb all over the hive. You are feeding heavily, and have been for some time, or there is a strong honey flow.
If your hive is severely honey- bound, here is a simple & quick way to safely fix the hive: Remove 2 frames of honey on either side of the brood in the lower box. Set the frames at least 20 feet away from your hives and allow the frames to be robbed out. This could take less than an hour, or a day depending on the temperature and natural forage conditions. Place the now empty frames back into the hive on either side of the brood. Add an empty box Stop feeding if you were feeding.
Oftentimes hives are somewhere in between fully honey-bound, and partially honey-bound. If your hive still has 3-4 frames of brood in the lower box, but the upper boxes are full, and the lower box is full except for those 3-4 frames, it is often sufficient to simply add a box, and stop feeding if you are feeding. Typically, the bees will naturally move food out of the way into an upper box to allow more room for the queen to lay.
Photo Credit: Dodie Stillman
How to Fix Excess Comb or Incorrectly Drawn Foundation
On top bars of frames – This is super common and will happen in virtually every hive. Another term for burr comb would be “bridge comb” since bees often draw comb on top bars to act as a ladder to get to the next box above. They will also draw it out between the frames and the lid. In general, I avoid scraping it off unless it’s excessive and in my way. I usually recommend scraping it all off a few times per year to clean everything up. The bees will draw it back out once you remove it, so I wouldn’t bother doing it every time. It’s natural, common, and OK! When a hive dies, I always scrape off the excess burr comb as well. Treat this as a housekeeping action to do a few times each year. A sheet of comb between frames, or between frames and the outside of the box – This usually happens when you leave too much space between frames. Remember, always push frames tightly together in brood boxes after each inspection. If a large space is left between frames, the bees can draw out a sheet of comb, or just widen the existing comb. If they add a sheet, brush the bees off, and remove the sheet. You can set it 30-40 feet away from the hive and let the bees rob the honey out of it if it has honey in it. Push the frames tightly back together, and you are good to go! The steps are the same if bees draw out a sheet of comb between the frames and the outside of the box. Gently remove the bees, then use your hive tool to remove the sheet of comb. You may need to add an additional frame, center all the frames, or leave the excess space between the division board feeder (if that’s what you are using for a feeder) and the box to keep them from doing this again. Finally, if bees just widen your frames because there was too much space left between frames, you can fix this by brushing the bees off that frame and use your hive tool to scrape off the top quarter inch of comb to reduce the thickness of the frame. If it’s a frame of brood, they will only thicken the ring around the frame with honey. Scrape off the top quarter inch of honey and comb into a container and remove to prevent robbing. It will be messy, but the bees will quickly repair the frame and clean up any drips of honey. I recommend doing this in the late evening to prevent robbing if you are not in your major honey flow. In division board feeders – If you use a division board feeder, and don’t have a cap and ladder on it, the bees will often draw out comb inside it. I actually don’t mind this unless it’s so excessive it fills the whole feeder, or the queen is laying in the comb. In those cases, I’ll smoke the feeder heavily a few times and give the bees a chance to run out of it - then I’ll gently remove the comb. Watch carefully for the queen if there is brood inside the feeder. To prevent excess comb, I prefer inserting some hardware cloth in the feeder, or a loose sheet of foundation to give the bees something to grip, but also fills the space and prevents drawing comb. Cap and ladder systems work as well, but I prefer a more open feeder for better access to the syrup. Incorrectly on a frame of foundation – This one is common! Bees don’t always draw out new comb the way we want them to. They will sometimes draw an entire sheet of comb out right over the top of the foundation without using the foundation. Or they may draw strips of comb out over the top of the foundation. The solution for all of these is to brush the bees off the comb, scrape the excess comb completely off, and let the bees try again. In the following I’ve outlined some special considerations when fixing incorrectly drawn comb on foundation. I usually see this happen for 3 reasons: The foundation was dirty or unwaxed. The solution is to recoat the foundation with wax. The hive is weak or hungry and doesn’t have the resources to fully draw the frame properly. The solution here is to feed the hive or wait until a stronger honey flow begins. Too much space was left between frames. As bees are drawing out foundation, it helps to tightly press the frames together. In a honey super, with a strong hive on a strong honey flow, you can space the frames slightly and they will usually still draw them out properly. But, on a weaker flow, or a weaker hive they are more apt to draw it improperly. Note: Leaving space between frames only applies to honey supers. As stated, too much space between frames will cause excess comb building between brood nest frames. Always push them close together. There are other more rare areas bees will draw excess comb, like in an empty box with no frames that was left on too long, etc. The key is always to brush the bees off the excess comb, scrape it off, and remove the excess space that caused the issue. If there is honey in the comb, you can eat it (if you weren’t treating for mites recently) or set it out 30-40 feet away from your hive and let the bees rob the honey out.
While it can be annoying when bees draw out combs where we don’t want them to, it is usually a really good sign! It means your hive is strong enough to draw out extra comb! I’m excited when I see excess burr comb on top bars, or a sheet of comb drawn out in the wrong place! There are a handful of areas bees will draw out excess comb. We'll cover each one and what to do to fix it.
Foundation
Is your foundation just too dirty to be worth cleaning? Just replace it!
Photo Credit: Cameron Crane
SNAKES! Co-existing with bees and beekeepers
By: Paul Fagala
Snake – The very word often causes fear and anxiety for many people. However, the fear is often rooted in misinformation. Snakes are a very important part of the ecosystem and are more beneficial than most people think. Snakes eat rats and mice, different insects, and even other snakes! There are only four types of venomous snakes in North America – rattlesnake, cottonmouth, copperhead, and coral snake. However, there are many species of non-venomous snakes we are much more likely to encounter. As beekeepers, it is possible to encounter snakes while in our apiaries. I spoke with Clint “The Snake Man” Pustejovsky of Texas Snakes and More about the kinds of snakes we may see while at our hives. Pustejovsky said, “It depends on what is around the hives.” Snakes, like all animals, have habitat preferences. Knowing what those preferences are can help you know what snakes to expect. I asked what kind of venomous snake would most likely be found in an apiary. Pustejovsky suspects that it would be copperheads because they eat a lot of the prey that would be attracted to an apiary including rats, mice, and cicadas. There also could be several species of non-venomous snakes in an apiary searching for prey. Pustejovsky explained some myths about snakes. The first one is a triangular head means the snake is venomous. We've all heard that one but according to our expert, 95% of snakes have a triangular head due to the structure of their jaws. Therefore, this myth is not a reliable way to differentiate between venomous and non-venomous snakes. The second myth is that baby venomous snakes are more dangerous than adult snakes. Mr. Pustejovsky states this is simply not true. What do you do when you come across a snake in your apiary? Pustejovsky’s first piece of advice is to leave it alone. Most snakes will move on fairly quickly. Like most animals, snakes do not want to engage humans and will do whatever they can to get away from the. He noted that many people are bitten when they are trying to kill a snake as opposed to coexisting with them. If a venomous snake bites you, it is important to seek medical attention right away, but, rest assured, statistics show it is rare to die from a venomous snake bite. Each year there are over 2,000 bites, but rarely a death. Even with all their benefits, if you’d rather not have snakes in your yard or around your apiary, there are several things you can do to minimize the chance that you encounter one. The Snake Man noted snakes need three things to survive :a place to hide, water and a food source. Reduce the number of places for snakes to hide by keeping the area free of debris (i.e., old bee boxes, old frames, old lids.) Keep the grass mowed short. Provide water for your bees away from your apiary so if snakes come to it, they are less likely to be in the same place you are. By minimizing the places for snakes to hide, you also reduce the number of places for rodents and insects to hide which snakes would seek out for prey. Eliminating any food items that rodents or insects eat will also help. “The only good snake is a dead snake,” is the attitude many people have about snakes. But in reality, snakes are more beneficial than harmful. If you encounter one in your apiary, give it some distance, and observe these incredible animals as we co-exist.
Watch to see how easy it is to install a beetle trap!
What's Bugging You? Small Hive Beetles
Small Hive Beetles are relatively easy to identify. As the pictures show, they are round, black beetles normally found on the bottom board of the hive, or on the top bars of frames. Bees often build propolis “corrals” on the top bars of frames to trap the SHBs, and when you remove the lid, it sets them free. The adult beetles do not cause any harm in the hive. The larva however, eat pollen and honey, leaving a slimy trail behind them, contaminating the hive. Thus, identifying the larva is important. The SHB larva are smaller than wax moth larva, and much tougher. They have a more rubbery, tough skin and are difficult to squish. Wax moth larva are much more of a caterpillar, and squish very easily. In most cases even the larva cannot greatly damage or kill strong thriving hives. SHB are often blamed for the death of a hive since they are the most visible sign of damage. But the vast majority of the time your hive was weakened to the point of near death by something else, often Varroa mites, and they were unable to keep the SHB at bay. In rare cases, especially in hot and humid areas, beetles and their larva can overtake even a strong hive, but it is not common. Defenses against SHB While SHB rarely kills hives, it is still worth taking some steps to protect hives – especially if you live in very hothumid areas where they are prevalent. If you are in a region where most beekeepers only see an occasional beetle in their hives, or none at all, the only defense you need is to keep your hive healthy and strong. If you are in southern states, especially near the Gulf Coast, the SHB can be a bit more problematic. Typically, strong hives can still withstand them, but there are a few things you can do as well to keep them at bay. As mentioned, keep your hive strong. This is the single greatest thing you can do to keep the SHB at bay. If feeding pollen patties – only feed as much pollen patty as the bees can eat in about a week. Don’t let syrup sit in a top or division board feeder for more than 7-10 days. Keep hives in partial or full sun. SHB don’t like the sun and prefer hives in full shade. Use beetle traps or SHB cloths. There are MANY varieties of traps available for purchase, as well as cloths to put your in hive which trap the SHB. They range in price from a few dollars, up to the low $100's. Most of them work quite well. Start with smaller, cheaper traps, and if they don’t resolve the issue, try some of the more expensive ones. It is not recommend to use any sort of ground spray, or sprays outside the hive. They don’t tend to be very effective and can harm the bees. Use screened bottom boards. SHB hate light and ventilation, so screened bottom boards can be a wonderful natural way to discourage them from moving into your hive. If you begin to see a lot of SHB larva in your frames, it can be a struggle to save the hive. It is usually an indicator that something else is happening in your hive causing them to weaken to the point of not controlling the SHB. Scraping out infested sections of comb and killing the larva can help – or removing non-brood frames full of larva and freezing them for 72 hours before returning them to the hive can help as well. You can also add bees and brood from another hive to boost up the strength of the weak hive. However, ensure the weak hive has a good laying queen, you’ve removed the majority of the SHB larva, and they don’t have a varroa problem. Otherwise, you are most likely wasting resources trying to save the hive. At home trap options Roach poison- while various types of roach poisons can kill SHB, it is not recommended to use it in hive. It can kill bees if not applied properly, and it is not legal to apply it inside a beehive. Dryer sheets- you can take spent (used) dryer sheets, rough them up a bit with a steel scrub pad, then place them on the top bars of your hive. The SHB legs will become entrapped in the dryer sheet, and they will die. However, bee’s legs can also become trapped in the sheets. CD case - Take a case, and pop 1 prong out of the center which holds the CD in place. Place a few very thin cut slices of pear in the CD case & snap it closed. Then place it prong side up on the bottom board of the hive. SHB love pears and will find their way into the CD case. They typically can’t find their way back out & die inside the case. Or remove it and kill the beetles every few days. Cleaning SHB Damaged Frames Frames which have been “slimed” by SHB larva are often discarded by beekeepers who assume they are unsalvageable. However, the larva don’t damage the comb itself, only eating and “sliming” the honey, pollen, and brood in a frame. There are a variety of ways to clean the frames and reuse them. If there are still larvae in the frames, freeze them for 72 hours to kill them. Believe it or not, if you only freeze the frames for 24 hours the larva can actually survive. Thaw the frames completely, then use a gentle spray setting on a water hose to thoroughly wash the frame, the honey- comb, etc. The water will wash away the slime. Allow the frames to completely air dry. Finally, you can place them back into a hive for use or store them for later use. If you are in a hurry, or don’t have the freezer space available, take the slimed hives, and stand the boxes up on their end in the bee yard without the lid or bottom board. The larva hate the light and leave the box. After a week, other bees have usually robbed out the remaining honey in the hive and in the process, the slime is removed as well. There are disadvantages to this, such as the larva not being killed and allowed to pupate in the soil.
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Photo Credit: Nanette Davis
Keeping Colonies in Single Deeps
Back by popular demand!
One of the greatest barriers to beekeeping is the necessity to repeatedly lift heavy boxes. A deep brood box full of bees, brood and honey should weigh about 80 lbs., and a super, 70 – 90 lbs. The elimination of even a single brood box can make or break someone’s ability to have bees. Benefits of Single Deep Brood Boxes Only 1 brood box to manage – easier to find the queen when necessary. Effective mite control is more easily attained as testing and treatments are primarily confined to a single box. And an added bonus, less cost for treatments, as most require you to double the dosing for each brood box. Single brood box management tends to tame or minimize the power in numbers equation common to defensive hives. A key factor for keeping bees in a single deep is to focus on space. Space constraints are what cause swarms, but space doesn’t have to be “brood space.” Consider – The queen can not lay in more cells than there are available in any single brood chamber hive. But the amount of bees present can take up much more room than a single hive body can hold. Fact: A single deep brood frame has approximately 3500 cells per side X 10 frames = 35,000 (+/-). If most of that were used for brood rearing and not the storing of resources (honey) it would allow the queen a revolving door of over 30,000 cells to lay in during buildup and peak season. How it works Add a queen excluder (required) and a honey super early in the population growth season, supplying the bees with more room to move around, feeling less crowded, giving more space for the queen to move freely (stopping a swarm sequence). Workers will continue bringing in resources but instead of putting it them in the brood box, deposit most of it in the super as the pantry for the nest. They will then move those resources back and forth as they are needed. Managing your Single-Story Hive Continue adding supers as the season progresses allowing them to store plenty of honey for themselves and for honey production to be extracted. At the end of nectar flow remove all but 1 honey super. Remember, the first honey super is their food and space for the bees. Feed after extraction to encourage the bees to store in any open cavities in the single brood box as the population peaks and ultimately declines as the season progresses. Overwinter with a super if there aren’t enough stores in the single brood box. Splits and Frame Manipulation Part of keeping single story hives is taking advantage of the growing resources (including bees) in your hive. In that, each single deep has the opportunity to be split each population growth season just as a double deep hive would. Likewise, sharing frames from hive to hive is part of a healthy apiary. For a single-story hive beekeeper, it is more often used as a balancing act than a boosting for another colony. As one out grows another, pulling a frame (or trading frames) helps manage and equalize all the hives. It really is just that simple!
By: James Elam
Screen inner covers are a great way to alleviate heat buildup in your hives during summer months. Try it - Your bees will thank you!
Photo Credit: Meredith Howse
This is the time of year my phone and emails are blowing up with pictures of hives covered with bees all over the front of their boxes and beekeepers freaking out worried about it. I get it…this doesn’t look normal! But – it actually is! Bees are fantastic thermoregulators! When the temperature and humidity start rising outside, the inside of a hive becomes like a sauna. In order to alleviate some of this buildup of heat, house bees will migrate out to the surface of the hive and begin fanning furiously to remove excess moisture and cool the hive. This “convection” is a life saver – truly! Too much heat is a stressor and should be treated as such. Most of us (beekeepers) just shrug our shoulders and say, “Oh, that’s normal – just bees being bees.” Well, yes – that’s true, but at what cost? If we think about what “isn’t” going on while they are out taking this extended “house break,” it could make us rethink our reaction to it. Logic tells us the nurse bees, not foragers, are the ones hanging on the outside of the box cooling and fanning the hive. Therefore, it stands to reason there are missing workers inside the hive performing duties like taking nectar from foragers, fanning nectar into honey, feeding larvae etc. Because of this, we should not just shrug our shoulders and act as though we have no ability to help – We do! We can help reduce heat buildup inside the hive: Remove entrance reducers Use screen bottom boards and remove the slide-out board Install spacers above the inner cover and outer cover (pennies or toothpicks to allow for air flow) Switch out inner covers with screen inner covers during hotter months Prop up the top cover slightly to allow heat to escape Overall, bearding is a natural and important behavior for honey bees to regulate the temperature inside their hive and keep their colony cool during hot weather, but reducing the stress this can cause will allow your hive to function more efficiently and stress them less.
BEARDING BEES - OK OR NOT?
SCREEN INNER COVER
By: Lynne Jones
If you have been a beekeeper long enough to know the basics of varroa mite reproduction, you know the foundress mite prefers the cells of drone brood over the cells of worker brood during the reproductive stage. During the phoretic stage (when the varroa mite is outside the capped brood cell), varroa mites attach to bees in order to feed. Research has shown, “varroa mites clearly prefer nurses when they are presented a choice between a forager and a nurse.”1It is for this reason when performing an alcohol wash or powdered sugar shake to count varroa, the standard practice is to take the 1/2 cup sample of bees (approx. 300) from the brood nest where the nurse bees will be concentrated. Recently, I watched “Hidden in plain site: Varroa aggregate on adult drones”, a presentation given by Dr. Zachary Lamas for the Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan (SBGMI). The presentation was recorded and uploaded to the SBGMI YouTube channel on March 28, 2023. The presentation covers some of the results of Dr. Lamas’ PhD research project. An important discovery resulted from the project – one I think has the potential to change our approach in determining if a colony needs treatment for varroa mites or not. Dr. Lamas’ research has revealed phoretic varroa mites prefer to feed on 1‑3 day old drones over nurse bees. Why is this important? In the early season, when the colony’s population is growing and drones are being produced and maintained by the colony, the phoretic varroa are concentrated on the 1‑3 day old drones, but when we sample, we are not sampling the varroa-infested bees. By sampling the nurse bees when the drone population is high, it is very possible to get a count below the treatment threshold, even though in reality the colony has a high varroa count. In the late season, when drone production slows or ceases, the varroa transfer to the nurse bees and suddenly it seems the colony’s varroa count has spiked dramatically, when in actuality, the count was already high. The problem with the current process: by the time sampling shows a varroa count at or above the treatment threshold, a very high proportion of the bees have already been parasitized. When a treatment is then used to reduce the varroa mites, the parasitized bees still remain. Even if the treatment sucessfully removed every single varroa mite, the spread of viruses continues due to trophallaxis (bees feeding each other) and with hygenic behavior of cannibalizing virus-infected pupuae. Now knowing the relationship between varroa mites and adult drones, there is an opportunity to develop a new sampling process - one that samples drones during the early season or perhaps simply lowering the recommended treatment thresholds of the current sampling process. The research project’s data came from three years of drone sampling data in Maryland and Vermont. But for the recommended sampling or treatment threshold to be changed, much more data is needed from honey bee colonies across the country. If you’d like to participate in providing sampling data there is a Citizen Science Project website set up where you can get the details of how to conduct the sampling and submit your results. Or just check it out if you’re curious how the sampling is done or want to sample drones for your own information. Even though there are no established thresholds for varroa mites found on adult drones, in the SBGMI video at 1:19:30 Dr. Lamas says: ... we don't have established thresholds yet. We don't know what two mites on 40 drones means, not yet....Right now we know if you have multiple detections, so what that means is I get, let's say out of 40 drones two of them or three of them have mites, it's going to be infested come to Fall. Uhm, so we're there right now, but any better specificity we don't know yet. From this, I infer that when sampling up to 40 drones, the current unofficial treatment threshold is two (5%). Dr. Lamas later says all infested colonies were treated in the Fall when the 'regular' wash indicated to treat, and every one of the colonies failed to make it through Winter. The “Hidden in plain sight: Varroa aggregate on adult drones” presentation is much more interesting than this article and Dr. Lamas discusses more of his research project than is covered here.
What's the Buzz... Dr. Zachary Lamas and Varroa Mites on Drones?
I encourage you to watch the presentation yourself and if you want to share your thoughts on it, I’d love to hear from you. You can message me on Facebook or send an email to BrazosRiverHoney77474@gmail.com
Proportion of workers and drones infested with a mite (early season)
2 - eggs 1/4 cup - milk 2 T - fresh lemon juice 1 tsp. - lemon peel, freshly grated 1 tsp. - vanilla extract 6 T - butter, melted 1/2 tsp. - baking soda
YIELD:Makes 8 servings INGREDIENTS 2 cups - blueberries, fresh or frozen 1 T - all-purpose flour 1/2 cup - honey 2 T - fresh lemon juice 1 1/2 cups - all-purpose flour 2 tsp. - baking powder 1/2 cup - salt 1/2 cup - honey
BLUEBERRY COFFEECAKE
DIRECTIONS Coat the bottom of the greased 9-inch round cake pan with a thin layer of cornmeal and layer blueberries; distribute evenly. Sprinkle with flour; drizzle with honey and lemon juice. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine honey, eggs, milk, lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla; beat with a folk until well mixed. Add flour mixture; mix well. Stir in melted butter; mix well. Pour batter over blueberries in pan; spread to cover evenly. Bake at 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Invert cake onto large plate; cool.
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