August 2023
www.TheBeeSupply.com
THE BEE SUPPLY
Monthly
Cover Photo: Michael Hardman - Spicy Fly Honey Bees
Featured Topics Summer Dearth How to Price Your Honey Mr. Ed Horchoff My Hive Has Queen Cells & a Laying Queen Beekeeping Scams
Edition 38
Contents
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Clicking on a Topic will take you right to it!
Table Of
We welcome your feedback and submissions! editor@thebeesupply.com Beekeeping Questions: help@thebeesupply.com
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6 Monthly Tips 8 Summer Dearth 14 Symptoms of a Nutritionally Starved Hive 17 Sugar Syrup Recipe 18 How to Price Your Honey 21 Thinking Outside the Hive Box 22 Surviving Summer 24 Effects of Varroa on Honey Bees 27 Quick Tip: Which Treatment Should You Use Now? 28 Expert: Mr. Ed Horchoff
August
29 Handling a Smoker During Drought Conditions 30 What's Bugging You? Wax Moths 34 My Hive Has Queen Cells & a Laying Queen 38 6 Steps to Diagnosing Weak Hives 39 Fixing Weak Hives 40 What's the Buzz? Beekeeper Scams 45 Propolis Trapping 46 Recipe: Watermelon Salad with Honey Chili Vinaigrette 48 Webinar Q&A 49 Club Finder 50 U.S. Drought Map
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2023 BEGINNING BEEKEEPING CLASSES
Keep Your Cool
As the summer continues, keep a close eye on food stores to ensure your hive maintains at least a 30 lb. surplus. Also maintain a water source and remove mite treatment when suggested by the directions. Typically, pollen patties/subs are not needed during the summer, as there are some flowers blooming. However, during especially hot dry summers the conditions can kill the majority of blooming plants, or at least cause them to stop producing large amounts of pollen. In these cases, giving your hive a few pounds of pollen patties each month can be an excellent way to keep the queen laying and maintain your hive strength. Often times a dwindling hive over the summer can be the result of insufficient protein. As you feed your hive syrup, adding Super DFM or an essential oil mix like Pro Health can help give your hive the extra nutrition they need to thrive during the summer. Anything you can give your bees over the next few months to help them thrive should be used. Bee flight will be minimal during the heat of the day. Most activity will occur early in the morning and late in the day. A beard of bees hanging outside the entrance, especially in the evening, is normal this time of year. If your hive is especially strong, giving them a total of 3 boxes rather than 2 is advised.
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Beekeepers just about everywhere are experiencing overly hot days as we now qualify for the top 10 hottest summers on record! To combat that, working bees earlier in the day and wearing a ventilated suit can go a long way to making the task a lot more comfortable. Check out our private label Super Suit! Triple layer woven for ultimate air flow. Non-rusting zippers Zippered veil front to quickly grab a drink of water. Reinforced rugged knees. Heavy duty elastic wrists and ankles with Velcro straps Full length leg zippers Added length through the torso for maneuverability.
SUPER SUIT
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By: Blake Shook
August Tips
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By: Chari Elam
Summer Dearth
August – Just the mere mention of the word makes me sweat! Add a bee suit on top of it and – ugh. Just think if you were a honey bee right now! You go to the bee grocery store and there aren’t any bee groceries! Although it’s a huge store (3 miles), it only carries 2 products – Nectar and Pollen. And right now, the store is empty in most shopping areas! In the bee industry this is called dearth. Dearth simply means: A scarcity or lack of something – And in a “bee's life” the lack of nectar and/or pollen can mean the difference between life or death. Every area is different, but for most of us dearth starts mid-July and may go as long as early September. Most nectar producing plants have dried up, and to add insult to injury – at times, pollen is nowhere to be found. Signs your bees are in dearth: Hives will sound louder than normal, even when you’ve not disturbed them. Your bees may become more defensive toward you. Robbing occurs on weaker hives – Unable to defend against a stronger neighboring hive, often weaker hives succumb to robbing within hours. For a great article on robbing and robbing screens – refer to the July issue Pg. 40 Bees seem to fly in a “desperation” mode instead of with purpose. They act displaced in a way...almost as if they are bored or even lost. What you are seeing are hungry bees! You don’t have to be an “over-keeper” to track what resources are in your hive. Periodically do a tilt test to verify the hive is still heavy. Simply take your hive tool and put it up under the back of the hive and lift. If it’s light, you should probably feed them. If it’s heavy - 3 frames or more (30 lbs.) of stored honey, then there’s no need to feed. Regardless of your area, it’s important to know that your bees are in winter preparedness mode. Supplemental feeding of 1/1 sugar syrup during this time will enable your bees to continue to feed larvae to keep populations up and prevent them from using any of the stored honey already existing in the hive. As an added bonus, I’m a huge proponent of utilizing micro-nutrient and essential oil products such as, Pro Health, Super DFM, Complete Bee, and Apis Biologix (my top pick). Your bees will thank you for it. It’s not all about nectar – Pollen is equally important! Brood viability going into winter is a BIG deal. If nature is only supplying a variety of pollen producing plants, the odds go way up that the “quality” of the pollen isn’t meeting the nutritional requirements for a healthy hive. In fact, poor quality pollen added on top of “limited quantities,” increases the impact on colonies by drastically reducing the area of brood tendered by nurse bees. Quote: Randy Oliver (scientificbeekeeping.com): “Should protein become even scarcer, the nurses will cannibalize drone brood, eggs, and young worker brood (in which they have invested the least resources), digest out the protein, and recycle it back into jelly. And, in extreme circumstances, the nurses will hoard the remaining protein in their bodies, and become the aforementioned diutinus (long lasting), or “winter bees.” Practical Tip: Workers which develop as larvae during pollen dearth’s may have food withheld, and thus be compromised in later life – beekeepers should be aware of this delayed effect.” End quote. How can you prevent that? Supplement with pollen! We want to come out of winter with robust, well-fed bees that are more than capable of rearing our Spring Bees! Using products such as Global pollen patties will help ensure that. In locations where small hive beetles are prevalent, use only small amounts of pollen subs to prevent small hive beetle issues. Place the patties directly on top of the frames and watch your bees make it disappear! We can’t end the “Dearth” topic without saying WATER is ESSENTIAL! Water is used to cool the hive and thin honey to mix with pollen for bee bread. Keeping your water source close (within ¼ of a mile) and continually full is super important.
Dry brood - a clear indication of pollen deficiency.
Adding extra boxes in the summer can make a big difference in the amount of heat captured inside of a hive box. Check out this video for more details!
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In the July webinar we talked about our favorite supplements - Complete and Apis Biologix. Plus Blake introduces our newest products, Global patties with Complete and Apis Biologix - Both are super for our hives in need this time of year!
Check out this video of Blake going through a hive in August - This will give you a visual of what I'm talking about.
Helpful resource: Check out this NASA site. It allows you to choose your area and pinpoint what you should be seeing and when. Note the last column labeled SIG – this refers to whether it is a “very important nectar source species.” Getting familiar with these plants, what they look like and their cycle for your area will help you determine your bees’ needs.
1st Thursday of Each Month Monthly Buzz Webinar August 3rd, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
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Upcoming Agenda
Live in the Bee Yard Tips August Beekeeping Tips Keeping Hives Cool Varroa Control Summer Feeding Fixing Weak Hives Live Q&A AND MORE
Italian/Carniolan
Feeding a hive doesn't have to be an arduous task - in and out - quick and easy!
A starving hive can take on many symptoms and can occur at many points throughout the year. Thus, it is important to be able to identify the symptoms. The most common conditions which can lead to this are: For regions that have warm winters (daytime temperatures 60-70 degrees) your hive may never stop rearing brood and possibly need some supplemental pollen and syrup throughout winter. For most of the country, little to no pollen is needed during the dead of winter since no brood rearing is occurring. In these instances, a starving hive is one which has run out of stored honey or syrup. Early spring before a major honey flow begins and the bees are building up faster than flowers are blooming. You should watch especially closely if there is a late spring cold snap and the bees can’t forage for a week or more while they have a rapidly growing population. If this occurs, a gallon or two of syrup and a pollen patty are typically sufficient to carry them through a week of non-flight. Post-harvest – This is the most common time to see bees suffer nutritionally. Once you harvest honey, typically in early summer, many regions experience hot and dry conditions and a dramatic reduction in nectar and pollen available. Summer Dearth – No nectar or pollen sources available for the bees to forage on. Now that we have identified when to watch for nutritionally starved hives, let’s discuss what it looks like in a hive: Less than half a frame (combined) of pollen stores in a hive Less than 10 lbs. (combined) of honey or syrup in a hive (1 deep frame full of honey is 8-10 lbs. and a medium frame is 4-6 lbs. for reference) Bees cannibalizing brood. You may see the bees uncapping and consuming pupa, or more likely, you will see almost no eggs or larva in the hive, despite a laying queen. Before cannibalization begins, larva will look “dry” in a hive. The small larva in a hive should be floating in royal jelly. If they are not, this is an indication that the hive doesn’t have enough stores. The fastest way to fix a starving hive is to simply give them food! Keep in mind that if they have plenty of stored honey, but little to no stored pollen, they need a pollen patty. If they have little to no stored syrup/honey, they need syrup. When in doubt, a little food can go a long way to help protect a hive!
Symptoms of a Nutritionally Starved Hive
Harrison Rogers (Harris County Beekeepers Association) has some great tips in this video about what to feed and how to feed it. Simple and cost saving is always good!
Pre- made bulk syrup can really be a cost saving feeding tactic. Slower consumption and full of nutrients!
1:1 - Most like Nectar for feeding larvae and drawing out honeycomb - Spring/Summer 4-pound bag of sugar formula: 8 cups of water per bag of sugar Makes approximately 3 ½ quart jars or 1 gallon 10-pound bag of sugar formula: 20 cups of water per bag of sugar Makes approximately 8 ¾ quart jars or 2 ½ gallons 2:1 - Most like Honey for consumption - Fall/Winter (or starving hives) 4-pound bag of sugar formula: 4 cups of water per bag of sugar Makes approximately 2 quart jars or ½ gallon 10-pound bag of sugar formula: 10 cups of water per bag of sugar Makes approximately 4 ½ quarts or 1 ½ gallons
Sugar Syrup Recipe
Directions: 1:1 syrup mixture - only requires hot tap water. Add sugar and water together and stir or shake until dissolved. 2:1 syrup mixture - Heat water on med/high heat in a large stock pot “just till marbling (slow swirl)” Not bubbling or boiling. Turn the heat off and add sugar stirring constantly Stir occasionally (every 10-15 minutes) until all dissolved Syrup will be clear but “opaque.” These formulas are “volume” mixture not weight. By weight formulas are “slightly” different.
By Chari Elam
The price you charge for your honey can be a hot topic among your fellow beekeepers – almost a competition of sorts… especially if they live nearby and ARE your competitors! But who are your competitors? For small scale beekeepers, it’s certainly not commercial beekeepers. The June 27th USDA National Honey Report states the following: Prices paid to beekeepers for extracted, unprocessed honey in major producing states by packers, handlers & other large users, cents. per pound, f.o.b. or delivered nearby, containers exchanged or returned, prompt delivery & payment unless otherwise stated. - REPORT INCLUDES BOTH NEW AND OLD CROP HONEY U.S. –$2.26 - $2.80 World market - $1.29 - $2.29 As you can clearly see wholesale is NOT your competition – Thankfully! Having said that, your competitors are your fellow “local” beekeepers… and most often your friends – ouch, that stings! THAT in itself can be a huge factor in what you charge for your honey. Right off the bat – it does no good to be far off the price of someone that is in your specific market, UNLESS, you have something “special” that they don’t have. Such as a certain varietal difference, or even size or packaging! I know this aspect personally. We sell a quart mason jar of honey next to a pint mason jar of a competitor (basically from the same area) and we get 16% more for ours – Why? Packaging! We put a hang tag about honey and a honey dipper attached to each jar. It stands out as a premium product next to our competition that is cheaper! This is a prime example of thoughtful packaging bringing the bigger bucks. Plus, you notice that we sell quarts while they sell pints. It made no sense to sell a pint even if we dressed it up. We aren’t looking to run them out of business, rather – simply market to customers wanting a larger container. If they had been quarts, we would have used pints – out of fairness to them and good business for us. You get the point. But what should “you” charge? From the commercial wholesale pricing you can see a lot is factored into their final number. You as a beekeeper should do the same, albeit on a much smaller scale. Take into consideration the following when you price your honey: Cost of doing business – includes bees, feed, treatment, equipment, etc. Container cost (+ lid if sold separately) Label cost (this includes any additional labels you have such as the “do not feed to infants” label) Added embellishments (this is my honey dippers + my hang tags from Honey.com) We sell our honey for $20 per 48 oz. quart = $.4166 per oz. That may not sound like much to some of you – but it’s our market. That person that sells a pint next to us, sells their pint for $8.50 = $.3541. As you can see, we are getting more for our honey even though we are selling a larger quantity. Here’s how we calculate what we can logically sell our honey for: Cost of doing business - $3.55 per pound (3 lbs. per quart) = $10.65 per quart cost Container cost (we do mason jars) - $1 each. Label(s) - $.09 Additional hang-tag – approx. $.03 (I order them from Honey.com for free, but you have to pay shipping of $9.95 – we take the opportunity to add other promotional products from them for our new customers… that’s why this amount is approx.) Added Embellishments – For us that’s a honey dipper from Amazon - $.23 each. Total cost $12.00 per quart – we sell it for $20 = $8 profit per quart jar We sell pints, quarts, half gallon, and gallon. Our biggest profit being from pints at $5.33 each. It takes two pints to equal one quart in honey weight, so it jumps our profit to $10.66 per quart instead of $8. Tip: Smaller amounts make more money. It is imperative you know your costs and your market. If we lived where we could sell our honey in boutiques instead of a plant nursery/vegetable stand settings, we could easily go up to $25 or maybe even more per jar. I’ve read on social media that some people get $1 per oz for their honey – all I can say is “Kudos to you!” That’s wonderful that your market will pay that! Unfortunately, ours will not. I would rather sell all we make than sit on it and carry it forward year after year. Market watch – Scope out the honey being sold around you and meet or exceed that market with your product. We strive to rise above in quality and appearance and for many years that has paid off well.
How to Price Your Honey Making the most from your market!
Thinking Outside the Hive Box!
NOW YOU'RE
Photo/Idea Credit: Peg Turrentine
What is your honey market's favorite container? We offer a full line of honey bottles - glass and plastic!
Have a "GREAT" idea? Submit it to: editor@thebeesupply.com
S U M M E R
This month we’re trying to cover all of the components of hive care during these often extremely hot, dry weather conditions we call “summer.” In so doing, hive inspections are an integral part of that equation. Hive checks should be performed a couple of times a month, if possible, to check on the following: Stores of nectar and pollen – Do you have at least 30 Lbs. of stored honey…how about pollen around brood? Feeding may be needed – both syrup and pollen. How many bees? Full boxes – does the need exist to add an empty box? Queen laying? How is the brood pattern? Re-queening can still be done! How does the brood look? Is the open brood healthy (moist and white)? Is capped brood healthy looking (not dry and cracking)? Varroa mites – It’s a good time to test for Varroa if you haven’t since extraction or the nectar flow ended. That was just a quick checklist – For more detail check out this video for an in-depth walk through of a summer hive to learn tips and tricks on how to care for it.
Photo Credit: Nanette Davis
I often catch myself rolling my eyes at the topic “Varroa Mites” … it’s so talked about, so often, that one has to wonder if we have become “resistant” to the topic when in all actuality our bees are paying the price! To bring it closer to home (for me included), I decided to research the effects of Varroa on “the individual” honey bee…not the colony as a collective, but a single bee as it lives – or dies. Decreased body weight and water content of young emerging bees Lower body weight of adult bees Altered flying (deformed wing virus), homing (getting lost) and orientation abilities in foragers – limiting their ability to collect resources. Lower immune response – reflected in their healing mechanism (possibly linked to mites feeding on fat bodies) – resulting in “sick bees.” Decreased drone size, inducing a deficit in sperm production, mating success, and flight ability. Taking all this in as a whole, it occurs to me that most of this is generally “unseen”! I can’t tell if a bee’s weight is under or over – or if they get lost when they go out to forage – Can you? I purposefully didn’t include any of the “visual” signs such as deformed wing virus or balding brood…because in all actuality, it is the unseen that seems so destructive. It is all somewhat overwhelming as we try to remedy Varroa without causing more harm than good – doesn't it?! As I read further, I got inspired. It’s not just about “treating” for mites… It’s about managing our bees on an individual basis. Consider this: In warmer climates (such as my own), we have “elongated” brood cycles. Think about it – In the southern U.S. we experience nearly non-stop brooding from February – November. That’s basically 10 months out of 12! What happens during brood cycles during population growth? Varroa mites are reproducing 1 mite every 30 hrs. “per capped cell”! There’s our smoking gun (so to speak)! I have a Varroa producing factory more than ½ the year! UGH! What can I do to change that? Move to a colder climate? No…of course not...Well maybe! Haha! But seriously, implementing broodless cycles could directly impact overall colony health by reducing the Varroa seasonal growth. There are 3 methods to implement a brood break: Swarm/split, requeening and queen trapping (caging or temporary split). Smaller bee yards - This one really hit home. It is common knowledge that bees drift among themselves and rob from each other. When bees drift, they pick up mites and/or deposit mites where they have been. Same with robbing. You may have a completely mite free hive, then experience a small robbing event and find that all of the sudden you are on mite overload! Think of it like this – You have one hitchhiker jumping out at your front door for every car that passes by your house… all of a sudden you have a house full of hitchhikers! The remedy for this is simple – low density bee yards! How small? … It's impossible to not give a subjective answer… but keep in mind that a “few” hives in one location could be enough. If you have a smaller yard, spacing the hives out as far as you can and facing their entrances in different directions will help. For those afforded larger properties, simply make pods of bee yards spread around to accomplish the same thing. This may make it more of a hassle to work your bees, but you’ll find you have a lot less drifting and robbing. Practicing IPM (Integrated Pest Management) by including requeening, brood breaks, mite resistant stock, screen bottom board, etc., can make a significant impact on your Varroa mite loads and the need for treatments less - ultimately improving the health of your bees.
Effects of Varroa on Honey Bees ... on a single bee
When one bee is sick and failing, it's just a matter of time before the whole colony is affected.
This time of year you have two trusted treatments to use when faced with having to treat your hives. Blake Shook’s recommendation: Apivar– Use when your mite count is 2-3 mites per 100 tested – It’s a slower treatment and should do a good job handling this mite load. Apiguard– Use this product when you have a higher mite load (4-5 mites per 100 tested) – It’s a faster treatment, giving you a quick kill to gain control over the high mite population.
Check out this video about how Mark Dykes with Honey Bee Health Coalition describes these methods.
Quick Tip
Talk with the Expert Introducing Jeff "Mr. Ed." Horchoff YouTube Beekeeper Sensation
By: Susan & Tom Caldwell
I finally did it! I was able to snag an interview with the one and only "Mr. Ed" aka: Jeff Horchoff - YouTube Beekeeping star! Join me as we talk about the benefits of having a mentor, attending bee clubs, and NEVER GIVING UP! We also talk about his experience with bee removals and some really sound advice about "when" removals will be successful and will they will not! Plus a multitude of other topics... Check it out!
with Chari Elam
Here are some tips to consider:
With the heat and severe drought conditions we are experiencing throughout the nation, the smallest spark from a bee smoker can become a nightmare in minutes! Our bee yard happens to be located in the midst of our managed pine plantation and because those trees are a primary agricultural investment, we risk more than hives if a smoker fire gets out of control. That being the #1 reason we have always carried our smoker in a metal bucket – and the smoker STAYS in that bucket unless we pick it up to puff smoke in a hive. With even the smallest fires turning into massive fire devastation and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars being imposed on those who even “accidentally” start them, we as beekeepers have a responsibility to avoid being the cause of property damage or even worse. Keep a fire extinguisher with you. Choose an area to light your smoker that is free from burnable materials (on a concrete slab, in a sandy area of your bee yard, etc.). Avoid lighting your smoker in the wind allowing embers to float to flammable material. Keep your lit smoker in a metal bucket or box (i.e., old tool box) Do NOT sit your smoker on the ground. Dry grass can catch fire from the extreme heat of the hot smoker surface. Be aware at all times of where your smoker is. You don’t want to trip over it! Keep the smoker away from the veil of your bee suit! Floating embers can melt a hole large enough for several bee friends to get through! When cleaning out your smoker, never dump ashes on the ground. Instead have an additional metal bucket with a tight metal lid to carefully dump your smoker contents into. Place the lid on the bucket and then pour a little water into your smoker to be sure no sparks remain. Store everything in a safe place!
Handling a Smoker During Drought Conditions
What's Bugging You? Wax Moths - The Vulture of the Bee World
By: James Elam
A healthy beehive is one of the cleanest and most well protected homes in nature. Housekeepers work around the clock to provide both safe and clean living conditions within the hive. But what happens when something goes wrong? Signs of a colony at risk: Colony hygienic behavior declines – lack of house bees maintaining hive temperature and normal duties of the hive. Queenless – evidence by dirty bottom board; dry crumbling wax Low populations – possibly indicating the presence of pests (like Varroa or Small Hive Beetles) and/or disease. Too much space Swarmed but failed to rear a new queen If any of these symptoms are left un-checked, nature takes over in the form of a pest called the Greater Wax Moth. Wax moths perform the role we often see played out in nature by vultures. Attracted by the various scents in a bee hive like wax, honey, and pollen, they are always near-by lying in wait for the right opportunity to take over. When hive failure occurs, it is quickly followed by the moth invasion! It is important to note, wax moths do NOT typically cause colonies to fail – they are merely taking advantage of an opportunity. As a normal part of nature and often part of a healthy hive, wax moths can co-exist in low numbers with our bees, doing minimal damage. A strong colony can proactively guard the adults, preventing egg-laying and any chance of takeover. When left unguarded however, they will lay eggs that soon hatch into larvae. The larvae then tunnel through the honeycomb as they eat, leaving behind damaged comb, silk webbing and feces. As they prepare for pupation, they burrow into the wood of the hive creating a cocoon. Soon after, adults emerge, and the process begins all over again. Once heavily infested with wax moths, the bee colony no longer exists. It has either absconded or withered away. Robber bees may be present to help with the final cleanup, but the beehive now has new occupants - Wax Moths. At this point it is necessary to preserve what components might be salvageable. Scrape away any cocoons on the box and remove damaged frames discarding the debris away from the apiary. For minor wax moth damage, it is possible to cut the webbed larvae trails out of partially damaged combs and reuse in a strong colony. Heavily damaged frames should be scraped cleaned and rewaxed prior to reuse. All reused components including frames should be pest free before reinstalling in a hive. Always freeze the frames a minimum of 48 hours to ensure all eggs and cocoons have been killed prior to re-use or storage. For heavily damaged hive boxes, some feel it necessary to “torch” the inside where the cocoons were attached. I’m not sure that’s necessary, but it probably doesn’t hurt. Treatment methods for in-hive control without hurting the bees basically do not exist. However, some beekeepers use “in the bee yard traps” to help control the local population. These traps tend to have only a minor impact, and some beekeepers say the traps may attract more wax moths to the site. The real answer lies with a strong and healthy colony. Beyond that, protecting your biggest asset (stored frames and supers) should be your focus. To prevent wax moth damage to stored frames, products like Certan and Para Moth work well. Check out the article titled “Cleaning and Storing Extracted Honey Supers” in the July issue - Pg. 26 for more details. A small number of frames can be stored in a freezer for 48 hours, allowed to thaw, then placed in a Super Bag, storage tote, plastic bag and sealed; or if you have a dedicated frame freezer such as this one, they can remain frozen until the time to use them again. Complete supers (box and frames) should also be protected. Because wax moths do not like light; use this to your advantage! Dry comb super boxes can be stacked crisscrossed in a lighted open-air, protected space such as a screened area. The open-air method also has an added bonus in that it inhibits mold. While most honey frames are immune to wax moths because they contain only honey, some do contain random pollen and therefore fall into the same storage criteria. Are wax moths our friends? NO! But we should know that wax moths are not the enemy of beekeepers or honeybees. They are a part of nature, and they do fulfill the role of Vulture in the bee yard.
B402 Certan is the most advanced effective and economical product for the protection of your combs from damage by wax moths - And it is a safe environmentally friendly product.
SUPER BAG
NEW SUPER BAG
New Product Alert!
Tired of storing supers in leaky trash bags that pests can still get into? We have created an easy and convenient way to safely store your honey supers anytime of the year! Open the bag using the top zipper and place your supers down into the bag. Add your plate or sock of Para-Moth wax moth crystals, then simply zip up the bag! Since our bag completely and safely seals, only one application of crystals are needed.
Photo Credit: Fox and Hound Bee Company
Photo Credit: GoldenBee.Ca
My Hive has Queen Cells AND a Laying Queen! Now What?
Swarm cells: Often located along the bottom & sides of a frame Found in overcrowded hives, where every box is more than 80% full of bees 90% of the time found in Spring or very early Summer Hive appears generally healthy, full of bees & brood, with a good brood pattern Often 5-20 cells
Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to see an active queen and queen cells. But before we talk about what to do about it, let us first break down the different types of queen cells found in a hive. To start, a queen cell is simply a cell in which a queen is actively being raised. A queen cup, or emergency queen cup as they are often called, is an empty queen cup that bees often have in the hive. Bees keep these empty cups ready in case they need to rear a queen. But, unless it has a larva in it, it’s of no concern. If there is a developing larva in the cell, then you need to decide if it is: A supersedure cell - the bees replacing a failing queen. A swarm cell - half of the bees are preparing to leave with the queen. An emergency queen - the hive has lost their previous queen. If you read most beekeeping books, they explain that supersedure cells (queens being raised to replace a failing queen) and swarm cells (queens being raised in preparation for half the bees & the old queen to swarm away) are easy to spot. Swarm cells are typically located along the bottom & sides of frames, and supersedure cells are located in the middle of frames. Although that principle is often true, I’ve seen it fail many times as well. While keeping it in mind, here are a few additional ways to tell the difference: In a nutshell, swarm cells are found in healthy, overcrowded hives preparing to swarm. Supersedure cells are usually in weakening hives which need a new queen, so the bees are preparing to requeen themselves. If you are seeing queen cells and have a laying queen in your hive (verified by seeing her), or you are seeing plenty of healthy eggs, larva and brood, there are a few things you need to do. Make sure what you are seeing are actually queen cells. Make sure you don’t have a drone layer laying eggs rather than a queen. If neither of the above are relevant, then typically 1 of 2 things are happening. If your hive has a newly introduced (last 1-2 weeks) queen, bees can still raise queen cells as the new queen’s pheromones fully develop. If that is the case, simply wipe out the developing queen cells. If the queen is not new, chances are they are raising supersedure cells to replace a failing queen. In this case it is best to order a new queen quickly, wipe out the queen cells, remove the old queen when the new one arrives, and install a new queen in the hive. NOTE: It only takes the bees 12 days to raise a new queen when they start with a 24-hour old larva, so you don’t have a lot of time to replace the queen. If you already see capped queen cells, gently uncap one of them. If there is a fully developed white pupa in the cell, you will need a new queen within 2-3 days, otherwise it will be too late, and the new queens will begin hatching out by the time you get a new queen. If the pupa is already turning brown, it’s too late...they usually hatch within 1-2 days. Chances are if you try to wipe out all the queen cells, you will most likely miss one, and that virgin queen will kill the queen you introduce.
Supersedure cells: Often located in the middle of frames Typically found in weakening or dwindling hives that aren’t full of bees Found all times of the year Hive often appears weak, with a poor brood pattern Often only a few queen cells
Featured Handy Tool
One hand Queen catcher/marking tube
Queenless - Laying worker hive (Drone Layer)
Does my hive have 1/2 + frames of stored pollen with fresh pollen coming in? No feed as much pollen sub as your hive can consume in 1 week. Re-apply each week.
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6 Steps to Diagnosing Weak Hives
Is there room for my queen to lay, and are there fresh eggs and larvae? No - Stop feeding, and/or add box. No eggs/larvae - Check for queen cells. If none, add queen.
Does the developing brood look pearly white and healthy? No - Use supplements like Pro - DFM, Complete Bee, or Apis Biologix
Is the brood pattern spotty on every frame in the hive? Yes - If mites are under control, and sufficient food is present, requeen
Does my hive at least 3-4 frames of honey? No - Feed syrup to boost the hive strength.
Note: In most situations, hives under 2-3 frames bees are difficult to save. Hives over 3 frames of bees may be salvageable using some of the tools below. If you are still stumped, send us pictures along with your questions to: help@thebeesupply.com
Learning how to fix a weak hive is a critical skill in beekeeping. Every beekeeper will, at some point, have one or many weak hives that need help!
Are my mites under 2 per 100 bees? No - Treat quickly and test post treatment to ensure it worked
To Strengthen a Hive: 1. Add 1 frame of capped brood from a stronger hive to the center of the bottom brood box. 2. Add bees. While this can create some infighting between hives, you can add bees to a weak hive. Find a frame of uncapped brood in a strong hive, ensure the queen is not on that frame, take the frame to your weak hive, smoke the entrance, and shake the bees off the frame in front of the weak hive. Since the frame was uncapped brood, the worker bees on it are primarily nurse bees, and integrate much easier into a new hive. 3. Make sure your varroa mites are 2 mites per 100 bees or less. Test and treat if needed! 4. Feed syrup if your weak hive does not have at least 2 frames of honey. 5. Feed pollen substitute. Only give a weak hive as much as they can consume in 1 week, which is typically about 1/4th a pound each week. If it is not all consumed at the end of the week, pull it out of the hive, freeze it, and put it back in the hive a day later. This will ensure any small hive beetle eggs or larvae are killed. 6. Feed nutritional supplements, like Super DFM, Apis Biologix, and add essential oils like ProHealth to the syrup. 7. After 2-3 weeks of performing all these actions, if the hive does not seem to be growing, and the queen is not aggressively laying, consider replacing the queen. As you can see, the best way to save a hive is to "throw the kitchen sink at them" and provide them with every possible advantage and resource to allow them to grow. In most cases, a hive will begin to grow after all of these things! However, if your weak hive has been weak for a number of months, there is a good chance it will need to be requeened in the end.
*Notice the odd wording. “How to get a prize is to check….” “… if within 60 minutes you don’t get a response, we will void it as a winner.” Uhm, shouldn’t that be, If you don’t respond within 60 minutes…
By: Lynne Jones
Hi! My name is Bob!
Scams of one sort or another on Facebook are nothing new. Most are related to identity theft or obtaining information in order to make fraudulent credit card transactions or electronic banking theft. In early June, a scammer set up a Facebook account using The Bee Supply’s name and profile picture in order to impersonate The Bee Supply. The scammer replied to most who had commented on a TBS “Giveaway” post, congratulating them on winning and directing them to a site to register for their prize. At the provided link (which is likely a website domain in Montenegro) the ‘winner’ was then asked for their personal credit card information. Fortunately, The Bee Supply was made aware of this issue soon after it occurred and immediately took action by banning the Scammer, deleting their comments, informing everyone of the scamming attempt, and of course, reported the fraudulent profile to Facebook. But now there is a much more sophisticated scam to beware of, one with ties to organized crime originating from Cameroon, a country in central Africa. Thanks to John Chesnut, a beekeeper in coastal central California, attention is being brought to these scams. For lack of a better term, John calls this type of scam an “Advance Fee Scam.” John has spent countless hours analyzing and documenting the activities of the scammers. He has messaged beekeeping group Admins and posted in groups to warn members of known scammers. In April, to better get the word out, and to provide a central location to report scams and scammers, John started the Facebook group Exposing Scams and Frauds in Beekeeping. How Advance Fee Scams Work Beekeepers tend to implicitly trust members of their small local group (even when it is a Facebook group with several thousand members). Scammers take advantage of that trust by posing as both Beekeepers and Sellers of bees and beekeeping equipment. The Scammer starts one or more Facebook Sales Pages with bee/apiary related names. Our example here is Scammer Bee Apiary. The Scammer uses photos from legitimate beekeeping sites to “build a legend” or the appearance of a legitimate page history. The Scammer starts one or more pseudonym Facebook user pages. These will be “Shills” (accomplices) used to recommend the fraudulent “Scammer Bee Apiary.” Our Scammer’s pseudonym Shills are Chris Smith and Janet Doe. The Scammer requests membership for Chris Smith and Janet Doe in as many beekeeping groups as possible. Automated key word search programs run continuously to notify of posts where a beekeeper is looking to purchase a queen, nuc, colony, wax, etc. Bob Beekeeper trusts his fellow beekeepers and decides Scammer Bee Apiary must be pretty good since two beekeepers have recommended them. Bob clicks on the link for Scammer Bee Apiary and sends them a message to inquire about the availability of a mated queen. Scammer Bee Apiary replies back, “Yes, we can ship” or Bob can pick up from the apiary (a location not so conveniently located about 150-200 miles away from Bob). If Bob chooses to have the queen shipped, Scammer Bee Apiary will of course need full payment including shipping & handling. If Bob indicates he will pick the queen up, Scammer Bee Apiary will require a partial or full payment up front to hold the queen. Scammer Bee Apiary “of course” requires payment by non-refundable digital payment networks (Venmo, Zelle, etc.) or Amazon Gift Cards. Once the payment is received, Scammer Bee Apiary blocks Bob. John began beekeeping in 1972 in the Shenandoah Valley where he learned traditional Scotch-Irish mountain beekeeping as taught by Appalachian moonshiners. He later worked at his college Bee Lab where he gained the academic training used in honey bee research. He has lived on the coast of Central California, San Luis Obispo County, most of his adult life and considers himself to be a retired sideliner, having downsized to about 150 colonies at out-yards on ranches and orchards in the region. John attributes some of his investigative nature to his upbringing, saying, “My father (long deceased) worked in prominent role in National Security Intelligence, and our dinner table conversations growing up often looked at news reports and dissected the reporting for the “real story” behind the surface. I believe some of his methods were absorbed from these informal conversations.” In his professional life, John worked as a rare plant botanist and community ecologist. He uses community network tools developed for ecological research to look at connections in the Facebook scammer community.
Screenshot of TBS impersonation scam attempt
*Not TBS’ website. When the link was clicked, the website asked for credit card info.
*Urgent response needed is a typical scammer tactic
*Scammer’s impersonation account using TBS profile picture
What's the Buzz... Beekeeping Scams
A victim of an Advance Fee Fraud should: 1) Report the transaction to Venmo/Zelle, etc. 2) Report the fraudulent sales page to Facebook 3) File a police report with local (city or county) law enforcement agency. 4) Provide the following information in the police report: Method of cash transfer used. The "email" or Venmo/Zelle used by the scammers. The “Shill" name(s) promoting the scam. Screenshots of Facebook and messenger communication 5) Request the Police contact Facebook via the private "Public Security" channel available to police agencies. 6) Contact Exposing Scams and Frauds in Beekeeping to report the Scam
In this example, Bob Beekeeper has posted looking for a mated queen. Chris Smith responds with a scripted recommendation of the fraudulent sales page, Scammer Bee Apiary. Later, Janet Doe also responds, stating she recently bought from them.
- AWARE
Propolis Trapping
If you are the Administrator or Moderator of any Facebook group, not just beekeeping, I urge you to join and follow the Exposing Scams and Frauds in Beekeeping group, as this type of scam is being used in many Facebook communities such as Fancy Chickens, Golf Carts, BMW auto parts, Hay and Feed sales, Mobile Sawmills, and the list goes on and on. You can message me on Facebook or send an email to BrazosRiverHoney77474@gmail.com
Propolis traps are an excellent way to harvest clean propolis from your hive and add extra income. Replace your inner cover with our plastic propolis trap. The bees will fill the grooves of the trap with propolis. To remove, simply put the trap inside a plastic bag and freeze overnight. Twist the trap inside bag to release the propolis. Our plastic traps last for years of service. Super not included. Fits all standard 10 Frame equipment. Note: Autumn is the typical peak propolis production time of year.
About
YIELD: Makes 2 servings INGREDIENTS For Salad: 1/2 cup - watermelon, cut into 3/4" cubes pinch of kosher salt pinch of ground black pepper 1/2 cup - arugula 1/2 cup - frisée lettuce
DIRECTIONS Wash and remove the watermelon rind. Cut the watermelon to 3/4 inch size cubes. Sprinkle with salt and reserve on a bowl. For the vinaigrette, gather a blender, and add the lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, garlic, chili powder, mustard, and olive oil. Blend. Add the salt and pepper and fold in the fresh parsley. To serve, place both lettuces in a bowl, and add 4 T of the vinaigrette. Mix well to combine. Place the salad greens on a plate and scatter the watermelon pieces around the lettuce. Recipe developed by Chef Wook Kang for the National Honey Board.
For Vinaigrette: 1/4 cup - lime juice 1/8 cup - apple cider vinegar 4 T - honey 1/2 tsp. - minced garlic 1/8 tsp. - chili powder 1/2 tsp. - Dijon mustard 1/2 cup - olive oil pinch of kosher salt pinch of ground black pepper 1 T - fresh parsley, chopped
WATERMELON SALAD WITH HONEY CHILI VINAIGRETTE
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