Beekeeper’s Journal by sassafrasbeefarm

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beekeeping, management

I’d encourage all new beekeepers to maintain a journal. There are commercial beekeeping journals available with hive inspection sheets and other features but any old notebook will do. You will appreciate your journal next year when you’re trying to remember when the nectar flow started, when you first saw white wax, swarm dates, when various plants started blooming, when dearth began, and much more. These events have a direct bearing on your hive management such as making splits, adding boxes, removing reducers, treating for mites and hive beetles, etc. Keeping a journal will make you a better beekeeper, more observant, and increase your enjoyment and knowledge of what’s happening with your bees.

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Early Spring? Or not…

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beekeeping, chores, honey bee behavior, honey bee biology, honey bees, management

Early Swarms 2016

I’m not at all convinced the warm climate we are seeing this winter is here to stay. But I’m not sure the bees agree with my weather predictions either. Watching the landing boards with foragers in full pollen collection mode and brief inspections tell me that some colonies are already in full tilt brood production.

What does this mean for the beekeeper?

Well, it means lots of excitement watching them grow at a rate that is phenomenal. By this time next month either you will have made room for the extra bees and managed them for swarming or you may be looking up in the trees for half of your work force.

Or it could be more dire. Winter food stores up until this point have been steadily declining at a gradual but predictable rate. What happens now when the queen is at full egg laying (brood producing) coupled with a growing workforce? Well, between increased consumption of ever more house bees and foragers, plus trying to feed thousands of larvae, the food stores decline can no longer be graphed as a straight line. Now it is a sharp spike upward!

Beginning now is when the beekeeper needs to remember to lift the backs of their hives. And on those pretty days when you get into them to ooh-ahh at their numbers and beauty, look and assess their nectar stores. December and January saw a full pantry with slow, steady declines, but brood rearing brings on food demands that dwarf the demands of fall and early winter.

And a final scare for you. It’s quite a curiosity that starved bees don’t slowly decline due to lack of food. No, for them, it’s the Three Musketeers: “All for one and one for all,” meaning they’ll go down together if they run out of food. One day they are all fed, the next, well…not.

It Always Starts with Assessment by sassafrasbeefarm

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assessment, beekeeping, colony assessment, hive assessment, honey bees, management

Ever wonder why beekeepers are either reluctant to give advice OR you end up with multiple suggestions in response to the same question?

One reason is because seldom does the beekeeper being asked have a full picture of the issue being discussed. The problem and visual is clear enough in the mind of the person asking the question but usually their assessment isn’t clearly presented to the mentor or bee buddy. So what often happens is the mentor steers clear of guessing to avoid giving bad advice OR they venture a guess based on inadequate data. Since it is inadequate data it isn’t too difficult to wonder why multiple answers are sometimes suggested.

Good assessment data increases the odds of getting accurate suggestions.

So, as above, it always starts with Assessment.

APIE – Assessment, Planning, Implimentation, Evaluation

I worked in a hospital setting much of my work career. When it came to people’s lives I didn’t guess before administering treatments, care, medications, or interventions. I either was assured of my initial assessment or I stopped and re-assessed before proceeding further.

Measure twice; cut once! Well, sort of…

Of course beekeeping doesn’t quite have the same level of accountability and errors are not as devastating as in healthcare. However, the same methods can be applied which, if followed, should result in better outcomes for the bees and beekeeper. Until one Assesses how can they make a suitable Plan? And how do I decide on the proper Implimentation until a Plan is developed? And if I am to learn anything at all in this process I must Evaluate my results. Otherwise I make the same mistakes over and over, year after year, never understanding why.

But, again, it all starts with Assessment.

A Google search will yield many assessment sheets and data collection tools. Use them especially when first starting with bees. At some point it’s likely they will become second nature. And by second nature I mean you’ll do them without the need for prompting with a piece of paper. Let’s look a some things you may want to consider with regard to Assessment:

It’s easy – look, listen, smell! Touch and taste – not so much…

Approaching the hive:
Are they flying? Is the temperature such that they should be flying? Are they guarding the entrance? If not ask yourself, why not? Is the exterior of the hive marked up with bee poop? Are there dead larvae on the landing board? Dead bees? If so, was there a cold snap or is it appropriate cleansing, chilled brood, drone evictions? Are some hives flying and others not? Are there bees circling any hives looking for entrances? Are there bees fighting on the landing board? Are the foraging bees launching themselves into the air on departure? Are bees coming back to the hive heavy or with pollen? Are there yellow jackets, flies, or other pests hanging around the entrance? Do I have an appropriate entrance guard on based on the bees ability to guard? Any signs of dead bees in front of the hive? Any signs of wax cappings under the hive? Any moth or spider webs? Isn’t this easy – you haven’t even suited up yet!

Entering the hive:
What’s your idea on weight when you lift the hive from the rear? Is the number of boxes as expected for the time of year and history of the colony? What is the reaction to a puff of smoke at the entrance? What is the reaction to removing the inner cover? What does the hive smell like? Are there SHB inside the inner cover? Any sign of other pests? Is either the bottom or top box empty of bees? Do the bees run down between the frames when you give them a gentle puff of smoke or fly away? Are they unusually testy? Does what you are seeing, smelling, hearing correspond correctly with the season and temperatures? Does the top bars of the uppermost box have an appropriate amount of bees on them? Is there burr comb on the inner cover?

Frame examination:
Is there a well defined brood area? Where is it located within the hive (upper boxes? bottom boxes? chimney?) Is the capped brood density appropriate or spotty? Any cappings perforated? Appropriate worker brood to drone ratio? Is there a band of pollen over the brood and honey above that? Can you locate the queen either by sight or based on brood area? Is she where you want her? As you work, is the colony tolerating you? Are they giving you a roar to leave? Any signs of pests? If so how bad is the pest level? Any signs of PMS? Is the size of the colony in bee population appropriate for the number of boxes you have? What is your impression of the bee density and the number of frames covered with bees? Can they guard the amount of comb space you have given them to guard? Is there adequate stores? white wax? good brood pattern? Is the open larvae swimming in food? Is the hive functioning as a fine tuned machine?

And always, the follow-up question to the unexpected is, “Why?”

And so it goes with many many more questions that sometimes have different answers based on temperature, weather, seasons, bloom, dearth, and so forth. But it costs you nothing to ask these questions of yourself. Ask away and take note of your answers. And when the answers don’t add up to what you expect, are out of sync with season, or other hives, or just not what you expect look further for more questions to ask. Be the detective. Re-interview the witnesses and suspects. Get to know them well enough to spot the odd response or presentation.

If you think this is going to take years, you may be right. But I do think we get a little better every year. Keep asking questions of yourself and the bees until you see patterns and you know what follows various presentations.

 

Alcohol wash to get a mite count in a beehive by Southeastern Indiana Beekeepers Association

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alcohol wash, assessment, bee health, beekeeping, chores, management, varroa destructor, varroa mites

This gallery contains 5 photos.

This is an excellent article on assessing mite counts in your beehives. Thanks to J.Morgan, Karen Ferguson and SIBA for …

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Usurpation in the Bee Yard

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beekeeping, honey bee behavior, honey bees, management

Interesting event in the bee yard. A couple weeks ago I performed a cut out on a top bar hive that had gone burr comb crazy. I cut and rubber banded brood into deep Langstroth frames and brought it home. After letting them settle down I inspected the hive and was pleasantly surprised to find the queen unharmed. She was nice and big and had a dark color. Happy with myself, I closed them up. I did note that they seemed less than industrious and after over a week they took littl…e sugar syrup and other than attaching the old brood comb to the frames they were not building new comb. There were plenty of loafers around the front while seemingly there was plenty of work to be done!

Then, they were gone! Not like a swarm or a new package sometimes absconds in a few days. It had been well over a week; maybe ten days. It could be they were thinning down the queen for flight. I though to check if that fat, heavy queen had been left behind but she was gone. It also seemed they might have waited until almost all of the brood hatched out before they left.

I checked all the trees because I look at all my hives daily and they had been there the day before. Nothing. Then I checked the swarm traps. Nothing. Not even scouts.

I resigned myself to losing them. Then I noticed a hive I had split the week earlier. It was three doors down from the absconded colony. The split had a queen cell but I didn’t think a laying queen yet. And the split had been a weak split of just a few frames of bees. But wait. Now the split was bubbling over with bees. By now you’ve guessed it. A usurpation had occurred. Wyatt Mangum writes about this happening especially during summer when a normal swarm would have almost no chance of otherwise surviving because of dearth. Wow.

Honey Bee Usurpation

 

 

Called Hive Inspection

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beekeeping

Hive Assessment

Assessment: Called to look at a hive that had experienced a sudden (less than one week) drop in population and an increase in dead bees accompanied by “sawdust” like material.

Location: Swansea, SC Weather: Mid 60’s overcast. Light wind.

Hive is a 10 frame Langstroth, three hive bodies tall (two deeps, one medium).

By history, this is a new hive installed this season from a package (H&R). Hive has been doing well until a couple days ago. Owner inspected hive last week and reports “full boxes of bees”. Became concerned this weekend with increase in dead bees on ground in front of hive and “sawdust” like material in front.

On arrival I noticed an open feeder located a couple feet to the side of the hive. Noticing more bees coming and going at the feeder than the front entrance of the hive I watched and saw bees coming to the feeder and on departing going elsewhere . Owner reports neighbor has multiple bee hives.

The hive had little activity at the entrance reducer which was set on about a two bee width setting. No fighting.

Owner showed me “sawdust” like material. Appeared to be animal scat largely composed of bee parts.

Hive opened and no bees noted on opening. Top medium all frames filled with capped honey.

Middle box deep had a cluster of bees approximately 200. No queen observed. Three emergency queen cells observed but these were away from cluster but on same frames. Appeared queenless. Approximately 20 capped brood cells. No open brood noted.

Bottom deep partially filled with open nectar. Apparently cured as passed the “shake” test.

Screened bottom board had about 20-30 dead bees.

Sticky board was under the SBB. Had been in place for unknown period of time. Had notable number of mites, a few SHB, minimal wax particles.

While I generally discourage viewing individual bees as an assessment of Varroa load, I did observe the bees on the top of the small cluster. Approximately 25 bees were on the top bars of the middle box gathered together at top of cluster. I counted 4 or 5 mites on the top surface of the bees’ thoraxes and abdomens.

Removal of pupae from capped brood. No mites observed. Pupae had been dead several days and starting to dehydrate and decompose.

 

Analysis of Assessment:

Upon seeing bees other than the bees from the owner’s hive I initially suspected an abscond due to robbing pressure. However I ruled this out after seeing 1) no fighting or increased activity at the front entrance of the hive; 2) No torn cappings or wax on SBB; 3) hive stores intact.

The scat like droppings containing bee parts led me to suspect harassment from a raccoon or other small animal. However, it is my understanding that raccoons will scratch on the hive box or entrance at night to get bees to come out so they may eat them. However, I saw no scratches on the box or landing board. Additionally, I understand that raising the hive off the ground is a method of discouraging raccoons because it causes them to expose their undersides which the bees sting. This hive was raised further discounting the raccoon harassment leading to an abscond. The scat remains a mystery however, it is possible the scat was from another animal, perhaps a snake regularly eating dead or dying bees off the ground in front of the hive. I have lizards at my home yard that eat the dying bees on the ground and are a benefit to yard hygiene.

Owner reports increased yellow jacket activity. Not noted on inspection. We have had a couple recent freezes so that may account for lack of activity today. It is, however, noted as another pest pressure on this hive.

Varroa on bees. Counting 5 per 20 bees is a 25% Varroa load and well beyond economic threshold for treatment. It is generally considered that a functioning hive cannot withstand a mite population greater than 3000 total and is considered doomed. I suspect this hive had a mite load sufficient to cause death / absconding.

Plan:

Reconfigure hive

Remove capped honey

Safely store comb for next season

Provide educational tips

Implementation:

Box with small cluster placed on hive stand. Owner advised that they are hopelessly queenless and doomed. However, as the owner had no other hive to work with and she did not wish to shake them out on the ground. Owner advised to recover and save comb after the bees die.

The hive bodies containing capped honey were removed for processing.

Combs with extracted honey will be placed outside for neighbor’s bees to clean up for 24 hours prior to being stored. Owner instructed in proper comb storage options.

Restart hive(s) in spring with packages placed on drawn comb.

Tips:

Do not open feed in close proximity to hive. Feeding close introduces your hive to the neighbor’s hive and during times of dearth weaker hives are identified. I do not think this was an issue in this instance however it can lead to a “stressor” on the hive to defend its stores. Additionally, open feeding promotes viral disease transmission via contact with other, possibly infected, colonies.

Treat for Varroa earlier in the year. Given that we now know there are multiple hives located in close proximity to the owner’s bee yard, I recommend treatments at the close of the nectar flow, and again in early fall. An assessment of Varroa counts in the spring as well would be advised.

Perform the final “deep” inspection a bit earlier in the fall. Do final total inspection in early fall to ensure the queen is where you want her (lower boxes) and to assess stores prior to any fall feeding. After early fall inspection let them get their house in order. Remember, while we are trying to help the bees, we are not perceived by them as helping. To them, we are another pest in their hive.

Moving colonies into Langstroths

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management

Last year a friend and I moved some plastic barrel hives, otherwise known as “cows” into standard Langstroth hives. The cows were impossible to inspect having gone cross-combed almost from the start. Additionally, they could not be assessed for Varroa nor treated. The history was that originally there had been ten but, through attrition, in about a year they were down to two remaining. The move was successful and the colonies flourished through the remainder of the year.

 

Hive Inspection Logs

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beekeeping, management

Hive inspection is not only fun, but necessary! Once you reach a certain number of hives, it is almost impossible to remember what hive was in what shape. I have seen people use colored tags on hives to indicate the need to add supers or to feed. I have seen people scribble in notepads. I […]

via Hive Inspection Logs —

How to inspect a honey bee package

Tags

beekeeping, education

Source: How to inspect a honey bee package

I remember my first bee order.  I was excited and watched and read everything I could about installing bees into my hive.  The one thing that I never even thought about was if the bees I would pick up were healthy. It wasn’t until I was on my way to pick them up that I started to wonder about what a healthy package should look like.  I wasn’t really sure if I would be able to tell.

As I walked into the room with hundreds of boxes stacked on top of each other, the only thing I could think of, was that I wanted one with lots of bees and one with the screen secure and not leaking bees.

Here are the two packages that I chose:

Each package consisted of a screened wooden box, 1 can of sugar syrup, 1 queen cage with a mated queen, 3# of bees and a wooden lid.  The amount of honey bees is dependent on what is ordered,  typically it’s 2 or 3 pounds of bees.

There’s a few things you should look for, when you get your package, before you pay. Once you pay, they are yours, even if they die within the week.  It is assumed that once they leave the beekeepers property it is in your hands to keep them alive and healthy:

1. Bees should be in a cluster, as seen in the picture above.
2. A few dead bees on the bottom is ok – you don’t want the package if there is a thick layer of dead bees on the bottom.
3. There should be more workers (female bees) than drones (male bees) – drones are just a drain on resources. Drones do no work within the hive and they feed on stored honey or get the nurse bees to feed them.
4. The screen on the box should be secure on all sides – bees flying around in your car is not always appreciated by your passengers.
5. Bees should not appear swollen – swollen bees can be an indication that you have sick bees.

Once you have picked up your bees you should immediately install your bees into their new hive.  If you can’t:

1. Store them in a cool place
2. If weather is hot you can use a fan to lightly blow air through and around the cage – a sign of them being too hot is that they will no longer be in a cluster.
3. If too hot, you can mist with water or a weak sugar solution on the screen to help cool them off.

I hope this helps you to choose the right package.

~May all your wandering take you to many wonderful places.

Source: How to inspect a honey bee package

Queen Cells

Tags

beekeeping, honey bee biology, management, queens

by primebees

For a beekeeper, queen cells can symbolize success and failure simultaneously. Personally, it’s one of my favorite things to find during a hive inspection. Something about opening up the hive and seeing multiple, healthy queen cells reminds me that our bees will, more often than not, do just fine without us.

There are three different “types” of queen cells –

1. Supercedure Cells – When the colony chooses to replace the existing queen. This usually indicates a problem with the previous queen – poor brood pattern, health problems, etc.
2. Swarm Cells – built when a colony is preparing to swarm. These queen cells are left behind when the colony leaves with the old queen.
3. Emergency Cells – These are made from existing eggs / larvae when something happens to the queen. This is how a hive naturally recovers from queen death.

Using Queen Cells to start a new colony can be a great way to utilize your apiary’s natural resources. You can carefully remove select queen cells and place them in the hive that needs a queen. This is best done on day 14 or 15.

One of the best resources for queen rearing that we’ve found online came from Glenn Apiaries – he’s got the best and most simplistic diagram so we’ve included that and the explanation he has along with it below:

Day 1 – Give breeder hive an empty dark brood comb to lay eggs in.
Day 4 – Transfer (graft) larva into artificial queen cell cups, from the breeder comb. Place the frame into a strong colony (cell builder) made queenless the day before.
Day 14 – Remove completed cells from cell builder. Leave one cell behind to replace the queen. Keep queen cells warm (80-94 F) until they are placed in queenless hives (mating nucs).
Day 22 – Virgin queens are ready to mate. They require nice weather (69 F), and an abundance of drones to mate with. A few colonies within a mile are adequate for providing drones for mating.
Day 27 – If queens mate without weather delay, they should now be laying eggs.
Weather delays in mating will add days to the process, after 3 weeks delay, virgin queens may start to lay unfertilized eggs.
Time your activities so that warm temperatures and drones are available when the queens are ready to mate.

Source: Queen Cells