Kool Aid

It just dawned on me. A gallon of water, excessive amounts of sugar, and essential oils (flavoring) = Kool Aid for bees.

 

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Downward Spiral/The Numbers Game

It was shortly after the cold snap and snow fall from Mother's day when I discovered devastating losses in Delores' hive. The bees in that hive could not handle the swing in temperature and conditions. I had seen a few mites in the bottom board of both hives. It did not occur to me previous that such a low mite count would have affected that colony. I knew there were some dead bees in the package. In my inexperienced estimate, Delores was down to roughly 1500 workers after that storm. I had also read initial numbers drop before they begin increasing. Rain and cold weather persisted. There were many more bees lost. At the end of the first three weeks, I noticed some of the brood beginning to hatch. I looked very closely at the mite count. 8 to 12 mites is kinda high for the springtime. Then it dawned on me. 10 to 12 is high for a full hive of bees. We have maybe a thousand bees in this box. They were too stressed and week from the parasites that they couldn't survive the cold weather. They spent too much energy trying to keep a brood box warm and couldn't spare the time to break away for a snack. They easily starved themselves to death.

I began dusting with powdered sugar. This had an immediate effect on the mites. I still have extremely low counts on Doris' hive after a few treatments. Powdered sugar is an effective mite control for our purposes. Delores' mites were also very low. Unfortunately, her worker bees were also very low. To help with the evening chills, I made a four frame nuc box and moved Delores in to ease the stress of managing the space within her hive. This maneuver  also had an immediate effect. The workers became much more active. They seemed to be relieved in their smaller, more efficient space. Within minutes, they were moving more energetically around the frames, less focused on warming the brood and more focused on getting some work done.

A mere three days later, disaster struck. At some point in that three days, an invasion of beetles moved in. Deloris did not have the numbers to battle the dozens of pillagers that moved into the nuc box. She and the workers cleaned up as much of the meager stores they had, and they abandoned the hive in search of something safer. Farewell to Delores.

All that was left in the box was some abandoned brood and a lot of beetles. I checked Doris to make sure she was okay. She was hard at work. Her numbers steadily increasing. She too had beetles. Doris had plenty of help around to keep those beetles under control. I swept away all the beetles I could find. Then I placed the abandoned comb from the other hive into Doris' brood box so they could spread out a little more easily. I topped off her sugar water and left her the rest of Delores' pollen patty.

Today I stopped by to check on the beetle count. The twenty or so beetles they had cornered at the entrance yesterday were nowhere to be found. I inspected everything very closely. No signs of any beetles at all. In three days, the beetles drove out the bees from one hive. 24 hours later, gone without a trace. The more frequently the hives are inspected, I think, the better control can be had on the pests. I have been looking into beetle traps. It seems, for now, close inspections are most important to control the beetles.

The mites also need to be closely checked. Currently, Doris' hive drops from 1 to 3 mites a day. I don't feel like this is a high number for the 5 to 6 thousand bees I'm guessing we have in there right now (that number may be optimistic but that colony is growing daily).

When I moved the other hive into the nuc box, we inspected Doris and found two workers with deformed wings. After all the problems with the other hive, I quickly began shopping for mite control. Fortunately, there was only one form readily available and it risked killing the queen (and it was high priced). I decided to wait until after a couple more inspections. I have not found any, at all, other bees with deformed wings. The mite counts continue to be very small. Those two girls may possibly have been from the initial brood when the mite counts were higher.

I will continue to avoid using chemicals in the hives as long as I can. I plan to continue to manually remove beetles and treat mites with powdered sugar until more drastic measures are needed. With only one hive, this should not be too demanding.

Today, I noticed bees working most of the comb left behind by the other hive. It even seemed like they were caring for some of the abandoned brood. Perhaps not all was lost when Delores swarmed.

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New House

Since Delores' colony is so small. She needed a more efficient place to stay. Yesterday, because it was stormy all day, again, I threw together a 4 frame nuc box to move Delores into. By the time I got there this morning, it was already low 50's and bees were buzzing everywhere. Lisa and the kids wandered around watching the bees in the flowers hard at work.

Sunshine and warm, its a bee-a-utiful day. The forcasters haven't even been in the same state all month long, it seems.

We moved the frames that had comb and brood into the nuc box. Then we stole a partial frame of brood and some stores, and added it to the nuc.

Doris had so much going on in her hive, she didn't notice one frame missing. We dusted Doris with sugar. The mite counts are looking really low. There was a scare of deformed wing virus in Doris' hive on Friday. But, a closer inspection today proved there was no real threat.

In the new box, acivity from Deloris' crew ramped up considerably. I found a few flaws in the design of my box. They shouldn't be problems for the bees, but I can make adjustments to it when that colony moves back out in a few weeks.

Oh yeah, that nuc box was completely free. I made it out of leftover wood and scraps from my garage. The paint was donated by John (Thanks John).

Sun's shining. Things are looking up.
 

 

 

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Rain's Comin'

Stopped off to check the hives this evening. I laid a blanket over the hive to crack them open so the wind would not get inside. Bees look like they are doing what they need to. There are no recently deceased in Delores' hive. Mite counts are down. I moved the pollen patty directly over the cluster. There is plenty of syrup in both feeders to last the next few days.

The forecast is for cold wind and rain for the next 14+ hours. Nighttime temps will be getting into the mid 30's for a couple days after that. Then more rain... This spring has not been ideal for bee colonies.

I wrapped both hives. First, in a moving pad for insulation, then in plastic to keep some rain off the pad.

I was careful to leave space for bees to get in and out. The wind cannot blow directly into the hive. With the cold wind blowing at about 15mph, there was nothing flying outside. I am sure they were all nestled in.

These wraps will come off quickly as soon as the weather turns. I may re-install them if I need to when these types of systems move in. At least up until the boxes fill with bees.

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Bee Battles

I was asked when I might open up the entrances to the hives. Right now they are only about 5/8 of an inch wide. My response was simple. I'll open them when the numbers of bees increases. Today, we saw a violent struggle at the entrance to Delores' hive. A robber that tried to get in was excused by four bees, like bouncers at a club. One of the bouncers fought the intruder all the way to the ground. They wrestled in the grass until the robber gave up and got away.

I got stung. Doris' bees are getting more brave. While I held a frame, one of the workers was able to sneak up to my finger on the back side of the frame. We were looking at some larvae that were about 4 or 5 days old. She stung my finger tip right under the nail. WOW! it REALLY Hurt! I managed to hold onto the frame even though they did not want me to.

As for the sick bees, I inspected the carcasses very closely. There was no obvious signs of nosema. I spent last night researching what may have been the cause for the losses. Ultimately, it looks to be due to cold and starvation. It happened much quicker than I imagined. In less than a week, the bees were confined to their cluster and unable to reach the food sources I provided them. The Boardman feeder was just out of reach for the tiny group that just kept getting smaller. Also, the hive was spread out too far for them to keep it warm.
So what I did today, dusted for mites using powdered sugar, lowered the inner cover to just above the brood cluster, moved the pollen patty directly over the brood cluster refilled one of the feeding cans from the packages and installed it directly over the brood cluster, and rechecked the bottom for more bee losses. No newly deceased (nosema infection might still be causing them to die). Now, the bee cluster should have a stress free evening no matter how cold it gets.

As for the battle against mites, I counted Doris' today and the 24 hour drop count is 12. I have read some suggestions there should be less than ten in the spring time. Sugar treatments should bring our small colonies into that range so I dusted both hives today. I will continue to dust them each week through the spring and summer.

Doris' colony is increasing daily now. She has three frames full of bees. It will be overflowing in no time. Hopefully, Delores can pull her colony out of this slump.


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Doing Well. Not Great.

First opportunity to open the hives in eight days. Over the last week, there has been high winds, daily afternoon thunderstorms, below freezing nights, barely 50 degree days, and a snow storm that dumped eight inches and melted off the next day. These bees have been through a lot for one week. The queens, now marked with blue dots, are still working hard. There are signs that brood is hatching (Maybees? ha ha).

Doris is strong and numbers seem to be increasing. There is fresh eggs, larvae, capped brood, and open cells where bees have emerged. This hive will likely have to carry all the weight this season.

Deloris did not fare the cold snap well. She started out with slightly fewer bee numbers. Now there are so few, I am concerned she may not recover at all.

 This frame shows a few spots of feces. There is dysentery streaking on the front of the hive. The bottom also has signs of dysentery.

You can see there is barely enough bees to cover the comb that is already built. There is brood on only three sides of two frames.

They have pollen. There were foragers moving in and out of the hive, just not many. They ran out of sugar water and did not have any honey stored. Starvation may have been a key factor in their demise over the last week.

There seems to be more dead bees in the bottom screen than there were on the frames. That is a heartbreaking sight to see.

I will need to check the dead for signs of nosema diseases. I am also going to dust them with sugar to help out with some of these mites. I moved the pollen patty directly over the brood. I am also going to add a feeder directly over them so they do not have to break their cluster to get to the sugar water.

Forecast is calling for more afternoon thunderstorms for the next ten days, and probably for weeks to come. The freezing temperatures have subsided for now.

I will be out again today to do some more cleanup in Delores' hive.

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The Value of Freebies

I was adding a few items to the blog today. I realized there is quite a few items that would cost a lot of money when you add it all up. Here's kind of a summary of the things that didn't come right out of pocket for this new adventure.

First of all the hive stands, I was able to collect some used lumber, clean the old nails out of it, then cut it to size. I nailed them together with some generic nails I had in the garage. Sure, we could have found something to stack the hives on to get them off the ground. Stands help keep them higher and drier? If we didn't have the tools to use, we would have paid, possibly, a hundred dollars, or more, for the pair. We saved at least about twenty bucks on wood or cinder blocks as a stand.

Paint was another savings. Using a leftover gallon of exterior paint as a base coat saved us the added expense of purchasing everything finished. A gallon of exterior paint is running right at twenty bucks now. The brushes I used would have cost another four or five.

The Beek down the street offered to share some of the nutrient he had left over. Yes, Beek is short for beekeeper. I didn't make it up. The ingredients would have cost eighteen dollars, or so. A bottle of it from a supplier would have been more.

We did get several accessories along with our hives. Plan Bee threw in a screened bottom board, entrance reducer, entrance feeder, a j-hook style hive tool, and even a bee brush when we purchased the hives. I also cut a few more scrap wood pieces to make an entrance block-off and a reducer that would fit in with the feeder. All these items would nickel and dime a beekeeper until they gave up. 

Then there is a suit. I just used a pair of coveralls I already had. You could get one like it for nine dollars at the hardware store. If you would rather have the canvas beekeepers uniform with pockets and all, it would cost seventy dollars. Doris and Delores have some pretty docile colonies. I don't see needing to spend that much on a suit. Gloves and fancy veils run up the costs from there. 

All in all, I think we are doing pretty well, cost wise. I estimate we have started two hives for what it would probably have cost us to start one. Granted, It could have been even cheaper to start only one. It would have been half as much fun too. I will remain on the lookout for deals and steals when it comes to adding supers and other accessories. I have some ideas brewing for overwinter. That's a discussion for another day.

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Photo Shoot

These queens turned out to be very photogenic. We used cardboard in the smoker and it made a huge difference. The cardboard was easier to light, and made more consistent smoke. Temps in the 70's and mild winds. Once again there was a ton of activity in and out of the hive.

 Notice in this shot, how much bigger my finger is than bees. Just Kidding.

 You can see Delores, lots of eggs, pollen cells, and jelly filled brood cells. There is even a bee there delivering a fresh load of pollen. Too bad I didn't have a paint pen to mark her with.

 TRAGEDY STRIKES!!! I dropped the frame with the queen on it. I quickly grabbed the smoker and smoked the frame. Then I carefully picked up the frame. Delores was fine. She stayed on the frame but she was certainly not happy. What a bonehead rookie mistake. We closed up this hive as quickly as possible. Ashlyn wasn't supposed to get a picture of this but I guess it falls into the "challenges of keeping bees" category. Lesson learned.

Here is Doris. She has lots and lots of eggs. I held on to this frame with two hands and so we had more time to inspect the work they were doing. We got to see capped brood cells and developing larvae that were not in the picture. There will be lots of new bees from this hive in a few weeks.

In Doris' hive, we found a piece of burr comb built out from one of the frames. We cut that chunk out and spaced out the frames a little better so they didn't build out again. I noticed later that the burr comb actually had eggs in it. The bees had not begun filling these egg cells with jelly yet. Its is a very interesting find.

Thankfully, no stings; Even with all the angry bees. Now I just hope they don't give up on me and swarm because they don't like being dropped.

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Checking In

Today I had to go refill the feeders on the hives. I went during the nice, warm, sunny part of the day. There was tons of activity going on around the hives. I had some trouble getting the smoker to lite. The pellets are a little harder to use than I had hoped. I ended up burning a lot of pine needles and grass. There was just enough of a breeze to blow the smoke right back out of the hive. I managed to get inside despite all the troubles. Gotta take a stinger at some point, I figured.

Here are some of the girls carrying in their loads of pollen. There were several different colors of pollen being brought into both hives.

The bees are working three frames. Doris keeps her hive very clean. I opened both so I could clean out the bottom boards of dead bees from the cold snap the other day. While Doris had already dealt with the housekeeping, Delores' bottom board was a huge mess. There were still many leftover bees. There was honey everywhere.

The folks at Plan Bee were generous enough to offer a frame of drawn comb full of honey to kick off these hives. They suggested splitting that frame of honey for the two hives. This loosened the honey and made a gigantic mess. The resulting honey mess saturated the bottom board. I dumped the wax, honey and bees off the bottom board and screen. I'm sure the bees will clean the remaining mess in time.

Interestingly, I found a bunch of sawdust all over the bottom of both hives. Its as if there is a crew of worker bees sanding away on the fresh cut lumber of these brand new hives.

 There are glimpses of pollen being stored in these cells.

This side of the frame looks like its being prepared for eggs. No sign of Doris in these pics. This frame was pulled from the edge of the cluster. Doris was probably in the center.

I did not prepare enough sugar water to fill the feeders completely. I am going to have to go back out this weekend and top them off for the week ahead. All signs are positive. They are officially off and running.

Today's lessons: Don't apply scraped honey to a new frame. It makes too much of a mess.
And: Smoker pellets are more trouble than they're worth.

Another good thing; no stings yet.

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