|
|
This has surely been the weirdest January that I have lived through in Richmond, Va – it is certainly the warmest in my memory (which really isn’t saying much…) We are getting frequent high’s in the 50′s, with occasional high’s in the 60′s, while Alaska and areas to the Northwest are going through one of the more brutal Winters on record! Regardless, we’ve finally been getting a few days with high’s in the 40′s again and this provides an interesting entry for the beekeeping journal.
One of the best things that I did as an early beekeeper was to begin making journal entries on my hives. It started with simple notes, such as date, weather, hive temperament and any unusual observations. As time went on, I added items (and removed some), including # of frames of brood, # of frames of resources, pests, number of bees with deformed wing virus, and the list goes on. It’s amazing how valuable this resource has been. Occasionally reviewing the old entries of a particularly strong hive or even a weak hive has been very educational. You are able to step back and view the big picture, instead of focusing (and frequently fretting!) on the individual events of the day. This has proven particularly invaluable in identifying the best hives to breed new colonies from.
One of the things that you can observe in a normal January is ‘Russian’ behavior. The Russian strain of Apis mellifera is known to fly at lower temperatures than the other honey bee strains. I like this trait and make a note of which hives fly in the upper 30′s (something I rarely see, except on a really sunny day) and the 40′s. All honey bees should be out doing their business once we hit the 50′s, but the lower temperatures are always of interest. Flying early is a benefit, in my opinion. I view it as ‘good work-ethic’, as it usually means they are out the door earlier in the morning to collect nectar in the early Spring (when temps can be low on occasion) and may work a bit later. It’s just an opinion, but I’ll keep tracking it to see if I find trends down the road.
 Winter Nectar Source It’s been a wild Fall/Winter, to be sure. The weather has never really gotten into a good ‘winter groove’ and there are frequently times when it simply feels like Spring! Today, the temps are currently approaching the mid-60′s…that’s about 25 degrees above the average High for this time of year in Richmond, Virginia. In truth, we always get a day that rises into the 50′s (at least) in January, but we really have yet to get any real Winter weather this year. We still have a few months to go, but it’s a far cry from last year. I really doubt that it’s going to be too bad.
What does this mean to the beekeeper? For one, folks call him about ‘swarms on the Maple trees’. As most beekeepers know, there is a zero percent chance that any hive is going to swarm in January. It may abscond because someone cut down the tree they were in or whatnot, but they are not going to be swarming. Add this bit of knowledge to the fact that I had already noticed the bees enjoying the sap coming out of my Maples and I was (hopefully) able to calm the fellow down. The woodpecker creates the holes and the sap (maple syrup) comes out when it warms up a bit. This draws the bees. Does this hurt the tree? As my Pop would say, ‘It didn’t help it any’, but I have never seen any longterm issue and my maples are huge (a good 4 to 6′ in width at the base.)
On a general, What’s going on note, we are ramping up the first Beginning Beekeeping class at the East Richmond Beekeepers Association. Over the past few years, I have received a lot of ‘come help me’ calls from folks in Richmond and the surrounding areas. When I get there, I have found that many of these folks (close to 75%) have actually attended another Beekeeping class held in our area. Sadly, their questions have always been very basic questions. This got me to thinking – I am willing to bet that these classes spend several days going over every single aspect of beekeeping. This is a worthy objective, but I believe that it causes some folks to miss the forest for the trees. In my opinion, there is a core bit of knowledge that a new beekeeper needs to know. This pretty much focuses on what to do with a hive from just before they get their Nuc/Package to about June or so. These early months are crucial. I postulated that maybe they were being taught too much at such an early stage. How about a class that really focuses on these early months with a follow up class (say in May) for some of the other information? So, I spearheaded a new class at ERBA.
 Who Says There is nothing blooming in December? As a side benefit, I have really taken to a philosophy that merges Practical Beekeeping (as espoused by renown beekeepers such as Michael Bush) with Sustainable Beekeeping (heralded by Brother Adam, a beekeeper of yesteryear, but heavily promoted today about another esteemed beekeeper, Michael Palmer.) There are aspects to this philosophy that every beginning beekeeper should know. So, I decided to focus the class on this philosophy.
We start in February and I expect a great class! But, I plan to get a lot of anonymous feedback in case we miss the mark.
What’s going on in my hives? Well, many still have plenty of honey. I opened several hives today and actually pulled frames in the brood nest. Very little evidence of laying, actually, but tons of honey. All of this warm weather had me worried, but I guess the bees are holding their stores close to their vests. I also do not have any losses yet, but I am expecting them (if I get them) in the Feb/Mar timeframe. We have a fair number of dandilions blooming and they are bringing in some kind of red pollen (or were, in late December), so I am happy.
The cool thing is that the Big Fun Time in beekeeping is probably no more then 2 months away! Bonzai! I can hardly wait.
I finally go around to rendering wax for the first time! It was an interesting adventure. Many folks write and commented on the fact that you shouldn’t do it in your kitchen. Of course, I ignored all of that (I can be careful – no big deal!) That was big mistake number 1…
I am not sure that I would follow this method again, but I basically took an old crab broiler that I had and put it on the stove (again, in my kitchen…). I then took an old boiler (for making things like creme brule) and cut my wax into it to melt it. It melted find and then I poured it through a screen (like a window screen) into milk cartons that I had cut the tops off of. Effectively, I was pulling out any of the bee parts or bits of brood comb that were not wax and making it pure. All of the cartons look great (I hope to make a candle or two before Xmas), but I did have spillage…and fire…
Unfortunately, the boiler slipped into the water on one go… This meant wax and water mixed a bit, in BOTH the boiler (with melted wax) and the larger broiler (with boiling water.) No real big deal, except when I put more water in the broiler and some of it splashed off the side onto the stove!
Two bad things happen when this occurs. First, wax gets on the stove which is very hard to get up. My significant other was not pleased about that one. The second is that a fire starts. Wax, if you didn’t know it, burns a bit like fuel. Before it was over, I had a fire extinguisher out and dousing the flame (and covering the stove with fire extinguisher dust…) Unfortunately, my wife did not buy the argument that ‘at least the house didn’t burn down’ and this only added fuel to her flame. I had no fire extinguisher for that one…someone needs to invent that.
So, next year I will be doing it outside. I actually mentioned that a hot plate might be a good Christmas gift… On a bright note, I had purchase one of the wax-melters from Dadant last Spring. This turned out to be a huge boon, as I put everything in that thing and the wax dribbled down into a container, nearly 100% pure right there. What it helps with is anything with brood comb. That stuff doesn’t melt. You can put a whole frame of wax from old brood comb into a boiler and only get a few spoonfuls of wax. It’s very messy – it really isn’t worth it. But, if you let mother nature do the work during the Summer, it works like a champ.
At any rate, lessons learned all around. This time, I should have listened to everyone’s advice…
Just got off the phone with Mark in the Dadant Chatham branch and he advised that they will be offering free shipping from Nov 28 to Dec 12 this year. It’s a great opportunity to pick up any gear for the 2012 season.
With the warm weather in Richmond, Va. this past weekend (it was 69 when I checked on the hive called Westover), I went around to pull some of the last remaining extra supers that I had on hives. I also took a peak at any hives that didn’t feel heavy. My goal was to simply go down to the brood nest and pull one or two frames in the center of the hives to check on the brood nest. To be honest, I had just gotten through doing a lot of reading on American Foulbrood (AFB)… For those who have not delved into it much, this disease has one really nasty effect – you can actually lose an entire apiary if it takes hold of just one hive.
Effectively, the spores spread into the honey. So, when the hive finally weakens to the point where it is robbed, the other bees in your yard take the tainted honey back to their hives and the infection starts all over again. To be fair, the State Apiarist has told me multiple times this year that AFB has been almost non-existent in Virginia this year. But, all I had to do was read up on it during a quiet moment one weekend and it’s been bugging me ever since (is that hive just light or is it really suffering from AFB? Will I end up losing the whole apiary if I don’t check now?!) At any rate, I went into a few hives for the last time (I have said this so many times that I’m probably the only one that really believes it at this point) until January.
The very first hive that I went into had next to no brood. Here we go, I figured. I found the queen and she looked great. The honey stores were fine and the colony was strong in numbers. No signs of deformed wings or anything weird. Basically, except for the lack of brood, everything looked great. At this point, I was actually irritated (what the heck?! these guys were fine 3 or 4 weeks ago! tons of brood! now, she just decides to fail on me?!) On to the next apiary with a weak hive, still cogitating on what I should do about this hive. New apiary, new hive – again, no brood!!!! Now I am starting to freak out. Then, I remember (I am getting old…hell, I am old) that it’s late November! We’ve had a couple of nights below freezing…the day length is shortening quickly…EQUALS the queen stops laying!
Heh. The weather was so warm that I really had pushed it from my mind that we were well into the Bee’s Winter. But, to squash any possible nagging doubts in the days/weeks ahead, I broke down all of the hives in that apiary (5 in total). Every one the same – always no eggs (well, if they were there, I missed them) along with either no capped brood or just a handful. My queens are taking their well-deserved vacation! They won’t start up again until the days start getting longer again, probably in January.
The real key to this is that I now realize that I do not think that I have ever been into the brood nest of one of my hives in late November, so I have never seen this before. Of course, I could be crying the blues come Jan/Feb if all of these hives do have a serious problem, but I am pretty comfortable that everything is good to go. Regardless, this little surprise has me determined to go into a brood nest in January. I sort of went into one last January, when I was trying to save the Albo hive (which did survive, but I whacked the queen in April) and slid the frames to the middle of the hive, pulling one of the outside frames before I did so. I look forward to seeing what they are doing.
IMPORTANT: I do NOT recommend that anyone reading this blog actually break open the brood nest at any time after October 15 and before March 1, especially not in January or February. When I do it, it will be on a strong hive that I can stand to lose if something goes wrong. But, I am confident (or is that foolish) that I can do it if I get a day in the 50′s (we always do) in Jan.
The Virginia State Beekeepers Association had another great Fall meeting a few weeks ago, focusing on Honey Bee nutrition. The keynote speaker, Dave Mendes (President of the American Beekeepers Federation), focused on protein feeding. To his operation (of many thousands of hives that he trucks to California (Almonds) and the northern states (Blueberries & Cranberries)), feeding protein at the right time makes all the difference. His mantra is ‘good food + clean comb + good genetics = success’. I have long been a proponent of clean comb and good genetics, but have not focused much on nutrition. It has always been my belief that bees with good genetics will find the right food, unless the beekeeper takes it all (which I don’t.) But, I am starting to rethink this idea.
For a couple of years now, a successful beekeeper in Buckingham county that I collaborate with, has been talking up nutrition, specifically in the Fall (which was the theme of a couple of talks at the VSBA meeting.) I have always been reluctant to experiment with this, ONLY because of the SHB. I had found out early on that pollen patties in my hives in August meant SHB problems. But, Dave had an answer for that – you put your feed mix (he called it protein feed, as opposed to pollen feeding) into a wax paper bag with a single slit in it – giving the bees an easy area to defend. He also stressed that you only wanted to give them what they could eat in a couple of days. These two items have me thinking that next Fall I will give protein feeding another shot, in a hive or two. We’ll see how it works.
It only makes sense that giving the bees a source of quality protein at this time (early August for me) would be beneficial. In early August, they are raising the bees that will eventually raise the bees that go into Winter, or what I call the ‘fat bees.’ This is a critical time for all beehives, so a little extra quality feed can help. Dave Mendes recommended the publication ‘Fat Bees Skinny Bees’ by Doug Somerville (sp?), as this seemed to be the basis of his methods. I’ve posted his ‘secret recipe’ here.
Another really interesting talk focused on Nosema ceranae. The researcher had found that it appears that this newest Nosema has been around longer then we had thought. In addition, it is starting to look like it is displacing Nosema apis. It’s hard to say whether this is a good thing or not. Regardless, we are seeing an increased presence of this virus, so they are watching it closely.
There was another great talk on feeding, by a fellow along the VA/NC line who focuses on selling bees and queens. He mirrored much of what Dave said, but was even more adamant about the early Fall feeding. He had found that feeding at this time was much better for the bees then any type of feeding in the Spring (syrup or protein) or even feeding during the Winter months. The bottom line was that he found that his bees came out of Winter much healthier with a focused, late Fall feeding. He also noted that the presence of Drones, Drone larva and Drone eggs was a big determinate for feeding protein at other times of the year. Bees with weak protein stores or sources would eat the Drone larva first, then the Drone eggs, for protein. A lack of both of these, in a Spring/Summer hive, was a sign that the quality of the pollen coming in was poor.
There were many other good tidbits of knowledge, but those are the ones that hit home the most for me at this stage. I want to start looking at Fall nutrition. We’ll see where it takes me!
As posted back on the 19th, I actually picked up a swarm of bees this month in Richmond, Virginia! October? Well, I’ve been through that before. A swarm caught in August requires work to get through our Winters. One caught in September requires a lot of work and you are still at high risk. I would have to say that the chance that an October swarm will make it is next to zilch. Fortunately for me, I love a challenge.
Once I got the swarm back to my house, I put 5 frames of drawn wax with 5 frames of foundation in a Deep and placed a top feeder on them. Most will ask ‘why didn’t you put them in a Nuc?!’ It’s a valid question. The main reason I put them into the Deep was because of their need for feed. I know you can feed a Nuc, but I have found that my Beemax top feeders (for full-sized hives only – they have something similar for Nucs, but I do not own any) are the absolute best mechanism for me to get syrup into hives. It was Oct 19! I had no time to mess with an entrance feeder (plus, I was worried about robbing). So, I gave them drawn wax to immediately start laying in and foundation (in case they were a swarm and were ready to build wax, like Spring swarms do.) I dropped the feeder on them and began feeding them.
At the last moment, I dropped another deep frame that I had which was mostly honey but had been ravaged by SHB back in July. I had frozen the frame for 3 days and kept it in my basement since then. Although I knew some of the honey was shot, I figured some would be fine for them (I had already seen the bees clean out 2 similar frames when I placed them out in the open in my Nuc yard earlier in the year, so I knew there was value in what the frame had in it.)
The problem is that these frames have a different scent to them. It seems to really draw bees quickly, which I really didn’t think about when I dropped it into the October swarm. The next day, it looked like I had a robbing situation. As always (and usually to my detriment – and the bees!), I try to get into the heads of my bees – I figured that we have a new swarm of bees, moved about while being captured and now in a new location (trying to get oriented) and I have created a robbing scenario! Before they could even get their feet under them! Now, it’s going to be hard to follow my twisted logic, but hang in there…
Seeing what I thought was robbing, I looked closer and could see bees fanning OUT of the hive. At that exact time, I thought that this was the bees trying to get the scent of the SHB frame out of the hive, which (again, enjoy the roller coaster ride of my weird logic) was only inviting more robbers! I did my quick trick of dropping a wet towel over the hive and waited until nightfall to remove it and seriously reduce the entrance.
So, all kinds of things are going through my head now. On day 3, I finally figured out that it wasn’t robbing. It was merely flight orientation of a ton of bees (remember, the whole hive (experienced foragers included) had to reorient.) I know full well that you need to see a lot of fighting to know that there is robbing going on (which I hadn’t seen), but I figured (here I go again…) that the problem was that the swarm had never really made the hive their home – so they weren’t defending it yet. Oh well.
So, the weekend arrives and I go in to have a look. These bees were making really good use of the feeder and had basically put cured syrup (most of it was already honey) in ALL of the frames. What the?! Is the queen going to lay anywhere. Again, cursed with my brain, I began to think back on the fanning bees and dropping the wet towel on them. Did I have virgin queen in this swarm that had gone out only to be thwarted from returning by my towel?!?! I checked again – no queen and no place to lay. I could also see a few gals still fanning, as if to say ‘The grand lady will be coming home any moment now – keep sending our scent out there to guide her home!’
At this point, I was pretty sure that I had lost the swarm and would need to combine. But, I know full well to let the bees alone for as long as possible before enacting my own will upon them. So, I decided to give it another week.
Today, as the temps rose into the upper 50′s, I opened up the Deep to have a look. I actually had a Nuc setup nearby, as I expected that I would not find a queen and wanted to combine them with another Nuc that I have from an Irene cut-out. Much of the syrup in the frames had been moved, but no eggs. The problem was that it was still somewhat cold and there were a lot of bees in this swarm – they were very good at fully covering all 5 drawn frames. I find that lightly blowing on bees makes them disperse, so I was able to check a few cells to no avail. I did find where they were drawing wax (before today, if anyone told me a bee would draw wax in October, I’d think they were smoking crack), but nothing…until frame 4! The queen! There she was, inspecting a cell and inserting her abdomen into it! Bonzai! Patience, when it comes to bees, always pays off for me.
These bees have a tough road in front of them. I did not notice any pollen, but the bees were covering nearly every cell. They have about 20% of the honey that they will need for the Winter. They also are only now building up brood. I have no idea how hardy the current set of bees are (are they made up of Winter bees? how many are Winter bees that can make it to February?!) If I had more experience with October swarms, I’d know what to do. The wise man would probably kill the queen and combine with one of my hardy Nuc’s. But, I have never been called a wise man! So, we’re going to see how it goes.
What’s up next? Over the next week, we’ll have good beekeeping weather (temps closing on or even eclipsing 70). I plan to go out to the Albo hive and pull at least two Deep frames of honey. I also plan to grab a shallow or a medium off of one of the hives at Shirley Plantation (they have extra supers on them). This super will not be full of capped honey, but it will be at least 50% full, based on my last inspection. Finally, I will add a spacer on this hive and put a few pollen patties on them (I have the mix, but have never made them, so be ready for another adventure posted here in the next month or so.) I think that will give them the best chance at making it.
(I may initiate another plan, moving them to a 2 Nuc high setup – depends on how many deep frames I feel comfortable taking from Albo – plus, I do not have a Nuc spacer, so I’ll have to build one – another reason why this option is the least likely one….)
We have snow hitting some of the western areas of Virginia tonight and it looks like the temps around Richmond, Virginia will drop into the lower 30′s over the next couple of days. This marks the beginning of Winter for this year. I feel pretty good because I have confirmed the following on all hives (with one exception – a hive at Pop’s, which is another story):
- Good or Great weight (honey stores)
- Strong brood patterns through last weekend
- Evidence of a Queen (I am satisfied with finding larva)
- Entrance reducer (both to keep the draft out and the mice out)
- Ventilation chuck (more on this one in a future post)
- Leveled and with a brick on the top
- at least 8 inches off of the ground
What have I not done?
- About half of my hives are on screened bottom boards (I am still not sure whether SBB’s are worth it or not). I have not put the plastic board on any of these hives (beneath the screen) to fully seal them
- I have not reduced all of my hives to just the brood chamber (1 Deep and 1 Medium)
The last point is what prompted this post, as I continue to get emails/newsletters from various Honey Bee resources recommending to remove all extra supers before Winter. I think the primary reason to remove the extra supers is the space. You are making the bees patrol/cover an area that is too large for them. I suppose this makes it possible that they will need more resources to stay warm or that you are increasing the risk pests will get to the sections that the bees cannot adequately cover.
But, for the time being, I am not going to remove my extra supers that still have honey (capped or otherwise). Effectively, I harvested honey in September (after letting the bees clean these, I have removed them from the hives). Everything that was left was consolidated into a super or two above the brood nest. For example, I have one hive with 2 Deeps, 1 Medium and 1 Shallow. If all goes well, I will not have to mess with them. But, if I have a hive that needs a boost, I’ll take it from these guys (and a couple of other hives that I have with more resources then that need.) I might regret this, but for now I am not taking the general advice on extra supers.
It’s October 19. For a Beekeeper in Central Virginia, that typically means we have had our first frost. Most blooming things are dead or dying, nectar has stopped and only old, dried pollen remains for the next few months. So, if you are a honey bee in Central Virginia, swarming today would really be a bad idea. Typically, no resources to build a new nest with and no resources to (then) store in the nest for the Winter.
Be that as it may, I received a swarm call last night. A nice fellow in the parts Department at Royal Chevrolet on Broad Street called to say that they had a ‘basketball size clump’ of bees on the fence in the back lot. Being a bit of a skeptic (this is October, after all…), I was pretty sure this was not honey bees. But, the fellow was adamant. Said they had been flying all over the place in a bit whirlwind earlier in the day and then settled on the back fence. I have to say that this had me wondering – that DOES sound like a swarm. But, in October?
Today, I left work about 11:45 and rushed over there to check (Brian had called at 9 am to say that they were still there, although a bit lethargic from the rain we received last night). Box in hand, I hived an above average sized swarm. It probably was the size of a basketball and maybe a bit bigger! Very docile bees (I think because of the temperature and the fact that they were a bit damp), but healthy nonetheless.
The odds of this thing making it over the Winter are pretty slim. I can augment them with honey tomorrow, but I do not have any spare frames of pollen. It looks like I will need to feed them pollen substitute over the Winter – although I have to wait until a frost comes to reduce the chance of a SHB infestation. On the plus side, I had a bunch (6 or so) of empty, drawn deep frames that I was fretting about (wax moth over the Winter) and now they are part of a new hive. I do not have high expectations and they will probably be more work then they are ‘monetarily’ worth, but I will enjoy the challenge. If they live, I’ll get another shot in the gene pool. But, to be honest, I think I picked up 3 other swarms from that area this year anyway. The bee population to the west of the Powhite out a bit past U of R is pretty healthy it seems.
This hive will, of course, be called ‘The Ole Chevy’. My best guess is that this is not a swarm, but an example of absconding. The hive’s original home must have been disturbed somehow, so they up and left. We’ll see. More updates to follow as the Winter passes (hopefully.)
Been really busy (bee-stuff and non-bee-stuff), so I have a bunch of updates regarding my Richmond, Virginia beekeeping adventures. To reduce boredom, I have tried to title each one separately below, so no one is forced to go through all of my dribble for the topic that really interests them!
Successful Swarm Trap!
This is hot on my mind and I couldn’t wait to post about it later. Anyone that has had the patience to actually read through my adventures for awhile knows that I put out swarm traps in the Spring. These are effectively homemade boxes the size of a Nuc that are screwed together tight and hang on a tree (some 8′ off of the ground.) In them, I put 1 frame of drawn wax (I use my old wax) and 4 or 5 frames of foundation (they were supposed to only hold a max of 5 frames, but my carpentry skills are nothing to write home about…)
In late March, I try to get my traps out within a quarter mile of my biggest outyards or known bee trees. The drawn wax is supposed to entice them and I put a drop of queen juice (simply a film canister with rubbing alcohol and the dead queens that I cull out of weak hives during the year.) By the end of June, I try to pull them to save any drawn wax that I can (sometimes the wax moths get in it and sometimes they don’t.) It’s not a loss, as the frames are my oldest frames that I culled from my hives, but I want to save the for the next year if I can.
Of the 6 that I put out this past April, I couldn’t get one of them (or, I wouldn’t) because it was covered in a thick patch of poison ivy that had grown up the tree (didn’t see that bit of nastiness when I put the thing up, because the leaves hadn’t come out!) I figured I’d either wait until Winter or get my pop to get it for me sometime (he’s immune to the ivy’s). With so little success, I had decided to start Nuc’s in each of my traps in the Spring of 2012 to get some good bee scent in them (and thus be more enticing to swarms.)
Well, the real point of this is that I went by that loner today (while doing some last minute checks on the hives) and found it FULL of bees! Ha! Success at last! I have no idea when the swarm came into the trap (well, I know it was after late June, when I last looked at it), so it will be interesting to see what they look like when I put them in a Nuc on Sunday. As long as the queen is laying well (and I’ll probably let them live even if she isn’t, as an experiment), they are golden. I have a ton of deep frames of honey to give them for the Winter (pollen is another subject – I do not have a lot of that to spare, so I hope they at least have that stored in the trap.)
Catching this one swarm has me pumped to build more of my traps this Winter!
July Nuc’s
Once July came around, I stopped selling Nuc’s (with the exception of one to an ERBA member who was interested in trying out a late Nuc – they are experienced beekeepers, so I sold it to them for a slight discount, even though I typically refuse to do so.) Most folks have always said that a July Nuc has next to no chance of growing to a full hive (and I have tended to believe them, because July and August are nightmares in central Virginia.)
This year, I purposefully tried to build up five early July Nuc’s using my simple techniques. One year does not a pattern make, but I was encourages. Each Nuc was fed with boardman feeders until they filled out their five frames fully. I then moved them to full deeps and dropped Maxant top feeders on them (I think this is the real key.) These feeders were easy to check and fill (pop the top, pour in the syrup) and I kept meticulous records of how much they got and how long it took them to eat it up – no hive went more then a day without syrup. These feeders can take nearly 3 gallons of feed, which makes it real easy.
Once they had drawn out at least 8 frames, they received a Medium of foundation, again with the feeder on top. Once they filled out 70% of the Medium, I moved them to an outyard. Of the 5 hives, 4 became full hives and were moved out before September 1. I would argue that the one that didn’t make it suffered from some bee problem (it may have been one of the paralysis viruses – the bees would flop out on the ground and not fly, or fly erratically at times.) They did not act right from nearly the start.
In conclusion, I think you can definitely build up a hive from a July Nuc (of course, I can only REALLY say this with confidence once I see them make it through the Winter.) I think the key is moving the big hives out of your Nuc yard once they fill out and using the top feeders (keeping them on syrup 24/7).
Irene Survivors
Irene gave me several hives, thanks to all of the trees that went down with bees in them in the Richmond area. I’m not happy that the trees went down, but (glass is half full) I am glad folks called me to cut them out. My last cut out was about 10 days after the hurricane. The tree had landed on its side and the comb had smooshed together. By the time that I got to them, most of the comb (literally 90% of it) was full of SHB and wax moth. I was surprised the bees had not absconded (the two hives I went to get the day before had both absconded because of the smashed wax.) I cut them out and hived them in less then 30 minutes, leaving about 4 lbs of bees with no resources (I mean NONE). The comb that I did get was empty – no brood, no honey, no pollen – they had been mostly robbed out after the tree crashed.
I took the poor lot home with me and gave them 3 frames of resources from my stash and left them alone for a week. I wasn’t sure if I had the queen (and figured she had died in the storm, which is why the bees had not absconded.) Amazingly enough, I spotted the little wench on the first inspection. She had actually laid eggs in every single open cell (I honestly do not know how the bees will be able to cover all of that brood, but will see how they did on Sunday.) I have given them two more frames of resources (deep frames partially full of nectar/honey with some pollen) and will be interested to see if they make it through the Winter.
Winterizing
I have Winterized all hives in Charles City County now, which comes to 23 hives. All have entrance reducers, a shim for ventilation and confirmed queens. I did not have to reverse any of them (all queens either were laying in the bottom deep or had just started to move down over the last month). I leveled several (some had definitely gotten off-kilter during the year) and checked stores one last time (well, I’m sure I’ll be back in each of them, to some degree, in October). That leaves 6 more hives in Henrico to do over the weekend and it’s Winter, here I come! My backyard is a mix of Nucs for overwintering, Nucs from swarms, Nucs from cut-outs and one full hive that I kept for fun (I’ll move her out next Spring, but I like to see what the bees are doing during the Winter when I go out into the yard.) It really comes down to 1 full hive, 1 partial hive (from the August cut-out) and 3 Nuc’s. I am only counting the 1 full hive for my Winter metrics (so, how many of 30 will I lose?)
Fall Honey Crop
I took a little under 10 gallons of honey off of the hives earlier this month! I’m sure this isn’t much to most beekeepers, but I am excited! For the first year that I actually took honey, I took between 20 and 25 gallons of honey! Wow! There still a fair amount left on the hives, but I won’t extract that. I have each of the ‘bank’ hives noted so that I can steal their resources come Jan/Feb in case my home yard experiments are struggling. All in all, I am feeling pretty good about the future…
Nuc List
My Nuc list is filling up, which is very cool. Folks are starting to see the value in local bees that are not medicated. My primary goal now is to make sure that I have enough Nuc’s built to produce the numbers that I need. I do not foresee a problem, but I like to be over-prepared. There is still a good bit of prime painting weather left in the season!
Master Beekeeper?
I took the Certified Level test last weekend. I must say that I am not confident about it, but am hopeful. The test wasn’t extremely hard, but some of the virus/disease questions were nothing more then educated guesses for me. Plus, they had an entire part based on chemicals, which I do not use. Fortunately, I had studied up on it. I am confident that I DID pass the field test, but will not know about the written test for some time.
So, that’s it. Another month gone and another month closer to Winter. Many more adventures to be had.
|
|
