Bee Chronicles Dec 2013
This November/December seems to be normal. If that is not a loaded statement?
November has been pretty cool with a little rain mixed in. Some of the clear days were warm enough for the bees to fly. Some of the cool days without breezes were warm enough to thoroughly work one or two hives each afternoon.
In all of my hives (except one), the queens seem to mostly have stopped brooding. This does not hold true for one of the beekeepers in Rabun County (NE corner of GA). He has many hives with a fairly good brood pattern. I am going to lay my blame on my varroa mite treatment. This year is the first year that I used Apiguard in the single treatment packets. Early September with the temperatures in the mid 80’s I place the packets in the hives. I had good strong hive with large brood areas. My plan was to get two treatments of mite control before the queens stopped laying eggs. My thought was if I could reduce the mite damage on the larvae, I would have stronger bees going into winter. Hence, higher survival rate next spring.
Right off I started getting young larvae die off. They were being chucked out the front of the hive. The instructions indicate that this may be because of too high of a dose rate in the hive. This can be caused by too high of a temperature. The instruction also put too high of a temperature at 104 degrees. I don’t think that was the problem. Older brood seems to have survived and hatched out.
The queens stopped laying eggs. I think this was because the oder in hive mask the queen and brood pheromones. By the end of October all my brood had hatched. I thinned my sugar syrup to 1:1 and put pollen patties over the area the queens were hanging out at trying to trick them into thinking there were flowers and pollen out there. It did not work.
The bees are working hard putting up honey as winter stores. That is right on schedule.
How bad do I think I messed up? Only time will tell. Who survives the winter? Reducing the mites can not be a bad thing. I just wonder if it was enough.
I am the type of bee keeper that just has to do something. I know, you know, that something can frequently not be the best thing. For the past 5 years I have been a very not aggressive/non-chemical user. I have suffered nearly 100% die off each winter. I had to change something. If you change too many management techniques simultaneously, you don’t know which one did the trick.
I am going to assume that queen bees like the non-egg laying period in the winter. Some hives in Florida never stop laying eggs. In Florida the foragers are out gathering something almost all the time. If I can trick my queen into thinking she is at Disneyworld, she might start laying eggs. OKAY How can this backfire???
The queen has had a 2 month break. It is cool to cold outside. The hives are pretty strong. There is a good amount of stored honey and pollen in the hive. I am going to raise the temperature inside the hive. The queen doesn’t get out, she won’t see the frost on the ground. I am going to cover the sides of the hive with black insulation material. The tops I will leave uncovered for ventilation. I will place empty bordman feeders in the front of the hive and quart baggie feeders and pollen patties in the tops. I will close all the hive bottoms and place entrance reducers with the smallest holes in the fronts.
I have noticed my bees clustering on the inside of the hive on the wall and frame ends facing the winter sun. They are trying to get every BTU of ambient heat. The black insulation should create more heat (albeit out side the hive) to soak through the hive walls. By reducing the wind penetration ambient temperature should hold a little higher. The empty jars on the bordman feeders will heat up from the sun and the expanding warm air will enter the hive.
If this works the queen will start laying eggs. This will force the nurse bees to keep the cluster temperature at 92 degrees. This will require a lot of food consumption. Is the cluster large enough to cover the eggs the queen is laying? I hope so. If we have nice weather for several days in a row the queen could lay more brood area than the cluster can cover on a cold night. Hence, brood die off. But, Some brood should survive. This is a situation commonly experienced in the early spring. It really slows down population build up. However, since I am stimulating the queen abnormally early I can accept slow build up. Between the winter stored honey, the 1:1 syrup with Honey Bee Healthy, and pollen patties I should be able to meet the feeding requirements for the developing brood.
One more joker up my sleeve! Right now, Thanksgiving week, my bees are bringing in pollen. It is witch hazel. It is blooming about a month early. But, it is fresh pollen. The queen will notice this. Yes, it will end soon. Now comes my ace, up the other sleeve. The pussy willows are starting to bloom. Also, a month early. They should be early January with a long bloom period. If the weather holds pollen should develop on the pussy willows about the time it ends on the witch hazel. I was going to make a comment about blonde queens but thought better of it. If I can get the queen adequately tricked into laying, can I keep here laying on totally artificial food (syrup and pollen patties) if the natural pollen stops coming in?
The extreme fluctuating temperature should not affect the queen on the days she is warm enough to lay eggs. The nurse bees will go frantic cleaning out the brood that dies outside the cluster. The queen should not be concerned with this brood die off. If she can find an adequate cell she will use it, even if it was one she laid in 3 days ago.
This all makes sense to me! I hope I can get a translation into Caucasian Beespeak. You do not want to see my waggle dance.
What you should be doing now is just more bee watching. If you are more southerly in GA, or elsewhere keep an eye on the weight of you hives. This time of the year the tilt test is adequate to determine if you have about 90 lbs. in your hive body. If you have to grunt a little to lift one corner, you are okay. If you can lift it easily keep feeding. You have to get next springs food into the hive this winter. The bees do not manufacture honey very well at below 50 degrees. Next spring at 40 degrees in not the time to try to get the bees to take up emergency food when they are starving. If you get into that situation Fondant (or cake frosting) is a good emergency food. Powdered sugar will work. You can also make granulated sugar crystal patties. The larger the sugar crystal the more water the bees will need to desolve the crystals. Karo syrup and powdered sugar can make a “fondant”. No recipe required. Just make a paste pattie and get it right in front of the hungry bees. They will not move far looking for it. Make sure some is by the queen. She might feed herself.
Vegetable oil (Crisco) sugar (powdered or granulated) patties make a good tracheomite treatment. This is usually done in the spring. The bees roll in it and eat it masking their scent confusing the casting tracheomites. It can also work as an emergency food. Usually placed on the top bars the starving bees may not go to it for food. Then you will need to place it right in front of the bees.
Have you estimated how many bees you will need next year to replace your dead hives?
Now is the time to take a guess. Any packages or nucs you order, someone in your neighborhood will need if you don’t. But you need to order now to be on the list for next spring. If you wait until your bees die you won’t get replacements until early June.
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas
Glen