Bee Chronicles Feb 2014

What is happening in the bee yard today. I woke up to a clear sunrise and 11 degrees. I had to go check my bees. I could not tell a thing about what was happening.

We hit 0 on 7 January. Let’s just say it was cold that week. Then last week the bees were flying all over on several days. Now the 3d week of January we are back under 20 degrees. If you live in Minnesota this is not too worrisome. One of the hardest things on our southern bees is being jerked around weather wise.

Last week the bees were consuming lots of stored food in the warm weather. I feed externally so I see the bees consuming their syrup. Some hives drank a pint and some a half pint. The bees were also on the field feeders. You intuitively know the bees were also consuming stored honey.

The first of March should be a “normal” time for the bees. Sooooo! What will happen in February? At best the bees will stay clustered and not consume much food. At worst the queen will start laying eggs, the nurse bees will start warming the brood area to 90 degrees and they will consume all the remaining food in the hive and starve to death before you notice.

How can we help the bees to find the happy medium, where the queen is laying eggs early and the food last until the red maple blooms.

I feed, both pollen patties (or winter patties) and 1:1 syrup. I want my queen to start laying early so I can maximize population build up. This can back fire if there are extreme up and down cold/warm spells. The queen has enough food she will lay lots of eggs. The brood pattern will expand larger than the cluster can cover on a cold day. Some of the larvae will die. However, this is not totally bad. The colony will start to grow slowly. The important thing is to keep syrup in front of the bees so they can make honey on the warm days. This will keep them from starving.

It is nearly impossible to feed a starving colony. You can try, but there has to be enough warm days so the bees can eat and recover. If it is too cold they won’t eat your emergency food.

If I succeed in an early start in the hive, I create another problem for my self in April. Early swarming! But, I also create a situation where I can do spits on my hives early enough that both halves will be ready to collect honey the of April and especially May.

You want to do you spring mite treatments in February if it is appropriate. Knock the mites down before the queen starts laying eggs. This will keep the mites out of you larvae longer.

If you use fumigilian B, put it in your late February syrup. You want most of the days to be above 50 degrees so the bees will take in the syrup and make honey. That way it gets passed around the hive. The latest I have heard says to treat with Fumigilian B longer to affect Nosema cerenae. Normally you treat the hive until they have stored 1 gallon of syrup. I have not seen a specific recommendation but you might go for 2 or 3 gallons of syrup. This will be expensive, but what is the cost of a hive full of working bees? What “they” think happens is the first treat of fumigilian B knock the Nosema ceranae down but does not eliminate it. Then it comes back and the bees are weak so it kills them easily. The longer the bees have the fumigilian B in the food honey the longer it works on the Nosema ceranae even on weakened bees. Then they survive. More science to follow.

We all are trying to learn

Glen