Bee Chronicles Jan. 2017

26 December 2016: We are in a bad weather pattern. Too similar to January 2016. A little cool around Thanksgiving and early Dec. Now too warm and damp. On the 5^th of December 2016 I saw a flowering Apricot or Cherry starting to bloom. We had received a little rain after an extremely long dry spell in the fall. Forest fires and all. The plants think it is spring, we were 12 inches behind in annual rain fall, as soon as the moisture hits the tree root systems they wake up. Weed type flowers are more temperature sensitive. My Pussy willow tree is on schedule. Catkins are formed. These are the flower buds. When the catkins turn raggedy they are in bloom. Bees will be all over it. An excellent pollen source early.

Remember spring 2016. It was hot in January then got normally cold the end of February. Plants were blooming and then got stunted back or slowed down. The flowers came before the bee populations were large enough to collect much spring honey. The bees didn’t catch up until the end of June when they were ready for Sourwood.

What would be a prudent plan to be prepared for a repeat this year? Have pollen patties on hand. Feed pollen patties and 1:1 syrup during the warm spell to get the queens laying eggs. This will require a lot of syrup.

The bee hives will be low on stored honey. As soon as there are eggs the bees will require more honey to produce the 95 degree brood temperatures versus the 72 degree cluster temperature. Stored food will be eaten rapidly. These types of weather conditions typically result in hives starving to death.

Some of my latest reading indicate, early winter die off is probably varroa mite related. Late winter die off is probably Nosema. The less dead bees in the colony the less perpetuation of the “disease”. The sick bees are dieing away from the colony. There is some indication that nosema is being picked up at the flower blossom and brought home by foraging bees. This is not good news.

January is an excellent time to get your wood working done. It may be too cold to paint. You can clean up your old boxes and frames. Frames and be rewired but don’t put wax foundation in when it is “cool”. The wax is brittle and will break. The mice also might eat holes in your new foundation. Wait until it is warmer.

Clean the rabbets in the boxes. These are not the little easter bunnies. The ledge that the “ears” of the frames sit on get clogged with propolis. When it is cold the propolis can be dug out easily. Save the propolis as a by product or not. In the summer the rabbet is a good place for hive beetles to hide from the guard bees. They and the wax moths will lay eggs in the propolis also. Scrape the tops, bottoms and ears of frames to remove wax bridges and propolis. Removing the propolis makes it easier for part of the summer to remove the frames from the box. Cleaning up the wax on top and bottom make the hives fit together better. I know the bees will build new bridges as needed next summer but if you don’t put the frames back together in the order they were in last year, they may “miss fit” top to bottom this year.

If you have time during warm days inspect your hives for mice. Chase them out, and clean up their nests. Then make sure your entrances are too small for them to return.