Bee Chronicles

Mar 2017

Just got back from the GA State Beekeepers meeting. Lots of information. Now is the time to figure out what to do with it.

The Propolis Envelope

The most useful didbit garnered was: Propolis varnish may be the most extremely useful medication we can put into our hives. And, it is free if you already have bees. Even a newly dead hive is a good source for propolis.

Bees have a tendency to coat the inside of a hollow tree with propolis. They will do layer after layer. They don’t coat the inside of a wooden hive box quite as heavy. Where they do put the propolis is where the frame “ears” rest on the rabbet edge on the inside of the box. This glues down the frames. They will also use it to seal the inner cover and all the stacked up boxes.

Why? It seems that the bees like to smooth out the roughness. There is a lot of that to do on the inside of a hollow tree. The smooth lumber in the box does not encourage propolis varnish. However, they do work to fill cracks where ever they can find them. This may be to eliminate drafts, between boxes and lids. But, they are working overtime to eliminate the crack between the frame and the rabbet shelf. They also continually (year after year) are trying to fill up the rabbet as an irregularity in the hive chamber.

Three ways to encourage varnishing inside the hive box are 1. rough up the inside of the box with 40 grit sand paper, 2. Cut up and place propolis traps on the inside wall of the box, or 3. paint propolis tincture on the inside walls.

Painting the inside of box may be the cheapest and easiest. Make a 70% concentrate tincture and then just paint it on the inside walls. Redo this every year.

The best way to get adequate propolis on the wall is to take the plastic propolis traps, cut them to size and staple them to the inside of the 4 walls of the boxes. The bees will fill the traps with propolis. Remove the traps and the propolis pattern will be emblazoned on the walls. This pattern will be as thick as the holes in the trap. After the trap is removed the wall will be rough from the variations in the pattern. The bees will work to fill in the indentions. If there is any propolis left in the trap you can freeze the trap and extract the propolis to make a tincture.

For the Propolis Tincture recipe see the accompanying page.

Why go to all this trouble. Honey bees don’t have a real immune system but they do fight bacterial, fungal, and viral invasions with hive cleanliness. Physically they remove garbage, dead, dying, infected bees, and coat the inside of the colony area with propolis which is antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral. A hollow bee tree might have up to ¼ inch thick propolis which is refreshed annually. Observation and research shows that above and below the colony area in the hollow tree there are bacteria, mold, and viruses. Where the propolis is it is totally sanitized. These colonies show extremely low populations of pathogens affecting the bees.

We are putting all kinds of effort into helping the bees fight pathogens. Maybe we need to enhance the bees’ natural defenses.

It is now February 20, 2017. We are 30 days ahead of a “normal” year. The warm weather is accelerating the blooms. Accelerated blooming means that flowers that are supposed to bloom one after the other are blooming simultaneously. This will shorten the overall bloom season reducing the food available for the bees to grow large colonies and gather enough food stores for next winter. The bee keepers will have to supplement the nectar flow with sugar syrup at the end of each normal nectar flow. That is after spring flow while you wait for the sourwood trees to bloom. And, again after sourwood while you wait for the fall flowers to bloom. At the same time you might need to provide pollen substitute when there are few flowers so the queen will continue laying eggs at her normal maximum rate. You need lots of bees to collect the pollen and nectar. The queen will slow down laying eggs if there is a reduction in available pollen and nectar.

Alder and Pussy willow have just completed their full bloom period. Hembit and red maple are just coming into their peak. Of course there are garden flowers out there helping also. Flowering quince, Bradford pears, flowering Cherry, and Flowering Apricots are just starting. Croci, Lenton roses and johnquils are doing well. Next will be Carolina silver bell trees, blue berries, sweet bush, and eastern red bud. Remember, not matter how pretty, long petaled deep flowers don’t work for honey bees. That would be forsythia and honeysuckle.

We are going to have cold snaps for the next 2 months, March and April. I expect them to be short. This is bad news for the bees as it disrupts their pattern of life and frosts the blooms. Hence, no food and killed brood. You can mitigate these ups and downs by feeding 1:1 syrup and pollen patties. Get your colonies built up fast and large so you can do splits in April. With fewer flowers you will need more bees per hive to collect adequate bee food and excess honey.

I think this will be a good year to try Michael Palmer’s bee condominiums. Two colonies grown side by side vertically 5 frames over 5 frames instead of 10 frames horizontally. The two queens will replace foraging bees faster. Foragers are supposed to live 4-6 weeks during peak nectar flow. I think they are living closer to 4 weeks reducing the number of foraging bees.

Another comment from the Beekeepers’ meeting was, “Insecticide residue is not our biggest problem”. “Poor quality and quantity of Pollen is”. Not such a big problem for us here in the mountains, but agricultural mono culture reduces the pollens available to the bees. Corn pollen is not the best bee food. Pine tree pollen is not bee food (no food value). Clover is not the best pollen. Bees need lots of different pollens so they get an average quality in what they collect and store. We have plenty of wild flowers within flying range of any hive. When the highway dept and power companies spray their right of ways with herbicides they are eliminating a lot of bee food. We can help by spreading wild flower seed back into the right of ways. Check on what chemical they are spraying. Usually there is a 6-8 week wait period and then seed.