Bee Chronicles

4 December 2018

The “ole Guru of beekeeping” astounds himself again. Dec. 2017, he predicted we, beekeepers, needed to figure out how to break the egg laying cycle as a mite reduction technique. I amaze myself in that the same subject was brought up at our Nov. 2018 meeting.

Last year it was 60 degrees in Nov. This year in the 50’s. It has been off and on cool, and rainy. So, I have not dug into my hives to check the queen/egg status. I have 12 working hives. I lost 3 nucs in September and 3 hives in October. That leaves me with: 3 double nucs with honey (5 over 5), 1 “Palmer condominium (2 nucs side by side, 5 over 5) with honey, and 8 double hive bodies with honey. With honey means the honey food stores are good for now. The last time I looked there was adequate pollen in all hives and the Palmer condo. The 3 nucs will need pollen patties in the spring to stimulate the queens laying eggs before much pollen in available.

I am behind in my mite treatments. I may or may not loose hives this winter/spring. So goes life.

I plan on starting 20 packages next April. I have located a new apiary location in a cut flower farm for next spring. They specialize in sun flowers.

15 Nov. the Witch Hazel was in full bloom. It got frosted. Last year the witch hazel didn’t bloom until 22 Nov. That is a full week earlier by my count. Witch hazel blooms in Dec.

My Pussy Willows are starting to swell the buds. I can see gray fuzz in some of the buds. Pussy willow does not bloom until January or February. When the catkins form, we used to use them for Easter decorations. The gray fuzzy catkin is the closed flower bud. When the catkin starts looking raggedy (when the anthers and stamens protrude through the fuzz) is when the bush is “in bloom” and pollen is available for the bees. Honeybees will swarm all over a pussy willow bush.

As in almost every year something does not seem correct concerning the weather. Wooly worm caterpillars are every color from mostly brown to mostly black. More black indicates a long cold winter. Wooly worms usually beat the weatherman.

I am still keeping syrup on my hives. This is Thanksgiving week and I might stop on most hive next week. Some hives are still taking up the syrup quite readily. Those I will keep feeding.

Those hives that die I will hold back the honey frames to move to my surviving hives next spring.

By now all my entrances have been reduced and the bottoms closed on the screened bottom hives. You want to keep the mice out of the hive. You also want to keep the wind out of the hive. Everything else is up to mother nature.

There will be several adequately warm windless days to inspect the hives closely before January. Make sure you take advantage of these days so you know the food level Inside the hive. This will matter in February. If you can you want to start waking up the queen in February if the weather permits. Just be ready. An early start to the queen will mean an end of April split.