The bees are buzzing!

Today was a gorgeous day and when it's this nice my thoughts always turn to the bees. We've been checking them out weekly or so to keep the top entrances open and to check for numbers of dead bees. One hive seems to have a lot more dead than the other, but it made us wonder if that hive was still alive. Maybe there weren't any bees left alive to remove the dead ones.

Craig always said to look, smell, and listen. We can't look at them yet and can't smell anything, so today we got Don's stethoscope out and took it over to the hives. We placed the scope over the top entrance hole and heard a lovely humming coming through loud and clear from both hives!

I guess I am a worry-wart beekeeper, but I was so happy to know that both hives were alive. I know we aren't out of danger yet; I worry about whether our bees had enough stores to make it all winter. It's very hard to have to wait to open the hives.

We've ordered two more bee packages for April delivery. If both our hives survive the spring we'll be able to build our apiary to four hives. I think that's about all we'll be able to handle as hobbyists. I'm looking forward to comparing how the bees do who don't have to spend all their energy building comb like the package bees will have to do.

Wishing that all of your bees make it through and that you can continue to enjoy the bees again this year!

Bee Mary

Beekeeping calendar

At the potluck, Craig talked about the calendar developed at the Cornell University Master Beekeeping Program. Cornell has led the world in showing the best practical beekeeping techniques for many decades. Here's the link:
http://www.masterbeekeeper.org/calendar/calendar_home.htm
- you may want to copy and paste onto a place on your computer, as in a bookmark, where you can refer to it now and then.

great photo, Jen!

I now use it for a desktop screen image, says Dave.

Foulbrood Disease

BEWARE OF FOULBROOD

F/B is extremely contagious.  There is no cure.  The first warning sign is SMELL.  (Remember, Look, Listen and Smell).  Whenever you get into the brood chamber, inspect the sealed brood.  If the brood caps are broken and the larvae is rotting in the cell, it is probably F/B.  

THE FINAL TEST IS TO TAKE A TWIG, PUT INTO THE DECAYING LARVAE AND PULL OUT.  IF IT PULLS OUT LIKE A STRING, YOU HAVE AMERICAN FOULBROOD.

I repeat, THERE IS NO CURE!  If you discover an infected hive, be aware that everything you have used is now contaminated.  Especially your hive tool, hands, etc.  I keep alcohol with me for such an occasion.

You must destroy the hive.  Do this in the evening, after flight has stopped.  Use a pump up type sprayer filled with soapy water and pull every frame and spray the flightless bees.  They will quickly drown.  Put everything into double, heavy duty garbage bags.  In the fall you will burn everything in a BIG bonfire.  Textbooks will say you can salvage the boxes (only) by scorching the inside with a plumber's torch, but I would not trust it.

Foulbrood is spread by robbing.  As the hive weakens (because there is no brood hatching), it will be robbed out by other hives, infecting them.  This is why it is SO CRITICAL TO CATCH A DISEASED HIVE EARLY.  

ALSO BE AWARE THAT IT IS THE STRONGEST HIVES THAT OFTEN CATCH FOULBROOD.  This is because they are strong enough to overwhelm a weakened (diseased) hive.

 

There is a medication, terrimyicin (sp?), that PREVENTS F/B.  Many beekeepers use it in the spring and fall, in the form of patties.  I do not.  However, if I discover F/B, I do treat all my hives in the yard, since I am convinced there is a feral hive in the area that may infect the rest of my yard.  I will post the recipe for patties in a comment below.

One other thing.  So now you have these bags of rotting hives sitting in your garage waiting for the burn ban to be over.  In September, you have forgotten all about it and left your garage door open, only to discover hundreds of bees flying into the garage and lapping up the honey that is seeping out of the garbage bags.  NOT GOOD!  

Combining Weak Hives

If you have a couple weak hives, or perhaps a swarm and a weak hive, you can combine them and create a productive hive as follows:

Remove the bottom board from one hive place it on top of the other hive with a piece of newspaper between.  Cut slits in the newspaper with your hive tool.  

The bees co-mingle slowly and probably will not kill the queen that is strange to them.  The combined hives will often run for a time with 2 queens resulting in dramatic improvement in numbers of bees.  Eventually the queens will battle it out and the stronger will survive.

Swarm Season

This has been quite a season for swarms.  There are good things and bad things about swarming.  The bad thing is that both the original hive and the swarm will  probably not make an excess of honey.  The good thing is that both develop new queens.  From what I have read, the old queen leaves with the swarm but is usually superceeded within a few weeks.  If you catch a swarm, the worker bees are very young and vigorous.  They will draw comb very fast.  Put them on foundation if possible.

Hives produce queen cells in two locations and each means something different:   

A hive that senses a failing queen, or a hive that is suddenly queenless (killed by careless beekeer ? ) will sense an emergency and will have to produce a queen from a normal egg.  In other words, they did not plan for this situation.  These queen cells are on the side of the frames.  Usually, 2 to 6 cells are produced.

On the bottom of frames in the upper brood box, you will see "queen cups."  Check them if you suspect the hive is preparing to swarm.  (Signs of swarming are: many bees clustered in front of the entrances, a general listlessness in flights,  and of course, most importantly a hive that has the brood area "plugged out" with honey.)  When a hive prepares to swarm, they will raise queen cells in these cups.  Are the cups "wet" or "dry?"  Once wet, they are raising queens in order to swarm.  They usually raise a dozen or so.

If you catch them early, provide plenty of room for the brood cluster:  spread the brood cluster out over 3 boxes or so and fill in with frames of foundation.  

If the cells are sealed with many "finger cells" hanging from the bottom of the frames, there is probably nothing you can do to prevent swarming.

If you open a hive and notice a dramatic weakening in the number of bees, suspect swarming.  Look for the hatched queen cells on the bottom of the frame.

Swarm season is just about over.  Probably 2-3 weeks to go.

Mary's Requeening

I doubt if there was anything wrong with the original queen.  I also think the chances of acceptance of the new queen after such a disruption are poor.

So, let me suggest some things:

1.  The ONLY possible reason for the "strange" comb is improper spacing of the frames.  When using foundation, you should run 10 frames.  Only in the 2nd year should you reduce to 9 frames.  When running 10, the frames are pretty much self spacing.  With 9 frames, you must be VERY VERY diligent about spacing.  Some beekeepers always run 10.  The problem is that by the 2nd year, it becomes very difficult to remove the frames.  Burr comb on top of the frames is also caused by improper spacing but is almost impossible to control.  A box that is 1/16 to tall and a frame that sits 1/16 too high will result in burr comb.

2.  A failing queen is characterized by an inconsistent brood pattern OR an excess of drone brood.  In other words, a healthy queen will fill the frame with few open cells.  A failing queen will have many open cells in a checkerboard pattern.  An excess of drone brood means she is running out of semen.  (However, in the midst of a honey flow, a healthy queen may lay a spotty pattern because she has a hard time finding open cells with all the nectar coming in.)

3.  The most likely cause of the difference between your hives is "drift" in the original installation.  Because the number of bees grows in an exponential increase, a small difference in the number of bees will make a huge difference later.  If 10% of the bees drifted from the weak hive to the stronger in the first few days after installation, the starting point would be 90% and 110%.  Do the math and within 8 weeks or so, the stronger hive will have twice the bees.  In the first few days after installation, the bees are confused about where their home is.  Wind and other factors can cause drift.

4.  To boost the strength of a hive, pull a frame of sealed brood from a strong hive, bang it on its end in front of the entrance in order to knock off the bees, and place the frame of brood in the middle of the brood cluster of the weak hive.  With packages, you should wait until you are sure the queen is released and accepted before doing this.  If you have existing hives (from last year) pull from them to boost the packages as soon as possible.  If you only have packages, wait until there is sealed brood.  (You don't have to use sealed brood but it is better because the bees hatch sooner.)  You may want to pull more than one frame and may have to do this several weeks in a row.  In any case, in early spring, try to "equalize" your hives.  This overcomes the problem of drift.  

5.  As for killing a queen, every beekeeper does it once.  I will never do it again.  If necessary, I let the bees do it.  They know best.