Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Time To Treat

Remember our sugar shake assessment? Well, our results showed that there were more mites than acceptable in the hive, so it is time to treat. There are a lots of treatments available for varroa mites.
Some are better than others, and some cannot be used at specific times of the year due to temperature or brood being present. They all have pros and cons, but its important to pick one and use it according to the label, to ensure that the bees can remain healthy. 

On August 2, I raced the distant rumbling storms and went into the hive only to put on their varroa treatment. It started to rain and rained for the rest of the day shortly after I was done, so I got lucky - bees are not fans of rain! Based on the time of year and temperatures, I chose to use Apivar, because it is fine to use when the temperature is hot and steamy! Apivar consists of plastic strips that contain the miticide. The strips are hung in between the frames of the hive and the bees walk over them, get the treatment on themselves, and transfer it from bee to bee. The treatment needs to stay in the hive for 42-56 days. This allows for all the bees to come in contact with it, AND for the brood to hatch and the mites that were hiding in there to come in contact with the treatment too.

Treatment options vary depending on the time of year and what's going on inside the hive. When you get a package of bees, they will arrive from the bee farm with mites, and pick up mites from bumping into other bees from different hives on flowers. As with all parasites, varroa mites are clever, and have found ways to adapt and thrive. As summer winds down and the bee population starts to get lower, the mites are experiencing a population explosion (pictured below in the graph). Though winter seems like it is far in the future, now is the time for beekeepers to start getting their bees healthy and ready to ride out the winter. Choosing not to treat is not fair to the bees or the greater community. As long as the directions on the label are followed, the treatments are safe. The bottom line is that the bees need to be treated so that they can continue to bee healthy, survive the winter, and bee good neighbors!

From www.apivar.co.nz






Monday, August 6, 2018

Sugar Shakin'!

On July 8, I went into the hives and did a sugar shake test. A sugar shake is a manner of sampling the hive to see what level of Varroa mites are present in the hive. 

Varroa mites (varroa destructor) are a tiny parasitic arachnid that are visible to the naked eye, but cleverly hide in bees and under capped brood. They are a huge problem facing honey bee colonies. Varroa was first found in the US in 1987, and has become an enormous problem since. The mites themselves do physical damage to some of the bees, but the bigger problem is that they trigger viruses which exist in the bees, and create a variety of different physical issues such as Deformed Wing Virus (among many others) which can cause an entire colony to collapse. The mite is completely dependent on the honey bee to complete its own life cycle. The question is not whether they are in your hive (they are), it's how many. Which is what this method of mite sampling, the sugar shake, tells you. 

So, I went into the hives to check it out, and took some pictures so you can see the process! After I confirmed that the queen was there and laying and that the bees were doing all the right things and had plenty of honey, I got started.  I set up my supplies: a spray bottle of water and a white surface that I could easily see any mites on, an old cat litter container with a snap on lid, a highly precise peanut butter jar fitted with #8 hardware cloth on the cut out lid and a line to measure the amount of bees, and powdered sugar (the bee's favorite part! Ok, probably the ONLY part of this process they like). 

I found a few frames with capped brood (baby bees who are incubating, and the favorite place to hide for mites), and shook the nurse bees from those frames into the bucket and closed the lid. Once I had gotten the bees I wanted, I closed up the hive. Then, I scooped up the appropriate amount of bees (about 300) into the peanut butter jar and screwed on the lid. Sounds like a harrowing process! Then, the best part - I put a few tablespoons of powdered sugar through the wire lid and SHAKE! I shook the jar for several minutes. This dislodges some of the mites, and encourages the bees to groom one another, further dislodging any parasites. I set them in the shade for a few minutes, then, again SHAKE! I shook the upended jar over the white surface for a good long bit. This shakes out any loosened mites, so we can do a count. 

Pictured below is a close up of an invading mite. All told, I counted 7 mites in this sample. Which isn't great news, but as a newly established colony this year isn't surprising. And knowledge is power! So, next we will see what we're going to do about it. Stay tuned! 

Oh - the second best part - dumping the "ghost bees" back out in front of the hive to get their bearings and head back into the hive. Given that they are covered in sugar,they are VERY popular. This might seem unkind, but it is absolutely necessary. Untreated bees will die, and also continue to spread mites and thus disease in the community. Bee a good neighbor! 


Saturday, August 4, 2018

National Pollinator Week

On June 23, I had the privilege of speaking for National Pollinator Week about the role of pollinators - especially our very own Glory Bees! We gathered in the church and spoke about fun pollination facts, why pollinators are important, the difference between honey bees and a variety of native pollinators, and what people can do to help in their own yards. Then we took a trip out to the hive to meet the bees in person.

They were very cooperative and all was well in the hive. We went through all ten frames in the top box, and there was A LOT of honey. A few brave souls stepped up and held the frame full of honey and were surprised at how heavy it was! Our bees did well socking it away during the honey flow, so they should be well provisioned in the coming months. There were a few frames completely full of honey, and each of the other frames had an arch of honey at the top, with brood (baby bees) under. There was a lot of capped brood (the final stage before a bee emerges), as well as larva. We saw some drone brood and potentially one supersedure cell, which says the colony may feel they need a new queen. We did not see the queen this time, but also did not investigate the bottom hive box.

I will be going into the hive again in the next couple of weeks to check the level of Varroa mites, a parasite that is very detrimental in bee colonies, by doing a sugar shatke. More on that soon!

I will leave you with some our "Fun Facts" we talked about on Saturday.

*If you cut an apple across the middle (from top to bottom) there is a "star" in the middle. If each of the 5 pockets has 2 seeds in it, the apple blossom was completely pollinated by bees!

*A honeybee visits between 50-100 flowers during one collection flight. In order to produce one pound of honey, 2 million flowers must be visited. A hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce one pound of honey. One bee colony can produce 60-100 pounds of honey per year. A single bee only produces about 1/12 - 1/2 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.