We humans may be isolating in our homes, but not the bees. They are out and about in Virginia, enjoying the weather, the nectar, the pollen, and generally just trying to expand the population. Yesterday (Friday) one of my hives swarmed not once, but twice.
The second of my two swarms. No idea why the swarm landed here, on the side of another hive. ©Erik Brown
The saying “may you live in interesting times” is often quoted as an old Chinese curse. It turns out this probably came from the British diplomatic service in the 1930’s rather than China, but it is apt to our situation nonetheless. We live in interesting times. March has been an especially interesting month for me, personally, and of the various stories I could tell I thought an early swarm might be the most interesting.
A swarm from my apiary on March 17, 2020 ©Erik Brown
Well, this post got stuck in my queue and never made it out before Christmas, much to my dismay. I have had a wonderful holiday so far, and even though it is December 26 I thought I would post my annual bee song regardless. I think my first such post in 2015 was still my best; this year I used my darling wife’s favorite as the basis for my poetry.
This is sung to the tune of White Christmas. I tried to write it from the point of view of the bees, sitting in their cluster even as I type. Enjoy.
We’re buzzing for a bright Springtime
Just like the ones we used to know
Where the tree buds glisten
and evenings misting
So nectar and pollen start to flow
We’re buzzing for a bright Springtime
With every wing beat that I form
My our cluster be merry and warm
And may all your colonies go swarm
My top bar hives (and nuc) on December 15, 2019. This is my first year trying to overwinter a nuc, so I wrapped it in foam insulation to make myself feel better. I did an oxalic dribble in my Langstroth hives, including the nuc, before taking this picture. You can dribble a top bar hive; I just decided against it. ©Erik Brown
May you prosper and find honey in 2020. Happy New Year!
I attended our Virginia State Beekeepers Association Fall 2019 meeting at the Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, Virginia, held the first Saturday in November. The theme this year was all about queens, as we had two wonderful speakers discuss their research: Heather Matilla and Alison McAfee. Posting this at the end of November seems to bookmark the month rather nicely.
Title slide for one of the talks at the VSBA 2019 Fall Meeting
Our weather has been unusually warm this fall. Last weekend we hit 80 F (26 C) and we have yet to experience a frost in our little piece of Virginia. We might see one this weekend, with temperatures expected to drop 30 F this Halloween night.
A panoramic of my apiary on October 26, 2019. The two hive stands are actually perpendicular to each other. ©Erik Brown
This Halictidae bee on a mountain mint flower is a Augochlorella aurata. Taken on July 21, 2019. ©Erik Brown
One of my bee goals for the year was to understand native bee species a bit better. I’m not sure how well I’ve done overall, though I have taken a bunch of pictures. In a small attempt to rectify this, allow me to discuss one scientific family of bees, the family Halictidae. Continue reading
Our local club held a Mite Assessment Workshop in my yard this past weekend, so thought it might be a good time to review my mite status. I’m a little laid back when it comes to Varroa mites. I only use organic compounds, and only when my counts exceed my threshold.
Looking at frames and checking for mites.
This was actually our second workshop of the year. We had one in April, also in my yard. I try to check the hives once a month, and having workshops in my yard in April and August certainly helps me keep up!
The classic bees vs mites curve, shown below with caption from Randy Oliver’s Scientific Beekeeping web site, illustrates the problem. After the summer solstice in June, the bee population ramps down in preparation for winter. The mites keep chugging along, and without an intervention the mites overwhelm the bees in fall or winter.
The main problem with Varroa, of course, is the viruses they vector. Like mosquitoes, which transmit Zika, dengue fever, malaria, and other diseases into humans, Varroa mites transmit deformed winged virus (DWV), acute bee paralysis, and other viruses into honey bees. That’s why humans work to keep the mosquito population down, and why beekeepers should work to reduce mite populations.
In any case, back to my hives. I captured one swarm and have made some splits, so I now have 9 hives. Here is a table of my mite checks in 2019. This shows the number of mites seen per 300 bees. I use a threshold of 2%, which is 6 mites from my roughly 300 bee sample.
| Hive Name | Apr 28 | May 18 | Jun 30 | Aug 25 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturn | 0 | – | 0 | 7 | |
| Med Nuc | – | – | – | 7 | |
| Titan2 | – | – | – | 5 | |
| Venus | 13 | 1 | – | – | Treated with Formic May 4, removed May 12 |
| Pandora | 2 | – | 3 | 34 | Treated with ApiGuard Aug 25 |
| Calypso | 3 | – | 10 | 0 | Treated with ApiGuard Jul 21, added ApiGuard Aug 4, removed Aug 18 |
| New Deep | – | – | – | 0 | |
| Mercury | – | – | 1 | – | Ran out of time, didn’t check |
As you can see, I had a high value (10) in Venus on April 28, and another in Calypso (13) on June 30. Since these exceeded my threshold of 6, I treated Venus with Formic Pro, and Pandora with ApiGuard. The subsequent reading in each of these hives verified that my treatment worked well.
Handing off a top bar frame for inspection.
In our workshop, there are few high readings, but Pandora really stands out with 34 mites, which is over 11%. Readings above 18 (6%) are considered a likely winter death. Perhaps these bees had drifting from Calypso (right next to her) or picked up mites elsewhere. Replacing this queen is a good idea, since her workers clearly do not handle mites well and we don’t want to preserve such terrible genetics.
I should point out that a high value like this is also problematic because even with a solid treatment mites are left behind. Say we kill 90% of mites, that leaves 10% in the hive. So starting at 34, we should still see 3-4 mites per 300 bees in a subsequent test. This is why I treated right away with ApiGuard, to get this started, and I will consider a follow-on treatment of Formic Pro. I will definitely look to replace this queen at my first opportunity.
My top bar hive row, with Saturn, a medium nuc, Titan2, and Venus, all had a reading near 6. I need to get some Formic (I am out) so I can treat these hives, as this time of year the numbers will only rise. We didn’t test Venus because her bees are a bit aggressive and I didn’t want to open her up around visitors. I need to replace this queen as well, I think.
Even though the other hives tested okay, I will check them again soon, especially Venus and Mercury. In the fall mite counts can rise rapidly, and with a “mite bomb” like Pandora nearby drift can be a real problem.
By performing regular checks, I have a sense of which hives are faring well (most of them) and which ones are a problem (Venus and Pandora), so this will help me decide some strategies going into winter.
This popular song from the musical Grease is about the summertime affair between the main characters Danny and Sandy. The most popular version of the song was performed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the hit movie released in 1978.
For my bees, the days and nights have certainly been hot and heavy lately. This past week is the first time we’ve had daytime temperatures regularly below 90 F (32 C) for a while. When I though of our hot summer, this song just popped into my head. So it seems an appropriate metaphor for this particular post.
May you prosper and find honey.
Continuing in the vein of my prior post, we are now home from our trip to the EAS Short Course & Conference in Greenville, South Carolina. I was able to attend a keynote by Dr. Geoff Williams on the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) Annual Colony Loss Survey. Dr. Williams is an assistant professor at Auburn University, and on the Board of the BIP. He spoke about the survey results and some successful management practices based on the data.
Working to re-start my blog with a post from the Eastern Apicultural Society’s 2019 Short Course & Conference in Greenville, South Carolina in the United Status. I am sitting in my hotel room Tuesday evening after the second day of the conference. As is typical for EAS, the first two days are set up as a short course on beekeeping: beginner, intermediate, and advanced instruction along with an outside Apiary for demonstrations and discussions. The rest of the week is a more traditional conference with keynote speakers and classroom lectures. Continue reading
A short post to link an article from the online magazine Otia.io. They contacted me earlier this year and the exchange led to the following article: Erik Brown, Director and Program Manager on Beekeeping. Basically they sent me an interview questionnaire, and turned my answers into the article. Kind of cool. Continue reading
