With the fall in Virginia comes dry days with little or no rain. Honey bees are not native to Virginia (or the United States) and struggle to find food, especially nectar. Left on their own honey bees tend to eat what food stores they have, putting them at a severe disadvantage going into winter.

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Last weekend I removed the Formic Pro I had placed on the hives on August 13. Formic acid is a naturally occurring chemical, most notably found in ants and some stingless bees. It is also present in honey bee colonies so bees have a natural resistance. It is not absorbed by wax and dissipates from the hive, so it can be used while the bees are also collecting honey.

What you see here is the strips after two weeks. Most of the acid is gone and what’s left is a bit like cardboard. I scraped them out with a hive tool and put them in the trash. The bees were surprisingly gentle, which made it a pleasant morning.

May you prosper and find honey.

We made a visit to Block Island, Rhode Island in July, and I’ve been meaning to post these pictures. My grandfather kept honey bees on Block Island while I was growing up. He won the RI State Fair a few times (at least he said he did), so his honey was one of the best. Block Island is about 12 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, so there is hardly any insect migration from the mainland, and about a third of island is conserved so there are great floral resources for bees.

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Here finally are some photos from EAS 2022 in Ithaca, NY. This shows (in order): the painted hives auction, fireworks at Kutik’s Everything Bees, the start of Mike Palmer’s talk, honey show (three photos, including the amazing wax sculpture that won best in show), an English Garden Hive (or WBC hive) at auction, My Tom Seeley autograph, pictures from the Cornell Botanical Garden tour (two photos), and pictures from the Cornell Beekeeping collection (two photos).

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I had a great time at the EAS conference last week – I will try to post some pictures. In the meantime, I did a mite check in two of my hives this morning. We have a cooler weekend coming up where it will be possible to treat with Formic Pro, so I wanted to get a reading on my larger hives. I use a powdered sugar roll that has repeated done as well or better than an alcohol wash, so I am pretty confident in my results.

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I am in Ithaca, NY for the Eastern Apicultural Society’s (EAS) 2022 Short Course & Conference. This morning I went the farmers market, which it one of the better markets in the country. Covered stalls, open Saturdays and Sundays, and includes farmers, food vendors, and artisans. All products sold must be produced within 30 miles of Ithaca, so you know it is local.

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I’ve been meaning to share a couple pictures of bumble bees in one of our crookneck squash plants. The males especially find a nice place to settle down for the night (female bumble bees kick the males out).

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I started pulling honey frames this weekend from my three production hives. So far there are a lot of partially completed combs, so I’m hoping to have more finished frames next weekend. The following picture shows the box I was setting frames in, with a nicely completed honey comb on the outside.

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I went through some nucs yesterday and marked some queens (three total!). The year 2022 uses yellow for queens, following the mnemonic “Will You Raise Good Bees” for White, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue. So 2022 is a “2” year so we use the second color: yellow (also for “7” years). I’ve gotten much better at finding her highness through the years. Sometimes I still just cannot see her, but often I can now.

I use the tube shown in the below photo. Once inside, you can push her to the top with a soft plunger and press her lightly against the mesh (which she cannot fit through). A slight dab on the back with a yellow marker and you are done.

May you prosper and find honey.

Happy Cinco do Mayo! The post has nothing to do with this, but worth putting out there. I found a picture of my first hives in the archives, so to speak, and thought it might be fun to compare this with my current hives.

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