jeff_fall

Some hints from Jeff Pfoutz

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT JEFF WITH QUESTIONS. BRING ANY QUESTIONS TO THE MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 2^ND, OR READ YOUR NOTES, TEXTBOOK, OR OTHER RESOUCES FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION. OR CONTACT YOUR MENTOR.

This is basically a note about winter survival. Winter survival is now.

I know what it is like to lose colonies. I just wanted to pass along these couple points—gentle reminders of things that, if you address them, will aid you bees' survival.

To me winter survival depends on just TWO major things (well three if you have new colonies). If either of these things is a problem then if you take action now/soon the negative effects can be mitigated. (This assumes your hives are queenright and otherwise healthy i.e. no chalkbrood, European foulbrood, nosema, low population, pollen bound, being robbed etc.)

1. Varroa mite levels

2. Food stores/nutrition of bees/Nosema treatment (handled with same actions)

3. Hive has drawn combs (in case of new colonies started from foundation).

1. If you have not done a mite drop on each hive (or whatever means you determine mite levels) you need to do so now.

Varroa mites, if not brought under control, will infest the winter bee pupae in increasing numbers. A ‘natural drop’ resulting in 60 mites over a 24 hour period equates to over 3000 mites in the colony. There are rarely 3000 drones being raised in a colony-more like several hundred.

If you have 24 hour mite counts over 20 or so you need to consider doing something. The mites will infect the worker population.

Mites feed on a pupae, reduce life expectancy of that bee, cause incomplete development, viruses (not always visible symptoms), and can kill pupae before they emerge.

If winter bees are supposed to live up to 6 months, and life expectancy is cut even 20% then they live less than 5 months. The result:

Bees will start dying in February
The cluster shrinks and cannot effectively regulate temperature
The cluster cannot move from brood to areas with existing honey.

Personally I use Apiguard product, some use Brushy Mountains' Api-Life VAR (more weather dependant)—both are Thymol based and are considered 'soft' chemical treatment. Other beekeepers use the Dowda powdered sugar method. Honey supers need to be pulled before treating.

Mite infestation is serious. I believe all my colony losses in years before I was treating effectively for mites, were dues to mites. It is the most serious thing you have to deal with. A colony can have 100 pounds of honey stored for winter but if they have too high a mite load-they will NOT survive.

2. Stores/nutrition. Good nutrition now is important to health of winter bees. Adequate honey stores must be 'put up' now to assure enough for winter.

Right now the nectar is in short supply as rainfalls have been absent. Do not assume that if you see flowers that the bees have nectar. The dry weather also affects the quantity and quality of pollen. (This is not to say we are in a drought like last year but it doesn't take long for the bees to be short.)

Once the bees are running a deficit—that is they have to open their honey stores to meet daily needs, then they cut back the amount of food the larvae get. Then they stop raising new larvae. If it gets worse the amount of worker brood they raise is reduced. When it gets really bad they can shut down brood totally.

The brood being raised now is critical to your winter bees. These bees will nurture the winter bees, which emerge between mid-September and the end of October. If the bees have a nectar shortage, they will feed less quality/quantity to the current batch of larvae. These emerging bees will be smaller, and have lower capacity for feeding the coming winter bees.

Check your honey stores now. You will likely find the honey available is less than you think. If you see any combs (often corners of brood combs) that have empty cells where the wax is very white and clean looking this is where bees have opened and used stored honey.

One way to get a quick read (before you open hive and go look) is to try to lift hive by the bottom handhold (first take off your bricks…yes plural...3 helps to hold lid down in winds).

The hive should be fairly heavy to lift.

Bees in our area need 50-60lb of honey in the right place in the colony for winter by the end of September. (The right place is overhead and on both sides. In Deeps this means most of the top deep, outside 2-4 frames of the bottom. Mediums this means whole top medium, half the second.) That's about 14-17 medium frames worth, 11-13 deeps.

The bees need the stores in place before weather cools off to the point where they cannot cure honey—somewhere around the middle to end of October. They can store syrup without curing it all the way, but cured down is better.

By the way...the less honey in the hive the more agitated your bees will be. There may also be robbing when you open the hive. Keep inspections limited to morning hours if at all possible but don't put off things because you “can't inspect them in the morning for a week or so.” Check them as soon as you can.

If bees start robbing, it helps to take the covers off all your colonies, and don't let broken honey or combs with open honey sit outside the hive without covering. However, it the robbing intensifies, you may need to close everything up and come back the next day. If you can, take a couple empty boxes (one to raise the other off ground) and an extra inner cover with you to the bee yard. Then you can put a frame or two under cover so you have room for your inspection. If you are taking a box off, instead of setting it on the upturned top cover, you can set it on an empty box on the ground with the inner cover on it and no robbers can get in underneath.

If your colonies are not chock full of honey you need to get your feeders on and plan to give at least 1 gallon of syrup per week, two or more if hives are 'dry'. If you find a hive with little or no honey you should give them 3-4 gallons of 2:1 syrup up front so they can catch up then go 1:1.

I am feeding my colonies 1:1 sugar syrup and pollen substitute. I will feed them one or two gallons a week depending on the colony stores/weight, then switch to heavy 2:1 syrup later on. You can also sometimes go 1.5 to 1 but right now 1:1 is what they need—it is like good strength nectar to them and they can more readily use it to feed brood, etc.

If you refill your feeders once a week, when you see syrup remaining you know they are getting more from outside. This will probably be once we have gone to 2:1, and is a cue that you might want to add Fumadil.

Nosema can kill your hive in winter. For winter Nosema control the bees need the last two gallons of feed (whatever strength but should be 2:1) to have Fumadil added to the syrup (recipe comes with the bottle). This feed will go on around mid-September (maybe later if bees are still short of honey).

Syrup recipes can be found on the Loudoun Beekeepers Association website, http://www.loudounbee.org/class_handouts/beebrew_and_such.doc. 1:1 or 'one to one' means 1 part sugar to 1 part water. The ratio for the 2:1 or 'two to one' recipe is two parts sugar to one part water. These recipes work either by weight or volume. In addition, I add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to each gallon of syrup (whether 1:1 or 2:1). It seems to do a good job preventing mold. Honey supers need to be pulled before feeding sugar water. Never use Boardman entrance feeders to feed sugar water.

There is also a pollen patty substitute recipe on the web site also.

If you do not take stock of your colonies' food stores and they are short now and you don't feed them then you will likely lose them in the winter.

3. New colonies that don't have full combs...i.e. still have foundation not drawn. (Probably only first year colonies.)

Bees form the winter cluster by inserting themselves into empty cells, and literally filling the comb with bees, then filling the space between combs etc. They cannot do this on bare foundation. Frames of honey that are drawn from top down halfway and are therefore half honey can be ok on the outside in the middle or the bottom box but still not the best.

If your colonies still have foundation that is not drawn out, they can get it done if they have constant sugar water feed 1:1 on the hive and the weather is warm/hot. The best place for them to draw wax is in the middle or above the brood nest. This does not mean you will put 2 or more foundation frames together in the middle. You do not want to disrupt the order of the brood nest any more than you have to.

The following is a typical scenario and what I would do. (NOTE—This is IF you have a number of foundation frames you have to try to get drawn out so hive has full complement of comb and you do not have some other combs to give them. IF you have other combs, even honey super combs, by all means put them in and let the bees draw out the foundation in honey super next spring!)

If you do use honey super combs to fill out brood nest then those combs are now part of brood now (unless you never feed or treat for mites—unlikely), and you would generally not then take honey from those combs or use them in supers again.

Let’s suppose you have a hive of three mediums, most of brood is in middle box down, and you have a total of 4 frames of undrawn foundation (F). Say these frames are in the outside of the bottom two boxes. Let’s say the top box has 4-5 capped honey (H) frames and 4-5 brood (B). I might take one each H and B frame from the top box, slip them down to middle box, put two foundation in top with each between two brood frames in center so you might have something like: Top box: H H B F B B F B H H. I would put the other two frames of foundation in the middle box so maybe that box looks like: 2nd box: H B F B B B B F B H. Note you would not have two foundations one over the other. Also note some brood frames may have mostly pollen-especially in bottom. Don't move those up top—you want to end up with honey up top. If you have a choice put capped brood up top-as they hatch then bees can store honey/syrup up there that much sooner.

The frame order I suggest is simply to give you basic idea where to put foundation if you have to get some drawn out. If foundation is between two frames of honey and honey frames aren't all capped they will continue to draw the honey out and NOT the foundation. You should put the foundation between two brood/pollen combs which the bees are unlikely to extend into megacombs. If they work the foundation, they will work it out towards the brood combs until they have bee space. You will be checking these in about a week to see how it is going. If drawn and honey is going into them, you can position them to fill in the top and sides.

If you have two deeps you can configure likewise.

With 1:1 syrup in CONSTANT supply they can draw out foundation in summer. I mean CONSTANT supply: this does not mean add 1 gallon tomorrow and look at it in a week. It means check that feeder every 2-3 three days until you get a feel for how fast they take it and you keep it filled.

When weather cools and they stop drawing and if they still have some 'half baked' combs you need to get them to the outside, and put all the fully drawn combs together so there is a vertical column of all drawn comb. If bees draw out and put honey in the F frames as diagramed above then honey can be moved from middle to top box, or positioned on outside areas where they need it.

I would configure combs/foundation as above and feed constantly, checking combs each week for about three weeks. By early-Mid Sept you want to get whatever combs you have together so bees can finish setting up. Do not move brood combs all over and then they end up in top box in Sept. top has to be HONEY.

If you have more than a few combs of foundation, you may get 3 or 4 drawn in a week or two-MAYBE...IF you have 1:1 syrup on that does not run out. Then you can reposition the finished combs to where they need to be and put 1 or 2 more in top box to try to get them drawn. You probably only have about 4 weeks max that they will draw out comb--if they do. Much depends on colony strength, age of bees. But you have time to try.

Jeff