Fall Varroa Mite Treatment

Fall is the most crucial time to treat for varroa. The mite population is increasing as the bee population begins to decline. The bees go into the winter with  much fewer numbers and the winter bees are the ones who will be hatching in the fall. Those winter bees will be cooped up inside the hive until the weather warms up in late winter/early spring. If there is a large mite population in the hive during the winter it can really weaken the bees. Even if you don't see any mites in your hive, they are there. By the time I noticed them in my hives, which was after their 2nd winter, they were heavily infested. One of the hives was weakened enough that they developed nosema and dysentery. I was able to rectify the situation using HopGuard but the bees took all summer to recover. This seriously effected my honey harvest.

This year I am going to treat both fall AND spring. I use HopGuard, 3 applications, 7 to 10 days apart. I put solid boards, smeared with Vaseline, under the screened bottom boards to catch the dead mites. These are the mites that were on the board after 24 hours.

Close up of mites. They are the blood red ovals.

I will treat twice more this month. Meanwhile I am feeding them 2:1 syrup and giving them pollen patties. I want to make sure they have plenty of food to get them through the winter and raise their winter brood.

Honey Extraction 2013

I harvested my honey rather late this year. My bees had a rough time this season and I wanted to give them every opportunity to get some honey capped for me. I finally pulled all my honey frames last week and was waiting for another 80 degree day so I could extract. Today proved to be just such a day.

My uncapping tank is a sink I bought off Craigslist which I set on top of 3 shallow honey supers, stacked one on top of the other. There is a bucket lined with a straining bag placed directly beneath the drain opening.

 

I set the frame in the sink and use my uncapping knife to uncap the cells. Then I go over the ones I missed with the capping scratcher. You need to make sure all the cells are uncapped in order to extract the honey from the frame. Once the frame is uncapped, on both sides, you place it into the extractor. The wax and honey that remains in the uncapping tank gets pushed through the drain opening and falls into the bucket.

 

Once all of the frames have been extracted I place another bucket, lined with a filter, under the opening on the front of the extractor and open the "honey gate".

 

 

The honey flows out, along with chunks of wax and any other debris. The honey is then filtered by passing through a very fine strainer. This large bucket also features a honey gate. The nicely filtered honey is now ready to be placed into smaller storage buckets, or jars, for long term storage.

 

After the frames have been extracted I place them, and the rest of the extracting equipment, out into my bee yard for the bees to clean.

 

 

That way there is no waste. The bees are only too happy to take the leftover honey back to their hives. Today the air in my backyard was full of happy, excited bees. It was a challenge to get these videos and pictures as the bees were careening past me, full throttle.

 

 

In the end I extracted 16 pounds of honey this year, which is twice the amount of last year's harvest.



Nasty Wax Moths

Earlier this summer I had pulled some un-needed frames from my hives. I wrapped them in plastic sheeting and stored them in my garage. I hoped the plastic would keep the wax moths at bay. Sadly, it did not. A few days ago I went to retrieve them and was dismayed to find wax moth larva cavorting all over 5 of them.

The way you kill the larva and eggs is to place them in a freezer overnight. This is not an easy task if all you have is a side by side freezer/fridge. I removed a couple of shelves from the freezer, placed the 5 frames into a tall kitchen garbage bag and stood it upright in the freezer. The next day I removed the frames from the freezer, shook off as many of the dead larva as I could, and placed the yucky frames back into my strongest hive. The bees are supposed to be able to clean the frames and save the wax. We'll see.

Honey Harvest 2013....Thus Far

I harvested these 3 medium frames on Monday of this week. I estimate that will give me approx. 12 jars. I anticipate getting at least this much, again, in a week. The bees aren't quite finished capping all the honey in the super. I am going to hold these 3 frames aside (probably sealed in an Igloo cooler) until I have more. I'd rather only extract once.

A Summer Sewing Project

I apologize for not posting very much this summer. Beekeeping has been keeping me very busy. I started the season with 2 hives. One was sick and I wound up losing that queen. Then my strong hive swarmed. First to a spot high up in my next door neighbor's chestnut tree, then they moved across the street to a lower tree and I was able to capture them. Now I have 3 hives. The hive that threw the swarm also wound up queen-less so I have purchased 2 new queens this year. The hives are back on track but for some reason they are not taking to the new shallow supers or the yellow rite cell foundation.

Now that the bees have settled down I can turn my attention back to sewing. I don't have the concentration for an involved project but I would like to make some easy, cool clothing items for the summer. This prompted me to look through my stash and I found this fun piece of cotton that I had picked up at Jo-Ann's during one of the "50% off the clearance fabric" sales. I took all they had left, which was only 1.75 yards. The colors are teal green and blue. The fabrics is sort of tie dye/batik/camo-ish.

I looked through my patterns and found one for a pullover t-shirt top that only requires 1.75 yards. Perfect. It is Butterick 3383 and I am making view E. Scoop neck, 3/4 sleeves....not even any darts. I was worried about it fitting since there was no zipper or buttons and no shaping to speak of. I made a small muslin, just the front and back, to slightly below the armholes (no sleeves), and tried it on. The only modifications I made to the pattern were to move the shoulder seams back 1/2" at the neck edge, shorten the sleeves 2" and grade the pattern from an 18 at the top, to a 16 at the hem. The pattern just barely fit on the fabric. There was no way to try and manipulate what part of the fabric design would end up where. That is the front piece in the photo, above. I am glad those big light rectangles ended up where they did. It could have been much worse. The machine in that same picture is my Kenmore 1914. Probably the nicest machine Sears ever sold. I found mine for $20. I had to drive all the way to Whidbey Island to fetch it, and it had been badly abused. But it came with every single attachment including the monogrammer, buttonholer, design cams...etc...It needed a bit more help than I could give it, so I paid our local "old sewing machine guy" $50 to give it a thorough going over and a new belt. A $70 total investment for a machine that usually sells for $200 or more. Yes, I am really happy with that purchase.

Back to the tunic project. Since this is a very easy pattern I decided to spice it up a bit and experiment with some techniques I'd been meaning to try. This top calls for a bias tape facing around the neckline. The colors of bias tape available at the fabric store is extremely limited. What a great opportunity to finally learn how to make my own bias tape. I ran over to Jo-Ann fabrics to pick up a 1/2" bias tape maker (which just happened to be on sale for 50% off!). The Clover bias tape makers are supposed to be the best, so I bought the 2 sizes they had in stock. There are a bunch of online tutorials for making bias tape. I opted to use this one which shows how to make a continuous strip of bias tape.

While at Jo-Ann's I noticed they had Gutermann thread on sale for 40% off. I picked up some of their decorative metallic threads. This tunic is going to be rather plain and I want to add some pizzazz with fancy threads and decorative stitching. Here is the neckline. My shirt has its own jewelry!

I applied the decorative stitching using the Kenmore 1914 and one of its design cams. I will add the same design to the cuffs and hem. As you can see in the first picture, this fabric is very thin. I like to leave some things (like my lumpy body) to the imagination. I will be adding a lining to this top, even though the pattern does not call for one. This is how far I have gotten. Now back to work.

Disappearing Queen

Today it got up near 70 degrees F. Perfect weather for a thorough hive inspection. The numbers in my Italian hive have dropped dramatically. The last time I had that happen to a hive I found out they were queen-less. My Carniolan hive is bubbling over with bees. Today's plan is to harvest 4 frames of brood and a couple frames of food from the strong hive. Here is what I had to work with:

The hive in the middle are the Carniolans. To the right are the Italians and to the very left is a box for starting a brand new hive.

I went into the strong hive first. It was easy to harvest brood since the queen had filled up the top super with babies. I double and triple checked the frames I removed, trying to make sure I wasn't also removing the queen. I'm still not 100% positive I didn't. It's like a shell game. Which hive has the queen? The Carni hive looks great. I had to remove their usual oodles of drone comb from the top of the frames and I did not see a single varroa mite anywhere on the larva. That is very good news. At least I am doing something right. 

Then it was time to crack the Italian hive. I swear, that hive can't catch a break. First Nosema and now, as I suspected, they are without a queen. Where did she go? She was there not too long ago. I definitely saw brood when I inspected for the first time after the winter. Who knows what happened to her? And why didn't they just make a replacement? There are queen cups scattered all about the hive but none appears to have been capped. Again, who knows? My fingers are crossed that they will figure out how to make a queen from the 2 frames of brood I just gave them. I tried to buy a queen from Miller's Compound in Roy but she won't have mated queens for 2 weeks.

My last task of the inspection was to try and start up a third hive using 2 frames of brood and 2 frames of food (pollen and honey). That went into the box on the left. Here is what I had when I was finished:

Now to leave everyone alone and let nature take its course. I'll give them time to produce queens, get them mated and start producing brood. Then we will peek back in and see how things are going. I leave you with a picture of this young fella who got separated from his hive.

May all your hives be queenright!

Varroa Destructor Mites

I have finally seen my first Varroa mites, up close and very personal. Because of my recent outbreak of Nosema in my Italian hive I began to suspect the hive was weakened by something. Quite possible Varroa  I hadn't seen evidence of mites for the first 2 years of beekeeping. However it is usually in the 3rd year that colonies run into trouble. That has been the case for my hives. I determined I would dose both hives with HopGuard just to be safe. I also planned to apply more Fumagilin B to both hives. Yesterday I finally got a day I felt was nice enough to make a full inspection of my hives. The plan was to determine if they were queen right, look for mites, take them all the way down to the bottom boards so I could remove dead bees and debris, manipulate the boxes to place empty boxes on top, insert pollen patties, HopQuard and place top feeders with a gallon of medicated syrup in each hive.

I broke into the Italians first since they were the ones I am most worried about. Things look better than I expected. There are lots of bees. They still have quite a bit of honey left which tells me I guestimated correctly by leaving them a box and a half of honey for the winter. No risk of starvation. In spite of the dysentery problem the colony came through the winter in terrific condition. This colony was already down in the bottom 2 boxes. I found some uncapped larva and feel confident the queen is doing her thing. Once I find the brood nest and see baby bees it is my philosophy to not disturb the brood nest further. I don't need to see the queen and don't want to risk damaging her. I placed an empty box on top of the brood nest and the box of honey on top of that. Then the feeder. Before reassembling the hive I removed the bottom board, scraped it off (lots of dead bees and bee poop) then hosed it off with water to rinse off the poop. This hive was not too upset...until I added the HopGuard strips. Then they went berserk. Once the hive was reassembled they settled down quickly and went about business as usual.

On to the Carniolans. They were much more easy going. I repeated the process with their hive. Their bottom board had dead bees and debris but no bee poop. It got a scraping and rinsing, too. This hive likes to build burr comb and drone comb on the tops of the frames. I am actually glad they did because it was while scraping this off the frames (unfortunately killing many drone babes) that I noticed my first varroa. They prefer drone larva so that is often where you first notice them. Imagine having a cat on your shoulder. Now imagine that same cat constantly biting you and sucking your blood. That is what a varroa mite is like to a bee. Look, that one poor drone larva had 2 cats on him.

The HopGuard will help with this mite infestation. Sadly mites are going to be a problem for bees and beekeepers for a long time. HopGuard is considered a soft chemical and is acceptable for use in organic beekeeping. It does not hurt the bees in any way. I will also be using thyme oil in my bee feeders. Apparently mites are repulsed by the flavor of thyme. The nurse bees feed the thyme infused syrup to the baby bees and then they aren't as tasty to the mites.

My hives are now ready for the spring. They are already bringing in loads of pollen on the nice days. I will have to reapply the HopGuard in 3 weeks. That gives the current batch of bee babies time to hatch out so that the HopGuard can be used on their mites, too.

Things are looking very good for my hives. I think I will be getting lots of honey this year.

First Really Nice Day of 2013

Today it definitely feels like spring. The sky is sunny and the bees are out flying like crazy. The sky above my house is filled with happy bees coming and going. Some are visiting my community feeder but most are heading out to feast on the blooms in the surrounding area. I opened up the entrance reducers last night to make it easier for them to get in and out. No more bottle neck at the front door. I just shot this video of the Carniolan hive. You can almost hear them giggling with glee.

I tried to zoom in so you could see all the pollen they are bringing in but the picture got fuzzy so I zoomed back out. Tomorrow, if the weather stays nice, I plan to go into the Italian hive to clean it out, make sure it is queenright and put on a medicated top feeder. Their numbers just aren't what I would expect and I need to make sure it is because they've been sick and not because they are queenless.

Let The Blooming Begin!

It seems spring is springing already. The crocus are blooming and the daffodils and chives are poking up through the earth. Yesterday I noticed my bees were a little more active than they had been. Not only were they visiting the community feeder in my back yard but many of them were heading off, up, up and away. There were many, many bees crowding the front of the hive waiting for their turn to enter because I have the entrance reduced way down for the winter. I knew immediately what this renewed activity meant. Something was blooming. But what? I went for a short walk in my neighborhood and I did not need to go more than 100 feet before I found some likely suspects.

I am not positive but I think those are Pieris. They were in the front yards of 2 neighboring homes. I know what these are. Heathers. They were down on the corner of 48th and Pacific.

And I'll be darned if this doesn't look like a Chestnut tree, but it seems awfully early for that so I'm not sure what it is.

In any event my girls are on the job and bringing in pollen. And where there's pollen, there's nectar. The bees are finding forage. The following pictures are of different bees from my Carniolan hive. They seem to be collecting mostly deep gold pollen which means they are mainly visiting the same plants.

All except these girls, who are carting in some lemon yellow pollen. The rebels.

The Italian bees are bringing in pollen, too, but it is mainly the lemon yellow stuff. This is a very encouraging sign. Pollen in the hive means food for baby bees.

My Redneck Bee Feeder

The girls are starting to take in syrup at a faster rate. I needed to rig up a second community feeder. I'm not a woodworker or even very handy. All I needed was a way for the bees to get up under the jar lid. This is what I came up with. Just 2 pieces of wood and an inverted bucket. Not pretty but it works. When I sat it out this morning.

And after it warmed up into the low 40's. 

The Carniolan hive is much more active than the Italians. Not sure if it's because the Italians are sick, or in a colder spot in the yard, or if the Carniolans just like to get out and fly when it's colder.

Soon I'll be able to get in the hive and look around. I need to make sure both hives have queens. I think I want it to be into the 60's and sunny before I go digging around in there. Don't want to chill the brood.At that time I'll insert pollen patties and put the top feeders on. We want lots of strong, healthy bees so they can bring me gallons of honey this year. I know that spring is just around the corner. Look, both my chickens have begun laying again. They took the winter off. Slackers.

Essential Oils For My Bees

This year I had planned to explore organic beekeeping practices. The recent discovery that one of my hives was infected with Nosema has made me realize how important it is to ensure our bees are healthy. For the past 2 summers I was content to leave the bees to their own devices. Last summer I was more focused on splitting the bees into 2 hives. All seemed well when I tucked them in for the winter. Still, for some reason the Italian hive fell ill. The good news is that they seem to be rebounding. Many more bees are out flying and I don't see as many dead bees on the front of the hive, outside the entrance. It is still too early to be opening the hives but I have noticed the bees out flying more and more. I have begun to feed them at a community feeding station in my yard. Between the 2 hives they are taking about 3 cups of syrup per day. Today I decided to try adding some essential oils to their syrup.

I especially want to get the thyme oil into them. Thymol is reported to repel the dreaded varroa mites. It is also effective against tracheal mites. How does it work? The bees ingest the syrup containing the EO's (essential oils). They also feed it to the larva.The mites go to feed on the larva and are repulsed because they taste like thyme. The key is to feed the bees enough EO's to dissuade the mites but not enough to harm the bees. After some Googling I determined that I would need 5 drops of thmye oil and 10 drops of sweet orange, peppermint and lemon grass oils per quart of 1:1 sugar syrup. I need to get a calibrated syringe but for now shaking out the drops will have to do. I dosed up a fresh quart of syrup and set it out for the bees this morning. It smells very fragrant and I was wondering how the bees would react to it. No worries, they love it.

This morning.

Just before dark this evening.

Having the EO's in there didn't slow them down a bit. They ignored the pollen patty, though. I noticed it had moved. I think a bird must've sampled it while I was out running errands.

Take Your Medicine, Bees.

Yesterday I had my husband drive me out to Sunny Bee Honey Farm in Auburn to pick up some Fumagilin B. It is a medication used to treat Nosema. I am not one to over medicate my bees but when we humans are sick we take an antibiotic. I feel the same way about this. For some reason this particular hive's immune systems were compromised and they are succumbing to Nosema. In case they are weekend by a mite infestation I also made up some yummy grease patties. Here is what's on the menu for today:

1 cup of 2:1 sugar syrup to which I've added 1/16th teaspoon of Fumagilin B. Each hive will also get 3 grease patties added on top of the cluster and one grease roll placed inside their door. Grease up, ladies. Mites can't hold on to greasy bees. Kind of like trying to catch a greased pig.

My spur of the moment grease patty recipe:
1 lb. sugar
6 oz. vegetable shortening
2 Tbs. honey (from my bees)

I haven't been into the hives since the fall. I don't like to open the hives during cold weather. It just stresses the bees too much. But this is an emergency. Sorry girls, mama's coming in. I knew they wouldn't be overly pleased....and they weren't. I went into the sick hive first. I take my bees into the winter with 5 boxes. I know, you aren't supposed to. But it works for me. The top box was pretty much empty. I removed that. The next box didn't have much going on, either, so I removed that. The next box held the top of the cluster. I took out my syrup bottle and began squirting medicated syrup down the seams. It was slow going so I eventually just removed the lid and poured it in. I placed 3 patties on top of the frames, replaced the 2 boxes and closed the hive. I then placed 3 patties on top of the cluster in the strong hive. I did not pull any frames. I didn't want to disturb the bees any more than necessary. I then threw caution to the wind and removed the entrance reducers, placed a roll inside each hive and replaced the reducers. Much to the annoyance of the bees. Again, my apologies, ladies. It is for your own good. The good news is there seem to be quite a few live bees still kicking inside the sick hive. These ladies are quite PO'd that I disturbed them.

My fingers are crossed that the medicine will help and this hive will recover. As soon as I can I will put a gallon of medicated syrup onto each hive. I will also be hunting down some essential oils to add.

Oh No! Nosema!

After doing some online research I have confirmed my growing suspicions. It looks like my weak hive has a Nosema outbreak. It is probable that I will lose that hive. I wish to be an organic beekeeper and don't want to rely on medications. I was hoping to learn how to keep my bees healthy using essential oils and have ordered a book on the subject but it may arrive too late to help this hive. I am not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I read about giving the colony a drench with sugar water to which bleach has been added. I hope to attempt that this weekend.

My other hive is probably also infected but to a lesser extent. These bees all came from the same colony which I split last summer. But this new hive is in a more shaded spot. That seems to have been their downfall.

If I do lose them I will disinfect the hive, move it to a sunnier location, and start again with some frames from the robust hive. 

How Did My Bees Come Through The Winter?

It's been a while since I've made a post regarding my hives. That's because there really isn't much to comment on once they hunker down for the winter. Now that spring is creeping up on us the bees are out more and more. There really isn't anything blooming yet but they like to get out of the hive to scout around, stretch their wings and have potty flights. They don't poop in their hive if they can help it and they can hold their waste for quite a long time. You may recall I now have 2 hives. One Italian and one Carniolan. The Carniolan hive is in the prime spot. It gets more sun and they have come through the winter very strong. The poor Italian hive is in the shade of my apple tree and doesn't get the same amount of sun. They have not done well this winter. Once the weather got warm enough for them to come out and fly they managed to poop all over the front of their hive. They also seem to have more dead bees out in front of the hive. I am worried that they are sick but it is still too cold for me to open the hive and look  around. I am hoping to get in there this coming Sunday if it is warm enough. I'm going to make them some bee candy, too. Probably wouldn't hurt to stick a pollen patty in there, as well. Today it was 43 degrees and the Carniolan hive was out flying so I set a sugar syrup feeder out on a table, between the hives, to see what would happen. As you can see, the Carniolans were all over it.

I had heard that bees do not take syrup if it is under 50 degrees. That does not appear to be true. Or maybe the bees missed that memo. Unfortunately the Italian hive was not as enthusiastic, even though I set a second feeder out very close to their hive. The feeder has bees at it, but I think they are also Carniolans. The Italians just aren't doing much. You can see how dirty the front of their hive is. I did go out this morning and wipe it down with a wet rag. If you notice me leave rather hastily it is because I had curious bees landing on me. I think they liked my purple hoodie.

I will keep you updated as to their condition once I have a chance to crack the hives and see what is going on inside. I need a nice day with a temperature of at least 50 degrees and no wind. I have chosen to be an organic beekeeper which means I do not medicate my bees. We had a master beekeeper from Cheney, WA. speak at our last club meeting. Ho, too, is into chemical free beekeeping and has not lost a hive in 3 years. He uses essential oils and other organic means of keeping his bees healthy. Luckily he has written a book on the subject, including his recipes. I've ordered the book and should receive it soon. 

Bobbin Winders & Bees

   I have been enjoying tinkering with my Kenmore model 158.902. I think this is the prettiest Kenmore I've had in my possession, thus far. It reminds me of a classic automobile. All that lovely chrome. It even has a shapely fender that houses the light bulb.

   Her finish isn't perfect but that just shows that she was loved and used. Everything that I have tested, so far, has worked. Her only problem was a broken bobbin winder tension disc. Somewhere along the line it had been snapped off.

   The tension disk on this machine is shaped more like a little round metal button. Without a tension disc it is pretty much impossible to wind a bobbin. Something so small is terribly important. Sure, I could always wind bobbins on a different machine but I would rather not have to get up to go do that. I figured I would have to order a replacement which would run me about $10 with shipping. Meanwhile I had acquired this little Italian machine for $10.

   It is straight stitch, only. I don't really need another straight stitch machine but the price was right. I thought I would fix it up and pass it along. Unfortunately when I got it home and took a closer look I found it would require more effort to restore than it would be worth. The tension assembly was in need of repair and the wiring looked dicey. But guess what it had? A functioning bobbin winder tension disc. Which now resides on the front of my model 90 Kenmore.

   It isn't exactly identical to the Kenmore disc but they all do the same thing. That was $10 well spent on the Visetti, which I turned around and sold today for, you guessed it, $10. Free tension disc! I admit I did keep a few more of the Visetti parts that would work on other machines (bobbin, bobbin case, and spool felts). It was purchased by an OSMG (old sewing machine guy) with a fondness for Italian machines so everyone was happy in the end.

   Now for the bees. You remember the last photo of them bringing in amazing amounts of pollen? I was curious as to where they were getting it. I heard from beekeepers in England and in California that their bees were all over the ivy. IVY??? I didn't even know ivy bloomed. It does, but only when it is mature. Most ivy that you see in landscaping is pruned back and this inhibits it from maturing. It remains in the juvenile form. But ivy left to its own devices will eventually grow so large that it will have a thick woody trunk-like stem and the leaves will take on a different appearance. This mature ivy blooms in late October here in the PacNW, and bees LOVE IT! This morning the husbeast drove me around on a scouting mission for ivy. We both remembered this old abandoned brick building that is located in the Fern Hill district of Tacoma. Sure enough, part of the building is covered in ivy.

Ivy covers the ground next to the building, as well.

 A close-up of the blooms.

   Of course now that I know what to look for I am seeing mature ivy everywhere. There is a lot of it in my area which is a very good thing for the bees. I doubt they will starve this winter. They were still bringing in pollen today, the first day of November.

Pollen In Late October???

I don't know where my girls are getting it from, but both hives were bringing in oodles of pollen today. Click on the photo to enlarge it. Do you see all that golden yellow pollen in their pollen baskets? Someone even dropped their load of pollen onto the top of the cinder block. I have their entrance reduced way down to help them stay warm and to keep out predators. Traffic is getting backed up at the door.

Tomatoes!

   They are finally coming on. I feel like I am playing beat the clock with the first frost. I'd love to be able to make some spaghetti sauce. It is much yummier than the store bought stuff.

   The garden is winding down. The green beans are still producing but have slowed to a crawl. The bees are all tucked in for the winter. I am feeding them sugar water through the end of October, or until it begins to freeze. Then they are on their own until the spring. I left them plenty of honey so they should be fine.

   Speaking of bees, I am beginning the process of becoming a Master Beekeeper. I picked up the handbook Monday evening and yesterday I sent in all 10 of the tests to become an official Apprentice. 

I am anxious to hear the results. I hope the guy doesn't take forever to grade them and get back to me. I hope to finally get that coveted patch at the next meeting. Then I will begin the process of becoming a Journeyman. I have to have been a beekeeper for 3 years to accomplish this but I can go ahead and find someone to mentor and get that requirement out of the way. I'd love to have a mentoree for this next season.