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December 2021 Apiary Notes from Wally Thrale

We are approaching the shortest day so it is the time of year I apply my varroa treatment in the form of oxalic acid using the trickle method. For safety reasons I prefer this method rather than vaporisation as oxalic gases are harmful to humans and require a suitable mask to prevent inhaling the gas. Brood boxes also need sealing to retain the vapours which is time consuming with my floors. An example of a commercially available treatment is Apibioxal which is ready to apply. The reason I use this type of treatment is that there should be very little brood present now as oxalic acid only kills varroa mites on adults – it doesn’t impact those in sealed cells. The weather has not been mild recently so hopefully queens have stopped laying. However, when we get into January I consider that egg laying starts up again, albeit at a low level. So this week I shall start treating my colonies and intend to finish before Christmas.

All my colonies now have woodpecker netting wrapped around them and 50mm of insulation above the crown board to reduce heat loss. As all my colonies have mesh floors the insulation does not cause ventilation problems.

There is little active beekeeping to do this time of year other than hefting hives for weight but there is always maintenance to do. When I treat my colonies this week I shall replace the crown board with a clean one. The edges of the board become propolised over time and sometimes squashed bees are present. No matter how hard I try bees are crushed occasionally and a heat gun applied around the edge of the board (both sides) should kill any bugs lurking there.

The top and bottom bars of super frames are scraped, removing the hard brace comb as they easily squash bees during the season when supers are returned to a hive.  All these scrapings are saved and rendered down in time. It is important to replace old brood comb on a regular basis with foundation. And for us to buy foundation requires beekeepers to supply wax which can then be processed for us. So do keep all your scraps of wax – they do mount up. The Association pays £4 per pound of reasonably clean wax and we need around half a ton in order to buy the foundation we stock each year.

We had an excellent talk on bait hives recently which I think will be available for members to watch. An aspect of bait hives is to leave some blank brood frames in a brood box with wooden kebab sticks. Their purpose is to strengthen the comb that bees will naturally draw when they decide to move in. That’s another job I shall tackle in the coming weeks. This may have whetted your appetite for bait hives so you will need to catch up with the talk to see how all this fits in.

That’s all for 2021 so season’s greetings to all.

Wally
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October 2021 Apiary Notes from Wally Thrale

We are at the end of September and feeding should be well under way or finished by now. Last week the weather was summerlike and it was possible to inspect colonies to assess them and move empty frames around for the bees to fill. Bees seem to lose interest with the outside frames during feeding so can go into winter with ones or two empty frames. Placing full ones close to the wall and moving empty ones nearer to the nest encourages bees to fill these frames. By filling all available frames can mean the difference to a colony surviving the winter or dying out!

However, don’t be tempted to leave a feeder on a colony well into winter, especially if it already feels heavy enough. Doing this allows bees to store syrup in cells as the adult bees emerge thereby preventing the queen from laying in them. This means the size of the brood nest becomes smaller and smaller with potentially not enough winter bees for the colony to survive the winter. Or, if it does survive it is very weak in springtime and struggles to build up.

Knowing when a colony has sufficient stores is not easy to convey in these notes but comes from experience I’m afraid. Remove the roof (to give a more accurate idea of weight) and lift the brood box. I expect it to weigh around a sack of potatoes, i.e. 25kg. Unfortunately not everybody knows what a sack of potatoes feels like but that is the best I can do.

Once a colony has enough stores I return a super if I think the apiary will have a strong ivy flow. It appears that bees do not overwinter that well if they have a lot of ivy honey so I prefer the bees to place it in a super which is removed when ivy has finished flowering.

As an aside, one of the reasons I prefer using commercial brood boxes is that I can feed a colony till it feels heavy but know that there is still space for the queen to lay. My commercial boxes seem to overwinter better the National boxes I run.

Looking through colonies last week I noted that most of them have a few frames of brood which will produce the winter bees. So bees will be bringing in pollen to feed the brood and a lot of it is ivy pollen. So don’t place mouseguards on hives for a while as they can knock off the pollen load from a forager. Generally it is better to place mouseguards after the first frost which hopefully will be several weeks away but, as we have seen with our weather this year, we just don’t know what we will have. As Mark Twain said: “climate is what we expect; weather is what we get”.

If you treated for varroa with strips, pads or trays remember to remove them when treatment time has elapsed. This can prevent mite resistance developing especially if Apivar, Apistan or Bayvarol were used.

Finally, if you are new to beekeeping and go to your bees later in autumn to place mouseguards on the hive, do make sure you are wearing protective clothing. A colony can appear very inactive lulling the beekeeper into thinking “I’ll just put this place with a couple of staples and job done”. As soon as the guard is placed against the hive wall bees often tumble out quite enraged at being disturbed on a cold autumn day. So do put on your beesuit – it could save you from a serious stinging incident!

Regards
Wally
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August 2021 Apiary Notes from Wally Thrale

Apologies for the lateness of these notes.  Last month I mentioned that varroa treatment should be carried out in August, especially if temperature sensitive. The link below shows an overview of several varroa treatments I have used with some pros and  cons for each one. Rather than reproduce it here you can view the notes from last year by following the link:

https://bedsbka.org.uk/article/august-2020-apiary-notes/

The beekeeping season has finished now and the weather has been the poorest one I can remember in over 30 years that I have kept bees. The best description for the season perhaps is ‘challenging’ with poor honey yield, problems with queen mating and generally difficult conditions for beekeeping. Yesterday I wanted to remove honey but it was too windy and cold to do so – and this is the middle of August!

Enough of grumbling and onto to what needs doing. As already mentioned I am trying to remove any honey that is available in supers for me to extract but only if the bees have enough stores in their brood frames. If not I will remove the honey just before commencing feeding otherwise bees will starve.

Wasps area problem in some parts of the county so entrances should be reduced to a small gap so bees can defend themselves easier. Putting out wasp traps helps to reduce the wasp population although removing dead wasps daily can become tedious.

Once honey is extracted I return the supers over the crown boards of a few colonies for the bees to clean out. Supers shouldn’t be stored ‘wet’ as they will go mouldy over winter. If stored wet they are an attraction for local bees and wasps which results in a lot of dead insects, especially if left open in the apiary. Super comb is a valuable commodity and should be looked after. There is an article in the Good Practice section of the website explaining how to store supers. Follow the link below:

https://bedsbka.org.uk/membership/good-practice/storing-supers/

Before winter feeding I carry out a quick inspection of each colony to see if it looks viable. If there are several frames of brood, some of them containing slabs of sealed brood, I consider the colony in good shape. If it looks dubious the best thing to do is unite it elsewhere. If there are a couple of colonies that are like this I unite them leaving the queens in each box. Let the bees decide which queen they prefer. This only applies to colonies where there are no obvious signs of disease.

In a couple of weeks I shall start feeding and my preference these days is to use Ambrosia. Mixing sugar syrup for many colonies has little appeal for me.  Ambrosia is an inverted syrup whereas sugar syrup the bees need to invert it which is more work for them. Ambrosia also keeps for at least a year so can be used in the spring if colonies require a top up before nectar is available. The Association stocks Ambrosia so see the latest price list for location of stockists. For autumn feeding I always use syrup not fondant. Fondant is used when the weather is cold, mainly late winter or early spring, as bees won’t process syrup at this time but are happy to tuck into a block of fondant.

My aim is to finish feeding around the end of September as the ivy starts flowering later in the month. Bees don’t seem to overwinter too well if they have a lot of ivy honey in the brood frames. So feeding syrup before the ivy flowers prevents bees storing this honey in the brood box.  After feeding I leave one super on the hive for bees to store any ivy they manage to locate. This can be removed when it has finished flowering and some people find it a tasty honey. It’s a little like Marmite – people love it or hate it.

Regards
Wally

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July 2021 Apiary Notes from Wally Thrale

The season in coming to its end soon. Before I took up beekeeping I was told that the end of July signalled the end of the season around here which surprised me. However, after becoming involved with bees there is so much more awareness of the natural environment and flowers in particular.

So before long we need to consider taking away supers for extraction when there is no more honey flow. This becomes quite obvious by looking at the entrance as there will be little flying activity. In fact we should always look at the hive entrance as it gives an indication of the state of a colony. A little reminder when taking off supers – place the roof on the ground upside down and stand supers on it. Supers should never come into contact with the ground for hygiene reasons.

My supers are always stored ‘dry’ and by that I mean I return them to colonies for the bees to clean out, placing them above the crown board. When the bees have finished their work I store them in a barn to over winter.

At the end of the season there are often super frames that are not capped over as the bees are waiting or hoping for another nectar flow. By having local knowledge of the local flora we will know if another flow is likely or not. It is best to leave supers on the hive for a few days when a flow has finished to allow time for the bees to ripen the latest batch.

Uncapped frames can be extracted but do the ‘shake’ test first. Hold the frame firmly with one side facing downwards and give a good shake. If no honey falls out it is safe to extract the frame. If honey does fall out put these frames back into a separate super and return to the bees for a few days, where they will finish ripening the honey.

To remind you, the Association has several extractors around the county which can be borrowed at no cost (see p53 of the Yearbook). Obviously they may be in demand around early August so be aware that you may have to wait a little while.

Many beekeepers treat for varroa in August which means no honey should be present. Some treatments, such as Apiguard, require warm daytime temperature to be effective. The efficacy is much reduced if treatment starts in September. More on varroa next month.

In a normal season wasps start to become a problem around now. Due to the very poor weather we have experienced this year I think wasps haven’t built up to significant numbers yet. The occasional one has appeared on spare kit in my garden so they seem to be behind the curve. However, if they start attempting to gain entrance to a hive it is important to reduce the hive entrance to around an inch to allows bees to defend themselves. Once wasps start attacking a colony it can soon be taken out as bees seem to lose the will to fight off the intruders.

Finally, it is not too late to make nucs to overwinter and is something all beekeepers should try to do in case of a bad winter. I have deliberately made a couple of colonies queenless by moving the queen and a couple of frames of brood with bees into a nuc. This nuc was then placed in another apiary in order to stop flying bees returning home. Two pieces of wood were placed on the top brood bars of the queenless colony in order to leave a gap of about 1.5 inches. A frame with eggs from this colony was placed flat on these pieces of wood, the wood allowing space for building queen cells. A shallow eke of around 3 inches deep is needed to accommodate the frame. Note that two of the sides of the eke need thin slats so that the frame can fit within it.

To date the bees have raised several queen cells pointing downwards and hopefully can be removed with a sharp DIY blade in the coming days. It will be a matter of cutting out the cell but well away from the base so as not to damage it. The removed queen cell is then placed between two frames in the nuc that was made up a couple of days earlier.

Just a note on why the frame was placed horizontally on the brood frames.  Bees build swarm and supersedure queen cells in a vertical fashion as it protects the developing queen’s abdomen which is delicate. The cells built as described above are obviously emergency ones but placing the frame flat over the top bars simulates the normal queen cell production process.

The Association website has an article on how to make up a nuc. Follow the link:

https://bedsbka.org.uk/article/nucs-and-how-to-use-them-effectively/

Regards

Wally
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June 2021 Apiary Notes from Wally Thrale

What a difference good weather makes for our bees. In my May notes we were enduring a very wet month and very little honey brought in. Now after a spell of warm weather bees have been very busy and supers are filling. Even though May was cold and wet bees made swarming preparations and, as soon as the weather improved, swarming started in earnest such that I was not able to artificially swarm all colonies that needed it.

This is where clipping a small part of a queen’s wing really helps. It doesn’t stop swarming but it can buy a few days grace. Clipped queens leave the hive but fall to the ground whilst the swarm settles somewhere nearby. When they realise the queen is not with them they either return to the hive or find the queen. She often makes her way under the floor of the hive so my first check is to look under the hives before carrying out inspections as I have found many swarms here.

On the topic of swarming I’m sure I read at some point that peak swarming time is when lupins are in full bloom. This was the case in my area this year and I shall watch lupins next year and be ready to carry out artificial swarming.

Carrying out an artificial swarm is a good time to introduce frames of foundation to replace old comb. However, bees are often reluctant to draw out these frames and sometimes they need to be ‘forced’. By this I mean placing one frame of foundation between frames of brood. This is all dependent on the prevailing conditions and the strength of the colony. So, if the following conditions are satisfied I will place a frame of foundation between each frame of brood:
a) Night time temperatures are warm – as they have been for the past couple of weeks.
b) The colony has built up strongly and there are plenty of bees to look after the brood.
c) There is a honey flow on thereby allowing bees to draw out the foundation.

Repeat the process if necessary 7 to 10 days later.

Some further thoughts on the above. I do not split frames of brood early in the season. The weather in April and May this year is a good case in point – it was far to cold so the brood needed to be kept together.

For me the colony is reasonably strong when there are a couple of supers or more with a lot of bees. Plenty of bees means they will come down from the supers to tend the brood if needed.

In my experience bees draw comb from ‘income’ and not ‘capital’. By this I mean that incoming nectar is used to produce wax rather than any honey that is stored in the supers or brood frames. If there isn’t a nectar flow it may be necessary to feed syrup but be careful if honey is present in the supers.

It is good practice for frames of foundation to be drawn during the summer so that they are ready for use when feeding starts. Bees are not very keen to draw frames later in the season which means they may not have enough drawn comb to store the syrup. They could then go into winter underweight which will result in problems for the colony later on.

A final thought. Now is a good time to make up nucs. The recent survey showed that a lot of people do not over winter nucs. Some beekeepers had heavy losses last winter so having a nuc or two is good insurance. Having used polynucs for a few years now I find that bees tend to do well in them. Bees transferred from a polynuc to a full hive in early spring can build up quickly and produce a good honey crop.

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May 2021 Apiary Notes from Wally Thrale

Queen Bee
What a contrast between this spring and last year’s. Last year we had record sunshine amounts – this year record air frosts during April. A cold dry April followed by a cold wet May – not a good combination. I cannot remember such a bad start to the beekeeping season as this one.

However, colonies on OSR have built up strongly but haven’t brought in much of a crop as yet. Some sunny warm days would change all that though. Even so, bees are thinking of swarming; I have collected a couple of swarms locally and carried out a few artificial swarms on my stronger colonies.

As there have been only the occasional days to carry out inspections I have concentrated on my stronger colonies as they are more likely to produce queen cells. As the forecast does not offer much hope for warmer days I am carrying out a pre-emptive artificial swarm on strong colonies that do not yet have queen cells. Most of my queens are marked and clipped which makes carrying out an artificial swarm much easier. When the queen is easily located the artificial swarm process can be carried out fairly quickly. Clipped queens also give me a few days grace when inspections are not possible due to the weather.

As I do not have enough floors and roofs to artificially swarm all my hives I sometimes place the parent brood box on the topmost super of the stack. So the process is similar to a conventional artificial swarm – the box with the brood is moved to one side and the queen placed in a cage. A new brood box is placed on the original location and a couple of frames containing mainly sealed brood and nurse bees from the parent colony are placed in the new box. If possible it is better to add at least a couple of drawn empty brood frames in the new box followed by frames with foundation. Lastly the queen is released in the new box. This format allows the queen to continue laying and will provide a supply a nurse bees to cater for her in the coming days. Supers are returned along with the crown board. However, the feed holes in the crown board are blocked with small pieces of plywood to prevent the two colonies from mixing. A shallow eke is added which has a cutout which acts as an entrance. The eke is placed such that the entrance is the opposite direction to that of the floor. The brood box containing the brood is placed on the eke, followed by another crown board and then the roof. A queen excluder and super can be placed over the brood box as an option.

This arrangement can be left in place until the new queen comes into lay. If the aim is to make increase there are now two laying queens. If no increase is needed the old queen can be killed and the two brood boxes united as per a conventional uniting process. As I keep saying do make some nucs to over winter – many people have asked for nucs this spring which shows more beekeepers should consider making some. When a new queen is available following a successful artificial swarm then it is time to consider placing of the queen in a nuc along with a couple of frames of sealed brood and attendant bees.

The benefit of the above method is that it saves a floor and roof. The downside is the top brood box could become heavy as bees start foraging. This can be a problem if the bottom brood box brings in a lot of nectar and needs more super space. The bottom brood box will also need attention if there are several frames with foundation as bees are often reluctant to draw comb when there are plenty of super frames available above. So it is often necessary to move a frame or two with foundation next to the brood nest to encourage the bees to draw them, otherwise the queen will not be able to lay to her capacity. The last point to make here is the whole stack can become quite tall and require two people to dismantle it. This comes down to a honey flow or lack of. All weather dependent I’m afraid.

We are now entering peak beekeeping time even if the weather isn’t so do be prepared and have spare kit available. Bees often catch us out – they still work to their agenda!

Regards
Wally
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April 2021 Apiary Notes from Wally Thrale

There has been the occasional warm day over the past weeks that allowed inspections. For the first inspection of the season my main priority is to find the queen, clip and mark her. When bees are producing queen cells it is normally easy to find a marked queen. Carrying out an artificial swarm does take time and often several colonies are at the same stage, each taking a period of time to deal with. As marked queens are much easier to find it saves time during this process. Having a clipped queen does not stop swarming but it ‘buys’ me a few days if the weather prevents regular inspections. Swarms normally settle nearby to their home hive and check that the queen is with them. If she isn’t the bees return home sometimes finding the queen. It is not unusual to find a swarm under the floor of the parent colony and I check the floor first before opening a hive during swarming time.

Last spring we were basking in record amounts of sunshine and the bees took advantage of the good weather. This spring is so different; in fact I cannot remember the last time April has been so cold. The forecast for next week shows a small improvement but with the potential to cool down next weekend. So how are the bees coping with weather?

Well when the weather allows bees are bringing in pollen and they will be increasing the amount of brood. My stronger colonies concern me as they are more likely to die out from starvation as they have so many mouths to feed. Normally I top up a few colonies during spring but this year I find that feeding is needed much more than usual. My bees have happily taken down syrup for quite some time now so there shouldn’t be a problem using syrup rather than fondant. A lot of my bees are on OSR but are not able to work the crop yet – perhaps the cold conditions are holding back flowering so hopefully we will have better foraging weather before too long.

When the weather finally improves bees will work hard and we need to be ready for when this happens. Now I can use my vehicle to access my sites that are on farmland I shall move spare supers to each apiary along with empty hives in preparation for artificial swarms. This weekend I made up brood frames with foundation in readiness for comb replacement and artificial swarming. On the top bar I write the year number so I know how old frames are in the box; the oldest ones are replaced when the weather allows.

Do enjoy your beekeeping for the upcoming season. There will be fine weather before too long so do ensure you are prepared. Finally, if you haven’t produced nucs before do consider making some up to overwinter. Nucs are a great insurance for winter losses.

Regards
Wally

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March 2021 Apiary Notes by Wally Thrale

The active beekeeping season is just around the corner and it is surprising how suddenly it starts. As we’ve seen recently, our weather has dramatic swings. Earlier this week was spring like and bees were flying well; the next day we were battered by a storm.  Similarly, the weather often changes like that in early April and the bees are raring to go. Incidentally, mouse guards should have been removed by now. Leaving them can knock the pollen load off incoming bees.

So now is the time to ensure spare kit is ready and on site if possible, especially supers. Over the winter I bought new brood frames which are partially assembled; they just need a sheet of foundation which is a fairly speedy process. Stockists still have spare brood and super frames if more are needed but they are in limited supply, especially foundation.

Recently I sent emails saying some colonies were becoming light so do keep checking hive weights. Some colonies seem to be eating more than others, perhaps because they are raising more brood. Do feed with syrup if you think the colony is feeling light. Looking at my bees recently some colonies have a lot of bees in the brood box. Towards the end of March I shall place a super over the crown board on these populous colonies to provide space for emerging brood. Crowding a brood box early in the year is a swarm trigger which will result in bees swarming during April. No honey from those colonies for a while.

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December 2020 Apiary Notes

I like to visit apiaries occasionally during the winter to make sure colonies are ok as storms can cause damage with fallen trees etc. All colonies are ready for winter now with mouse guards, woodpecker netting and bricks on roofs. Weathermen consider December onwards as the start of winter so we have three months to go until spring arrives. It is important to heft colonies once in a while to see if they have much in the ways of stores. If a colony feels light it can be given fondant and the Association still has some Ambrosia fondant available. The fondant is priced at £15 per 12.5kg box with each box containing five individually wrapped 2.5kg blocks. Stockists are Philip Penman near Luton, Vicki Manners in Bedford and Neil Blakemore in Pavenham – see stockist details in the 2020 year book.

The Association has decided that members who wish to buy more than 5 packs of foundation next year will need to sell the equivalent weight in wax to the Association. So now is a good time to process that scrap wax that has accumulated over the season. Even collecting the scrapings from queen excluders, crown boards and super frames (top and bottom bars) can yield a reasonable amount of wax. The only place where wax is made is inside a beehive. So, in order to produce foundation, the equipment suppliers need to obtain the raw material – which comes from beekeepers! The Association holds several wax steamers which can be borrowed for free. When processing wax I place it in pieces of white garden fleece tied up into a bundle. The bundle is placed in the steamer and the wax comes out quite clean – good enough to trade in for foundation. See p36 of the 2020 Yearbook for members who hold steamers and other equipment.

Note that if you have unrendered wax it can be traded in without payment although it will count towards your extra foundation allowance.

As we approach xmas and the shortest day, I like treat for varroa with an oxalic acid type treatment. The books say there should be little or no brood around now although I have never inspected a colony to confirm this. Oxalic acid does not kill mites hiding in cells – only those on adult bees, hence the reason for applying it at around this time.

There are two ways of administering the acid – one by ‘trickling’ and the other by use of a vaporiser. Research shows that the vaporiser is a little more effective but requires specialist equipment, e.g. a car battery, face mask (the fumes are dangerous to humans and can damage lungs) and the actual vaporiser. So, I recommend applying it in the liquid form so as to avoid the possibility of acid damage. I have used the trickle method for many years and I have had good results in that time.
The Association does not hold any of the necessary protective equipment.

Some members have asked how should supers be stored to avoid wax moth. For many years I have kept them as follows:

  • Place a couple of runners on the floor.
  • Place a queen excluder on the runners (which will allow spiders to gain access to the super stack). The spiders should then deal with moths if they find their way into the stack.
  • Make a stack with supers on the excluder, up to 12 for me as I can’t reach higher than that.
  • Place a roof or a board on top of the stack to keep rodents out.

This method generally works well and I had only one year when a few supers were attacked by moths. It is also a chemical free system.

Lastly, seasons’ greetings to all and I hope to see many of you at the virtual AGM in February. With luck we will be able to meet up at some point in 2021 and even attend some outdoor events. Now that is something to look forward to!

Regards

Wally

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October 2020 Apiary Notes

Now we are into October the weather has turned more autumnal although the bees are working the ivy during sunny spells. In fact some hives are working as if there is summer flow so they have a super to collect this last bout of activity. The presence of a super prevents the brood nest from becoming congested with stores and allows the queen to continue laying, albeit at a lesser rate.

Feeding should be about finished by now. Bees are reluctant to take stores down If the weather turns cold so, if some colonies need topping up it is better to do it sooner rather than later.

If your varroa treatment was Apistan or Apivar make sure the strips are removed after the treatment time – leaving them in all winter provides a lower level of dosage which can then lead to some mites developing resistance to the product. So to ensure these treatments remain effective for future years we need to take them from the hive soon.

The next job on my list before winter is to place mouseguards over entrances although I normally wait for the first frost before doing so. Mouseguards can knock off pollen loads from incoming foragers and pollen is vital for colonies while brood is being produced. Do tap the brood box before putting mouseguards in place – otherwise you could be trapping mice in the hive for winter!

The last job before winter is to wrap hives with wire netting to prevent woodpeckers damaging brood boxes. I am in the process of moving netting to apiary sites in readiness for this tedious job. If the winter is mild we can get away without nets but if there is a cold snap woodpeckers can do a lot of damage in a short time. Trying to put netting in place in bad weather is not high on my list ‘nice’ jobs so I prefer to do it in benign conditions. That way I know colonies are pretty safe until springtime.

Finally, just to let you know about the Facebook chat group set up by Steve Gale earlier in the year. This group is private, i.e. only available to Beds BKA members – the public cannot access it. You can apply to join the Chat Page group here.

This Facebook group is not run by the Association but by members. Anyone can post items of interest on there, for example ask a question about processing wax, anyone have some spare MAQS pads?, photos of what went well (or not). Topical items, e.g. I posted photos the other day of feed buckets washed in a Burco. Just a prompt to show what is happening around now.

One member posted recently that although he has been a member for over 30 years, as he lives on the edge of the county he does not often attend Association events. He said ‘I feel I am part of Beds BKA now that I can post items and see what others are saying’.

If you would like to join the group please contact Steve and, as long as you are a member, he will add you to the group.

Regards,
Wally