Category: Article

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

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.

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

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

Now we are approaching September we need to consider feeding our bees to ensure they have enough stores to last till next spring. Also varroa treatments should be complete by now or well under way. If Apistan or Apivar were used they should be removed after 6/8 weeks and that should be in this month. This is all part of preparing bees for winter.

Before I feed my colonies I like to check that each one looks viable. A quick inspection is made to ensure there is a laying queen and she has a good size nest. If the colony looks weaker compared to other colonies then it is worth considering uniting weak ones as long as there are no signs of disease. Chalk brood is very easy to identify whereas other brood diseases are less so. Any colony with bad chalk brood is culled this time of year as it is too late to rectify the situation. This is the last opportunity to inspect bees for six months so it is important they are in as good a state as possible.

Those colonies that look viable I feed as quickly as possible and I use Ambrosia. Syrup made from white granulated sugar is fine but it should be as strong a solution as possible, that is two parts sugar to one part water. Recently I have bought English tray feeders as the lids on contact feeders break down after a few years. Hopefully the tray feeders will last a lot longer.

If a colony was artificially swarmed earlier in the year check that all the frames with foundation have been drawn. If there are one or two frames undrawn by the walls bees sometimes leave these alone when being fed. Bring the frames into the edge of the nest which encourages bees to draw them when being fed. The sooner this is done the better as bees are less inclined to draw comb the further we move into autumn. If some frames are not drawn it means bees will not have enough space for the stores you intend to feed.

It is important to continuously feed a colony until it has enough stores; around 45lbs or 22kgs. If there is a break in feeding some of the stores will be turned into brood which means they will not have as many stores as you might think. But don’t overfeed as bees will fill cells where bees have emerged and thereby prevent the queen laying as many eggs she needs to produce the winter workforce. If feeding takes place too late in the year the outside temperature may be low and bees form a cluster. They don’t process syrup properly in these conditions and may leave the water content too high which can result with stores fermenting. This can cause dysentery in the hive and loss of bees.

When feeding bees all colonies in the apiary should be fed at the same time as bees become excited by the sudden input of food. If syrup is spilt or frames with honey are left open It can trigger robbing. An eke should be placed over the crown board around the feeder so the roof can be replaced. In fact I cover the feed holes with the feeder in order to prevent robbers gaining access through any gaps under the roof.

My aim is finish feeding by the end of September and hopefully before the ivy starts to flower. Some apiary sites have an abundant source of ivy in the autumn. Over the years I have found that bees that have collected a lot of ivy honey can have problems during winter, mainly with dysentery. So to avoid too much ivy being stored in the brood box I aim to finish feeding by end of September. A super is then returned to the hive for the bees to store any crop they may gather. The supers are then removed in November and any honey is dealt with then. Sometimes there is none at all and others there are several frames. It all depends on the weather conditions, ivy availability and strength of the colony. Some people really like the flavour but it is quite strong and is a ‘Marmite’ honey – you either like or you don’t!

Regards

Wally

In my last apiary notes I mentioned that we need to consider our varroa treatment which should start as soon as honey is removed – ideally by early August. My opinion is that varroa levels should be as low as possible before the winter bees are produced. We need bees to be as healthy as possible to survive till the following spring. If mite levels are high they can impact many winter bees and shorthen their lifespan.

There are reports that there have been issues sourcing MAQS in the UK (i.e. in short supply, if available at all) although some suppliers seem to have it back in stock now. Consequently I have been asked to give my views on the various treatments available. Over the years I have used most of the available treatments and have formed a view on each of the products. Others may (will) disagree with what I have written but that is beekeeping. Put two beekeepers together and ask them about swarm control and you will get five answers. Put them together and ask about varroa treatment one would need to locate the exit quickly!

My policy when treating my bees for varroa is never to do it when honey is present. This way I know I cannot contaminate the honey regardless of what the instructions say. For some products the honey must be removed and some say it is ok to treat with it present. I prefer to take supers away and then I know I am completely safe.

Most varroa treatments are harsh and make life for bees unpleasant. The aim of treatments is to be strong enough to kill mites but not the bees. But without treatment most colonies will die out. This statement can open a can of worms so I’ll leave it at that.

MAQS – formic acid is the active substance and you can tell as soon as the lid is removed from the container even when the pads are still in their wrapping. The smell is very strong and I wouldn’t want to be exposed to the substance for any period of time. Many people find it very effective and the treatment is over in 7 days. There are reports of it killing queens if there is not enough ventilation. Recently I heard of someone who lost a lot of bees as well as the queen when treating with MAQS – so be very careful and follow the instructions closely.

Apiguard – contains thymol in two trays and takes four weeks to treat (two weeks per tray). This product is temperature sensitive so must be used in August whilst we have good daytime warmth. My view is that it can have variable effectiveness and can also put the queen off lay at a time when I feel she should be producing the winter bees. Read the instructions carefully as mesh floors must be blanked off and ventilation restricted.

Apivar – the active ingredient is Amitraz. The treatment time is six to ten weeks using two strips per hive and is very effective. However, if the product is used each year mites can develop resistance and then it will become unusable. This happened years ago with Apistan when the mites developed resistance. So varroa treatments should be changed each year to prevent mites developing resistance.

Apistan / Bayvarol  – these are similar products. Apistan contains fluvalinate and Bayvarol flumethrin. The treatment is the same as Apivar – two strips per hive for a minimum of six weeks. All treatments using strips should be removed before winter as they become weaker over time. This means that mites then can then tolerate the weaker dosage and develop resistance in this way.

Oxalic Acid – Treatment can be either by trickling or vaporisation; both are effective although vaporisation is reported to be more effective. Vaporisation requires a car battery and a hot plate plus a breathing mask as oxalic fumes are dangerous to humans. For trickling there are 3 approved products (Api-Bioxal, Oxybee and Oxuvar). I have only used the trickle method and found it to be very effective.

My current regime is a mixture of oxalic acid trickling in winter and spraying Varroamed in March / April and August. Varroamed replaces Hiveclean which was removed from the market some years ago as it wasn’t approved by the VMD (Veterinary Medicines Directorate). It has now been approved and has doubled in price as a result. This product does not kill mites but causes them to fall off the bee as they do not like the taste. So it is essential to use open mesh floors without the insert so the mites fall on the ground. The aim of my regime is to prevent mite levels becoming too high where they can cause damage to the brood – hence the different treatments during the year.  The product is sprayed onto the top of brood bars. It has little impact on the bees (it does contain oxalic acid but much weaker than the winter treatment). As mentioned this is applied twice during the active season – once before supers are added and again when they are removed. Oxalic acid is then trickled between seams of bees just before xmas. Oxalic acid in winter can be used only once as it affects the gut of bees. As I mentioned earlier most treatments are harsh on bees but this regime seems to me to be the least harmful.

You may want to place the plastic insert under the floor (if the product you are using does not require the floor to be ventilated) to monitor mite drop. There can be wide variations between colonies in their mite knock down which often comes as a surprise. Personally I do not use inserts as my floors are homemade and do not take an insert. However, I regularly remove drone pupae during the main part of the season and look for mites on the developing drones. This normally gives a good indication if there is a mite problem or not. Another thing to look for are bees with deformed wings (DWV) which can indicate that there is a mite issue if many bees are affected.

There are other products on the market but I have not tried them so I have not mentioned them in these Notes. My aim here is to give an appreciation of the popular products and issues there may be in their use. But do treat with something otherwise your bees may not survive till next spring.

Regards,

Wally

As we move into July we are nearing the end of the beekeeping season as regards to honey flows. There are still many tasks to come for winter preparation but that is for another day.

Swarming tends to reduce significantly when the days no longer lengthen so less attention is needed for swarm inspections. However, those colonies that were artificially swarmed or swarmed before they could be split must be checked for a laying queen. Large colonies can take up to 3 or 4 weeks before a new queen comes into lay after she emerges. So a colony may appear to be queenless but is just waiting for the new queen to start laying. A simple test is to add a frame of eggs from another colony and look at the frame a few days later. It is a good idea to place a pin in this frame in order to identify it when checking for queen cells. Move other frames away from the test frame in case any queen cells that may be present are not damaged when removing the test frame from the brood box. If no queen cells have been drawn a queen is present and should come into lay soon. If queen cells have been produced select one where a grub is visible in a good position on the comb and destroy all the others. Leave the colony for 3 to 4 weeks and then check for eggs.

Recently I inspected a colony which had several frames of brood only to discover drones were present in worker cells. The sealed brood had domed cappings rather than a flat surface that is typical of worker brood. There were also several eggs per cell which is another indication of a laying worker. Note that new queens sometimes lay two eggs in some cells but practice eventually resolves this issue. Colonies with laying workers cannot be recovered so the only option was to take the brood box a little distance away and shake the bees off the comb and remove the hive from the apiary. Hopefully the worker that was laying would not be able to fly back to the original location and the remaining workers would find a home in neighbouring colonies. The brood frames were destroyed as they were potential varroa producers.

Another potential issue is frames of foundation in colonies that were artificially swarmed earlier in the season. When making up the artificial swarm brood box it is good practice to add frames of foundation in the box where the old queen is placed in. When making up an artificial swarm I like to give the old queen a frame of sealed brood (so the queen has young bees available to produce royal jelly), two or three drawn frames (so the queen can continue laying), and a frame of stores. So there could be 5 to 7 frames of foundation in the box with the old queen. Bees are sometimes reluctant to draw these frames especially the outside ones. For these colonies move a frame of foundation into the brood nest every 7 to 10 days. This forces bees to draw these frames as the nest has been split.  My preference is to move one or two frames at a time into the nest to ensure these frames are drawn before the end of summer. During autumn feeding  bees quite often ignore these blank frames meaning a colony could go into winter underweight because not all the frames are drawn.

The recent hot weather plus the June gap has significantly reduced the honey flow. But there are still a few weeks to go for bees to forage on blackberry etc. So make sure bees have enough super space in case of a late flow. If there is a good soaking in the coming days plants will start nectar production again and bees are opportunists – ready to take advantage of whatever is available to them.

Now is a good time to consider which varroa treatment to use in the coming weeks. My approach is to treat when no honey is on the hive so the intention is to remove honey from the hives by mid August in order that treatment can start. There is plenty of advice on Beebase on the different products available and attached is a pdf (varroa-pdf-2020) from Beebase showing the various products.

Last but not least – wasps. They can become a problem from July onwards and often target weak or diseased colonies and nucs especially. As we move through July it is a good idea to reduce the colony entrance to around an inch or so to make it easier for bees to defend. If wasps are in robbing mode on a colony it is difficult to stop. Definitely a case of prevention better than cure. Final thought, place wasp traps around the apiary to reduce wasp numbers. Traps can easily be made from jars with some small holes in the lid, spoon of jam and half fill with water. The wasps eventually drown but bees are not attracted to the mixture.

Regards
Wally

The Met Office described spring 2020 as exceptional. As a result bees appreciated the record sunshine amounts of the past three months; they have built up strongly and filled super after super. Bill Turnbull interviewed yesterday morning on BBC Breakfast, explained in normal spring weather bees forage for a couple of days a week and then are confined to the hive for the rest of the week, they then eat the honey they brought in when the weather was good. Not so this year. When colonies became strong enough they have filled a super in a matter of days – quite extraordinary.

This may explain why not all colonies have tried to swarm yet. Some have produced queen cells and needed artificial swarming but many others have not.

However, the forecast for the next few days is for much cooler weather so my suspicion is that colonies will start producing queen cells during their confinement to the hive. When the weather conditions allow do check again for queen cells. We are at peak swarming time now and many colonies are really powerful – just right as far as bees are concerned to split themselves into two.

If bees are confined for the next few days they will be able to finish off ripening the stores brought in recently. It is not necessary for honey to be completely capped before it can be extracted. Do a ‘shake’ test with a frame to see if honey falls out. Hold the frame with one side facing downwards. Give the frame a sharp shake downards. Repeat with the other side of the frame. If no honey ‘flies’ out of the frame it is safe to extract. Quite often the outside frames in a super are still ‘wet’ but the others are good to be extracted. I collect all frames that need further ripening into a separate super and place it back over a hive. Mark this super with a chalk tick helps identify it and it should be safe to extract a few days later.

As most of my supers are now on hives I need to extract some of them. The really heavy ones I rearrange above the crown board and they are normally found immediately above the queen excluder. Remove all supers from the hive putting aside the lighter ones apart the heavy ones. Return the lighter supers above the queen excluder followed by the crown board. Now place the heavy supers above the crown board – some help may be needed here depending on how high the hive has become. Leave the heavy supers for a few days which allows the bees time to finish ripening them. Any fresh nectar the bees collect is generally placed in the supers below the crown board. But do a shake test when removing the heavy supers as unripe honey can cause fermentation thereby losing a whole bucket of honey. As always bees do not always have access to our books so they sometimes do things a little differently. So it is safer to test frames that are not capped.

Finally, we now entering the ‘June gap’ with little forage available for bees. When taking honey off a colony ensure it has enough food to last it a few weeks. If too much honey is removed a colony can easily starve – there are so many bees and a lot of brood to feed.

Regards

Wally