As stated in the last newsletter, our April 21 meeting will be dedicated to beginner beekeepers so that they may become familiar with tools, terms, devices, diseases, how-to’s, and whatever is on anyone’s mind.
So what’s a beginner beekeeper? It should be all of us. There’s a Zen saying, “In the Beginners mind there are many possibilities, in the Master’s mind there are but a few”. Keeping an open mind, listening, sharing, that’s how we learn from each other how to become better beekeepers. Some of us will have our package bees before the meeting, and here’s a heads up. I personally know of only one package colony from last spring that’s alive today. It’s the only survivor out of 37 that I can readily call to mind. And it’s not mine. It’s member Deidre’s. We’re trying to figure out how that happened. (I know, Deidre, a clear mind and a loving spirit. I’ll work on that!) For those that haven’t done so yet, I highly recommend that you read Fred’s March 31st Report on our blog. http://ourbeeblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/march-31st-report-by-beekeeper-fred.html I believe Fred has historically had over 80% winter survival (with a lot of colonies), but not so this past winter. My winter losses are a woefully depressing 75%! Members have reported 100% losses. What’s going on? That’s what we’d all like to know, and how to turn this around, and that’s why we meet. There are those of us constantly reading and studying the plight of the honey bee and sharing what we find with the ECWBA membership. For one, Fred, is constantly posting current research on our blog, as well as working on genetics by bringing in mite resistant queen stock from a variety of races and sources. Fred freely shares his discoveries with us. May one day soon he have the perfect northern bred mutt queen! For those of you that don’t know, or are taking it lightly, Varroa Destructor is the #1 enemy of honeybees at this point in time. Not only do they weaken the bees by feeding on their proteins, they also transmit many viral and bacterial diseases. We talked a lot about mites last year, but apparently some of us didn’t do enough. For myself, that has to end. I would like to retire from my day job soon, but my addictive hobby is keeping me broke by replacing bees. Back to package bees. They will have mites. A recent sampling of (1200) 3 lb. packages showed mite levels varying from 0.4% to 2.0% (mites to bee ratio). NONE were zero. The best time to treat bees for mites is when there is no brood being raised, and this is one of those times. There are a number of treatments that come in strip form that work well (Apistan, Api Life Var, Hopguard), and there’s oxalic acid (dribble, drench, vapor). By knocking down the mite level now there will be fewer mites to breed once your queens start laying. If the packages arrive on April 7, as one supplier has said, it’s going to be chilly. You can keep the package bees indoors in a heated environment for a few days, spraying them with 1:1 syrup several times/day (one dose might contain oxalic acid), or you can put them in a hive and hope for the best. An alternative to hoping for the best is to put the package bees in a nuc so there’s less room that they have to keep warm, or put 4 or 5 frames in the center of a hive body and insulate from the outsides of the frames to the box wall with Styrofoam blocks, newspaper, towels, whatever you can get that will remove easily and cleanly. Remove any insulating materials when the temps get to the 50’s consistently and replace the frames. Might only be a few days. Feeding will be another challenge. Bees won’t take syrup that’s under 50 degrees F and they can’t warm syrup in a top feeder, or anything else. I might try a baggie feeder on the top bars with the winter cover over that, and if they don’t go for it, I’ll either give them a sugar disc or dry sugar on newspaper (Mountain Camp method). Make sure they’re getting something until it’s warm enough for syrup. Don't spray, dribble or drench when it's below 45 degrees out. In the past I have fed the bees 1:1 syrup with homemade Honey Bee Healthy and a protein patty. Every year there have been bees in the bird feeders and the chicken coop picking up grain dust for protein even though there was a pollen substitute patty on the top bars. So this year I decided to try a dry bee feed supplement to help them along. I decided on Ultra Bee, although there are others to choose from (MegaBee and Bee Pro are two). The Ultra Bee arrived in time to put some in a pan the last two warm days that we had, and the bees were in it. There were some in the bird feeders and coop as well, but not many. An open pan didn’t look like the best thing to use, although the chickens did stay out of it, so I browsed the 'net and found an alternative to the $140.00 feeder at Mann Lake. It’s Gatorade bottles that were in the recycling bag. Any plastic bottle will work. Cut out the bottom leaving a lip around it to hold the dry feed in. Drill a hole through the cap large enough to push a nail through (I used 8 penny common nails), nail the cap to a tree upwind of the apiary, screw in the bottle, and put in some dry feed on a day that the bees are flying (around mid-40’s and not raining). I'm sure there are other ways of providing dry food and supplements, if you choose to use them, but know this: A 10 lb container of Ultra Bee is A LOT of feed. Good thing it's got a long expiration time. Next meeting: April 21 at the Caestecker Library in Green Lake at 9:30 a.m. May we all have a rewarding 2018 bee season! Gerard
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
|