Today's wind is why we put rocks, bricks, or weights of some kind on our top covers. Holy snowdrift, it's a powerful wind. I went out early to refill the bird feeders (deer come up and empty them at night) and many species of birds are coming and going like crazy. So far I haven't seen any hawks or falcons stop by for a meal, but I can always tell when they're around by the way the birds scatter into the trees, bushes and brambles. Such a contrast to yesterday. Although we had snow and rain in the morning, it was warm and calm in the afternoon. Tucker and I went back to check the home 8, and several hives had bees busy at the entrances cleaning out dead bodies and taking off on cleansing flights. Some were making their final flight and kamikazed into the snow and didn't get back up. We still have some winter to go, and who knows what will all get thrown at us, but hopefully some of our colonies will make it past the finish line and will be with us when the maples and willows come out of dormancy. I'm preparing myself for that hope and am studying up on swarm control. I would like to have super strong colonies that didn't swarm to make honey. Lots of honey. If you read Dr. Meghan Milbrath's article on Swarms that was attached to the last newsletter, you might have noticed her reference to Walt Wright's paper, "Nectar Management". I found this paper a little hard to comprehend at first, but I'm starting to get the concepts on my third reading/study. Nectar management, and where the bees are placing it in the hive, are indicators of what the colony is thinking. I've attached Walt's pdf for anyone thinking they may have survivors in spring and want to attempt maximizing honey production from the flows. (Jack B., you don't need to read it.) For new beekeepers, the season is coming up fast and hopefully you have your supplies gathered, bees ordered, and are getting things ready to go. My recommendation is to use (2) deeps for the hive body (some use (3) mediums), and have (3) medium supers for honey per colony. My second year, with my first Langstroth hive I needed (3) supers to keep ahead of the bees. That first year colony produced 240 lbs of honey (20 gallons), a feat to not be repeated to date. I didn't know what I was doing at that point, but the planets had aligned perfectly. You'll also need a bottom board (screened or not, I recommend screened), inner cover (with a notch for bees to exit and enter), and a telescoping top cover. Frames with foundation, or not. There's a number of ways of dealing with frames to encourage the bees to draw out comb, but if you choose plastic, I have heard it's a good idea to paint some melted beeswax on them. The original coating is pretty thin and bees often won't draw out comb on plastic foundation as it comes out of the box. Or whatever it comes in. I'm old school, wax foundation. I just got a new toolbag yesterday because my tools kept falling out of the one I was using, but you don't really need all that many tools to start. A "hive tool" is essential (I have (3), fear of losing another one), as is a smoker (I have 2). A bee brush comes in handy at times, and it's really nice to have a "J" hook and frame lifter. (Yes, I have two or three of each of those too.) Protection gear is among my essentials because I'm not nuts about getting stung. I get stung enough with the gear by doing stupid things. For me it's a ventilated jacket with globe veil, ventilated goatskin gloves, and bee britches. By having a jacket and britches I have a choice to wear the britches or not, whereas with a bee suit there is no choice. On a nice day with the bees busy and happy, jeans are good enough. But come harvest time and the bees are totally defensive, the britches give me an extra layer over the jeans. Almost forgot, you'll need a means of feeding your bees syrup. Entrance feeders (Boardman) have gone out of use for the most part because the syrup jar is exposed outside of the hive (cooling the syrup at night in spring), and they encourage robbing in fall. I use top feeders, but there's also frame feeders, ziplock baggies, and jars with perforated caps on an inner cover with a circular hole to accommodate it with a super around that. (If syrup is cooler than 50 degrees F, the bees won't touch it. It stays warmer in the hive.) Mite treatments are essential at this point, and we'll be talking about that a lot again this year, and every year until they're no longer a problem. Fred has packaged oxalic acid for distribution at our next meeting, "at cost". (More on that below.) If you choose to use OA, it can be used in a dribble (but feed your bees first) or vapor. For those with a few hives, ask to borrow a vaporizer from someone in the club that owns one. Study up on mite treatments using formic acid (FormicPRO and Mite Away Quick Strips (MAQS)), ApiGuard (thymol), Apivar (Amitraz), HopGuard (hops), etc., and choose the treatment plan that will work for your lifestyle incorporating at least two different products. ALWAYS FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS. Figure on (3) complete treatments, minimum, during the season. As mentioned previously, Fred will have the oxalic acid available at the March meeting and I will have Hive Alive and Lecithin (for making homemade HBH) available. Oxalic Acid: From Fred: Made up 24 containers of oxalic; 16 one pounders and 8 1/2 pounders. Costs-20 lbs oxalic-$49.90, containers-$9.84 Total $59.74 Round up $59.74 to $60; or $3 per pound of oxalic. No profit for club, but that's what the club is about. Therefore sell one pounders at $3 and 1/2 pounders at $1.50. If these sell out we can do it again. One pound of oxalic will treat a 10 frame double deep 227 times. For most members 1/2 pound will last them all year. Hive Alive: Hive Alive is a supplement that can be added to syrup to promote bee gut health. It has been shown to increase bee populations by 89% in field tests, and it helps in combating Nosema cerenae. There are still (6) 100 ml bottles available at $15.00/each, and I will distribute ounces at $4.45/ounce. Bring your own vial, bottle or other container if buying ounces. Hive Alive has a 6 month viability after opening the bottle (all expire on 1/2020) so it will be good through 2019 spring and fall feedings. Also, syrup will not go moldy if it contains Hive Alive. Note: 1 ounce will treat 3 gallons of syrup at 2 teaspoons per gallon. 100ml will treat 10 gallons at 2 teaspoons per gallon. Lecithin: And lastly, I will bring pouches containing 1 teaspoon of lecithin granules for anyone that would like some for making homemade Honey Bee Healthy (or homemade salad dressing). The recipe is on our blog site, and you only need a little bit. A teaspoonful will last me years so I keep it refrigerated. Okay, so I'm thinking about venturing out to Echoes of the Past at Sunnyview Expo Center so I gotta go. I'll check the drifts in the driveway first, and if they're too deep I'll visit beekeeping suppliers on the WEB instead. I already have stuff on on Wish Lists so it's a matter of deciding what I NEED. (Did you see that one-handed queen catcher yet?) Next meeting: March 23, Caestecker Library, Green Lake, 9:30 a.m. Gerard
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We're having a tough winter, and there's more to come. Severe cold, deep snow, punishing winds. The snowscapes around my hives are interesting to look at, but difficult to climb through. I knew I wouldn't make it across the alfalfa field and back very easily with snow boots, so I finally bought some snowshoes to make the trek easier. And it was. Unfortunately, one hive had died out (G2, the yellow hive shown in the last newsletter), but G3 is still alive (G1 was idle this season). I added a couple of sugar discs to G3 and will visit again in a couple of weeks. I left the snowshoes off when I checked the club hives because the snow didn't look so deep, but the snowshoes would have helped. It's not that far of a trek so no big deal. I found the green hive dead, and the yellow hive looking to be doing well, but low on sugar, as usual. I slipped in two discs and will revisit in a couple of weeks. I had given the green hive the edge during my fall analysis since it had decent honey reserves whereas the yellow hive had very little and didn't take much syrup. I figured a colony couldn't live long on just sugar, but here they are. Thanks to Fred, Jack R., and Paul for kicking in some sugar bricks to help out. They've gone through quite a lot of sugar. Even though it's sad to lose a colony, ever, this gives us an opportunity to perform an autopsy as a club. Some of our newer members haven't experienced a dead-out yet, and some of our more experienced members have seen more than they'd like to have seen. Together we'll take an indepth look on April 20 when we are meeting at the Rushford Meadery and Winery. And if the yellow hive succumbs between now and then, we'll autopsy that one too. We discussed reloading the club hive(s) at our February meeting, and Fred Ransome offered to donate a nuc if his nucs survive the winter. That's a generous offer, and the membership gratefully accepted it. So far Fred is experiencing great success so it may come to be. The plan right now is to reload the green hive with the nuc following the autopsy/cleanup of the hive on April 20. If the yellow hive dies out in the meantime (I hope not) we will try to find a package to install in that hive, but it might not be on April 20. There's the possibility of one of us catching too many swarms and reloading it that way. Or we may have too many splits. (Both would be great problems to have.) Right now they're alive so it's a non-issue, but we have ideas should the colony not make it. If the yellow hive survives, and if the weather permits, we will do a colony analysis to determine its strength and condition, if I haven't already done so. It all depends on the early spring weather and what's happening in the environment. Should the maples pop in mid-March, the colony will need to be checked for things like back-filling long before April 20. We'll talk about hive reversals, swarm suppression, and generally just staying ahead of the bees at our March 23 (fourth Saturday) meeting. Last year I did a walk-away split on April 29 because there were capped swarm cells when I inspected a hive. Figuring they were within minutes of issuing forth, I just split them, no hesitation. (Meghan Milbrath refers to that as a "dirty split".) The hive that didn't have a queen successfully produced one, and both colonies did great. Had I inspected earlier in the month I might have recognized the signs of swarm preparation and could have gotten ahead of them and had a really strong colony just pumping out honey. Maybe this year. (I have attached Meghan's paper on Swarms: The biology and control of swarms in Northern States. It's an excellent article and the basis for part of our discussion in March. ) Fred has been keeping track of several members' mite treatments from 2018 and our wintering results thus far. The results are premature because we won't stop counting dead-outs until April, but I can say for myself that right now I am at a 92% survival rate, and a year ago I was at 36% survival. I attribute a large part of the difference to more aggressive mite control, and I will be continuing on in that vein in 2019. Fred handed out a sheet concerning this, and I have attached it to this newsletter. Fred proposed buying bulk oxalic acid to distribute among the membership for cost savings, and the members present authorised the purchase of 20 lbs. to start with. The OA will be sold to members at meetings for around $2.50/lb, as compared to around $9/lb if you by it at ACE Hardware. (Note that the recommended dosage is 1 gram OA per brood box with the vaporization method, per treatment, and there are around 450 grams in a pound. You don't need a ton.) Fred also volunteered me to bring my vaporizer to the April meeting so that we can do a demo on how an oxalic acid vaporizer works, and the technique to do a treatment. My deep cycle battery has been on a battery-minder all winter, so it's ready to go. However; someone else can carry it down to the hives. :) We can use either hive to demo an oxalic acid vapor treatment, or both. We talked about using "Honey Bee Healthy" in our syrup when feeding, and we have the recipe that was developed by the University of West Virginia (developed through research) listed on our blog under recipes: http://ourbeeblog.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html I have been asked where to get lecithin and most natural food stores carry it. I bought a one pound canister last year "to save money" and there's enough to last me about 500 years, give or take a few decades. Since I probably won't live quite that long, I'll bring it to the meeting in March in bags holding a teaspoonful for anyone that wants some. (I only use a pinch for the initial batch, and add 3 or 4 batches of syrup/oils to the bottle before refreshing the lecithin. A tiny bit goes a very long way.) We also discussed and decided at the meeting that it might be fun to have a door prize drawing at our meetings. Patti, in addition to her Secretary/Treasurer duties, offered to take this on as well. This is for members only, not guests, and make sure to get your ticket when you arrive. The February 12 beekeeping presentation at the Fond du Lac library was rescheduled for March 12 due to the snow. It's at 6 p.m. in the McLane Room, and everyone is invited to participate in sharing their beekeeping passion with those that are curious. LeAnne wasn't present at the meeting, so we have no update on Ripon College's request for the ECWBA to participate in their Earth Day Event. All we know so far is that it is scheduled for May 4. Hopefully more will be revealed soon. We did vote to accept a constitutional change to combine the offices of Secretary and Treasurer. Patti will carry on with both offices (and door prize procuror). That's it for now, except to remind everyone to continue to check your bees' food stores. Make sure there's emergency sugar available. Bees will consume sugar even if honey is present in the hive in order to always have some honey in reserve. It's not necessarily an either/or thing with them. One of my colonies had not touched their sugar disc as of two weeks ago when I added a half of a pollen patty "just in case". When I checked on Saturday afternoon, both the sugar disc and pollen patty were totally gone and I could hear the bees contentedly buzzing in the upper deep, with a medium super full of honey above them. They're going to need that honey for brood rearing (along with pollen), and I'm excited to see how this pans out. I forgot to mention carpooling to Wausau on March 16 for those that are going, so if you're looking to do that, let me know and I will send out a list of members seeking carpooling. Gerard
February, probably the hardest month for northern bees and their keepers. The bees have been inside for several months now with no fresh pollen or nectar coming in, resources are running low, dead bees are piling up on the bottom boards blocking the lower entrances and reducing ventilation, the populations are diminishing making it harder to keep the broodnest warm. Fortunately, this winter we’ve had warm spells between the extreme cold periods and the bees got out for cleansing flights and were able to clear out some of the dead bees. Without the opportunity for cleansing flights, the inside of the hives would be a mess and bees would be sickened in their effort to clean it up. The hard part for this beekeeper is watching dead bodies accumulate outside of the hives and wondering if there’s enough left to keep the queen and brood warm during the next cold snap. The queens are laying now to replace winter losses to have enough bees for spring buildup. During a cold period, the cluster will contract tighter to maintain the required 94 degrees F around the brood for proper development. If this colony contraction moves the bees away from their food source for more than a few days, the colony will freeze. There’s nothing the beekeeper can do to prevent this, it’s just part of nature. I find myself fretting when I see dead bees piling up and the temperature dropping yet again, and then send a little prayer off into the cosmos that they may make it through. The prayer does me more good than the fretting. I put mouse guards in front of several hive entrances this winter, but I didn't expect to trap a mouse inside of the hives. Obviously I was a bit late in getting the guard on one. I noticed a lot of chewed out reducer and removed the guard to find this: (The screening that's visible is the screened bottom board.) The reducer is pretty well destroyed by a mouse unsuccessfully trying to get out of the hive. The guard kept it in. No mouse came flying out and I didn't hear any rustling when I removed the guard, so it may be dead. I can hardly wait for a 60 degree day to lift the hive and see what happened. Hopefully the frames aren't destroyed. Today some of our members are holding a beginning beekeeping class, and I'm looking forward to hearing about how that went. The last I heard there were 11 students enrolled in today's class, and they will all be getting an ECWBA membership for 2019. I hope they attend our meeting on Saturday. On Tuesday (Feb. 12) some of our members will be putting on a presentation about honey bees and beekeeping for interested persons at the Fond du Lac Library at 6:00 p.m. in the McLane Room. All interested ECWBA members are encouraged to attend to share your knowledge and experiences. We should arrive around 5:30 to get things set up. There's no specific topic set for Saturday's meeting, and everyone is invited to bring whatever they would like to share about beekeeping (as always). In March (March 23) I plan to focus on what to do with survivors; specifically, swarm prevention. We should probably review bait hives at that time as well, to catch the swarms that happen in spite of our best efforts to prevent them from getting away. In April I think we should meet at the Meadery and do a club inspection of the hives whether they survive or not (so far they are both alive). If they don't make it that far, we can autopsy the hive to try and determine why they died. If they make it, we can decide if a reversal is in order, or a split, or just give them more growing room. Remember that if you're interested in attending the Beekeeping Conference 2019 at the Northcentral Technical College in Wausau on March 16 to register before March 1 to get the $10.00 discount. Those planning to go can make carpooling arrangements at Saturday's meeting. https://www.ntc.edu/calendar/2019/03/16/beekeeping-conference-2019 Let me know if you have a topic that you would liked discussed among the membership. We're all at different places in our beekeeping journey, and we focus on different aspects of the art and science of beekeeping. Between us all we've learned a lot, and this should be shared among the membership. Like the guy on TV, "We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two". Saturday, February 16, 9:30 a.m., Caestecker Public Library, Green Lake See you Saturday (and perhaps Tuesday). Gerard The deep freeze has moved out of the area for now, and the temperatures will be relatively warm for the next several days. I hope that everyone took a little time to scrape the frost off the inner covers today because tomorrow it will most likely melt and drip on to the bees if you didn't. Advantages to the warmer temps the next several days is that the clusters can relocate to a food source and the bees will be able to get out for cleansing flights. They can also clean out dead bee bodies: The above is hive G2, located on the far end of a 40 acre alfalfa field. It wasn't bad crossing that field today but I was surprised at the number of bee bodies on the snow. You can also see brown spots from cleansing flights. I checked all of my hives today (to scrape off frost) and am happy to report that they are all still buzzing, as are the two club hives. I made sure they have enough sugar to last a couple of weeks (some colonies haven't even touched the sugar yet) and I added a half of a Bee Pro patty to all. The bees should have enough pollen stored to carry them through until the maples bloom in March, but just in case..... Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today, so there's supposed to be an early spring. That would be nice. I'm getting anxious to get back into the hives. A couple of things have come up that I wanted to get out to you right away.
I had mentioned about the snafus I experienced in trying to procure Hive Alive in an effort to extend cost savings to members that are interested in using it. The dust has finally settled and I received a total of (10) 100ml bottles and a 500ml bottle. As stated in that email, the 100ml bottles are $15.00, and the 500ml will be distributed at $4.45/ounce. It's first come, first serve, and (5) of the 100ml bottles are already spoken for. I will bring the 100ml bottles to the February and March meetings, and ounce distribution will be at the March meeting. February 11 is St. Gobnait's Feast Day. St. Gobnait is a patroness of beekeepers and you can read a little about her story here if you'd like: https://thinplacestour.com/st-gobnait-patron-ballyvourney-county-cork/ Lastly, the Minutes from our January 19 meeting are attached. That's it for now, just a few quick notes and the Minutes. Tucker is impatiently waiting to go for a walk, so I gotta go. Enjoy the heat wave. Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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