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
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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