I checked all of my colonies and the club bees yesterday ahead of the polar vortex, and although it was only 18 degrees F at the time, the sun was shining and there wasn't any wind. Any colonies that had less than a full sugar disc on the top bars got 2 more discs. I figure this cold is going to be around for awhile and I don't want to disturb their ambience when it's really cold, and I don't want them running out of sugar. Most of the colonies were pretty quiet before I lifted the cover, and then got loud about 30 seconds after I closed them. I think they were generating heat fast to get the cluster back up to the desired temperature.
So far my 12 colonies, and the club's 2 colonies, are alive. This cold will be a test though. There's nothing more that I can do to help them, so their survival is up to their genetics, their health, their ability to stay in contact with their food, and their mite load. The next 6 weeks will be their toughest. Mine too. I just listened to my home 8 while walking Tucker, and they were quietly buzzing. It's the sound of silence that makes my heart drop. I always hate to lose a colony, but it happens, and last winter was devastating with a 75% loss for me. I'm hoping for, and worked toward, a much better survival rate this winter. I'm continuing to research the research on propolis, and am planning to rough up the hive body interiors on all new boxes and those that are reused after a die-out. It seems that somewhere during the millions of years that honey bees have been around, they learned to spread propolis on the rough walls of the tree cavities that they called home. Among other things, propolis is anti-bacterial and it killed off the bacteria that the bees picked up in the field. Due to this, the individual bees did not have to develop as many internal antibodies to fight disease. Still don't. Because propolis is the beekeeper's bane, making it difficult to separate the parts of the hive, breeders tried to breed this trait out at one point. Less propolis, less difficulty for the beekeeper. Those earlier bee breeders and keepers were unaware that propolis (bee glue) contains over 240 compounds and serves as a pharmacy for the bees. Bees will ingest small amounts, add it to comb and honey, and pass it on to the larvae and each other. Humans, as well, have used propolis for thousands of years for a variety of ailments and afflictions, but modern medicine helped us forget. But bees don't spread propolis on smooth surfaces, like the inside of most Langstroth hives, for some reason. I would think they would continue with the "social immunity envelope" wherever they are, but some researchers say spreading propolis is an instinct that is triggered by rough surfaces, from what their testing indicates, and not done otherwise. It's interesting, so that's why I'll rough up the interiors, see if they propolize them, and see if I can tell if it makes a difference. I kind of hate having the colonies assign workers to propolis collecting and spreading (rather than comb building and honey making), but if it helps them to be healthy it would be worth it. I talked about this a bit with Rick Schneider (Capital Bee Supply) and Wayne Gerdts (Honey Bee Ware) after our meeting yesterday, wondering if they had resources that produced boxes with rough interiors. They don't at the moment but are looking into it. Rick said he has contemplated embossing the interiors, and maybe we will start to see hive bodies with surfaces that will trigger the propolis spreading response to create "social immunity envelopes" in our hives. This also makes me think of Sue Dompke, the Russian Bee Lady of Washington Island that spoke to us a couple of years ago about Russians (and gets this newsletter ;). She makes her own boxes out of cedar, with rough interiors. I think it's time I contact her about her experience with rough interiors and how her bees are doing. Maybe I just did. We held the elections for Vice-President and Treasurer, and Mike Koeck was voted in to continue on as VP by an almost unanimous vote. There was (1) dissension, but Mike changed his vote so it became unanimous. Following a short discussion, it was decided to keep the Secretary-Treasurer positions combined for another year, and revisit it next January. Patti accepted the nomination to continue on as Sec-Treas, and it was unanimously approved. Thanks Mike and Patti! I want to pause here to thank George Weigel for his many years of service to the ECWBA as Treasurer. George was one of the Founders of the ECWBA, along with Jeff Champeau, and he kept track of the treasury until about 6 months ago when he stepped down and handed the books to Patti who served as interim Treasurer. Thank-you George! There was also an unexpected position change, and Laurie Koeck handed over the duties (and glory) of Events Coordinator to Leanne Doyle upon acceptance by Leanne and unanimous approval by the membership in attendance. Leanne hit the ground running as the beekeeping classes are already in process, the Fond du Lac Library Event on February 12 is on the calendar, and I handed her an inquiry from the Ripon College Sustainability Director requesting our presence at an Event in May. Thank-you Leanne! Tim Wilbanks was our guest speaker at the meeting, and he gave an outstanding presentation on commercial bee raising. Tim is 4th generation in the business of producing bees and queens for packages and nucs, and a wealth of general bee information. I envy a person that gets to work in the beekeeping field, but then again it's long days under a hot sun, and in a cold downpour, if that's what it takes. I do wish I had had his training at a young age to handle bees without any protective equipment, except a veil if absolutely necessary. Maybe I'll try to go gloveless a couple of times this summer. It's a start. Through his presentation I could see the dedication that commercial bee producers have to produce high quality, healthy bees, and on a very large scale. A few years ago we thought that our package bees' lack of thriving and queen supersedures were due to weakened gene pools and lack of quality control. Turns out that's not the case, at least with those that Tim interacts with, and the major factor for poor mating, etc., is weather. After queens emerge there is a very short window for them to mate, and the weather determines if they mate with 1 drone, or 2 dozen drones. The queens aren't caged unless they're laying worker brood, so they have mated, but how well can't be known. There are a lot of things that can affect the bees we get in packages or nucs, but those breeders that Tim deals with do their best to provide the best. I did take a step back when he mentioned that as bad as we know neonics to be today, it was a whole lot worse when pyrethrins were in vogue. Still don't like them though. As an aside, member Andy Krueger is downsizing and is offering some of her unneeded hive equipment for sale to ECWBA members. I haven't received a list yet, but she can be contacted at [email protected] or 920-379-9840 if you have something in mind. She did say she has 10 frame deeps and supers, covers, and bottom boards, as well as frames. (It's important to be cautious when purchasing used equipment, but Andy has been a beekeeper for some time and knows if there's a problem.) I have no idea of what we're going to be talking about at our February meeting, and it may be a good time to have discussion on spring survivors (swarm control, reversals (or not), etc.) for those that may have survivors, and some of the basics for those just starting out on this adventure. A good topic would be bringing equipment that had a die-out back into service. How about die-out autopsies? General discussions are always good, and I doubt that there's any end to the learning in this endeavor. The next meeting is February 16 at the Caestecker Library in Green Lake, 9:30 a.m. The beekeeping classes are scheduled and staffed and all members are welcome to show up and lend a hand. Also, our presentation at the Fond du Lac Library, McLane Room, on February 12 at 6:00 p.m. is being supported by several members, but all are welcome to participate. The bee class schedule and tear-offs are attached. Feel free to print them out and post them wherever there's pedestrian traffic (and it's permitted). Patti's Meeting Minutes will be sent when received. That's it for now. Stay warm. Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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