Introduction.
A big warm welcome to all you lovely new Beelistener subscribers, it’s great to have you join us. Also, a big thank you to everyone who generously donated to help keep the site secure and going strong. Ishbel, you are a star and I really appreciate your support.
Apiary News.
At last, the weather warms up in the second half of July, and the lime trees might just be secreting nectar. There is definitely a nectar flow on and it was painful to remove honey supers from 3 colonies and take them out of honey production for the rest of the season. Protecting the bees is more important than a honey harvest to me and I need to reduce varroa levels now and protect the winter bees that are being produced around now. The treatment of choice for me, given the warmer weather, is Apiguard and the supers must come off for the month of treatment. The colonies have double brood boxes with the top one for collecting winter stores. I did give them some dampened sugar on old oven trays beside the Apiguard tub to compensate for removing their supers. This is a trick I learned from the Cornell Master Beekeeper course that I have just completed online (https://ecornell.cornell.edu/certificates/beekeeping/master-beekeeping/). I sat my 3rd and last exam on Tuesday and must thank all my local friends who listened to my Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus presentation and gave great constructive feedback. It seems like a team effort. Bee- buddy Cynthia came out on Tuesday so she could warn me when I had five minutes left as this was the cut off point. I had one minute to spare. Oh yes, and I passed. I know what you are thinking, why would I put myself through more exams? It’s a long story, but for the most part it is a way that forces me to keep up to date and current for teaching and sharing information here.
Varroa Treatments.
The frustrating thing here in the UK is that we have no varroa treatment that can be used with honey supers on. We have very tight regulations and nobody is pushing hard enough to change legislation to allow us access to effective treatments to use mid-season. It makes beekeeping here even more challenging than it already is.
Alcohol wash tests for varroa are really useful tools, and one colony jumped from 7 mites in 300 bees on 7th May, to 29/300 on 15th July which is a 9% infestation. It makes your eyes water. The treatment threshold at this time of year is 3%.
There have been more queens superseduring in my colonies, and in some of my friend’s apiaries. One of the new queens was in the bottom brood box when I placed a queen excluder between the two brood boxes. The plan was to confine the queen to the bottom box for now, and let the top brood box fill with honey for winter. However, today as I was checking the supers, there she was, new green queen, laying up there having squeezed through the excluder. Honestly!
Travel Net.
I tried out my new travel net moving Cynthia’s nuc down to unite with a colony of hers at the distillery. One of the Beelistener Facebook members suggested a cheaper option of net curtains. And why not if you have an old pair lurking about. I’ve never owned net curtains so was pretty pleased with the Oz Armour version. Some people wrap up hives in sheets for transport but not a great idea if you need ventilation on a journey longer than a few minutes.
The Lunch Break Swarm.
I’ve had a few days away in central Scotland but it wasn’t a holiday. Far from it, we were supporting family and when we arrived home, we needed a relaxing break. That was never going to happen and I hit the deck running. Anyone who leaves home in the active season knows full well that they will pay for it on return. Monday was wall- to wall- beekeeping. I was about to sit down for lunch when a local tree felling contractor called at the door and said he was trying to take down a tree at the Brackla Distillery. I said, “I know what you’re going to tell me, Iain, there’s a swarm in it? I’m really sorry but I haven’t got transport today”. “No worries we’ll take you down in the lorry” says Iain. “And, home again with the bees, Iain?” “Yes, no problem.”
I was in my bee suit making lunch so just grabbed everything I needed, except the water spray bottle which I clean forgot. I had a nuc, a swarm bucket a sheet and a smoker. We reached the cypress tree to find a crowd of onlookers. I leaped into action and up onto a low wall which was still a challenge. Standing at a safe distance away, I had an audience of distillers in their lunch break so no pressure to pull it off and collect all the bees. Anyway, I did collect the bees in time as one swarm had scouts dancing the highland fling for the new nest site and I had no water to dampen their enthusiasm and cool them off.
How to get them home? Well, as you can see totally illegally, but it was only a very short distance home. When I got home, I put them all into the same hive and saw a virgin come out of the bucket. I’ve just treated them for varroa with oxalic acid and they are as good as gold and a lovely grey colour so I am happy. So much for not taking in more swarms with infection risks. I have a strong hunch that I know where they came from…..
What adventures you have Ann! When is the book coming out!!?? Well done passing your exam I knew you would , your knowledge was really good and well presented.
Thank you, Susan.
I like how you carry a spray bottle of water to “dampen [the nest-scouts’] enthusiasm and cool them off.” Smart!
I’ve always been told never to spray the bees, as it makes them cranky, useful piece of information
Hello Debz. When you are collecting swarms, a water spray is used to cool the bees down. If you lightly spray the bees, it often means that you can collect a swarm, that has just warmed it’s flight muscles enough for takeoff, that would have flown off if you hadn’t cooled them down. Tom Seeley is the scientist who discovered most of the swarm signals including how honey bees use the piping signal to warm their flight muscles prior to takeoff to new nest site. You should read his latest book, “Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz Runners” to learn more about the biology of swarming. So much to learn in beekeeping!
Well I usually do when I go for a swarm, Tom.
Fair enough, I shall add to my arsenal
Very useful information, I know that Tom is a very experienced bee scientist, I have a couple of his books.
I’ll try that next time I collect a swarm.
Thanks for keeping us updated