Tuesday, May 10th at 4:30AM found me heading up 91N to Mike Palmer’s apiary to pick up 4 Carniolan nucs–2 for Andy and 2 for me. Saturday, May 14th at 2:00PM found me heading down 91S to Dan Conlon’s to pick up 2 Russian nucs, again 1 for Andy and 1 for me. That now brings my apiary to 4 colonies. We sort of look like the United Nations of apiaries with 1 Italian (package), 2 Carniolan and 1 Russian hives. Don’t tell “The Donald” or he may deport them or build a wall around my 10 acres. Actually, that may not be all that bad if it looks nice! One more hive is coming from my friend, Rick. He claims they are American bees and will not be deported.
That will be it for the season unless I start a couple of nucs in late June. That all depends on how the hives build up. The real problem is we live in the woods and I will soon have 5 colonies in an area that probably can only sustain 3. My original plan was to offer 2 hives to an organic farmer friend but another local beek beat me to it. Hopefully, I can place the Italians and the “Americans” in a garden down by the Connecticut River which should prove to be a prime spot and keep the rest here. If not, I still have the organic pasture in Sullivan, NH but bees have not done well there in the past.
The Past
Those who have read this blog for the past 9 seasons know I have tried rather unsuccessfully to raise bees with as little intervention as possible. Early seasons were superb but the last few have been what I consider disastrous to my bees as they have not survived. Most surprising to me was the 2014 season where I entered the 2014-15 winter with a very low mite count after treating with OAV, did a great job wrapping the hives and added ventilation with moisture boards based on a Master Beekeeper’s online plan only to watch my hives succumb to Nosema (I still think it had to do with adding “winter” patties from a major bee supplier causing the bees to need to relieve themselves but unable to due to bitter cold). At any rate, this has all made me wonder about just how possible it is to raise bees in my locale with minimal intervention.
To save newer readers from going back into the archives, please allow me to review what I have done in the past. First, I have been exclusively small cell in order to help reduce the mite population in medium hive bodies. I do believe small cell does help regardless of every published study saying it does not. None-the-less, in recent years I still had the logarithmic build up of mites in the fall that would overwhelm several of my colonies while others survived. I also did splits to break the brood cycle, did not treat for Nosema and fed as little syrup as possible due to the change in pH it causes in the bee gut. All of this was in the “best practices” of the no treat camp and I felt I could develop bees that were genetically less susceptible to the diseases others treated for by breeding my survivors. The reality is, first you have to have survivors since, as you may have noticed, dead bees don’t reproduce. Still, I had success following this plan several years ago. It simply has not worked for my bees the last 3 or 4 years and it is time for me to reconsider what I am doing or stop.
The Future:
Step One – Feeding
Another glaring sign is neither my Westmoreland or Sullivan bees have produced a honey crop in about 4 years. In fact, they have barely made enough winter stores for themselves. This makes me wonder if I am not helping them build up fast enough in the Spring to take advantage of the early flow and splitting them too often for the Fall flow. This year, I immediately put 1:1 syrup on all of the colonies, this time using Honey-B-Healthy as a feeding stimulant and adding some additional amino acids via Amino-B-Booster. Since the nucs all are on deep frames, I decided to add a deep hive body to each colony. This means the bees need to draw out some fresh foundation as I have always used mediums to keep things simple. Feeding 1:1 helps provide the resources the bees need to do so and hopefully the additional amino acids will help nutritionally. I plan on feeding each of the colonies until they quit taking it.
Step Two – Small vs Large Cell
Without delving into the argument about which size is best (look at previous posts), the primary reason I used small cell was for mite reduction. For me, I took a big step in Fall, 2014 when I first used OAV to knock down the mite load in late summer and then again heading into Winter. That makes me wonder if there is still a need for me to use small cell since I am now using OAV for the same reason. Are larger bees better at overwintering or creating honey stores compared to my smaller bees? While I have my thoughts, I really do not know, so I hived one of the Carniolan nucs mixing fresh small cell foundation with the existing large cell frames the bees came on and placing a medium of drawn out small cell frames on top. The other Carniolan nuc was hived on all large cell frames in the deep with a medium of fresh large cell foundation above. Both will remain in the Westmoreland apiary and I’ll watch to see if there is any difference. Yes, I know this is too small of a sample size to make any definitive statement but it’s what I’ve got and I’m interested in seeing if they perform differently. Interestingly, the large cell hive has, as of May 20th, refused to draw out any of the fresh foundation above the deep and is cramming everything into the bottom deep. If this continues, I will take the remaining large cell deep frames I have accumulated and create a 2nd deep hive body, put it above the lower deep and checkerboard the frames to prevent swarming. I’ll still leave the fresh foundation medium as the top super.
Note: All of the previously drawn out frames of comb, regardless of size, have spent a minimum of 2 weeks in my bee freezer before being used in a new hive. This is to help kill anything that may have been living on the frames in the previous hive. Not 100% fool proof but it certainly helps.
Step 3 – Treating for Varroa
First and foremost, Gayla and I are very committed to managing our property organically. While not certified, I think it has been about 14 years since we used any inorganic pesticides or petroleum-based fertilizers anywhere on our Westmoreland homestead and Sullivan is about to be certified organic. Our gardens have been organic for the 25 years we have lived here. The blueberry, strawberry and raspberry beds plus the orchard we have established are now entering their 3rd season and all follow suit. This blog however, is about holistic beekeeping,not organic beekeeping and though I am not about to completely change my ways, I am acknowledging the fact that, in the past, I have not been considering the whole organism and now wonder about the value of some of the softer treatments. This is why I like OAV vaporization. The treatment has proven successful in Europe for decades. Oxalic acid exists in honey and in many of the foods we eat. It has been shown to have no affect on the queen, bees or larvae while being devastating to Varroa. The treatment is over within minutes and does not require me to leave strips in a hive for days. I have noticed several dead bees post treatment but I am wondering if they were actually on the material as it vaporized. Do I wish I did not have to use it? ABSOLUTELY! I also wish to win the lottery…
The Russian hive (placed in a large cell deep with drawn comb and a medium with fresh large cell foundation on top) should not require treatment. The queen is certified pure Russian, not a hybrid. They are resistant to Varroa, tracheal mites and American Foul Brood. Note, resistant not immune! I will certainly follow them using drop boards tho’ Dan says he has not had to treat for several years. I hope I can say the same.
Step 4 – Treating for Nosema
I am not a fan of prophylactic use of antibiotics. I do not take them this way and I do not feel right giving them to my bees. I have put a lot of thought into how to reduce my chances of N. apis or N. cerenae with nutrition playing a major role. After loosing so many colonies to Nosema during the 2014-15 winter, I’m leaning towards treating this Fall, though looking for something besides Fumigilan-B. I plan on attending the EAS annual meeting in July and hope to find an answer there. Please send comments if you have any ideas or let me know what you do. It’s very sad to open what was a booming hive going into winter and finding dead bees, frames of honey and a brown mess over everything.
Step 5- The Orchard and Pollinator Habitats
My thought is the best way to defeat Nosema is by providing a variety of good forage throughout the season. That should also help with finally getting some honey! This is what first made me decide to plant the orchard and all of the various fruits. Now starting their 3rd season are 7 apple trees, 3 peach, 2 plum a pear and a pie cherry. The floor of the orchard is primarily dutch clover which also permeates our lawn. We also have 50+ cultivated blueberry plants, countless wild blueberries, 100 linear feet of raspberries and a strawberry bed. Our 78’x50′ veggie garden goes in this week. Dandelions abound…
Providing pollen and nectar in the Spring is great but bees eat throughout the season so we are now planting varieties that will continue supporting all of the pollinators. So far we have added borage, an area of sweet clover, another of buckwheat, bee balm, numerous butterfly bushes, echinacea, sweet cicely, buttonbush, American cranberry (Bailey’s viburnam), a variety of wildflower seed, winter flame dogwood plus our normal perennials of lavender and numerous annuals.
Hopefully, this commitment will show the results that I expect and the bees in my care deserve.
OOPS! Gayla just handed me warm chocolate chip cookies! This ol’ boy does have his priorities. C’ya!
I hope your bees are buzzin’!
I too tried “treatment free” for my first two years. The treatment free folks in my club were so persuasive! But icing sugar, screened bottom boards, essential acids, brood breaks, drone sacrifice, and FGMO did not accomplish much at all: my colonies began dying of Varroasis in their second spring. I now use a rotation of formic acid and oxalic acid, treating at least twice a year. If I am prepping nucs for sale, they get Apivar to go out as mite free as possible as often they are going to new beekeepers, who often struggle with Varroa control. I am not happy about using Apivar, but rotate out my combs more often as a consequence.
One point seldom made is that many treatment free/treatment lite beekeepers accept reduced colony vigour and low productivity in exchange for eschewing formic acid, oxalic acid and Apivar (which I reserve for Mite Apocalypse situations). This decision is often unexamined, and calls into question the long term value of treatment free/light approaches. If they just doom colonies to constantly struggle, and be constantly stressed by mite pressure, where is the benefit to the bees?
Thankyou for examining so openly and honestly your experiences.
Very good point about accepting a lack of vigour in favor of feeling good about how you treat your bees (until they are dead). The problem is most do not know there is a lower energy level because we have been taught to compare one hive against another. When one’s hives all act the same due to overall management practices, it is hard to tell there is a problem. I should have put 2 and 2 together when I was having a lack of honey production across several seasons. Given the resources available in an organic pasture and the fallow fields surrounding it, I should have been having at least a decent honey crop from the Sullivan apiary.I do not think of myself as being stupid but I certainly was not observant enough and/or not thinking through the possible causes or I would have come to this conclusion sooner. Thanks for commenting.
Interesting point! I have often been called by new beekeepers for help in July with colonies in trouble, colonies that never increased beyond their initial package size. A new beekeeper with one hive doesn’t realize the hive should be expanding rapidly, s/he has no comparison to make. As for the low honey yields, the Beaverlodge research facility here in Alberta found that even low levels of Varroa in colonies reduces honey harvest. This is a real concern in areas (like mine) with only one honey flow (blackberries…which have been dry and brief in our recent hot, droughty summers).
Around three years ago I had a case of Nosema apis in one of my hives which they recovered from on their own. Going forward I started using an essential oil mix mixture in the late fall feedings (2:1) which hopefully they stored for winter. None of the hives have had N. apis since. Credit for this method should go to the late Don Kuchenmeister, aka Fat Bee Man. Here is a link to his You Tube on this mixture:
This recent spring I had a case of N. cerenae as many did around our area so it appears that the formula doesn’t work so well for it. Interesting I’ve read that Fumigilan-B is also not effective for N, cerenae either and may actually cause it to become worse.
Thanks, Tom. I will check out your link. Everything I have read confirms that N.cerenae is not killed with Fumigilan-B. I have found a product called Hive Alive sold through Brushy Mountain Bee Farm that claims 0 colony losses over a 2 year period. (link to the brochure: http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/downloads/Hivealivebrochure.pdf). The study was done in Greece, the ingredients are said to contain natural substances (Thymol and lemongrass are mentioned) which could mean anything and last I looked, Greece does not have a winter similar to New Hampshire…None-the-less. I plan on calling Shane at Brushy and/or hopefully seeing him at EAS to see what he thinks about this. Thanks for sharing your experience and the link!
Keep us posted to the reviews on Hive Alive. It may be something to add to the tea tree mixture as a preventive or a replacement for it.
Absolutely!