What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[The15thMember]

I had my dad with me in the apiary today to do all my lifting, so I don't reinjure my back.  We checked the supers of the colony that I was in the middle of when I got hurt, along with 2 more.  One of them is already down to wintering size, and the other two I reduced by one box by removing partially drawn frames and drawn blanks.  One of these colonies was a small spring swarm, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had put up enough honey for themselves, and the brood pattern on this queen was just phenomenal.  I saw the queen and did a sugar roll, and they were at 2% infestation.  That's not too bad, and they weren't showing any visible signs of PMS, so I'm calling them good to go.  The big colonies were quite manageable, but the small colony is still fired up, even though they have the hive top feeder on and we seem to be having a decent fall flow.  I'm surprised neither of us got stung; I could barely inspect their second box.  Their mite count was very low, which didn't surprise me, since they only made it to 3 boxes season.  Unless they calm down and explode in size in the spring, they are getting requeened first thing next year.       

[.30WCF]

I need to go in and pull the partially drawn frames too.


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[Terri Yaki]

My local bee inspector comes today, I'm looking forward to seeing what he has to say. Stay tuned.

[Terri Yaki]

OK, bee inspector has come and gone. Swarm hive is thriving and looking good for winter. The other two hives, not so much. Numbers are really low and there is some European foul brood in each but he recommends trying to combine and save. We killed the older queen and I'm going to paper merge this afternoon. We found one beetle cruising around and could see a mite on the back of one bee. I'm going to give them an oxalic dribble when I merge them and hope for the best. I would have merged them two or three weeks ago if not for concerns over the foul brood that I saw.

[The15thMember]

Sounds good.  So I'm assuming his opinion was the that foulbrood was stress-induced, and hopefully combining them will boost both colonies to the point they can fight it off.  Did he recommend feeding them?  Or do they have enough stores between them for winter?     

[Terri Yaki]

He recommended removing the honey super for now to prevent robbing and then feeding. He also recommended that I work them down into one five frame nuc box for winter. I have mixed up a batch of OA dribble and it's cooling now. Then I'll go out and try merging them.

[Michael Bush]

Feeding leads to robbing...  Sometimes it's a necessary evil, but I would avoid it if you can.

[Terri Yaki]

Feeding leads to robbing...  Sometimes it's a necessary evil, but I would avoid it if you can.

Thanks, Michael, that angle hadn't crossed my mind.

OK, the changes have been made. By now, my numbers are so low between those two hives that I am not optimistic that they will survive. On one hand I'm angry that my mentor, who is part of my beekeeping class program, didn't have five minutes to discuss the foul brood situation because he was 'away for the weekend already'. That ten days could have been critical. But OTOH, I don't usually blame others for my failures and ultimately, I am responsible for being where I am with this. Even though I'm a new beek, I feel the pain. I suspect that mites are the culprit but I didn't feel like I had enough bees in there to take a test ever since the lull in laying during the dearth. Again, a mentor could have helped me with that too.

I pulled the medium super and put it in the freezer for now. There is a bit of uncapped honey (nectar) in there and I need to know what to do with it. I get the feeling that it will ferment if I just leave it. Should I feed it back to them a little at a time?

[jtcmedic]

Did my last batch of queens, got 15 nucs  made up and gonna put them in to see how it goes, will over winter them( in Florida not much winter ) on double screens till January start of queen rearing

[Ben Framed]

Good accomplishment JTC. Are you planning on keeping the Nucs for your own apiary or sell next Spring?

[NigelP]

He recommended removing the honey super for now to prevent robbing and then feeding. He also recommended that I work them down into one five frame nuc box for winter. I have mixed up a batch of OA dribble and it's cooling now. Then I'll go out and try merging them.

I thought it looked like EFB from your earlier photos, so well done for calling inspector. Although his "treatment" seems a little strange to me. In the UK we shook swarm to get rid of all the infected larvae and bacteria, but might be a little late where you are.
I know one thing  I'd do (but it depends  if you have another apiary site available to you) I'd separate your infected hive from your good one, EFB can easily be spread by drifting of bees.  Not something we can do in the UK thought , if a site is infected with EFB the inspector puts on a stand still order on that site  with no movement of hives in or out allowed.

Questions I'd be asking is where did it come from? If these bees came from your mentor I'd be asking him to check his bees very carefully.  If not then it's possible there is an EFB infected dead out nearby that your bees were robbing. This was what was happening in the EFB outbreak we had near one of my apiary sites this year. There was an unlooked after hive that gave off infected swarms that settled but died. They then got robbed by nearby bees that became infected and so spread the disease. I was fortunate as all my hives were designated as uninfected despite being less than 2 miles from the source. Needless to say untended hive has now been destroyed so hopefully end of outbreak around me.

There are ways of taking mite samples that don't involve killing bees. Not as accurate perhaps, but ball park figures, I have open mesh floors on all my hives and can slide a tray underneath the mesh, leave for a few days and count the number of mites that have dropped through the mesh.

[jtcmedic]

Good accomplishment JTC. Are you planning on keeping the Nucs for your own apiary or sell next Spring?

They will be kept and replace any dead?s and or split in spring

[beesnweeds]

Should I feed it back to them a little at a time?

If the super is full, take the mostly empty deep off the swarm hive and put it on top for the winter.

[The15thMember]

I pulled the medium super and put it in the freezer for now. There is a bit of uncapped honey (nectar) in there and I need to know what to do with it. I get the feeling that it will ferment if I just leave it. Should I feed it back to them a little at a time?

It will be fine in the freezer.  If you can't keep in in there, you could try to get it capped somehow, either by giving it back to them piecemeal or putting it on your strong hive.  Just be sure the bees can protect it either way.  I store frames with any stores in the them, including uncapped honey sometimes, in bins in my unheated garage over the winter.  Sometimes they ferment, but as long as I disperse them amongst all my colonies in the spring and don't just give one colony a whole super of the open stuff, it doesn't seem to cause a problem.  But you may only have one colony coming off winter, so . . . .     

[Terri Yaki]

Thanks to both of you. I had considered using some for feed for the swarm hive if they need it. They do have a decent supply built up but giving them a frame or two and seeing what they do with it sounds like a good plan. And I fully expect to only have one hive left here before long and am keeping my fingers crossed to even have it after winter is over.

[beesnweeds]

I.     I had considered using some for feed for the swarm hive if they need it.

Did the inspector tell you they had enough stores for the winter?

[Terri Yaki]

I.     I had considered using some for feed for the swarm hive if they need it.

Did the inspector tell you they had enough stores for the winter?

He said they looked good so not exactly that but that's how I took it.

[Terri Yaki]

So...I went out to complete the merge and they hadn't torn through the paper at all. I couldn't see the benefits of compressing them into one ten frame deep so I put them into the nuc hive. Five frames of life in the bottom, some pollen and nectar next box up and frames that need cleaning up above the inner cover. All of the comb has been cleaned up and ready for re-use, there was a small cluster of good looking, larger larvae. There was some spotty capped brood but I don't know if it's still live or not. I'm thinking that if it was dead, they would have cleaned them out too. The hive has settled down for now and there are enough bees clustered at the entrance to defend it for now.

The bottom board of the 10 frame hive looks to be littered with dead mites. It also had about six wax moth larvae crawling around, that have been dealt with.

I dosed them with an OA dribble yesterday, should I dose them again? And if so, when?

[The15thMember]

So...I went out to complete the merge and they hadn't torn through the paper at all. I couldn't see the benefits of compressing them into one ten frame deep so I put them into the nuc hive. Five frames of life in the bottom, some pollen and nectar next box up and frames that need cleaning up above the inner cover. All of the comb has been cleaned up and ready for re-use, there was a small cluster of good looking, larger larvae.

So how many frames do they have access too at the moment?  And how many frames are the bees covering? 

The bottom board of the 10 frame hive looks to be littered with dead mites. It also had about six wax moth larvae crawling around, that have been dealt with.

I dosed them with an OA dribble yesterday, should I dose them again? And if so, when?

The mites are dropping as a result of the treatment, so that is good.  What was the colony's mite count originally? 

[Terri Yaki]

I put them in across five frames but coverage per frame was not the best. I don't really have an answer to that. Every frame in the bottom has some bees on it. They have access to ten frames in the nuc, the five with brood and the five with pollen and nectar. Then on top, above the inner cover, are five frames with nectar and some pollen that they can clean out.

And I got 4 mites in the nuc at last test about six weeks ago and 1 in the larger hive at the same time.