Author Topic: Inspection and Getting Ready (Read 3478 times)

Beeboy01 · « **on:** February 06, 2019, 08:50:18 pm »

It's warmed up enough for an inspection of all five hives. #3, the hive with the mite problem last year seems to be doing well. The rest wintered well, not much cold weather this year and I had an extra shallow on each hive which the girls filled at the end of last year. Well most of the stores are still there and the bees are filling the brood boxes in with brood and pollen. Just to get a head start on the season I slipped queen excluders in on top of the deeps after checking for queens and finding they were all in the bottom boxes of the hives. I'm trying to keep the queens down where they belong instead of running up into the honey boxes for a change. This is the first time I've installed excluders this early and hope it works.
Already did a series of OAV treatments on the hives and had some mites drop in all of them, hope I'm ready for the season ;)

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #1 on:** February 06, 2019, 09:09:02 pm »

Exciting time of year. For those in the South, the buzzing has began, enjoy. For those a little North, only a short period of time. Me, oh I can hardly stand it, I want to start raising queens. Anxious I am, only a few more weeks say 3-4 weeks. BEEBOY, your post perks me up. On my mark, get ready- very soon the word GO appears.

BEEBOY, I would enjoy hearing about the pollen coming in: the colors, the amount of bees bringing in pollen. Going to be 17F here very soon so I enjoy reading the fun other warmer area beeks are having.

Beeboy01 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 06, 2019, 11:01:23 pm »

Well here's what happening down in N.E. Florida, the Maples are still in bloom but not like two weeks ago. I have a line of 25 or so of them along my driveway, most have already bloomed while the rest are just starting. Getting a lot of the bright red helicopter seeds dropping and along with the fresh leaves the maples are bright red in the early morning. The pollen that the girls are bringing in is bright yellow and almost white and looks real nice packed in the comb as bee bread. Not sure of the source but lots of wild flowers are starting to bloom along with yellow jasmine which looks like honey suckle without the smell. The pines are just starting to drop tons of bright yellow sticky pollen and will keep on for about three weeks. My truck looks like it has been parked on a dusty road for a week with all the pollen on it in every morning.
Hives #3 and #4 still have almost a full shallow of honey on from last fall and from the color of the wax cappings I'm betting it is golden rod, need to extract it before the real flow starts in mid April. #5 is a 3 box high nuc tower which made it's own queen and was started the last week of July, it will get moved over to a double ten frame deep for honey production this year. Last year was the first time I tried a nuc tower and I'm happy with how it worked out and hope to make another one this year. Beside that #1 which is a six year old survivor hive still has an attitude and popped me a couple times today and #2 is weak with only 5 frames of bees but looks like it is growing.
hope this helps fan the flame for all the beeks still dealing with the cold weather. I started bee keeping in Pennsylvania about 25 years ago and know how hard the late winter and early spring can be.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2019, 12:11:22 pm »

Thanks BEEBOY. I read this post daily. Has a warming effect. This AM was 16F with high humidity. Burr, my bees are clustered,,,,again. Normal for Feb this area.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #4 on:** February 08, 2019, 01:27:06 pm »

"It's warmed up enough for an inspection of all five hives. #3, the hive with the mite problem last year seems to be doing well. "

Beeboy, I am very anxious to hear more on the troubled hive of last year. Can I ask, does it seem to be as strong as your other hives? By the way I have enjoyed this post and replys by yourself and stinger. Thanks Philip

CoolBees · « **Reply #5 on:** February 08, 2019, 11:11:58 pm »

Quote from: Beeboy01 on February 06, 2019, 11:01:23 pm

.... #5 is a 3 box high nuc tower which made it's own queen and was started the last week of July, it will get moved over to a double ten frame deep for honey production this year. ...

Howdy Beeboy - any good suggestions on how to make that move? I did that a couple weeks ago, having never done it before. The only way I could figure was 1 frame at a time. It just didn't seem like a smart way to do it. Just wondering if there's a better way?

Great post by the way.

Thanks!
Alan

Beeboy01 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2019, 08:42:59 pm »

Ben Framed, haven't taken #3 all the way apart yet for inspection, just observing the activity at the hive entrance and from opening the top. I count pollen coming in at the entrance of my hives and monitor the amount of debris on the trays under the screened bottom boards for health indicators this early in the year. I won't perform a complete inspection till I see drones flying. This early in the season I don't want to risk killing a queen.
Strength wise #3 is really strong, about the size of #4 which was a mid April split from last year. I will need to split out brood from #3 and #4 as swarm control this year and maybe requeen #3. I'm surprised as to how #3 has recovered since it had DWV and a major brood kill at the beginning of last year.
Over the winter I had a thought that there might be two types of hygienic bees, the first type is aggressive to the mites and remove them from the hive while the second type is developing a resistance to the actual viruses that mites carry like the DWV along with the ability to physically remove mites from the hive, sort of a double hygienic trait.
All fives hives were treated with four treatments of OAV 3 days apart mid January, wanted to treat one or two more times but had to go out of town for over a week. The average mite drop for the hives was around 125 after 24 hours and by the fourth treatment the 24 hour count was down to about 55. Hive #3 was second highest of the 24 hour mite drop count while #2 which is my weakest hive was the highest. It's hard to correlate mite drops with actual mite populations when dealing with different sized hives but it looks like #2 will need closer monitoring.
CoolBees, I've never moved a 3 high nuc tower over to a deep but would think it will be similar to moving a single 5 frame nuc into a single deep. I'm going to do it one frame at a time so all the frames can be inspected for brood and the queen. A lot will depend on if there are any empty frames or they are all full in the nuc tower. I hope to keep most of the brood frames in the bottom deep but if there are more than eight or ten brood frames then I'll set two or three up in the second box over the main brood area and plan to run the hive as a double deep for brood and split it later in the season. I'll fill out the second deep with foundation or drawn comb and see what happens.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2019, 10:26:31 pm »

BEEBOY. Why have you not mentioned small hive beetle??? Surely they are a problem in your area.

Beeboy01 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 10, 2019, 11:49:49 am »

Yeah the small hive beetle is a problem and with the mild winter we didn't get them killed off this year. I spotted a scattering of beetles in the top supers of all the hives and kill about 5 or 6 per hive during my inspection. Not a high number but a reminder that they are there. I'm using the Beetle Blaster traps which work so so when there are only a few SHB's in the hives.
I have three main weapons in the battle, first is my home made screened bottom boards with built in trays. I put a little mineral oil in the trays which is an effective way to kill them. The trays are most effective after a complete inspection when the bees are disturbed and can't corral the beetles in the corners of the hive. Instead I've noticed that the beetles get chased down past the screened bottom boards into the trays. That's where I target them with oil or soapy water. The biggest drawback with the trays is that they need to be cleaned about every four or five days.
My second weapon against them is a shallow plastic tray maybe 2 inches deep that has a 1/4 inch screened frame that sits on it. I put soapy water in it and if while inspecting a hive I find a frame loaded with SHB's I hit it against the screen, the bees bounce off while the beetles fall through into the soapy water and drown. I can clean out a lot of SHB's with it during an inspection, gotta kill them when you see them. A few bees can fall through the screen and drown also but the loss of 4 or 5 bees is acceptable when compared to what a SHB infestation can do.
Number three in my arsenal is using the Guard Star ground drench, I hate using poisons around the hives and only treat twice or three times a year but breaking the SHB life cycle is really important specially here in Florida with the hot summers and sandy soil being prime breading conditions for beetles.
I also follow the other guidelines like keep the hives in direct sun and don't over super which gives the beetles room to move into. I don't have all the answers as to how to control the beetles, been at total war with then for about five years now and am just trying to share what has worked the best in my small bee yard.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #9 on:** February 20, 2019, 06:45:59 pm »

BEEBOY: consider. Non toxic, non flammable, kills small hive beetle on contact instantly, does not harm a bee 1/2 inch away. Always a can in reach in my Apiary.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2019, 07:39:08 pm »

Just a pick of the hives, the pup and the lake in the background for your viewing pleasure. Soon, I will be able to do real inspections. Temp is about 42F and sundown so no bees flying in the pick.

Beeboy01 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 20, 2019, 07:42:11 pm »

Stinger13, I like it and will track some down for my bee tool box, could of used some this week. Hive #4 got hit by SHB larva over the weekend and is slowly recovering. I think my inspection allowed some beetles to get loose in the hive and lay eggs in older comb loaded with last year's pollen. For three days the tray under the screened bottom board had a pile of wax with about six or seven larva in it, scraped the stuff into a lit smoker and pulled a lot of old frames out of the hive. Luckily the hive wasn't slimed, just lost some drawn comb which needed to be pulled anyways.
Not sure why the hive is suddenly weak,it was a mid summer split that was doing well last year and was treated with OAV mid January. I spotted some capped brood while pulling the old frames but didn't want to disturb the hive any more than needed so didn't look for eggs or uncapped pearl brood.
Nice hives there.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #12 on:** February 20, 2019, 08:12:16 pm »

Yes Sir, Mr. Beeboy, here is the typical sernarrio for small hive beetle, SHB.

1. Beek opens hive, inspects frames.
2. SHB make a jail brake due to guards redirecting attention.
3. SHB quickly scatter and lay eggs.
4. 4-5 days later, SHB larva on the combs.

The above cycle happens over and over, yes to me also. I had to learn the hard way. I would open a hive and one week later I was horrified to see slimed frames and maggots, SHB larva. I have used everything but eventually I control the SHB with screened bottom boards and most of all, the freeze spray. Every single beetle within eye site is frozen. I set aside days just for destroying beetles: I conduct frame inspections with the main purpose is finding the beetle jail and killing beetles. Usually frames 1,2 or 9, 10 holds the beetle jail.
Ding dang beetles are my disgust....... but I nail em.

I will add: the SHB is actually a sap beetle from Africa. However the SHB cannot withstand freezing so they learned to stay warm in a hive thus surviving winter in American Bee hives.

Beeboy01 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2019, 08:41:33 pm »

Yeah, it's not my first time around with SHB's just with the warm winter with no real freezes they snuck up on me in hive #4. I'm getting a lot less wax debris and larva on the bottom tray, been checking it every day so it looks like the bees are getting it under control. Treated the soil under the hives with the ground drench to kill any larva that might of gotten away. Can't let your guard down even for a moment. ;)
It was a text book SHB attack on #4 performed by only four or five mature beetles.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #14 on:** February 20, 2019, 08:56:22 pm »

It was a text book SHB attack on #4 performed by only four or five mature beetles.
[/quote]

Perfectly stated. I wish that above texted could be bold and gold plated so future new beeks could obtain a heads up.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #15 on:** February 20, 2019, 10:54:19 pm »

I just googled this info: A single small hive beetle mature female can lay up to 1,000, one thousand eggs in her lifetime as agreed by several articles. One article stated 2,00, twice as much as commonly reported. Eggs are laid in clumps. From the pics about a dozen or so eggs laid in a tiny crevice. The eggs are 2/3 the size of a bee egg. I could not find how many eggs are laid during a jail break.

Beetle larva feed on bee brood, pollen, nectar.

FloridaGardener · « **Reply #16 on:** February 27, 2019, 03:31:54 am »

Are you sure that the Max Pro freeze spray is safe for the bees? Contains:

1,1,1,2-TETRAFLUOROETHANE, a colorless gas with a slight ethereal odor. Vapors are heavier than air. Shipped liquefied under own vapor pressure. Flash point 351?F. Inhalation at high concentrations is harmful and may cause heart irregularities, unconsciousness or death without warning.

I understand SHB are bad for bees too. In two years I haven't found slime, only beetles, but after a mild winter, I'm getting worried on reading this. This sounds like I should inspect and patrol for SHB every 5 days. The bees need a day to adjust humidity & temp after each inspection, so that would be a 20% setback, right?

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 27, 2019, 08:34:03 am »

Not sure about the spray but inspecting too often will cause more problems than good. Inspections are important for new beeks so that they learn about the hive and get used to the bees. Every time you tear apart your hive it sets the bees back. On top of that, the bees stop everything to make repairs and they do not pay any attention to the SHBs. The SHBs know this and start walking around the hive like they own it and lay there eggs every where. It usually takes three days before the bees are done with repairs and then they have to clean out all of the eggs before the larvae hatch. It can be a very close race.
I you want to see this in action, build an observation hive. I see it every time I work on my observation hive.
If you have two hives, I recommend that you inspect one hive one week and the other one the following week and so on.
Always have a goal when entering a hive. When you reach that goal, stop and put it back together the same way it was originally.
Jim

Beeboy01 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 27, 2019, 10:31:56 pm »

The good news is that the hive has recovered or at least is doing better. I opened the hive and pulled all the older frames that were attracting the beetles and kill three or four still in the hive. I then reduced he hive down to one deep and a shallow with 4 frames of honey and 5 of undrawn foundation. After two days the bottom tray was free of any SHB larva and the hive is bringing pollen.
I was thinking about exchanging the weak hive's location with a strong hive to get more bees in hive #4 but I'm holding back from doing the swap for now.

van from Arkansas · « **Reply #19 on:** February 27, 2019, 10:49:25 pm »

Quote from: FloridaGardener on February 27, 2019, 03:31:54 am

Are you sure that the Max Pro freeze spray is safe for the bees? Contains:

1,1,1,2-TETRAFLUOROETHANE, a colorless gas with a slight ethereal odor. Vapors are heavier than air. Shipped liquefied under own vapor pressure. Flash point 351?F. Inhalation at high concentrations is harmful and may cause heart irregularities, unconsciousness or death without warning.

I understand SHB are bad for bees too. In two years I haven't found slime, only beetles, but after a mild winter, I'm getting worried on reading this. This sounds like I should inspect and patrol for SHB every 5 days. The bees need a day to adjust humidity & temp after each inspection, so that would be a 20% setback, right?

FloridaGarderner. The spray is used for dusting off computer chips, in office buildings. Non toxic it is. However any gas inhaled in enough quantities would inhibit oxygen. The spray is evaporated instantly. Doctors used the stuff in their exam rooms. I have had docs remove precancerous skin spots on me in a closed small exam room. Hope this helps. Good luck with those beetles.