Author Topic: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today? (Read 245846 times)

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1320 on:** October 02, 2024, 01:40:41 pm »

Having found beetle or moth larvae in my nuc hive, I have come to grips with the fact that it is doomed. I posted on our local fakebook group page that I had a queen that I was willing to part with if it was safe and legal. I have an individual who has responded. Obviously, I do not know if this queen can save his hive but she sill not survive here.

The15thMember · « **Reply #1321 on:** October 02, 2024, 02:55:43 pm »

I haven't looked at your videos yet, but it sounds like it's time to bail. No big deal, it's just part of the game. I had my biggest hive crash in the past week. I was dealing with a lot of robbing trying to get them down from 5 boxes to 2, so I didn't have the opportunity to do a mite count or confirm if they are queenright. I'll check on them again this weekend, but they are likely getting combined with my smallest colony.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1322 on:** October 04, 2024, 09:55:17 am »

I looked through my poor, dwindling nuc yesterday and all that is left is a queen and about 100 workers. I didn't find any pest larvae so I must have gotten all of them last week. They're still guarding the front door but that won't last much longer and it's time to close it up before pests move in. My taker for the queen has determined that it's too late for that and he's going to combine. So...what do I do with this queen? As much as I hate the idea, I'm thinking that dropping her into alcohol is the answer, shake the remainder of the bees out in front of the swarm hive and freeze the frames to sanitize them.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1323 on:** October 04, 2024, 11:36:57 am »

I have another thought and question that I'll toss out there...The swarm hive is doing well but I expect that their queen is on her second year now and nearing the end of her life. The nuc hive is a first year queen. Should I replace the second year queen with the first year queen? I'm thinking, "no", because 1) I'm not sure that she's not the reason that they are in the predicament that they are in and 2) passing on genetics of a successful queen seems like a good thing to do.

NigelP · « **Reply #1324 on:** October 04, 2024, 01:13:46 pm »

No, if they don't accept her you have no hives......and how do you know that your dying hive isn't partly down to a duff queen?
Stop over complicating thngs. You have one good hive going into winter and you want to fiddle about with it.....
Basically I'd throw the doomed nuc out about 3 miles down the road and get on with life.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1325 on:** October 04, 2024, 04:19:18 pm »

Quote from: NigelP on October 04, 2024, 01:13:46 pm

No, if they don't accept her you have no hives......and how do you know that your dying hive isn't partly down to a duff queen?
Stop over complicating thngs. You have one good hive going into winter and you want to fiddle about with it.....
Basically I'd throw the doomed nuc out about 3 miles down the road and get on with life.

Oh, that sounds cruel but I understand.

The15thMember · « **Reply #1326 on:** October 04, 2024, 08:16:44 pm »

If it was me, I'd probably just shake the bees out in the apiary and if the other hive lets them in, then great, and if not, then that's fine too. If for some reason you don't want the bees in the other colony, like if you are concerned about disease still, then I'd just put the frames with the bees in the freezer. That seems more humane to me.

Just personally, I don't requeen based on the queen's age alone. I understand why sideliners and commercial guys do that, but as a hobbyist, I don't think it's a big issue. I let the bees or the circumstances dictate queen replacement. If the bees decide to supersede her, I let them, and if she starts having some sort of obvious problem like drone laying or something, then I'll remove her, give them some eggs, and let them do the rest.

The15thMember · « **Reply #1327 on:** October 05, 2024, 05:55:08 pm »

Well Terri, we're in the same boat. I checked on my crashed colony again today, and they were queenless and had only about 300 bees in there. I shook the bees off the frames and put them in a jar, and put them and all the frames in the freezer. I decided it wasn't worth it to combine them. There were so few bees, I saw several mites on bees, and the brood that was in there wasn't looking very good either. I'm wondering if this colony's collapse basically set off a mite bomb, because the other colony I inspected today had a 33% sugar roll

which is highly irregular, as this colony typically handles mites pretty well and the worst roll I saw last month was 5%. Their brood pattern was not pretty, they had a lot of pupae open, and I saw so. many. mites on bees. We'll see if FormicPro can save them, and I hope the rest of the colonies don't look like that.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1328 on:** October 06, 2024, 08:21:02 pm »

That's sad but it sounds like it's par for the course. I went through my swarm hive today and it looks like they're saving up for a big winter. I have two deeps with a medium super on top. The super is a donor from the other hive and it's not one that they stocked up. Anyhow, the brood box is like 1/2 full of honey and has one frame with about 60% capped brood on each side. There is some larvae and I wasn't able to see any eggs, though I did see the queen. There are some empty frames of comb. The upper deep is ehhhh 55% full of honey and nectar. It has some empty comb and a few blank frames. The super up top is full and mostly capped. Since they still have some uncapped, I'm thinking that there is no need to feed them but I am open to suggestions. It's not much different than last week's inspection, as shown in the videos above.

The15thMember · « **Reply #1329 on:** October 06, 2024, 11:48:30 pm »

I mean, it kind of depends what your goal is. If you are planning on leaving both the deep and the medium on top of them, I see no reason not to pack them full. I just went back and watched the video, and did you or anyone else notice the white butterfly that landed on you at 3:58 in the first video?

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1330 on:** October 07, 2024, 08:48:11 am »

I didn't notice the butterfly but I have tunnel vision and only see what I'm concentrating on. How long does it take them to dry and cap it? My concern is that I don't want to leave them with uncapped, spoiled nectar.

The15thMember · « **Reply #1331 on:** October 07, 2024, 11:35:22 am »

As usual, that answer is "it depends". In my climate, I'd feel comfortable feeding until the end of this month, maybe a little bit longer if it's a warm October. 2:1 doesn't take long for them to cap, but how long is "not long"? I can't really say, since it depends on your temperatures, your humidity, and your bees.

The thing about your hive that is a little concerning to me is that in most of the honey area none of the frames are totally full, basically all the frames are partially filled. That means the colony is going to have a move around a lot to reach more stores, and I'm wondering if they could end up in a position where they get trapped without food within easy reach. I'm not sure if this is really a problem or not though. Does anyone else think that is a concern?

NigelP · « **Reply #1332 on:** October 07, 2024, 12:05:10 pm »

Terri, before bees can use stores they need to uncap them.....over worrying me thinks.
Let them get on with it.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1333 on:** October 12, 2024, 01:22:28 pm »

Went through my last and only hive this morning and my queen took flight. I got lucky and found her on the concrete and got her back. That was a pretty scary event. All looks good in there to me. They have a deep and a medium pretty full of honey and nectar so I'd say that they're pretty much ready for winter. I had heard somewhere that I should give them an oxalic acid dribble at the end of October. What are the thoughts on that? Time and temp wise. Will there be a full brood break? If so, should I wait until there is no capped brood?

Ben Framed · « **Reply #1334 on:** October 12, 2024, 01:51:43 pm »

Quote from: Terri Yaki on October 12, 2024, 01:22:28 pm

Went through my last and only hive this morning and my queen took flight. I got lucky and found her on the concrete and got her back. That was a pretty scary event. All looks good in there to me. They have a deep and a medium pretty full of honey and nectar so I'd say that they're pretty much ready for winter. I had heard somewhere that I should give them an oxalic acid dribble at the end of October. What are the thoughts on that? Time and temp wise. Will there be a full brood break? If so, should I wait until there is no capped brood?

Personally I use the vaporization method with Oxalic.

Phillip

The15thMember · « **Reply #1335 on:** October 12, 2024, 07:20:18 pm »

Quote from: Ben Framed on October 12, 2024, 01:51:43 pm

Quote from: Terri Yaki on October 12, 2024, 01:22:28 pm
I had heard somewhere that I should give them an oxalic acid dribble at the end of October. What are the thoughts on that? Time and temp wise. Will there be a full brood break? If so, should I wait until there is no capped brood?

Personally I use the vaporization method with Oxalic.

Phillip

Same here. I typically treat with OAV around Thanksgiving, when I'm fairly certain my colonies are broodless. I would very much assume in your climate you have a winter brood break, Terri. Any treatment is most effective without brood, but dribble is probably not the best method during winter, so if you are wanting to use that method, it might be best to do it now. What was your most recent mite count on them?

Quote from: Terri Yaki on October 12, 2024, 01:22:28 pm

Went through my last and only hive this morning and my queen took flight. I got lucky and found her on the concrete and got her back. That was a pretty scary event.

Oh gosh, how nerve-wracking! I picked up a queen with my bare (gloved) hands today for the first time.

My favorite queen, Snow White, was on an almost entirely empty frame that I wanted to remove from her hive. I didn't have my queen catcher with me, and she is really tame, so I just pinched her thorax and lifted her up and gently dropped her down into the hive.

I did my final inspections of the season in 4 of my colonies. The rain has given us a late boost of fall nectar it seems, because all the colonies had a few frames of open nectar, although I guess they could just be robbing somewhere. The robbing was not as bad today though when I was working the bees, although I was extra careful to keep everything covered with pillow cases while I was working. I decided to overwinter the larger colonies in 3 mediums this year. I seem to always have a couple of colonies that need feeding, and I'm tired of it, so hopefully 2 supers instead of 1 will keep that from happening, and I'm not having the beetle trouble I was having last year, so I'm willing to risk the colonies having the extra space. Brood rearing is really slowing down. All the colonies had almost no eggs/young larvae and some had only capped brood. We're expecting close-to-freezing lows for a few nights early next week, so I closed off all the screened bottom boards, and I'll probably get everyone's moisture quilts set up on Monday.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #1336 on:** October 12, 2024, 09:17:32 pm »

I haven?t tested for mites for a while now but the last count was 1. I have been looking for deformed wings and haven?t seen any. I did see some uncapped larvae today but didn?t see any eggs. I don?t have vaping equipment and I?m skittish on sacrificing the bees for a test. While there are a good number of bees, I don?t feel as though their numbers are overwhelming. I forget who but someone recommended a dribble late in October and that was what I was thinking.

The15thMember · « **Reply #1337 on:** October 12, 2024, 09:38:54 pm »

I mean, if it was me, I wouldn't treat a hive at all that only had one mite in a roll. But depending on when you tested last, that number has likely grown, just based on the time of year. As usual, it just kind of depends on what you'd like to do.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #1338 on:** October 12, 2024, 10:19:11 pm »

Quote

I wouldn't treat a hive at all that only had one mite in a roll.

I agree.

beesnweeds · « **Reply #1339 on:** October 13, 2024, 09:49:48 am »

Quote from: Terri Yaki on October 12, 2024, 01:22:28 pm

What are the thoughts on that? Time and temp wise. Will there be a full brood break? If so, should I wait until there is no capped brood?

Both OAV and OAD work very well to kill mites. You can use either one, with one hive I would use OAD. Thanksgiving is a good time to treat. You won't know if they are completely brood less, it's just a guess. It's not worth opening them up to check in colder temps. You can do a practice run by taking a spare box and frames then dribble 5ml of water between each frame. It doesn't have to be perfect, a few ml off is fine. Just concentrate more over the cluster. The treatment should take less than a minute or two. The temperature should be above freezing, upper 30s low 40s is fine. Low mite count or not in early fall, definitely do the November treatment.