Test for Varroa Mites Now!

August is coming fast and it is time for a Varroa test! This will give you a base line, to see if you need to treat for Varroa mites this season.

One of the easiest way to test is to use what is called the Sugar Roll Method or Sugar Shake Method.

 Gather your supplies:

-Domino powder sugar ( no starch ) it is bad for the bees

-Mason jar with screen lid

-white paper plate

-water spray bottle

-1/2 cup measuring scoop (~300 bees sample)

-Plastic box--to put everything and use it too!

Method :

-Put 2 TBS powder sugar in jar

-Take a frame of bees, and shake it in the plastic box --Take a frame from the center of you brood box, where there are open and capped brood and LOTS of nurse bees.

-WATCH!!! make sure the Queen is NOT in the plastic box!

-Tap the frame into the plastic box

-Scoop the bees with the measuring cup, and put in jar with sugar

-Put the lid on, right away

-Give the jar a little toss, to cover the bees with sugar

-Put jar in the shade 1-1.30 minute ( the heat will help dislodge the mites)

-Spray the paper plate with water

-Shake the jar over the plate until there is no more sugar in the jar!

-Count the mites in the plate

-Return the "sugary" bees in the hive ( They will be cleaned up by their sisters!)

Mites on plate!

"Sugary" bees!

Recommendation of Mite Load from the University of MN:

It has been recommended that if there are MORE than 3 or 4 mites/100 bees you should treat your colony.

It is only a recommendation, obviously you can do whatever you want. But this is the pre-determined threshold where it is a good idea to keep the mites in check so the health of the colony is not jeopardized. 

My next blog post will talk about the option of treating for Varroa mites.

My Tallest Hives Ever!

These 2 hives are really tall!

July 21, 2015

After just one week of my last visit, I had to add one more super on each of my Italian colony. It is so high that I needed to bring a step-stool so I could place the super on top. I was on my tippi toes, on the step stool and tried to balance the ventilation box and cover!

I made it but next time I would need a ladder! No Joke!
Those 2 hives have 3 brood boxes (bottom ones), he rest are honey supers...you can see that they both have one deep super! This weigh about 50-60 pounds.

Conclusion...we will extract and have some honey this season.

The Russian colony, is the same as last week: still small, but I saw eggs, larvae and pupae. The queen is not that great of a layer. I don't see how it can make it through next winter. It does not have enough foragers so they are not collecting much of anything. It is sad to see.

This is beekeeping, we do the best that we can to have healthy and prosperous bees but sometimes there is nothing more we can do to help them...this is nature.

Summer is Finally Here!

Look how tall those hives are?

July 14, 2015

Now that June is over, the swarming tendency is decreasing. Usually in July the weather is very warm, and honeybees are very happy. The nectar flow is on! It means, all foragers are fully deployed to gather as much nectar as their little wings can make them fly to wonderful floral sources.
I saw lots of flowers blooming in the past 10 days...white and yellow sweet clover, basswood, and birdsfoot trefoil. Fantastic food!

All we have to do right now is to keep ahead of the bees: Putting supers, as they are filling up quickly. Stack them, two at a time. Ours are so heavy (notice: we have deep boxes as supers!!!! It can weight as much as 80lb.! What were we thinking???) Soon I will need a crane to lift them up! Ben had to help lifting them last weekend. But still I need a step ladder to place the next 2 regular supers on. I guess it is a good thing... it means we will have plenty of honey!

As you can see my 2 Italian colonies are doing well. There have plenty of bees, eggs, larvae and pupae. They already have a huge collection of nectar, pollen and honey. Each queen is laying beautifully, textbook laying pattern.

My Russian hive was doing well, but now it is not anymore. The colony is very small, and the queen is not laying well...instead of depositing an egg per cell in an orderly fashion, the pattern seems very scattered, spotty. In addition, she does not seem to be very interested in laying eggs...she walks on the  frame without stopping, a bit strange.

She maybe injured, sick or has been poisoned. I do not feel that this colony will recover before winter. It is very unfortunate to see a queen not being well, especially one that has survive her first winter. I had so much hope.

I do think that we have a problem with having too little genetics available for prosperous, healthy  reproduction. The gene pool available has not being replenished with fresh "blood"yet.  The honeybees that we all have today are great-great-great grand daughters of the first bees and queens that came to America with the first European colonists! Give or take!

I will check the Russian queen soon and see what she has been up to in the last week or so.