Honeybees Know best!

Saturday, October 15 2011

Since I was very busy Ben took care of the bees yesterday. The only comment I got was that everyone looks good, and no one drinks or eats too much! I guess the honeybees know what to do! Ben did not have to use a lot of sugar syrup or pollen patties. I think the bees are ready for winter. They will eat less and less, especially as the daylight is shrinking and the nights are getting colder.

Since a few weeks now, the queens are diminishing their eggs production tremendously, reducing the workforce, and keeping a minimum but sufficient numbers of honeybees to survive for the next 6 months using only their honey and pollen storage. Hopefully they ALL have enough storage to go through winter. As a beekeeper I feel we have done what we could for our little darlings again this season, and now they have to rely exclusively on themselves. Their survival is mostly determined by their genes , instincts and having a smaller wintering population. Very soon, the workers will kick out of the hive any remaining drones... their days are counted. The poor rejected males will be walking aimlessly in front of the hive knowing that they are absolutely not welcomed back. Yes, it is sad and I don't like seeing them being pushed away, but this seemingly tragic event is of utmost necessity for the survival of each colony ....less mouths to feed.  Remember drones don't work in any shape or form in a hive, not in spring nor summer, not ever. They will mate once in their whole drone-life with a queen IF they are lucky and die soon after. Better luck to play the lottery! But we love them anyway!!!

We will visit the bees next week and see if we are done feeding them, that is if they do not consumed anything (syrup or pollen patties) our feeding chore will be over until spring. Mid-November we will cover the hive with a black waxed cardboard carton to protect them against the frigid winds.

PS: I have some honey for sell! See my next post :)

Another Spectacular Fall Day!

Sunday October 9, 2011


I went to visit the bees today. All look nice and beautiful. In Chanhassen our 3 colonies seem strong, and I saw a lot of honeybees bringing back orange pollen. The paper wasps , yellow jackets and hornets were not bothering them anymore...just saw a few. No drones thrown out yet either.

 Last week, I had given them 2 pails each of 2:1 sugar syrup, but I could tell that  they did not seem very interested. In all I only added a pail of syrup in that apiary. As they also need proteins at this time of year, I gave them some pollen patties. But they had not finished their last serving! Despite the astonishing warm and very dry weather, the honeybees must find some nectar and pollen somewhere because they seemed happy , in good health and calm.

When I opened the covers of each colony, I could smell the honey. Right now it has a very strong and sweet scent... heaven!

On the other hand, in Shakopee the honeybees had almost drank all their syrup and ate all of their pollen patties. I replenished all. They were also calm and seemed in good health, flying around and being bees.

A little anecdote: In Shakopee, before  removing  the outer cover of the colony with the golden honeybees I found a penny next to the  rock that is placed on the top  to prevent the wind or an animal to take it out! I took the penny for good  luck  and in its place I  put an acorn!

Science Does not Explain Everything!

October 7, 2011

Judy pulling larvae to inspect!

I finally brought my frame and some honeybee samples to the University of Minnesota. Judy took a look at the frame itself, and started poking. She noticed some very dark capping. She opened the capping and we saw some brown/black unhealthy larvae (A sign of a brood disease: a virus ), and inside the cell some Varroa mites!

 

Bottom left: unhealthy, grey larva-- Upper right: healthy, pink/white larva

Pupa: Top, healthy Bottom, Unhealthy

The adult honeybees that I collected had deformed wings...could be a virus like Deformed Wing Virus (DWV)but...not necessary the virus transmitted by the  Varroa mites that we found. It is complicated and not well known. Scientists around the world are looking at  that "Soup of Viruses" that seems to afflict and kill our honey bees for what seems no reason. What is clear with our hive is that the population of bees had deceased dramatically in the last few weeks.

 This is our combined theory:
 A small group of honeybees may have swarmed but  we are not sure. The brood was affected  first  by a virus making the colony  weak as those potential bees were not viable, reducing the total population and leaving a smaller aging bee  population to care for the whole. This older honeybee population under tremendous pressure to save the now reduced and sick colony and the queen became weak and more susceptible to other diseases and viruses which are always present in nature. In addition, this weakened colony attracted  invaders and they could not fight due to their affliction. The result: They ALL died together in their hive.

Still strange and unexplained is the fact that healthy pupae in their cells were next to unhealthy pupae, only separated by a thin wall of wax.

Ben and I went back later on  to clean up the hive. It was a gruesome sight... no bees were alive, no humming sound. Only devastation.  On the bottom board we observed  2-3 inches thick of dead bees.  Very sad indeed.

While cleaning I kept thinking  that this colony was already weak and could not sustain such internal and external pressure; however our other 3 hives were doing just fine.  It reminded me of  the Spanish Influenza of 1918 which  did not affect everyone but kill many.  Has great as  Science is,  one cannot know the exact cause of death of our colony. We may be curious, we may extrapolate, and guess but not all is known in the honeybee world...yet.

Bottom board: full of dead bees 2-3 inch thick

Dead bees on frames

The Mysterious Loss of a Colony

September 23, 2011 .

 As I report today on the first day of autumn, I have witnessed the loss of a colony in less than 3 weeks. It is very puzzling because this green little hive gave us a good super of honey this year,  about 40 lb.  This hive, Chanhassen #1 was "born" on April 20 2010 and was still a strong hive on August 27, 2011. Everything was perfect all summer, good brood pattern, lots of eggs, good queen, happy hive.

This is the hive we moved a few feet away to expose it to more sunshine. This is the hive which its occupants stung Ben 25 times! We know it was alive and well! How did it just die without a fuss, without giving us hints?

To be honest I had noticed some weeks ago,  few honeybees with deformed wings but not enough to get alarmed. This happens in nature, and it is usually taken care of by the honeybees themselves; they remove diseased bees, pushing them out of the colony. Furthermore, I did not see any mites which can lead to diseases or viruses. A puzzle of grand proportion.

A  weekend ago (Sept. 11) , Liz a friend came along to help us with our weekly honey bees' chores and like us she saw with sadness the pillage occurring. Many yellow jackets , paper wasps and bald-faced hornets were trying to get into the hive, attracted by the honey accumulated and robbing it. The small contingent of honeybees seemed powerless to defend themselves. They were however fighting fearlessly, dying to prevent the intruders to come in. Many died fighting, their cadavers were scattered in front of the colony. It was a very gloomy scene.

I needed to see more, I proceeded to open the hive to find a small amount of bees 200-300 many of them having deformed wings (DW). There is a virus called "deformed wing virus" that is vectored by the vireo mites, but I could not see any. Still a mystery....

I took a frame of dead brood with a few half emerged bees on it, as if no one was there to help them come to the world. I kept saying how sad it was to see this. The words in my head were echoing...how could  that be possible, that fast with no warning signs that I could have seen? It was devastating.  After a few minutes, I got out of my torpor and decided to do something about it. I could not save the colony but I could try to find out what had happened. I collected  few dead honeybees, and put everything in plastic bags. I also kept the doomed frame. In addition, even if  I knew the colony would not survive I could not let the invaders kill them mercilessly. I decided to close all the possible entrances with cork plugs and make the tiniest opening as I could for the honeybees to get into their hive, a safe place. I thought that at least they would die inside among their precious honey, and among themselves.

Now that I had regain some mental strength, I made the decision to bring all my specimen to the University of Minnesota and  have them analysed. I have to know what happened. Judy ( A PhD entomology student at the U) and I will take a look together using her expertise and the tools available to us in our lab. We will  try to solve this enigma. Someone has to know what happened to that colony.  I really hope to have answers soon.

In the meantime, I am feeding the rest of the colonies with heavy Syrup 2:1. This helps them as the winter is coming soon, and the nectar available is very scarce. Plants are drying, and pollen is reduced. We help our bees the best we can, and know. It is always difficult to lose a colony but maybe we will learn something that will make us better beekeepers. You see I love my bees.

Honeybees with deformed wings

Honeybee with deformed wings

Yellow Jacket (vespula)

  

Paper wasp (Polistes)

Bald-faced hornet (D. maculata)

   

The Golden Harvest

Saturday September 10, 2011
Honey: Vintage 2011

Our friends Lori and Ken had lost their colony last fall. They decided to try again this year and to their amazement, their bees rewarded them with 2 supers!

Lori and Ken working hard...Ben directing!

Yes, the honey is being extracted!

It took 4 hours to extract 2 supers...we knew Ben and I were going to "live" in the garage the whole weekend. Lori and Ken left around 2pm . Happy to have collected some honey and wax. 

Then came our turn, we never stopped the extractor since 10:30am...we finished (Ben did) at midnight, taking 30 minutes for lunch and dinner! 

Ben using a hot knife to open the capped honey

At an angle the hot knife slice the wax, revealing the honey

Ben place the frame inside the extractor, all cells are open(no more wax covering)

The extractor is full: 9 frames at once! and electric too this year!

Sweet pure honey

You must wonder where do I fit in that extraction day... Well I was busy taking pictures, bringing coffee, diet coke and such. And oh reading in a chair, watching the whole operation! The best was that I was with Ben doing what I love...being with him:) 

Our total honey for this year 2011: 160 lb. Average moisture content: 18.9 %

We are happy, our honeybees worked hard and we love them...what a sweet, sweet reward! Next bottling the precious gold liquid at the end of the month.

The collection

September 9, 2011

Karine brushing the frames

Ben and I collected all our supers (surplus honey) on Friday September 9th. To make the honeybees go down into the hive , we use a natural spray smelling like almond...the bees apparently don't like that very strong odor. However, we still had to remove few tenacious bees on each frames using a soft brush.

The Burley to transport the supers

In shakopee we had to carry the 40 pounds+ boxes full of honey. Our hives are about a football field from our car! Ben had a wonderful idea to bring the Burley along. We use to bike with the kids all the time, so they were inside taking naps!)

Ben "tasting" our  2011 Honey

It was easier in Chanhassen because the access to the apiary is maintained and the distance to walk shorter. And It is  a good thing; this is where we got the most honey! when we harvest honey, we do not disturb the bees. We only "take" the boxes that are on top of the hive, thus not opening the brood nest, or their own "reserve".

Our Garage-Honey-House

We brought everything back home and our garage was set up as a honey house (one day I will have a real one). It smelled so good, I told Ben that if this is what a bee smells from a flower; I know understand why they are attracted to those sweet aromas.




     We stacked the supers...we had a huge tower this year!  
The day was done, we were ready for tomorrow. What a good feeling. All our efforts are going to be rewarded :)

A stinging Lesson

Sunday September 4, 2011

2 hives on the left to be moved 15 feet to the right...simple!

It was a perfect beautiful day, sunny with a light breeze.  Ben and I had noticed earlier in the season that  our 2 older hives in Chanhassen were in the shade to much during the day, as a result the honey production seemed low compared to our packaged hive and our split. 

Ben making a little spot in the goldenrods for our hives

New location ready for hives

So yesterday, we decided to move them about 15 feet from their original point. First Ben weed whacked a section of goldenrods, then we put down some weed fabric and spread a good 2-4 inches of mulch. We racked around the hives, and re-used the fabric and older mulch. We did all that work without our bee suits, the bees were flying from their entrances towards the sun, working hard bringing back pollen and nectar.





That same evening, we decided to go ahead and move the colonies. My first thought was that it would be easy and simple. I also said that we might not need our bee-suits because the bees seemed so gentle and busy with their own thing. But Ben thought that we should wear our suits and veils. Nicolas came with us to help. As a good beekeeper, I loaded the car with all our "bee things" including the smoker.

We drove to Chanhassen, and walked to the hives in question. Without smoking them (because they were inside their hive, we thought they (and we) will be fine) I removed the outer cover top, and proceeded to remove every box until the hive stand was cleared. The bees seemed annoyed, but we were still ok. Suddenly Nicolas got stung 3 times and ran away from the scene, which was a good thing. Ben and I started moving the equipment few feet away. The honeybees were now furious, I tried to start the smoker but we had forgotten the newspaper in the car! Nicolas ran to the car, and at about the same time  Ben got stung few times on his ankles, knee and hands but not before moving the hive into its new location. Only then, he moved away from the hives while I was still trying to get the smoker started; in the  commotion my bottle of matches spilled on the wet grass, and could lit nothing at all! Finally, I moved toward  Ben who was still dealing with the stinging bees, removing his shoes and slapping himself. After few minutes, the situation calmed down but Ben had been stung 25 times mostly on his feet/ankles and Nicolas 3 times. Thankfully everyone were wearing their suits and veils. Ben finally got the smoker ready, and we continued to move the second hive...without a glitch. This one was fine and calm.  We were happy and relieved that we were done for the night.

Nicolas and Ben with the colonies at their new site

PS: we were going to move a colony from Shakoppe to a new property using my car! yes, we were going to go at dusk and put the hive in the car and drive. That was such a great plan! However when Ben and I woke up the next morning...our first thought was... WE ARE NOT GOING TO PUT THE HIVE IN OUR CAR, NO WAY! I guess we did learn a lesson after all:)
PPS: Ben and Nicolas are fine and still love bees.