New way to counter varroa?? submitted by beekeeper Grandpa Jack

Here is a potentially new method for controlling the varroa mite.  I hope sufficient testing will be done to ensure that it will not also harm the bees.  

http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/varroa-mites-bees-archenemies-have-genetic-holes-in-their-armor/

A WINTER BEE RELATED ACTIVITY

Here is a simple bee related activity.  It only takes about an hour to mix up a batch of mead; then wait a month while it ferments and then another hour to bottle the end product.  Here is my recipe for making mead.  I make it in small one gallon batches.  Sometimes I make plain honey mead, but other times I flavor it with cranberry.  The end product makes a good gift for family or close friends.  Be careful because this mead has a much higher alcohol content than beer.

Instructions for making Mead

This recipe makes 4 1/3 bottles (fifths).

To stainless steel pot add 3 pints honey to 11 cups water.  Makes ~1 gallon of must.

(for cranberry mead substitute 8 cups of cranberry juice cocktail for 8 cups of the water.  I sometimes also crush fresh or frozen cranberries for their juice (discard the pulp) and remove a commensurate amount of water)

Boil for 10-20 minutes.  Remove foam/scum (pollen proteins) that forms on top.   This also kills any wild yeasts in the honey.

Cover to prevent airborne yeasts from entering.  Allow to cool to room temperature.

When cool add:                 1 ½ cups orange juice

                                                1 teaspoon ACID BLEND

                                                5 drops PEPTIC ENZYME concentrate

                                                1 teaspoon YEAST NUTRIENT

                                                1 Package MONTRACHET or LALVIN D47 YEAST

                                                ¼ teaspoon GRAPE TANNIN

Mix.

Pour contents into 1 gallon bottle.  Do not completely fill the bottle (see photo below).  The CO2 bubbles will need a space to gather and deflate.  If the bubbles get into the air trap you will have a sticky mess on your hands.

Install air trap (ADD WATER TO TRAP).  Allow to ferment until bubbling stops; approximately 30-45 days. The must is initially cloudy, but clears with yellow tint (reddish tint for cranberry mead).

Siphon into bottles.  Add ¼ SO₂ pill to each bottle (kills any remaining live yeast).  Cork.  Age at least 6 months.  Longer aging is better; it gets smoother with time.  

You can sweeten to taste, but unsweetened seems just fine.

 Cranberry and plain mead fermenting in 1 gallon jugs.  Note the space left at the top of the bottle. 

A  personal and colorful label adds a bit of professionalism.

WHAT VARROA REALLY FEED ON

I was a little surprised when reading the latest issue of Bee Culture magazine.  It seems that varroa aren't the "vampires" we have been told for the last 20 years.  They don't actually drink the bees haemolymph (bee blood).  Instead they apparently eat from the bee's fat bodies.  What are the "fat bodies"?  Well, it took me a 1/2 hour of searching the internet before I found enough information to write even this short explanation.  I only found one bee anatomy diagram that showed the "fat bodies" in about 50 diagrams that I looked at.   Unfortunately I was not able to copy and paste it into this article.

The "fat bodies" are a layer of cells that act similar to our liver.  These cells are distributed throughout the abdomen, but mainly on the floor and roof of the abdomen.  Apparently most varroa will attach to the bottom of the bee to get at the "fat bodies".  So besides the small size of the varroa the sneaky little devils hide where we won't see them.  No wonder everyone says they don't see any varroa on their bees.  I certainly am not picking up worker bees to examine their belly.  That's simply invites getting stung.

From a beekeeper's standpoint this new information probably won't make much difference in your day to day activities in the short term.  The main enemy is still the varroa mite and the viruses that they distribute.  This information however may lead to new or different methods of varroa control in the future.

WINTER SOLSTICE

The winter solstice has come and gone.  The amount of daylight is now getting longer every day.  Three months to the start of spring! 

However, this coming week will be the first real test for bees in central Wisconsin.  Temperatures as low as -10F are predicted right after Christmas and then moderating slightly to about 0 F for over night lows.  These cold temperatures are predicted to last for a week to 10 days.   Well fed and healthy bees should have no trouble surviving these temperatures. 

So the questions are:  1) Did you control the varroa mites last fall and 2) Is there sufficient food in the hive.   There isn’t much you can do about the varroa mites or the viruses they spread at this time, but you can add emergency feed in the form of sugar to the top of the hive.  Adding several dollars of sugar to the hive may prevent the need to buy another $120 package of bees next spring.  Last summer was not the best honey harvest season and many hives are short on winter feed.  People who don’t try to ensure survival of their hives are “beehavers” not beekeepers.   Taking the additional precaution of feeding your hives during winter is your choice.  

CLUB MEETING--SATURDAY DECEMBER 16TH

This is a reminder that there will be a club meeting this Saturday, December 16^th, at the library in Green Lake.   Topics will be:  Care of your bees in the winter and discussion whether the club should pursue a tax exempt status.

This past week I was out checking my hives.  In many hives, actually MOST, the bee cluster is now in the upper brood box and partaking of the emergency sugar I had placed there in November.    The fact that the clusters in most hives are already in the top brood chamber confirms that last summer was not the best for storing honey.  The poor honey harvest was another indicator.   It is still a long way to spring.  To avoid starvation, you should be verifying the bees have feed at two week intervals; adding emergency feed as necessary.  Remember that in the winter the bees need about 12 pounds of honey or equivalent per month.   

Bees have almost completely consumed sugar disc

INTERESTING FACTS

Typical honey consumption of a beehive in winter is about 12 pounds per month.  The warmer weather of last November reduced the demand to about 7 pounds per month.  Of course the bees must be able to get to the stored honey.  Extreme cold (less than -10F?) will cause the bees to tightly cluster and stay in one place.  Extreme cold lasting more than 3 days can result in the cluster starving since it will not or can not move to available food stores.

STORING YOUR BEES INSIDE submitted by beekeeper Gerard

Here is an interesting article; unfortunately this is beyond what most of us can do for our bees.

https://beeinformed.org/2017/12/05/wintering-sheds-why-are-more-north-american-beekeepers-overwintering-their-bees-in-cold-storage/

UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS???

We are now one third of the way through winter (October 1^st through March 31^st); four months to go.  I went out and checked the status of my hives on December 1^st.   They were either humming or silent ( ie. dead).  There is no in between.  As of this check-up 96% were still humming.  The lost hives were probably do to varroa/viruses or being queenless; both had sufficient honey stores. 

The warm weather in November has had the bees out flying on many days during the afternoon.  I have seen conflicting opinions about whether these warmer temperatures are good or bad.  One opinion is that the bees will be consuming less honey to maintain the cluster temperature and that the bees can easily reposition to get to unused stored honey.  The second opinion is that the flight activity results in consumption of additional honey.  I guess this spring the bees will let me know who was right. 

During November I added emergency food to the top of each hive.  My emergency food is a 2 ½ lb. disc of sugar and will be available anytime throughout the winter when the bee cluster gets into the top brood chamber.  I will be checking on the emergency stores once per month throughout the winter.

The “experts” also say that during fall the bees should move to the lower brood chamber (downstairs) and fill the upper brood chamber (upstairs) with food for winter consumption.  While adding the emergency food I recorded the position of the cluster in each hive.  In 50% of the hives the cluster was in the lower brood chamber and in the remaining 50% of hives the cluster, to varying degrees, had moved to the top brood chamber.  Apparently not all my bees have been listening to the “experts” or they may have already consumed the stored food in the lower brood chamber.  Many area beekeepers reported their bees had not produced as much honey as normal during the summer.   Last year I had noticed some clusters in the top brood chamber in late fall but had not recorded the data so I couldn’t determine if the hives with the cluster already in the upper chamber were more likely to succumb later in the winter.  Last year I had good winter survival so I don’t think this is a major issue provided emergency food is always available.  I will be keeping a closer watch on the hives with the cluster already in the top chamber and will replenish the emergency food if necessary. 

After reviewing my field notes it appears the position of the cluster does not appear related to whether the hive had been fed sugar syrup during the fall. 

Two of three overwintering nucs are still humming. 

Winter is also the time to assemble equipment you will be needing for next year.  Bee equipment suppliers frequently have sales of various types throughout the winter.  Personally I am assembling a number of frames so that I can continue refreshment of the frame foundation on a 5 year schedule to minimize pesticide buildup in the brood nest wax.  In addition, I am building a few nucs for queen rearing next spring. 

Rumor has it that both package and queen prices will be increasing next year.  That adds a little motivation to ensure your bees survive through the winter. 

INTERACTION BETWEEN FUNGCIDES AND INSECTICIDES submitted by beekeeper Gerard

Here is a link to an article in Bee Culture magazine that discusses a potential link between previously thought benign fungicides and bee decline.

http://www.beeculture.com/catch-buzz-fungicides-make-insecticides-diseases-even-worse-bees/?utm_source=Catch+The+Buzz&utm_campaign=6b4820c7a6-Catch_The_Buzz_4_29_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0272f190ab-6b4820c7a6

BIG MYSTERY by beekeeper Fred

This story is provided to everyone in hopes we will all learn something from this experience.

Just when you think you are beginning to get a handle on successfully handling bees they spring another surprise on you.  My beekeeping friend Jon had a good summer.  He raised more than one hundred queens and also got a decent honey harvest.  It wasn’t as much as he wanted, but with this summer’s weird weather many of us had a smaller honey harvest than expected.  At the time of his honey harvest in early September all hives seemed up to snuff.  I remember remarking in late September that some had booming populations.  In mid-September Jon started fall feeding.   A few hives seemed to not be taking in the syrup, but most were rapidly draining the feeders.   Nothing abnormal.

In mid-October Jon set about removing the feeders in order to get the hives set for winter.  He immediately noticed sometime was amiss.  The bees in the first four hives appeared to have absconded.   Things didn’t get any better as he went through his apiary.  Probably about 25% of the hives still had bees, but then it was usually only a small cluster of insufficient size to survive the coming winter.  In the course of a month his apiary was essentially wiped out; a 75% loss and winter had not even started.   During the same time frame, I had only one hive “abscond” in a similar manner while I was feeding it.  Jon thought by putting our heads together we might be able to deduce what happened.   

We went through several hives.  There were varroa on the bottom boards, but nothing out of the ordinary considering the bottom board was last cleaned in the spring.   There were very little or no dead bees in the hives.  Most hives at this point were being robbed by yellow jacket hornets.  We didn’t determine if the hornets were after brood or honey.   Three hives that we looked at still had small clusters and their queens.  It was like his apiary had been hit by CCD (colony collapse disorder) as seen on some videos; all bees gone but the queen and a few bees.   Use of the CCD handle has declined in recent years as understanding of varroa and bee viruses has improved. 

We then tried to figure out what had happened.   We wanted to chase down all leads to the best of our ability.   A call to the State Bee Inspector was to put it mildly a little dissatisfying.  It seems the standard answer nowadays is ”Varroa, Varroa, Varroa”.  This answer could be the cause, but we hesitant to blame these heavy losses on something so simple and so quickly.   The inspector saw no reason for a visit or getting a sample of bees from the still surviving small clusters.   We decided to try to analyze the situation ourselves, but without any scientific laboratory to help us out.  We initially focused on things that changed from last year and also differences between his and my operations.

First, we concentrated on “Varroa, Varroa, Varroa”.   That would be the easy answer, but the facts had to add up to early varroa caused crashes.  

In 2016 Jon used an oxalic vaporizer for mite control. His winter survival in the 2016-2017 winter was about 80%.   In 2017 Jon started using an oxalic (insect) fogger to apply the oxalic acid.  This was one obvious difference. 

Jon reported he had not been seeing any varroa in the burr comb drone cells all summer.  His past experience was to see varroa on many drones when the burr comb was removed.   We looked at several bottom boards and did not see what we would call excessive varroa, but this was a subjective judgement.

In the spring we had both pledged to do mite checks; either by alcohol wash method or powdered sugar rolls.   Here both of us fell down on the job.  A total of one powdered sugar roll was performed by the both of us.  Pretty poor showing on this important task. 

Jon had adopted use of an insect fogger and an oxalic/alcohol solution for mite control as widely seen on YouTube.  It just takes about 15 seconds to treat each hive.  This is ideal if it is effective.  He did 3 initial weekly treatments in June followed by a knockdown treatment about every second week.  He planned on starting a 2^nd round of the weekly treatments in October after removing the feeders.  That was one big difference between his and my mite control methods.  I used formic acid (MAQS) in mid-August as my primary mite control and did a follow up with oxalic acid vapor in September and October. 

I had been playing with Randy Oliver’s (Scientific Beekeeping) varroa model and looked up the efficacy of oxalic and formic treatments.  The model recommends using an efficacy of 90% for a formic acid treatment and only 15-40% for oxalic acid.  Therefore, it would take multiple ( 3 to 6 ) weekly oxalic treatments for oxalic to equal one formic acid treatment.  Randy’s oxalic data was for either a dribble or heat vaporization.  I queried Randy about oxalic/alcohol, but he had no experience.  He indicated NO ONE had yet compared the effectiveness of oxalic/alcohol to the other methods.  The Scientific Beekeeping website did have a warning from an independent beekeeper/chemist that the oxalic/alcohol solution may break down into a benign compound in the presence of heat (ie. the fogger coil), however, a comparative test or chemical analysis had not been done.

Out of curiosity Jon and I performed a side by side comparison of the acidity levels of MAQS, oxalic/alcohol, oxalic/water (dribble), and oxalic/water vaporized.  As mixed all had a similar acidity level (pH) of 2; a relatively strong acid.  We then went further and applied each into a cardboard box to simulate a hive.  Here the acid levels were lower.  pH levels of 4 to 5 (relatively weak acids) were seen.  But the oxalic/alcohol compared favorably will the MAQS.  No obvious smoking gun here.   However, we did notice during the cardboard box test that the fogger was violently ejecting the vapor (as compared to the vaporizer).   A large portion of the fog was escaping the box when using the fogger.   We agreed to take an additional look at this over a concern that a major portion of the oxalic acid may be being lost to the outside thus lowering the oxalic acid effectiveness further. 

One item of interest we discovered was that although oxalic acid is noted to be less detrimental to queens than formic acid treatments (approx. 3% vs 5% queen loss per application) the cumulative effect over time could be harmful.   For example, 6 applications of oxalic over the summer could result in an 18% queen loss due to the cumulative losses.   This is not associated with Jon’s problem, but this is something to keep in mind when planning your mite control methods.

After all this discussion about varroa and varroa treatments it should be said that a varroa related hive crash is unlikely to occur in the September/October time frame.  Varroa levels should have not had sufficient time to build up to a deadly level if the oxalic/alcohol fog was doing it’s job.    This is especially true for a new package bee colony of which Jon had about five.  If I was using Randy Oliver’s varroa model correctly (a big IF) and assuming a May 1^st start date those five hives would not have had sufficient time for the varroa population to build up to a crash level.   There is also the possibility that Jon’s overwintered hives had relatively high mite levels that in conjunction with the lower effectiveness of the oxalic acid treatments could have resulted in a more rapid mite build up.

Jon had built a bunch of new syrup feeders for use this fall with plastic bottoms.  That was something definitely different.  But that lead fell through.  Jon had hives losses with both old wood bottomed and the new plastic bottomed feeders.  Also, his neighbor’s bees were OK and the neighbor had used two of Jon's new feeders. 

Could Jon’s sugar supply have been contaminated?  Both Jon and I have been using salvaged sugar from a bakery for the last two years.  My bees are doing fine so we tend to discount this possibility.

Could the bees have been hit by a pesticide?  Unfortunately, we have no way of determining this.  The loss did occur in late summer/early fall which is an unlikely time for a pesticide to be used.   Are bees susceptible to other poisoning?  We talked with one neighbor and he had NOT had a hive die-off.  As a point of reference that neighbor had used MAQS for mite control.  The second neighbor's bees were also OK.  Therefore, we tend to rule out a pesticide poisoning incident.

So next we come to the dreaded viruses and bacteria.   Jon had not been seeing any signs of Deformed Wing Virus all summer; ie deformed wings on bees or bees with stunted abdomens.  In addition, the mite load did not seem excessive so DWV is unlikely to have taken hold.   Plus DWV usually makes itself felt in mid-winter when the hive succumbs to the virus. 

A Nosema Ceranae infection is a distinct possibility.  Its symptoms match those of CCD.  Again, we have no method of determining if this was a Nosema Ceranae outbreak.  As for other viruses or bacteria we really have no way to assess the hive for these.  

My hives are spread over a large area in clusters of about 10 hives each.  Jon hives are all in one area maybe making them more susceptible to a communicable disease or virus. 

The odd thing is that all hives in Jon’s apiary are exhibiting the same symptoms.  They seem to have either absconded or all hives stopped successfully raising brood at approximately the same time and 6 weeks later there were no bees left in the hive.   With the hives empty of bees in early October that means the hives stopped having emerging brood in late August and queens stopped laying in early August or no larvae surviving since early August.  Neither of which seem plausible.  Also Jon was still successfully raising queens in early August.  Some of my hives were still full of capped brood in mid-September.   So the remaining option is that the bees in the hives absconded.  

To date, the entire episode remains a big mystery which we will likely not conclusively solve.  Not being one to give up easily Jon is planning on what precautions or modifications to his beekeeping methods to take next spring. 

A.      We both plan to renew our pledge to take periodic mite population samples throughout the summer.  

B.      To answer the oxalic/alcohol versus oxalic vapor questions we plan to run two side by side comparison of both methods.   One will be done in dummy hives and simply compare the amount of oxalic deposited in each hive by the two methods.  The second will be more long term and actually compare mite drops between the two methods. 

C.      Jon is considering adding MAQS to his arsenal in the battle with varroa.

D.      Jon is considering dividing his hives between two (?) locations to potentially prevent drifting and varroa and virus transfer. 

So our recommendation for all beekeepers wanting to avoid a similar story is to monitor mite levels both before and after performing your mite control in the spring and late summer.  Then you will personally know that your mite control method is actually working. 

NEONICTINOID NEWS

9 NOV 2017--From United Kingdom/Great Britain--Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has said advice from Expert Committee on Pesticides (ECP) means government will now back a total ban on neonicotinoid pesticides. The ECP said 'exposure to neonicotinoids under field conditions can have an unacceptable effect on honeybee health'

REMINDER-CLUB MEETING NOVEMBER 18TH

For those of you not out in the great outdoors chasing deer there will be a ECWBA club meeting on November 18th.  This meeting will be in a new location; the Casestecker Library in Green Lake.  Meeting time remains the same at 9:30AM.   There is ample parking outside the entrance or across the street in a municipal lot.

For most beekeepers all outdoors beekeeping tasks are now completed.  The exception could be addition of emergency food stores to your hives.  So now on to some indoor tasks you have been avoiding all summer.  Put a fresh coat of paint on your brood boxes?  Put new foundations in some of your frames?  Peruse the bee equipment catalogs?  Plan for 2018?

INSECT FOGGER ISSUE

At one of the recent club meetings we talked about using an insect fogger to apply oxalic acid to the hive.  It has been widely shown on the YouTube internet site.  The oxalic is dissolved in a number of different liquids (water, alcohol, or glycerin) which when vaporized will carry the acid into the hive as a vapor.  While researching the effectiveness of oxalic acid on the control of mites I read an article in Scientific Beekeeping.  This input in an 20 Sept 2017 by a professional chemist indicated that the oxalic powder in either alcohol or glycerin forms non acidic compounds in a relatively short time and will NOT kill the mites.  Here is the article.  If using an insect fogger I would only use water as the dissolving agent.

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/oxalic-dribble-tips/

FEEDING TIME IS OVER

If you have been watching the downtrend in daily temperatures you know that the fall feeding time is over.  The bees will be in their cluster for warmth about 18 or more hours per day now.  While they are in cluster the air is also cooling down any feed your may be offering them.  Even if the day time temperature is rising above or close to 57F and the bees appear to be active the temperature of any liquid feed on top of the hive is too cold. The bees will not take in cold feed because it will also cool their body and cause hypothermia.

So before the liquid feed freezes it would be wise to remove all feeders.  If the liquid freezes it may crack the feeder and dowse the bees with near freezing liquid.  This would in all likelihood kill your bees.

If you are concerned the hive doesn't have sufficient food for the winter you can add emergency feed as described in an earlier post.

WARNING-SONIC VARROA KILLING DEVICES being marketed

While looking for honey bee related news I stumbled upon an ad for a sonic varroa killer.  If something like that actually worked it could be a partial solution to the varroa problem.  So I did a little reading on the product and also feedback on some bee blogs.  

First I read reviews of similar sonic products used against moles, ants and roaches.  It was hard to find positive feedback, but negative feedback was readily found.  

I found no positive feedback on the varroa sonic device on the web.  If there was positive experiences you could expect the web to be full of information.  These devices have also not been advertised in any of the bee magazines.   Also it appears you would need to buy more than one device because it must remain in the hive for 40 days.

If it really worked I'm sure the bee journals would have by now published detailed scientific reports with positive data.   To date I've seen none.  So my recommendation is to save your money and not buy this product.

CLUB EXTRACTOR PROGRESS REPORT

Here is an update on how we are doing with setting up a club extractor.  Although we missed this season's honey harvest the project will be completed prior to next season's honey harvest.  The extractor will be installed in a state approved kitchen and therefore members could sell the honey extracted here commercially if desired.

a.  The extractor and decapping tank have had a preliminary cleaning.
b. The extractor has been mounted on a pallet so we don't have to drill holes in the extracting room floor.
c. Two 6 foot tables and a honey sieve have been purchased.
d. A cleanable honey frame support bar has been added to the decapping tank.
e.  The next step is to move all equipment to their final location.

12 frame Extractor

Decapping tank and staging table

October 21st Club Meeting

Outside bee work is just about complete for the year.  So its time for more club meetings.  Meeting will be held on a monthly basis through the winter.  The next meeting will be on November 18th at the Green Lake Public Library.

At today's meeting Leanne Doyle gave a review of the benefits and drawbacks of making the club a tax exempt 401C3 organization.  A team will be looking into this further and report back in the future.

Club member Jeff presented his design for a home-made bee vacuum.  It was suggested one of the winter meetings could be about homemade bee equipment.

Grandpa Jack informed club members that the Wisconsin sales tax code is being changed effective December 1, 2017 and after that all beekeepers can make sales tax free purchases of bee equipment.  Wisconsin bee supply houses should automatically change their sales tax policies.  If you are buying bee equipment from Fleet Farm you may need to do a one time fill out of a sales tax exemption form; similar to the form used by farmers.

Beekeeper Larry brought in a few live hive beetles so that we could learn to identify them.

We then adjourned the meeting and had a honey tasting gathering.  Probably the most distinctive were the apple blossom and mint flavored honeys.

LATE FALL MITE CONTROL by beekeeper Fred

 The following is how I have been keeping my bees.  These methods may or may not work for you. 

Miticides are not 100% effective in killing off the varroa mites in a hive.  Most are quoted to have a 90 to 95% effectiveness.  NOTE: Powdered sugar is NOT considered to be a miticide and has VERY low effectiveness in controlling mites.  If a particular hive had a high mite infestation the 90 to 95% mite knockdown could still leave hundreds of mites in the hive and require a second treatment.  The mites will continue to reproduce as long as brood is present in the hive.   

Most northern beekeepers do an initial treatment for mites in mid to late summer after harvesting their honey.   Applying the miticide at this time has the benefit of allowing the bees to raise the “winter or fat” bees in a relatively mite-free environment.  But it also allows the mites a longer time to rebuild their population prior to the shutdown in bee brood rearing and coincident shutdown in varroa mite rearing.

For the last few falls the weather has been warmer to normal.  Whether this is due to normal weather fluctuations or global warming is anybody’s guess.  But for northern beekeepers the warmer fall allows the bees to continue raising young for an extended period.  I was inspecting several nucs a week ago and saw eggs, brood and capped brood.   With bee brood in the hive the varroa mites will also continue to multiply thus lessening the effectiveness of the mite control you had applied earlier. 

For the above two reasons some beekeepers apply a second or third mite treatment in September or October.  However, as the temperature declines the beekeeper may need to select a different mite control product.  For example, the instructions for Apiguard state to use it only when outside temperatures are above 59F.  For MAQS the minimum is 50F.  The beekeeper must also take into consideration that the applicators (pads, strips, trays) must be removed after a given time period; thus requiring the beekeeper to re-open the hive several weeks later.   For these reasons many beekeepers tend to use oxalic acid drip or vapor for late fall applications. 

Personally, I think that using oxalic drip or dribble is not ideal.  I don’t like the idea of wetting down the bees with the cold water solution of oxalic acid.   This could cause hypothermia and kill the bees in addition to the mites.   The upper and lower boxes must also be separated to get to the cluster in the lower box forcing the bees to re-propilyze the joint.  But again, that’s just my opinion and you know the saying that “10 beekeepers will give you 11 different opinions”. 

Therefore, for a secondary mite knockdown in the fall I use oxalic vapor as the agent.   I have used both an electrically heated vaporizer and a propane powered vaporizer.  Electrically heated vaporizers are available commercially and have received USDA approval.   The propane powered vaporizers have not yet received USDA approval.   Oxalic acid has a lower effectiveness in controlling mites; around 90%.  It also only kills phoretic (those on the bees and outside the brood cell) mites.  For those reasons it is a better secondary mite control that can be used when temperatures are cooler than your primary mite control. 

Remember the goal is to cut down on mite population thus minimizing the spread of viruses when the bees are in their winter cluster.   Also remember, all mite controls are also hard on the bees so over application of miticides could kill your bees in addition to the mites.  Follow miticide application instructions and monitor mite levels to avoid over application. 

QUILTING BEE PRESENTATION

As part of the ECWBA's public outreach several members provided a presentation to a Quilting Bee Class at the Green Lake Pilgrim Center.  The well received presentation was primarily conducted by Patti.  The audience of about 30 quilters peppered our supporting members with numerous questions throughout the presentation.  Honey sales after the presentation added a little money to the club coffers.

Clubmembers Gerard, Fred, Patti, and Al

Not pictured is Mark who was taking the picture.

A few of the attendees some of which were wearing bee costumes

SOME THINGS THAT I HAVE LEARNED by beekeeper GrandaPa Jack

I returned to this hobby several years ago after our daughter encouraged me to do so.  She had seen the early pictures from the 60’s of me in bee veil and gloves, smoker and hives.  She said “dad, you use to do this, and we need experienced beekeepers to help out the pollinators.”

I had recently retired from dairy farming and finding that I had more time than common sense, agreed to once again enter the hobby of beekeeping.  How difficult could it be?  I had done this for several years, had a great mentor at the time, my Uncle Roy.  He had several yards and I would occasionally tag along and help out.

The first year back I spent the winter building equipment in anticipation of getting back into the business.  I also found out that Dadant Beekeeping Supply was also still in business.  An old supplier that I did business with many years before.  I also found that there was a new supplier in the area, Honey Bee Ware.  I placed my order for four 3 pound packages of Italian bees, and we were off to a great start.

Having old knowledge of beekeeping is a good thing.  To a point!  Beekeepers were talking about something called the varroa mite.  How bad could that be?  During the 60’s we had something called American Foulbrood.  The cure for that was to burn the hive.

After reading about it, and watching many YouTube videos of treatment free beekeeping, I decided that I just wouldn’t worry about it the first year.  That’s what many were saying.  The second year would be the year I would have to take care of the problem.  And, it was just a small mite, how bad could that be?

The next spring came and r realized that the mite that I had ignored was like the preverbal elephant in the room.  That little beggar closed the operation down.  All four hives dead and full of honey.

I decided to be a little more selective in my YouTube videos.  I  also ordered more bees, built more equipment and also had the greatest respect for the varroa mite.

Through the years you gain experience, and experience is the best teacher.  I’ll share a few bits of knowledge that I have gained in this journey.

For those that are starting out in this hobby and believe as I did about mites – ( there are those that do treatment free beekeeping.)  I have not learned how to do treatment free beekeeping and my hat is off to anyone that can manage numerous hives and not use any type of treatment for the pesky mite.  If you are under the notion as a new beekeeper that you can manage the mite without any type of treatment – order your packages or nucs now for next spring.  They are still at last year’s prices.

The longer you are in this hobby, the more you realize what you don’t know.  The old saying “you don’t know, what you don’t know” is so true in beekeeping.  Every year there are new challenges and you will learn from them.

Read the old masters of beekeeping, Doolittle, Jay Smith, Langstroth, CC Miller, ROB Manley, Dadant.  The information that these early beekeepers gleaned from observing the “Hive and the Honey Bee” hold true 100 plus years later.  Cornell University has old issues of the American Bee Journal that are fascinating to read.  Subscribe to the American Bee Journal or Bee Culture magazine.  We are fortunate today to have so much information in our home that is available on the internet.  But – be selective in your YouTube videos.

One of my favorite sayings in beekeeping, and it has been around as long as men and women have been keeping bees is “get 10 beekeepers in a room and you will get at least 11 opinions”.

I even find myself having several opinions on the same subject.  Must be an age thing.

OVERWINTERING GUIDE

Follow this link for a number of actions you can take to improve your overwintering success.

https://honeybeesuite.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-overwintering-success/

TRYING SOMETHING NEW by beekeeper Fred

Last spring several ECWBA members attended a bee seminar hosted by the Marathon County Bee Club in Wausau, Wisconsin.  One of the presenters gave a presentation on overwintering nucleus colonies; nucs for short.  This discussion peaked my interest because the presenter was from Hudson, Wisconsin, which is another 150 miles further north than our area and experiences slightly more severe winters than our area.  His nucs were wintered outdoors.   I figured if he could overwinter a nuc then maybe I could too!  My only concern was if he got lucky due to last winter being warmer than normal.  I am about find out.  NOTE: I think ECWBA member Grandpa Jack also overwinters nucs. 

This September I found myself with 3 leftover Ankle Biter queens when a potential customer in Florida had to cancel his order due to hurricane Irma.  This gave me the opportunity to set up three nucs for overwintering.  For any hive to overwinter successfully it needs an adequate bee population, sufficient food, and a weather tight home.  An overwintered nuc would need the same.  As per the recommendations from the seminar presenter I set up 3 double deep 5 frame nucs.  These nucs were nestled together to provide a little additional weather protection.  See photograph below.  The bottom box had three frames for the bees and brood and the two outside frames with capped honey.  If a nuc did not appear to have sufficient bees I put in a frame of capped brood (from another hive) that was beginning to emerge.  The upper boxes were a mix of capped honey frames and frames with drawn comb.  I then fed the each nuc heavily for about 6 weeks; letting the bees fill the empty drawn comb. 

Finally, to provide added weather protection I covered the nucs with 2 inch foam insulation on the sides and top.  Then a water proof cover was added.  These two actions were done after the weather cooled. See photographs.   I also gave each nuc one blast of oxalic acid vapor in mid September to knock down the mite population.  Hopefully these Ankle Biter bees will control the mites during the winter.   Now it’s up to the bees to survive the coming winter. 

There are several benefits that arise from overwintering nucs (providing I am successful).  One, I will have my spring packages ready-made long before I could get a package or nuc and at no cost to me other than my labor the previous fall.   Two, I know my queens will be of winter hardy local stock; not California factory queens of questionable background.  Three, the warm confines of these double deep nucs promote rapid population buildup in the spring and therefore have a better chance of making a good honey crop than a new package. 

Check back about April 1^st and I will let everyone know if these three nucs survived the winter. 

 The 3 nucs being heavily fed in September.  The entrance for the middle nuc is in the back.  This was done to minimize drifting between nucs.   I leveled the nucs before putting on the insulation. 

 Side insulation installed. 

 Feeders being removed and inner covers installed.   I temporarily sealed the inner cover holes to keep the bees inside so they wouldn't sting me.  I removed these before putting on the upper insulation.  Despite the cool temperature (~54F) the bees in nuc 19 were very active. 

Inner covers were topped with insulation.  A moisture vent channel was provided for each nuc by cutting a groove in the insulation. 

A side view of moisture vent

Insulation joints were sealed with duct tape. 

 Water tight cover installed and weighted with a few bricks.  Trying to be an optimist I made the cover is extra wide so I can overwinter four (4) nucs next year. 

NEWLY IDENTIFIED VIRUS AFFECTS HONEYBEES submitted by beekeeper Gerard

A new virus that adversely affects honey bees has been identified.  It is on the order of the Deformed Wing Virus and also spread by varroa.  So the importance of varroa control is that much more important.  The newly identified virus is called Varroa Destructor Virus-1 or VDV1.   Follow this link for more information.

https://beeinformed.org/2017/10/10/varroa-destructor-virus-1-its-here/

ECWBA CLUB MEETING--OCTOBER 21st

The next club meeting is in two weeks on Saturday, October 21st.  It will be at the Ripon Public Library in the Silver Creek Room at 9:30AM.   Feel free to invite other beekeepers or people thinking about beekeeping to the meeting.

Members are encouraged to bring a sample of their honey for tasting by other club members.  Gerard will supply dipping crackers so that we won't get our fingers sticky.

The primary discussion will be about final winter preparations.

On the few warm days remaining before winter the bees will be in a robbing mood.  Make sure you have installed your entrance reducer.  As a minimum the entrance should be on the 3-4 inch opening; although even the 1 inch opening would be OK now that it is cooler.

OPPORTUNITY AWAITS!!!

Make your mark in saving the honey bee!  The UW-Madison has received a grant to study overwintering survival of honey bees.  They will be monitoring hive temperature, humidity and weight throughout the winter season.  They are also looking for participants to provide data on mite levels, mite treatments, survival, and honey production.

Contact Hannah Gaines Day if you would like to participate.   I believe they will be looking for data only from you, not monitoring of your hives. She can be contacted at her email or phone shown below.

Hannah Gaines Day
hgaines@wis.edu
774-392-0498

Or follow this link:  http://go.wisc.edu/5t3d93

NEONICTINOIDS FOUND IN 75% OF HONEY SAMPLES

Follow this link:

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-bee-harming-pesticides-percent-honey-worldwide.html

Here is a 2nd link with basically the same information.

https://www.popsugar.com/food/Pesticide-Contamination-Worldwide-Bee-Population-44118267

Here is a short video on the same topic:

https://www.voanews.com/a/bees-are-carrying-pesticides-into-most-of-the-worlds-honey/4060808.html

SOMETHING NEW

Here is an article on a new varroa control method.  I haven't ever heard or seen of this prior to today.  I did a little internet searching and it may just not be for sale in the US yet; hence our ignorance of this idea.   It is similar to a mouse guard with round holes.  Bees entering and exiting the hive must pass through the holes which are coated with a miticide.   Follow link for a description.

https://beecare.bayer.com/media-center/news/detail/a-new-way-of-protecting-bees-against-varroa-mites

ON THE ROAD AGAIN (or a feral hive) by beekeeper Fred

I'm almost caught up with all my beekeeping tasks.  All but 3 of my feeders have been removed and stored for the winter.  The last two items are to assess the strength of all hives early next week and in late October to wrap a small number of hives.  Although my past data shows wrapping does not improve hive survivability I figure I might as well use the hive wraps I do have instead of letting the mice chew on them.

At any rate I am now taking my dogs for two walks per day.  Good for both them and me.  On my walk today I spied a nice big hickory tree about 30 feet back from the edge of the woods.  Always on the lookout for hickory nuts I worked my way under the tree.  While bending over to pick up a nut I heard a familiar sound over my head; the buzzing of bees.  About 8 feet up the tree I could see an entrance to a feral bee colony.  Was this hive from one of my hives that swarmed last spring; who knows!

I retrieved my camera and took this picture a little later.  Most of the bees were gone, but there was still a small number coming and going.  If you look closely there are 2 bees on the lower portion of the entrance.  To you beekeepers that like to swarm trap in the spring the entrance hole was about 2 inches in diameter and 8 feet up where a branch had broken off sometime in the past.   I have no idea how big the internal cavity is inside the tree.  The tree is about 18 inches diameter at the height of the entrance.  This entrance would be in the shade all day long anytime there were leaves on the tree.

I will add this feral hive location to my winter monitoring list.  I am curious if this feral hive will make it through the winter.

ON THE ROAD by beekeeper Fred

While on the road to pick up a few bags of sugar I took the time to visit with an Amish beekeeper.  I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess all beekeepers confront the same problems.  I stopped mainly to see how this Amish beekeeper controlled mites.  In my imagination I thought the Amish had some special sauce for success.  He indicated most of the Amish beekeepers in this area were following the recommendations of a local commercial beekeeper.  They were treating twice per year.  In the spring they treat with Apiguard and in the fall with Apivar.  So they were alternating chemicals as is currently recommended.  I told him of my use of formic and oxalic acid, but he had not heard previously of them.

It appeared he has just finished his honey harvest.  The supers were all in his front yard and the bees were cleaning out the residual honey.

At his request we started discussing how to "fix" a hopelessly queenless hive.  He was aware of the method of installing a frame of eggs and brood, but he did not indicate he was successful.  I indicated I had tried this several times without success.  The laying workers seem to not initiate queen cells.  I passed on the method where the queenless hive and another strong hive were physically switched in position while the workers were in the field.  I also passed on the method where a major portion of the frames (with bees) from the queenless hive are swapped with frames (with bees) from a strong hive.  In these two method either a new queen is then added or a frame of eggs and brood is added.

So I didn't discover a special sauce, but had a good conversation between two beekeepers.

ONE LAST FEEDING REMINDER

If you are planning to feed your bees, get it done now.  The days are getting shorter and temperatures will be declining.  Remember the bees begin to cluster when temperatures dip below 57F.  When in cluster the bees won't be moving sugar water (or other feed) from the feeder to the comb.

If you look at the fluctuation of air temperature on a typical fall day you will see temperatures in the 30's and 40's at night; then warming to above 57F for only about 8 hours per day.  The shorter time period above 57F will limit the time and amount of feed put into storage.  Also the bees are reluctant to drink cold feed and will wait until it is warmed; further shortening the amount of feed to be stored.  Finally the cooler temperatures lengthen the time required to dry the feed to less than 20% moisture, which is required to prevent fermentation.

Those were the technical reasons to get your feeding done now.

RAPID QUEEN INTRODUCTION

I can’t remember exactly where I read the short article (Bee Culture or American Bee Journal) but it was about RAPID queen introduction.  The concept was simple.  Remove or kill the old queen.  Flood the hive with a scent to mast the pheromones of the new queen.  Also spray the new queen with the same scent.  Then put the queen into the hive.  The author claimed success in 9 out of 10 rapid introductions. 

This fall I had a few leftover queens that I needed to use and decided to give this time saving method a try.  In the first instance, I saved the old queen (just in case!).  With a small spray bottle, I sprayed down the receiving hive and the donating nuc with a sugar water solution containing a little lemongrass oil, Nozevit and Honey Bee Healthy.  These three additives produced a strong odor, but none are detrimental to the bees.  I can understand why the bees would be temporarily confused.  For several hours many of the hive bees decided it was nicer outside of the hive than inside.   I then picked up the new queen and put her directly into the hive.  No aggression was noted.  Several days later I verified she was alive and laying.  This first test was putting a new queen into a package queen hive which I think was of Italian origin. 

In the second test I was combining two nucs; one with an Ankle Biter queen and the other with a Russian queen.  On this second try I was a little braver and immediately dispatched the Russian queen.   After spraying down the bees in both nucs I combined the nucs.  A week later I verified the queen was present and laying.  I was a little worried the Russian bees would not be as accepting of the new queen.  But there were no problems. 

I will use this rapid introduction method next spring for introducing queens for any splits or nucs I make.  It sure beats the several days wait while the bees free a new queen from her cage. 

I was also talking with another beekeeper with more experience.  His method of rapid introduction was to coat the new queen with honey.  The effort by the nurse bees to clean her off also distributed her pheromones into the hive.  A little messy, but effective. 

SEPTEMBER CLUB MEETING

The September club meeting has come and gone.  Three to four prospective new members introduced themselves.  All members also introduced themselves and provided a brief summary of their summer. 

After conducting the usual list of club business we got around to discussing the problem of getting your hives through the winter.  In pre-varroa days the biggest danger to a hive was moisture and starvation.  However, now the biggest danger is varroa mites and the viruses they carry.  So make sure you treat your hives for varroa.  Many members report using MAQS in August with follow up oxalic acid vapor or dribble treatments in September and October.

This summer was unusual and many hives have not filled the bottom two brood chambers with honey.  Heavy fall feeding was recommended.  The upper brood chamber box of a 10 frame box will weigh approximately 90 pounds when full of honey or honey substitute.  Eight frame boxes will be proportionately less.  This 90 pound weight is considered sufficient to get a hive through a normal winter.  People running 8 frame boxes should consider adding a full medium super to get to that 90 pound requirement.

For the benefit of the new members/new beekeepers several of the established members brought in examples of how they ensure adequate hive ventilation and provide the hive with emergency food in the winter.  Emergency feeding is above and beyond the amounts mentioned above.   Some winters the emergency food is consumed and sometimes it is untouched.  But a few pounds of emergency feed is cheap insurance compared to the cost of a package of bees.   Six presenters and six totally different designs. But all designs provided ventilation to let any moisture/condensation escape and provide room to slip in an emergency food supply.   Show below are a few pictures of their handicraft.

Gerard providing a few introductory remarks. 

 Oxalic acid vaporizer made by adapting a insect fogger.  NOTE: Not USDA approved.  Various designs of this type can be seen on YouTube. 

Simplest winter emergency feeder. 3 inch rim plus rug over sugar 

Most complex design includes center feeder, upper entrance, ventilation holes, blanket to prevent air from ventilation holes getting directly into the brood chamber.  

Simple rim plus hardware cloth bottom where sugar is placed.  Covered with fiberglass insulation 

 Note insulating board has groove cut to provide ventilation. 

See ventilation slots in sides.  Top is insulation board.