MID-JULY REPORT by beekeeper Fred

Well we are in the dog days of summer now.  It’s getting too warm for my old dog to go out for a long walk and he prefers to lay on the cool basement floor.  Usually about this time of year the nectar flow also really drops off.  But this year the bees seem to be still working hard at bringing in nectar.  Yellow and white sweet clover is still blooming.  In fact over the weekend I noticed 5 of my hives were busy drawing new comb and filling the top honey super past the 25% point.  Based past years I normally wouldn’t bother with adding a super.  However, with the very wet June in central Wisconsin I decided to be an optimist and added a super to each hive.  I still have hopes for a bumper harvest this August. 

 

Be sure to verify your hives are queenright.  Just last week I noted another queenless hive.  I decided to write off this hive.  The population was just too low to successfully recover prior to fall.  If I were a better beekeeper I would have noticed the extremely slow hive buildup and taken a corrective action sooner.  I’ll put this down as a lesson learned and add it (slow buildup) to my check list (in my head) for next year.

In mid-June I also gave each hive a shot of oxalic acid vapor to knock down the mite populations.  I checked a few hives with a powdered sugar roll and also using witness bottom boards.  The sugar rolls showed no mites, but the bottom witness boards showed my hives are not mite free.

 

My queen rearing attempts has had its ups and downs.  The spring was too cold and wet.  Consequently the queen yield was low.  I was getting more requests than I could supply.  Then my breeder queen quit laying.  She actually lived on for a month after that.  Since about mid-June, things have improved.  I was able to get a replacement Ankle Biter breeder queen.   Right now I am grafting twice per week with the aim of putting all the mating nucs into use.   I hope to have a large number of queens for use for re-queening in the fall.  

The honey harvest in mid-August is fast approaching.  Count the number of full honey supers in your apiary.  Each full super equates to about 3 gallons (36 pounds) of golden honey.  Do you have enough buckets and bottles to hold your harvest?  More than once I have tried to get bottles in September, only to be told there were none in stock.  Plan ahead.  

2017 ECWBA FIELD DAY

Another successful ECWBA Field Day!  Denise Palkovich hosted the field day this year.  She had arranged for one of the Wisconsin State Bee Inspectors, Dan Ziehli, to be present.  Denise and Dan went through about 6 hives.  Denise pointing out the typical things to look for during a normal hive inspection.  Dan was also taking bee and debris samples for analysis later at state and federal labs. 

Denise had a combination of 8 and 10 frame Langstroth hives.  She demonstrated some of her varroa control measures; varroa trapping on drone brood which she removed periodically.  Denise uses drone comb or lets the bees build the drone comb in deep supers by inserting a medium frame.  The bees fill the empty area with drone comb.  Her varroa control techniques appear to be working.  We got to inspection the varroa mite drop on pull out inspection boards.  The counts ranged from 0 to 3 mites for boards that had been in place for a week. 

Denise has enlarged her apiary since our previous visit and is now running about 12 hives.  The state inspector found nothing out of the ordinary.   From Denise’s comments she has typical beekeeper issues; hives superceding their queens, poor performing hives, and hives making so much honey that the hives were getting unmanageable.  

Denise ended the field day encouraging everyone to practice good mite control after the honey harvest in mid August and gave a brief description on how to use Apiguard, MiteAway Quick Strips and oxalic acid vapor. 

Don’t be afraid to ask the state inspectors for a visit.  If they can schedule it they will.  Their goal is not to punish beekeepers, but rather to work with them to take any corrective actions needed.  Dan’s phone numbers are:  Office: 608-224-4572 or Cell: 608-444-3209

Thank you Denise for a good educational field day.  

                                                               A few of Denise's hives

                                                                 Field Day attendees

                                                 State Inspector, Dan Ziehli, on the left

                                             One of the drone combs used as a varroa trap

                                                    A drone larvae with two varroa mites

NECTAR FLOW

Here is an interesting graph coming from the Minneapolis area.  The nectar flow has suddenly increased.  They have been experiencing similar weather patterns as central Wisconsin.  Now with the drier and hotter weather the bees are really bringing in the nectar.  It looks like 15 lbs  in 2 days.  That's about a third of a super!  So make sure to check your supers this week to ensure the bees have room to bring in and process that nectar.  NOTE: The nectar weight can actually decrease as the bees dry out the nectar to 18% water, which increases the honey sugar content.

http://www.paulsapiary.com/

AND SOME MORE RESEARCH ON NEONICOTINOIDS

This article points the finger more strongly at neonicotinoids.  Since Minnesota banned neonics I wonder if their bees will do better than ours.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/neonicotinoid-pesticides-slowly-killing-bees/

A FEW REMINDERS

A. Remember that this Saturday, July 8th, the ECWBA Field Day will be at Denise's Apiary.  It is located at N7928 Cty Rd WH, Fond du Lac, Wi.   The state inspector will arrive at 10:30AM sharp.  ECWBA recommends to be there at around 9:30AM for other discussions prior to his arrival.

B. Be sure to be inspecting your honey supers.  With the decline in rain the bees will be working overtime collecting nectar.  Add another honey super anytime the current super is more than 60% filled.

C.  Also continue your biweekly hive inspections to verify your hives are queenright.  Yes, removing the honey supers to get to the brood chambers is a pain in the you know what, but thats the only effective method of verifying the hive is queenright.

Good beekeeping.