MITE TREATMENT REMINDER

Beginning in September the bees will begin raising their "winter bees", which have special traits to withstand the long winter.  You want your winter bee larvae to have a minimum exposure to varroa transmitted viruses.  The following week is about the last week to treat for varroa so that the exposure to viruses is minimized.  Failure to treat will almost condemn your hive to death by viruses in January or February if not before.  If your hive succumbs in September, October or early November many of your infected bees will flee to neighboring hives (both your's and your neighbor's hives) with their load of varroa and viruses.   Do the right thing and treat your hives now!!!

PLAN BEE: The Rise OF ALTERNATIVE POLLINATORS

Here is an interesting article on other pollinators.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/science/bees-pollination-farming.html

HONEY HARVESTING TIME

Honey needs to have a moisture content of less than 18.6% in order to avoid fermentation.

The bees know their job.  They will not cap honey if its moisture content is too high.  They do not want their winter stores to be sour or alcoholic! 

A beekeeper that extracts only capped honey can be assured that the moisture level will be below the 18.6% limit.  To ensure it remains below 18.6% the honey should be stored in a sealed container.  

When removing frames from a hive the good beekeeper leaves on the hive the frames that are not capped.   Given more time the bees may yet cap this honey.   

However, many frames of honey contain a mix of capped and uncapped honey.  The rule of thumb followed by most experienced beekeepers is that at least 90% of the cells on the frame should be capped in order for the frame be harvested.  In that way the low moisture honey balances out the high moisture honey.  

In the same thought process a fully (100%) capped frame of honey could balance an 80% capped frame.  While extracting frames with uncapped cells the beekeeper needs to ensure at least 90% of all frame area is capped.  

However, utilizing uncapped honey increases the risk of having honey with more than 18.6% water.  It is a good idea when done extracting to check the water content using a refractometer.  If your honey turns out to be over the limit it must be used quickly to avoid fermentation.  There is no better way to lose your customers than to sell them fermented honey.  Ugh!

ECWBA owns two refractometers.  Contact club member Mark Ingram if you want to borrow a club refractometer to check your honey’s water content.   The Nature’s Nectar website also has a short discussion on using refractometers.  Click on the following link.  

naturesnectar.blogspot.com/

FROM THE APIARY-LATE AUGUST by beekeeper Fred

FROM THE APIARY-LATE AUGUST

This year, in recognition of the varroa epidemic, I have altered my late summer beekeeping methods.  In previous years I had removed the honey supers in mid-August and then treated for mites.  This year multiple mite treatments were the order of the day.  In early summer I had applied a ½ dose of FormicPro.  Then in the last week of July I applied a full dose of FormicPro.   Although it requires more work on the part of the beekeeper I laboriously removed the honey supers, split the brood chamber to insert the miticide and then immediately reinstalled the honey supers.  Please note that formic acid treatments are the only ones certified for use while the honey supers are in place.  With my mite treatments done I could hopefully gain additional honey flow in August from alfalfa, goldenrod, knapweed and Joe Pye weed.

Most of the honey my bees have gathered has been by overwintered hives.  Hives with new packages were slow to build up and consequently have yielded little honey.  I would say that 75% of my new packages did not put anything into honey supers.  The best hive in the remaining 25% of packages yielded about 1 1/2 supers of honey.   My packages were received May 1^st this year.  Next year I plan to request packages at the first available date; usually about April 7^th.  This entails a bigger cold weather risk, but gives the hive an additional 3 weeks of buildup time so that they can be up to full strength in time for the start of the honey flow in mid-June. 

In early August I set up 12 nucs for overwintering.  These nucs are double deep 5 frame nucs (10 frames total).  I have started treating these nucs with oxalic acid vapor to minimize any mites.  My first attempt at overwintering nucs last year was not successful.  They expired in January, which is when varroa related diseases also begin killing full size hives.   If I get these nucs to survive I won’t need to buy packages in the spring. 

In mid-August I started to feed 2 to 1 sugar syrup to several June start-up hives and to any hive that has not been putting honey into honey supers.  This feeding will continue until the hive doesn’t take any proffered feed.  It takes time and warm weather for the bees to dry the syrup to the 82% sugar concentration needed for safe storage.  Don’t wait too long because cold weather will result in the bees going into cluster and ignoring the feed.

While feeding the hives I also take the time to evaluate the strength of each hive.  There are several weak hives that will be culled or combined prior to winter.  Even so I am treating them with formic or oxalic acid vapor to ensure that if they collapse that they will not become a varroa bomb and infect my other hives. 

What’s ahead?

-Now I am simply waiting for the end of the goldenrod nectar flow.  Then it will be time to pull the honey supers and have an extraction party with other local beekeepers.  This will be sometime in early September. 

-After removal of the honey supers I will offer each honey producing hive a sugar syrup top off.

-The top honey producing hives are also the top varroa producing hives.  I will be performing alcohol washes on about 6 of those hives to ensure the varroa populations are below acceptable levels. 

-In the second half of September and late October I will hit every hive with several oxalic acid vapor treatments.  Although I can’t prove it I don’t think I lost any queens this summer as the result of either formic or oxalic acid treatments. 

FREE BEEKEEPING CLASSES

Heritage Honeybees has notified ECWBA that they will be offering free beekeeping classes this fall.  This would be ideal for someone interested in starting beekeeping next spring.  See info below.  NOTE: ECWBA endorses no suppliers or their products.   Also, ECWBA does not know if this class would qualify for Fond du Lac's class requirement.

We now have registration links posted on our website (www.heritagehoneybee.com) under the "Classes" tab for our free 3-part beekeeping class.  The class is designed for the beginner up to the veteran beekeeper and will cover:

• bee biology
• equipment
• package/nuc installation
• colony growth and development
• pest/disease management
• honey/wax harvesting
• winter preparation
• and more....

We are offering the same 3-part class on two separate schedules.  Choose one of the following when registering on the website:

Thursdays from 9am-4pm on Sept. 13th, 20th and 27th

or

Saturdays from 9am-4pm on Sept. 15th, 22nd, and 29th

 

We will provide coffee, tea, water.  Please bring a sack lunch.  Class registration will close once the class size reaches 40 for each series of dates.

Pass this along to anyone you know who is interested in becoming a beekeeper or wants to learn more.