By starting about 8 weeks prior to our first flow, we are able to have about 3 good brood flushes before the season really kicks off. We also need to make sure that they have adequate food stores or they will starve. Part of my management also requires us leave colonies wrapped much later than typically normal as we don’t want to see chilled brood. Yes, beekeeping in the north has its challenges but we also are fortunate in that we have a long broodless period which helps with treating for Mites. We also don’t have issues with wax moths or hive beetles like some areas do. I saw my first hive beetles this year at a friends house. They have about 100 colonies that border blueberry barrens. There are hundreds of colonies brought up from the south to this farm for pollination. It will eventually cause problems with hive beetles but we are actively trying out a few methods of control to keep them at bay before they become a problem.

Many people in the state have seen one or two beetles.
My friends that I mentioned have the worst numbers in the state. Our state Apiarist was called to do a presentation in Ontario about SHB and she brought my friends with her as they have the most experience with them. She always makes fun of them because they are the only ones in Maine with real SHB problems. Together we have all tried to use different methods of control. Beetle shims seem to work the best but none of us can afford to put them on every hive. I purchased some towels to try and they trapped a few. My mentor started seeing some beetles this year and he contacted his “commercial beekeeper friends”
Down South and they had him use some CD cases full of some special mixture. That seemed to work for him. The State Apiarist is using all of us as test subjects to see what works best so that we can formulate a plan. And yes, I have heard that they are capable of vectoring in disease. That will be a game changer. Our clubs Holiday Party is next week and the State Apiarist is attending. I will pick her brain and ask lots of questions as I always do.
If you southern beeks have any recommendations, I am all ears...

Some of my hives are fully infested with them as in hundreds of them.  So far the hives have been strong enough to keep them under control.  When I go to feed liquid syrup on certain hives with bad infestations I watch the bees run them up through the screen in the hive top feeder.  It really looks like the scene from Indiana Jones or whatever the movie was that the flesh eating beetles came out of the pyramids in hordes.

When I see this I worry about the next visit to the hive.  My experience is that as long as the hive is queenright it does well.  Once you lose a queen it is hard to get the population back up and eventually the hive fails.

So in addition to a strong hive I feel that you need a good queen that is able to replace brood as needed in a very timely manner.  Adding a virgin queen or letting them make their own takes to long and the population falls to far.

Just my opinion from my observations.

It was placed on the frame top bars. I will have to ask him what was in it.

Following up - here is whats happening with Brushy Mountain:

https://www.journalpatriot.com/news/brushy-mtn-bee-farm-closed-in-receivership/article_c0c88f0c-f7cb-11e8-adac-4bfc157f9d5f.html

Edible foulbrood vaccine created!

So I asked him last night and he said it was some insecticides which he wasn’t happy with. He ended up using Lime on the bottom boards and piled it up in the corners. He also used the towels that I gave him and he said that they were fairly successful.

Bee Built is also closing.

When sugar is on sale, but only in 4# bags...

Attached File

Sometimes I seriously envy the beekeepers to my south :)

I have my two top bar hives wrapped with foam insulation, with a candy tray in each one. The candy tray feeds them, plus it helps to regulate the moisture in the hive.

What are your winters like there?

Kind of variable. This year, so far we've had zero snow or rain. Some years we have a white Christmas; in 2006, we had record (18" +) snowfall.
Temps get well  below freezing, like down into the teens. When the daytime temps get above 50 or so, I see a few scouts flying around the hive. (Or maybe it's just someone who wants to take a dump make a cleansing flight.)

Merry Christmas to all! Did you get any bee Christmas presents?

Wife gave me a year subscription to American Bee Journal!.

Hives in shady areas get hundreds of SHB. Hives in the sun have less of them. Some people use Fipronil in CD cases or corrugated plastic signs, but I would never want that in my hives. Just keep strong hives in the sun.
Also, queenless hives are much more susceptible to pests...so keep them queenright. And...

MERRY CHRISTMAS. : )

MC and HNY to you, too, Kitties!

Fed pollen patties last week. Putting out 10 gallons of feed tomorrow, and 10 gallons in a week or so. 10 gallons has 56 lbs. of sugar in it, as well as Honey B Healthy and some Amino B Booster mixed in. Getting them built up to do splits. I love beekeeping in Florida in the winter!

Meanwhile here in Maine

Happy New Year Kitties!!!

Do you have any hypotheses about why SOME hives are so badly infested while others are not?
No idea other than being queenless and weakening.  Maybe also in a hopeless(to them) state.
I wish there was a way to trap them when that happens.
There probably is but I was under time constraints so I could only wish them the best.
And yet the bees do not attack or kill the beetles.
There is not a lot the bees can do except to harass them and chase them around.  They can't sting them and i am not sure they could bite the legs or antenna off.

When you do splits, do you get a queen for them, or hope they make their own?

What kind of price did you get per bag?

I got this for $1 per bag...
Attached File

I think about $1.48 a bag.

I think I posted about Ramsay's work some time ago. He postulated that Varroa, instead of simply sucking the blood from a honeybee, attacks the fat body, which acts sort of like a human's liver. Here's another article which goes into more depth.

Here's a link to the article.

I have not posted in this thread I think.

We have one hive that we started from a package last year.  We live in the desert so feed is limited.

We do have access to an alfalfa farm where we will put this hive this spring and will do one more hive here in town.

We fed our bees candy in early December.  That was a four pound bag with a little water and some pro-biotic.

I made some more the other day and found that they had only eaten about half of what I previously put in there.  I added some then left it alone.

This winter hasn't been too bad, and we get a lot of sun.  We have even seen a few bees out and about on the nicer days.

One question I do have is replacing the queen.

Is it necessary?  Maybe every two years?  What prompts replacing one?

We are getting ready to order our next hive and are debating on whether or not to get a new queen for our existing hive.

There are many reasons why you may choose to replace your existing queen. If the colony feels that she is underperforming or there are other problems with her, they may elect or have already chosen to replace her.
I choose to mark my queens and clip one wing so as to keep track of their age. I am a strong proponent of replacing queens on a one to two year cycle. Colonies headed by young queens are more productive, less susceptible to problems and overwinter better. Now, you need to determine what type of Queens you would like as most races/ lines/ genotypes all have different characteristics and some may work better for your climate than others and depending upon what you are looking for, some will perform better for you than others.
Some things to look for in your queens
1. Good Temperament.
2. Overwinter ability
3. Honey production
4. Disease resistance
5. Hygienic behavior
6. Varroa Tolerance.
The list of traits goes on and on and queen breeders select based on desired traits and characteristics. If you have any questions about types or races or how to successfully introduce a new queen, feel free to ask away.
You could also make a split from your existing colony and let them make a new queen for you. I would only do that if you are comfortable with what you have queen wise and the surrounding drone population. I can walk you through that process if you would like.
Hopefully this helps...

What he said... Attached File

Thank you for the advice.

I also called the supplier where our bees came from.  His biggest thing was to pay attention to the brood pattern.

He also suggested a possible split, but we are not going to do that this year.  We are going to let the hive bee and watch it this summer.

We also ordered today a full hive from that supplier (nuc in a complete 10 frame box).

It should be here in April.

This hive we have now will get moved a few miles to a farm, and raise the new hive in town.

Thanks for the advice.

Just checking in. I'm not sure there's been a month yet where I haven't checked my hives this winter. If it's 60+ degrees, I'll put a little sugar on them.

I did two oxalic dribble treatments in December, never did a might count. So far all the hives seem to be hanging in there, including the water meter box removal I did in September and kept in a plywood nuc with quart jar feeders and a deep frame of honey I stole from another hive in August. I've been surprised that I've actually been able to do that one right.

I've done one small protein patty already. It's funny though, at our January bee meeting, the members started talking about it being too early to start feeding protein even though the bees were bringing in pollen and flying and by the end of the meeting, the other half of the room had them talked into starting to feed protein patties. One half says you're doing it wrong, the other half says you're doing it right. Dandelions and henbit are just starting to bloom here.

I think I'm switching over to bucket top feeders. I had two hives not do well with the frame feeders in October. Not sure what it was. I also had a top feeder in a super from Mann Lake. I seem to find a couple dozen dead every time I check that feeder, otherwise the colony is fine. So I ordered in a bunch of one gallon buckets and I'm going to make dedicated feeder boxes out of 1x10's, build some inner covers with a round hole, etc.

Every somewhat warm weekend when I'm not working, I've been dragging my table saw out on my driveway and building. I cut up plywood for a bunch of nucs before Christmas, put one together for my sister who has a few hives. AND I'm trying to put together a long langstroth. I sat in on a seminar about top bar hives, that's not really for me, but maybe the long lang is. Finally ponied up for a dado blade, it's all or nothing now. I just need another warm weekend.

I got 7 queens on order and two double deep hives that seemed to be jammed packed (and I didn't give them any protien). I'm gonna have to play games to keep them from swarming too soon. I'm pondering if I'll get away with just adding a 3rd deep. I'm going to attempt either 3 way or 4 way splits on those. Single splits on the smaller hives.

So God willing, a good income tax return and some  decent weather, I could be up to 12 hives by May 1. I'm spending so much time right now trying to keep it all straight in my head, I can't hardly sleep at night.

You really start to notice differences in your bees once you have a few hives with genetics from completely different areas. I bought in 3 nucs from a place in NE Texas last year. Opened the boxes in the suppliers yard, checked the brood pattern, rejected one, picked another.

Two of those boxes stayed in my yard. The third box went to a friend. His bees were fine till about September, then they were dead. I don't know why. My two hives did ok, we were able to pull honey off both the first year, but one of them was so aggressive, I hurt my ankle running from them and requeened that hive two weeks later. So that leaves that one original hive. Right now it is the poorest condition of all my hives.

So I'm not happy with whatever genetics were in those particular bees. That queen in that last original hive will get replaced.

I'm just using it as an example. If you buy a cow with a pointy butt, you're gonna have calves with a pointy butt. You may not know any better till you see your neighbor's cows and how much more muscular they are than your cows.

It's supposed to warm up to 37/40 this weekend. I guess the current cold snap will determine if they'll be alive or dead.

if they survive the winter, I'll do a split (if landowner is OK with it). If not, just new packages. At least they won't have to spend a lot time and energy on building comb.

Both were fine when I checked jan 6th. I went by about a week and half ago to make sure the hive enterences weren't blocked with snow. Tapping on the hive body didn't produce any sound, but that doesn't really mean anything.

Well today was nice here and the bees were out and about for a while.  My three year old took one for the team with a sting to the left eye brow while helping her mom in the yard. My guess is the bees were attracted to the colored bows in her hair.

We have also ordered a Nuc, which will be here mod April.

We have secured permission for placement of the current hive and at least one more.

Not sure if we are going to place the Nuc we ordered our there with our current hive and order another for here in town, or just put this hive out there and raise the one we already ordered here in town.

I think if we did that (a total of three) then we would have a good way to evaluate next spring and decide to start doing our own splits at that time.  I am not sure if three hives is enough diversity.

Both of my hives didn't survive the polar vortex. Plenty of stores as well as the feed I've given them.

Ordering 2 new packages.

What were your mite loads like in the fall? Do you insulate them for winter?

My hives made it through the cold. No insulation. Open screened bottoms. -10 with 20mph+ sustained winds. One lid even blew off in the subzero wind and it lived.

I ran an OAV today.

My only winter prep I focused on this year is mite load, ventilation, acceptable food stores.

Soon I’ll add pollen patties and some sugar, with syrup following as soon as temps (and forceast!) permit to stimulate brood.

This year I want to be in swarm prevention mode by April 1st with a concerted effort towards bringing the biggest possible non-swarmed hives through the spring flows.

I’ll be yanking brood frames when necessary and adding empty comb. Brood frames will go in any splits or weaker hives.

And I am going to attack varroa from every angle early and often, since I intend to create mega hives that will rear varroa like crazy!

We’ll see how it goes.

No insulation, and I have to confess I didn't do counts. I did treat them regularly. That WILL change this year.
The last time I could to a visual check was Jan 6th, and they had nice big clusters, a bit bigger than the proverbal football-more like a rugby ball.
Plenty of stores too, as well as the sugar and sugar cakes I had in there.

I honestly think swarming could be a possibility this year too, since they won't have to concentrate on building comb so much this year. One of my hives did swarm last year, I simply requeened it because I wasn't in a position to split the hive then.

I think the best way to prevent swarms with packages is to put them on a mix of bare and drawn foundation. Then keep expanding the brood nest with new drawn frames as things fill up.  That kept my packages from swarming last year for the most part, and drew lots of new comb as well.

Man, spare drawn comb is probably the most important tool in beekeeping!