About Bees – All about bees and bees products

When the nighttime weather starts turning colder in early autumn, mice start looking for appropriate winter nesting sites. A toasty warm hive is a desirable option. The mouse may briefly visit the hive on a cool night when bees are in a loose cluster. During these exploratory visits the mouse marks the hive with urine so she can find it later on. When winter draws nearer, the mouse returns to the marked hive and builds her nest for the winter. I can assure you that you don’t want this to happen. Mice do extensive damage in a hive during the winter. They don’t directly harm the bees, but they destroy comb and foundation and generally make a big mess. They usually leave the hive in early spring, long before the bees break winter cluster and chase them out or sting them to death . Nesting mice isn’t the surprise you want to discover during your early spring inspection. Anticipate mouse problems and take these simple steps to prevent them from taking up winter residence in your hive:

1. As part of winterizing your hive, use a long stick or a wire coat hanger to “sweep” the floor of the bottom board, making sure that no mouse already has taken up residence. Shoo them out if they have.

2. When you’re sure your furry friends are not at home, secure a metal mouse guard along the entrance of the hive. This metal device enables bees to come to and fro and provides ample winter ventilation, but the mouse guard’s openings are too small for Mrs. Mouse to slip through.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

Do bears like honey? Indeed they do! And they simply crave the sweet honey bee brood. (I’ve never tried it myself, but I suspect it’s sweet.) If bears are active in your area, taking steps to protect your hive from these lumbering marauders is a necessity. If they catch a whiff of your hive, they can do spectacular and heartbreaking damage, smashing apart the hive and scattering frames and supers far and wide. What a tragedy to lose your bees in such a violent way. Worse yet, you can be certain that once they’ve discovered our bees, they’ll be back, hoping for a second helping. The only really effective defense against these huge beasts is installing an electric ence around your apiary. Anything short of this just won’t do the trick. If you’re ever unlucky enough to lose your bees to bears, be sure to contact your state or local conservation department. You may qualify for remuneration for the loss of your bees. And the department may provide financial assistance for the installation of an electric fence.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

When a bear attacks a hive, it’s almost a guarantee that it will be back the next day. Therefore, although it would have been easier to take the messed up hive, and to leave the good hive there until early morning when we could tape it up and move it as a whole contained unit—with all the honeybees inside.

The small hive beetle is a small uniform dark brown to black beetle about 5-7mm long with “clubbed” antennae. Small Hive Beetle is native to Africa where it does not pose the same problems as it does in the U.S. It was first detected in the U.S. in the late 90’s and has since been found in 24 states. The spread has been aided by the commercial beekeepers migrating for pollination purposes, as well as the package bee industry.

The adult beetles are usually found toward the back of the hive on the bottom board, but can often be seen along the frame rests or running along the edges of the inner cover. The females will lay egg masses in protected crevasses in the hive. The larva feed on the honey and pollen. As they move about the hive they defecate forming a slimy mess which results in the honey fermenting. If the infestation is severe enough the bees will abandon the hive. Once the larva have matured they will leave the hive and burrow into the soil. There they will pupate into adult beetles. Soil conditions and temperature affects their ability to reproduce. The sand loams of southern regions are ideal for the larva once out of the hive, however, winters in the north retard the population growth.

Typically, a strong hive will keep the beetle population in check, however, if a colony is weak or failing the opportunistic small hive beetle will be attracted to that colony and desimate the colony. If you have hive beetles, it is important you maintain a clean honey house or extracting area and not store full equipment. Without the bees in the equipment to keep the hive beetles in check, they will reproduce and thus ruin the frames.

There are only two chemical treatments for hive beetle, Checkmite and GardStar. To treat with Checkmite, a strip is cut in half and then stapled to a piece of corrugated plastic. This is then slipped into the entrance of the hive with the strip facing down. As the bees case the beetles they seek refuge under the plastic and are exposed to the Checkmite. The second treatment, GardStar, is less likely to contaminate the wax and honey of the bee hive. A solution is mixed and the ground sprayed in a 16”-24” band around the hive(s). When the larva leave the hive to pupate in the soil they are killed by the GardStar.

from : “Brushy Mountain Beefarm”

Wax moths can do large-scale damage in a weak hive. But they don’t usually become a problem in a strong and healthy hive, because bees continually patrol the hive and remove any wax moth larvae they find. If you see wax moths, therefore, you probably have a weak colony. So keeping your bees healthy is the best defense against wax moths. Once you have an infestation in a live colony of bees, there is nothing you can do to get rid of them. It’s too late.The story is different when comb is stored for winter. With no bees to protect these combs, the wax is highly susceptible to invasion by wax moths. But in this case, steps can be taken to keep the moths from destroying the combs over the winter. The use of PDB crystals (para dichlorobenzene) on stored supers and hive bodies can kill the moths and larvae that would otherwise destroy the wax.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

During its life a female wax moth lays 300 to 600 eggs, with some females laying up to 1000 eggs. The eggs are about 0.5 mm long and are laid on combs or in cracks and crevices on the wooden parts of beehives. In warm conditions, the eggs hatch in about five days, but in cool conditions hatching may take 30 days. When hatched, the larvae are white and about 1 mm long. Fully grown larvae are greyish-white and about 28 mm long.

“From Various Internet Sites”

Ants can be a nuisance to bees. A few ants here and there are normal, and a healthy colony keeps the ant population under control. But every now and then things can get out of hand, particularly when the hive is too young or too weak to control the ant population. Sometimes simply more ants are around than the colony can handle. When ants overrun a colony, the bees may abscond (leave the hive). But you can take steps to control the ant population before it becomes a crisis. Two things that you can do if you notice more than a few dozen ants in the hive are

- Sending cinnamon to the rescue: Purchase a large container of ground

cinnamon from a restaurant supply company. Sprinkle the cinnamon liberally on the ground around the hive. Sprinkle some on the inner cover. Your hive will smell like a giant breakfast doughnut. Yummy! The bees don’t mind, but the ants don’t like it and stay away. Remember to reapply the spice after the rain washes it away.

- Creating a moat of oil: This technique is a useful defense against ants.

You’ll need a hive stand with legs. (This is a good idea even if you don’t have an ant problem, because raising the hive off the ground is a backsaver for you!). Place each of the stand’s four legs in a tin can — old tuna cans are fine. Fill the cans with motor oil. Old or new oil . . . it doesn’t matter which you use. The ants won’t be able to cross the “moat” of oil and thus are unable to crawl up into the hive . You may need to replenish the oil after heavy rains.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

Sugar and grease patties

Placing patties of sugar and grease in the hive is a holistic treatment for tracheal mites that you can (and should) use year-round (even during the honey harvest season — unless you are adding the wintergreen oil option). As the bees feed on the sugar, they become coated with grease. The grease impairs the mite’s ability to reproduce or latch onto the bees’ hairs. Whatever the scientific reason, the treatment works effectively and is your number-one natural defense against tracheal mites. Place one patty on the top bars of the brood chamber, flattening out the patty as needed to provide clearance for the inner cover and replacing it as the bees consume it. One patty should last a month or more. Here’s my recipe for grease patties: 11/2 pounds of solid vegetable shortening (such as Crisco) 4 pounds of granulated sugar 1/2 pound honey Optional: Add 1/3 cup of mineral salt (the orange/brown salt available at farm supply stores — it’s used to feed to livestock). Pulverize the salt in a blender, breaking it into a fine consistency. The bees seem to like it. Mix all these ingredients together until smooth. Form into about a dozen hamburger-size patties. Unused patties may be stored in a resealable plastic food bag and kept frozen until ready to use.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

Nowhere Land

How to control tracheal mite problems

Tracheal mite infestations are a problem, not a hopeless fate. You can take steps to use a number of techniques that I’ve listed in the following sections  prevent things from getting out of control. It isn’t a case of just one technique orking well. Play it safe by using a combination of some or all of these methods.

Menthol crystals

Menthol crystals are the same ingredient found in candies and cough drops. Menthol is derived from a plant, making it a natural alternative to chemical miticides. Prepackaged bags containing 1.8 ounces of menthol rystals are available from your beekeeping supplier. Place a single packet on the top bars of the brood chamber toward the rear of the hive. Setting the packet on a small piece of aluminum foil prevents the bees from chewing holes in the bag and carrying away the enthol. Bees are tidy and try their best to remove anything they don’t think belongs in the hive. Leave the menthol in the hive for 14 consecutive days when the outdoor temperature is between 60 and 80 degrees F. The menthol vapors are effective only at these temperatures. That means the product is temperature dependent — you can only use it when the weather is warm. Honey for human consumption must be taken off the hive whenever any medications are used. You can safely apply honey supers three to four weeks after medication is removed from the hive.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

Symptoms that may indicate tracheal mites

The only surefire way to detect tracheal mites involves dissecting a bee under a microscope — a little tricky for the novice, and not everyone has a dissection microscope in the hall closet. Whenever you suspect tracheal mites, call your state apiary inspector for information about how to have your bees inspected for tracheal mites. A few clues may indicate the presence of tracheal mites. But the symptoms, listed below, are unreliable because they also may indicate other problems.

- You see many weak bees stumbling around on the ground in front of the hive. (This condition could also be an indication of Nosema disease)

- You spot some bees climbing up a stalk of grass to fly, but instead they just fall to the ground. This happens because mites clog the trachea and deprive the bee of oxygen to its wing muscles.

- You notice bees with K-wings (wings extended at odd angles — not folded in the normal position).This also can be an indication of Nosema disease.

- Bees abandon the hive (abscond) in early spring despite ample honey supplies. This can happen even late in the fall when it’s too late to remedy the situation and making the time right for ordering package bees and starting anew in the spring.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

Another mite that can create serious trouble for your bees is the tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi) . These little pests are much smaller than the period at the end of this sentence and can’t be seen with the naked eye. Dissecting an adult bee and examining its trachea under magnification is the only way to identify a tracheal mite infestation. As its name implies, this mite lives most of its life within the bee’s trachea (breathing tubes). Mated female mites pass from one bee to another when the bees come in close contact with each other. Once the mite finds a newly emerged bee, she attaches to the young host and enters its tracheal tubes through one of the bee’s spiracles — holes that are part of the respiratory system. Within the trachea the mite lays eggs and raises a new generation. The tracheal mite causes what once was referred to as acarine disease of the honey bee (a rather old-fashioned term not used much these days). In my opinion, this mite causes more trouble for hobbyist beekeepers than Varroa. Early detection of bad infestations is difficult. As a result, tracheal mites can lead to the total loss of a colony before you’re even aware that your bees are infested. Infestations are at their worst during winter months when bees are less active. Her majesty isn’t laying eggs, so no new bees are emerging to make up for attrition. Winter also is when beekeepers don’t routinely inspect the colony. Thus, seemingly healthy colonies with plenty of food sometimes suddenly die during late winter or early spring.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.

Go au naturel!

You don’t always have to use chemicals to deal with Varroa mites. Integrated pest management (IPM) is the practice of controlling honey bee pests with the minimal use of chemicals.  As it relates to controlling Varroa mites, here are a couple of non-chemical options to consider.

Use Drone Comb to Capture Varroa Mites. Bee suppliers sell a special“drone” foundation that has larger hexagons imprinted in the sheet. The bees will only build drone comb on these sheets. That’s useful, because Varroa mites prefer drone brood over worker brood. By placing a frame of drone comb in each of your hives, you can “capture” and remove a many mites. Once the drone cells are capped, remove the frame and place it overnight in your freezer. This will kill the drone brood and also the mites that have invaded the cells. Then uncap the cells and place the frame (with the dead drone brood and dead mites back in the hive. The bees will clean it out (removing the dead drone brood and mites). The cells will get filled again, and you repeat the process.

Powdered Sugar Dusting to Control Varroa Mites. This involves dusting the bees with powdered sugar (note it’s best to find a powdered sugar without added corn starch, although some claim this is not so critical. Play it safe and ask your bee supplies for a “pure” powdered sugar). The idea behind this technique is that the powdered sugar knocks many of the mites off the bees, and the mites fall down through the screened bottom board and perish in the grass below the hive (this assumes you are using an elevated hive stand and a screened bottom board with the insert removed). Use this method when you note a mite problem in your hive(s).

Here’s the process:

1. Sift a pound of powdered sugar using a baking flour sifter. Do this twice to ensure no lumps. This should be done on a day with low humidity.

2. Put the sifted sugar into an empty (and cleaned), baby powder container (alternatively you can improvise your own container).

3. Smoke and open the hive. Remove frames one by one, and dust the bees with the sugar. The key operating word is “dusting” the bees . . . not coating them with loads of powdered sugar. You want to master a technique that makes light clouds of sugar dust — don’t shake the sugar directly on the bees.

4. Here’s where a frame perch comes in handy). Place the frame on the perch and do your dusting thing.

5. Avoid dusting any open cells. You just want to dust the backs of the bees.

6. Put the dusted frame back into the hive and repeat this process with each frame.

7. When done, but a little extra dusting along all the top bars.

This should be repeated once a week for two to three weeks.

From : “Beekeeping For Dummies” By Howland Blackiston.