New Queens

We’re pleased to report that we have new queens in the colonies we divided four weeks ago. These young queens will have been reared by the worker bees following being split away from the “mother” colony. The new queens will have emerged a week or two ago. In some colonies we have already found that the she is laying eggs so will have been out on her mating flight.

I caught a photo of one of our new queens, which is nice because it shows the new (as yet unmarked) queen, and also a worker and a drone.

You can see that the queen is longer and has bigger sections to her abdomen and no stripes.

The worker has a much shorter but striped abdomen.

The drone (male) on the other hand is all round much larger, wider and darker than the workers. And they have huge eyes that meet at the top of their head.

Honey

We’re very pleased to see that more nectar is coming into the hives and the bees are busy converting it to honey. We have some more “supers” (the smaller top boxes that hold honey) on order as the current ones are getting full already! Honey will be extracted in late
summer.

Hive splits

April is a busy time for honeybee colonies, and with the good weather we have had over the last couple of weeks, our hives have been expanding rapidly. We’re delighted with this, because the “supers” (the top boxes where the bees store honey) on both hives are now full of honey!














So rapid expansion is good news in a way for the beekeeper, but it is also a big concern. When a colony gets too full and runs out of space they will generally form a swarm, and half of the worker bees and the existing queen will leave the colony to set up home elsewhere. Beekeepers put a lot of effort into trying to avoid that happening, because it is rare that you can catch them and get them back. So you suddenly end up with a colony half the size.

One way to deal with potential swarming is to split the hives before they get chance to swarm. The queen and half of the workers are moved into a new hive (so they think they have swarmed), and the remaining bees are left behind in the original hive (as if the bees had already swarmed and left).

So with the guidance of our mentor Mark we split both our hives into two. But the orange hive was so close to swarming (literally a day or so) we were also able to set up two new “nucs” (nucleus colonies) in the small box.



During this work on Wednesday I caught the photo below, which I have annotated to show some of the interesting features of a hive.



Unsealed worker larvae. These are the baby bees before they pupate. Look for the white grubs, curled in the bottom of the cells. These are fed by the worker bees.

Sealed worker brood. Once the larvae are ready to pupate, the workers seal the cells with “biscuit” coloured wax caps. From these will emerge young adult work bees.

Sealed drone brood. Drones (male bees) are bigger. You can recognise sealed drone cells because they have a dome-shaped wax cap. So our colonies are rearing drones, which tells us they are preparing to swarm (drones are needed to mate with the new queens).

Queen cup. When a colony is preparing to swarm it will build a number of “queen cells”, one of which will produce the new queen to head the colony after the old queen has left with the swarm to set up camp elsewhere. The workers start by building a “queen cup”, into which the current queen lays an egg.

Sealed Queen Cell. Once there is an egg in the queen cup, the workers build it into a long cell that hangs down vertically (rather than being horizontal like all other cells). The presence of this cell in our orange hive was the red flag: once a queen cell is sealed the queen is encouraged to leave the hive with a swarm. So we caught it just in time.

Looking forward, we have a lot to keep an eye on over the next few months. We still need to inspect the old colonies to ensure they do not build up and try to swarm again. And we need to see that the new colonies get a new queen, and that she goes out and mates and starts laying eggs.

First inspection of 2019

It was a very nice day today and Ste and I did our first inspection of 2019.
We were very pleased to see that both colonies are doing well and have survived winter fine. They have lots of stored food and are bringing in lots of pollen at the moment. The queens were well in both colonies and have both started laying eggs so new young worker bees are now starting to emerge.
Here are a few photos.

Winter Varroa Treatment

The Varroa mite is a parasitic mite that feeds on honeybees and their
larvae. It rejoices in the latin name varroa destructor.
It first appeared in the UK in 1992, and has since spread across the
entire country and is found in every beehive. Despite its latin name, the
varroa mite does not immediately destroy a colony. To do so would
result in killing itself as well. Instead the mites reproduce gradually, build
their numbers over time. Beekeepers have learnt to monitor and manage
varroa mite numbers so they do not get too high.
Varroa mites prefer to feed on larvae when they are sealed in their
honeycomb cells developing into adult bees. This results in weak and
disabled bees emerging. These are unable to contribute to the work of
the colony and are instead a burden. If the number of varroa mites gets
too high the final result is colony collapse, where the healthy bees can
no longer sustain the colony.

Varroa mites on the back of a bee.

How do we monitor varroa mite numbers?

Modern beehives incorporate a tray at the bottom of the hive that allows a sheet of board to be inserted to catch anything that falls from within the hive. Much of what falls is pollen, but occasionally a varroa mite will fall too. The “varroa board” is generally left under the hive for a week and then removed and the number of varroa mites counted. The number of mites on the board can be used to extrapolate the varroa population in the hive.
Varroa mites are tiny (less than 1mm across), but they have a distinctive shape and shine to their outer shell. With practice they can be counted fairly easily. This is my daughter counting mites from our bees.

How do we reduce the number of varroa mites?

It is not possible to eliminate varroa mites all together. But there are a number of techniques that can be used to reduce their numbers. Once the numbers are reduced to tens rather than thousands in the hive it takes some months for their numbers to increase again.
Mite numbers can be reduced by using various pesticides that have been developed specially for beekeeping. In addition, there are non-chemical techniques that can help to reduce mite numbers, such as having an open mesh floor rather than a solid floor to the hive. Most beekeepers use a mixture of these techniques to keep the mite numbers as low as practical.
One very effective pesticide treatment is oxalic acid, which is mixed with sugar syrup and applied directly to the bees. This is best done when there is no brood – that is, no larvae sealed in honeycomb cells. This tends to happen in winter when the bees are dormant. With all the mites out of honeycomb cells they are much more vulnerable to the effect of the pesticide.
So in mid January we applied oxalic acid treatment to our bees. It’s a quick job: once the chemical is mixed with the sugar syrup it simply needs to be gently squirted over the bees in the hive. Because it is cold outside the hive should not be open for long. We made sure the hives were only open for a couple of minutes. As you can see from the photos, we still got covered in sleepy bees!

A week after the treatment we checked the varroa boards again. If you look closely at the photo below you can see hundreds of mites have died and dropped out of the hive. Result.

Winter Preparations Update

What do honey bees do in winter?

Honey bees are unique in that the whole colony rides out the cold of the winter. Other similar insects such as wasps and bumblebees die at the end of the season and only the queen survives to the next year by hibernating. Not so with honey bees! They have adapted to be able to store food for the winter (that is what honey is!).

During very cold periods, the bees form a cluster inside the hive with the queen at the centre. They vibrate their wings to generate heat, which keeps the cluster at about 20C. This uses energy, so if they run out of food stores the whole colony can die.

What have we been doing to ensure they have enough food?

Every beekeeper needs to ensure their colonies go into winter with as much stores as possible. How much a colony needs can vary (depending on the weather and also how active the bees are), but generally they need 20-30kg of food to survive.

So we’ve been feeding our bees sugar syrup through September and October, which they have collected and taken down into the hive and stored in honeycomb so it is close to them when it’s cold.

We have been trying a couple of different feeders, both of which are called “rapid feeders”. They are placed on top of the hive, and the bees access the sugar syrup by climbing up a central column, over the top of it, and down to the syrup. We have one small white feeder which holds 2 litres of syrup, so needs to be topped up every week at least. We also have green “jumbo” feeders which work in the same way but hold up to 3 gallons!!

We have found that the bees were very hungry, and they have taken everything we have given them.

Will that be enough food for winter?

Possibly not. Beekeepers use a technique called “hefting”, which is basically lifting the edge of the hive without opening it, to gauge whether the hive has become lighter. A lighter hive will mean they probably need more food.

During the cold months when the bees are very inactive they will not make the journey up into rapid feeders to consume syrup. So instead we’ll feed them a solid food which is like sugar fondant icing. This can be placed right on top of the hive frames so the bees can access it without having to travel very far.

What else can cause bees to die over winter?

The other primary cause of winter losses is disease. The most common bee parasite is the varroa mite, which reached the UK in the 1980s and has now spread to every colony in the country.

There are a number of ways to reduce the number of varroa mites in a beehive. One of them is to apply a treatment (oxalic acid) in the coldest winter months. We will be doing this in early January.

Pests

The most common pests that can damage a beehive in the winter months are mice and woodpeckers.

Mice can squeeze through the hive entrance and make a nest at the bottom of the hive, away from the bee cluster above. This causes a lot of damage, so we have some mouseguards to fit to the hive entrances to make it impossible for mice to get in.

Woodpeckers can peck at the side of the hive to try to access the bees and honey inside. This can be prevented with chicken wire, but it depends if we have woodpeckers in the area as to whether we’ll need to do this.

When do the bees become active again?

It all depends on the weather. Sometimes if the weather is mild they can be out flying in January or February, but there is very little for them to forage at that time of year. So really we don’t want them to become active until the first spring flowers start appearing.

Why didn’t we have any honey this year?

Our colonies are new and we only received them at the beginning of July. They spent the summer building up their numbers and making honeycomb. Because we started late they did not have time to make enough honey for us to harvest. What they did make we have left for them!

Will we have any honey next year?

We hope so! Honey is generally harvested in mid to late summer.

Feeding the bees

With autumn here, every beekeeper is thinking about ensuring that their bees have enough food to last them through the long cold winter months.

Honey bees are unique in that the whole colony rides out the cold of the winter. Other similar insects such as wasps and bumblebees die at the end of the season and only the queen survives to the next year by hibernating. Not so with honey bees! They have adapted to be able to store food for the winter (that is what honey is!).

So every beekeeper needs to ensure their colonies go into winter with as much stores as possible. How much a colony needs can vary (depending on the weather and also how active the bees are), but generally they need 20-30kg of food to survive.

So we’ve been feeding our bees sugar syrup over the last few weeks, which they collect and take down into the hive and store in honeycomb so it is close to them when its cold.

We have been trying a couple of different feeders, both of which are called “rapid feeders”. They are placed on top of the hive, and the bees access the sugar syrup by climbing up a central column, over the top of it, and down to the syrup. We have one small white feeder which holds 2 litres of syrup, so needs to be topped up every week at least. We also have a green “jumbo” feeder which works in the same way but holds up to 3 gallons!!

We have found that the bees are very hungry, and they have taken everything we have given them. So far they have devoured 3 gallons of syrup (across two hives), and we’ve given them more that they are currently working on.

Guest beekeeper

We had a guest beekeeper at our inspection last week. Mark is a very experienced beekeeper and tutor in beekeeping. I’ve been promising to invite him to an inspection all summer. So last week we finally managed to get it organised.

We were very pleased that we did – Mark has a wealth of experience and to have him come and check over our bees was very reassuring. In particular, he was checking that the bees are preparing well for their winter dormancy. Honeybees are unique in that the whole colony rides out the winter, rather than just the queen (as with bumblebees, wasps and hornets). But to be able to do this they have to make sure that they have enough food to be able to survive the cold months when there is nothing available outside. We call this food “honey”. This is exactly why honeybees are kept by humans (rather than bumblebees or wasps): so they can steal some of the surplus honey. But beekeepers have to be sure that enough supplies are left for them to survive. They need quite a lot: generally 20-30lbs of honey per colony.

Mark also checked that the bees’ brood nest is big enough for them for the winter. He was concerned that they have been “chimneying”, which is building a tall thin nest that spans both the upper and lower brood box. So he suggested a slightly radical re-arrangement of the frames called “checkerboarding”, which as the name suggests, involves moving the frames around so each frame of brood is separated by an empty frame.

It will take our bees a few weeks to build out their nest to incorporate these frames, but I’m very pleased to see that a week later we’ve had nice warm weather and the bees have been very active. So hopefully the stores have been coming in.

When hive activity slows down through autumn, we’ll be doing fewer inspections which will probably mean fewer blog posts. But keep watching for new posts anyway. There’s still more to do this season before it all goes quiet.

Spot our queen! Red 54.