Pests

I just got in from the beeyard, and am happy to report all is well.  We held our second Open Hive Day on Saturday the 20th and a good time was had by all.  Everyone got a chance to don a bee veil to get an up-close look at the hives, and I did a quick but thorough inspection of all three colonies.

Hive #3, which had been the straggler, seems to have caught up nicely.  I had been swapping a frame of brood from Hive #1 for an empty frame from #3 weekly, but those days are over.  So are the days of feeding (for the time being).  There is already a patch of Goldenrod blooming nearby, so I'm not so concerned about the summer dearth of nectar anymore.  I'll reassess the stores in the hives before winter, but they all seem to be in very good shape.

One thing to be concerned about during this season (and all year, really), are pests in the hive.  One such pest is the Small Hive Beetle (SHB).  It's a small beetle (duh) that moves into the hive, where the female will lay eggs.  The larvae feed on honey and pollen, leaving a slimy mess behind them, and then move into the soil below to pupate.  The best defenses against SHB are to have strong colonies to chase the beetles away, and to place the hives in full sun.  Check, and check.  I've seen SHB do some real damage in some hives, but thankfully I haven't spotted one yet at the TLC beeyard.  I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Another pest, and the most serious one facing honeybees today, is the varroa mite.  Varroa mites are small tick-like pest that feeds on the hemolymph of bees, and they are present to some degree in every hive.  They lay eggs in the cell of a developing bee larvae, where the developing mites latch on, breed, and emerge with the bee.  They can weaken bees significantly, and can lead to secondary infections.  There are several approaches to treating for them: chemical, organic, not treating at all, or anything in between. 

I'm going to follow some IPM (integrated pest management) strategies and only treat these hive when I deem necessary; and then only with what I consider a safe, non-chemical treatment.  The hives at TLC apiary are equipped with screened bottoms, which allow a small percentage of the mites to fall through, at which point they have a hard time making it back into the hive.  I can place a "sticky board" under that screen to capture the mites that fall in a given period to gauge the population within the hive, and make an informed decision about how I might proceed with managing them.  I decided my threshold for treating would be a count of 50 or more mites falling in a 24-hour period, and put the sticky boards in place last weekend.  Good News: when I went back to count the mites and come up with a 24-hour average, I got a count of 5, 9, and 0(!) on each hive!  I consider those very good numbers.  I'll do another count next month and see which way they are trending, but I'm pleased as punch for now.

Smooth Sailing

It's been a while since the last update, and that's because... not much is going on in the hives right now.  Starting sometime in July is the end of the early nectar flow in our area.  The colonies at TLC Apiary have built up very nicely, but they are going to have to coast for a little while. 

Hive #3 (the trouble maker) has a little catching up to do, since no eggs were laid in the brief period between when the original queen was pulled for the artificial swarm, and when the new queen was mating and began laying.  Lately, each time I visit, I've been pulling a frame of capped brood from Hive #1 (the rockstar) and trading it with an empty frame from #3.  Hive #1 can certainly spare it, and maybe even benefit from the extra space; and I think Hive #3 is just about caught up. 

Also, since they have drawn comb in all of their frames now, I'm going to stop feeding (finally).  Boiling water and mixing up sugar syrup is hands-down my least favorite part of beekeeping.  If they continue to thrive, and we have a decent fall nectar flow, I won't be feeding again this year (maybe never).

Last but not least, we had a great Open Hive Day last month.  About a dozen people made it out in the sweltering heat to get an up-close look at the hives.  A wary few donned bee veils and even held a frame of bees for me during an inspection.  I think a few people caught the bug, and we'll have some new beekeepers in the area next year!  There are some great photos of the event; check them out here.