29 March - Varroa Floor Debris
The new long hive has a varroa floor fitted and there is plenty of debris coming down.
This is two weeks worth of debris because the previous week I was unable to obtain methylated
spirit for floating the mites free of the debris. (Concentrated wind screen washer will also do
the job but is very expensive) Debris from the older dirtier combs in this hive can be seen in
the middle of the floor and paler wax and stuff is coming down from the natural comb frames at
the front of the hive (last year's new comb).
29 March Varroa Floor Open
OK - so I got this slide in upside down !? It shows the design of this hive with the varroa floor
ready to be slid back into its proper location underneath the brood nest. This is a long hive and
there is another identical varroa floor at the other end (which is currently without bees). You can
almost see the entrance holes drilled in the front of this hive, (3 holes of about 1 inch diameter),
but the bees much prefer the gap left by my imperfect construction technique at the bottom of the hive.
29 March - Floor Debris
This is the debris in a M&S mini pork sausages plastic tub - something a little narrower and taller
would have been easier to use. Parasitologists studying parasitic worms float the eggs free of the
faeces using concentrated salt solutions but wax particles float even in water and so methylated
spirit is necessary. Mr Crumbly is wondering whether a varroa equivalent of the McMaster slide might
be devised for the accurate enumeration of mites, (a McMaster slide is like a haemocytometer, though
much lower resolution and for worm eggs and larvae, not blood cells). It could be called the Mc Crumbly
varroa enumerator - we will get on to it straight away.
29 March Varroa Floating in Meths
Yes - as I had been told this works really well for floating mites. The debris has remained at the
bottom of the pot and the pesky mites can be seen floating on the surface of the spirit. It is
clear that the treatment of this colony with lactic acid in January did not kill absolutely all the
mites. It is hoped to do some experiments with trapping mites in order to reduce their numbers during
the summer.
29 March Straining Varroa
The supernatant spirit was strained through kleenex tissues so that the mites could easily be counted.
The debris was then removed from the remaining spirit which was returned to the bottle. Meths is poisonous
so care needs to be taken, wear gloves and try not to breathe in too much. A 5 litre container should be
enough to last the season if the meths is recycled.
29 March Varroa Ready for Counting
These are the mites on the kleenex tissue. I suppose they could probably now be floated in strong saline
solution before counting in the Mc Crumbly mite enumerator. Some of the mites are dark brown in colour and
the younger mites are much paler. It would be interesting to keep a tally of the number of mites of different
ages which are dropping during the year if that is possible. There were about 160 mites dropped over 14 days
which is equivalent to 10 + per day so something will have to be done later in the year.
The KTBH's have very low mite infestation but received winter treatment of oxalic acid, not lactic acid.
Perhaps oxalic is more effective but there are many other possible reasons so just carry on monitoring.
22 March - Valley Opposite Skeptic Apiary
This field at the bottom of the valley is sometimes planted with oil seed rape and last
year I inspected and found there were small oil seed rape seedlings growing there. We're
for it next year thought I but in fact these were only plants seeded from previous year's
crops. Over the winter the pigeon's had a field day and shredded every seedling they could
find so now the land is lying quite fallow. The pigeons are waddling around trying to fly
but they're now just toooo fat!
22 March - Big Slug Invades My Hive!!
Oh my gawd - its a slug - but she's not doing very much harm and actually she's a he's a
she because slugs are hermaphrodites. She's allright at the moment because the bees are
not to numerous and are at the other end of the hive any way. Later in the summer the bees
would propolise this hapless beastie to the floor and walk all over her. I will evict her
before this happens but she can stay for now - we don't grow vegetables and any way not many
slugs will climb all the way up into this hive.
22 March - Kenyan Top Bar Hive
The KTB little end (weaker colony) has been given some syrup in case they should falter
before the glorious spring weather is upon us. I know some people don't think it a
good idea or feed pollen supplements as well at the same time. This feed was
given because I do not wish the bees to perish through lack of syrup which can very
easily be provided - they will almost certainly be allright.
The colony was packed round with dried allisum stalks to help to keep things warm.
As you can see there is some very nice clean comb inside but I haven't
disturbed the bees other than to feed or peek in from outside - next week will be
time enough for that. Once the hive is strong enough I will help them clear out all
the debris from the dried stalks which will enable me to interpret results from the
varroa floor debris more accurately.
22 March - Inspection Large Long Hive
There are plenty of bees on the top bars of this hive today. The colony have come
through the season in excellent shape with lots of brood and plenty of stores. Moving the
frames apart you can see there is lots of sealed brood. As you can see the frames sit on
the floor and lean against each other. This makes them incredibly easy to manipulate. This
frame has two top bars which helps the bees to build their comb evenly within the confines
of the frame but purist top bar beeks would say that this breaks up the brood nest
unnecessarily. As you can see the middle of the floor is composed of rows and rows of kebab
skewers which allow varroa to drop through but are too narrowly spaced to let the bees
through. This is good because trapping varroa is very important. Next week's blog will be
about the success or otherwise of this varroa floor and an estimation of how many mites are
living in this hive.
22 March - Primrose
Our garden is full of primrose at this time of year and though I have never
seen a bee visiting a primrose it is always good to know that spring is well and
truly on the way. Primroses love our chalky soil for some reason, which is good because
nothing much else does.
22 March - First Dandelion
This Sunday I saw the first dandelion of the season. Beek's love dandelions
because they bring in nectar and pollen and stain the top bars of your hive a beautiful
orangey yellow colour. Don't spray dandelions, or dig them up, preserve some for the bees
in a sunny corner of the garden. There's not much pollen or nectar around at this time
of year and too much of the garden chemicals already.
15 March 2009 - Pussy Willow Has Arrived
When the pussy willow comes out we know spring has arrived and the world is waking up
again to start another season.
Today is blue skies and a warm gentle breeze. Allelulia, its time to give the overwintered
colonies a quick look through
to make sure they have sufficient stores. How quickly the season has changed and how glad
am I to see the back of winter. We
stopped on the way back from chapel to take this picture of the male catkin framed against
the cerulean blue of a beautiful
spring morning.
Horse Chesnut
Another welcome sight is the horse chesnut budding. It's not that its a prolific source of nectar but
the brick red pollen which the bees collect from it is a milestone in the beekeeping calendar and a welcome
change from the mountains of yellow oil seed rape pollen with which we will shortly be besieged. Horse chestnuts
have been having a tough time recently and we can only hope that things will improve.
15 March First Pollen - Kenyan Topbar Hive
Here is the first sign that things are going well this spring. The bees here are fetching polllen into the
top bar hive. Pussy willow pollen and perhaps they have found a small corner of early oil seed rape which doesn't
really start until April. The front of the hive is clean and there are no signs of crawling bees.
15 March Brown Cappings - Crystalline Honey
These are some cells containg crystalline overwintered stores. I suspect it is ivy honey collected in
the autumn, though why the cappings are brown I have no idea. The honey is not unpleasant to the taste which
is good as when ivy nectar is comeing into the hive it smell rank. When treating this hive with lactic acid
in the spring a largish patch of uncapped crystalline honey was seen - it looked like ice cream that had been
sucked and at first glance I mistook it for open brood. It is probably not unlike the candy we make for the
bees but probably better for them.
09 March Last of the Snowdrops
Last of the snowdrops and hopefully the last of the winter weather. They look a bit tatty to be honest but
I was too idle to go out and take a proper picture when they were at their best. Come to think of it they were
probably covered by the unseasonal blizards, such is the hazards of being a snowdrop.
February 2009 - Snow and Ice Descend
The
weather has taken a turn for the worse this month and we are bound by some of the heaviest snow and ice for many years. .
Here
is the Kenyan Top Bar hive in the snow. There
is plenty of
clearance from the ground so this hive is unlikely to be blocked by
snow drifts in a typical British winter.
This large
long hive is well clear of the weather and the bees are keeeping snug and cosy. The cluster has begun to break up
and bees can be seen under the feed hole.
Some people go
swimming in the Serpentine in January but my bees go on Winter
holidays. This hardy bee is collecting water and remained on
the snow for nearly five minutes before going home. If you
look carefully you can see she is wearing crampons.
Sunday 18 January - Varroa Drop Down
There was a lot of debris
to sort through but not too many varroa thankfully.The bees
have plenty of stores at the present time but
towards the end of March things often look thin. That
shouldn't be a problem this year as there are fields and fields of Oil
Seed Rape just across the valley, about half a mile away. Provided the
weather is reasonably warm they will be fine with this, though I do
remember one season which was so poor that the bees had to be fed after
the OSR had finished flowering.
Sunday 11 January 14:00 hrs
It has been a cold winter so far but not too much snow where we are. I have left it nearly to late to give the bees their winter treatment for varroa but the Post Office have delivered a package from Thornes containing, four oxalic acid trickle treatments, in two bottles, and one big bottle of lactic acid. The acid treatments must be administered before the weather warms up, which is entirely possible next week.
The apiary is muddy underfoot and the
afternoon is cool, but not freezing, with patchy cloud cover and a
light breeze. These conditions should be suitable but this afternoon is
about the last chance to treat during this winter. I light the smoker
just in case and put on stout black household gloves, bee gear, eye
protection and welly boots. The two long hives will be treated with
lactic acid and then the two top bar colonies will be assessed,
The new long
hive is still very well
stocked with bees and going rapidly through the frames a cautious blast
of acid to each comb face was administered. From the insert it doesn't
look like this colony is dangerously affected by varroa and lactic acid
could always be applied again later in the season if there is a
problem. The bees need little encouragement to go home once the
treatment is over and I have now seen my first queen of the season. The
second long hive is similarly treated and also seems in quite good
fettle. I prefer lactic acid to oxalic acid which if very
toxic and could harm the bees or the beekeeper. One thing
acids might affect would be the natural ferment of pollen which occurs
in the storage of bee bread.
Now for the top bar hive colonies, one either end of the Kenyan Top Bar hive. Removing the lid and assessing the smaller of the two colonies, there's not much to be seen and in the autumn the bees have very firmly stuck all the combs to the side of the hive, so nothing's coming out of it today, except for some rather irritated bees. This would appear to be a case for oxalic acid treatment with one of the trickle treatment bottles. The bottle incorporates a very nifty dosing device which is simple, neat, accurate and safe to use. It is much pleasanter not to have to mess with syringes and bottles containing unpleasant chemicals - nice one Thornes.
A modest treatment is trickled into the first top bar hive but the second colony is obviously quite strong and gets the full 50 ml. It is not necessary to remove any combs which is a good thing because it wouldn't be possible until the weather warms up anyway. Cold wax comb would be very brittle and fragile and this is not a good time to intefere. The brilliant white comb the bees have built in their first season is particularly impressive and a more thorough inspection in the spring is keenly anticipated - good old bees.
During the treatment a very small amount of sealed brood is seen in the long hives. I was taken aback by the sight of what appeared to be a large patch of uncapped brood but on closer inspection it appeared to be crystalised white honey, probably ivy, which the bees had 'sucked'.
The bees are not very amused, 'Have you any idea what the date is?' they ask, 'Buzz off and leave us in peace until March', so I do. Next week we'll see if there are any varroa on the inserts and then in February it will be time to check on stores.
Into an outside drain is poured the remaining 20 ml of oxalic acid followed by flushing and rinsing of the bottle. The second, unopened bottle, is retained in case anybody needs a spare treatment in the very near future. Otherwise, it will have to be disposed of. The lactic acid will be a useful resource for the coming season, so I leave it in the bee shed.