Storing Honey Supers

Some beekeepers say that their greatest beekeeping asset is their frames of drawn comb. It takes considerable time and resources of carbohydrates for the bees to produce honeycomb. The comb is produced by young bees that secrete beeswax from glands on the lower side of their abdomen. To produce beeswax, the bees must consume a large volume of honey. To make an ounce of beeswax, the bees eat about a pound of honey. Teams of worker bees take the flakes of fresh beeswax and build honeycomb while forming bridges with their bodies across open spaces in the hive, an act called festooning. Using their mouthparts, the bees shape the flakes of beeswax into sheets of six-sided, back-to-back cells. Beekeepers typically place foundation, either formed from beeswax or plastic, in frames to serve as the mid-rib for the bees to build their honeycomb. Depending upon the population of bees and the strength of the nectar flow, it may take the bees an entire year to draw out their honeycombs. The beekeeper may aid the bees by feeding syrup as a supplementary carbohydrate. Once the bees have drawn the beeswax into honeycomb, they are ready to fill it with honey.

After the beekeeper harvests the surplus honey, the frames need to be cleaned of any residue of honey and then stored over winter so that the bees can fill the comb with honey the following year. If the supers of “wet” frames are stacked outdoors, honey bees in the area will remove all traces of honey and take it back to their hives. The supers can then be stored over winter. Stacking clean supers so that air flows through them usually prevents wax moth damage if the frames never held brood. If frames that held brood need to be stored, they need to be protected from wax moths by stacking tightly and covering. Use PDB moth crystals to kill wax moths. Today’s photo: supers stored to allow air to flow through the frames.

--Richard

Wax Moths

As long as people have been keeping honey bees, they have encountered wax moths. Wax moths are hive scavengers. These common moths constantly attack honey bee hives. The adult moths light on the outside of the hive and lay eggs. The young larvae crawl through the cracks between hive body boxes. Entrance locations are few, because the bees seal the cracks with propolis, or bee glue. Most wax moths that enter are killed by the worker bees. Once inside the hive, the wax moth larvae are voracious eaters. Even though their name is wax moth, they don’t feed on beeswax alone; they primarily feed on protein. Wax moths are attracted to the protein of stored pollen and silk cocoons of old brood comb. The pollen is used by the colony to make food for developing honey bees. When honey bees emerge as adults after passing through the stages of egg, larva, and pupa, they leave behind the woven silk cocoon in which they developed in the pupal stage. Beekeepers over hundreds of years have complained about opening a bee hive only to find a mass of webbing caused by the voracious eating of the comb by wax moth larvae. Many find the population of honey bees depleted and the frames covered in webbing. They often conclude that the wax moths killed the colony. Actually, the wax moths usually take over a hive after it becomes hopelessly queen-less or dies.

Peace Bee Farm uses the efforts of wax moths to clean brood frames of old comb. Frames from winter colony losses can be placed in empty hives and used as bait hives during the spring swarm season. If a swarm is not lured into the bait hive, wax moths will eat the comb and leave plastic foundation clean and exposed, as shown in today’s photo. We then paint the foundation with our own chemical-free cappings wax, saved from the previous year’s honey harvest, as part of our integrated pest management program.

--Richard

Art and Science of Beekeeping

Man has kept honey bees for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptian artwork depicts honey bees housed in clay cylinders similar to those used into recent times. Beekeeping was highly developed during the classic Greek and Roman periods. European settlers brought the honey bee, an Old World insect, to the Americas. Honey bees were reported as being well established in America by the mid-1600s. The craft has been passed along from one generation to the next. Many learned how to gently manipulate honey bees from their grandparents. Beekeeping today is based upon honey bee biology and scientific observations and studies. To effectively manage honey bees today requires both the old-time skills demonstrated by experienced beekeepers and the scientific understanding of honey bee biology. Most beekeepers get their start in beekeeping and continue to gain skills in local beekeeping associations. Many of these associations conduct introductory beekeeping classes. The Memphis Area Beekeepers Association will be conducting its annual Short Course in Beekeeping on February 20, 2010. Paul Mallory, who has been keeping bees for 63 years, will help people answer, “Why would you want to keep honey bees?” I will be conducting a portion of the training. My topic will be honey bee health.

On December 26, 2009, I showed a simple method of storing brood comb using PDB (paradichlorobenzene) moth crystals to protect the frames from wax moth damage. I stated that the frames need to be exposed to the air for several days before using these frames in bee hives to allow any remaining moth treatment to evaporate. Chris, a beekeeper from North Carolina, posed a pertinent question. He asked if the untreated frames would be vulnerable to attack by wax moths during this period. This is really not a problem. Wax moths prefer to lay their eggs in dark, enclosed spaces. We can make the frames unattractive to the moths while airing the equipment by stacking the frames upright as shown with the boxes exposed to light and air circulation.
--Richard

Storing Brood Comb

The best way to protect honey comb is to keep it in a hive occupied by a large, healthy colony of honey bees. The worker bees will constantly clean the comb and remove the eggs, larvae, and adults of attacking pests. Wax moths lay eggs in the seams between the boxes that make up the bee hive. These are common flying moths that are present anytime except during extremely cold weather. Their larvae crawl through the seams and enter the hive. The bees in a strong colony will catch and eat the larvae. In a weak colony, the wax moth larvae may have the opportunity to find cells filled with protein-rich pollen to eat. Once these bee hive scavengers have a foot-hold, they can destroy the honey combs, leaving a tangle of woven webbing and feces.

At times it is necessary to store the frames of brood comb in a building away from the bee hives. The frames that have been used by bees to raise brood are particularly vulnerable to wax moth damage because they contain considerable food in the form of pollen, honey, bee bread, and silk cocoons spun by the pupae. The developing wax moth larvae need this food; they can’t live on beeswax comb alone. Without bees to protect the comb, it is quite vulnerable to damage from wax moths. Moth crystals made from PDB (paradichlorobenzene) kill larvae and adult wax moths. Never treat bee hive equipment with moth balls; they are another chemical which is not acceptable for bee hive use. The crystals may be placed on strips of newspaper, as in the photo, atop the frames in tightly stacked hive boxes. Place a cover above the boxes. The crystals evaporate, and the heavier than air vapors sink to the floor, killing all stages of wax moth except the eggs. After storage on moth crystals, it is necessary to air out the frames for several days before placing them in use in a bee hive.
--Richard

Honey Supers in Storage

The honey bee is the only insect in the temperate region that stays alive and active throughout the year. The honey bee evolved this survival strategy of using the colony’s work force to produce enough high-energy food during the warm seasons to feed the colony during cold weather. The honey bee’s winter-time food is, of course, honey. In nature, the honey is generally stored in honey comb in the upper portion of the colony’s nest. In modern bee hives, the honey is stored around the brood nest and in boxes called honey supers, which are stacked on the top of the brood nest boxes. The prudent beekeeper removes honey in excess of the colony’s needs by removing the honey supers. The honey, which is contained in frames of honey comb, is uncapped, extracted, strained, and bottled or stored. The empty supers and frames are cleaned and stored over winter to be returned to the bee hives in the spring. Protecting the delicate beeswax honey comb in the frames is of great importance to the beekeeping operation. It takes the bees considerable time and resources of honey to draw out the cells of beeswax honey comb to hold the year’s honey crop, often a year’s effort. Placing frames of empty, drawn honey comb above the brood nest in the spring stimulates the bees’ hording behavior and encourages them to gather nectar and produce honey. With drawn comb in place, the bees can rapidly fill the frames with honey.

While storing the supers of drawn honey comb over winter, the beekeeper must protect the frames from damage from wax moths, bee hive scavengers that eat protein in the combs from pollen, bee bread, and pupae cocoons. Since the wax moths do not eat pure beeswax alone, clean frames from honey supers can often be safely stored in an unheated area in a manner that allows air to circulate freely. These frames contain very little protein to attract the moths.
--Richard

Wax Moths are Destructive

Wax moths never kill a colony of honey bees; but if a colony dies, the hive will likely be taken over by wax moths. Moths are constantly attacking honey bee colonies. Some attempt to enter the hive through the entrance which is protected by guard bees. Other moths have greater success when they light on the bee hives at night and lay their eggs in the cracks between the boxes that make up the hive bodies and honey supers. The larvae, moths in the second of four stages of development, crawl through hive cracks and enter the hive. Strong hives have no problem with wax moths. They have worker bees that detect the intruding moth larvae and eat them. Strong hives also have plenty of worker bees dedicated to sealing the nest with propolis to keep moths out. The wax moth larvae grow rapidly on honey, pollen, and comb left in a hive after the bees have died. They burrow through the comb, often in diagonal lines across the frames. Frames attacked by wax moths are easily recognized by the webbing that covers the frame. In the photo we see the damage left by wax moths. A larva crawls across the frame as does a robber bee. Robbers often appear black and shiny with the hair missing from their abdomens from fighting. The small, black rectangles are the waste of the wax moth larvae. A diagonal larval tube tracks across the lower, left side. As the wax moths continue their development, the larvae spin cocoons and eat into the hive wood, leaving indentions that make the hive look like it has been hammered.

While the damage done to hive frames by wax moths is obvious, the wax moth actually serves a useful purpose. By destroying the hives of colonies after they die out, the wax moth helps control the spread of numerous bee diseases, especially the highly contagious American foulbrood
--Richard