Cold Weather Bee Hive Move

One of the things that keeps beekeeping a lively craft is the fact that it is always changing. Beekeeping is not a task that is learned and repeated. It is more a series of events that require planning a course of action that will accomplish the task and still fit with the honey bee’s nature. Big Dan Newton and I found it necessary to move some hives of bees today, the coldest day of the year. We had planned to move the hives in warmer weather, but found with little advanced warning that we would have to make the move today. As we began the task with the temperature at 10 degrees Fahrenheit, a light snow on the ground, and a strong and steady wind out of the northwest, we knew that opening the hive or breaking the bees’ winter cluster would be fatal. In the summer, I often break a hive into individual boxes and move them from the hive stand to the waiting truck one at a time and then reassemble them.

For today’s cold-weather move we began the task by blocking the entrance of each hive with foam rubber. As each hive was equipped with screened bottom boards, providing ventilation was not a problem; there was plenty of air circulation. Next, we tightly secured all of the hive bodies, bottom boards, and covers of each hive with cargo straps. This allowed us to lift each hive as a unit. When lifting a hive, it is mighty helpful to have machinist and blacksmith Big Dan Newton with you. Lifting the hives, they seemed rather light. We decided some emergency feeding might help the bees through the winter. Frozen ground helped us move one hive across a plowed field. For emergency feeding, we placed granulated sugar atop the inner covers of the hives for the bees to access through the center hole. After the move, Dan was pleased to see live bees come to the surface of each hive.
--Richard

An Old Time Favorite

Honey eaten with the comb is a fond memory for many people who remember that this is the way that they enjoyed honey in their childhood. In earlier times there existed a tradition of honey hunting, particularly in rural areas. For many, honey was eaten with the comb after the honey was collected by robbing a bee tree. Throughout the year people would observe the flight of foraging honey bees returning to their natural nests in hollow trees in the forest. Teams of adventurous individuals would return to rob the bee tree, often in the winter when the colony’s population was small and the bees were not flying about. Robbing usually involved killing the colony by the burning of sulfur or by smoking heavily. Once the bees were killed, the tree would be felled and cut open. All of the honeycomb would be removed. If the honey hunters were experienced and employed a gentler hand, they could cut an opening into the tree and remove some of the comb by hand without killing the colony. In either case, the honey would be divided among the honey hunters. I often hear customers at farmers markets relating stories from their childhood of parents bringing in honey collected in the comb.

Honey in the jar with the comb is usually called chunk honey. It is produced in specially prepared frames using thin surplus foundation of pure beeswax. During a strong nectar flow, the bees will draw out the cells from the foundation and fill them with honey. The beekeeper needs to watch the progress of the bees’ work and remove the frames as soon as they are completely filled with honey and capped with beeswax. The comb is cut from the frame with a sharp knife and placed in a wide-mouth honey jar. A light colored extracted honey is poured over the comb to fill the jar. Chunk honey like that in the photo is a most popular item at market.
--Richard

Honey Bee Nutrition

Nutrition is increasingly being seen as an important issue in honey bee health. Issues of nutrition came to light with the start of Colony Collapse Disorder in the spring of 2007. Many of those who were affected had large-scale migratory operations that had been located in areas affected by drought the previous year. Honey bees are placed under greater stress from poor nutrition if there is a weather-related failure of forage crops. Bees used for migratory pollination service also are likely to experience nutritional problems while placed in mono-culture settings. The targeted agricultural crop for pollination may not provide the bees adequate amounts or nectar and pollen. A diversity of pollens is also likely to be missing in today’s large farms. Some individual pollen sources are lacking in all of the amino acids required to make a complete diet. Honey bees need an adequate amount of nectar, which is carbohydrate, to produce honey. They also need a diversity of pollen, which is protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals. When they combine the honey and pollen, they have a complete diet necessary for producing healthy brood. Good nutrition is especially important when the colony begins producing new queens. The quality of queens is determined by the genetics, mating, and nutrition.

To address the nutrition needs of honey bees, some beekeepers are adopting more frequent supplemental feeding. Traditional patterns of feeding bees involved fall feeding of a heavy sugar syrup to build up winter stores and spring feeding of a thinner sugar syrup to stimulate nectar gathering. To meet nutritional requirements, some beekeepers are adding feedings of pollen substitutes and sugar syrup at various times of the year. Feeding during periods of dearth is sometimes required to keep queen bees of certain stocks from stopping brood production. This occurs with Russian bees and some of the other stocks of eastern European origin. Stopping brood production evolved as a reproductive strategy for survival in harsh climates. Today’s picture shows honey bees chewing pollen substitute.
--Richard

A New Nosema

Along with chemicals found in the honeycomb and honey bee viruses, Nosema disease appears to be a contributing factor in the large-scale die-off of honey bees that has been occurring since the spring of 2007. Extensive studies of the bees are being undertaken to look at any possible sources of this die-off which is being called Colony Collapse Disorder. Nosema apis is a fungal infection found anywhere in the world that our honeybees of European descent are managed. Nosema is a spore-forming microbe that causes dysentery in honey bees. Honey bees don’t defecate inside the hive, and dysentery occurs when infected colonies are confined to the hive unable to make cleansing flights during extended periods of cold weather. Bees with dysentery leave feces on the outside of the hive. Nosema disease occurs in adult bees and is readily spread as bees consume the spores while cleaning out infected hive cells or by sharing food. Nosema apis is generally only a problem in regions with extremely cold winters. In the southern United States and throughout the tropics, Nosema disease is rarely a problem

Researchers studying honey bee health found that Nosema apis has been largely replaced by a more virulent strain of the disease, Nosema ceranae. This replacement of diseases is itself an unusual occurrence. Nosema ceranae is a disease of the Asian honey bee, a different species from our European honey bee. While the original Nosema was known as a rarely deadly, winter-time condition, the new strain is an around-the-year disease that is suspected as being associated with Colony Collapse Disorder. Fortunately, for the beekeeper there is good news; Nosema can be controlled by feeding sugar water treated with Fumagillin in either the fall or early spring. Placing bee hives facing the south where the sun warms the hive entrance encourages flying. Considerable advantage in fighting Nosema disease can be gained by regularly changing out old honeycomb, thus removing the disease-causing spores. Today’s photo shows hive-top feeders in use.
--Richard

Varroa Vector Viruses

The parasitic Varroa mite, detected in the United States in 1987, is the number one killer of honey bees. Parasitic mites devastated the honey bee population, greatly reducing the number of managed hives and killing most of the feral colonies. Varroa mites enter honey bee brood cells at the larva stage before the cells are capped with beeswax. As the bees continue their development as pupae, the Varroa reproduce and the mites suck the nutrients from the pupae. The mites remain on the adult bees after they emerge from the cells and continue to suck nutrients from the bees. While this parasitism kills bees and weakens the colony, the greater effect may result from viral diseases that the Varroa help spread. When the mites puncture the exoskeleton of the honey bee, they introduce more than a dozen identified viruses, some quite deadly. One recently identified, Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, is being found regularly in colonies being lost to Colony Collapse Disorder. Beekeepers often find bees with missing or curly wings suffering from Varroa-vectored Deformed Wing Virus. These bees, which usually live for one day, are an indicator of heavy Varroa mite loads in the colony.

While parasitic mites present a true health problem for the beekeeper, choosing a method of treating the mites is quite challenging. In less than two decades of aggressive treatment with “harsh” chemical miticides, the Varroa became largely resistant to the chemicals. Left untreated, honey bee colonies often weaken and die in a year or two. Breeding in genetically-passed behaviors is proving successful. Honey bees that can detect Varroa reproducing and growing inside capped brood cells remove the bee pupae along with the mites. Using a series of integrated pest management practices may reduce the number of Varroa in the colony. The use of “softer” mite treatments is proving promising. Viruses remain a strong suspect in the deadly mix of factors leading to Colony Collapse Disorder. Beekeepers need to periodically check colonies and measure Varroa levels.
--Richard

Chemicals in the Environment

Researchers looking for the causes of honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder have found dozens of chemical agents in the beeswax honeycomb of affected bee hives. Beeswax readily absorbs and holds chemicals. The chemicals found include miticides used by the beekeepers to combat the parasitic mites that have devastated honey bee populations since they were discovered in the United States in the 1980s. The mites changed beekeeping from a craft in which chemicals were rarely used to one in which chemicals were used routinely. As could be expected, the chemicals found in the greatest concentrations are the common miticides, Fluvalinate and Coumaphos, both considered to be “harsh” pesticides. Other chemicals found in honeycomb included dozens of insecticides and pesticides. One insecticide being found in honeycomb is Imidacloprid, suspected by many beekeepers as affecting honey bee health. Imidacloprid, a member of a class of insecticides designed to be more environmentally safe than earlier products is often used to kill gnawing and chewing insects in lawns and crops. These insecticides are widely used in crop seed treatments, flea collars for pets, and home termite controls. In crops, Imidacloprid has a systemic action; it is carried through the vascular system of the plant, poisoning insects that chew the foliage. It is also brought back to the bee hive by bees foraging for nectar and pollen. Researchers are questioning the sub-lethal effects of this insecticide on honey bees.

There is considerable dependence today upon chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides for producing crops, growing lawns, and controlling termites. Genetically modified crops use herbicides to control weed growth, resulting in high-yield crop production at lower cost from reduced soil tillage. Concerned beekeepers, like us at Peace Bee Farm, are moving toward reduced chemical usage, avoiding “harsh” miticides in favor of “softer” agents, like those based on essential oils. In today’s photo, an agricultural applicator passes low over one of my bee yards then negotiates power lines and a passing chemical tanker to spray an adjacent field.
--Richard

Healthy Honey Bees in 2010

Large-scale die-offs of honey bees have persisted in various parts of the United States since the spring of 2007. While die-offs of honey bees have been periodically recorded for more than a hundred years, this occurrence is larger and exhibits some characteristics that have not been seen before. The beekeepers find their hives virtually empty of adult bees. There is brood present, a puzzling situation; for bees rarely abandon their brood. There is food present, but the bees are not eating it. After the death of the colony, hive scavengers avoid the hive for a number of weeks. This situation with its unique attributes has been given the name Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. After three years of investigation, there is not a clear answer as to the cause of the die-offs. Carefully designed scientific studies, which involve collecting samples from healthy and sick hives, are being conducted.

While the results of the studies have not been published, the main factors that seem to be combining to form a lethal mix are being identified. First, there are numerous chemicals in the beeswax comb of the hive. The principal miticides used to control parasitic mites are highly soluble in beeswax, and they remain for a long period of time. There are also other insecticides and chemicals used in abundance in agriculture, lawn care, and beekeeping being found in the honey bee’s nest. Second, it is known that Varroa mites vector numerous viral diseases of honey bees; and some new viruses have been identified. Third, a new strain of the fungal disease, Nosema, seems to have replaced the previous, seldom deadly strain. It appears that when these three factors, certain chemicals, viruses, and Nosema are combined, they overtake the highly vulnerable immune system of the bees. A background item in the die-offs seems to be nutrition issues. Beekeepers in 2010 will need to address each of these factors to maintain healthy bees. There’s a healthy bee on granddaughter, Erin Underhill’s, cheek.
--Richard