Another Hive Down

I checked the hives on Wednesday when the sun was out and the temps near 50.  The pink hive was actively housecleaning and doing cleansing flights but the other was silent.    I waited a few hours because the smaller hive often takes a bit more coaxing to break cluster and come out, but never saw a single bee. 

So.   The next day I waited until it was warm again and lifted the lid on the quiet hive for a quick look and found a completely silent hive.   I lifted some of the candy I'd put in during the fall and found the dead cluster up high, tucked right under the food source, barely fist sized.   They didn't make it through the couple nights of 0 degrees early last week.  Just not enough bees.

It's very discouraging.    That's 3 out of 4 hives down this year. 

I put some tar paper around the pink hive, checked the quilt box for good ventilation and tucked another giant bag of leaves up next to the bottom of the hive on the east.   It has excellent wind block on the west and north, with sun exposure to the east and south.   Assuming the sun shines again, that will help.    However, it's going to get near 0 again for the next couple of days.   Let's hope these ladies are tough enough to make it.  

0 for 2: Another Deadout

Well, this winter hasn't been any better than last for the bees.  I lost the first hive in December and the other hive to that cold snap at the beginning of January. 

I'm so bummed.

I did a post mortem to find out what the problem was.    There was almost a gallon of sugar and honeyballs on the tops of the frames when I opened it up, so that wasn't the problem.   I took all the sugar off and am saving it for this summer in the freezer. 

When I looked at the cluster in the frames, this is what I saw.  [top pic].    That is the cluster.    The entire cluster.  Fist sized.  There just weren't enough bees to keep the cluster warm at sub zero temps. 

In November I went to a bee conference and attended a Q&A where I described my colonies and asked the advice of the state bee experts on whether I should combine the hives or winter them separately.   I had already decided that I needed to combine.   The experts said that they'd winter them separately, as nucs.  I figured they knew way more than I did, so I didn't combine.   That is the last time I follow the advice from the state experts instead of following my gut.   I lost both hives.     The only fix for small colonies in the fall is to combine them.   If they get huge in the spring, you can always split them.  

I took the bottom boards out to see what was what.   You can see on this board right where the cluster was.  Those three gold streaks are where the bees were hanging out and getting into their stores.

I looked carefully at the debris to see if anything popped out at me. 

This is a section of the debris.  I found a lot more varroa mites than I expected. 

I did a 24 hour mite board check in the fall and both hives had mite counts well below problem levels.   I'm not sure where all these mites came from - though this is 3 months worth of mites.

I've noted where some of the varroa are. There are many more varroa in the pic that I didn't indicate.  Can you see them?  If you blow the pic up, you can see many more.

Here's a larger section.   Blow it up and look for those little regular ovals.    There are a lot them here.


Conclusions -
Cause of loss:   Small colony size aggravated by mite load.
Lessons learned:

• Combine small hives in fall.  Period. 
• Don't believe everything the 'experts' tell you.

Since I want to treat as little as possible, I don't want to treat for mites every year, so the jury is still out on how I handle mites next year.

I have two 3# packages coming in April from Kelley Bee in Kentucky.  I got their Russians.   I've heard they do well here.  In addition, I met a guy who is going to have nucs this year.   He said I could get one.   If I go into winter 2015-16 with 4 hives, maybe I can get some to make it until spring.   

Goals for 2015.   Get the blasted bees through the winter!   Get a decent honey harvest.

Creamed Honey

We harvested some honey from our deadouts in January and tucked it away in the pantry.

Now it looks like this. 

This is creamed honey.  

All honey will eventually crystallize - especially when temps get below 55 degrees  or so.  Creamed honey happens when the honey crystallizes into tiny, tiny crystals instead of the big rock candy type crystals.    So, creamed honey is named for its looks, not its content.  There is no cream in creamed honey.

What probably happened was that the honey in the combs was just starting to crystalize from the cold winter temps.  Then we brought it in and warmed it up and mixed it up and it ended up creamed instead.

Happy accident!   This stuff is shelf stable and spreadable.    Much easier to keep on a spoon.   It will melt nicely when heated or mixed with liquid.  [See tomorrow's post]

0 for 3

The arctic vortex killed the last 2 of our hives.  Eric had skirted the bottoms and put up extra wind and weather protection, but those plunging temps [-20 here with much lower wind chills] were too much. We started the winter with 3 hives - 2 regular sized ones  and one tiny one, tucked up well for the winter and with plenty of food.  The first hive died early in December.

Here is a pic [above] of some of the dead bees from the nuc.   You can see the queen in the center with the dark solid butt.

The temp here was 50 a few days after the cold snap [Cold snap.  Hah.  Now that's an understatement].  So we checked the bees and when we found nothing but deadouts, we cleaned them out.   There was a pair of mice in one hive.   We kicked them out and closed up the entrances so they couldn't get back in.   We pulled all the frames except for the two straightest ones in each hive.  I left those in in case we're lucky enough to get swarms this year.

The bees had plenty of candy left, so we tossed that out for the other critters to snack on.  We even saw a bee from a wild hive come to check it out.  I'd love to get those genetics!

We took all the frames inside to strip for honey and wax.   I got 7 pints of honey and about 2 lbs of wax

We thought all the colors in the comb were really pretty. 

Our next decision was whether to try again this year with bees or just throw in the towel.  Beekeeping is EXPENSIVE.  If you start, be aware that the cost for bees, equipment and extras can add up fast.   There are ways to cut costs, but trying to keep an apiary going for a few years is no small investment in money or time. Just sayin.

I love having bees.   We love what they've done for the gardens.  So, we thought we'd give it another year.  I put in an order for 2 more nucs.  They're expensive this year [$165 each], but we're getting Indiana queens and by getting nucs instead of packages, we're getting a 6 week head start, which will translate into bigger hives going into the winter.    I'd like to be able to overwinter the majority of my hives eventually and I'd also like to get a real honey harvest [60-200lbs of honey per hive]. 

Wish us luck.   Clearly we need it.

Hidden Opportunities

We lost one of our hives early in December and since there's really nothing to do with it until things get warmer, I just covered the entrances and let it be.  But when my sister and her family came last week, I realized that a winter deadout is a fantastic hidden opportunity to teach people, especially kids, about bees.

First off, I knew for a fact the middle hive was a deadout because Lily and I had already opened it to make sure a few weeks ago.  We thought the nuc was a deadout too and had opened it only to find that not only was it alive, but defensive.   On this day, we left the nuc completely alone and opened only the hive I knew was already dead.

The day was cloudy and in the lower 50s.  We did see a couple of bees from the big hive come out for exercise.  I had the boys put their ears to the back of big live hive and then I knocked so they could hear the hum.  

Then we opened the deadout.  We showed them propolis and how the bees had sealed up all the cracks. 

We talked about how winter bees are all girl bees and how they kick the drones out when it gets cold but the queen lays more when it starts getting warmer.   We talked about how drones don't have stingers. 

The boys got to hold dead bees.   They thought that was really cool.  I showed them how fuzzy they are and where the stingers were and that an insect has three parts:  a head, thorax and abdomen.   

We showed them how the cluster was arranged like a ball in the hive and then we pulled out a frame with bees on it and show how they were arranged in the cells and over the cells to make the cluster.   We looked for the queen but couldn't find her.   We did see dead brood and showed them the capped brood under the bees.

Eric explained how when bees are born they start out as nurse bees, then progress to foragers and finally water carriers.  

I pulled out a frame of honey and cut some off so everyone could taste it.   The wax was crispy from the cold, but the honey was gooood.

We showed them the pollen stores and some unfinished nectar and the capped honey and a couple of places where the caps were shredded and honey must have been robbed out.  We talked about how bees make honey from nectar.

They wanted to know what killed the bees, so we talked about varroa and Eric pulled the bottom board so we could show them a few.   We talked about how a varroa on a bee is like a tick the size of your fist on you, passing on diseases like Deformed Wing Virus and that those things will weaken a hive so it won't make it through the winter.  

We talked about where the hive entrances are and how you stay in the back of the hive when you check things.   They asked tons of questions and it was one of those times when you can see learning happening.     I think from now on, whenever I have a deadout I'm going to make a point of inviting people over to look it over.   It's a great way to teach people about bees.

Winter Hives

Just before the big snow, I checked the hives.  The center one is dead already.   The other two [on either end of the row] are doing fine.   I seized the moment during the warm weather we had before the big snow to make some more bee candy and put it on the tops of the frames in each hive.  I figured it would be extra insulation when the temps dropped way down after the storm.  [The shortest darker blue box is just an empty super.  No bees in there.]

I'm thinking that the cause of the deadout was bees weakened by varroa.   I noticed some bees with deformed wings in the summer and fall.  The deformed wings are caused by Deformed Wing Virus [DWV], one of the many ills that varroa mites bring to a hive.   I didn't treat for mites in an effort to be chemical free and the hive was too weak to last very long at all.   Gone by the beginning of December. 

I hate losing a hive this way but I have very mixed feelings about treating with chemicals.   Maybe I should have done more sugar shakes. 

At any rate, the other two hives seemed good and active [and defensive] and now they have plenty of candy for the next two months.   On warm days I'll see if there's any action up there. 

We left the snow on the hives as extra insulation for the deep freeze that followed the storm. The lower entrances are covered with snow but the bees have a top entrance under the lip of the telescoping lids so they can get out if they really want to.  I doubt they do.  

Deadout

One of my hives died this winter.   It was my strongest hive going into the winter, so I was very sad and also pretty surprised.

Here is a very bad pic of the dead bees in the bottom of the hive when I opened it up.     That's a lot of dead bees. 

To find out what caused it, I opened the hives and I examined the frames.

You can see the cluster in this pic.   All of the bees in the circle are dead.  The cluster was just a bit bigger than a softball.  It extended three frames wide.   That's pretty small to get through the winter and keep everybody warm and fed.

Here's a pic of what I found when I knocked the dead bees off the surface of the frames.

Blow it up to see all the bee butts sticking out of the cells.   This is a sure sign of starvation.

The problem is that there was a lot of honey still in the hive.   A lot.    They shouldn't have starved.

So the next  question is:  Why didn't they move to the stores?

Notice the rough spots at the tops of the open cells near the capped cells.   Those are chew marks from the bees opening the stores.   This is right next to where the cluster is, so I have to wonder why they starved.   They were so close!

Could be they were too sick or too cold because the temps here vary so greatly and the cluster was too small.  

One of the things a beekeeper must ask is whether the mite load was heavy and caused too much stress on the bees during our wild and crazy winter, thus weakening the hive and causing the deadout.

To check the mite load, I pulled the bottom board out from under where the cluster was [and all those dead bees].   The bottom board closes things up way down under the bottom screen of the hive.   The screen keeps the bees in, but allows for good ventilation - essential here where it's so humid.   The bottom board slides in under the screen and helps close things up to keep them warm for the winter.

When I pulled the bottom board I found a lot of tiny wax pieces.   Those are the wax cappings that they've chewed off to get to their stores.

With a magnifying glass I counted mites.   The dark oval in the pic is a varroa mite.  That's a bee leg next to it.  The mite is tiny - the size of a chigger.   But on a bee, it's big.   To a bee, one of these is the equivalent of a mite the size of your fist on you.    Eew.  

I counted only 5 mites.   Not bad at all.

All bees in this part of the country have mites, just like all forests in this part of the country have ticks.   It's a fact of life.  There are things you can do if they get bad, but generally you encourage good hygiene and small cell size and the bees manage.

I showed these pics to the experts at Beemaster  and they agreed that the cluster died because it was too small.   There's no way to determine why the cluster was too small - could have been the robbing in the fall, and the robbing might have resulted in them going queenless.   The bees had dysentery, but folks seem to think that it wasn't bad enough to kill the cluster, just further weaken it.

If I had been on the ball and known what I was looking at in January, I would have recognized the small cluster size right away and then  reduced the inside space of the hive with a follower board, which would have been less space for them to heat.   That might have given them a chance. 

Also, from now on I'll be checking the hives in late November to see what the cluster size is so that I can reduce the hive size earlier if need be.   In the horizontal hives, you can see the cluster size easily when you lift the lid and you can see right where the cluster is.    All you have to do is put a follower board where you want it to close up [narrow up] the hive space inside.  

Next year, we're going to set the hives right next to each other with just enough space for insulation board between them.   That'll help keep things warmer, too.

The last question is what to do with the dead hive full of honey.    I asked the folks at Beemaster and they suggested just leaving it for the other hive to clean out for me.   The day I opened it up for these pics, the other hive was pretty busy checking things out.    If you blow up the pic you might be able to see the hundreds of bees on this hive trying to harvest it.