JUNE 2024
Photo Credit: Charlie Agar, Charlie Bee Company
THE BEE SUPPLY
Monthly
FEATURED TOPICS Weather and Bees Is My Honey Ready? Harvesting Honey My Honey Is Runny!
EDITION 48
Contents
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Clicking on a topic will take you right to it!
Table of
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4 Monthly Tips 8 The Impact of Weather on Honey Bees 14 Is My Honey Ready to Harvest? 18 Why Aren't My Supers Filling? 20 Harvesting Honey Supers 24 Extracting Your Honey Crop 28 My Honey Is Runny! 30 How to Use a Refractometer 32 I'm Being Robbed! 36 Beekeeper Chat: Shannon La Grave 38 Wonky Comb: What It Is and What to Do about It 41 Thinking Outside the Hive Box: Wax Dipping Frames 42 Queen Clipping 44 European Foulbrood 46 What's the Buzz? Thomas D. Seeley Book Review 48 Recipe: Bees in the Herb Garden Dip 50 Monthly Buzz Webinar Q&A 51 Club Locator 52 US Drought Chart
June
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In the southern half of the nation, the honey flow will continue into early June and then begin tapering off in mid-June, fully ending by late June. For the first half of June, continue adding honey supers when the existing super becomes 75% full of honey. For northern states, your nectar flow is just getting started. Follow the tips in the May issue for adding and maintaining supers in early nectar flow. When the major nectar- producing plants in your area begin dying, that is a signal that the honey flow is coming to an end. Your hive will also bring in less nectar. Bees typically cap honey once it is cured, but there are several scenarios where the honey may be cured but not capped. To see if uncapped honey is ready to harvest, simply hold the frame of honey horizontally over your hive and shake it vigorously. Uncured honey will rain out of the cells. Cured honey will not come out at all, or only a few drips can be shaken out. If that is the case, the honey is ready to harvest. There are many methods to remove bees from your supers once the honey flow ends and you are ready to harvest. A popular, quick, and easy method is a fume board. Other methods include using a bee brush or blowing with a bee blower or leaf blower. Bee escapes are still available but not recommended for areas that have issues with small hive beetles since they take so long to work. Smoking the hive extensively is also not recommended, as oversmoking is not very effective and can give the honey a smoky flavor. Remember to extract your honey right away after harvesting. Storing honey supers for several hours or days gives small hive beetles a chance to ruin your crop. Once your honey is harvested, place your supers back on your hive to let the bees clean up the excess honey. Remember, your bees will be “robby” since there is very little natural nectar available once the flow has stopped. Make sure to put your freshly harvested honey supers back on your hives late in the evening, which will give your hive all night to clean and remove the excessive smell of honey. This will help prevent other hives from robbing your hive the next day. Once the supers have been cleaned, you can remove all but one box above your brood nest and store the rest with Certan or Para-Moth for the next season. Begin providing a water source for your bees if natural water sources begin drying up for the summer. Postharvest is the most critical time of the entire beekeeping year for providing care. Details for postharvest care will be outlined in the July issue.
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Is your honey cured? Here's a simple test to verify!
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Photo credit: Hives for Heroes board member, Llano, TX
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By Blake Shook
MAY TIPS
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Sometimes hives still need some food during nectar flows. This is especially true for new hives. In this video we take a look at a hive that needs food even though there is a major nectar flow.
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Listen as Harrison gives us some very helpful advice on keeping our hives cool.
By Chari Elam
Recently, some in our area experienced nearly two feet of rain within a week’s time. Rivers and lakes flooded, yards (yes, beeyards) flooded, and the upcoming forecast is for temperatures in the mid 90s. For states along the Gulf Coast, that’s a recipe for 100% humidity—uncomfortable for bees and "beeks" alike! For some great tips on how to handle hives that have been flooded, check out our May Monthly Buzz webinar. When we think about weather, we tend to think wet, dry, hot, cold, or windy. That pretty much covers the entire nation at one point or another. If you live in Texas, that can all happen in one week! You laugh—but it’s true! What’s a bee to do? Thankfully, they are very adaptable. Bad weather can really be a problem for bees, but even more so during nectar flow. This is typically the time of year when hail, wind, and torrential rains are most common. Needless to say, bees cannot fly during these conditions. Even wind can prevent them from flying, affecting not only foragers but also queens that need to mate. Most colonies are at or nearly at peak population in June to maximize the amount of honey they can make and store for overwintering. If the weather is preventing them from flying, not only are they not gathering resources, but they are also consuming what they already have stored. This can be very problematic. As the bad weather moves out, we express a sigh of relief, but the problem isn’t over. With heavy rain, and particularly lingering storms that go on for days, the nectar is washed away. Therefore, when it does dry out, there aren’t any resources left to forage. Depending on when this happens during the flow, they may or may not be given another opportunity to gather food. Speaking to myself here—it’s time to go check how much honey they have stored. Most of the time, this setback is short lived and they are able to regroup quickly, the nectar sources replenish, and everything gets back to normal. However, it’s common in years with poorly timed bad weather for the honey crop to suffer dramatically, causing beekeepers to feed much more than we would like to. Thankfully, this isn’t every year. Speaking of moisture, in my area and other high-humidity areas, bees tend to hang out on the front of their boxes more than bees in drier climates. See "Are My Bees About to Swarm?" They do this not only to reduce body heat but also to flap their wings to draw air up into the hive to dry and cool it. In especially wet conditions, mold can become a huge problem for some hives. I’ve been told that a strong colony can handle it and not to worry. Frankly, I have found the opposite to be true. Living conditions will adversely affect even a healthy hive. The moment you see that a colony is unable to keep moisture down, it’s time to give the hive some ventilation. Creating a cross-flow of air can almost instantly drop the humidity level inside of a hive. This can be achieved by placing a Popsicle stick or toothpick under each corner of the top cover. Another method utilized by some is simply lifting the front of the outer cover and letting it rest on the front lip of the inner cover. A word of caution: Lifting the lid can create an opening for robbing if conditions are ripe for it (i.e., nectar flow, dearth, etc.). What about dry climates? The lack of water can be extremely bad as well. Not only do pollen- and nectar-producing plants need water to exist, so do bees! Water is used to cool the hive as mentioned above and also to thin honey to feed in times just like we’ve been talking about (rainy seasons)! For beekeepers in these arid environments, planting nectar-producing plants that don’t require much water is very helpful. Some examples are asters, bee balm, cosmos, larkspur, firespike, and foxglove, just to name a few. Also provide a never-ending water source for your bees. This can be done easily with a bird bath or, even better, a dripping water hose that is strategically placed where the water feeds nonstop into a long trough. In terms of temperatures, most beekeepers tend to be more concerned about their bees in the cold than in the heat. You know who you are. If you could, you would bring them inside by the fireplace if we told you it was OK! I joke, but we actually have it backward. Heat is harder on bees than cold. In the winter, bees simply cluster, stay inside their hives, work very little, and consume very few resources. Just the opposite is true in summer. The population is at its greatest, everyone is working, and they are eating more food than ever! Therefore, we must think about where we put our bees to best keep them cool when summer heat reaches its peak. Morning sun and afternoon shade are ideal. I can tell you that hasn’t been an option for this beekeeper very many times. What we are more likely to have is one or the other. Given only one choice, I would (in my area) choose more sun than shade primarily to mitigate small hive beetles. But in other areas where that isn’t an issue, I would opt to move my bees more to the shady side during the heat and then, if possible, move them back into the sun during the fall and winter. If an open pasture is all you have, then don’t worry—the bees will adapt. It’s not totally unheard of to put a cover over bees if you are so inclined. At one point I’m quite certain I heard that Blake Shook bought a bunch of beach umbrellas and put them up over some hives that were exposed to extremely hot temperatures for a period of time. If you think about it, temperatures over 100 degrees in the hot sun can equate to “feels like” temperatures of well over 115–120 degrees. If I had only a few hives, I could see myself building a tall, simple framework covered in sheet metal to house my bees long term. Hey, if you have the time and resources, go for it! Ventilation is also a huge component of relieving heat stress from our bees. Open screened bottom boards, no entrance reducer, and a vented top like we’ve already discussed all help, and you can go even one step further and use a screen inner cover. With all that said, bees will adapt … wait, I said that already. They truly will. The ultimate result of doing nothing tends to be stressed bees that produce fewer bees and less honey. Given the opportunity, I’d rather give them all the help I can to prevent that. How about you?
THE IMPACT OF WEATHER ON HONEY BEES
Interesting study by Jordan Glass: "When it’s hotter outside, honey bees can adjust how they fly, using larger, more powerful wingbeats that require them to beat their wings less frequently to get to where they need to go—like the human equivalent of running with longer strides. Flying that way helps them keep their body heat at a lower temperature, allowing them to carry lots of nectar even when it’s hot outside."
Screen inner covers are great for giving your bees added ventilation year-round.
Here's an example of how hot the inside of a hive can get in the heat of summer.
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There are a several indicators to help you know when to harvest your honey, and people in different areas will see them at times weeks apart from people in others. Some of you will see these start as early as mid-June, others in mid-July, or some northern regions even go into August and September. Regardless, the same applies. Time of year: As indicated, each geographic area will consistently start and stop around the same time each year. Weather may have a bearing on the start and end of the flow but typically won’t affect them by more than a week or two. If you are new to beekeeping and not aware of when your major nectar flow begins and ends, contact a local beekeeper. They will be a valuable resource for this and the following indicators. Major nectar-producing flowers begin to die: The types of flowers will vary by region, but every region has one or a handful of flowers that produce large amounts of nectar, which the bees store as a surplus for us to harvest. If you don’t know what flowers those are, visiting with local beekeepers will be incredibly helpful. When the flowers begin to die, harvest time is right around the corner. Thankfully, this usually happens about the same time each year, give or take a week or two. What are your bees doing? When the nectar flow completely ends, you will notice that the bees begin to uncap the capped honey and eat it. Ideally, you want to harvest before that happens. You will also notice that the bees are no longer storing large amounts of fresh nectar in the cells but instead are capping honey, and there are fewer and fewer uncapped open cells of honey in the hive. Bees will become more “robby”: Robber bees from other hives may try to steal honey as you open and inspect hives. Be very cautious of this. See "I'm Being Robbed!" The bees have capped and cured the honey: This can be one of the most confusing aspects of honey harvesting for new beekeepers since bees will often not fully cap every cell on every frame. That’s OK. Sometimes the flow ends suddenly, and the bees don’t get everything capped. Pay attention to the factors above and then do a shake test on any frames containing large amounts of uncapped honey cells. This entails holding a frame horizontally over the top of the opened hive and shaking the frame. If nectar rains out of the frame, the honey is not yet cured and you should wait another week before testing again. If no nectar rains out or only a couple drips form after vigorous shaking, it’s cured and ready to harvest. A full super of uncapped frames is often not ready to harvest, but if half of the cells are capped and it is the end of the honey flow date-wise, it’s typically fine to harvest.
Watch as I demonstrate the "shake test" to see if your honey is cured and ready to harvest.
IS MY HONEY READY TO HARVEST?
DON'T DO HONEY EXTRACTION WITHOUT A BUTLER— A HIVE BUTLER, THAT IS!
HB Storage and Transport includes a tote with both the solid and vented lid. Use your Hive Butler no matter what the weather! Use the ventilated lid to do hive inspections, collect swarms, or make splits. The solid lid is ready to tote and store honey, drawn comb, and new frames.
HB uncapping tank setup includes two Hive Butler totes, modified to serve as an uncapping tank setup with a 1.5” honey gate and food- grade sieve. Food-grade, heavy duty, and able to hold up to 10 Langstroth frames securely until you are ready to move to the extractor. A solid lid is also included, in case you need to take a break or tote the mess home.
HIVE BUTLER UNCAPPING TANK
TOTE WITH SOLID AND VENTED LID
Inevitably one or more of your hives is going to lag behind when it comes to filling the honey supers, while others are nearing the finish line. Although frustrating, it’s pretty easy to diagnose in most cases. Here are the most common reasons your bees aren’t filling your supers with honey. The hive isn’t strong enough. This is, by far, the most common reason. If your top brood box isn’t 80% full of bees and pretty full of brood and honey, they aren’t going to put much in your super. They will work to fill up the space below first. The hive is queenless. While a queenless hive will still bring in and store nectar, their declining population will not bring in as much nectar as a healthy hive with an increasing population. At the same time, a queenless colony has no brood to be cared for, so workers within the hive become foragers at an early age, resulting in a temporary influx of food stores. The primary nectar flow is weak, hasn’t begun, or is almost over. It’s key as a beekeeper to identify the flowers in your area that your bees produce honey from. When these start or stop blooming, that triggers the start and stop of your main nectar flow. Local beekeepers should be able to quickly tell you what flowers are responsible for the primary surplus nectar flow in your area. The weather isn’t cooperating. Even with great hives and great flowers, if it’s unusually cold, hot, wet, or dry, some flowers just won’t produce much nectar. Some areas have more resilient flowers than others.
Do you want to make honey your first year using single brood nest hives? Here's a quick video explaining how easy it really can be.
WHY AREN'T MY SUPERS FILLING?
Doing regular inspections of supers will keep you informed on how well they are filling. This gives you the opportunity not only to make adjustments but also to add additional boxes if needed. In this video you'll get helpful tips on inspecting the supers and spacing the frames in order to yield more honey per box!
HARVESTING HONEY SUPERS
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Getting bees out of supers is the first step toward extracting. It can be a bit tricky because the bees usually don’t want to leave! You will find, however, that the warmer it is, the easier it is to get the bees out. They are quicker to move, fly, run, and so on. If it’s chilly, sometimes all you can do is physically brush them off each frame with a bee brush! The following is my take on the most common methods used: Bee Brush: This is the cheapest and perhaps most common method for removing bees if you have only a few boxes of honey to remove. However, it is a bit tedious! Equipment needed: Empty super with no frames, smoker, bee brush, and a damp sheet. Puff four or five puffs of smoke directly between the frames once you open the lid. After a few seconds, remove each frame of honey one at a time and brush the bees off at the entrance of the hive. Place the brushed frame in the empty super and cover it with the damp sheet to prevent robber bees from gathering. Move as quickly as possible and use smoke as needed, but excessive smoke can cause the honey to take on a smoky flavor. Fume Boards: Whether you have 5 hives or 5,000, this is the most common method for removing bees from supers. There is a great variety of fume boards, but the principle is the same for each. They consist of a wooden rim with a plastic, clear, or metal top with a cloth underside. A repellent is sprayed on the cloth (all repellents work, but the stinkier it is, the faster it works) to drive the bees out of the super. Equipment needed: Fume board, damp sheet, smoker, and repellent. When you open the lid, use a few puffs of smoke. Spray five to six sprays of the repellent on the cloth portion of the fume board, then place it on the hive. I like to place it slightly off-center to provide an upper escape for the bees if they want to use it. If you apply too much repellent or if it’s too hot and it works too fast, you may see some “drunk” bees on the top bars that are wet and appear unable to walk well. Remove the fume board for a few seconds to let the hive air out, brush the drunk bees off the top bars, and try again. Set the fume board even more off-center to provide some ventilation. After about a minute, pry up the top super and look at the underside. If you see only a few bees, pull the super off and move the fume board to the next super. Cover the removed super with a damp sheet to keep robber bees out of it. If, when you look at the underside, you see more than a few dozen bees, give it another minute. The repellent fumigates with heat, so if it’s a cool or cloudy day it will take much longer to drive the bees out. If it’s fully overcast and below 75 degrees, the fume board may not work at all. Check back on the progress frequently. If it’s a hot, sunny day, the fume board can work as fast as 30 seconds. If a fume board is left on too long, it can drive all the bees right out the front door. While this won’t kill the hive, you do run the slim risk of losing your queen as she runs out of the hive. Smoke: I do not recommend using smoke exclusively to remove bees for two reasons. One, it just doesn’t usually work well. A percentage of the bees will remain in the super, consuming honey. Two, if you heavily smoke a super of honey, the honey can actually absorb the smoke and take on a smoky flavor. Bee Escapes: A bee escape is a board placed between the brood boxes and the honey supers. A device can be purchased to place inside the hole of your inner cover, converting your inner cover to a bee escape. The device creates a one-way street for the bees to exit the supers into the brood boxes, but they cannot return. This process usually takes anywhere from several hours to a few days to work. You need to ensure that there are no holes or gaps in your supers for robber bees to take advantage of the lack of workers in your supers. This method generally works, but there are a few things to watch out for. If the super of honey sits unprotected for a handful of days, it’s at risk from small hive beetles, robber bees, or melting if you have hot summers. As long as the escape works within 24 hours, it’s a great method. But if it takes longer than that, I’d recommend switching to another removal method. Leaf Blowers: This method is lots of fun and quite effective. But it can also make the bees pretty angry, so it’s not recommended if you have neighbors nearby! Simply stand your honey super up on its end so all the frames are vertical, fire up your leaf blower, and blow between all the frames. It’s fast, effective, and cheap if you already have a leaf blower. The only caution is to ensure you are using a queen excluder. If you don’t and the queen happens to be in your honey super, there is a good chance you will damage her as she’s blown out of the hive. This method does work really well on cooler days when fume boards aren’t effective. Whatever method you choose, move quickly to prevent robber bees from stealing the honey out of your harvested hive. Keep a damp sheet or some form of lid over the boxes of harvested honey to cut down on robbing. See “I'm Being Robbed!” Plan to extract your honey ASAP after harvest. Don’t let it sit in an air-conditioned space as it will become too thick to spin out in the extractor. Conversely, don’t let it get above about 90 degrees or the comb could lose structural integrity.
I love our custom-made fume board! Here's a quick video showing you exactly how to use it and how fast it really is!
Bee escapes create a one-way street for bees to exit.
A lightweight, portable blower works great for blowing the bees off of supers! Photo credit: Bee Informed Partnership
CRAZY FAST FUME BOARD
Once you’ve determined that your honey is ready and you’ve pulled your supers, be prepared to get that honey extracted right away. Although you can’t see them, you’ll likely find that you have small hive beetles or wax moths if honey is left on the frames for more than just a few days, running the risk of the honey becoming inedible. Equipment needed Extractor: Depending on the amount of honey you will be extracting, a small unit (two to four frames) may be sufficient for short-term use, but for larger quantities and better quality, an investment in a good quality extractor will be money well spent. Bee clubs often will loan equipment to members, as will other club members willing to help out. Plastic uncapping tank Capping scratcher Uncapping knife Plastic uncapping punch roller Food-grade five-gallon bucket: Most hives will produce at least one medium super of honey weighing 35 to 45 pounds. A single bucket holds 55–60 pounds, so purchase accordingly. Bucket honey gate: Avoid storing honey in a bucket with a gate. IT WILL LEAK! Use this bucket for bottling only. Tip: Install the gate on the lid and not the bucket. This allows you to move the lid with the gate from bucket to bucket for bottling. Simply (with lid on securely) lay the bucket over on its side to fill bottles. Strainer or filter: For the “raw and unfiltered” honey designation, whether to strain is your choice. Otherwise, floating your honey would also qualify. This method involves simply letting your honey sit for a few days, allowing all of the impurities to float to the top to be skimmed off for bottling. Bottles: There are a number of honey bottles to choose from in various sizes. Purchase what best suits your market (area). Note: Only bottle ahead what you can sell quickly. Honey crystallizes quickly and is much easier to liquefy out of larger containers than smaller ones. Location For most of you, your kitchen or garage (with the door closed) will suffice. You will of course want to have it as clean as you would want any space in which any product you consume is packaged. Using painter’s plastic or plastic tablecloths on the floors and countertops can make cleanup much easier. Consider taping them down with blue painter’s tape to prevent a tripping hazard if necessary. Tip: Have a bucket of water and rags (towels) to wipe your hands throughout the process. Extraction process Place your frame vertically over the uncapping tank. Use the uncapping knife to remove (top to bottom) the thinnest slice of wax cappings possible, letting it drop inside the tank. Repeat on the other side. For any unopened cells, use the cappings fork to lightly scratch over the cells to open them. An uncapping roller works well for this step as well (as shown in the video below). Place the frame vertically into the extractor. For tangential extractors, you’ll spin the extractor until one side is empty and then reverse the frames to spin out the other side. For radial extractors, both sides will spin out simultaneously. Repeat this process until the tank fills to just under the spinner basket. You’ll know your honey has reached the basket when the spinning is labored (becomes difficult to spin). Place a bucket under the extractor gate and open the gate. Watch as your liquid gold pours out! If you aim to call your honey “raw and unfiltered,” you won’t use a filter, but you can use a strainer. These strainers are designed to remove only the bee body parts and not pollen—thereby retaining its natural composition. Otherwise, be prepared to let the honey “float” for a few days until all of the foreign matter floats to the top to be skimmed. The easiest skimming method I have found to date is the “plastic wrap method.” You simply take a piece of plastic wrap slightly larger than the bucket and carefully lay it on top of the honey, gently pressing it down all around the interior of the bucket and onto the floating foam. Pay close attention to getting it right next to the edges all the way around the inside. Once you’ve done that, in one quick motion (one handed) lift up the plastic wrap from the center with all five fingers, grabbing it as if you are picking up the honey, and lift the foam and all quickly into a waiting bowl in your other hand. The foam and debris will be encapsulated inside the plastic wrap. This will remove 95+% of the debris from the honey. Repeat as needed. Store the bucket of honey in a warm location, such as your garage or in an outbuilding so that it is safe from critters that might try to get to it. As mentioned, only bottle what you will be selling quickly unless you have a makeshift “hot box” to store it in, such as an ice chest or old nonworking chest-type freezer with a light bulb hanging inside for a low heat source. Even so, in our experience it’s best to bottle upon request, making it fresh and less likely to darken from constant heat.
Check out our full line of honey containers, from 2- ounce bears to 5-pound jugs!
CONTAINERS
EXTRACTING YOUR HONEY CROP
Watch as Roy and Karen Morse show how easy it is to extract honey using the items discussed in this article.
Photo credit: Ewell Acres
MY HONEY IS RUNNY!
"When the moisture content is too high, uncontrolled fermentation can take place either in the hive or after bottling the harvested honey. This can add unwanted byproducts to the honey, ruining its flavor and making it inedible as honey. If honey starts to ferment in the hive, the honeycomb cells are filled with bubbles and an odor of yeast can be smelled." Source: AgClassroom.org
High-moisture honey can certainly be a problem, as honey that’s over 19% moisture can easily ferment. We often see high-moisture honey when we have experienced especially wet springs, we are in high-humidity areas, honey is harvested too early, or water was introduced during the extracting process. There are some simple tricks to reduce the moisture content of honey on a small scale that will bring it back to the salable and consumable optimal reading of approximately 18.6%. The tool used to test the water content is called a refractometer. If your honey seems especially thin or runny, it's a good idea to test it. If your test reveals that the moisture is above 19%, heating or cooling while mixing the honey over a period of days can reduce it to acceptable levels. Here are some options if you have high-moisture honey: Simply bottle and freeze your honey immediately after harvesting, and thaw jars out as needed. Frozen honey cannot ferment. This isn’t ideal for honey you will sell but can certainly be done when saving it for your own consumption. Place your honey in a five-gallon bucket. Then put the bucket in a small room or enclosure like an old refrigerator or large ice chest inside your house where the humidity is low. Place a small fan in the enclosure, and leave the door or lid cracked slightly. Also, warm the space to 85–95 degrees with a non-LED light bulb. Leave the lid off the bucket and stir the honey two to three times per day. After about a week, the moisture should be reduced by 1–2%. Similarly, you can chill the honey to about 65 degrees in a small enclosure and follow the same steps as previously mentioned. Purchase a small dehumidifier and place it in an enclosed area with your open bucket of honey, mixing two to three times per day for a week. Prevention Avoid pulling honey supers within a few days of rain. Store the honey supers with frames in a dry space until they are extracted. Extract right away. Wax is hygroscopic (absorbs moisture), so the longer the capped honey is exposed to high humidity, the better the chance is of the moisture increasing in your honey. Make sure your extractor is completely dry prior to extracting.
HOW TO USE A REFRACTOMETER
This refractometer combines affordability with high quality accuracy! Measures moisture from 12%-27% and works in any strong light. This refractometer comes precalibrated and features a rubber grip and comfortable eyepiece.
Having your own refractometer is a necessity when you begin harvesting salable honey. With it, you can be certain you are selling a product that meets the recommended guidelines to prevent fermentation. The most important factor in using a refractometer is to verify that the unit is calibrated; if not, follow the instructions provided to calibrate it prior to testing. Note: The unit should say whether it’s calibrated or not on the packaging. It isn’t hard to recalibrate. This can be done with extra virgin olive oil if you don’t want to purchase calibration oil as stated on the directions. Directions for testing your honey: Place the refractometer in the same room as the honey for at least an hour so they will become the same temperature. This can affect the reading. Lift the plastic cover and verify that the glass plate is dry, clean, and lint free. Place a small drop of honey on the glass (a toothpick works well as a dropper; too much honey on the glass will “fog” the reading, making it hard to read). Close the plastic cover over the honey sample. Hold the refractometer up to a light source and read the measurement under the column "water %." This will be the line where the blue meets the white. A reading of under 19% is considered OK. Over 19%, fermentation is more likely to occur. Clean the honey off the glass and the plastic cover with a soft, damp rag, then dry them thoroughly for storing.
When looking inside of a refractometer, three columns are typically visible. The one on the far right side of this particular device (some are different), it shows the "water %." This is the column you are looking for. As you can see in this image, the honey sample is right on the mark at 18.6%. You can also see that the blue line where it meets the white is fairly clear and concise. If that line is fuzzy, you have too much honey on the glass being sampled. Wipe it clean and start over with a smaller sample of honey.
REFRACTOMETER
For best visibility, hold it up to a bright light or a window if it's sunny outside.
I'M BEING ROBBED!
Video courtesy of Stan Gore
You see the yellow duct tape? Duct tape works great for sealing box seams when a hive is under a robbing attack.
Honey is in the air—literally! When honey supers are pulled, the air is filled with the wonderful aroma of honey, beckoning other hives to take advantage of a free food source. Unfortunately, robbing can kill a perfectly vibrant hive within a matter of hours if left unmanaged. Signs of a robbing situation A sudden increase in hive activity Fighting at the entrance Dead bees at the entrance or on the ground in front of the hive Higher-pitched hive sounds (agitation/desperation) Bees gathering around the cracks and seams of the hive Bees swaying as they try to get inside the hive (normally bees fly straight into a hive, but robber bees tend to sway back and forth as they try to get past the guard bees) An overabundance of wax particles at the entrance or on the bottom board (under the hive if the screen is open) Once a robbing frenzy has been identified, take action immediately! Waiting could be detrimental to your hive. How to stop robbing (more than one of these can be done at a time if necessary) Reduce the entrance: If you don’t have an entrance reducer, then use a stick, a handful of grass, or anything that will block part of the entrance to reduce it to a size that allows only a couple of bees at a time to come in or get out. Install a robbing screen and leave it on for several days. Cover the hive with a lightweight damp sheet: Why damp? A slightly wet sheet will keep the hive cooler. The sheet will no doubt trap multiple robber bees, but it will allow time for the hive to gain the upper hand while not allowing more robbers in. Leave it on at least overnight. Robbing should subside by morning. Run a water sprinkler over the hive: Setting up a water sprinkler, creating a “rainstorm,” will shut down aggressive robbing quickly. Bees can’t or won’t fly in the rain, so simply create rain! Run this sprinkler for several hours if possible. It doesn’t have to be set very high—just high enough to cover the entire hive, including the entrance. Tape seams and cracks: Probably one of the most common mistakes beekeepers make is allowing hive boxes to fall into disrepair. Excessive openings at corners and seams can and will become an access point for robbing bees. During a robbing event, duct tape any entry point and wrap seams to prevent the hive’s aroma from continuing to attract robbers. Postrobbing care Check the hive for damage: Inspect the hive that experienced the robbing as soon as possible. Doing so early in the morning (before lunch) could help to prevent another robbing frenzy. Note: Robbing is accentuated during the peak of the day (typically mid-afternoon). Excessive dead bees on the bottom board will be removed by the remaining bees, but any help you can give them means less work for them. Be prepared to reduce the hive size: Often after a severe robbing event a hive will have lost a substantial amount of population. If this happens consider the box-to-bee ratio and reduce the number of boxes to fit the number of bees left. Feed internally: Keep in mind that the hive has lost a lot of its resources. If the hive didn’t make it, which can happen, promptly break down the hive components and store them properly for future use. Replace hive equipment: Any hive boxes that have rotten corners or are worn, allowing gaps, need to be replaced. Simply take the frames from the old box, place them in a new one, and place it back on the hive. How to prevent robbing Return honey supers at dusk while other hives aren’t out foraging (or looking for the opportunity to rob other hives). This allows the hive to clean up the excess honey in the supers overnight, eliminating the aroma of honey in the air the next day. When postharvest feeding, avoid spilling any syrup around the hive. Feed using internal feeders only. Area feeding and boardman feeders can attract feral colonies as well as other hives looking to take advantage of a weak hive. Make quick work of inspections. The longer a hive is open, the greater the chance of robbing. Get in and get out! Remember, summer dearth is right around the corner. As soon as we rob honey, the honey robbers go on the hunt!
Photo credit: Ana Heck, BIP
Even though we want to avoid disrupting the bees during a major nectar flow, once a month you’ll need to go in and look for the following: Laying queen: Eggs and larvae present Good brood pattern: A good indicator of the health of the queen and colony Signs of disease such as European foulbrood This inspection can and should only take a few minutes. Beyond that, check back once a week on the progress of your honey supers. If it is more than two weeks prior to the end of your area’s nectar flow, add another super when the current ones are more than 75% full. Adding another super when the nectar flow is nearly over will not yield any honey and can actually be an open invitation for small hive beetles to take over or open the hive up for a robbing event. Too much space is never a good idea.
"The debris on the bottom board of a hive that has been robbed out will have a large amount of chewed wax capping flakes and some dead bees. The small number of dead bees present indicate that the colony had dwindled significantly. Robber bees may rob honey before or after the colony died." Dan Wyns, Bee Informed Partnership
Hive inspections during a nectar flow
Watch as Blake shows us how to do a hive inspection during a honey flow.
Photo and description courtesy of BIP, Dan Wyns, What Robbing Looks Like
BEAT THE HEAT!
TBS Beekeeper Chat with Shannon La Grave TBS Expert/Instructor
Beekeeper extraordinaire Shannon La Grave takes time out of her busy day job (TBS's Customer Service Beekeeping Expert/Instructor) to answer a multitude of your most-asked beekeeping questions, like, Should I feed my bees? How important is bee biology really? Why do I have laying workers? Should I use a single hive or double deep? How do I do hive inspections? What can I do about absconding? And so much more!
with Chari Elam
WHY CHOOSE HIVE IQ? Thermally superior by design Faster spring buildup Increased honey production Improved survival rate Reduction in pests and diseases Improved hygiene
Wonky comb, crooked, off-center, askew—no matter what you call it, comb that doesn’t follow the correct path can be a real pain. Sometimes the best way to describe something is to describe what it’s not. Wonky comb is not bridge comb or burr comb or cross comb. These are actually combs built to act as ladders from one level to the next, both vertically and horizontally. Honey bees have to add wax comb to traditional Langstroth frames before they have space to store resources and lay eggs. In theory this wax is built copying the design imprinted on the plastic foundation—or not. Sometimes the bees will create a sheet of wax right over the top of the foundation without using the foundation at all. Other times they may make strips of comb on the foundation while not filling in the other areas. Either way, it’s an inefficient use of bees’ comb-building labor. Here are some causes and solutions: Uneven or leaning hive. Solution: Keep hives level within a one-inch variant. Hive is weak or hungry, lacking the resources to fully draw foundation. Solution: Feed. Too much space left between frames. Solution: Keep brood frames tightly pushed together and super frames equally spaced. During a light flow or until new foundation is starting to be drawn out, it is best to keep super frames tightly together. Dirty or unwaxed foundation. Solution: Use a power washer or water hose with a high- pressure water nozzle to clean the frames. With all of the above, brush away the bees, scrape the excess comb off, and let them try it again—and if necessary, coat with wax. Some other common areas that excess wax is drawn include: On the top of frames. This is burr comb for ladders. Let it bee unless it’s in the way. In division board feeders. To avoid this, stuff the feeder cavity with wire mesh the bees can use as a ladder. Try a Pro Feeder instead. Safety tips when melting wax: Never leave melting wax on a stovetop burner. Use electric heat, never an open flame (a used slow cooker works great!). Beeswax melts between 144°F and 147°F (62°C and 64°C). If beeswax is heated above 185°F (85°C), discoloration occurs. The flash point of beeswax is 400°F (204.4°C). Keep a fire extinguisher handy. The wax is hot and will burn you if it spills on your skin. Tips: Find a used slow cooker at a secondhand store. After you use it to melt wax, you can’t use it for food anymore. Purchase a foam roller with a plastic insert instead of cardboard. It won’t soak up extra wax, and it will last longer! You can use old brood comb or dirty wax, but try not to use wax from a hive that was previously treated. If purchasing your wax, avoid buying over the internet (or source unknown). Instead, find a local beekeeper or bee supply store to get pure beeswax. You want to wax frames close to the time you are putting them in the hive so the wax will still be soft and smell fresh. Roll waxing your frames: Add 1 cup of water and the wax to your slow cooker. Tip: For cleaner wax, place it in a cut section of pantyhose. After your wax has melted, turn your slow cooker down to a low or warm setting. Leave the foundation in the frame so you don’t have to bend it to put it in after it’s been coated with wax. Dip the roller into the wax and roll across the foundation. Let this dry and harden for approximately 10 minutes before recoating. You can repeat this as much as you want, but twice is sufficient. Use a straight edge to scrape off any wax that might have ended up on the frame edges. Place newly waxed frames in hives within a few days or a week for the best results!
By Dodie Stillman and Chari Elam
WONKY COMB: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
HELP IS NEVER MORE THAN A PHONE CALL AWAY 1-800-356-4229
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WAX DIPPING FOUNDATION MADE FAST AND EASY!
Take it from me, this beekeeper has spent hours rolling melted wax onto honey super foundation—all to give the bees a head start on drawing comb. It took Peg Turrentine only minutes to achieve the same results! Starting with a turkey roaster she picked up at a thrift store and a box of clean foundation in frames, she removed the foundation, dipped it, let it set while dipping the rest, and then reinserted them into the frames—in about ten minutes. Each frame, if dipped and bumped against the side, holds approximately two ounces of wax. If just dipped and set aside, Peg estimates it holds about 3.5 ounces of wax. This is a tremendous time saver! Thanks, Peg, for sharing!
THINKING OUTSIDE THE HIVE BOX
Note from the editor:
Photo credit: NaturalBeekeepingTrust.org, Ode to an Odious Practice
NEED A NEW QUEEN?
Although swarm season is winding down in some areas, the topic of clipping a queen’s wings has surfaced yet again on social media. Forgive me in advance if I come off as sounding smug about the topic, but as years go by, I often wonder why some ideas won’t seem to go away—this one topping the list! Although it isn't as prevalent as it was in years past, it continues to be a point of contention among respected beekeepers. Disclaimer: I realize that there are varying opinions on this topic. It is up to each individual to do independent research and come to their own conclusion. The theory Originally, queen clipping was done to keep track of a queen’s age. In even-numbered years the right two wings were clipped, and for odd years the left. When queen marking became prevalent, swarm prevention became the primary basis for the act. The theory backing this practice is something like this: We clip chickens’ wings so they can’t fly, so why not clip a queen bee’s wings so she can’t fly and take a swarm from my hive? The fallacy A swarm retains the urge to leave regardless of whether the queen is with them or not. A colony swarms to perpetuate the species. Swarm preparations can last at least a couple of weeks, and in that process, the bees exercise and withhold food from the queen in order to slim her down for the flight out. She is actually one of the last to leave the hive in a swarm, and from what I’ve read, she goes kicking and screaming! She’s not the leader of the pack—she’s cargo! If she isn’t available, the swarm will just wait to take a virgin queen or leave queenless if they have to. Theory busted. Is it painful to the queen for her wings to get clipped? Turns out it probably is! Ouch! A bee’s wings contain veins that carry hemolymph (blood) from the wings to the body and back again. They are a living part of the bee. Therefore, it is plausible that the actual cutting of the wing can hurt the queen. It’s known that hemolymph oozes from the cut wing for a short time, indicating a wound. When a queen is wounded or injured, the colony reacts. How? They replace her! Conclusion The act of clipping a queen’s wings can cause the colony to kill her because they deem her injured. Therefore, it is not a risk most beekeepers are willing to take.
QUEEN CLIPPING
TBS Italian Carniolan queens available ONLY through July 26, 2024!
Arrows indicate larvae showing signs of EFB.
EUROPEAN FOULBROOD
Unlike American Foulbrood, EFB is much more common but not nearly as harmful to a hive. Luckily, the spores don’t last long periods in equipment, making burning hives unnecessary. I’ve seen EFB many times, often in the cooler spring period or when hives are stressed. It affects larvae, often killing them when they are four or five days old. Diagnosing EFB The classic sign is uncapped larvae appearing twisted and yellowish or brownish, rather than the normal pearly white. Larvae are often dead in a “C” shape. In mild infections, you may see only a few infected larvae. There can be hundreds in a severe infection. For moderate to severe cases, all the brood will also be spotty. There are a handful of causes: Contaminated equipment or frames from other hives Stressful conditions like moving bees or splitting and not providing splits with enough bees to care for brood Nectar dearths, in which the bees are nutritionally stressed and need more food (see Symptoms of a Nutritionally Starved Hive) Cool and damp springs Treating hives with EFB The only approved and proven treatment for EFB is the antibiotic Terramycin. You will have to get a prescription from a local vet before purchasing it from a bee supply company. Be sure to follow the instructions. I would recommend using this only for a moderate to severe infection. For mild infections, feed the hive and requeen if the queen is older than eight to ten months. Usually, mild cases can resolve themselves once the weather becomes warmer and drier. These things are less proven, but I’ve seen them help: 1) Try feeding some bee probiotics. 2) Try feeding Complete with syrup. 3) Treat the hive with the thymol-based mite treatment Apiguard.
Definition: European Foulbrood is a seasonal bacterial disease affecting honey bee larvae found primarily in early spring.
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I was not sure what to expect from Dr. Thomas D. Seeley’s sixth book, Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners, released on April 9. The title seemed silly, and even the cover art looks amateurish compared to the covers of Honeybee Democracy (2011), Following the Wild Bees (2019), and The Lives of Bees (2019). Fortunately, I didn’t let my initial impression prevent me from reading the book. In this book, Seeley devotes each of the 20 chapters to a specific worker behavior and describes the research process that led to understanding the what and why of the behavior. If you’ve read Honeybee Democracy, chapters three through nine of this book will seem like a review on swarms and choosing a future homesite. Don’t think to skip them, though, because there is some newer information. Most of the other chapters cover “mechanical signals,” which is communicating by sound or movement, and how forager bees know whether to recruit more bees to collect a resource (nectar, pollen, water, resin) or to slow down or even take a break in collecting. When I read the book in late April and early May, it was the peak of swarm season in my area. I share the excerpt in the next paragraph from chapter four, which I found especially relevant. (Bold for emphasis added by me.) In spring or early summer, if a colony of honey bees has grown populous and has stocked its nest with brood and food, then almost without fail it will cast a swarm. When it does, the colony’s queen and about three-quarters of its workers (some 12,000 bees) will tumble out of their home and form a cloud of swirling and buzzing bees. They will then assemble on a tree branch, mailbox or whatever is nearby, and form a dense cluster with the mother queen safe inside. Left behind are a quarter or so of the colony’s population of adult worker bees, a stock of several thousand immature worker bees, and a clutch of 4-10 immature queen bees being fed royal jelly. One of these daughter queens will replace the departed mother queen as the residual colony’s egg-layer-in-chief. Also left behind is a larder of beeswax combs stocked with honey and pollen. It guarantees that none of the stay-at-home bees goes hungry, even though their group now has rather few foragers. In his preface, Seeley writes, “I want to share with a general audience—especially fellow beekeepers—the discoveries … about the behavior of honey bees over the last five decades.” In my opinion, Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners does a good job of explaining the discoveries using language meant for the average reader. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about how a honey bee colony communicates and makes decisions. The book is available from Princeton University Press, Amazon, and most retail booksellers.
My personal book review of Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners by Thomas D. Seeley By Lynne Jones
If you’ve read Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners, what chapter did you find the most interesting? You can message me on Facebook or send an email to BrazosRiverHoney77474@gmail.com
WHAT'S THE BUZZ?
YIELD: Makes 20 (2 T) servings INGREDIENTS 1 pint - sour cream 6 T - honey 2 T - orange juice, thawed, undiluted 2 T - Dijon mustard 1 T - cream-style horseradish 2 tsp. - rosemary, crushed 1 tsp. - chervil, crushed 1 tsp. - basil, crushed 3/4 tsp. - salt 1/2 tsp. - white pepper 1/4 tsp. - garlic powder 1/2 cup - feta cheese, finely crumbled DIRECTIONS In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients; mix well. Refrigerate at least one hour to allow flavors to blend. Stir before using and serve with vegetables. NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (per serving of dip) Calories 64 kcal; Fat 5 g; Sat Fat 3 g; Carb 5 g; Protein 1 g; Fiber 0 g; Cholesterol 15 mg, Sodium 167 mg; Potassium 31 mg; Calcium 42 mg; Iron 0 mg; Vitamin D 0 mcg
BEES IN THE HERB GARDEN DIP
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