JULY 2024
Photo Credit: Nanette Davis - @GardenVarietyBees
THE BEE SUPPLY
Monthly
FEATURED TOPICS Summer Hive Care Trickle Feeding Natural and Chemical Varroa Treatments
EDITION 49
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 Summer Hive Care 14 How Much Honey Should I Leave? 17 Yes, You Can Pull a Frame of Honey 18 Extracting Honey Without an Extractor 20 Summer Splits 24 Trickle Feeding 26 Is There Such a Thing as Feeding Too Much? 27 What's Going On? 29 A Field Guide to Honey Bees' Maladies 30 Natural and Chemical Varroa Treatments 36 Storing Honey and Extracted Honey Frames 38 Chat with Ben Moore of Ben's Bees 39 How to Protect Your Bees from Aerial Spraying 40 What's the Buzz? Fact vs. Myth about Honey 44 Honey Bee Crossword Puzzle 45 What's Going On? Explained 46 Recipe: Honey Kiwi Raspberry Fruit Dip 48 Monthly Buzz Q&A 49 Club Directory 50 Drought Chart
July
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This publication is best viewed on a PC or laptop computer or downloaded on a mobile device.
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For the vast majority of the southern states, the nectar flow is completely finished by early July. If you plan to harvest your honey, you should do so quickly to ensure the bees do not consume too much of their stores. See the June issue regarding honey harvest. Your bees are entering one of the most critical periods of the entire year. Varroa mite populations typically peak in July, making treatment critical once honey is removed. Use a treatment that is able to withstand high temperatures, like Apivar. Any thymol-based treatment does not do well in high temperatures, and oxalic acid is effective only during a broodless period. Apistan and Checkmite are no longer viable due to mite resistance. Hopguard can be somewhat effective, but make sure to test for mites after treatment as it can be ineffective in some conditions. Apivar is currently the most effective and reliable treatment in high temperatures. Of importance immediately after harvesting honey is feeding your bees. In July there are virtually no major nectar-producing flowers blooming, but your bees are still rearing brood and still require large amounts of food to maintain their strength. Thus, we encourage all beekeepers to begin feeding and not stop until each hive has a thirty-pound surplus of syrup stored in the second box. This will guarantee that your bees have the resources they need to live and thrive. Even a few weeks without enough food or with excessively high mite levels can drastically damage your hive. Heat is much harder on bees than cold, and in the most southern states, heat poses some unique challenges for hives. In addition to treating for mites and feeding immediately, be sure to provide a water source for your hive and to slightly crack the lid for additional ventilation. Adding an empty box above your current boxes can provide some dead air space and a buffer from the hot lid. Make sure your hive has at least two boxes instead of one deep box. One of the most important things to keep in mind as a beekeeper is the fact that winter preparation begins as soon as you harvest honey. Many beekeepers begin winter preparation when the first major cold front hits in October or November, but that is far too late. Most “winter” losses are actually a result of improper care during the summer months. Hives may appear alive and well over the summer, but they can actually be starving and infested with mites—and mites transfer viruses to the bees. You may not notice a dramatic decline until the issues have reached a critical point in fall or winter, but the invisible damage was done over the summer. If you want to grow your hive count in the following year, you can place supers of foundation directly on top of your brood nest and feed the hive continually over the summer. The bees will draw out the comb, which can give you your comb for the next year and eliminate the need to draw out foundation on a honey flow. The constant food and the chance to work are great for the bees over the summer months as well.
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How we feed matters. Products such as Apis Biolgix Bio-Control added to sugar syrup can dramatically enhance your feed-ability!
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By Blake Shook
JULY TIPS
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Summer Hive Care
Although the temperatures are on the rise, believe it or not, your hives are preparing for winter right now! And what you are doing right now with your bees directly affects how well they will overwinter. That may sound daunting, but it’s not really. Following a simple schedule will ensure that your bees have the help they need, and they will take care of the rest! These are the main components of summer care: Varroa control Nutrition (feeding) Summer boxes Keeping hives cool Managing mean bees Equalizing hives The topics highlighted in gold are discussed in this issue or previous issues and are linked to take you straight to them. Let's get to the others. Nutrition Beyond Varroa control, nutrition tops the list of important interventions required postharvest. Keeping these few points in mind will make this portion easy. Thirty pounds of stored honey in the second deep or fifteen pounds in a single deep: If you have anything less, feed. If you’re unclear on how to gauge the weight of honey in your deep boxes, remember that each frame that is fully capped front and back weighs approximately ten pounds. Pollen diversity: As summer heats up, less and less pollen of value will be available for your bees. Area feeding dry pollen will help to continue brood rearing. Water sources will diminish as rain becomes less frequent. Provide your bees with a good, dependable water source within 50 feet of their hives. Water is required to cool the hive and mix with honey to feed larvae. See “Trickle Feeding.” Summer Boxes A key factor in beekeeping is to know when to add boxes and when to take them away. Often, we are better at one than the other! It’s common knowledge that we add boxes at the 80% full mark (whether that be brood boxes or honey supers). Most colonies will not require you to add boxes at this point. Taking boxes away, on the other hand, can be a bit more complicated! In all reality, the exact same 80% rule applies. As population peak turns to population decrease due to the queen’s slowing her laying in the summer dearth, we need to take action if we now have too much unused space. If you find the hive has reduced enough to condense down to one deep (or to two if you were at three), the only frames you would want to eliminate are the unused frames, keeping brood in the center and resources to the outside. Keep in mind that you would only do this if your colony has really reduced in size. For the most part, hives sustain their strength if we continue to feed and manage them well. Managing Mean Bees This should be a key topic for the August issue so I won’t elaborate, but I will say this—dearth will make colonies grouchy. Period! Other factors are hunger, queen issues, too many bees in one location, and outside aggravation (varmints, weed eaters, etc.) Equalizing Hives We actually have the opportunity to equalize hives at various times of the year. Depending on what your hive needs, your actions will vary. But regardless, your donor hives need to have Varroa mites under control, be disease free, and be robust. Otherwise, you could put them in the same position as the needy colony—then where would you be? Right back to where you started! Equalize brood: Take a capped brood frame nearing emergence. This would be one of the darkest-colored capped brood frames. Shake off the bees and leave them with the donor hive. Insert the frame left or right of the center of the needy colony. You will obviously have to remove a frame to have room for the new one. As long as the frame is Varroa and disease free, you can trade it with the donor hive. Equalize bees: Choose an “open larvae” (uncapped) brood frame covered in nurse bees. Either shake the nurse bees off at the donor hive or transport them with the frame. If transporting them, shake them off at the entrance to the needy colony but smoke just prior to doing so. These bees will be more readily accepted and go right in and get to work. Repeat with up to three frames, but do so from various healthy hives. You wouldn’t want to stress another hive to help this one. The same applies with the frame(s) you remove as previously mentioned. Equalize honey: This one is easy. Most often there is one overachieving hive that has plenty of honey frames to share. Simply add to the outside of the brood nest of the needy colony. They will be happy to get it! Note: Adding new undrawn foundation is fine, but consider that they will have to draw the comb and nonstop feeding will be needed. Trickle feeding is ideal for this! Summer is hard on bees and—let’s face it—us too! Keep your biweekly hive check timely and act when you see an issue. Test and treat for Varroa if needed, and keep feeding your bees until after dearth (at least). With all this, we’ll go into fall with healthy, happy bees.
By Chari Elam
SUMMER HIVE INSPECTIONS AND COMPLETE HIVE CARE
The last thing you want to do is go into summer with a weak hive. Boosting hives with brood, nurse bees tending larvae (future bees), or honey can go a long way to increasing the hive's ability to survive summer.
Locating a brood frame with the most capped cells you can find will ensure you get the most out of the transfer.
Check out this video. It contains everything you need to know to get your hive through a hot and dry summer dearth! What is covered here is optimal management. Keep in mind that what matters most is mites, queens, and nutrition. With those three pillars focused on, it's hard to go wrong in beekeeping!
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Some beekeepers believe that, if you leave a lot of honey for your bees after the primary nectar flow stops, everything will be OK and that’s the best thing to do for them. While having their own honey to eat rather than syrup is a little better for them, it actually doesn’t help as much as you would think. Things like handling mites and feeding properly are far more important to the long-term health of your hive. I encourage beekeepers to always leave all the honey the bees have in the bottom brood box for the bees. Then, if you have a second box, you can leave all the honey in that box as well or harvest about half of it along with all the honey out of the supers above it. After you harvest, you just have to ensure that you feed properly to replenish the stores you took. Oftentimes, summer feeding is great for the bees and encourages them to continue growing and thriving—far better for them than just sitting around with nothing to do. Follow the guidelines on trickle feeding and your hive will be fine, even if you take all the honey out of the supers. If you don’t want to feed at all, then you will need to leave at least 40 pounds of honey in the second box above the first brood box. Do not extract from the brood nest.
HOW MUCH HONEY SHOULD I LEAVE FOR MY BEES AFTER THE FLOW STOPS?
"After you harvest, you just have to ensure that you feed properly to replenish the stores you took."
People always ask, "How much honey should I take out of the hive?" Blake helps answer that question in this video.
I know the feeling all too well—the overwhelming urge to pull “just one” frame of honey off a hive that is a first-year hive and still growing. Although you’ve been told to leave everything for the bees the first year, I’m going to give you permission to do just that—take a frame or two. Be prepared to feed, but don’t worry—the bees won’t mind. Watch this short video I made showing just exactly how I remove a frame and extract the honey from it.
YES! Make sure you put your supers back on in the late evening to help reduce the chance that robbing will occur. Within 24 hours, the bees will clean up any residual honey, fix damaged comb, and have the supers ready to use next year! After that 24-hour period, you can remove the supers and store the comb for next year. It is important that your bees have at least two boxes throughout the summer. So if you have only one brood box, leave one super on for the queen to lay eggs in over the summer and for the bees to store extra food in preparation for winter. This should become your second brood box. If you already have a second brood box, whether it’s a deep or a medium, you don’t have to leave any honey supers on the hive.
SHOULD I PUT MY SUPERS BACK ON THE HIVE AFTER EXTRACTING?
YES, YOU CAN PULL A FRAME OF HONEY THE FIRST YEAR
Sits perfectly on top of standard 5-gallon bucket
Fits any standard five- gallon bucket Holds shallow, medium, and deep frame Hands-free capability! Dishwasher safe
Filter out all of those unwanted particles from your honey Available in 200, 400, and 600 micron
EXTRACTING HONEY WITHOUT AN EXTRACTOR
There’s no need to purchase or even borrow a honey extractor for just a few frames of honey or even a box or two. Depending on how many you have, here are some very easy and inexpensive ways to do it. Cookie sheet Remove the top layer of wax from both sides of the frame with an uncapping knife and turn the frame upside down (top bar down) on a large, flat cookie sheet. Gently lay a couple of crisscrossed layers of plastic wrap over it, creating a tent to prevent lint and contaminants from getting into it while it sits overnight. One deep frame will yield almost a quart of fresh honey! Note: The reason you have to turn the frame upside down is that bees build the honey cells tilted upward at a 17-degree angle to prevent their contents from spilling out. Setting it upside down allows it to drain effectively. Combcapper This is a super handy tool! It allows you to do small amounts and not have to do anything but decap the frame and walk off. It really is that easy! This device sits on top of a five-gallon bucket and utilizes gravity to drain the frame. Place the frame on top of a cookie sheet and remove the top layer of wax with an uncapping knife from both sides. Place it in the groove of the Combcapper and let gravity do the work! Twenty-four hours later, you have nice clean honey inside the bucket. Tip: Place this setup in a spare bedroom or closet where household people and pet movement won’t add lint and contaminants to the honey. Crush and strain This is probably the most common method of extracting when you don’t have an extractor (also used by Top Bar beekeepers). Unfortunately, its name implies the biggest downfall of the method—crush. Not being able to maintain your honeycomb on the frame for reuse is unfortunate and sets you back for next year, but it’s not the end of the world! Simply use a tool of your choice (uncapping knife, hive tool, spatula, etc.) to remove all of the comb from the foundation and put it into a bowl or bucket. Then, take handfuls of the comb and squeeze as much honey out of it as you can. This method does require you to filter the honey afterward because a great deal of wax and debris will be in it. This method also leaves a lot of air bubbles in the honey. Allow it to sit for several days before bottling.
Bucket not included
Summer Splits
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Making summer splits is very similar to making spring splits, with a few important differences. Regardless of where you are in the United States, it is ideal to split as early as possible in the summer. Many in the South wait until after they harvest honey (usually by July 4), while northern beekeepers can split in July during the honey flow. As a result, they sacrifice their honey crop, but hives tend to grow more quickly due to the abundant natural nectar and pollen flow. Nationwide, the overwintering success rate for splits after July 4 is about 50% in most cases. The main goal is to split as early as possible in the summer, thus ensuring more time for the split to grow before winter. To that end, I recommend splitting with a minimum of four frames of brood covered with bees for summer splits. I also recommend using mated queens rather than queen cells for splits, and don’t let the hive raise their own queen. You are in a race against the upcoming winter, and you need the hive to grow as quickly as possible. The most common causes for failure that I see in making splits are letting the hive raise their own queen and not giving a split enough brood to grow quickly. But, if all goes well, you should be able to add a second brood box to the split within four weeks. That second box should be filled within four to six weeks. Continuous feeding is essential in the South. In the North, it will vary based on the area. If bees are not bringing in large amounts of nectar and drawing out new combs, then feeding is needed. What follows is, step by step, how to make a summer split: 1. Select hives that are strong, with a minimum of one deep box full of bees (or its equivalent if using all medium boxes or a top bar hive). Ensure they have at least six deep frames of brood or their equivalent. One medium frame full of brood is equal to two-thirds of a deep frame of brood. 2. Find the queen and set the frame she is on aside until step 5. If you plan to requeen (which I recommend if your queen is one year old or older), kill the queen after finding her. If you cannot find the queen, you have two options. The easiest is to just proceed with the split, ignore the queen, and go back and look at all the hives three to four days after moving the splits to see which hive has eggs. The hives that don’t have eggs need a queen. Wipe out any queen cells they have begun to raise and install a queen. The second option is, after you’ve completed steps 3 and 4 and right before completing step 6, shake all the bees into the bottom box and put a queen excluder on top of the bottom box. The workers will migrate back up through the queen excluder to your split boxes above, while the queen will be trapped in the bottom box. 3. Leave three frames of brood (at a minimum) and ideally two frames of honey in the bottom box. Fill the rest of the space with frames of empty comb, foundation, or frames of honey and pollen. If you have fewer than two frames of honey, you can still split but will need to feed immediately after step 8. Feed up to two gallons per week for the first few weeks. 4. Do the exact same thing for the second deep box. If your hive was already a double-deep hive, this is easy. Simply put four frames of brood and two frames of honey in the second deep. If it was a single-story hive, you will need to bring an extra box and frames to use. If it was a deep and medium, you can leave the medium box on the original hive. You will want to give the split at least four deep frames of brood and ensure the original hive has, between the deep box and medium, the equivalent of four deep frames of brood. If you have more than eight frames of brood, you can add a third box or split with four frames of brood. 5. If you are preserving the old queen, place the frame with the queen in the bottom box. 6. Again, if you aren’t requeening and found the queen, place a queen excluder on top of the original bottom brood box (for deep and medium hives, place the excluder on top of both boxes) and place your new deep split(s) on top of the queen excluder. If you didn’t find or you killed the old queen, no excluder is needed. Just stack all the boxes and splits up. 7. Replace the lid and let the stack of boxes and splits sit until dusk or until dawn the following morning. If you didn’t kill the queen, the hive can be left in this configuration for a few days if needed as you wait for the arrival of new queens. 8. At dusk or right before dawn (I recommend right before dawn because the bees will be calmer), pull the split off the original hive and put it on its own bottom board. Use a minimal amount of smoke to ensure plenty of bees stay in your split. Moving the split a mile or more away will ensure that all the foragers remain with the split since they will reorient to their new location. Since that isn’t practical for most beekeepers (and it’s a real pain!), there are a few alternatives. You can rearrange the whole beeyard so that no hive is where it once was. The foragers tend to drift back to all the hives fairly evenly. My favorite method is moving the original hive or bottom box ten to fifteen feet away and leaving the new split in the original location. The bottom box often has more bees in it, especially if you left the old queen in it. By leaving the new split in the old location, you will ensure that the split has a bit higher bee population. The hive moved with the mother queen or more bees in it doesn’t need as many bees. If you requeened both, you can give one split an extra frame of brood and move that one ten to fifteen feet away. In general, with any movement less than a mile, you won’t lose more than 10% of the bees due to drifting. 9. Feed both hives if there is not a strong natural flow. They have a lot growing to do! 10. Install the new queen ideally within 24 hours. If you wait more than that, you will need to remove any queen cells the bees have begun to raise. 11. Continue feeding 1:1 syrup at approximately one gallon per week until the bottom box is 80% full of bees. When that has been achieved, add your second brood box and continue to feed until they have about 40 pounds of honey or syrup stored. This will take most hives until early to mid-fall to accomplish. 12. Finally, don’t forget to control Varroa mites! They peak in the summer, and infested hives will have difficulty growing. If you are in a major drought or pollen dearth, you may also need to feed pollen substitute to help your splits grow quickly.
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For those who thrive on seeing a visual demonstration of a split, in this video I show you how to do the split two ways: Finding the queen for the split and not finding the queen prior to making the split. Both ways are very simple once you see it in action. Check it out!
For regions with hot, dry summers, ensuring that your hive has plenty of food available is critical. After your summer harvest, I recommend trickle feeding through the summer months if your hive has less than 30 pounds of honey stored in its second brood box. Simply put, summer trickle feeding entails feeding a quarter to a half gallon of 1:1 syrup each week rather than infrequent large amounts of syrup. The concept is that this will simulate a natural nectar flow and will encourage the hive to continue to grow or at least maintain during a time of year when they typically begin to decline in strength. This is especially true in regions that have very hot and dry summers with little nectar or pollen flow. Now, this is not critical. If your bees are not located on your immediate property or you want to go on a vacation for a month, your bees aren’t going to die if you don’t practice trickle feeding. If this isn’t a good option for you, then the goal is to feed your bees more syrup more quickly, until they have about 30 pounds of honey stored in the second brood box and two to four frames of honey stored in the lower brood box. This will ensure they do not go hungry over the summer. Check back every two to three weeks and feed to help maintain that 30-pound excess in the second box. Remember, a medium box completely full of honey is about 40 pounds, and a deep box completely full is about 60 pounds.
Keep your bees busy and productive in the summer months and get a jump-start for next spring's honey production. Watch as Blake shows us how to draw comb on new foundation using the trickle feeding method during what would normally be a no-production time.
Trickle Feeding
Finding a balance between the need to feed and feeding too much can be a bit confusing. We have been stressing the need to feed after honey harvest, yet often the bees have done a good job of storing honey in the lower boxes. Take a look at this short video on what to look for.
WHAT'S GOING ON?
Photo Credit: Rafael Dugarte
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS FEEDING TOO MUCH?
Answer on page 45
Have you seen "bubbles" in your uncapped honey?
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Bee Cleanse contains a complete proprietary blend of whole plant polyphenols, complex essential oils, complete amino acids, vitamins, minerals, herbal extracts, phytonutrient concentrates, and enzymes in a ready-to-use product.
A Field Guide to Honey Bees and Their Maladies
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"The key to protecting honey bee colonies from diseases, parasites, and other harmful conditions is the ability to identify and deal with problems early. This publication is designed to assist beekeepers in recognizing the symptoms of common honey bee maladies. Some simple cultural controls are included here; however, for a complete list and discussion of management tactics and currently registered chemicals approved for the control of honey bee maladies, see the MAAREC Web site, maarec.psu.edu."
Introduction
Prepared by Maryann Frazier, senior extension associate in entomology, Penn State; Dewey Caron, professor emeritus and extension entomologist, University of Delaware; and Dennis vanEngelsdorp, senior extension associate, Penn State.
BEE CLEANSE: ALL-NATURAL HONEY BEE SUPPLEMENT
"I believe, along with most of the industry, that using 'mechanical and cultural methods' in harmony with treatments is the best way to go."
What's the difference, and can I do one without the other?
Kills up to 99% of mites in one application Continuously released in the colony over a six-week period, ensuring healthy and productive hives Proven safe and effective for more than 15 years Convenient and easy to use
NATURAL AND CHEMICAL VARROA MITE TREATMENTS
Basically, you have two treatment options: 1) synthetic chemicals and 2) natural compounds. The chart below indicates four methods, but with further study you’ll find that the mechanical and cultural methods are to be used in conjunction with the other two. Having said that, not all beekeepers are willing to use hard or soft chemicals in controlling Varroa mites and can find some success in the more passive approaches by using only mechanical and cultural methods. Whatever you choose, get ready to stay on top of it in order to be successful. See "Varroa IPM (Integrated Pest Management)." The effectiveness of synthetic chemicals and natural compounds varies very little. Most synthetic chemical and natural compound Varroa treatments tout an efficacy rate of over 95%, with some natural compounds as high as 99%. The difference is mainly in the overall colony losses per year. There is documented evidence that the overall losses are significantly lower with the more aggressive treatments such as Apivar (upward of 47% improvement over 31% with natural compounds). Evidence also shows that the likelihood of queen and colony degradation is lower with these chemicals as opposed to their natural compound counterparts— not to shortchange the natural compound benefits, as they do have a higher efficacy rate of 95-99% when controlling Varroa mites and are considered organic by legal standards for the industry. Most of these products use a fumigant-distribution system; therefore, the bees aren’t very fond of them. Bearding and absconding have been documented as real issues while using these products, but not so much as to outweigh the benefits to some. Queen and brood damage have also been noted, but again, they have not risen to the level of the benefits outweighing the risks. It’s very, very important that you read each and every detail about the product(s) you choose to use, especially regarding the population stage (increase, peak, decrease, dormant) and current temperatures. If a product specifies that it can be used in a high-population period but has a temperature rating of 80 degrees, using it during higher temperatures will likely run your bees out of the hive and risk their leaving altogether! Please pay close attention to these particulars. Your goal is to maintain a Varroa mite load of less than 2%. This number is achieved by testing. Arguably one of the most intimidating aspects of beekeeping is testing for mites. Most treat without testing. When we were new, our lack of confidence in testing resulted in just treating, as opposed to testing and treating if needed. Don’t be this person! You have options to help accommodate your comfort level. Listed in order of accuracy of testing: Alcohol wash (results threshold: < 2 mites per 100 bees) Powdered sugar shake (results threshold: < 6 mites per 300 bees) Sticky board (results threshold: < 9 mites over a 24-hour period) Two of these methods require that you take the center two or three frames of bees (less the queen) and shake the bees off into a Easy Check container to test. In my opinion, this is the trepidation point. Once you get past this, you are home free. Second-year and beyond beekeepers should have the confidence to do either an alcohol wash or a sugar shake. These are the most accurate and recommended methods. New beekeepers: Using the sticky board is better than not testing at all, but don’t let it be your final testing method. Only use it until you get more comfortable with your bees. Three Seasonal Phases Population Increase (PI) Population Peak (PP) Population Decrease (PD) Dormant (D) Knowing the phase your colony is currently in is key to knowing how to treat for Varroa mites. All of the treatment methods consider the colony phase (brood cycles) and temperature in their treatment plans. For example, where some treatments work well in PI, others do not and can actually be harmful to your bees. Most of the products listed on the following printable charts have been used with extreme effectiveness and very good results. I believe, along with most of the industry, that using “mechanical and cultural methods” in harmony with treatments is the best way to go. Treatment-free beekeeping is another form of mite management that has grown in popularity but does not mean "do nothing and the bees will still survive.” I have some very successful beekeeper friends who have achieved acceptable mite thresholds by using Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) queens, brood interruption, and other noninvasive means. But make no mistake—these beekeepers work extremely hard to control mites in their hives. Requeening more frequently can become expensive if you aren’t in the segment of this industry that generates queens. Having said that, I fully support those who can achieve low mite counts without chemicals. As for me, I personally strive to keep the healthiest hives possible and in doing so take the stance that we are open to treating our hives on a case-by-case basis. It’s important to me to keep our bees as mite-free as possible and to do so by making an educated decision based on the most current information available.
Although least accurate of the testing methods, using a sticky board is better than treating without testing. Watch how easy it is.
Great for creating a brood break as a mechanical method in controlling Varroa mites. Simply locate your queen and place her (frame and all) into the cage for approximately two weeks to slow the reproduction cycle of Varroa mites.
Check out this video showing how to do the alcohol wash. The sugar shake method is done the same way, only with powdered sugar instead of alcohol.
QUEEN ISOLATION CAGE
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Tips for Storing Honey Bottle only the amount you can sell in a reasonable amount of time. Depending on the time of year, you may sell only a few bottles a week or even a month. Avoid having cases of bottled honey sitting around crystallizing while waiting to be sold or consumed. Keeping excess honey in five-gallon buckets in the warmest place in your home or garage will slow the crystallization process. If and when it begins to crystallize, it’s relatively easy to reliquefy using one of these methods: 1) Use a large ice chest (at least 17" deep x 38" wide x 17" high) with a single 40-watt incandescent lightbulb hanging inside. The ice chest will hold two 5-gallon buckets, and the honey in them will liquefy within a day or two depending on how crystallized it is. This works for plastic and glass honey bottles as well. 2) Transfer the honey to a double boiler and warm slightly to reliquefy. Use a thermometer to avoid getting the honey over 120°. This will ensure you don’t degrade the honey’s beneficial properties. Tips for storing extracted honey frames Upright or deep freezer: Using a freezer works extremely well, especially if your honey frames are still holding a bit of nectar or capped honey. Simply stand each frame in your freezer and fill it up. Over 100 can fit in the upright freezer shown below. These will keep until next season with little to no intervention. Certan and Para-Moth: Para-Moth is an industry- recognized product to aid in storing honey frames but carries a pungent odor, requiring the frames to be aired out, and it has to be replenished periodically. Certan is a one-and-done product that is nontoxic, has no odor, and is easy to use. Check out this video to see how easy it is to use.
Did you know that you want to avoid keeping honey in metal containers? Honey is hygroscopic, which means it can absorb moisture and take on the odors of certain materials. Being that honey is acidic, it can degrade the metal, causing an even greater chance of capturing the metal taste in your honey.
Plugging the light cord into a timer allows you to control the warming time. Once the honey is liquefied, you can set the timer to light the bulb only a few times a day for an hour to maintain the liquid state.
CERTAN
STORING HONEY AND EXTRACTED HONEY FRAMES
APPLICATOR
TBS Beekeeper Chat with Well-known Australian beekeeper Ben Moore of Ben's Bees
Meet first-generation Australian beekeeper Ben Moore. Now 30 years into the profession, his business Ben’s Bees successfully produces honey, provides pollination, and produces products from the hive such as candles. Join Chari as she quizzes Ben on various beekeeping topics such as nutrition, seasonal differences, queen rearing, and—you guessed it—Varroa! Spoiler alert: his state in Australia doesn’t have them yet! But wait—Varroa is within reach and expected to be in his hives within six months. Enjoy this very engaging chat as you learn how the US and AU beekeeping techniques differ and how very much the same we truly are. Bees with Ben Podcast - BensBees.com
with Chari Elam
How to Protect Your Bees From Aerial Spraying for Mosquitoes!
Contact your local county commissioner or agency that is over this issue and tell them, “I am a beekeeper who keeps bees at (your address). Please put me on a list to be notified of any and all street fogging and aerial spraying to be done in my zip code of (zip code).” Most will respect this request and, in some places, may avoid spraying your area altogether. In the case you are notified your area will be sprayed either by truck or by plane, here are some methods to help save your bees. Move your hives to another location outside of the spray area. Cover your bees with a wet sheet for the night and remove it in the morning when the chemical has dissipated. Place an oversized surface on top of your hives, creating a “porch” that will overhang the front entrance by as much as possible. This will help prevent the chemical from drifting into the hive and hopefully protect the bees that are hanging out on the front of the boxes too. Close off the entrance to the colony. Use caution with this method. The heat buildup in the hive could become excessive, even overnight. If you choose this method, create as much ventilation as possible through the lid and use corner beading to close off the entrance (it has vent holes).
METAL SPOONS AND OTHER HONEY CLAIMS
If you’ve been online in the past few months, you almost certainly have seen one of these posts or something similar. And if you’re a beekeeper, chances are that a family member, friend, or customer has asked you if using a metal spoon kills enzymes in honey. I decided to check the accuracy of each of these “facts.” Claim: There are live enzymes in honey. When in contact with a metal spoon, these enzymes die. Well, first off, enzymes are not alive, so they can’t die. There are beneficial enzymes in honey, such as diastase, invertase, glucose oxidase, and peptidase. In theory, enzymes in honey could be destroyed by contact with some metals, but your spoon almost certainly isn’t made from one of them. However, enzymes are destroyed when honey is exposed to heat during storage, decrystallizing, or cooking. Claim: The best way to eat honey is with a wooden or plastic spoon. Because of its acidity, honey reacts with most metals. Copper can change the honey’s taste. Steel and iron can rust and ruin the honey. Beekeepers should use equipment made from stainless steel or PETE or HDPE plastic for extracting and storing honey. As to what spoon you use to eat honey, most metal utensils are made from sterling silver, nickel silver alloy, or stainless steel and will have no effect on honey enzymes. Claim: Honey contains a substance that helps your brain work better. Actually, it contains several substances that are believed to improve brain health. The article Honey on Brain Health: A Promising Brain Booster, published in January 2023, summarizes the results of 34 research papers, concluding, “The phenolic … and flavonoids contents … in honey work as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent to enhance cognitive and improve memory and eventually works as brain booster.” Claim: Honey is one of the rare foods on earth that alone can sustain human life. This is incorrect. More than 90 percent of honey is carbohydrates (sugar) and water. Humans need protein, fat, and other vitamins and nutrients not found in honey to survive. People cannot live on honey alone. Claim: One teaspoon of honey is enough to sustain human life for 24 hours. A person can live without food for several weeks and even without any hydration for several days. If a person ate nothing but a single teaspoon of honey over a 24-hour period, it is reasonable to assume they would not die, and I doubt the teaspoon of honey will make a significant difference one way or the other. However, if a person ate only a single teaspoon of honey every 24 hours, it would not sustain their life much longer than if they ate nothing at all. How long can you survive without food? How long would you last eating only a teaspoon of honey a day? Claim: Propolis, produced by bees, is one of the most powerful natural antibiotics. Propolis has been found to have an antimicrobial effect on some types of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. However, not all propolis is created equal. The geographic location from which propolis is collected affects its antibacterial potential. A word of caution before you start self-administering propolis, either topically or orally: people can have allergic reactions to propolis—and beekeepers and their family members are considered to be at greater risk. (See Propolis as a novel antibacterial agent) Claim: Honey has no expiration date. While technically true, raw (unpasteurized) honey can ferment and become unpalatable. Claim: The bodies of great emperors were buried in golden coffins and covered with honey to prevent putrefaction. Legend has it that Alexander the Great’s body was preserved in honey. This belief may be based on a poem written by Publius Papinius Statius about 400 years after Alexander’s death, which says, “Aye, and bring him to the Emathian grave, where, steeped in honey from Hybla, the warrior- founder of your city keeps undecayed his state.” However, I did not find any reliable sources to support the claim that “great emperors buried in golden coffins and covered with honey” were common. Claim: The term “honeymoon” comes from the tradition of newlyweds consuming honey for fertility after the wedding.This is one of several theories on the origin of the term “honeymoon.” (See The Origin of the Word Honeymoon: What Does it Mean?) Claim: A bee lives less than 40 days, visits at least 1,000 flowers, and produces less than a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.The average "summer" worker bee lives about six weeks (42 days), but the average "winter" worker bee lives about six months. On a day with nice weather, a bee can make 12 or more foraging trips, visiting 50-100 flowers on each trip, so certainly a bee visits at least 1,000 flowers in her lifetime. The amount of honey produced by a single bee in her lifetime is commonly posted on the internet as one-twelfth teaspoon. However, I have never seen any evidence to back up this claim. There are also claims of one and a half teaspoons and one tablespoon of honey in a bee’s lifetime! (If someone has a link to actual research, please send it to me.) Claim: One of the first coins had a bee symbol on it. True. This is a silver obol of Ephesus, circa 550–500 BCE. (See Bee All That You Can Bee: Honeybees on Ancient Coins) Deep gratitude to the humble BEE! I agree with this 100%!
WHAT'S THE BUZZ?
Image components - sleepbearfarms.com
By Lynne Jones
Before I started this article, I knew that some of these claims were true and some were false. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn that honey helps your brain and propolis has a potential use in human medicine. Enjoy the article!
Pollen
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Courtesy: topsfieldfair.org
ANSWER KEY
WHAT'S GOING ON? EXPLAINED
Short of a phenomenon, this very rare occurrence has been witnessed, as evidenced by the photo. What is it? It’s simply in-hive fermentation! With very little documentation on this subject, one is left only to speculate what is causing it—outside of the scientific explanation of fermentation. But why would this happen with the frame still in the hive and prior to being capped? Does the weather play a role? With the extreme heat the nation is experiencing,could the heat cause it? Possible moisture or the lack thereof in the hive? When asked, Blake Shook said, "I've seen this happen before, especially if water leaks into the hive. Also, if the hive is weak and can't cure nectar fast enough, it can happen. And I've seen it randomly in strong hives too! But I've only seen it in southeast Texas—never anywhere else." What we do know is that this is not honey you would want to eat, nor should your bees. Yes, bees can get drunk on fermented honey! Will it hurt them? Not likely in small amounts, but it does affect their ability to be functioning bees. You wouldn’t want your bees stumbling out the door to go to work, would you? Therefore, if you find a frame or two of “fizzy honey,” simply shake the frame(s) out away from the hive and return it to the hive. What little is left in the frame won’t hurt them. Now you know!
YIELD: Makes about 2 cups INGREDIENTS 1 - ripe kiwi, peeled and diced 1/2 cup - unsweetened frozen raspberries 1/2 cup - honey 8 oz. - low-fat vanilla yogurt Fresh fruit, for dipping DIRECTIONS In the bowl of a food processor, combine kiwi, raspberries and honey; puree. Stir in yogurt. Serve with sliced fresh fruit (strawberries, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, grapes, bananas, etc.)
HONEY KIWI RASPBERRY FRUIT DIP
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