5 Reasons Why Your Bees May Be Lagging Behind And What To Do About It

We are David and Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee

Farms and honeybeesonline.com. I just made a NEW ONLINE COURSE, "How To Control Varroa Mites." 

We all know that varroa mites are the main reason most colonies fail. Mites transfer deadly viruses throughout the colony by going after the fat bodies and blood of bees. The bite from this parasite quickly spreads viruses that will eventually weaken and kill your bees. This is one of the fastest spreading parasites in the world. If you ignore mites, or believe you do not have a mite problem, you are wrong. There is so much chatter and misinformation out there about dealing with mites that I've put together a concise, to the point, short course to equip beekeepers with easy to watch and understand videos on how to test and combat mites.  Time to cut to the chase and learn specifically how to stop losing colonies due to the varroa destructor mite. Once you make your pre-order purchase you will be sent an e-mail around July 15th containing the video links to my specific videos for this course and a worksheet to help you take notes while watching the video if you choose.

What to expect from this online "Mite Control Course."

Several "how to" video presentations on various control methods such as:

- Green Drone Comb

- Oxalic Acid Vapor Treatment

- Formic Acid Treatment

- Powdered Sugar Dusting

- Screen Bottom Boards

- Breaking the Queens Brood Cycle

How To Test For Mites

-       Video presentation on how to perform a mite test.

-       How to calculate your findings to determine if you should treat.

-       Selecting the appropriate treatment approach based on your test results.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER THIS

MITE CONTROL COURSE

Mite Control Course

5 Reasons Your Bees May Be Lagging Behind And What To Do About It.

It's not fun to be worried about your bees. If you have more than one hive, maybe one is not keeping up with the other. Or if you just have one hive, maybe you are seeing less and less bees. In fact, even though they should be in 2 deeps with a honey super by now, why are they are still only in one deep. Uh oh!

What are some reasons why bees lag behind? Will they build up before winter, which is only in 179 days?

1. Queen Issue

Usually a queen issue is the number one reason a colony may be lagging behind. If the queen has been replaced by the colony there was a 30 day delay in eggs being laid by a queen so their population is down drastically. Always monitor your queen every two weeks and buy a new queen the moment you see your queen is gone or failing. We have queens available that can be at your house by July 3rd. Click here now before they sell out.

2. Poor Weather

Bees will lag behind when rainy weather delays the number of days they can fly and forage for resources. They need to be able to fly daily to bring in food for their colony to grow. The only thing we can do during inclement weather is to feed bees. If a colony is not on every frame in the deep boxes then continue to feed 1:1 sugar water and add one teaspoon of our pollen powder  your sugar water along with honey-bee-healthy.

While it may be too late to start a colony, we are still selling nucs if you need to strengthen a weak colony. Call and secure your nuc 217-427-2678 during our business hours below.

3. Varroa Mites

When a colony is infested with varroa mites they can quickly become sickened by viruses and die early, greatly reducing their numbers. Continue to test for varroa mites every 30 days and calculate those numbers and select one of the proven methods which will reduce mites. If you assume you do not have mites then your colony will eventually fail due to these viruses. Consider taking our NEW Mite Control Course.

4. Pests and Diseases

It is nearly impossible for new beginners to fully grasp the many pests and diseases which threatens colonies on a daily

basis. Usually new beginners bury their heads in the sand and convince themselves that all is well or if it is not, that it will get better. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If something is threatening your bees, you must act quickly before it is too late. Small hive beetles, wax moths, ants and robber bees can quickly weaken or destroy your colony. And, being able to identify American or European foulbrood, chalk brood and other brood diseases can give a new beginner the edge they need to quickly assess and remedy a bad disease. 

5. Time & Energy

Beekeeping requires a certain level of time and energy to do it correctly. Sometimes life happens and we cannot sacrifice any time to do what is necessary to keep our bees strong and healthy. In these situations, it is understandable. However, even a few minutes a week can greatly improve the overall health of our bees. Make time, no matter how small at first, to invest in your bees. 

Consider taking our New Beginners Bundle Course. Knowing what beekeepers wrestle with the most I put together three classes that will equip you with the tools and knowledge you need to be much more successful in your beekeeping endeavors. 

This bundle is for 3 of my top courses:

1. Basic Beekeeping

2. A Day In The Apiary

3. Getting Your Bees Through The Winter

These three courses will give you the information you need to be successful. The basic course will ground you in the fundamentals.  The Day In The Apiary will show you what to do out in the bee yard. Getting Your Bees Through The Winter will help you prepare your bees for winter.  Save money when purchasing these courses as a bundle. When you order this course you will receive an email with the video links that you can watch in private, on your schedule, on most devices. Still not convinced? Read testimonials from some of our students by clicking here.

We Have Queens Available. Click Here

Fall is only 89 days away. During fall your bees will need fed. To survive winter, you need lots of bees of winter physiology. Bees in the summer only live around 40 days. Winter bees, those raised in the fall, will live 6 months. If you fail to feed at the right time your colony may not raise the number of winter bees needed to survive the winter. Plan ahead and get your feeding systems in advance. I started feeding as soon as the nectar flow stops here in Illinois which for me is around August 1st. 

Burns Bees Feeding System. Click Here.

Hot Weather Is Good For Bees Up To A Point Bees can keep their colony cool by bringing in water and using it as evaporative cooling. They carry it in their honey crop instead of nectar. On really hot days, when temperatures reach into the high 90s (f) bees often reduce nectar foraging and forage for water instead. Bees can run one gallon of water through their colony in one day to keep it cool.  You can help your bees on hot days by keeping water around on your property. There is no need to put it next to the hive. Instead, place it in your apiary in something like a bird bath with small wooden sticks so bees do not drown.  Consider ways to give your hives some shade on really hot days. Place a large piece of cardboard near or on top of the hive for shade in the middle of the day. Elevate the back of the top cover to help bees ventilate and pull the hot air from inside the hive. A small popsicle stick will do the trick just below the top cover. Beekeeping Classes                  Beekeeping Mentorship Sheri and I work hard to provide packages, nucs, queens, equipment and classes for the beekeeping community. We pride ourselves in meeting the needs of our customers. We appreciate your business. Sincerely, David and Sheri Burns Long Lane Honey Bee Farms 217-427-2678 www.honeybeesonline.com New 2019 Hours: Monday Closed Tuesday 10am - 2:00pm Wednesday 10am - 2:00pm Thursday 10am - 2:00pm Friday 10am - 2:00pm Saturday 10 -2:00pm

What Will This Hot Weather Do To My Bees?

Wow is it hot! Right now in my bee yard the heat index is 115 degrees (f). Bees are fanning, bringing in water and trying to stay cool. The humidity level doesn't help either.

Hi, this is David and Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Thanks for reading our blog today.  Excessive hot and humid weather changes colony behavior. Instead of concentrating on hauling in nectar, foragers are forced to bring water into the hive to be used to cool the hive.  The humid weather slows down the colony's ability to "dry" the nectar into honey. But the worst thing for me is having to wear a bee suit and stand out in the heat. I just will not do it. Also, bees are more defensive as the colony becomes larger with more honey to protect and as it become more humid and hot. You must begin using plenty of smoke if you must open your hives. Wear plenty of protective gear too. Your hive is not the small, little hive you started with. They are much larger in number and in stored honey. If you can, wait until there is a break in the heat to inspect your hives.

Are You Getting The Right Beekeeping Advice? 

Are you sure you can trust the beekeeping information you are getting? I want to help you by being your mentor. For less than $5 a week, I'll give you my personal cell phone, my personal email so that you can call me, text me or email me when you don't know what's going on with your bees.

Let me calm you down!  I can teach you in 3 minutes what it took me 3 years to learn. Sometimes it's hard to get other beekeepers to help you. They might be afraid you will steal their honey sales. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Certified Master Beekeeper to review your pictures or videos and answer your questions. Just today I spotted a beekeeper's queen on a photo she sent me. She was so excited.

Why not purchase this for your friend or loved one? Click To Become A Member 

What You Do In August-October May Determine If Your Bees Survive The Winter

Don't wait until it's too late. It may be too late to make corrections to save your hive if you wait till September. We are offering these classes to help your bees have a better chance to survive the winter. We are offering these classes in August so you have enough time to take the necessary action to help increase the chances of your colonies surviving winter.

What about wrapping a hive, green houses, heat lamps, winter feeding, wind blocks, how much honey to leave on?

Do you understand vitellogensis and the role it plays in overwintering bees?

In this class we'll teach you how to go into winter with healthy young bees rather than trying to overwintered old bees with viruses.

We have the same class being offered on two dates:

Register Now

August 6th 8:30am- 1pm Spots Still Available Sign Up Now

August 20th  8:30am - 1pm  Spots Still  Available Sign Up Now

I know it is summer, but these classes will sell out soon.

At 12:01 a.m. August 1st, our Winter-Bee-Kinds go online. 

Winter-Bee-Kinds

Count Down

Online In 10 Days!

PLEASE NOTE, orders will be shipped out starting November 1, in the order they are received. In other words, if you order your WBK this week, yours will ship the first week in November. However, if you order yours on September 1st, there will be hundreds of orders ahead of yours so you may not get your order until December. We do our best to stay caught up but the popularity of our WBKs is overwhelming. Thank you. To order online go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/winter-feeders-and-solutions/

SEE YOU AT EAS

I'll be teaching next week near Atlantic City, New Jersey at Stockton University in Galloway, NJ. We have over 350 new beekeepers signed up to take this course. I'll be teaching along with my good friends Jon Zawislak and Steve Rapasky. If any of you are interested in attending, there still may be openings.  Attending EAS makes benefits you because it helps me keep up with the newest and latest scientific discoveries in beekeeping. I plan to produce podcasts and video blogs while I'm there.
For more information: EAS Click Here

WE WILL BE CLOSED FOR VACATION FROM JULY 25 - AUG. 4.  ANY ORDERS RECEIVED VIA THE WEBSITE DURING THAT TIME WILL BE FILLED AFTER AUG. 4

OUR CURRENT SUMMER FARM HOURS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE HOURS

ARE MON- THUR 10 A.M. - 3 P.M. 

Wondering how to extract honey? Watch our video: https://youtu.be/Y0tHuimTurk

David and Sheri BurnsLong Lane Honey Bee Farmswww.honeybeesonline.com

Be Careful Not To Take Off Too Much Honey. Then You’ll Have To Feed Them…Maybe Feed Them Anyway! Lesson 164: Long Lane Honey Bee Farms 217-427-2678

Hello friends! I hope you have been enjoying these first few days of Fall.  I enjoyed summer and I’m sure you did too. As beekeepers we are all hoping for a few weeks of nice weather before winter is finally here.  Time to visit the pumpkin patch and enjoy fall. I’ve been using the last month to get my bees ready for the winter of 2014-15.

I had a great time in Arkansas last weekend at the Arkansas State Beekeeping meeting. I spent some time with Dr. Jeff Harris and Audrey Sheridan. They are both at Mississippi State University and if you subscribed to Bee Culture you’ll remember seeing Audrey’s column there. Jeff is a professor of Entomology. Jeff joined MSU after working 15 years as a bee breeder with the USDA, ARS Honey Bee Breeding Lab in Baton Rouge, LA.  He is best known for his involvement with other scientists in developing lines of honey bees that express high levels of Varroa Sensitive Hygienic (VSH) behavior. Of course it was great spending time with my good friend and fellow master beekeeper and Arkansas bee specialist Jon Zawislak. After the conference I spent a couple of days with Jon discussing details of a future beekeeping project that we both are excited about.

Speaking of Jon, today Jon and I will be live on the air with HIVE TALK!  Join us at 10 am central time TODAY!. We are in the studio now, warming up the tall red and white tower with the little flashy light on top, sipping on coffee and waiting for the producer to point his finger at us to begin.

We will be talking about a few things NO ONE ever wants to discuss about bees today: biological control of varroa mites with anthropods, predatory mites and psuedoscorpions. We promise to make this educational and fun. You can make Hive Talk more interesting by calling in and asking us a question live, or by logging in on your computer and texting us your question. Here’s how:

The number to call is:

1-724-444-7444.

When you call in you'll be asked to enter our SHOW ID which is: 129777 followed by the # sign. Then the automated system will ask you for your Pin number which is 1 followed by the # sign. At that point, you'll be on the show with us so you can ask your questions. So that we don’t hear you breathe or your dogs barking, you will be muted unless you press * 8 on your phone and that will allow us to unmute you so you can ask your question. Call in around 10 minutes prior to broadcast, at 9:50 a.m. central time.  If you want to just listen from your computer, go to: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/129777

Set your alarm and your smart phones, it’s coming up in an hour.

We all know last winter really gave us a run for our money with bees. We gave 4 separate classes on Getting Your Bees Through The Winter. It was very rewarding to us, to finally drive three essential points home to beekeepers on how to get bees through the winter.

One of those points is that beekeepers often take off too much honey. Have you taken off your honey yet? How much should you take off? Most of us want to take off every drop the bees make. After all, honey is selling at a higher price than it ever has. I’ve been amazed over the years, though, as to the number of beekeepers that take off every drop of honey and then wonder why their bees died in the winter. Sometimes bees store their winter honey and pollen in the upper supers. Then in the last summer or fall they carry it down into their deep hive body combs. Beekeepers usually know this, and quickly harvest the honey before the bees can carry it down. If the bees are in need of that honey super and we remove it and bottle it, then bees usually starve in March.

Bees need food in the winter. Otherwise, they will starve. I’ve been beefing up my hives with a lot of sugar water. I’ve been mixing it as 2 parts sugar and 1 part water. As expected my bees have been storing it as honey and sealing it over. Quite impressive!

Before you rob every drop of honey from the hive, keep in mind that in the Midwest, bees need between 60-80 pounds of honey in the hive. The hive without wax or bees weighs 70 pounds. 60,000 bees weigh approximately 20 pounds. Thirty pieces of comb weighs another 5 pounds maybe. That takes us up to 90 pounds without any honey.  So if you pick up the back of your hive to guess at the weight, without any honey it’s going to feel like 90 pounds. That’s heavy. Add another 60 pounds of honey to it and  now it weighs 150 pounds. That’s going to feel like dead weight if you try and lift it with one hand. If it is not extremely heavy from the back, feed, feed, feed!

We are shipping out our Winter-Bee-Kinds as fast as we can. If you placed an order rest assured you will receive it in time to help your bees have food above the winter cluster. Do not become impatient and want to place our WBKs on until the bees cluster. If day time temps are above 50 (f) and bees can fly, feed them 2 parts sugar and 1 part water but not in the entrance. Use an internal feed system.

That’s all for now, I’ve got to prepare for our broadcast in a little bit. See you then hopefully!

David and Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
www.honeybeesonline.com

Varroa Mites: Lesson 163 www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

We all know that if you don’t see any mites, then you don’t have any right? WRONG! If you don’t see any varroa mites, it either means you need to visit your eye doctor or you do not know how to really find them.

Hello, and welcome to another beekeeping lesson from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We are David and Sheri Burns and we are here to help beekeepers become more successful. And we are also passionate about helping more people become new beekeepers. We need our honey bees to pollinate our fruits and vegetables and we need skilled and educated beekeepers to help make that happen. So thanks for joining us.

Our weekend was extremely busy and great. Saturday we taught on “Getting Bees Through The Winter” and then we had the same class with different students on Sunday. We had students from Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa and Ohio. This class will be held again on Oct. 5th, but it has filled up too, so now we are opening up another class on Monday Oct. 6th from 9am-3pm. For those of you who work weekends, now you can join us for a class on Monday. Or just take the day off from work and come learn some awesome ideas about getting bees through the winter. Click here for more information on the Oct. 6th class or go to: www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=322

One of the featured field events of our weekend beekeeping classes was to sample hives for varroa mites. It is paramount that all beekeepers take mite samples now while there is still time to do something. Most beekeepers have heard about sticky boards, and checking how many mites are on drone pupae. I’d like to share a simple way to assess your mite load. As I demonstrated to the class in the bee yard, I was pleasantly surprised how many of them commented on how easy it was and how they were looking forward to going home and testing their hives. I do realize that reading the description here is not as good as watching it demonstrated in class, but I’ll describe it in detail so you can start looking and evaluating your mite loads.

WHY?

Why bother counting your mite load?  If you have a lots of mites it is unlikely that your hive will NOT survive the winter of 2014-2015. Mites parasitize bees and spread viruses which can cut the individual bee’s life in half. So, a bee born in October can make it through the winter into March if it is healthy. But, if it has been bitten by mites and contracted a virus, it may only live into January. 

You might think that since you cannot see mites on your bees you do not have mites. I have people tell me they’ve never seen their queen either. If you can’t find your queen, you will not find mites either, but they are there! Mites are small but you can see them if you know where to look. They hide on the backs of bees in the first abdominal segment of the honey bee. It can be hard to see what is hiding. DO NOT ASSUME YOU DO NOT HAVE MITES SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ANY.

If you have a hive, you have varroa mites! I strongly believe it is the viruses which are weakening the colony’s health and causing overwintering deaths. The only way to limit viruses is to kill mites that are vectoring these viruses.  It is unfair for any beekeeper to blame chemicals and chemical companies without first monitoring their mite loads.

Now that we are at the end of summer and entering fall mites are rapidly increasing. To survive a long cold winter beekeepers need lots and lots of brood now. But if this brood is parasitized by mites, the bees will not make it to spring. Do not trust a visual inspection of bees on comb to assess your mite loads. Here’s what I recommend to determine the percentage of mites in a hive. My personal level is not to exceed 3%, or 3 mites per 100 bees tested. 

Materials Needed

1.  A quart jar for canning, with the ring and separate lid which the ring holds securely. Disregard the lid but keep the ring. Now in place of the ring you’ll need to cut a piece of 1/8” hardware screen. It is small enough to keep bees in, but large enough to let mites pass through.

2.  Two tablespoons of powdered sugar

3.  A piece of cardboard or metal shaped like an L

4.  A measuring cup

5.  A plain white paper plate

Steps To Test For Mites

1.  Place two tablespoons of powdered sugar into your canning jar and keep the lid off.

2.  Open your hive and pull out a frame of bees.

3.  Shake the bees on your cardboard or bent metal so the bees land in the inside of the L shape piece. This will help them slide into your measuring cup.

4.  Pour bees into the measuring cup up to 1/2 cup which is approximately 400 bees. You may have to pour a little above the 1/2 cup mark as some may fly out while pouring them into the canning jar with the screen lid.

5.  Pour bees from the measuring cup into the canning jar and place the screen lid on securely.

6.  Dump excess bees from your L shape board back into the hive.You have to keep mite levels down. I hope you will embrace a 3-5% maximum tolerance for mites.

For the rest of the 14 steps to test for mites, visit my website: www.honeybeesonline.com and go down to #24 on the front main home page.

Join me Monday Oct. 6th “Getting Bees Through The Winter” class and we’ll demonstrate mite counts and much, much more. Click now to register.

TIP OF THE MONTH:  The next few weeks are the most critical time to increase food stores for the bees to make it through the winter. I am finding wonderful success in our new Burns Bees Feeding System. It allows the beekeeper to feed syrup from the top of the hive, preventing robbing and allowing the bees to still eat during cold fall nights. Plus it provides special screened areas to feed our pollen/sugar patties without smashing bees between deep bodies. Watch our new video on this feeding system.

See you next time!

David and Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

M-Thu  10am – 4pm central time
Fri  10am – Noon
217-427-2678

Lesson 159: Will Your Bees Die From You Being TOO “Natural”? www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

Are you so “natural” in your beekeeping practices that you are actually killing bees? Hi, we are David and Sheri Burns. We operate Long Lane Honey Bee Farms located in east central Illinois. In today’s lesson, I want to discuss the dangers in how being too natural could be the cause of colonies dying in the winter.

There is the reality that the increased number of new and inexperienced beekeepers may be contributing to the increase in numbers of winter losses. This may be especially true with the number of new beekeepers who opt not to use chemicals against mites but also fail to use any non-chemical methods either. In other words, being so natural as to do nothing is not good.  For example, as humans we know that washing our hands can help prevent the transfer of viruses. We’d never tell our children to stop washing their hands before they eat so that they can be more natural. Let’s talk more…

Before I continue, let me share that I’m excited about our website revamp. We are making our website so that the main front page is filled with tons of practical beekeeping tips, tricks and other helpful information. If you need to quickly go to our online store, you’ll see our Quick Help links on the left hand side. You can jump right into our online store which is opened 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here are a few examples from our website:

How to remove bees from the honey super so you can harvest the honey.

How to make creamed honey.

Which is better a nuc or a 3 lb package of bees?

How to prevent swarming.

You are currently reading our blog/lessons. Enjoy these lessons but be sure to go to: www.honeybeesonline.com for more information and beekeeping supplies.

We had great visit from Lee and Wei from the University of Illinois. Lellen Solter is an insect pathologist and is doing work on nosema, looking into competition between microsporidian species for host tissues, taxonomy of microsporidia, molecular relationships between closely related microsporidia, physiological effects of microsporidia on insect hosts, host specificity of microsporidia, disease in beneficial insects (bumble bees, honey bees, predators of hemlock woolly adelgid) and microbial control of the gypsy moth. Wei-Fone Huang is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist and recently published his work: Nosema Ceranae Escapes Fumagillin Control in Honey Bees.

Lee and her husband took one of our Beginning Beekeeping courses earlier in the year and started a few hives. It was great to chat with them about the negative effect that Fumagillin may be having on honey bees.

We have hive kits with 2015 packages available online now.

Finally, A Beekeeping Class Specifically Addressing How To Get Bees Through The Winter.

We have worked hard over the last 8 years to flood the internet with trusted, reliable and thorough beekeeping information. Beekeepers lose countless hives due to a lack of education. Specifically, many beekeepers are uninformed about best winter practices. The winter of 2013-2014 was very hard on honey bees. Thus, a lot of colonies perish in the north each winter.

We are working to curtail these loses by offering free online beekeeping information, on site classes and more. 

Maybe you lost some colonies. It can be confusing trying to figure out why your bees died. They may have had plenty of stored honey yet still died. Maybe they had a great queen and were very populated but still died. Join me for an extensive 6 hour course on common reasons why bees die in the winter and what you can do to improve your hive's chances of survival. This class will cover topics such as: fall preparation, mouse protection, mite reduction, wind blocks, wrapping hives, heating lamps, winter feeding, insulation, moving hives into buildings or shelters, the biology of fat bodies, the timing of a new queen, pros and cons of double walled hives, dynamics of both Langstroth and top bar hives in the winter, the winter cluster and more.

Our Saturday class (Sept. 6th 2014 9am-3pm) has only two seats remaining, BUT we have added an additional class the next day to accommodate the additional interest.

You need to do all you can to fortify your colonies to be ready for another long and hard winter. Even “natural” beekeepers must take the necessary steps to ensure honey bees kept in domesticated equipment (this includes top bar hives and traditional Langstroth hives) are in great shape going into winter.

The price of this class could possibly save you the cost of several packages next year. Click on the Saturday or Sunday class links below:

Getting Your Bees Through The Winter Saturday Sept 6, 9am-3pm central time (Two seats left)

Getting Your Bees Through The Winter Sunday Sept 7, Noon-6pm central time.(Just placed online with 15 seats available)

At these classes we will actually evaluate several hives and determine why they may or may not overwinter well. We will also show how to manipulate frames for maximum food distribution during the winter. We will also build wind breaks, wrap hives, place on Winter-Bee-Kinds and more. This is a “must take” class for the serious beekeeper who is tired of replacing bees every spring.

The Eastern Apicultural Society Conference will be held at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. I’ll be taking in the most recent scientific discoveries as well as assisting with certifying future master beekeepers. If you are a new beekeeper or very experienced this is a great conference to attend. Consider attending by clicking here. I’ll be there Monday through Friday. If we’ve never met, but you see me, please introduce yourself.

While I’m at EAS, Jon Zawislak and I will be doing a live HIVE TALK podcast. We will be broadcasting Thursday morning, July 31 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. If you’d like to watch or be on the air with us, email me (beekeeper.burns@gmail.com) so I can let you know where we will be. Don’t worry, if you are not there, you can still join us and ask questions on air. The number to call is: 1-724-444-7444. When you call in you'll be asked to enter our SHOW ID which is: 129777 followed by the # sign. Then the automated system will ask you for your Pin number which is 1 followed by the # sign. At that point, you'll be on the show with us so you can ask your questions. You will be muted unless you press * 8 on your phone and that will allow us to unmute you so you can ask your question. Call in around 10 minutes prior to broadcast, at 10:50 a.m. eastern time.  If you want to just listen from your computer, go to: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/129777

If you use a smart phone you can add the Podcast App and have our shows sent to your mobile device every time we produce a new one. Just go to iTunes and search for Hive Talk, scroll down to podcast and you'll find us there.

Or listen to our past episodes by clicking here or by copying the link below and pasting it into  your internet browser.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=129777&cmd=tc

Okay students, time for class. LESSON 159: Will Your Hive Die From You Being TOO Natural?

Generally most of us want to be as natural as possible. We don’t like the thought of pesticides on our fruit and vegetables. We don’t want antibiotics or growth hormones in our milk or meat. I even roast my own organic coffee beans. It just sounds better, even though I know that the bean is surrounded by the fleshly part of the seed which is thrown away. The bean is soaked in boiling water, fermented, dried, then I roast it at over 400 degrees (F). It’s hard to believe at that point that the bean would have any chemical residue. But, I still drink organic coffee.

Natural beekeeping is huge. The idea of dumping chemicals in a hive where honey is eventually harvested should concern us. We would all prefer honey from a colony that has never been exposed to any chemicals at all. Beekeepers raise justifiable concerns over farm chemicals such as neonicotinoids and imidacloprids. These are not just used by farmers but found in flea collars and yard sprays and many commonly used household pest control products. The impact that our chemical filled environment is having on the decline of honey bees is being pursued more aggressively, even by the White House.

Big chemical companies aside, what about going all natural as a beekeeper? Is this good for bees? If all natural means not using harsh chemicals in the hive, then natural sounds good to me. But if going natural means doing nothing at all and expecting the bees to flourish, then you might be surprised to find out that “natural” killed your bees. Doing nothing is harmful to bees. 

This approach might work if we did not have things like varroa mites, small hive beetles, nosema and viruses. Occasionally, we meet the human extraordinaire. You know, the person who never exercised, ate bad food, smoked and consumed too much alcohol, bacon and eggs every morning and lived healthy into their 90s. Same is true with colonies. Occasionally there is the extraordinary hive that we never do anything to and they are perfectly healthy in every way. This is not the norm.

Being “natural” should not be confused with being cheap and lazy. Sometimes we just don’t want to take time to inspect the hive again. So we conclude that we are going to let nature take its course. Sometimes we are being cheap. We don’t want to buy a new queen or a beetle trap or green drone comb to trap varroa mites. So we conclude that we are being natural.

We need to realize that honey bees need our help. We have removed them from their natural habitat and placed them into our domesticated hive equipment. It’s not bad, but it’s just not a tree. Here’s a tree I removed bees from and as you can see it is sealed with propolis. Propolis acts as part of the colony’s immune system, killing dangerous pathogens such as viruses in the hive. The rough wall of the cavity inside a tree is covered with propolis by the colony.

I am currently experimenting with coating propolis inside hives like that of a tree to see if bees do better. If the inside of a colony was not so smooth, bees would smooth it out with propolis. My point is that when we remove bees from their natural habitat and place them into Langstroths or top bar hives we must still provide proper management techniques to simulate as much of their natural habitat as possible.

But even then, this is not enough because even hives in trees die from varroa mites transmitting viruses throughout the hive. We can talk about how cold and bad the winters are but wait! The reality is that not all colonies died. What did those surviving colonies have that the dead colonies didn’t have? If you had 10 colonies and 8 died but two didn’t, it begs the question, “What do those 2 surviving colonies have that the other 8 did not?”

It is nearly impossible to analyze a dead colony and discover what happen. But it is very possible to examine a surviving colony and draw some concrete conclusion. This is very important. If you kept detailed records of your hives that survived winter, then you can look back over your findings and discover answers as to what these hives had that the dead ones did not. Pollen, honey, mite loads (viruses), populations, age of queen, location, amount of propolis in the hive, etc., all can provide data to help us find keys to overwintering colonies more effectively.

But if all you are doing is nothing, being natural, then you really do not have any information. Minimally, you should be logging information about your natural approach to help you determine your level of success or failure. No one buys a new dog and refuses to feed it or water it and hopes it will naturally survive. If you pull ticks off your dog why wouldn’t you pull mites from your bees?  Even organic gardens are watered and weeds are pulled.

There is a difference between natural beekeeping and hands off beekeeping. The two are not the same. What should you do now?

1. Reduce you mite load! This is a must. If you do nothing, viruses will overtake your colony this winter.

2. Provide food for your bees. They need protein (pollen) and honey. Between now and fall, your bees need to be well fed. But many beekeepers do nothing and during the late summer and early fall bees weaken from a lack of nutrition. We re now entering into the period of dearth coupled with honey being harvested from hives. They go into winter hungry and weak. At the Heartland Apicultural Society conference someone told me that their friend had 10 hives and she put our Winter-Bee-Kind on 9 of her 10 colonies. The only one that perished was the one without the Winter-Bee-Kind. More than just food, our system provides top insulation to reduce excessive condensation and provides an upper vent for bees to defecate out side the hive more often during the winter. 

3. Re-queen. If your queen is more than 2 years old, she is likely to fail you during the winter. You cannot buy new queens next spring in time to save your colony. Re-queen within then next few months.

4. Simulate a colony’s natural habitat as much as possible. Coat the inside with propolis. Use screen bottom boards to simulate the distance between the bottom of the comb and the base of the tree cavity so that mites can fall out of the nest area.

 

THE TAKEAWAY

Be a natural beekeeper but not at the neglect of meeting your bees’ needs.  Bees need your help in fighting off varroa mites and small hive beetles just to name a few. Rather than spend your time looking for a better queen or a better package or nuc provider, focus on becoming a better beekeeper. At our overwintering class we will talk in more detail about these things and more such as how to simulate the thicker wall of a tree in your Langstroth hive.

Also, Jon and I will be speak on the subject of this lesson on our next HIVE TALK at EAS next week.

That’s all for this week, enjoy your weekend and bee good to your bees,

David and Sheri Burns
www.honeybeesonline.com
217-427-2678
M-Thu 10am-4pm central time
Fri 10am-Noon
Sat By appointment

LESSON 87: PESTS & DISEASES PART 3 VARROA MITES

Hello from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in central Illinois. We’re David and Sheri Burns and now the 2011 bee season preparation has started. Package bee orders are pouring in. Orders for woodenware and bee supplies all point to the bee season is underway. in 5 days we sold 1/4 of our available packages. Unbelievable! I so much enjoy answering the phone and meeting other beekeepers or beekeepers-to-be.
Here’s a picture of our family. Sheri and I have six children ranging in age from 28 years old to 3 years old. Three girls and three boys. Almost everyone in the picture has helped us in our bee business, even Grandma and Grandpa in the back row. We’ve worked hard to establish Long Lane Honey Bee Farms and we want to thank all of you who have blessed us with your business.
Throughout most of the US beekeepers have put their bees to bed for winter. That is merely a figure of speech because bees do not hibernate during the winter. Instead, they cluster, remain calm and eat small amounts of honey and pollen to make it through the cold winter months.
We have heard back from so many customers who love our queens, nucs, packages and woodenware, and we appreciate that. So many people are requesting our 4-frame nucs for spring.
These are little colonies that we make up in the spring with our queens on 4 frames of honey, pollen, brood and bees. A day does not go by without someone wanting to order nucs in advance.


LESSON 87: PESTS & DISEASES PART 3 VARROA MITES
Today I want to educate you on the varroa mite, but I do not want you to become discouraged or defeated by this honey bee parasite. We can keep bees even with varroa mites. Mites are everywhere in our world. You’ve probably got a few in your house and probably on you at one time or another, such as chiggers or dust mites. So do not become a hypochondriac about your bees having mites. Do not freak out or overreact. There are many approaches to dealing with mites. But, for  you to be a successful beekeeper, you need to be well informed about Varroa destructor.
HISTORY OF VARROA DESTRUCTOR
The varroa mite was first introduced into our country in 1987, although the literature identifies the spotting of one varroa mite in Maryland in 1979. Since 1987 mites have spread rapidly throughout the US.
The mite was first identified as Varroa Jacobsoni but later correctly identified as Varroa destructor (Anderson and Trueman 2000). It is the number one killer of honey bees in the US. As an ectoparasite  (lives outside of the honey bee) it is one of the largest parasite on the planet compare to its host.
It is not a natural parasite to our honey bee, Apis mellifera. It’s original host was Apis cerana. But, like many pests, it jumped species and Apis mellifera was not able to cope well and most feral colonies, wild hives, were destroyed by the mites in the early 1990s.
LIFE CYCLE
Varroa mites are tiny but visible with the naked eye. In this photo, I pulled out a drone pupa and you can see the tiny mite on the lower abdomen of the drone. The mites that we see on our bees are the adult, female mites also called the foundress mite. These adult females are dark, reddish brown in color. Male mites are never seen outside the cells and they never turn dark but remain white or a light color. Mites only reproduce in the sealed cells of a bee hive, never outside the hive.
The varroa mite enters a hive through the front entrance, riding on other bees. Drones are allowed to enter any hive and drones are common carriers of mites, transferring them from hive to hive. Once in the hive, the adult, foundress mite will look for a young nurse bee and climb on her back and will latch on to the thorax where the wings attach or just behind the head. Mites feed on bee blood, known as hemolymph.
Because the bee is exoskeleton, the mite cannot penetrate the outer plates of the bee so it moves to the overlapping segments of the abdomen to the soft tissues and pierces through with its mouth parts. These areas on the honey bee are known as the innersegmental membranes.
When the bee larva is 8 days old it gives off distinct pheromone signal to adult bees who begin to seal the cells. However, that same pheromone signal is picked up by the varroa mite as an indication that it is time to enter the cell.
The mite makes her way into the bottom of the cell and buries herself beneath the royal jelly in the base of a cell.  Mites have a snorkel like apparatus that they use to breathe while hiding under the royal jelly. These specialized tubes are called peritremes and are thin, pale-colored tubes located just between the last two pairs of legs.
Once the cell is capped and the bee larva has spun its cocoon the mite will feed on the larva and will begin laying eggs about 3 days after the cell is capped. Most female mites lay between 4-6 eggs, the first being a male mite, and the remaining 4 being females that mate with their one brother in the cell.
Unlike bees, mites do not go through larva and pupa stages, instead they go through 4 developmental stages: egg, protonymph and deutonymph stages and finally adult. From egg to adult takes 6-7 days for females and 5-6 for males.
Mites will pierce an opening in the prepupa honey bee larva and the whole family of mites will feed from that one wound. As the family grows and the bee emerges, the foundress mite will leave the cell with one or more new female daughters. The males die and never leave the cell and the bees clean them out. The adult females will then attach to adult bees for an average of 7 days before finding a new cell to enter and reproduce again. During her lifetime the foundress mite will go through 3 reproductive cycles.
IMPACT ON THE COLONY
The impact of varroa mites on a colony varies depending on the level of infestation and the level of diseases the mites may carry. Several mites in one cell can seriously cripple the developing bee, through the loss of blood, injury or spread of disease. Mites can also negatively impact adult bee. An adult bee can have trouble flying and carrying out normal work when they have more than 2 mites on them at one time. Mites vector several diseases as they feed on bee hemolymph. A common disease that is spread is Deformed Wing Virus (DWV).  Bees with deformed wing virus are easy to identify and gives evidence to the high level of mite infestation in the hive. The wings appear burnt or deformed.
NATURAL TREAMENT
We prefer not to use chemicals in treating for mites. Instead our first line of defense is raising queens that are VSH, Varroa Sensitive Hygienic. These bees detect mites below the sealed brood and remove the pupae and mites, taking them outside the hive. In the photo,  Liquid Nitrogen is used to kill a circle of brood and then it is measured in 24 hours to see how much of the dead brood was removed. This identifies a VSH trait in a colony.
The next natural line of defense is trapping. Green drone comb can be placed in the hive. Since drones are the longest to develop, 24 days before they emerge, mites prefer drone cells so they have longer to try and reproduce more female mites. Once the drone comb frame is sealed, it can be removed and frozen for 24 hours killing all the mites, and drones too of course. Then, the comb can be placed back in the hive to be cleaned out by the bees and the process repeated.
The third level of natural defense against mites is the use of a screen bottom board. Since mites are parasites, they do lose their grip. Sometimes they are groomed off of bees by other bees and when they fall, they fall through the screen bottom board. It is effective, just observe the number of mites that fall through the screen. Once out of the hive, they do not move and therefore cannot feed and die below the hive. Not all mites will fall out of the hive, but those that do will decrease the colony’s mite load.
A fourth plan of attack is to treat the hive with powdered sugar or confectionery sugar. Shake one cup of powdered sugar per deep hive body. Let it fall between the frames. The powdered sugar causes the bees to groom mites off and some mites just lose their grip and fall. This should be repeated once a week for at least 3 weeks.
A final natural defense against mites is to break their own brood cycle. By pulling out the queen for 2 weeks, the mites cannot reproduce and are greatly reduced. The lack of bee brood removes the mite’s hosts.
CHEMICALS
More and more chemicals are available. Some chemicals in the past have show to have negative effects on the drones and queens reproductive organs. However, newer chemicals have shown to be more effective with less side effects. We recommend that you carefully research each chemical that is available and make your own decisions about using chemicals in your hives.
Now you probably know more about mites than you ever wanted to know, but keep this teaching handy because it can give you greater knowledge to help your bees not succumb to the mites.
These Words Might Be New To You…
Hemolymph  -  Bee blood
Exoskeleton – Bees have a hard outer covering rather than an internal
                     skeleton.
Ectoparasite – A parasite that lives on the outer surface.
Phoretic stage  -  Adult Varroa mite
Protonymph – A newly hatched mite
Deutonymph – The last stage prior to the adult stage.
Foundress – Female egg laying mite
TESTING FOR MITES
Some suggest placing a mite collection sheet, sticky board, beneath the screen bottom board for 1 day and then counting to see if more that 25 mites can be counted, exceeding the economic threshold requiring additional action or treatment.
However, I have found visually inspecting phoretic mites on adult bees and inspecting mites on drone purpae gives a better picture as to the extent of mite infestation. Obviously, we must also inspect the bees for mite damage or vectored diseases from mites that show up in the colony.

Thanks for joining us today and please check out our contact information and contact us soon! We’d love to hear from you:
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
14556 N 1020 E Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
217-427-2678
www.honeybeesonline.com
Until next time, Bee-Have Yourself!
David & Sheri Burns