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You are here: Home / Archives for how-to

Sugar dusting a bee hive for mite control

September 19, 2010 by Jason Leave a Comment

There’s a lot of opinions and thoughts on sugar dusting and so on Thursday, September 16, 2010, we decided to address the topic. The associated video was our attempt to further explain and demonstrate the matter. Techniques and thoughts vary depending on who you ask or the area you are in. We hope this video is helpful to you.  

What is sugar dusting?

It is a technique that Dr. Fakhimzadeh proposed as a part of his Doctoral work and is published in several journals. Google his name to find out more.

The idea is simple. Varroa have little “suction-cup” feet. When varroa fall down below a varroa screen or out a screen bottom board, they don’t crawl back up. Sugar particles that are approx. 5 microns in diameter (powdered sugar or “dust”) clog up the mites suction cups, and they can’t hang on to the bees so they fall and eventually die and don’t live to reproduce. Therefore, dusting the bees will knock off some significant percentage of the mites, keeping the population under control.

Sugar dusting may allow you to stop using Apistan strips or other toxic treatments. This treatment is both cheap and non-toxic treatment so we like it and want to explore it. Most of our club members tend to lean towards more natural beekeeping and there are many methods of mite management to choose from. See Mel Disselkoen’s outbreeding mites and overwintering honey bees.

What powdered sugar to use

Thoughts are… 2% – 5% corn starch (found in Domino 10X and most other store brands) doesn’t matter one bit. But it doesn’t hurt to try to find the LOWEST percentage of corn starch you can.

Supposedly, “pure” powdered sugar with zero corn starch (added to keep it from clumping) exists. If you can find it, great.

Preparing the sugar

It’s the very tiny sugar particles that clog up the “suction cups” on the legs of the varroa mites. But how to insure that you “dust” a minimal amount of useless larger particles, when the optimal particle size is on the order of 5 microns?

  • We sifted the sugar the day I used it but you can do it ahead of time if you store it right.
  • First, all sugar is sifted with a flour sifter. This removes the big lumps.
  • Sift the sugar again right in to a container that you can seal tightly from moisture.
  • Adding some rice to your sugar container can absorb humidity, and keep the sugar drier.
  • Seal the container tightly, (canning jars work).

Note submitted by fellow beekeeper, Kenny Schneider: Use powder sugar with the least amount of corn starch. I make my own powder sugar. Just put your regular sugar in a blender and in a few seconds you have powder sugar with no corn starch.

Sugar application to the hive

Application of the sugar is your choice. There are many options and whatever one can give you full coverage with less effort is good. As you see in the video, we used both a bellowed blower and a flour sifter. There are “pistols, foot-pumps and you could even use a dried baby-powder container, (where you can twist the cap to reveal tiny holes.) Again, the most important thing is that you cover all the bees. In our video, we didn’t go frame by frame. Obviously doing so would give you the best coverage, but it’s a huge disturbance to the hive.

Dust the bees trying not to get too much on the comb. There is a lot of debate about dusting. Some mentioned simply dusting the top bars rather than removing the frames, but the idea here is to do your best to knock down all the adult varroa in the hive.

If you google “Dr. Fakhimzadeh” you will see he says that sugar DOES NOT have a negative effect on open brood or eggs. It’s said that OTC dusted with sugar was claimed to be fatal to brood, and Dr. Fakhimzadeh stated that it is the OTC itself that can kill the brood, not the sugar. Again, we only used sugar and we didn’t do each frame. We’ll report our results later.

Methods of mite counting

It’s good to have a varroa screen or a slatted bottom board, or at least a sticky-board insert with a mesh cover.  Sugar dusting will not help if the mites can crawl onto another bee after they fall. Mites can fall through a varroa screen or screened bottom board any time.

If you slide a fresh sticky board in just before you do your dusting, you can get the most accurate count. There are many methods to count. We demonstrated an “ether roll” test… but also, check out the sugar roll test.

Frequency of dusting

Again, thoughts vary. Remember, you are disturbing the hive… especially if you dust frame by frame. We read 3 consecutive treatments 1 and a half or two weeks apart. You have to use your judgement on your own hive as to how many are too many mites. Seeing only a few over a certain area is not as much of a concerns as seeing very many over the same area.

You could sugar-dust a hive every week, but think of the impact on the productivity of the bees. Maybe you can tolerate a low varroa population and do a sugar roll or an ether roll as often as you want to make the best decision when to dust.

Varroa population, should be monitored ongoing, but seems to peak between June and early September in our area. Some of our members say they will do three dustings about 2 weeks apart before winterizing the hive. Good luck.

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Filed Under: beekeeping, how-to, videos Tagged With: beekeeping, how-to, videos

Hived two packages of bees in 10 minutes today!

May 4, 2010 by Jason Leave a Comment

The post office called me at 6am and said my bees were in. After a rainy, gloomy weekend, I didn’t expect to have them in by now.

I ran down and picked them up and then hit up the weather channel to see what the day was looking like. “Partly cloudy!” Sweet! The sun was blazing down into the yard by 7:15 and I decided to get these babies hived before heading to work.

It worked out perfectly. We will have rain tonight and that would keep them in there a little longer to get used to their new quarters. Everything went off without a hitch and the bees were pretty calm after 5 days of being caged up and shipped. They were dying to get out.

I’m excited and can’t wait to get back in to be sure the queen was accepted and is laying.

More later.

 

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Filed Under: beekeeping, how-to, videos Tagged With: beekeeping, how-to, videos

Make apple wine, a beginners guide to winemaking

November 2, 2009 by Jason Leave a Comment

A lot of people ask me questions about wine making and it frustrates me that I can’t give them a specific answer. The reason is because the answers are not always the same.

Example, “how many apples or how much grapes does it take to make wine?” Or, “how much sugar do I add to my wine?” “What all equipment do I need to make wine?“

In this video, I use the leftover apple cider from our cider smash to make 3 gallons of apple/pear wine and at the same time, attempt to answer some of these questions. I also talk a little about acidity in wine, fermenting fruit and how the hydrometer can tell you how much sugar to add to your wine/must.

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Filed Under: how-to, videos, winemaking Tagged With: how-to, videos, winemaking

How I season my cast iron cookware

October 4, 2009 by Jason Leave a Comment

I have all kinds of cast iron that I’ve been needing to clean and re-season. There are a few key pieces that sit on my stove top and I’ve decided that it was time to break out some additional pieces. Particularly, a nice saucepan with a lid and a double dutch oven (for lack of a better term). In all, there were two No. 8 skillets, a No 14 skillet (yeah, the big daddy) two waffle irons, two regular dutch ovens, the double dutch oven, an egg poacher, a cornbread pan, a muffin pan, and a star-shaped muffin pan.

I cook with cast iron daily… and rarely use anything else. Having your cookware properly seasoned and maintained only increases the performance of cast-iron. Here’s how I do it:

Seasoning your cast iron

  1. Clean your cookware real good. It’s OK to use a mild soap as you scrape off any junk. I used a wire brush and scouring pad to get it as clean as possible. A wire brush is good for rust (also a clue that your pan is not properly seasoned.)
  2. Dry everything off real good and then place it in the oven heated to 200F. We’re warming the cast iron up at this time…. completely drying it out and opening the pores per se.
  3. After 10  minutes or so, get your mitt and bring it out.
  4. Take about a teaspoon of 100%, flaxseed oil (organic, or the best you can find) and add to pan. Use a paper towel to distribute all over the pan, inside and out, getting the handle and everything. You can add more if you need, but know that you will be wiping it off as dry as possible before cooking. So, it doesn’t make sense to waste the oil since good flax seed oil is expensive.
  5. Once completely wiped down, put the pan back in the oven, inverted upside down and heat to 500F. Again, it’s important that the oil is wiped off real good and not dripping from the pan. Drippings can harden and create and uneven surface. As it cooks, we invert the pan to avoid pooling of the oil and allow slight dripping. So, you may want to catch them underneath.
  6. Once heated to 500F, set a timer for 1 hour. After an hour, turn off the oven and leave the pan to cool in the oven. This could take up to two hours. Remove the pan, and polish with a cloth.
  7. Repeat this process immediately… adding another teaspoon of oil, wiping off, and starting over. Repeat as many times as you have the energy for. The more times you do it, the better the season will be. It actually evens out the surface and makes a natural hard, non-stick surface. As you cook foods with grease and fats, it adds to the quality of the surface.

Notes worth mentioning

  • In the past, I have tried all the oils, Crisco vegetable shortening, lard, and even bacon grease. Today, I use flax seed oil as there’s a lot of documented science behind fat polymerization. Think of flaxseed oil as the food-grade equivalent of linseed oil (the ‘drying oil’ that painters use to create a protective layer on their paintings).
  • Not all flaxseed oil is created equal. Good flaxseed oil needs refrigeration and can go rancid quickly. Any that don’t need refrigeration means it has something added to it to hinder rancidity, and you don’t want that.
  • If your cast iron comes out sticky, it could be the result of leaving too much oil on before you put it in the oven. Be sure to wipe it down dry. Don’t worry, there is oil left in the pores. This is a process that can’t be rushed, and iterative coats are required. Be sure also that your oven temperature is at 500F and bake for a full hour at that temperature.
  • Flaxseed oil has one of the lowest smoke points at around 225F. When we heat oil above its smoke point, it releases its free radicals. This is not good during cooking, but really good for seasoning cast iron cookware. Open some windows and turn on the exhaust fans when you’re seasoning.

Cleaning your cast iron

Try not to soak your cast iron in water. Quite honestly, I’ll leave my pan with the grease from the morning’s bacon in it sitting on my stove until the next day. Then, I’ll scrape out the gunk with a metal spatula and reheat using the remaining oil residue. Otherwise, I clean mine right away while the pan is still warm. If I need some scouring action, I throw a little coarse kosher salt into the pan and wipe with a damp cloth to grind up the junk. Then rinse under the faucet.

When done washing, give a quick towel dry and then put it on your stove burner to completely dry it out. Don’t overcook the pan here! A minute or two should do it. Leave it on just long enough to dry it out. That next batch of sausage or bacon can lube it up again.

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Filed Under: homesteading, how-to Tagged With: homesteading, how-to

Spring 2009 Grapevine Cuttings

May 20, 2009 by Jason Leave a Comment

Just a quick note on the spring cuttings. I took cuttings from my own grape vines and had a 100% success rate. By that, I mean… all of them took root and sprung leafs. Heck, most spit out clusters of grapes that I quickly snapped off.

The process

  1.  I pruned my grape vines as I usually do. From those, I took at least 30 cuttings from each. I took thicknesses from anywhere between a No. 2 pencil and 3/8″ and old wood of course.
  2. Trim the cuttings to 3-4 buds per cutting, with one bud cut exactly in half at the bottom. It seems the roots callous and spring out like mad from here.
  3. Soak the cuttings in water for an hour or so
  4. Pull each cutting from the water and dip into a basic rooting hormone and then right into a good starter soil about 2″ deep on the bottom of those Rubber Maid plastic garbage cans with a lid. Mine had the translucent white sides that allowed plenty of sun in. I don’t snap the lid on tight, I just sit it on top.
  5. Sprinkle a little water in. This creates a terrarium effect. It’s important not to over-water… just keep the soil moist.
  6. Check them every day because while you are watching the leaves sprout, you also want to watch for mold that can happen in such a closed container.
  7. After the shoots are 1-2″ long, bump or shake the entire container to knock the soil loose and then gently pull them out and plant each in its own pot.

See the pics of the good healthy roots.

Top the new pots up with soil and water them… then stick in a partial sun/shade area and let them get stronger. Questions? Just let me know and have fun!

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Filed Under: grape growing, how-to, outdoors Tagged With: grape growing, how-to, outdoors

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About AllMorgan

AllMorgan started as a family blog to keep extended family and friends around the world apprised on what's going on at the Morgan Ranch. Over the years, it grew in to something so much more.

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Welcome to AllMorgan

AllMorgan started as a family blog to keep extended family and friends around the world apprised on what's going on at our Indiana homestead. It always been a cross between a family diary and photo … Read more

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The queen bee doesn’t decide what happens in a colony. The workers do. They adjust her feeding to make her do what the majority says. The queen can’t feed herself.

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