beekeeping

Requeening honeybee colonies with cells

July 9, 2019 by Jason Leave a Comment

In this video, I am pulling queens from hives that are not performing to my standards. Reasons range from poor laying patterns, aggressive behavior… anything that I don’t want to see in my colonies. There are many philosophical views on this, but for me, making up new splits or re-queening poorly-performing colonies helps ensure I have several good hives going into the next season. I consider them my honey-making hives. A young, vigorous queen can help prevent swarming, help mite control, fast build-up in the spring and many other “ailments” to a hive.

I don’t just re-queen automatically… but I do select the colonies that are not performing the way I want them to. I’ll let these hives be queenless for at least 24-hours to help them more readily accept the new queen cells. Another thing I do not mention in the video is to make sure you search for any queen cells left in the hive as well. A couple of hives already had supersedure cells in them (meaning the bees had already planned to replace their queen) and we don’t want these queens emerging and destroying the new queen cells we’re putting in the hives.

Do you ever replace queens in your colonies? If you do, I’d love to know why in the comments below.

Transfer honeybees from trap to new colony

May 27, 2019 by Jason Leave a Comment

In this video, I show how to unload a busting swarm trap into a new colony. Unfortunately, the phone overheated and cut off midway through (before I got the second deep on). It still had enough good info to achieve the intention. This trap had combs built off the bottoms of each frame that had to be cut and rubber-banded into additional frames. Overall it yielded about 6 to 7 frames of brood and eggs. It’s a colony in a great position to build right now (during a great nectar flow here in SE Indiana). I’m happy to answer any questions I may have left anyone hanging with.

Don’t use 1/4″ hardware cloth for Candy Boards

April 24, 2019 by Jason 2 Comments

I lost one hive out of 13 over the winter. In fact, I lost it mid to late February… AFTER I put a candy board on it. This hive came out of the winter nice and strong. It was one of my larger colonies. They were bumping the lid after going through a full medium of honey. So, I added on a candy board just for some food before were out of the cold. To be clear, I’m an advocate of candy boards and will continue to use them for all their benefits. Below is a recent negative experience based on my specific application and circumstance.

I was in this colony about three times prior to the deadout. I put a little piece of pollen patty in on a previous visit (I start with a little and see if they take it) and there were a LOT of bees up in the candy board. I came back about a week later and they were all dead. They were loaded in the candy board, on each deep level and even a carpet of bees on the bottom board. It looked like they had been poisoned. Yet, the 4 other hives next to it were fine.

I did my mite wash and it was fine. No mites in the wash! There was plenty to eat in the candy board. So, I sent off a bee sample to the Beltsville lab for good measure. See the report below. It’s exactly what I expected. Very low mites and no nosema. So yeah, a nice clean hive otherwise!

This is the one and only candy board that I used 1/4″ hardware cloth on. I have used this same board for 3 past winters with no issue. However, this particular colony was very strong. It had a ton of bees that ate a softball sized hole up through the center of the candy. The bees flowed up and over the top of the rest of the candy totally covering the sugar. It appeared to be a carpet of dead bees when I pulled off the lid. I couldn’t see any sugar… just a tray of dead bees.

I believe that the majority of the bees were up there and on the next cold night, they couldn’t get back down through the hardware cloth fast enough… essentially keeping them from clustering and staying warm. That night, there were bees stuck up top, and not enough bees back down around the brood. Look at the captions on the following pictures as I try to indicate the play by play.

Bee diagnosis shows a clean hive.
Newspaper added to show how the candy was in the board. The board was not full to the top so bees could come up and spread out across entire top.
Here is the candy board with 1/4″ cloth. A single bee can get through the cloth, but with a mass up top, they couldn’t get through fast enough.
This board, while not the same one, shows the hole they can eat up through the center.
This board shows the proper 1/2″ hardware cloth. Bees can easily get up and down through this, even with a lot of bees upstairs.

So, as you can see, this was beekeeper error. What’s even sadder is that I added this candy board to the colony about 1-2 weeks before it caused their death. I didn’t notice this until I got the board home and emptied off the bees to see the sugar remaining. I thought they had completely consumed the sugar in the board and it was just all bees. In reality, the small hole through the center of the sugar (along with the 1/4″ hardware cloth) acted as a choke they couldn’t pass through fast enough in time to cluster.

Lesson learned. I’ll be replacing this with the 1/2″ and I hope this helps anyone else who may be using something similar.

OA and Glycerin Shop Towels for Varroa

February 26, 2017 by Jason Leave a Comment

I got together with a beekeeping mentor to make up some OA shop towels for combating varroa this season. The following is based on the research Randy Oliver is doing using OA, glycerin, and water mixed up to a certain volume and absorbed into rolls of Scott Shop Towels. While this method of OA application is not yet an approved method of application to honey bee colonies in the US, Randy is working with the EPA to get the method approved. The results Randy reported are pretty compelling, so we wanted to make some of these up in preparation to test out this season.

We know that OA vaporization and dribble are both effective methods for knocking back phoretic mites (mites on the bees). Unfortunately, neither method does anything to the mites in the cells which as we know are upwards of 50% of the mites in the colony. In addition, due to the short-lived presence of OA in the hive after these treatments (1-2 days), several follow-up treatments are needed in order to expose upcoming generations of mites to the OA when they come out of the comb. We’ve found that the variation in timing could allow enough time for a mite to come out of one cell and go into another before the next treatment, making vaporization and dribbles less effective as long as there is brood present in the hive.

The idea behind the saturated towels is to keep the OA present in the hive over 30-40 days (about the same length of time as other treatments) while it takes the bees that long to chew and tear up one full towel to get it out of the hive. As they do that, they spread the OA around the hive making it difficult for emerging mites to avoid contact. The fact that the beekeeper doesn’t have to go back into the hive to remove it is a bonus. This method of application can also occur while there are honey supers on the hive.

Here, we’ve added the half-roll to the solution and allowed it to soak up to about half-way.

It’s important to understand there is a calculated amount of OA added per towel. This information can be found on Randy’s site, but I’ll list it below as a basis for what I would build on as I better understand the practicality of this application. Randy has asked any beekeepers who have ideas for improvement to let him know so we wanted to give it a try to see how this process could work if a beekeeper had to treat 100 hives in a given fall.

We don’t want to get Oxalic Acid in our eyes or on our skin. So, put on your safety glasses and nitrile gloves. The glycerin is really sticky as well. Also, have a bowl of warm water with some baking soda in it along with a cleanup towel handy. Baking soda will neutralize oxalic acid.

Make sure your roll of towels is cut in half. The following mixture is for a half-roll of towels.

Measure out:

336g OA crystals
364 mL food-grade glycerin
140 mL water

When done, ALL of the solution should be absorbed from the pan and into the half-roll of towels.

The water helps the towels absorb the solution better. Add the water to the glycerin and heat on the stove to about 140-160F. No need for any hotter. Once the solution reaches, 140F, add the OA crystals, stir with stainless steel spoon until the solution runs clear. Remove from the heat. Preheating the roll of towels a little in the microwave also helps the towels absorb all the solution. A minute in the microwave works fine.

Drop the half-roll of towels into the solution and allow time to absorb as much solution as it can. Ideally, it will come up the roll about halfway. Use a pair of tongs to flip the roll and allow it to absorb the rest of the solution until the entire roll is saturated.

Once done, allow to cool and dry. It will not dry out completely. The water will evaporate out, but the remaining glycerin will keep it oily to the touch. You can store the roll in a ziplock bag until use.

On full towel (or two half towels) is a single treatment for a colony. Place the towel on the top bars of the frames and close it up. I’ll update this post again later when I have some results.

TO make the towels, we use a roll of Scott Shop Towels, cut in half, OA crystals, and food-grade glycerin.

Measure out 364mL of glycerin and 140mL of water. Add to low heat, and bring to 150F before adding the OA.

When the water and glycerin reach 150F, add the OA crystals and stir until the solution runs clear.

Stirring the OA, glycerin and water solution until it is clear. No need to heat higher than 160F.

Using tongs, flip the roll so that the other end can draw up the rest of the solution.

Bee Hive Christmas Ornaments

December 24, 2015 by Jason 12 Comments

Beehive Christmas Ornaments are a seasonal favorite. They have been so popular, we find them going faster than we can produce them. We were out of stock for the 2021 Christmas season, and we offer our apologies for that. We’re working hard to produce them in time for the 2022 Christmas season. We hope to have them ready to order by Thanksgiving.

They have flat lids just like the original Langstroth style bee hive.

Christmas Ornaments
$12 + shipping

Visit our online store here and grab some honey and candles while your’re at it.

As much as I’d like to claim the original idea, I cannot. I was at my beekeepers Christmas party around 2016 and a member came in with pieces that he said he made 5 years prior. They were just cut pieces of pine, un-assembled, and unpainted. They were single deep box Langstroth bee hive Christmas ornaments. Each had a bottom board, a deep box, and a garden-style lid. He allowed members to take them and assemble them at home. Of course, I took one and immediately thought of all the changes I wanted to make to it.

First, was some additional boxes… more deeps, or mediums? Definitely one more box. I experimented with a number of boxes, 3-deeps, a deep and two mediums, but finally settled on one deep and one medium. Then, I also experimented with the finish… did I want shiny and new, or worn and rugged? I entertained wood-burning and added the nails on the corners of the boxes. Then last, I burned in the date and a Christmas message on the bottom of each.

In this fast-paced world where everything is mass-produced and disposable, it’s nice to have something that can be seen and appreciated each year. Rarely lost, ornaments get packed away with the Christmas stuff, only to be pulled out and appreciated for a while the next year. The beehives strike a chord with beekeepers, but also are appropriate as gifts from a beekeeper.

I keep no secrets here… the process I used to replicate these was simple if you have a workshop and some basic tools. Here is the process I used, and I’m sure anyone could make improvements to make these their own.

I started with a simple 2×4 and ripped it down the center to have two equal halves. I cut my cubes off of that… and struck lines and filed them out to make it appear as two boxes stacked on top of each other. I also ripped the roof material from another 2×4 into the triangle shape. It helps to have a table saw whose table can be adjusted at an angle to cut these pieces. For the bottom board, just as you might suspect… another long strip about 1/4″ thick. Basically, all the pieces were cut into lengths. That’s the hard part. Then, you will make cross cuts to cut off each individual hive body, roof, and bottom board.

The bottom board was a little more involved… at least, my approach was. I used a stationary router with a flat bit and made up a make-shift jig to allowed me to stick the wood in, and route out the small notch for the front of the hive. Because these pieces are so small, I routed each piece individually while still connected to the length of wood… stuck it in the router to take out the notch… and then ripped the piece off individually. I went back to the router to make the next notch, then ripped that piece off again. I repeated the process here for each piece. One could maybe use a Dremel (that would render a cruder cut, but may add to the character of the ornament).

See the pics below. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have… and, Merry Christmas!