Treatment-Free Mite Record Keeping

Just some great links to help remind everyone to keep track of their mite numbers.

What - How - When - Why - Watch!

What - You are looking for how many mites per 100 bees. A quote from Article: "Test For Varroa" that is of interest to us northern rural farm & forest beekeepers: “Thresholds are regional since they largely depend on how long the brood rearing season is and thresholds are dependent on the type of beekeeper. The colonies of an isolated hobbyist in the north could maybe withstand a 10-12% infestation, but colonies of a migratory beekeeper in Texas may need to use the 3% infestation threshold.” Katie Lee – Bee Informed Partnership

How - I use the "sugar-shake" method to TEST. Caution: don't confuse the sugar shake method TEST with treating bees for varroa using powdered sugar in the hive. This is no longer a respected way to effectively or safely knock mite counts down in your colonies. Use powdered sugar to TEST not treat. There are too many variables using it to treat and too many risks you may actually kill your colony. I have killed two colonies as a result of treating with powdered sugar, even sugar I powdered myself that did not have corn starch in it. Search for an article about this treatment method well researched by respected scientist Jennifer Berry.

Now as for TESTING with sugar - Phil Gavin of Portland's Honey Exchange is a northern URBAN beekeeper looking to treat at lower mite counts that the rural beekeeper; but he does a great job of showing how to test for varroa with the sugar shake method in this YouTube video: Sugar Shake Test For Varroa Mite

When - Late summer, early fall is when the mites outside capped cells, on the bees, is highest. Brood rearing in the north slows down but mite populations begin to reach their peak.

Where - Take your sample from the brood frames, not honey frames. Mites prefer the nurse bees.

Why - So you have confidence in your management practices, are not guessing about the health of your bees, and don't sound irresponsible when you talk to others about your treatment free survival colonies. Not all will survive. You may still find yourself guessing about why but records can reveal all sorts of insights about your colonies that can often seem unimportant when your bees are thriving.

Example: This is the most inspiring example of successful treatment free management and the best done report of UK beekeeper Ron Hoskins working with a scientist to discover why his bees survive their mite loads:

WATCH THIS YouTube: "Honey Bees Able To Immunize Themselves Against Varroa"

Wishing all your bees a great fall nectar and pollen flow!

How Non-Acclimatized Bee Purchases Endanger Colonies In A Northern New England Apiary

This is long, but may save a hive or two if you have the time to read.

Trying to introduce new strains of bees into my apiary has been fun and successful but this winter it proved catastrophic. Minnesota Hygienic Bees are basically Italian. It has been a long time since I've had Italian bees. It makes since for an urban beekeeper, like respected scientist Marla Spivak, to breed for hygienic behaviors in a bee everyone already has; but they are not a wise choice for a northern climate despite Minnesota's reputation as a cold climate state. Here's why:

Race Behavior Differences: Honey bees that over-winter in the upper half of Maine, New Hampshire, & Vermont, as well as races of Apis Mellifera bees from Northern Europe or subarctic climates, namely Carniolan, Buckfast, & Russian, share many traits suitable for surviving Northern New England’s long winters & short nectar flows. Indeed, some climate pockets in my neck of the woods of New Hampshire are considered subarctic. The required behaviors of honey bees up here differ with honey bees used in the commercial beekeeping industry that has faithfully supplied U.S.A. farmers with bees for many decades. 

Commercial Sources: Those commercial bees are a U.S. hybrid of Southern European bee, also known as “Italian”. Italians were originally chosen for gentleness and their tendency to grow large populations to assist in pollinating mono-crop farms & orchards across the nation. Currently an American Carniolan-Italian hybrid has become a more common breed in use. Unfortunately, either selectively or circumstantially during normal commercial beekeeping migratory practices, these bees have had bred out of them many of the wild survival traits gifted by millions of years of evolution. When brought up north they behave like they are still on the migratory path, absconding when the bloom is done or just not having a clue they need to plan for long months of confinement in winter.

Available Education: Most books about honey bees published prior to about 2010 and most online educators today talk about management techniques that have traditionally benefited the Italian Hybrid American Honey Bee in the commercial industry because that is the bee everyone has affordable access to. 

At the end of the pollination season they are shipped off to small farms and hobbyist beekeepers around the country regardless of climate or geographical location. Unlike today's northern bee populations beginning to flourish in stationary apiaries across Northern New England, those hybrid bees are not winter savvy, having Southern European roots; nor are they disease resistant. This is primarily because these commercial colonies have been heavily managed for the sake of annual pollination expeditions that include exposure to agricultural chemicals and contaminant accumulations in the hive which break down overall colony health. 

As a matter of routine commercial bees are also treated with antibiotics & miticides and fed a diet of supplemental feed to compensate for nutritional deficiencies on the road. These colonies most often overwinter in large holding yards in a mild climate. The average beekeeper has been taught through older books and old school teachers similar management practices in order to keep these incredibly stressed honey bee colonies alive on their small farms and in their backyards. As a result the American hybrid honey bee continues to prove less resilient & productive than in times past. Farmers who grew up with bees and raised their own children with bees come into my shop on a regular basis with sad tales of wonderment at what might possibly have gone wrong.

April 20th - Live maples in Wonalancet

Over-wintered IN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND or Northern Acclimatized Honey Bees:

I struggled for years to respect and implement these traditional management methods up north as do most beekeepers with limited access to educational opportunities aimed specifically at our northern climate and northern acclimatized honey bee sources. In New Hampshire alone I continue to appreciate the need for beekeeping practices to vary considerably depending on the race of bee acquired and how it is managed from the southern part of the state to the north, mountain to ocean, farm to forest.

Northern bees raised locally are certainly proving to be healthier, but also more conservative and winter savvy than bees from the commercial industry. These hardy bees with most all their evolutionary gifts intact make smaller clusters in winter, breed more brood or less brood depending on the nectar flows, & do best in smaller hives. They can tolerate confinement for as much as six months of too-cold-to-fly weather. Commercially sourced bees can no longer do this reliably without a great deal of nutritional and medicinal support from the beekeeper and then you have to ask "How pure really is my wax and honey?"

Eight frame hives have been recommended by myself and others for these smaller colonies. Last year at the annual EAS Convention in New Jersey I felt validated in this recommendation when hearing the results of a nationwide Bee Informed survey that revealed a 10% increase of over-wintering success with eight frame hives over ten. In my own experience making the journey from ten to eight, this seems primarily due to the colony being unable to break cluster in a ten frame to move horizontally to reach outward honey stores.

Precautions:

If you are beginning to acquire northern bred, northern race honey bees and continue to nurse along the more affordable but vulnerable bees acquired from the commercial industry, precautions must be taken. Strive to keep all hives of your Northern race protected from the robbing behaviors, diseases, & parasites of the hybrid Italian bees, packaged bees, or generally unacclimatized bees. I'm not saying treat your northern bees with miticides; but if you treat the Italians, space your hives considerably apart from each other with some brush obstructions, as Cornell University Professor Tom Seeley recommends, or relocate those commercially sourced bees with high mite counts to another apiary for treatment.

Robbing is the worst threat of all. My new Minnesota Hygienic bees were out flying one sunny day in March when all my old established bees were still in cluster. I could see my hardy north country bees with my thermal camera and knew they had 30 lbs of honey to go before the 1st nectar flow; what hadn't occurred to me was that this weak Italian colony had it in them to rob out those 30 lbs with virtually no resistance. They were starving - of course they were - they had eaten through all their stores and the queen was laying. It was "spring" after all; so instead, the old northern colony, well prepared to make it through a fourth winter in my apiary, fully aware March doesn't really come until May around here, was the colony to starve. I relied too much on my unobtrusive thermal camera and notes on what was stored where instead of taking the usual peek under the hood. Deadly, costly mistake.

So I sent them packing... to my sister-in-law who just finished Bee School in Massachusetts & only wanted one hive. I'm sure they are loving it down there... no hard feelings... well, a few. Honey bees will certainly prove to be the great survivors of our time.

Some insights:

~ Research has shown for some decades now that northern bees "bottle cap" their honey and will teach this, & other things northern, to the young of a southern queen. In the same way, southern nurse bees will teach the young of a northern queen to do things the southern way. This could prove problematic when seeking to utilize an inexpensive or available package of bees by requeening with a northern queen. "Bottle capping" leaves space under the honey cell cap & is just one talent performed & taught by northern bees in anticipation of cold weather and temperature fluctuations.

~ Always double check that your YouTube video watching and internet info is coming from our geographical area and pertains to Russian or Northern New England acclimatized honey bees.

~ Basically, a beekeeper can trust northern bees to be climate savvy, and anything the beekeeper may question they are doing when reading or hearing about Italians may be perfectly fine for northern bees to be doing. Think "Darwinian". 

Minnesota Gang sent packing
off to Waltham

~ Often old timey beekeepers and books tell the beekeeper to replace the queen if they aren’t performing well. Don’t replace the northern queen; usually slowing down the population is a valuable trait for survival. A win-win management approach is to add brood from another hive. If the queen is failing this gives the bees the tools to work it out  for themselves.
Let them do their thing this first year and learn how well they operate as a colony.  

~ Also, as always with all bees, don’t take any honey off their first year. 

Below is an excerpt of research on Russian bees that provides some perspective to northern bee race differences. I've replaced "Russian" with Northern acclimatized & you can read the whole article at the link in the title:

Management of Russian (Northern acclimatized)Honey Bees – NC State University

“(Northern acclimatized) bees are quite different from standard Italian bees in several ways 

• (Northern acclimatized) bees do not build their colony populations until pollen is available, and they shut down brood rearing when pollen is scarce. This characteristic makes them suitable in areas where the main honey and pollen flows occur later in the year, such as the mountains of North Carolina (or New England). By contrast, Italian bees maintain a large brood area and worker population regardless of environmental conditions. This trait can result in more bees than the hive can feed and may lead Italian colonies to early winter starvation. It also explains the Italian bee’s tendency to rob other colonies of their honey stores. (RESULTS IN THE DEATH of northern colonies vulnerable while continuing to cluster due to the northern acclimatized colony’s genetic disposition to conserve resources)

• (Northern acclimatized) colonies maintain active queen cells throughout the brood-rearing season. In Italian colonies, the presence of queen cells is interpreted by beekeepers as an attempt to swarm (reduce overcrowding by establishing a new colony) or to supersede the resident queen. This is not the case with (Northern acclimatized) bees as the workers often destroy the extra queen cells before they fully develop.”

Cosmetic Grade Beeswax

The Bucket - I have been learning to perfect the processing of my beeswax after years of trial and error and collecting. It is such a pleasure to take a big whiff of my scrap bucket from hives past still smelling of fresh honey. That's good beeswax!

I think one of the primary reasons I can't bring myself to treat my hives with miticides or feed my bees with essential oil recipes is the fear it will end up in the wax & other precious products of the hive... and it can.

Before & After processing - silicone bar mold is well worth the investment

Cosmetic Grade Beeswax - But, not all wax is considered "cosmetic grade" and if your neighbor calls with a request for beeswax for homemade lotions, cosmetic grade is what you will want to offer.

Cosmetic grade come from the little caps our girls excrete from their bellies to seal up honey in the comb. Other pieces of wax should be kept separate from this "cappings wax" - a valuable resource of the hive.

Candle Grade - Honey comb in chunks from crush and strain methods of harvesting honey, from old lost hives, or rotated out brood frames contain organic matter. This beeswax is best suited for candles.

Candle Grade or Furniture Grade - If you have scraps of beeswax foundation or brittle, recycled foundation sheets it is possible some chemicals have found their way in to the mix as well, from the maker or brought in from the environment. I keep these collections separate just in case.

Someday I hope to use my cappings wax stash to roll my own foundation to insure a chem-free hive and there is a great video on some UK beekeepers who have perfected that here. 

My Farmers' Market bars & bears

A Safe Sell - So, I believe we beekeepers, no matter our management practices, can reasonably insure that "cappings wax" is pure and worthy of use in making creams, salves, lip gloss, and lotions. It demands a premium price for all your great efforts in raising healthy bees. I have assessed that my own 2017 cosmetic grade wax is worth $2 an ounce; my own "candle grade" wax $1.25 an ounce.

The $1 Crock Pot - I gave up on my solar melter - just doesn't get hot enough here for dependable results - and now use a crock pot from a second hand store, covered with cheesecloth that is rubber-banded on to hold a paper towel that acts as a very good sieve.

This sits all day while I periodically place handfuls of cappings wax on top. Once it melts down, I turn off the pot, let it cool, and there is my beautiful naturally golden disk of cosmetic grade beeswax. YouTube Example Here

I am not a candle maker - maybe I would be if those silicone molds were not so expensive! I did invest, however in one that makes one ounce bars. This allows me to sell by the ounce as most cosmetic makers only need an ounce or three. Do not use a mold release on your cosmetic grade beeswax. The silicone mold if kept clean should not stick. Exposing your cappings wax to a mold release of any kind is not appropriate.

Before I pour the bars they go through one more strain in a nylon stocking, rubber-banded onto a double boiler, also for cheap at a local second hand store - but I love these tools and would have bought them new if I had to for the ease they have afforded my beeswax processing routine.

My Beehive Set Up

My bees thrive well in an eight frame hive set up here in Northern New Hampshire. I tweaked the ten frame hives I'd invested in so heavily until finally, several years ago, gave in to this narrower concept. 

My bees wanted to go up, following the heat of the cluster in winter. Honey left on the outskirts of a super that would tempt them to break cluster to reach, was ignored once cold weather set in. Sometimes colonies starved.

The diseases I was seeing in my failed ten frame colonies screamed of moisture and poor ventilation; so I utilized the "varroa" screened bottom board to help with airflow. William Bonny's old book on "Hive Management" agreed with a local farmer's advice to keep a pine needle filled super on top during winter to catch moisture. That book also introduced me to homasote board. 

All these changes begun to work well, but I feared the brood box would be exposed to abrupt airflow sitting there on that screened bottom, especially going into - and coming out of - winter. 

The discovery of a swarm control component called the "slatted rack" was the next stop in my beekeeping journey. I found it perfect for buffering the brood box from the outside air. It also gave the chilly spring foragers a place to hang out in increment weather instead of crowding up into the nursery. 

The bees loved it and so do I. Setting all this on top of two leveled chimney stones cut off any direct cold air flow. It also seemed high enough off the ground to discourage skunks from scratching at the door. So did the new solar powered fencing.

After about three years of failure with southern packages and nucs queened from California stock, I began to choose northern honey bees, raised farther north than I was. I'd drive as far as I had to go. This was to try and insure overwintering survival with our uniquely short nectar flows in my mountain intervale - only five and a half months - late April to the end of September. 

In that many years the trees had also grown a few feet higher in my apiary, putting every colony in full shade. Also by that time every wasp in area knew where my hives lived. Two colonies were killed. A move had to be made. 

About then a neighbor in failing health invited me to place hives in view of his window. He lived long enough to take pleasure for a few seasons watching my bees enjoy full sun on several acres of wild forage with a northern wind break of wonderful nectar and pollen producing trees. So far most of my colonies have been able to continue in this ideal location.

These savvy acclimatized honey bees now filling my narrow hives, along with the changes made to my apiary set up, began to bring joy instead of angst to my beekeeping. I have had a few summer losses due to normal events, including beekeeper-too-busy-itis during swarm season, however, no losses winter through mid-summer like I was experiencing before. I do see mites, but not high counts others are dealing with. Most importantly, I see no diseases, and previous to these changes I think I saw them all except AFB.

I've hung in there as a beekeeper by focusing on the specific issues facing my colonies instead of trusting a lot of disparaging advice to blame every beekeeping malady on varroa mites; solve every problem with treatments. I've also looked to successful northern bee school teachers and scientist, like New England's own Tom Seeley, for insights.

Mostly I've trusted my gut. Not out of stubbornness, necessarily. On some level, though not a scientist, my ongoing studies in honey bee biology seem to say that, given a good home, these bees should be able to thrive where they live, dependent primarily on the wonderful gifts millions of years of evolution has bestowed on them.

I believe this focus has encouraged my continued research, participation in educational opportunities, and brought me satisfaction with small successes that keep me in a very difficult and expensive quest. 

I've been uncertain much of the time with my choices. I've bought miticides or antibiotics - then never had the nerve to go through with treatments. In the end, trusting my gut, paying attention to my bees, and enjoying the occasional validation of science, has so far won the day. 

I didn't know I was this person... this "scientist"; I just wanted to be a beekeeper. 

Fortunately, honey bees are a rather brilliant, persistent little species. They are determined to pull us in, teach us their needs and hopefully, in exchange for a little honey and beauty and food, survive to use a few million more years of the amazing gifts of evolution they are so marvelous at utilizing even in a dramatically changed world.