Spring splits

Split all of the hives yesterday except for the smallest one. Used both the boxes and simply separating the double decker 10 frame brood boxes. We'll see which ones take. Said the new foxes. Need to take food out to all of the boxes now. About nine of them at this stage. Little concerned about one small Nook may not be biltwell.

Feb 8 2019 hive check

Today's goal was to add a second brood box with 10 Foundation frames to each of the three strong boxes. I pulled drawn comb some with honey from the lower boxes put it in the center of the upper boxes and swapped out those frames. I did not break up The Brood nest with checkerboarding. There are two other boxes that don't have the second brood box on yet I'm still making those up. I did pull one frame of honey and left it to be robbed out because the southeast Hive had no drawn comb that was empty. Oh wait two days and then take that frame of open foundation come and put it back in the Southeast hive.

Breakfast with the Beekeeper -February 2, 2019

Unedited notes
Tony Hogg, Full Moon Apiary

Breakfast with the beekeeper February 2, 2019
Cold and rainy Saturday. Been this way for a while. Gotta work the bees when you can find time to work the bees. Update: Lawrence Cutts was head of apiary inspection, knows more than any of us together, has been ill. He’s in and out of rehab at this point. If you have the chance to talk to him, take the time.
Solutions for sudden bee kill and reduced population. Options: neighbor sprayed something that could have killed them. Was it lack of sun? Did they get chilled, there was plenty of stores and  then suddenly reduction. She noticed that there were withered wings on a few bees. Could it bee mite load? From one weak to the next it happened. Was it sublimination that was too strong? Best thing to do is check for mites and see what the load is. Any time you do a treatment, check before and after, but if only once, check after. Don’t’ assume that treatment was effective. This time of year the mites are in the cells and they will experience a growth spurt just as the bees do.
Hives will collapse quickly if the mite load is too high, especially if bees are weak and the weather turns cold and the hive gets chilled, there could be a kill off. Solution: check your mite load. Especially check if the queen is still laying
.Tony: some times the just up and die.
If a hive gets robbed, and collapses, know that the mites were spread all around to the other hives that the robber came from. If you don’t have enough to do an alcohol roll, then do sugar shake. Sugar shake will get you in the ball park of what your mite load is.
Of interest: Permaculture class on the Great Southern Swine, for forest raised pigs next weekend. The APA Bee Course is 2/23 8am-4pm, lots of hands on at the Wakulla Ag Office. Nucs will probably about $150-160 for nucs. Price is $65includes lunch. 2//1/2019 is the next APA meeting.
What to see this time of year:
Seeking food sources, water to make bee bread. Highs are getting lighters and nectar and hone is going down but the pollen is going up. Drones are coming on, and in the warmer part of January, you might have seen some drones. The worst of the cold will pass soon.
What to be doing:
Fee the bees so you can have them build up. Feed 1:1 so they will draw foundation. Check the laying patterns, to see how the queen. 1:1 will encourage the queen to lay and to build more wax. The heavier they  syrup, the more work they will do to store it. So fee 1:1 to have them build. Tony is feeding both community and individual hives. Pound of sugar and a pint of water = 1:1. Put back in any previous drawn comb for your foundation so they will use it, unless they don’t like it.
Check laying patterns to evaluate the queens. A crappy queen today, she’ll be worse in a month. If the pattern is good, keep her. If not, plan to replace her. They don’t improve with age. Don’t replace her until there are all the resources they need. If you don’t it now, they won’t make a good queen. If you’ve got two boxes and the bottom is empty, reverse them.
Queens, Mark ‘em as you see ‘em, so you know the year. 2018 color is white     2019 is  green    . Carry marker and a catcher and then you  will find her when the bees are full. Put elastic on the back of the smoker to mark her. Put it in your yard bee kit.
Get your equipment ready NOW. All your frames and boxes. Rotate out all the old stuff.
What do you do when the shoulder splits off the frame. Put it to the outside of the box, so they will clean it out. Let them fill it with n nectar and then when the brood is out you can take the frame and let them rob it out.
Queens will swarm in the spring. The older the queen the more likely she will swarm. Once the queen cells are pupating they are very easy to damage. Don’t turn it upside down. You could have a good cell but jiggle it too much or they get chilled and she’s not going to be a good queen.
Look at Randy Oliver’s easy modified swarm method and queen rearing:
1. Take three boxes all the same size. Deep or mediums. Have double brood box boing, with lots of brood. Find the queen. Carry a nuc box, so you can put her separate and cover her up. You know where she is. Go through the hive, find your resources, food, frames etc. In the 3rd box, you’ll have four frames, good of pollen and just hatching larvae put in middle, on the outside, put in open nectar and drawn comb.  In the other box you’ll put in a couple frames of brood and item e open nectar and drawn comb. In the bottom box, put her in the bottom box with capped brood and drawn comb. Put queen excluded, put the 5 frame box on top of that and either a cloth board or solid bottom board and put on top, then put your 4 frame of brood, bottom, shake in the nurse bees from another hive., then drop in a frame  brood later that day 6hours. In 24 hours, they will be pulling out queen cells,  After 24 hours, take the frame from the top into the bottom so you have 10 frames in bottom. And now you have a queen right finishing box. Come back in 10 days and you’ll have queen cells. Tony will post it so it’s easy to raise queens. When you’re done, put it to the side. Use the queen cells where ever you want. If you want to later, you can split that and the box won’t swarm. This is an easy system to raise queen right out of the box.
They are easy to make, you need, good bees, lots of bees and lots of resources. (Look at previous year’s advice). Look at gentle nature and good honey storage.
Swarm prevention:
Make sure you’ve given them adequate room so they don’t swarm early. You can cage the queen if you want her to stop laying for a while, but will cut down on egg production.
Split hives, if you have an old queen, she still may swarm. Tony used to make splits into 5 frame nucs, but now just into 10 frames, but that’s cuz he has 3 deeps and he has lots of resources. Equalize the two brood boxes, put in a queen excluder and then requeen the one that doesn’t have a queen, you can split.
If you kill a queen out of the box, and the hive is weak, they won’t be able to make a good hive. 16 days to a queen, 21 days to worker, 24 for done, so count your days. Make a queen in another strong box (see Jaime Oliver mating box in this entry). In 3 weeks (16 days, maturation, maiden flight, laying begins) you’ll have a useful queen.
Equalize your 2 boxes about 3 days before you make split. Find the queen, put a queen excluder between the two boxes, on 3rd day if you’ve got eggs, you’ve got the box with the queen. If there are no eggs, give it a queen cell. Take the queen out (option 1), then after 24 hours, put a queen cell in each (check weather so shell have a good flight. If it’s going to get cold, put cell into the middle of the brood cluster so she’ll stay warm. Leave box queen less for 24 hours.  If you’re raising more queens, you have a better chance for if one queen emerges early and kills the other cells in her box.  If a queen is not mated, she’ll be laying drone eggs.
Tony will cells queen cells, a week ahead notice is what he needs – He pulls queen cells within 24 hours of the queen emerging. So make sure the old queen is out and they box is queenless. Put it quickly into the hive. From the grafting time, with 24 hours you’ll know if they are taking, that 10 days out from her emerging (graft, development time, clearly a queen cell etc.)
Thomas County is starting a bee farm at a school.`
Watch for Drones:
You’ll find drone brood between frames and on damages  frames. Look into the busted cells and see if there are mites on the drones. You won’t need to test, if you see mites on the brood, ,but doesn’t means you can’t test. Mites in one hive, you’ve got mites in every hive.
Tony uses drone foundation so there will be lots of drones because he’s raising queens. You can also pull out a lot of the frames full of drone broods and freeze the frame to kill the mites. Tony puts the drone foundation next to the edge of the brood pattern. Damages comb will be where they will build drone foundation or drone frames and get 5K drone cells, quickly. He’ll pull out those drone frames later in the summer or they will fill it with nectar, if that’s a problem, pull it and let them rob it out. Drone comb will only have drone eggs in it. When you used drone foundation, they will pull out the larger cell. Tony puts in in all his cells so that he’ll have thousands of drones.  Queen can mate with 15-20 drones. Best to saturate the area with drones if you want to improve the
Check and treat for mites: If you don’t’ control now, it will only get worse. You need to set a base line with your first test in spring so you’ll have an idea. If you treated in Nov, Dec. you need to test again in the spring (February) so you can confirm the (2 mites in your sample is too much, treat again).
Good treatment options this time of year:
 Api life var (21 days option, 3x once per week). Michelle uses hold it in place with thumbtack.
 Apiguard – 28 day treatment cycle
 Hopguard – 20 days treatment cycle (approved with honey supers in place)
 Formic acid – 20 day treatment cycle ( may be early, use later in spring) also approved with super in place
 Apivar and Apistand – 42 day treat cycle a minimum (maybe 56 days) so not good in spring
 Oxalic acid sublimation – need to go through 21 days cycle  1xper week, 3 treatments
Check your timing and plan accordingly.
Which treatments are better for Queen rearing: Don’t be treating when you are raising queens, no matter what you use. Many of these (especially the oils) are fungicide, so maybe use a probiotic afterward to help with the gut flora.
Oxalic Acid, may or may not effect the gut flora. For the dribble method, it will upset their gut, but sublimation (vapor) is not known.
Equipment:
Check your frames, your boxes, take the time to get ready. If they are bad shape now, they will fall apart on you this season. Don’t pry from the end. Rotate your frames out. The wax is constantly soaking up all the chemicals e bees come in contact with. Put the date on so you know when to take them out.
If you are putting in foundation, not comb, you need good nectar source. If they are building fast it will be nice, if slow it will be hit and miss. Coat with wax may help, add a little cocoanut oil 5%-10% and make a wax crayon and rub this on the frames and that will encourage them. If you don’t put the cocoanut oil in it’s a bit too hard to work. Put in a toilet paper roll with one sealed end and you’ve got a crayon.
Brood pattern check:
If queen is not laying good now, she won’t have a good pattern in season. It should be that lovely brown slightly dimpled rug, no space or opened comb. Can you find your queen? Can you find larvae? What about brood?
Do you have 20# of honey or nectar at any given time so that when crummy weather won’t cause them to starve, especially if the population is big, and you get 3 days of bad weather and they stave. Over feed them. You can’t overfeed them, but they can run out of stores quickly. They will start tearing out brood once they get stressed. And, once they are stressed, it takes a while, like us, to calm them down. You should have one to two frames of pollen. You can feed pollen patties, they will quick taking dry pollen in December, but once the mustard and the other comes available, they will stop taking. If they need it they will eat it, if not, they will ignore it, don’t leave it in there because it will feed the beetles.
Looking ahead:
Don’t’ graft befor3e valentines Day, sometimes it can be earlier, depending on drones, but early drones, even when you see them may not be the best. The wise man waits. Or raising quines in the hives. March 1 is swarm season. That’s the natural progression. The queens are going to emerge soon if you started in Mid Feb.
When dewberries start to bloom, put on a super. If bees are building white wax on the lid or frames, put on a super.
Citrus blooms the middle of March.
Spraying – for citrus greening, or for mosquitos. Call the Leon County mosquito control so they won’t spray in your area. There is no currently aerial spraying in Leon currently.
Housekeeping:
Clean a few frames each time and it will keep things cleaner. You can use frame spacers in the drawn comb honey super so you’ve got deeper honey and more honey in a frame, it makes it easier to uncap, but the amount in a small bee yard is not significate increase in the honey production.
Why Tony doesn’t use screen bottoms: Was introduced as a varroa mite treatment, but varroa reproduces 12 months out of the year, so that’s not really a helpful thing. In the north you can get a broodless time which means varroa can’t reproduced, here you get a little reduction but not a lot. If you have a screened bottom board you’ve got to close off the screen bottom to keep them effective. Down here the humidity is so high it’s like having the windows open in the house and they are slower to cap honey on a solid board.
UF Apiary says it is OK to use pressure treated as bottom board if you’ve allowed it to weather a bit and is not wet from the treatment.
Tony’s going to try dipping his wooden ware in hot paraffin to help preserve it. Just painted woodenware does not last more than 3 years. Tony has used copper napthanate (out off Memphis or Stalling in T’ville) and mmix it with diesel?? For 5 gallons which you have to dilute, and then let the wood after it has been soaked for 24 hours and then let them dry for 6 months. You’ve got to build the units before you soak them. There is a water based wood preservative to help them last longer.
Spotty laying pattern:
1> Starting to fail
2> Not well mated in the first place
3> High inbreeding coeffient, and the eggs are not viable
4> Nosema will contribute
5> High mite load because of the poop in the bottom of the cells and the nurse bees are pulling them out.’
Your going to get a lot of holes, you want just a few holes, consider replacing when the hive is stronger. If 15% or higher, you should replace. Breed out of the good queens. Tony replaces her every year.

May 17, 2018 hive indpection

Annual inspection with Steven cuts.

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West Hive that Michele gave me
Even with your cap and wax you're going to get some gum
 it's not on there looking for a friend with the least amount of bridging in here it's going to be difficult that's a lot of bitching going on here they stretched it out here they stretched looking for the frame with the least amount of bridging this is the heart that has everybody out on the front
It looks like she's trying to swarm and we can split this and leave the queen cell that's here and move her to a new box or we could just offer. Well she is that old there she goes okay but she's not lying that well
I moved the frame that have the three Queen sell started on it into the blue Hive. She's probably going to start some other Queen cells keep an eye out for them and you may ha

Small Hive with yellow Queen
When I open the lime trade today there were lots of larvae crawling around in the line. I shook the line. I will ask the inspector what's going on. Some more Camp Road but not a lot not a solid pattern and we've got a queen cell two queen cells with bees in them see anything in there

Double decker Nuc box

Blue Hive on East with Pippin Queen
Time is money and that's smart. In invert the lid and set the excluder SEPTA super on it. Oh yeah.
 one of these more common things that I see one of my more common helpful hands sorry girls everybody tells you don't paint the inside of the box if you don't paint the upper edges of the box you can get wood rot there you don't need to paint the inside but the upper edges and lower cuz of the damp because they're up against Foundation because they're up against Foundation they draw this honey because they're up against Foundation they draw this honey I see when going up against New Foundation that's not drawn and not painted they may draw the other side too seep. The bigger communication holes allow them to go around while staying on the wax instead of going onto the wooden frames Mister pip in this is Miss Anna's and I I've been asked not to have you in our up our inspection we're in the middle of a 10 frame box how you doing easy cut out
Look in the queen cup to see if you see anything but that's okay to leave those cups in there.
No Queen, no eggs. Think about it. But take the Super in the Queen excluder off. What were you thinking

double decker South nuc

Cut larger Corners off of the passageway so that they'll build drone come there and that will give you the Drone cone that you need it should be about 10 to 12 in per hive square inches. I love talkin
On the way of the inspection he's looking for two frames of sealed brood. See queen photo.

More than they'll be okay if you want it

South Hive from Tracy's  old box.
Consider putting in a 1 inch feeder hole at the top with an inverted jar with the whole centered instead of having such a big hole for your mason jar. Nice idea when you got an excluder go above it and pry a way up in a way, if you're going below it pry down and away. Tear over here check your bottom frames to make sure a queen or a little Queen didn't get up there and is laying in your honey super. When you smoke one area smoke the super that you set to the side as well or they'll come back from the backside to get you. Aluminum tape for ductwork is a good way to repair a break in a queen excluder go over and under the area and block off any distorted area. Otherwise, Queen might sneak through. At 1 smoker see outside frame look at the Burke home on the 4th frame and we're. , see the photo of the queen and then on the next frame you'll see a combination of the worker and the Drone together this was on one of those short frames with Burke home along the bottom. When you see the bees lining up along the edge of the frame they're getting ready to come up so give him a touch of smoke to keep them down. Bees prefer to be shaking and brushed for those short frames move them up into a full deep but with a excluder below them after you shaking them off after a couple of weeks clean off the brood comb once they've hatched out.

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June 4 2018 Hive check

On June 4th, this is looking good. They're not moving up into the honey super but there's all kinds of brood, all stages of growth. Did not see the queen. But took some of the brood comb that was filled with honey and put it in the second soup in the super to see if they'll move up there.

The Southside double-decker nuc was rehived. Again didn't see the queen but there was broodd in all stages all the frames had some type of wax on them although I put into new blanks and I will have to trade out the two leftmost frames because they're short and have way too much brood on the lower part. Overall looking good probably need to be treated.

Breakfast with The Beekeeper January 2019

Unedited
Thanks to Tony and Tupelo.Full Moon Apiary.
1. Go thru hives and check storage, 20-25# or 3 drops to get them thru. Or syrup.

Maples coming in
Look for  half to three quarters frame of pollen, wild mustard, camellias. Need pollen to feed larvae or raise drone

Warmer weather look for shb hasnt been cold enough.

Put pollen patties on to feed if no shb problem.

Check brood comb quality. Rotate out 30% per year. Date frame or the color of queen. Bee wax absorbs chemicals they've been exposed to. It will accumulate and compound. Nosema spores etc accumulate.
Testing comb is too expensive, so rotate

Fix your equipment  make up new equipment. Clean off propolis from frame rest especially on cooler days.

Clean bottom boards, even if screened, a couples of times a year.

Look at your bees. Quantity of bees but also are bees but and fat or small? Small bees, poor nutrition. Old comb? no room to grow. Good clean comb,
Greasy bees, black and shiny are an indication of paralysis virus spread by varroa.
Stressed bees will sting if stressed by lack of food, virus, beetles, are the nervous, what's their temperment.
After march, temperment improves.

What's the condition of the queen?  Check  quality of brood and brood pattern. How old is she, what's her genetics. Italians has larger brood nest, carnelian have smaller then explode. Is she marked?

Mark her and find her now. Before Feb brood up. Make a filter box. 2018 was red. 2019 is green. Jan mark old color since new queens haven't been raised for new year. Light color shade early in year, dark shade later. Tony uses model paint.

Brood condition? Spotty pattern, why? Queen failing? Virus? Varroa?  Varroa all poop in same place, inspect cells with flashlight and magnifier. If varroa poops on developing larva, the varroa will je sterile. Varroa poop is white. Founder mite hides right before the cell is capped.
What color is brood, pearly white and gleaming, shiny not creamy and slimy.

Antibiotics for bees us by prescription, tetracycline tylan and one rRer. You can get the prescription on line by state I speak for, ask tony.

Got mites? You'll have a big problem. Do you check even if you treated. Check before and after. In cooler weather, thymol based are possible. Formic acid will cause supercedure in queen and theresa's no way to replace this early. Most mites are forectic, outside of cell. Lots brood means you'll have more mites.

Try drip to control.

Beekeeping is math. Figure out numbers and you'll have a plan.
Eggs 3 days, lays down right before hatching
Larvae capped on day 8 or 9 for queen and workers,11 for drone
Cell hatch
21 worker
24 drone
15 or 16 days

Egg grows 1500 times before capped

23 days for queen egg to be fertile.
Drone is 38 days to be fertile

Queen lays 1000-1500-2000 eggs a day.
Calculate days to hatch then look back to know honey production.
Citrus blooms mid march. Want 45k bees, you need good queen by mid February
Jan 15 queen cell goes in.
Tupelo april15 blooms, let them raise queen takes much longer.
Gallberry low Bush blooms may 1st, April 1st the hive needs to be ready. March 1st for queen cell, the hive makes, Feb 14.
Popcorn trees bloom?

Varroa, founder mite buries it self 70 hous later lays male mite and the a female egg ever 30 hours. About 3 female mites comes out from worker  and 4 female mites for drone cells

Manage cycles or break cycle

Treat broodless like when doing splits and you can cage queen while treating a split.

When do supers go on? When nectar is flowing unless you are chasing a specific crop. . Maybe by first of March, if hive 80% is built out, put on super and stop feeding.

Feb 14 is grafting your queen day. Without drones, it's a failure. Drone production determined by pollen. No pollen for 4 or 5 days, they will kill drones or open cells. Pink eye to purple is indicator. Uf in purple eye, graft queens they will be mature at the same time.

Swarming. Built up lots bees and they are swarming. Forgers will revert to nurse bees as necessary. Year old queen has high tendency to swarm. Lots pressure to swarm. 2 year old queen, definately will awarm. Ma

Make sure they have lots room.
Split your hives to fool them. Gotta be done before swarm impulse sets in.
Splits are important tool for this. Split then recombine if you want to keep number down, then choose best queen.
Can make split in any box 4, 10 frame, plastic box. Since we can't buy queen early enough for split, let them raise a queen.
After the impulse is over. Dont so it late or they will choose to built brood not store honey.
Dont wait till you see swarm cells to split.
Need you need and lots resources. Move old queen with minimal resources, leave lots resources in new split to raise queen.
Easy split put on 2nd bros box. Divide resources, wait 24 48 hours to put in exclude then separate later. Make sure to equalize resources in both the split out.
Eggs, pollen, honey frames and put in excluder. Take only 2-3 frames, not five solid in a nuc so they have room. If raising queen, need a frame if eggs and lots young larvae. Any bix with eggs and no queen, they will start raising new queen.

Queen cell on perimeter, they will still try to swarm. Middle if frame, emergency cell versus queen cup for supercedure queen.

If you found a queen cell, or uncapped queen cell, leave it. Move old queen to new box.

Do the math. When no capped brood do the math. Treat for mites and you'll get 90% reduction.

Feed heavier syrup to keep them storing, not thinking flow us on. But pollen will stimulate drone production. Swarming may start 1st.

What's box weigh? You last fed dec 15.2018 They are still heavy.
If they draw fast, the comb will be straight and pretty. Put in new foundation  between frame of pollen and first frame of brood nest to encourage comb building. Pull out stores honey and let them rub it out.

January 31, 2019 Hive Check

Low was 29 high was 58 it was a sunny day. Water is still high in the lake and the pond at the farm is still full.
The Northwest hive was light. Not a lot of food stores that they are bringing in pollen and there's bee bread. I should add some pollen patties and they've taken down a quart jar of food in the past few days. The temperament was calm, and though I did not see any queen I did see a bunch of larvae and a medium to poor brood pattern. It has been very cold she may not be laying that well. There were no queen cells. There was a little tiny cup but I crushed.

I saw some developing drone brood, and even a few drones walking around very casually.

I have had more extensive notes on the other for hives but somehow they got deleted so I'll just say that the temperament and all five hives was calm. I did not see any hive beetles in any of the boxes. I saw increasingly better brood patterns as I went across the three hives on the North side and then the best on the hives that are on the south side. I was even certain that one of the hives was honey bound but in fact they do have some room for continued growth. I should probably add brood boxes to at least two maybe even three of the boxes.
I'm going to order 3 deep brood boxes and construct all the frames that I have so that we can begin expansion in February. Queens will be grafted or promoted in the middle of February and then splits will be made at the end of February.