Category: Monthly advice

OCTOBER 24, 2024

During the Spring and summer I consider that all the boxes above the Queen Excluder are mine but everything below belongs to the bees. I have to pay attention to all of the colony and monitor the health of the bees.

In the winter the whole hive belongs to the winter bees and they need to be able to range across all the frames including the super you have left on top of the brood, full of honey or sugar syrup. Most of the time the winter bees remain in a tight cluster which moves its position to where there is food. The movement of individual bees is kept to a minimum – they will make journeys to the super and will take down syrup or fondant. If the cluster should move above the queen excluder then the queen will be left behind and starve. REMOVE the queen excluder now before you forget to. It also gives you the opportunity to give the queen excluder its annual clean (and if it is in a wooden frame – a quick repair).

This summer I found a sweet little field mouse had made its nest in some old supers with frames. It had made a bundle of leaves right in the centre of the frames ruining them for future use. Lesson learnt, I have already removed the entrance blocks I had inserted to help prevent robbing whist I fed the bees and inserted the mouse guards fixing them in place with map pins – they are much easier to remove in the Spring, especially when wearing gloves..

I am still feeding three of my colonies – the two splits which were slow to make increase and the swarm which is still only on 6 frames. It is not too late to unite them.

Next time: WAX MOTH

WINTER BEES Between August and November the queen will start to lay eggs that will develop into winter bees. By the end of November all the bees in the hive will be winter bees. These will take the colony through to spring and are sometimes called diutinus bees from the Latin for ‘long lived’. They will live for up to six months. The winter worker bees are physically distinct becauseof their enlarged fat bodies. This has a special function of producing large amounts of a protein called vitellogenin. This egg-yolk like protein is added to brood food which enables bees to live longer.

These bees will only develop into healthy long-lived bees if there is enough feed available during their development and that they have not been weakened by Varroa.

Treating for Varroa There is much written about treating bees for Varroa and different methods come into favour and then dismissed. Some beekeepers completely disparage the use of chemical treatments in their hives, relying on the natural ‘hygienic behaviour’ of their particular breed of honey bees.

The management of varroa is aa all-year activity. The aim of treatment is to keep the level of mite infestation to a low level where harm to the health of the colony is kept to a minimum. It is arguable that treatment at this time of year is the most effective time since the size of brood is reduced. 

The first thing to be done is assess the level of varroa infestation you have in each colony. Only then can you decide what needs to be done. Put the varroa board into the slot at the back of the hive floor and leave for a few days – no more than a week. It can then be inspected to see the level of varroa infestation. You can then decide on whether treatment is needed. If you can count 10-30 mites then action is needed – now.

More on Varroa and its treatment – Lynfa’s podcast

Also read Kirsty Stanton article – Varroa management in honey bee colonies, page 32 Welsh Beekeeper, Summer 2024.

Next time: DOC discusses Queen excluders and mouse guards

This is a hazardous month for our colonies and without opening up the hive we can’t know for sure what is happening inside. Resist the temptation -but observe from outside.

The amount of daylight is increasing every day even if the ambient temperature continues to take dips. Some workers may be tempted to make foraging flights in addition to ‘cleansing’ and removal of dead bees. If they bring in pollen, this may fool the queen into an early start of egg laying. The worker bees then must look after the nursery and this can lead to the rapid deletion of stores. Look at the varroa board to see if uncapping debris is accumulating.

Heft the hive to see if the colony needs feeding. This is a bit of an art rather than a science. Can you really remember how heavy that hive was when you last hefted it?

If there has been no activity at the front of a hive on a mild day when the sun has warmed up the hive entrance, alarm bells may be ringing. This may be the exception to the rule of leaving well alone. Lift the roof and look for evidence of activity. I leave a piece of perspex over the hole in the crown board to look through. The bees may of course have clustered away from this source of colder air. If you have first inspected the varroa board you will know where the cluster is. Quickly lift the crown board – are the bees where you expect them to be. If all is quiet, have a sniff. Any unpleasant smells may indicate a problem. Perhaps the smell of mould or worse still a smell like acetic acid which catches your throat like vinegar. You need advice!! More than I can give here.

Jobs for the month

Now is the time to check that stored supers have not been infested by wax moth. If you have not already done so, get the blow torch out and clean up the corners of the boxes. If there is wax damage on frames then remove all signs of the moths. Better still, remove the frames from the box.