Witch-Hazel and Honey Bees

I awoke to the sounds of gunshots because today is the first day of deer firearms season which lasts for two weeks (except Sunday--hurray for the religious). I am afraid to go out in the woods to take photos even with wearing a blaze orange vest and hat. Forget about taking the dog out for a walk as Kookie only has the blaze orange collar. She looks just like a deer running in the woods.

So instead of walking, I am sitting here at the computer doing this post on a gorgeous sunny warm day.




Yesterday, I noticed my honey bees were out and about bringing in water and pollen. That's not surprising since the weather has been nice and warm (70 degrees most of the week). But where were they getting the pollen? The goldenrod and wingstem are long past flowering--the same for the asters.





I did notice this solitary dandelion blooming but that was probably not the source.


Then, I spotted the witch-hazel tree that was in full bloom. Sure enough, there were honey bees all over it. The witch-hazel is special that way--always blooming in November, a welcome respite from all the brown.


This close up of the flowers was posted on my blog a couple of years ago with the following text:

The Witch-hazel is an understory tree that is fairly common in our woods and a favorite of the Wood Thrush bird for their nests. The leaves are aromatic and can be used to make astringent lotions. Some old timers use the forked branch of the Witch-hazel branch to detect underground water.

This was an earlier photo of the beehive about a week before. The entrance reducer is pushed out so that the bees were able to come and go as they please. I swear I saw them pushing the entrance reducer out themselves! Anyway, the reducer is used to keep predators out but especially mice which will come in and build a nest making a mess. I made my own from 1 x 1 trim. I put 4 holes in it since I knew they wanted more than the typical small hole.

Thoughts on Hive Winter Preparation

This year I left a lot more honey on the hive, (2-1/2 medium boxes). It seemed I had twice the number of bees going into the winter as last year so it made sense to me. The bottom one had brood and lots of pollen storage. I figure the winter cluster can gradually move up the hive through the honey which also should help insulate against the cold.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't lose the bees this winter like I did last year. But one thing I noticed about these bees is that they seem a lot healthier than last year's bees. I kept doing varroa mite checks all summer and did not see any until the very last time when I counted about 5 (used powdered sugar treatment to check). Last year, I counted over a hundred on last check. Nevertheless, I plan on leaving the mite board out of the screened bottom board to allow any mites to fall off to the ground and to allow plenty of ventilation. Last year, I got so concerned about the cold that I left the board in. Maybe the mites got to them or the lack of ventilation made them susceptible to nosema (a fungal infection).

Bees on Wingstem, Kick the Bums Out!

Honey Bee on Wingstem (Actinomeris alternifolia)

My honey bees are foraging nectar and pollen for the past several weeks on Wingstem, a native plant in the composite family. The plant is easy to identify by the stems which have "wings" actually leaves on each side of the stem (seen in the upper right of the photo).


Wingstem in Pasture

The tall (4 feet or more) plants cover most of the pastures around here. Cows don't eat the plants so I am glad the farmers don't brush-hog the plants to get rid of this important source of nectar. Both bumble and honey bees collect orange pollen from the Wingstem. Fritillary butterflies were also on the flowers. I admit I never thought these plants were pretty but now I have an appreciation for this plant now that my bees seem to love it!

When I went back to the hive, I noticed that bees were collecting several different colors of pollen-orange, light yellow, and bright yellow. Perhaps they are foraging on the goldenrod but I haven't seen it (not much goldenrod compared to wingstem here).


Lion's Foot (Prenanthes serpentaria)

This lovely native wildflower, Lion's Foot, came up around my hive this summer. I did see a honey bee on it so maybe that's where they are getting the white pollen. I was surprised this flower was in the composite family (daises, dandelions, sunflowers). The leaves do look similar to dandelion leaves though.

My Bee Hive Update

My hive inspection of September 4 showed that the bees were very strong in 2 of the medium boxes (box 2 and 3 of 4)--good brood pattern surrounded by pollen and nectar. Bees were all over the 8 frames. On the bottom of the hive, box 1was almost empty of brood--and only a little pollen and not that many bees. Box 4 on the top had more bees and 3 frames of honey.

As I have done all summer (usually 10 day intervals), I used the powdered sugar treatment for varroa mites. This time, I kept the mite check board underneath just to see what I was getting. The next day, I counted about 150 mites on the board! Also worrisome was that I counted 3 wax moth caterpillars--these guys can ruin honeycomb quickly.

Last week, I attended the meeting of the local bee club (New River Valley Beekeepers Association). There I told the group about what I found. Jerry, club president, reassured me about the mites--the powdered sugar treatment gets rid of 80% of the mites so I probably don't have too much of a mite problem.

Mark, an expert beekeeper, recommended the following:

1. Reverse boxes, putting box 1 where box 3 is to have the bees clean it out. Later, if it's empty, remove it for the winter. That will put more bees on the bottom where they can guard against the wax moths and other intruders.

2. Keep box 4 on--hopefully the bees will fill it out and keep it for their winter supply (darn--would have liked that honey!).

3. Start feeding with 1:1 syrup to prompt bees to build up the brood--should have 3 medium boxes of brood/honey/pollen for winter.

I did not have another medium box to use for the jar I put on the top for the syrup. With my husband's help, I made a box out of old shelves--it works fine on top.

During my last inspection (Sept. 11), I noticed there were no wax moths so I was relieved. I reversed the boxes as recommended and noticed more bees at the entrance already. I again did the powdered sugar treatment. I checked for mites on Saturday--only a couple found on the mite check board!

Throw the Bums Out!

One beekeeper mentioned that the workers (female) were throwing the drones (male) out of the hive. The drones don't do any work except mate with virgin queens. Their job done for the season, the workers will discard them so they don't have to waste resources this winter.



This worker appeared to be biting the large drone. When the drones try to return, the workers will not allow them in, repeating the harassment.



This worker rode on the back of the drone, both falling right out of the hive. The worker returned while the drone flew away.

These workers don't show any mercy. When I have accidentally squashed a bee during inspection, bees come over to get any pollen or nectar. So, I should not be surprised at this behavior--everything is for the hive, no slackers allowed!

Beekeeping Workshop

Almost two weeks ago I attended a great beekeeping workshop. Here is the apiary or cluster of hives we worked that day. Another group of hives are in those yonder mountains.



The workshop was held on an historic farm. This unoccupied building is the oldest and had been built in the late 18th century. The stone chimney on the left is for the huge stone fireplace inside on the first floor which was the dining/living area. Sturdy stairs went up to the open bedroom area or loft. In the basement, the hand-hewn timbers of the basement floor rafters were black with soot where there was another huge stone fireplace used for cooking. Before the workshop started, I enjoyed looking at all the old buildings, cemetery, and pastures.


An Ohio Buckeye tree (not native to this area) was blooming in front of the Victorian farmhouse. The huge blossoms attracted a horde of honey bees. If you stood in the path of the direct line between the tree and the hives, bees would bump into you as they flew. Guess that explains the origin of the term, bee line!



Mr. C, owner of the farm and apiary, demonstrated the powdered sugar treatment that he uses for varroa mites. He puts about a cup of the powdered sugar on the home-made screen (made of window screen) and uses the bee brush to distribute on each hive box. The powdered sugar sticks to the bees and the little mites can't hold on so they fall to the bottom through the screened bottom board. From the ground, the mites can't crawl back up into the hive. You can also use a flour sifter to evenly distribute the powdered sugar over the frames.

One experienced beekeeper said that he does the powdered sugar treatment about every 10 days. He says it does not hurt the bees because they just lick it off each other and may even eat a tracheal mite that way. This frequency of treatment is more often than I was told in my beekeeping class (once per month). They did say you should not use it on a package of bees for several weeks until the hive is well established.

After that demonstration, we divided into two groups, one beginner group to do hive inspections, the other more advanced group to learn about raising and marking queens. I stuck with the beginners.

I felt pretty good that I could easily identify the capped worker brood from the drone cells. Also, I understood when he said that one hive was not strong---very erratic queen laying and supercedure (queen) cells starting. Mr. C said he would probably requeen that one so that it would not swarm like another one did just yesterday.

The instructor was very quick with his inspections. He believed in getting a general sense about how the hive is doing, then getting out of the hive--no more than 15 minutes per hive. But, he inspects about every 10 days--more often than some beekeepers would do.

The bees were upset because some people were blocking their entrance. I got stung on my hand (I did not have my gloves on so I could take a few photos). The woman next to me handed me a penny to rub on my skin which seemed to get rid of the stinging pain immediately.



We inspected this frame of capped drone brood which works as a varroa mite trap. To make the trap, Mr. C nailed a little strip of wood about 1/3 of the way down the deep frame. The top 1/3 was filled with foundation. The bottom 2/3s was empty which encourages the bees to build drone cells. Mites are attracted most to drone cells.

Some people used their pen knives (I should carry one around like men do!) to dig at the drone larvae to look for the mites. They did not find very many which indicated to the beekeepers that the powdered treatment was working well enough to keep the mite population in check.


See the mite on the end of his finger(much better photo in the Backyard Beekeeper book, p. 86)? It looks like a freshly ground pepper flake but it's brown, not black. When you nudge the mite with a pointed stick or match, it will move and then you can see its tiny legs scrambling like a crab which it resembles a little.

After we poked around in that juicy larvae for awhile, we had lunch--sandwiches and great pecan pie (that Mrs. C made). I brought chocolate chip cookies which were eaten right away.

The workshop continued after lunch with splitting one hive to make two. I was surprised how easy it is to do. Mr. C. just took one hive box and set it aside. He determined which one had the queen so he took one frame of cells which had fresh eggs in it from the queened hive box and then put it in the other hive so the workers could make their own queen. The workers make a queen by making supercedure cells over the egg, then they put royal jelly in to make the queen. Of course, you will need another hive top and screened bottom board to put on the split hive.

A few days later, I used the powdered sugar treatment on my bees. I put my plastic mite grid underneath half of the bottom screen board and took it out the next morning. I found about 12 mites and 1 hive beetle. I am not sure what this means but will do the treatment again every 10 days since I noticed it does not hurt the bees at all--just like the instructor said.

Incidentally, Mr. C. made his own grids to put under the hives to check for mites or hive beetles. He makes them out of old political signs (the ones with corrugated plastic)--a very resourceful man. He also made an inspection cloth out of vinyl table cloth with a strip of wood at the end for rolling it back. I thought it looked like an old vinyl window shade so if I had one, I could make it too. But, I just use a flour sack dish cloth which works good enough.

I plan to attend the workshop next year, especially if they have it at this wonderful farm.

Virginia Tech Apiaries

On Saturday, I attended the last session of my beginning beekeeping class--we were outside on a lovely sunny, cool (50ish) morning. Dr. Fell, professor of entomology at Virginia Tech, showed us how to do the hive inspection after you install a package of bees. I have numbered the photos so that others can comment and/or correct information that I've written.


1. Smoker--Dr. Fell used burlap strips in the smoker today. He said thatb eekeepers use just about anything in the smoker--pine needles, newspaper, wood chips, smoker fuel or whatever's handy (like wood chips from the pileated woodpecker for me). He said you don't want to smoke too much or have it too hot--i.e. with sparks. If it's too hot, put some grass in it to cool it down.


2. Top Feeder--Take off and smoke a little. A top feeder is good for reducing robbing and better in cold weather. This one is an inverted plastic bucket with little holes in it placed over the oval opening in the cover. A medium super is placed on top and then the telescoping roof.


3. Removing feeder and top cover. He smoked it a little as he opened the cover. The bees are clustered in the center of the hive--perhaps because it is still pretty cool (about 11:00 a.m. and the temperature is in the 50s).


4. Check for Queen Cage. He checks to see that the queen is not in there, shakes the bees out, and sets the cage aside.


5. Pull First Frame. Dr. Fell approaches from the side of the hive (never in front or you will be blocking bees' return to hive). I can't remember if he checked the first two and then this one. This frame has mostly fresh beeswax foundation but where the bees are clustered, there is new fresh comb. The first frame is laid against the hive so in case the queen is there, she can crawl back into the hive. It's better if you recognize the queen though--see next photo.


6. Queen. Try to recognize the queen first in this photo by looking where he's pointing.



Didn't spot her? If you draw a line parallel on the left side of the finger straight down, you will see a larger bee that is licked by the bees so she doesn't have any hairs on her. Note: There's a similar test on a local beekeeper Hunter Aviaries website.


7. Bur Comb with larvae. Inside some of the cells are tiny larvae--one to a cell. They are smaller but they resemble rice grains. The comb was taken out because it wasn't on the frame (mainly because a frame had to be removed to put in the queen cage). This shows the queen is laying and doing well.


8. Hold Frame to Light. I'm not sure if there's fresh comb on the foundation? but it sure is beautiful.


9. Comb on Foundation. Some of the fresh comb, clearly visible by the buildup on the foundation, is filled with pollen on the right side. I am not sure why the bees are clustered at the bottom. The fresh comb on the top of the frame should be removed because it is bur comb. Scrape it off with your handy hive tool.


10. Drone. The male drone has big eyes on top of his head and is larger than the female workers.

Dr. Fell inspected 3 hives, the last one had old foundation with comb from last year. This colony had progressed further along because the workers did not have to make comb. We saw big larvae, capped brood, and even some emerging bees who we welcomed to the bee world.

A little after noon, the temperature had warmed up to the sixties. We observed many workers returning to the hives with bright orange pollen on their legs. Dr. Fell said the pollen was from Henbit (Lamium amplexicaulbe), an alien plant in the mint family with inconspicuous purple flowers which is growing everywhere right now.

Thanks to New River Valley Beekeeping Association for conducting a great class.