4 October 2010 (Back to Meetings)
Mrs Margaret Thomas came to our new meeting hall at 20 Westgait, Dundee to give at lively informative question and answer talk on 'Topics relevant to the Season'.
Margaret's theme was about winter and spring management and asked if any had Ted Hoopers book who was Bee Instructor when Margaret and her husband started beekeeping 40 years ago. She was given a black bag of comb and thought it didn't look right, so took it to the class Ted ran in the season. He confirmed that it had AFB (American Foul Brood), seeing that disease in her first year of beekeeping was a lesson not forgotten. It stuck in her mind that disease is relevant all the time.
In Ted's book his basis for looking in a colony was to ask yourselves five basic questions. You shouldn't open a colony unless you know what you are looking for. Unless you are looking at a hive for education purposes you should go in gently, use your smoker and answer your five questions. Then close the hive reasonable quickly and within five minutes the bees should be settled. This is the sign of good bees and a good beekeeper.
1. Queen Right. Look at sealed brood, the queen laying pattern is in a circle. Queen has 2 ovaries inside has egg tubes, eggs continually developing 2,000 per day. Good quality queen is well fed by nurse bees when a larvae. Her eggs need to be worker eggs in worker cells. Drones are in raised cells in worker cells. Check in Spring that queen is laying normally.
2. Stores. Bees are back now after the Heather crop. Stores in brood chamber needs 40 lbs in weight. Can estimate weight without weighting. National brood frame 5lbs of weight. Feeds Ambrosia which you can buy or Sugar syrup in 2 lb sugar to 1 pint of warm water. In March start to look for stores of 1 lb per day if they don't have enough stores for 10 days until your next inspection you must feed them.
They also need stores of Pollen there is plenty in this area. The pollen is packed into the frames near the brood. The nurse bees eat the pollen and the glands in the forehead and also glands in their cheeks releases a hormone (that preserves the pollen) together with crop content in stomach mixed that makes brood food. The nurse bees feed the larva brood food or Royal Jelly. The sugar syrup content provides energy. Look for the pollen in frames to judge if they are getting enough pollen.
3. Space. Space in the brood chamber and space in supers. Assess amount of space every time you go in to avoid congestion. Take out Frames, add supers. Need full box of nurse bees to raise a good queen. During the honey flow it time to put supers on, end of April the Rape crop starts. Temper what you do according to the weather. Beginners have a problem as they have no drawn wax. To pursuade the bees to go upstairs take a comb from brood box to second super with foundation. Put dummy board in space left in brood box and mark brood frame in super with a drawing pin. If bees fill combs in middle put them to the side of the box and sides to middle.
4. Look at colony is it progressive. Increasing frames of brood as the season goes on regularly. In ten days increase of a frame of brood. She moves frames of brood to the left hand side of box and the queen can only lay one way. So when she inspects the hive she starts to look from the frame she expects increase in brood, thus saving time. Look for queen cells.
5. Disease is the brood healthy. Look at what is normal. Larva should be pearly-white curled up inside the cell their body should normal segmentation like Michelin Men. Cappings should look doomed and a biscuit colour. Cappings are perforated, bees are in process of sealing cells. If diseased the cappings look darker and wet, greasy looking, concave it could be EFB (European Foul Brood). AFB in early stages when you put a matchstick in comes out a sticky rope in the corner of the cell a dark scale that the bees cannot remove. Hold the comb by top bar with light coming over shoulder, scan bottom V of cell and if you see anything obstructing it you have a second look. Shut the colony, reduce the entrance and report AFB immediately, stop working other colonies. Use Soda water to wash gloves and hive tools.
EFB bacterial infection. Bacteria shares food with the larva. Doesn't always kill the larva. Inside sealed cell the larvae changes shape into pupa and the connection from the stomach to the rectum is completed. The food in the cell is not fouled by defecating. When it comes out of the cell a nurse bee cleans the cell and is infected then it feeds the next larva and EFB is spread. Those bees who are well fed pass on the disease, those who are not well fed die and are removed from the hive. During the honey flow we need to look for EFB when the larva is fed less as the nurse bees will be storing honey. Disease difficult to spot because the bees remove the bodies.
Varroa makes bees feel under par as they suck the blood, causes Deformed Wing Virus. Almost every hive has DWV these bees get thrown out and colony dwindles, the larvae starves and lie uneasy in cells, normally C shaped, their shape is changed. Change comb regularly, every other year change comb completely a Bailey or Shook swarm. Unite poor colonies and feed 2 gallons of syrup. Have mesh floors and check mite drop. Treat in December with Oxalic acid when there are no brood. Thymol in September when the temperature is over 15° treat twice with 2 week interval.