The Joys of Beekeeping

By Pat McGinty 

Spring has sprung and summer’s gone; fall is here and we’re almost done.  Beekeeping season is winding down; not because it’s fall but because as the weather gets cooler the bees know there won’t be any food and, most likely, lots of rain, snow, and cold so they go into a kind of hibernation. At this point they are best left alone with only the occasional check when the temperatures are above 40 degrees and the weather dry. I know this is hard to believe but this is the worst time of year for beekeeping. Why, you ask? Because there are so many unknowns. 

Sadly, one thing I do know is that I will be taking only one of my colonies into winter.  Somewhere in the past month I lost a queen and there is absolutely no brood anywhere in the hive. The bottom brood box is completely empty except for a frame of honey and the top brood box has a mix of empty frames and honey/pollen frames. When I put the organic miticide treatment in the boxes a week ago (more about this shortly), the remaining bees in the north hive were still busily preparing their food frames but they know it is too late to try to raise a new queen (I am finding dead drones that have been ousted from the hives because they don’t do any work so there are no drones to fertilize a new queen if there was one.) So they are basically trying to live the best they can until their lifespans are up. As sad as it sounds it is the way of nature, all nature including human nature. All of God’s creatures instinctively know what is coming and do what is necessary despite the outcome. Only human nature has lost (or ignores) that instinct. So what am I going to do with my “north hive?  Let’s talk about the mite treatment first.

It is the belief, especially of commercial beekeepers, that all bee colonies get mites and these mites weaken and eventually kill the hive. You have probably read about it if you have seen any of the articles on Colony Collapse Disorder.)  I have done some pretty extensive reading on the subject and my jury is still out on the truth of that belief because many of the sources I have read say the mites are part of the symbiotic relationship in the natural bee world. However, as long as I don’t have to dope up my bees with laboratory produced miticides I want to give them every chance I can (which is probably a mistake since they got along without human intervention for centuries. But then we all know that “humans know best” what every other species [and often other humans] need to be happy, happy, happy.) So I did my beekeeping duty and put the miticide pads in place on Monday, Sept. 21, wearing rubber gloves and trying not to breathe in the very smelly fumes. I know what you are thinking; if it is organic it shouldn’t be harmful to anything but the mites.  I agree but I also read the instructions first (something I don’t always do. Yep, I am human and dang proud of it.) Will it really help; I don’t know but at least if some other beekeeper asks I can say I did it even though I never found any mites in either hive in the first place.  So now on to what I am going to do about the north hive.

Saving a colony without a queen is not possible. By now she would have been laying brood that was specific to surviving the winter (these are known as “fat bees” and, no, that is not a reason to claim that extra weight you are carrying around has the same purpose.)  Since there is no queen there are no fat bees so the hive will die out. However, with a little intervention from the beekeeper, they can at least have useful lives helping out the remaining hive. On Monday, Sept. 28, (which hasn’t happened for me yet but will have happened by the time you are reading about it) I will be doing my hive check and remove the miticide pads. At that time I will move the remaining bees from the north hive to the south hive. The process is fairly easy and will, hopefully, improve the survivability of the south colony.  

After checking the health and well-being of the south hive I will place a “queen excluder” (a small flat piece of plastic or metal with openings large enough for worker bees to get through but not a queen just in case she is alive [very unlikely]) on top of the second brood box on the south hive. I will set the honey-filled brood box from the north hive on top of the queen excluder and brush any bees from the bottom brood box of the north hive on to the top of the frames of the honey-filled brood box (the empty brood box will be put away for next year.) If all goes well, over the next week the north-hive bees will be accepted by the south-hive bees. Once that happens I can take the remaining north hive brood box, remove any honey/pollen frames and store them in the freezer in case of need before the next food gathering in the spring of 2016 (did I mention that the south hive has two frames of honey in the bottom brood box and eight frames of honey in the top brood box.) I will also feed some extra pollen to the hive so they don’t deplete their food supply too early and starve to death.  Then, God willing, I will have at least one strong hive from which I can build one or more hives using NUC (pronounced “nuke” short for nucleus) boxes next year and continue keeping bees. If not, then I will be buying packages again if I want to keep my hives going.
  

In addition to combining the two hives I will need to keep the remaining hive warm and dry. In the past I have successfully used inch-and-a-half closed-cell Styrofoam wrapped around the hive with openings at the top and bottom for air flow. I also place one on the top cover to keep it from getting cold and sweating as it interacts with the heat the colony produces (remember that bees keep their hive at 95 degrees year around without help from the sun.) I also plan to slightly reposition the hive to face more easterly and toward the trees which should keep down excessive wind thus keeping rain and snow out of the hive.  As I said at the beginning there are way too many unknowns. We shall just have to wait and see.

This may or may not be the last column until January. The weather will dictate how much time I can spend with the bees and therefore how much I can share with you concerning their condition and my experiences. If I don’t get another one out please have a blessed holiday season and remember that Jesus is the reason. 

The Backyard Beekeepers Association will have their last meeting of 2015 on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Deer Park Library (208 S. Forest Ave.). The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. and we will have a honey tasting with honey supplied by some of our members as well as “Winter Preparation Peggy’s Way” as our educational segment. We will also recognize those that completed the Beginning Beekeeper training.  

Speaking of which the training is taking place on Saturdays, Oct. 3 and Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., also at the Deer Park Library. The cost is $30 and you can still register by bringing your registration fee, a notebook and pencil to the class on Saturday, October 3.  

I hope I see you at one or both.