Settling into Winter

After returning from New Zealand, I found that the Varroa population in the hives had exploded. suddenly there were 80 to 400 mites on each board. I instituted a weekly powdered sugar treatment. After 4 weeks, the population had decreased, but not sufficiently. On the eighth week, I counted mites from one hive, and happily found a decline to "safe" levels. This week I plan to dust again, and count for all the hives. If all is well, I can back off to monthly monitoring.

I had heard that the bees can get rather defensive after the "honey flow" - the time in summer when they are bringing in lots of nectar. They have to watch out for robbers, usually bees from other hives and wasps. I hadn't noticed my bees being very defensive until one day... Fortunately it was only one hive, but I got stung three times during one inspection & dusting. I'm sure I wasn't being clumsy, and this was verified when one landed on my hand and immediately stung me. Fortunately the effect of bee venom is decreasing, so I only had a bit of swelling and fever at one sting site. Since then (knock wood), all the bees have been pretty mellow (like the one in the photo).

After reading more about a new and nasty bacterium, Nosema ceranae, I broke down and bought some antibiotic with which to treat my bees. I want to be chemical-free, but this new type of Nosema may be a major player in colony collapse disorder. Perhaps next year I'll treat some and leave the others, but I didn't want my first year to run such a big risk of heavy loss. A big bother with the treatment is that it is delivered in sugar syrup. That's good for the bees' food storage, but greatly increased the amount of moisture in the hives. Mildew and mold were beginning to grow, despite my efforts at providing ventillation.

The queens are still laying eggs, though in winter the brood size decreases. In colder winter areas, bees will often have no brood at this time. Although the bees are still foraging on flowers that are still blooming, they must not be getting the amount of nectar that they were during the blackberry bloom of summer. I do see a goodly amount of pollen coming in. Three hives have nearly cleared out the bottom box of honey. The antibiotic syrup helped bolster their supplies, though. Perhaps the powdered sugar has helped, too.

I should get an observation hive. I am so fascinated by what the bees are doing, but don't need to inspect them all the time. I just can't think of a good place where I can make a hole for them to access the outside world. Maybe it's time for that painting studio above the garage...