Mission completed!

 So the story is that my battery was fine and I just needed to keep the Oxalic acid wand on longer than the 2.5 minutes suggested almost everywhere.  But that is a little flexible, I've learned. 

I performed a test outside the hive to see how long it takes to emit vapor.  For me it was about 3 minutes. 

I decided I'd treat the bees while I had everything out so I did it! I left it in there for 3.5 minutes on and then another 2.5 minutes off.  Then waited about 10 minutes with it sealed up. I didn't see vapor come out of the hive but it was well sealed and the product appeared to be mostly powder when I removed it from the hive. So I'm comfortable it worked just fine. 

I'm not sure how long before I see the dead mites on the bottom board. I'm anxious to see the fruits of my labor so will check today and maybe again tomorrow.

Thanks to Nancy Frye who heads the Brattleboro Beekeepers Group for her advice and support!!

Now that I've done it a few times, the biggest issue was disturbing the bees so much. First unscrewing the mouse guard and removing the entrance reduced which is always stuck in the opening so that bothers them and riles them up.

I saw a video this week where someone used bricks or wood blocks to open/close off the entrance as needed.  Then it would be quick and simple to open the entrance without disruption.  I want a slightly larger piece of wood so I can close the entrance a little bit more but I think it will work for me, especially using the bungies to hold in place. Overnight I realized it now has no mouse guard so I slipped that in behind the brick and piece of wood and also closed up the opening a bit for these next few days that will be cold.

Note my straw is sprouting! :)

Update: Here is an image of the bottom board the day after treatment with Oxalic acid. You can see the larger ones in the image below, but there are a huge number of tiny baby mites in that brown section. I wonder if I should try another treatment in a few weeks.  Wow.  I'm impressed with how good this works...now that I'm an expert haha.

Oxalic acid vapor treatment - 12/3/20

 What a sight I was with the respirator mask and full bee outfit but I figured I would need all my protective gear since this was my first time doing Oxalic acid treatment this way.  In the past, I have soaked paper towels with glycerin and Oxalic and laid them over the bottom deep.  But it's too late for that now since I have already have covered it for the winter.

It did seem to go smoothly once I had everything out by the hive.  I did it all as instructed.

1. Remove entrance reducer and mouse guard
2. Add 1/2 tsp. Oxalic acid in wand
3. connect one side of wand cable to battery
4. slip wand into bottom board of hive
5. connect other side of wand cable to battery
6. set timer for 2 minutes 30 seconds
7. Remove cable from battery and wait another 2 minutes
8. Remove wand from hive and close it up again
9. Wait 10 minutes
10. Return entrance reducer and mouse guard (Note, I had to wait until bees calmed down before putting mouse guard back)

So it's done.  One thing I wonder about is that my wand didn't sizzle when I put it into the bucket of water.   Not sure if I got the amount of vapor I needed or not.  I'll need to check on that with some folks.d

Update 12/4 - The first time failed.  The wand didn't ever heat up so it was a wasted treatment.

The battery didn't have enough juice so I recharged it which took hours (and shouldn't have imo).  Then I performed the entire treatment again today.  It also failed.  

It failed even after I watched the Oxalic heat up in the wand before inserting into the hive.  But it must have heated only enough to melt the Oxalic but not enough to make it a vapor.  Now the battery isn't charged enough to charge the fence so I ordered a new battery to pick up tomorrow. Hope no bear comes through tonight!

I'll take a few days before trying to do this again to the bees. It's such a disturbance each time.

 

11/15/20 - Readying the hive for the winter

 

It looks like it'll be rather cold for 10 days out, and rain expected tonight, so I decided to winterize my hive today.   

• Removed top hive feeder. Not sure if I'll add it back on later but I doubt it'll be warm enough so I'll supplement with patties of pollen or make sugar patties if needed.
• Straightened out the hive a little...a box wasn't positioned properly on the one below
• Wrapped with roofing paper, stapled and then secured with the orange bungie cords.
• The brown lump is a bale of straw which I"ll reuse in the garden in the spring
• To the left of the hive is another bale of straw that should get another tarp to cover.
• I tried to strategically place the empty hives and the straw to block wind.  
• I may pick up a few bales of hay (cheaper than straw!) to further block the cold winter wind
• Repositioned the entrance reducer and added back on the mouse guard 
• I also left the hole in the top deep for a vent and another way in/out.
• I added a board to the top of the hive so it sort of gives them a "porch roof" for rainy days

There are still a lot of bees in the hive.  I had to leave the super on there because it was also full of bees. 

Mean, mean bees

 Wow.  These bees are being extremely protective of their honey!  I was stung twice just removing an empty frame from the super...the bees were all over me.  So I decided to stop inspecting for now and added the top hive feeder with some sugar syrup and closed it up again.  I did open the entrance again to ensure they can get in/out okay and they swarmed out quickly.  So they are doing just fine for the moment.

I'll wait to  wrap the hive.  We have too many warm days ahead to do it now.

11/2

 After our first real cold snap, I noticed no bee sounds near the hive and saw no bees outside, obviously.  So I went out to remove the top hive feeder and saw no bees in the super at the top...so I quickly closed it up again. 

I then checked the front to make sure bees could get out and sure enough, I cleared a few dead bees from the entrance and bees came rushing out.  So good.  I still have bees.

Now we have warm weather coming for a few days so I will take that time to wrap the hive, add more sugar syrup, remove the super and ensure the dead bees are removed.  I will keep the hole in the upper deep open for moisture to escape.

I will report once this is done with a photo too.  I will need another bale of straw to help block wind.  I think two bales  in addition to the two empty hives will block wind.

9/29 hive check -

 The bees have slurped up all the sugar syrup from a week ago so I added more into the top hive feeder.  That should keep them happy during the upcoming rain and some colder nights ahead.  I will, however, need more sugar.

I wanted to look at the super and see if any of the frames had enough honey to harvest.  Nope!  But they seem to be all drawn out and loaded with bees at this point.  They are also vicious!  They were once again all over me but I didn't get stung miraculously.

Looks like there's some gopher activity out there.  After the rain, I am going to treat some areas with neem oil because I had a lot of mole and gophers eating up my lawn this year and they're still around. I have a lilac bush that has some white mold on stems and it's dying so I will treat that at the same time. I've been using milky spore but it isn't working good enough, if at all. I expect it does some good but I still have too many critters around looking for food.

Last night a racoon, for example, was on my front porch.  My camera caught it...this morning I see it has eaten some of the pumpkin...other ones have nibbles too and I've tried using cayenne pepper and it's helped but it didn't stop this coon!

I've moved the hives around a bit to give me room to maneuver.

Mean, mean bees today

It's been almost 3 weeks since I did my last hive check so I went in there this morning and have multiple stings, even through my PPE.  My intent was to go into each deep and see what's going on with capped brood and if there's a queen...and do a bit of cleanup of comb and scrape off propolis as needed.

However, as I was emptying the super of a few frames to make it lighter, assuming there was something in there, I was swarmed and stung multiple times and chased away.  But I went back to at least close things up, put on a top hive feeder in preparation and added the entrance reducer but with larger opening.  I figured I'd add the mouse guard tomorrow when it's raining and they will be less likely to swarm me.  I won't be trying that anytime soon although I should.  But I don't like the bees at this time of year when they get mean!

I moved one of the empty hives into a spot that I hope will help protect the (hopefully) one working hive from winds over the winter.  I will move the other empty hive, the one that's tipped in the image above, a bit away from the working hive so that I have better access to all sides of the hive.

My intent, if I could without taking anything away from the bees, was to take a few frames from the top deep...but I doubt I'll do that now unless I lose the hive. But until then, the honey will be for them.  I still have enough for at least another season but there will be no selling or gift giving until I have more.

I barely saw any mites on the bottom board. I did the oxalic acid/glycerin treatment earlier in the summer but because I was late doing it, I was late putting the supers on.  

Next year, I'll do the oxalic acid varroa mite treatment much sooner, in May, so supers can go on by mid June. 

August 20, 2020 hive check

 I wanted to check the hive mostly to see evidence of a queen and saw capped brood and I think some open in the upper deep.

I never made it down to the bottom deep. There were lots of bees everywhere in both deeps.

The super was still being worked on in terms of building comb.  I didn't have ten frames with comb so they had work to do on some empty frames...consequently there wasn't much honey there at all.  I do hope they can fill at least a few frames in the next month so I get some honey for myself. It looks like they will have enough in the upper deep for themselves.

I think I will make up some sugar water to help them build comb faster.

Things seem good.

I've decided to help insulate this winter using baled straw that I can then use in the garden in the spring.  

Mid august 2020

 It looks like I have missed blogging for over a month.  I pulled off the varroa treatment after a few weeks and then added a super shortly thereafter.  I haven't been in to check to see how they are doing in filling a super. I will take a look in a few days.

I did do another varroa check last week by putting back in the bottom board under the screen.  I left it in a few days and then looked and saw no mites on the board.  My plan is to do this every few weeks.

Otherwise I've left the girls alone to do their thing...but it's time for me to take a good look around and see what's going on. Things appear to be normal with lots of bees coming and going so fingers crossed things are good inside.

July 11 hive check - add varroa treatment

I just added this Oxilic acid and glycerin treatment to my hive.  https://www.honeybeesuite.com/oxalic-acid-and-glycerin-for-varroa-mites/

I simplified just a tiny bit.  Instead of getting two flat pans, one to soak the towel in and then the other to remove some liquid from the towels, I just shoved the towel into the mixing cup I used for the oxilic acid and glycerin.  Then I just squeezed out the excess into the same cup. I can't see how that would change the result but I'm no scientist either.

I put the towel on the bottom deep and will just leave it there until the season is over if there's any towel left at that time.

Meanwhile I checked for a queen and saw brood, capped and uncapped and lots of bees.  The upper deep is moving right along and filling up with honey for the bees.  I'll wait a few more weeks and then add a super, hoping to get some honey for me this year.

The bottom board was a mess so I cleaned it all up.  Next week I will do a mite check and count how many I see on there and begin to keep count on a weekly basis.

Beginning to nest

NOTE: This post is 3 years old but never published so doing that now to keep posts in one place and none in draft mode.

I feel myself beginning to look at recipes.  I'm ready to cook and spent my weekend doing just that. I had a pumpkin that, now that Halloween was over, cook it up.  So I cut it into pieces that fit on 3 pans in the oven and baked them until soft.  Then scooped out the pumpkin, blended it and I was ready to go. I made pumpkin spice soup, pumpkin rolls, and pumpkin ravioli.

Real cold is coming this week where the nights will be below freezing.  I will be insulating my hives this coming weekend. I did add the cedar pillows to the top which helps some but, especially, the small hive, will need the insulation.

I have seen no bear so far this season.  I see signs he's been around with logs clawed to shreds with them looking for grubs or whatever. But  no damage to the greenhouse or bee fence...keeping my fingers crossed.

june 25th hive check - all look good

Checked all the frames in both deeps and things look just right.  The top deep is loaded with mostly uncapped nectar with at least one frame all capped. They sure are busy in this top deep.

Then I checked the bottom deep.  It is loaded with bees and brood in various stages.  There were some cells at the bottom of one frame which I removed.  Otherwise, it just looked right.

Both green frames are in the process of building out the comb with just a few drone cells that were ready to hatch so I removed those.  And yes, I saw mites in there.

For the next hive check, I will be checking more for mites and add the oxilic acid soaked cloths to both top and lower deeps.

Added second deep 6/10/20

I did add a second deep this week since it was getting more crowded in there.  I also opened up the entrance to the 3 inch opening and took the plugs out of the two deeps above for even more ventilation.

What I really like this year is that I have pink clover, which the bees love, growing up all around the front of the hive.  It was growing all around the entrance but bees still found their way in and sort of gave them a landing spot while waiting to enter the hive.  However, I cut it back just a little and make it even easier to get in and out. I want the clover to go to seed there and anywhere it is on my lawn and yard so that it multiplies. I'll try to get a shot.

Clover growing up front of hive.

May 30th hive check

Bees still working on filling frames.  There are a few frames with a lot of activity and brood, but there are still frames unfilled yet so I'm going to keep the one deep on there longer.  It's now been about 5 weeks now.  It feels a bit slow to me but perhaps the cold start to the month prevented them from being further along.

Otherwise all looks good in there.

Hive checks May 8 and May 19

The photos were taken during the May 8th hive check.  All looked good and the bees were active and I saw a bit of brood as well.  The most I did in this check was to remove the overabundance of comb!  I removed the sheet of comb and will melt it down for craft use.

Although this frame had comb already, the bees made another sheet of comb over the top. Go figure!

Today, May 19th, I took another look inside the hive to see what's going on now.  I wasn't ready to add another deep but probably will the next hive check.

The bees were bringing in all colors of pollen.  I saw a few frames of capped brood and capped honey in the upper corners.  Perfect.  The Drone frame had been worked on and had a lot of comb now but they weren't filled with brood yet but will keep an eye on that frame as we move forward.

I also added two mite strips...Apivan today.

Stubborn ole fool - 3/4/2020

A beautiful 60 degree day yesterday was perfect for getting into the hive.  I wanted to clean it out before spring...I did order a new package of bees to pick up in May.  That's why I'm a stubborn ole fool.  I NEED to get these bees through the winter months...all of them, not part of the winter. So will try yet again.

So here's what I found yesterday.

Not sure what this debris is . wax I guess. 

Here are two frames of honey...I ended up with about 4 full frames and another 3 or so with partial areas of honey.

This is the top deep (there are three deeps). I think they were up at the top because that's where more of the honey was.

Look at all the babies being born at the time they froze.

One empty frame with these black dots.  Not sure what they are but this will get a new foundation.

The paper on top of these frames had been one method of attacking varroa - Oxilic acid solution. I don't believe varroa was a situation.

Another frame with babies in the midst of being born.  It breaks my heart!!

Ugly frame.

 So the only thing I plan to do different this coming year is to make sure I wrap the hive.  I will also go back to adding bales of hay around them for added protection.  Otherwise I will stick to the same care as this year, but will probably change out the api strips for something else. 

Another sad story (:.

Damn, damn, damn - 2/25/20

Bees are all dead in the hive.  Mid-January they were alive and well.  Now all dead.  I have no idea what got them this time except for the cold.

I treated repeatedly for varroa mites
I took zero honey, leaving it all to them
I added a cedar pillow to the top to prevent condensation falling on the bees

I didn't wrap the hives this year however, since others seem to get by without doing that.  I did add some insulation boards next to the hive though and snuggled two empty hives next to them for warmth. 

I am undecided about this year.  I may or may not try to get more bees for spring. I'm pretty discouraged.

Jan 12, 2020 - 60 degrees

Yesterday, with the beautiful, unlikely warm weather, the bees were flying around the hive. They were cleaning house and I helped them by removing dead bees from the entrance.

I am just so happy to still have bees. I did things differently (but winter isn't over so...) :

1) treated for mites the entire season and
2) I didn't wrap the hive this year
3) Put cedar pillow in super at the top to catch moisture
4) took no honey myself last summer so there's plenty of food.

I did see dead bees in the snow as well which always makes me sad.