Preparing for spring

I talked to our bee club president. We're ordering packages as a club, which includes about 175 packages for the beekeeping program at a local university. We may get them locally, or a couple of us will drive down to ... wherever to pick them up. I hope they don't wait too long to order--I've heard that there will be shortages.

Shortages might come about because thousands of hives are crashing around the country. The varroa mite, a honey bee parasite, has become resistant to the chemicals that are used to kill them. The mites feed on the hemolymph (blood) of developing and adult bees, causing deformities, reducing life spans, and spreading disease. Since I'm keeping my hives clean of chemicals and antibiotics, it means I have to find another means to fight these parasites.

I started by putting the colonies on screened bottom boards, instead of the usual solid board. That way, when mites fall off of adult bees, they can't just hitch a ride on the next one that comes along. Some also say that the improved ventilation helps the bees.

Next--when I fed in summer and fall, I used essential oils in the bees' feed. This strategy is based on a study done at West Virginia University.

During the summer, I put in frames of drone-sized foundation, and when the bees had capped it, I removed the frames and either uncapped to check for mites or put the frame in the freezer to kill brood and mites before returning it to the hive to be cleaned out and reused by the bees. Since mites prefer the larger drone brood, this can be a good (but labor intensive) control. It's also a good way to check for mites. Late in summer, I uncapped a frame nearly solid with drone brood on two sides, and found only 5 mites. So the colony has them--but the number seemed small. I also did the powdered sugar shake to check for mites, and found none.

This combination seems to have worked for the colony so far, but I'm going to take it a step further, and "regress" the bees to a smaller sized cell in their foundation. That seems to be the only way to give bees the tolerance they need to stay ahead of the mites. One season of controls isn't enough to prove that something works.

Last weekend, I knocked together five more hive bodies. I'll have to inventory my woodenware and make sure I have enough for at least five more colonies in the spring--I think I'm short a couple of bottom boards and covers, and I'll need more medium supers and foundation.

I'm glad of the prep. I like working with the wood, and I like doing something for my bees, even though the active season is yet to come.