Apiary Report, chores completed by Brody & David

Fair skies, 80 F. Bees flying with vigor bringing in pollen loads of gold and yellow, and fanning at the entrances indicates inbound honey, as does the unusual lack of robbers. It seems like the rains of last Tuesday are changing things. Sights of goldenrod fields and knotweed patches in a sugary bloom has buoyed my optimism for a September honey harvest. With more rain forecasted for next week I’m counting on more than wishful thinking.

We attended primarily to the Kenyan top bar hive, depleted by a swarm about six weeks ago. Our goal is to help them become substantial and heavy enough to survive another winter. We robbed two frames of brood from our resource nucs, trimmed the comb and removed the bottom and end bars to fit into the hive. They were placed at the rear of the brood nest in front of the honey stores. Behind the follower board we placed two quarts of 2:1 sugar syrup on shims.

The resource nucs are surprisingly heavy and populated. We found both colonies to be boiling over, especially the one we robbed. They had viable open swarm cells that we destroyed. The queen is a yellow 2022 Yoder daughter from brood used to create the nuc in July.

The second resource nuc was made from a swarm, self-caught in a bait hive being stored with a few combs in it. It is likely the swarm that came from the Kenyan TBH (top bar hive).

The optimistic choice is to quickly provide a second story with feeders for this divided hive body with two nucs. With some good fortune in the field they will be worthy for winter on a double screen above a promising 10-frame colony.

With those tasks completed we finished our session with a discussion about the windbreak on the north fence-line of the apiary. Our ideas include designing and painting a welcome sign to incorporate into a structure of pickets or snow fence attached inside the fence posts. Please let me know if you would like to work on this project. I know many hands make light and quick work.

We decided we should choose a colony later to be placed on the scale. The bees are about to begin their third week with MAQS, a time the directions advise leaving the bees undisturbed. The MAQS were applied at the monthly club meeting on August 21. This work was done by Dorothy, Sue, Linda, George and myself David.

Our next club meeting will be on Sunday September 18, at 2:00 pm.

Signing off with best wishes for everyone and the bees.

David Hopkins, apiary team reporter

Seven of us gathered on a comfortable sunny day about 75F. The bees were moderately active bringing in white pollen. An indication of adequate foraging activity, there were no robber bees interested in the shed. Bees were observed on brown spotted knapweed, Centaurea Jacea L, an invasive plant. It's a flower with white stamens and anthers, but the bees had no pollen in their baskets and Jason was unable to shake loose pollen from the blossoms. I surmise they were gathering nectar.

Emily has heard white pollen comes from Queen Annes Lace, QAL, Daucus carota, another invasive plant. We made no observations on flowers. This is an interesting Pollen Chart but doesn’t list QAL. Other sources list it as an occasional nectar source. I was unable to find it in pollen color guides. If anybody has such a resource please let me know.

Our mite checks revealed an apiary average of 2.3% infestation. Two colonies showed 0%. One had a 3% result.

We agreed to treat all the colonies if any tested over 3%. Being on the cusp of that threshold we decided to withhold treatment until we check the levels again in early September. We’re prepared to administer formic acid with Mite Away Quick Strips. If we discover remaining mites in October we'll administer an oxalic acid treatment.

We have yet to devise a plan to extract honey. There are about 4 supers with available honey. However it might be most prudent to distribute the honey among the colonies for winter supplies. We're searching for a convenient facility if we choose to extract some.

We have two nucleus colonies that need a winter plan. One option is to feed them up with sugar syrup, then pack them for winter above a strong colony. Another option is use one for supplemental brood to boost the Kenyan top bar colony which is light as it recovers from a July swarm.

Please speak up with any questions, concerns and suggestions. Conversations on the discussion list are valued for management choices in the apiary. Each inspection can use another person or two as well. There is something for everyone who wants a couple hours with the bees and fellow beekeepers.

Messages can also be sent to the FLBC apiary team: apiaryteam@fingerlakesbeeclub.com

David Hopkins, apiary reporter

Dear Fellow Bee Stewards,

It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a club activity with a guest speaker, and this is the first guest speaker in the apiary during all my years with the club. I feel fortunate to have struck up a conversation with Sam Comfort that led to his visit. I’ve admired his sensibilities with bees for many years. His approach to keeping bees in an affordable and sustainable way makes sense to me. His respect for the bees and his perspective of responsibility for their welfare is contagious. They truly are amazing creatures, very important farm animals and a solid part of the environment.

Sam Comfort is the owner of Anarchy Apiaries in the Hudson Valley. His 19 years among the bees has led to his migratory work from Florida to Maine, with his bee hives being kept in 6 different states. Educated as an artist, he is innovative and creative as he raises queens and nucs, and with the education of beekeepers.

Our group of 16 followed him into our apiary to hear about his observations of our colonies of gentle bees. Sam’s first stop was at our Comfort Hive single box, our first step towards adding this style of bee hive to our apiary. The design is Sam’s adaptation of Warre hives that are small 12’ x 12”x 6” deep boxes. They use free-built combs on skewer or dowel top bars. They will work well for raising queens and brood and can be stacked up tall in a honey production mode. The combs are beautiful.

It looks like we’ve gotten behind the seasons with this project. Sam’s comments make it clear that we’re out of sync with the seasons. The drought is a factor. Instead of trying to force bees to occupy our Comfort boxes at this point, we’ll do best by pulling the box from its host colony to store over winter, then start again next spring.

It is now time to begin preparations for winter, to accommodate the bees as they raise their winter bees, the fat bees who can survive six or so months. The first thing they need is to be varroa-free, not ridden with the v. destructors who feed upon their fat bodies. These are days we’re challenged to give the bees plenty of alone time and avoid disruptions. To check varroa we’ll quickly and smoothly pull a comb of brood when we need some nurse bees for a sample. We’ll use all our tricks for gentle handling and non-intrusive management while we make sure the varroa infestation is low.

We also opened our colony in the Kenyan top bar hive. Sam has lots of experience with this style beehive. Our old homemade box, built for $7 in 2010, has been empty for multiple years, but it has a beautiful colony of bees now. Populated with a captured swarm a year ago, it survived the winter and has been growing well this year. We discovered it has recently swarmed. Sam noted it requeened itself, a rejuvenation in its own right, and has provided the colony with a varroa cleansing brood break in the process.

The third hive we investigated is the long Langstroth colony. Considering it was populated with a nuc in mid-June, it appears to be on track for a successful winter.

Another note regarding seasonal timing: The Layens style bait hive has been removed now, sadly without catching a swarm, but the odds for successful hiving has essentially passed now. Ironically we were surprised that an idle bait box on the side has been occupied by a swarm! During our next inspection* we can discuss what to do with it.

A closing note about seasonal timing: The wren that occupied the abandoned smoker on the fencepost has fledged her youngsters and left her empty nest behind.

Thanks for reading.

Please feel free with any questions and comments.

David Hopkins, FLBC Apiary Team

Eight people gathered at the club apiary in the comforting shade during a warm sunny afternoon. There was a big blue sky and the sun was ‘packing heat’. The ground is parched and nectar is scarce. The bees were quiet at their entrances while a few were actively scrounging stores from the shed. There are ample cracks around the doors where the bees can find their way inside, which shows us a needed repair with added gaskets to seal the cracks. Oddly, there was a weather-shift while we inspected the hives. A breeze interrupted the perfect stillness and the bees ceased robbing the shed.

We found the bees gentle to handle despite their lack of foraging. Most of the colonies are hosting large populations and there has been some new honey packed away. We found Colony #3 over-packed with bees. It has a single deep brood nest under a queen excluder. We replaced a brood-filled comb with a frame of empty comb. The comb of brood went to a new resource nuc that is growing nicely. We added a third super to this prosperous colony. The booming condition alerts me to its vulnerability to varroa. Thankfully, its infestation level was less than 1% on June 26. We should check it at our next inspection on August 3.

We examined a few colonies for their general condition and found no outstanding needs. The Kenyan top bar hive has some recently hatched queen cells showing us it recently swarmed. There are a few combs of surplus honey, but the population is clearly reduced. The swarm can be considered a benefit as natural varroa self-management from the brood break.

We examined the Long Langstroth colony and found an evident growth of this colony, proceeding nicely as a spring nuc installed on June 26.

We checked the status of supers on colony #5. An overwintered nuc, it has made one full super and has a second super in progress. We closed it up saying “all’s well and there is no need for a third super despite the population at the entrance.”

The colony that is building combs for a new Comfort Hive is making progress. It’s set over a well populated double deep with many bees adding propolis and new wax. We added five new topbars prepared with pieces of starter comb.

Our final discussion was about the varied entrance orientations in our new apiary layout. Our choice of past years had them all facing east. Now with our new layout, some are now facing south, a common preference, though some hives still face east to help keep the forager flight away from our inspection traffic.

This topic led to a discussion of plans to install a windbreak panel on the north fence line of the apiary. We imagine a tall picket panel that includes a 4’x8’ sign facing the Nature Center walking trail. The design so far includes words of welcome and the name of our club with a painting of our logo. We also include words to beware of the electric fence and to observe the bees from outside their flight path. It can also hold a brochure rack for our club fliers. A suggestion was made to mention the Nature Center as our host. Another is to post the printed pages of an illustrated children’s book. An example can be seen in the signage at the Children’s Garden.

I want to sign off with a reminder. We are all volunteer members working together to keep our club vigorous satisfying our purposes of education and camaraderie. There is always room for one more at all our activities. This gathering ended with a general nod of Mission Accomplished!

Our next Apiary Inspection is scheduled for Wednesday, August 3rd at 4:00. Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries will be our guest. He is the innovator of a baby-nuc top bar system of beekeeping. He will scrutinize our first steps of starting some Comfort Hives in our club apiary. Everybody is welcome to join us for this unique show-n-tell program. Please come if you can.

Comments and questions are invited.

Report by David Hopkins, FLBC Apiary Team

Friends and Fellows,

Our next meeting is scheduled for Sunday July 17 at 2:00 pm. This meeting will include an apiary inspection open to all members and guests. There are plenty of assisted tasks for whoever wants hands-on experience. Please attend if you can.

On Wednesday August 3rd at 4:00pm we will host Sam Comfort from Anarchy Apiaries. He runs a unique operation that includes winter work in Florida and summer work in NY's Hudson Valley. He produces nucs and queens as well as providing educational opportunities and group presentations. He will scrutinize our starter Comfort Hives with his insights of the innovator of this unique approach to top bar beekeeping. This rare apiary experience is also open to all club members and guests. Please attend if you can. I will enjoy personally meeting and introducing this interesting and knowledgeable NY beekeeper.

Sam will join us while he's attending the EAS beekeeping conference being held at Ithaca College. from August 1st - 5th. There is a full schedule of beekeeping activities, workshops and speakers. I encourage all of us club members to participate in this annual event.

Wishing the best for all of us and our bees!
David Hopkins, FLBC Apiary Team

It was a warm sunny day with a lot of robbing activity. With some small storms nearby and the heat growing, it seemed that a nectar flow had just ended and robbing had just begun. Still the bees were cooperative as we went through them. We found most colonies to be building up strong populations, packing pollen and honey. These discoveries were the news of the day and, otherwise, there were no outstanding surprises.

Our intentions were to check the varroa level of each colony and to install a growing new nucleus colony into the long Langstroth hive. Seven of us gathered into teams for these tasks. Many hands do indeed make the work simple and enjoyable.

We found that each colony had only a fraction of 1% infestation, with mite counts of 0, 1, or 2. The colonies are a mix of overwintered colonies, new colonies made from nucleus colonies, 2021 and 2022 queens.

Following Randy Olivers' guidelines we've adopted the use of dish soap water as the cheapest and best release agent.

Our goal is to do all our varroa samples accurately with an EZ Check sampling jar following a basic repeated method.

- Prepare the dish soap solution, 1.5 tsp soap per quart water, or 2Tbs per gallon

- Prepare the sample jar with dish soap solution poured just over the bottom of the inner collection basket

- Shake nurse bees into a collection tub. Allow foragers to fly out of the sample.

- Tap the tub to accumulate the bees in a corner.

- Measure 1/2 cup of bees. Dump them into the sample jar and cover. Shake the bees a time or two.

- Add dish soap solution to cover the bees.

- Gently swirl them for 1 minute.

- Allow bees to settle for 1 minute or more.

- Count the mites that fall to the bottom of the EZ Check jar.

- Divide the mite count by 3 to learn the percentage of infestation.

- Treat the bees if the threshold level is exceeded. Spring, early summer 1%-2%. Late summer, fall 3%-4%.

- Investigate treatment options appropriate for conditions with Dyce Lab varroa management guide

The next club meeting is on the third Sunday, July 17 at 2:00 pm.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Dear Friends and Fellows,

Three of us gathered around our sick colony #1 this morning. Recently discovered with PMS, parasitic mite syndrome, we'd reduced its space to 1 deep box and gave a first treatment of dribbled oxalic acid on 6-20. We intended to take a varroa sample and give another dose of oxalic, but discovered the population had a noticeable decline since last week. We took a poorly measured sample of flighty bees, then witnessed a stream of mites falling into the solution immediately upon swirling the release agent. We looked at each other shaking our heads with no optimism for helping them resolve the varrosis. We have a mite bomb that puts all our bees, and those of our neighbors. at an increased risk of contagion. We agreed that euthanasia was our best reasonable action. We placed the hive in a large trash bag and doused them seam-by-seam with 2 quarts of dish soap. This is the colony that provided a significant share of our 2021 surplus, tested positive for varroa in October, failed to respond to an acceptable mite count through 3 oxalic fumigations, but survived the winter and quickly grew into a large spring colony. RIP.

Our next inspection priority is to give each colony a varroa check. Rather than beginning the task immediately we decided it best to wait until we meet again as planned on Wednesday June 29 at 4:00 pm. With a larger group of people to handle the task it should be a simple, but meaningful task. Hopefully, it is a good time for people and, hopefully, the weather will cooperate. There is a slight chance for a slight amount of rain and temps in the high 70's.

It will likely be a good time to introduce the new nuc into the Long Langstroth hive. It has now filled all its 8 deep combs.

Please join us if you can.

Looking forward to our next gathering!
David Hopkins, apiary reporter