May 1st Inspection

In the late morning and early afternoon, I spent time inspecting 3 hives: Lib-BEE-taria, Worker Bees of the World Unite, and Plan Bee... .While the temperature was comfortable, it was very windy which made inspections difficult at times. This was especially so when examining the top bars of Plan Bee... that had new comb. I did get through the inspection without a sting. All three colonies were gentle, considering the windy conditions.

Lib-BEE-taria had bees working in all three brood boxes with plenty of brood, pollen and honey in each. The honeybees in this hive have stopped taking syrup from the feeder so I took that off when closing the colony up.

Worker Bees... was also doing well; so well I added a third box to the hive. I am continuing to feed sugar syrup to this one since they still consume it. Both Worker Bees... and Lib-BEE-taria were dusted with powdered sugar as routine maintenance for varroa mites.

Plan Bee..., one of the top bar hives, is simply thriving. I will probably have to split this one very soon. I did cut out some drone brood and found it full of varroa mites which concerns me. Yes, the bees are healthy but this quick glance at the mites sent up red flags. I am considering treating it with Apiguard.

Later in the afternoon, Beelandia had a few visitors. Molly and Mark brought their gold fish, Lala, over so that she could spend the summer in our pond, Lake No-Bee-Gone. I received two stings at this time, though Molly and Mark escaped without a scratch. Later in the afternoon, a young child named Toby came over with his adult entourage (grandparents and dad) for a tour as well. Toby donned a small bee suit and spent sometime asking some very good questions about the inhabitants of Beelandia. Toby's visit caused not a sting.

Deformed Wings

A few weeks ago, I reported that both hives had high mite counts. I treated them with Apiguard and the mite count dropped. Today, as I wandered about Beelandia, I noticed a few adult bees with deformed wings and am assuming the mites did some viral damage before I controlled their population. I am watching the hives carefully right now, even though there is really not much I can do about this. Today was a warm day and bees were flying about. Both hives seem strong so I am not too worried.

Catching Up With the Blog

I started the semester last week and that fact has taken my attention away from keeping up with my blog.  The following are a few notes I have been meaning to write about:

I did some mite testing a week and a half ago and the count just skyrocketed over previous weeks. I recognized that this was not a good situation to go into fall and winter with so I did treat, very reluctantly, with Apiguard, a Thymol-based miticide. I hate being put on the pesticide treadmill and the bees did not like it as well. There is not really much written about the bees initial reaction to thymol use, but, between the 90 degree temperature and the Apiguard, both hives got an extreme case of bearding that scared me a bit. 

The temperatures plummetted this week, so the bees are much less active right now. I am observing them closely.