In Cherokee county bees attract a lot of interest. I attended the beekeepers’ monthly meeting last Thursday. We are fortunate to have a commercial beekeeper as our coach and guru. I had missed the previous month’s meeting where they discussed inspecting for mites and chemical treatments. The meeting last Thursday was about Fall inspections and feeding.
First as to mites – most of the attendees were doing sugar dustings and mite counts -you sprinkle sugar on the bees and they vigorously groom themselves and each other and the mites fall onto a sticky board at the bottom of the hive and you count them and decide whether chemical treatment is necessary. Seems like most were applying chemical treatments in any case. Now I am still a beginner beekeeper – I think I have graduated from “novice” since I have kept the same bees (or rather their descendants) going since early 2010. And from philosophy or laziness I don’t count mites or do any chemical treatments. The philosophy springs from the belief that intervention usually causes more harm than good. I had some mishaps with some chicken where I tried to help and believe I exacerbated the situation. Even humans (if newspaper accounts are accepted) occasionally/often experience setbacks in hospitals from mishaps. As for bees, I think the lesser experienced of us can harm the queen and upset the equilibrium each time we intrude in the hive, even though with the best of intentions. I think the vigor of the bees and their ability to resist mites etc. is weakened by the poisons we spray in the environment, the poisons we treat them to make them stronger and the stress we create when we open the hive and disturb them (though I have often opened the hive for cursory inspections and not disturbed them at all). I grow organically, my immediate neighbors don’t spray and my bees have been doing fine, though our guru told me it is just a matter of time until the varroa mites and other dreads afflict me.
As for the feeding. Most of the attendees were feeding their bees with sugar mixed with water. Our coach asked who wasn’t feeding their bees and no one raised their hand and I didn’t, since I don’t want to appear controversial. If the bees have no food then now is the time to feed them since if you wait until temperatures fall below 47 degrees it will be too cold for the bees to feed on their sugary liquid food. So you feed them now and they store it in their cells and they partake of it during the wintry months. I don’t feed my bees – if I want them strong and healthy for the tough winter months they will survive much better on their honey than on sugared concoctions – after all that is why they harvest the honey in the first place. However, after all the dire warnings issued at the meeting and given that bee mortality over winter is high (around 30% I think), I concluded that I should take a look at my bees.
The last time I visited the bees was on July 29 of this year. I am certain of the date since I harvested about 4 gallons of honey from my # 1 hive (34 bottles all lid marked “072912”, nominally 12 0zs but filled to the top, say 15 ozs each = 510/128 = 4 gallons). It was my third harvesting in this year from the #1 hive. My #1 hive consists of a deep and two half deeps and I left 4 half frames for the bees expecting they would have sufficient time by summer end to replenish their supplies. During the July harvesting I also inspected my second new hive, which I started earlier this year with conscriptees from the #1 hive plus a new queen bee. It did not have much honey and, since it was its first year, I decided to leave it be.
This morning I inspected both hives. Lots of worker bees (phew! not drones which would indicate no queen) and lots of activity. The #1 hive, disappointingly did not have a lot of honey supplies. The top super had say 30 lbs, very little in the middle super, and the bottom deep had pollen and brood and some honey. I decided to intervene and since it will soon be getting cold, I reversed the supers by putting the top super with the honey above the deep containing the brood.
The #2 hive which consists of two deeps is in good shape. There are 10 full frames in a deep and the top deep, apart from the two outer frames on each side had 6 frames filled with honey. The bottom deep, again with the exception of the outer frames, had honey, pollen and well placed brood.
Conclusions. Now we have the goldenrod and aster in bloom and the bees are hard at work. When the blooms are finished and there is no more food to gather, I shall inspect the hives again and, if the #1 hive is looking thin on the honey side I shall give it a couple of deep frames of honey from the #2 hive. And hopefully that will be enough to get them through the winter.