Robber Bees

handmade robbing screens work well to protect colonies from uninvited guest bees. (charlotte ekker wiggins photo)

Robber Bees

It’s the end of June in mid-Missouri with record hot temperatures - again - so plants are ending the nectar flow and heading into survival mode. So are bees.

We had a mild winter and early spring. Almost two months early so bees had early access to nectar and pollen. They store pollen to feed nurse bees to produce royal jelly to feed baby bees. Nectar is flight fuel for foragers and, once dehydrated to 18% and capped, becomes stored honey for winter food.

The larger the bee colony, the more food they can collect and store. As temperatures soar, the larger colonies also need more food to feed themselves so they will “rob” from smaller colonies.

For a beekeeper this time of year is tricky in terms of inspecting colonies. You don’t want to keep the hive open for very long because the lovely smell of honey beckons bees and is an invitation for robbing. And yet some days you don’t dare open hives, especially small ones, because they will be easy targets for the larger colonies.

Robber bees are female foragers - that’s right, not male bees - detecting a preferred food source - honey, at a time when other food sources in nature are not available. Bees will communicate to the robbing colony the location and move into the smaller hive, most often killing the queen and stealing all resources - honey and pollen. Flecks of wax they’ve torn off the stored honey will be found piled up at the bottom of the robbed hive.

I had one colony robbed in August several years ago. I saved them by throwing a wet cotton sheet over the hive and keeping it wet with a hose spray. Wet bees can’t fly so hosing them down every few minutes kept them from moving very far. I was lucky; sometimes water works for only so long.

The other tool I prefer to use is robbing screens on the front of my hives. These “porches” installed at night trains residents to come in and out up the side of the hive. Robbers approach the hive straight into the screen and can’t get in. I’m still working on how to make robbing screens myself. The ones I have were made by a friend now passed.

For more beekeeping, gardening, cooking and easy home decor tips, subscribe to Garden Notes.

Charlotte

February Beekeeping Jobs

February Beekeeping Chores

Time to give bee hives some personality with paint. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

February Beekeeping Chores

Whether you are a new beekeeper or one with a few years under your bee suit, February continues to be a surprisingly busy month.

With bees clustered inside hives consuming their hard-earned honey, beekeepers need to be updating their knowledge by attending classes and lectures.

This is also a good time to inventory beekeeping equipment, order what is missing and get those hives painted.

Bees are clustered inside hives staying warm and eating honey or sugar cakes. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

I’m going to make more sugar cakes in case my girls eat through what they currently have as supplemental food in case they run out of stored honey.

And should you have honey, this is a good month to play with recipes using honey.

I also have a pile of books and magazines to read.

If you are starting your beekeeping journey, pick up a copy of "A Beekeeper's Diary Self-Guide to Keeping Bees 2nd Edition." It’s an excellent reference and guide regardless of what classes you are taking and will help if you can’t get to one.

For more beekeeping, gardening, cooking and easy home decor tips, subscribe to Garden Notes.

Charlotte

February Beekeeping Jobs

February Beekeeping Chores

Time to give bee hives some personality with paint. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

February Beekeeping Chores

Whether you are a new beekeeper or one with a few years under your bee suit, February continues to be a surprisingly busy month.

With bees clustered inside hives consuming their hard-earned honey, beekeepers need to be updating their knowledge by attending classes and lectures. And teaching them. If you are in the Rolla, Missouri area we have one opening left for each of our beginning beekeeping class February 25, 2023 and the Second Year Beekeeping class March 25, 2023. Register here.

This is a good time to inventory beekeeping equipment, order what is missing and get those hives painted.

Bees are clustered inside hives staying warm and eating honey or sugar cakes. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

I’m going to make more sugar cakes in case my girls eat through what they currently have as supplemental food in case they run out of stored honey.

Besides teaching beekeeping classes, this is a good month to attend lectures. There are a good number offered online since COVID.

And should you have honey, this is a good month to play with recipes using honey.

I also have a pile of books and magazines to read.

If you are starting your beekeeping journey, pick up a copy of "A Beekeeper's Diary Self-Guide to Keeping Bees 2nd Edition." It’s an excellent reference and guide regardless of what classes you are taking and will help if you can’t get to one.

What Bees Are Doing

As days get longer, the queen bees will start to lay more eggs getting ready for the busy time, the nectar flow.

Bees are also staying warm clustered together keeping the queen cozy.

Bees will consume about 25 pounds of stored honey this month.

Charlotte

Decaying Hive Bottom Boards

Decaying Hive Bottom Boards

Wooden products left out in elements can decay. (charlotte ekker wiggins photo)

Decaying Hive Bottom Boards

I’m starting to take inventory of what equipment I need to fix and/or replace next year. Top of the list are bottom boards, the foundation piece under a hive.

Even though my bottom boards are painted white, they seem to take the brunt of our four seasons and challenging elements. And not just the bottom board. Some of the hive bodies are also starting to show wear and tear.

One of the ways to help reduce damage to the woodenware is to rotate the parts to evenly distribute the wear.

Another suggestion is to make bottom boards out of composite wood, which is designed for outside exposure.

Since I don’t do woodwork, I will have to set up a rotation scheme next year.

Charlotte

Nectar-bound Colony

The frame spaces where the queen should lay are now filled with nectar. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Nectar-bound Colony

We’ve had a long spring in 2022 including bouts of rain - EF1 tornadoes last week - which means bees have had extra time to store flower nectar. Bees use nectar for winter food once they dehydrate it 18% into honey.

This year, rain has delayed getting into the colonies and they have become full of nectar. So much nectar that the queen bee doesn’t have room to lay so the colony decides to swarm.

Here’s a video peek at one of my nectar-bound colonies and how to give bees more room.

Charlotte

First Swarm of Season

Bees swarming hang from a tree waiting for scout bees to find a new home. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

First Swarm of Season

According to Missouri Department of Conservation, Mother’s Day weekend is usually the average start of Missouri’s honey bee swarming season. For the last few years, the bees have been ahead of schedule. This year is no exception.

For the first swarm of this season, I joined my bee buddy David Draker to catch a swarm from one of his colonies. To his credit the bees swarmed because he was out of state on vacation or he would have managed their hive space needs.

White sheet helps to see bees, especially the queen. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Bees swarm to ensure their reproduction. They basically separate the mother colony to get new colonies established. In the first swarm, they leave because they are out of laying room for the queen. It’s not a decision they make lightly. They have to slim down the old queen so she can fly with the rest of the bees and they have to raise a new queen they leave behind to keep the colony going. The first swarm queen is usually a mated, established queen. If there are other “after swarms,” those queens are unmated.

Also in the first swarm, usually the old queen leaves with the traveling bees, leaving at least one daughter behind. If for some reason the old queen can’t fly, a daughter will leave with the swarm.

Wouldn’t you know it, this swarm decided to leave in the middle of a thunderstorm and ended up a good 15 feet off the ground in a tree.

To get swarms in trees, David and I have used water cooler jugs we tape to a “long arm” extending pole. A white sheet around the hive box helps spot the queen once they are added to the box.

Here’s a short video of the first scooping of the bees out of the tree. Once David had them in the jug, he lowered the arm for me to catch and guide the bees into the hive. And yes, you will see lighting. We didn’t realize it was lightening until we saw this video. Note to new beekeepers: not a good idea to be wielding a metal pole when it’s lightening.

Once inside the hive, bees get attracted to the frame with wax comb. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Once they land in the hive, it helps to have frames with wax comb to entice them to stay.

If weather conditions had been better, we would have sprayed the wax frames with sugar water as another enticement. And maybe snuck a frame of open brood - baby bee eggs - to get the attention of the traveling nurse bees.

But it was raining - and apparently lightening - so we settled for getting the majority of the bees in the hive and would check on them the next day.

Not all bees make it into the water cooler jug bucket. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

An estimated 50% of bees don’t stay once they are caught. Another 50% don’t make it through their first winter in a hive so maintaining a swarm can be a challenge.

In this case, the bees must have had a new better place they wanted to be and didn’t stay.

Good practice, though. The swarm season is just starting!

Charlotte

Pros and Cons of Pollen Substitute

The darker sugar pieces have pollen substitute as one of the options to safely feed bees. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Pros and Cons of Pollen Substitute

Mid-February in mid-Missouri we usually have a break in winter with sunny days in the 60s. Those warm days prompt bees to be out scouting for pollen, the protein nurse bees consume to produce baby food, or royal jelly.

When I first started keeping bees, open feeding pollen substitute was a regular practice during these warm days. Not any more. Open feeding is now highly discouraged.

So should you feed your bees pollen substitute during these warm February days and if so, how do you do it in the safest way?

The bottom line is you don’t want to get your bees ahead of nature’s schedule so best to go slow.

Bees this time of year will look for pollen even in bird feeders. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

And if you don’t want to feed your bees pollen substitute, it doesn’t mean they won’t go looking for some. I can count on seeing my bees rummaging through bird food in my bird feeders with cracked corn in the mix. That’s a sure sign the queen bees in my apiaries are starting to lay eggs.

Charlotte

February Beekeeping Chores

February Beekeeping Chores

Time to give bee hives some personality with paint. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

February Beekeeping Chores

Whether you are a new beekeeper or one with a few years under your bee suit, February continues to be a busy month.

With bees clustered inside hives consuming their hard-earned honey, beekeepers need to be updating their knowledge by attending classes and lectures. And teaching them. If you are in the Rolla, Missouri area we have one opening left for each of our beginning beekeeping class February 26, 2022 and the Second Year Beekeeping class March 26, 2022. Register here.

This is a good time to inventory beekeeping equipment, order what is missing and get those hives painted.

Bees are clustered inside hives staying warm and eating honey or sugar cakes. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

I’m going to make more sugar cakes in case my girls eat through what they currently have as supplemental food in case they run out of stored honey.

Besides teaching beekeeping classes, this is a good month to attend lectures. There are a good number offered online.

And should you have honey, this is a good month to play with recipes using honey.

I also have a pile of books and magazines to read.

If you are starting your beekeeping journey, pick up a copy of "A Beekeeper's Diary Self-Guide to Keeping Bees 2nd Edition." It’s an excellent reference and guide regardless of what classes you are taking and will help if you can’t get to one.

What Bees Are Doing

As days get longer, the queen bees will start to lay more eggs getting ready for the busy time, the nectar flow.

Bees are also staying warm clustered together keeping the queen cozy.

Bees will consume about 25 pounds of stored honey this month.

Charlotte

Christmas Bee Food Check

Some of my honey bees on their winter sugar cakes. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Christmas Bee Food Check

It was 62F and sunny on Christmas Day, December 25, 2021 in mid-Missouri when I checked my hives for their honey levels. The weather has been so mild so far this winter that they are consuming larger quantities of honey than if the temperatures were lower and keeping them clustered inside the hive.

Bees produce honey for winter food. This year, though, they had a good spring but summer and fall without food sources so they consumed much of their spring stored honey.

To make sure my bees don’t run out of food this winter, I make sugar cakes that I add to the top of the hive in a feeding shim. Once they work through their honey, they find the sugar as supplemental food.

These are the pre-made, stored sugar cakes ready to add to the hives. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I use fruit clam shells to shape, and store, the sugar cakes prior to using.

One of the benefits of adding sugar cakes is that the sugar will absorb moisture should the hives get wet inside.

A spray of water helps to keep the sugar cakes moist and accessible. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

On the other hand, if the conditions remain dry, the sugar cakes can also dry out, leaving the sugar inaccessible to the bees. I carry a spray bottle with water with me and spray the existing sugar cakes, as well as the ones I add, so the bees can better reach the sugar.

One more tip when checking on sugar cakes.

Check the sugar cake underside, bees will eat or remove that sugar first. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

It’s easy to glance into the hive and see the length of a sugar cake and say they have enough food. Take time to turn it over and see if they have left a shell of a sugar cake or still actually have food. Bees will approach the sugar cake underneath, eating their way through the cake and leaving only a shell. You want them to have a good supply of supplemental food, not just the remnants of the last sugar cake.

The forecast is calling for colder temperatures in a week or so. That will cut down on the amount of honey bees are consuming and keep them home instead of flying around the garden. As much as i like to see them, i don’t want them running out of food!

Charlotte

October Beekeeping Chores

Smoker is ready for my Varroa mite monitoring checks. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

October Beekeeping Chores

As we wrap up the growing season in USDA Hardiness zone 5, it’s time to do one last Varroa mite check to know what the mite load is going into winter.

My small colonies didn’t have any mites, as was expected. My one out of three larger colonies will get a Formic Pro treatment now that temperatures are lower. After checking the other two, they may also get a treatment, depends on what their Varroa mite levels are. These colonies will be split next spring to keep their sizes small and hopefully strong agains the viruses carried by Varroa.

To develop your Varroa mite management plan, visit Honeybee Health Coalition.

Other October beekeeping chores include:

Refreshing small hive beetle lure traps and moving the traps to the center frames for winter.

Combining weak colonies with strong ones so they winter over together.

Checking that hives are level so the winter freezing and thawing doesn’t topple them over.

Although some people think of this as being a gardening chore, planting in fall is about giving bees food so I also plant this month. Considering how light their honey stores are coming out of summer, they can use all of the food they can get!

Charlotte

September Beekeeping Chores

Look for totes that will store medium supers on top of each other. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

September Beekeeping Chores

It’s Labor Day weekend in the US and at this writing we have had 4 inches of rain — that’s a lot of rain here in a little more than 12 hours. The rain means no time with bees in the bee garden but time to get organized for fall storage.

One of the biggest challenges is how to store frames in the least amount of room. After some testing, I found that there are totes that have a couple more inches in height that allow for two rows of medium frames to be stored. I use ParaMoth crystals to discourage wax moths so that I can use these again next year, giving my bees a little head start. Just a reminder we need to air the frames for several days before using or the crystals will kill all insects that get in contact with them, including bees.

Here are some other September beekeeping chores where I live:

Checking each colony for their honey stores. Equalizing the stored honey across all colonies.

Check colonies for Varroa mite levels. Anyone with more than 3 Varroa mites per 300 bees, I will treat them with a natural product to knock the mite levels back.

I will also be refreshing small hive beetle traps and moving them from the corners to the center of the hive.

If you are starting to keep bees, I have a handy monthly calendar of beekeeping chores in A Beekeeper’s Diary, Self-Guide to Beekeeping as well as handy guides for all of the decisions you will need to make to get started.

What else will you be doing with your bees?

Charlotte

Bungee Cords

Bungee cords are handy for holding hive lids down. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Bungee Cords

I have to confess, bungee cords were not part of my pre-beekeeping days. I may have had one in my emergency car kit or maybe in a gardening bucket but it wasn’t until I started beekeeping that I found myself buying them, literally by the bucket load.

Bungee cords are an ingenious invention. They are hick stretchable cords with hooks on either end designed to hold things. In beekeeping, bungee cords are helpful to keep lids on nucs and hives as well as buckets. They are easy to attach and remove and, once secured, can withstand some pressure wether from weather or a curious critter.

Easier to attach and remove than ratchet straps, bungee cords are a good beginning beekeeping tool to have around. And now I will add yet another use.

I was working my hives downhill when my loose pants decided to start sliding. The hive was open and I didn’t want to leave them that way to go get a belt.

A quick thread of a nearby green bungee cord through the belt loops and hooked on the belt loops on the opposite ends and I could finish my inspection without startling my neighbors.

Wonder if I should suggest they add this to their long list of possible uses!

Charlotte