I went over today with the only small hive beetle trap I could quickly find that didn't need an Imrie shim. It was an AJ's trap. I recently won two beetle traps like AJ's from Buster's Bees at a Tara Beekeepers meeting, but I couldn't find them today.
I opened the smallest hive and there were SHB EVERYWHERE on the top cover and in the corners. I didn't see the SHB in the actual hive, which was comforting. First I used a funny suction instrument that John Jones gave me. I tried....I really did, but I only sucked one SHB all the way into the bottle. The rest were in the suction tube and I had no idea how to manage them. So I gave up on the method and installed the AJ's.
The good news is that the larger hive (fartherest away in the picture) felt heavy and when I opened it, there was not a single SHB. In the smaller hive beside the smoker, were the tons of SHB - probably at least 150 on the top cover.
I left the hive with an oil filled AJs and we'll see if it catches any of them. I also put a surround box with a rapid feeder filled with last year's honey on the small hive.
After that I went to Sebastian's to see if that hive needed food. I opened it to find that ants had taken up residence:
I wish you would LOOK at all the ants. Funny thing, they weren't in the rapid feeder and there was still some crystallized honey in it. I had two jars of last year's honey so I refilled the rapid feeder.
I think I'll go back and sprinkle cinnamon all over the inner cover.
At the bee club meeting this week, the president asked who wasn't feeding their bees. I didn't know whether to raise my hand or not. I'm not feeding mine in the way she meant - with sugar syrup. I am feeding the ones that are light on stores with last year's honey.
After the bee meeting in Massachusetts, I want to raise bees that aren't dependent on my interference and don't need sugar syrup to make it through. I also was scanty in my harvest this year to make sure that the bees are OK for the winter.
Wow what a mess to walk back into. So sorry. I don't think I have ever seen either of these pests up north. It does appear that one of my five hives simply absconded last week. It was a strong first year colony with good stores going into winter. I am not sure what happened but last week I found the hive completely empty. No pile of dead bees, simply gone. The hive does have a weird smell and some scattered dark brood on the frames, too old to really do a rope test for AFB but the smell was suspicious. I don't bother to check for mites since I am not going to treat but I guess they could have become overwhelmed by verroa.
ReplyDeleteI'm having a very good run of it using "touchless", skep-like, stacked hives. Granted, the design has its limitations but, so far, the benefits by far outweigh the drawbacks. Currently I have a few hives in two remote locations that have required no intervention on my part since installing the packages/swarms this April. I ran three of these hives last year of which only one survived the winter - the survivor being the hive I didn't open at all. I've included a link if you're interested in further investigation
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