So How's Topsy, the Top Bar, Doing?

I've been feeding Topsy a quart - two quarts a week for the last two weeks. On Tuesday I took two quarts of syrup over there and was pleased to find bees tumbling over each other at the entrance, loaded down with pollen.



I had only taken one quart over on Thursday the week before and it was totally used up. I did see about 10 small hive beetles on the Boardman - which upset me, but I'll take a small hive beetle trap over there - the Sonny-Mel will sit fine on the screened bottom - the next time I go.



The hive is only occupying bars 1 - 10 but there are plenty of bees. This is bar 10. I pulled it out and I think it's just bees clinging to each other like they would do on a slatted rack. I was in a hurry and didn't stick my finger in to find out if there were comb under the masses, but if you'll look close up, there doesn't appear to be.



Bar 9 is a brood comb and had capped brood on it, also covered with bees.



I'm going to continue to feed this hive through October and I'll put an SHB trap in it. I will probably move the follower board close to bar 10 as the cold weather approaches to close their space and make it easier for the cluster.

And on the deck, another inspection

This not-exactly-queenless hive is not doing well, but I don't understand what is going on. They have a queen who isn't laying. They've had a small hive beetle problem but that appears much more under control. They aren't consuming the sugar syrup I've had on there for two weeks.

What's going on?

The Sonny-Mel trap is accumulating dead beetles by the day. I saw no beetles under the cover and only two on the under side of the inner cover. There are lots of dead ones in the trap below. I also had an AJ's on this hive and it was full. I refreshed the lure in the Sonny-Mel trap and put more oil in the AJs. I also added a second AJ's beetle trap.



I didn't go deep into this box. I pulled up two frames of honey from the bottom box, so they do have some honey. Maybe that's why they aren't laying or consuming.



The nuc hive is going great guns. They had emptied the two Boardman's feeders. I replenished their supplies.



In the hive there is laying going on and you can see at least five eggs in this picture and two tiny c-shaped larvae. The eggs are at 2 and 3 o'clock. The queen is eager.


I keep thinking about Don K in Lula who points proudly to his nuc hive with five boxes on it and says, "How much closer to a tree can you get?" His nuc hive is very productive. I am going to add another box to this nuc hive and have a tree hive on my deck myself!

AJ's Beetle Eater and the Saga of the SHB

The AJ's beetle eaters have been in my home hives for a week, so I thought I should check them out. I was amazed to find dead beetles but not dead bees. The beetle eater is smaller than most traps so it doesn't get as many. My Bermuda was full of small hive beetles under the top cover - I didn't see any deeper in the hive. So the beetles killed by these two traps in this hive were only a small percentage of the total.

However, the Freeman trap (the oil filled tray under the SBB) and the Sonny-Mel trap (that I built from a sandwich box) both had their share of bees that died, drowned in the oil. So to the AJ trap's success, I saw no dead bees in any of the four trays I inspected today.



Here is the set of dead bodies poured out of just one trap in the Bermuda hive. It has my worst infestation. There are very few SHBs in Mellona and I only saw 2 in Aristaeus2.


I was so happy that I refilled the traps and put them back in the hive.


Advantages of AJ's Beetle Eater, so far:
1. No dead bees
2. Lots of dead SHBs
3. Fits easily between frames

Disadvantages of AJ's BE

1. It's hard not to get oil everywhere while filling the trap
2. I end up with lots of oil on my gloves which either means I change gloves after filling the traps, don't wear gloves while filling them, or figure out a spill free way to do the delicate job
3. It's hard, if the bees have propolized the trap to the frame, to lift it out from between the frames. On 50% of the removals, the zipper top popped off and I dripped oil on the bees.
4. The small capacity means that it should be emptied frequently and means that it can't possibly get as many SHBs as one might wish

The Small Hive Beetle 2008

I am SO prepared for the small hive beetle. I have made Sonny-Mel traps from sandwich boxes, I have ordered and own AJ's Beetle Eaters, I have two of the Hood beetle traps. But this year I'm not using any of them. Knock on wood, I have rarely seen a small hive beetle this year. Amazing luck for me and certainly good luck for the beetles who would meet a vinegar/oil ending should they have visited my hives.

I'm not totally free of the pest. Yesterday I saw a few in my two hives that are in my yard and not on my deck. The bees don't like the SHB and when they see one, they pursue it aggressively.

In the picture below two separate bees are aiming for two different small hive beetles. They run toward the beetle and try to discourage its presence in their domain. I smashed the six I saw with my hive tool.


The picture below is a small hive beetle that I injured with my hive tool. The bees finished him off.

Then, as they would with a member of their own kind, a bee (not well-focused) picked up his little carcass and removed him from the inner cover!

I have strong hives this year that seem to be keeping the SHB in check. However, I have all the equipment, including a mouth aspirator to suck the little guys into a trap, for any occurrence next year!

Small Hive Beetle Status as of Today

I opened the hives today to find more beetles than last Saturday. I smashed as many as I could with the hive tool. To think that last year I found it difficult to smash one - now I do it with abandon - not reckless abandon because I watch out not to injure a bee with my hive tool, but I certainly get into smashing the beetles.

I brought in the feeding jars from each hive to refill them in my kitchen. These are the beetles around the lid of the jar. While I don't use grease patties because they are known to increase the SHB, I must say that my feeding jar experience would indicate that an explosion of SHBs occurs with feeding sugar syrup as well. So far both hives are holding their own and there is no beetle damage - just lots of beetles.

At the end of the day, I've replaced the syrup feeder with more syrup, rejuvenated the bait in the Sonny-Mel trap on the left and just looked at the few dead beetles in the apple cider vinegar trap on the right in the frame.

I also saw a Varroa mite on the back of a bee, so I did another powdered sugar shake as well. Today was a pest control inspection!

Checking up on the Small Hive Beetle

When I left for vacation a couple of weeks ago, the hives were full of small hive beetles. I think this was in part because I had been feeding my bees in the face of the dearth for the week before. I left a quart of sugar syrup on each hive on Sept 6, but haven't added to it since.

As a result there are less SHBs in my hive - that and the time of the year when they are diminishing anyway. Here are the opened Sonny-Mel traps from my two hives - I added new lure to each one today. They are working.

Inside Bermuda, the hive was boiling with very calm bees. They usually rush to attack and hate my intrusion with or without smoke. Today they went about business as usual and ignored me. I didn't add any syrup but will feed both hives beginning in the middle of October to keep them alive over the winter.

The last picture is what Mellona looked like inside. There are tons of bees in between the frames but not many on top of the frames. I have seen many bees going in and out of both hives over the last week with their pollen baskets full, so I think there are baby bees in Mellona. Also they were very quiet today - no queenless roar - so I think although they aren't as robust as Bermuda, they are doing fine.

I'll do a deeper check on them next weekend if their numbers continue to look low. I have to remember that this is a first year hive while Bermuda is a second year Varroa survivor strong hive.

I saw no evidence on the backs of bees of Varroa mites and I saw no deformed wing, but I'll also do a sugar shake and count next week. Notice that I added the vinegar frame trap (on the far right next to the wall) that I used last year to Mellona. I can't find the other one - when I do, I'll put it in Bermuda. It's on a frame somewhere!

Small hive beetle musings

I checked all three traps. They each had a few beetles in them. The bees had propolized the holes so I took a toothpick and cleared out the holes. Only in one hive, Proteus were there dead bees in the trap - my bees are much smaller these days - so maybe 3/16 inch is large enough for some of the smaller bees to follow the lure.

I was disappointed to find that under the inner cover on Bermuda there was this corner congregation of SHBs. The bees were not happy they were there (witness the bees trying to attack the beetles), but there were more SHBs out of the trap than in the trap. Click on the picture to see it (and the beetles) larger.

As per an email from Sonny of the Sonny/Mel SHB trap, I have removed the inner cover from each of the three hives with the traps on them. Hopefully this will send the beetles to a death by FGMO drowning!

Small Hive Beetle trap is Working

Here's the small hive beetle trap developed by Sonny and Mel in Arkansas. Look at the dead beetles. I'm so grateful This came from my Bermuda hive where I see the most beetles. Even with these dead ones, I saw plenty of live ones all around on all the hives. Mellona had 2 dead beetles in her trap. I didn't see any SHBs in Proteus and reinstalled their trap, removed when I got stung last week.

I was relieved to find only SHBs in my trap - the holes are obviously the right size although I need to clean out some of the propolis.

Circled in black you can see the SHB as I typically see them on the inner cover of the hive. I smashed all of these with my hive tool before putting the inner cover back on the hive.

Many times the bees chase after the SHB, but this one was having a Sunday morning stroll with little interference.

The Return of the Small Hive Beetle and the Continued Saga of Proteus Bee

The small hive beetles are out in force. I got new plastic sandwich containers and used my soldering iron this morning to make 3/16" holes in the four sides of the box. I baited them with Sonny-Mel lure and put FGMO in the bottom. I put the traps in Proteus A, Mellona and Bermuda. At the same time I smashed 5 or 6 beetles in each hive and saw many more
.

I don't know how to think about Proteus Bee. Last week it looked as if they didn't have a queen but there were numerous opened queen cups in the hive as well as a ripped out the side queen cell. But most of the frames are drawn but empty and there are only about three frames with bees on them. I put the above frame into Proteus Bee from Bermuda. It has lots of capped brood and also has eggs and tiny brood around the edges.

There were two emerging bees on this frame. I found it amusing to think that they thought they were arriving in one hive and in fact will find themselves in another.

I looked all through Proteus Bee and just as I was thinking I should combine it with Proteus A and make them one hive again, I saw a cell with about 3 day old larva in it and couldn't. I'll wait another week to make a decision. It is now late in the season for them to build up enough to make it through the winter. Hmmmm, we'll have to see next week.

Small Hive Beetle Back in Force

A few weeks back, I removed my small hive beetle traps. The bees had propolized the holes and they needed to be opened back up and probably enlarged to 3/8 inches. I have only seen a few SHBs this year until today.

Today there were small hive beetles in every hive. I crushed 12 - 24 on each inner cover. I replaced the shim round I had made for each hive under the inner covers and will replace the SHB traps this weekend.

In the upper picture you can see a SHB in the foreground and a bee attacking a SHB in the upper left corner. The picture below is a close-up of the bee attacking the SHB. She won and then I finished the SHB off with my hive tool for good measure!

One of my Hives may be a Two-Queen Apartment Complex

Today I opened the Proteus hive (the one that made crazy comb earlier in the season) to see if I could make sense of the hive configuration. Here's what I had noticed last week:

*The bottom box was full of brood
*The next box up was full of honey, capped wall to wall
*The next box up had eggs and young brood
*The last box was an empty super with some honey beginning to be stored

I posted a query on Beemaster to see what might be going on. The responses included the possibility that I might have two queens - in effect one hive living on top of the other.

Typically in a hive the brood nest is continuous. The queen works her way through the frames in the bottom box and then moves up into the next box. In this hive a full super of honey separates the brood nest - this is not the usual formation in a hive. However, the bees are using only one entrance, for what that's worth.

Today I wanted to see if there were a laying queen in the upper box. In opening the box, a honey comb opened. I love the circle of bees sealing the edges of the honey spill and gathering it back up to use in the hive!

In the second picture you can see who I think is the queen, backed into a cell in which she is laying an egg. All of the cells to the right and upwards from the queen each have a single egg in them. If you look carefully you can see the eggs - they look like a grain of rice standing on end. There is only one egg in each cell, eliminating the possibility that this might be a laying worker (who often lay two or more eggs in each cell).

I also checked the small hive beetle trap on this visit and found no beetles in it or any of my other traps. A post on BeeSource (see Rob-bee's post at the bottom of the page) suggested that my holes aren't large enough for the SHB. They are supposed to be 3/16". I plan to take the traps out next weekend and enlarge the holes. The bees have propolized the holes in the trap on Proteus (the apartment complex hive).

I also am having a mild, mild infestation of SHBs this year. Last year they were everywhere by this time. I'm wondering if the hard freeze of 20 degree days we had the first week of April wreaked havoc on the SHB population.

Small Hive Beetle Trap Saga

Yesterday I did all the construction for the Sonny-Mel Small Hive Beetle trap and put it on my three hives. I posted pictures of the process of making the lure for the trap in an earlier post.

I made a video of the whole construction process.

[Note: I worried about the hole size (that perhaps they were too small) in the sandwich boxes so I went back and made the holes on 2 sides of the boxes larger before I put the boxes in the hives. I didn't want my now somewhat smaller bees (as I regress) getting into the boxes instead of the beetle.]

Most of the members of my bee club aren't trying the things I am trying. I wish I could watch someone do the things I am doing for myself for the first time. So I am made this video in case one of you would like to see someone else making this trap before making it yourself.

I hope the trap works and will report to you the results.

Wishin', and hopin'....

I'm wishing and hoping that the little swarm hive will really develop into a colony. I ordered 8-frame equipment and put it together in that wishin' and hopin'! Here's the hive all put together. I even have an 8-frame screened bottom board and a slatted rack (see second picture).

I'm sure you are wondering why I have the new hive up on the hearth - it's to keep the dogs from getting too interested in it or to have a need to claim it for themselves.

All it needs is for me to paint the hive and for the swarm nuc to grow up enough to need it. That includes developing a healthy queen and having her succeed in her mating flight and returning to the hive. She should have emerged today or maybe tomorrow or the next day.

In case the queen cells I saw didn't result in a good queen, I'm adding another frame of brood to the nuc when I inspect tomorrow. I'll only open the nuc to take out a frame and add the brood/egg frame. I'm staying away from the frame where the queen cells were.

I also plan to put the Sonny-Mel small hive beetle trap on my three thriving hives tomorrow and I plan to move Proteus about a foot backwards more into the sun. I will also probably take a super off of Mellona to harvest cut comb honey. Should be a busy inspection day!