Interlopers in the Bee Hive

When I opened my hives I found roaches living on top of the inner cover. There were none in the hive (that I saw). I believe they are on the inner cover to take advantage of the heat, the dark, and the shelter of the hive. But GROSS is how I felt when I saw them in each of the three hives.

It's amazing - always some creature - the last time I looked I had small hive beetles. They seem to have subsided for the winter and the cockroaches have taken their place.



In some parts of the country (probably in Atlanta as well) mice sometimes move into the hives for the winter. So far I haven't had a mouse, but I could do without these roaches. In Beekeeping: An Illustrated Handbook, Diane Stelley says, "Even with the entrance reduced, a small mouse can still wriggle in, make a nest, and tear up the wax combs." She and other beekeepers suggest using a piece of 1/2 inch hardware cloth nailed across the entrance to keep mice out but still allow bees to come and go.

None of my books mention roaches, but Michael Bush, in a post on Beemaster, says that roaches between the inner and top cover and normal. If they make their way successfully into the hive itself, that is a sign of a weak hive.



YUCK!

Worries about Persephone

Last week we had a couple of over 50 degree days. Bees in my three healthy hives were flying, orienting and bringing in pollen. I saw dead bees on the landing board of Persephone and no activity.

On the first over 50 day, I opened Persephone to see if she needed food. The baggie of sugar syrup left in there still had some syrup in it and I saw only a couple of bees. I felt sad - the hive must be dying. I put in a full baggie anyway in hopes that the bees in Persephone just hadn't gotten the memo that it was OK to fly.



On the second over 50 degree day, there was some activity at Persephone. There wasn't beginning to be as much activity as at the other three hives, but I did see bees entering and leaving the hive. I worried - their approach to the hive wasn't a direct land-and-walk-in event, but involved some indecisive bee movement. I toyed with the idea that these were not hive occupants, but rather robbers from the other hives.



More hope arrived on Friday. I noticed that they had cleaned the dead bodies off of the landing and had apparently removed a roach who had died in the hive - pushed the roach into the pile of the winter dead bodies! Later I saw a couple of bees flying into the hive with pollen baskets filled - so now I am hopeful again.



This hive was full of hive beetles as winter began - I attributed that to my feeding the bees (because the SHBs love the sugar syrup), but now with the advent of the dead roach, it's quite clear that the bees have not been alone in their hive this winter. Often the presence of this many critters means that the hive was weak going into winter. If we have another sub-freezing week, this hive may not survive until spring.

Lessons learned: This hive was a combination of a failing swarm hive and a low number hive that was just getting by. I should have made sure they were better set up for winter - added frames of bees, fed them earlier, paid better attention. And I should change the name - as people have pointed out Persephone as a name brings bad karma about winter thriving!

Today's Honey Harvest with a Special Helper

I've read that if a mouse lives in a beehive (as mice often have the propensity to do over the winter) and if the mouse dies, the bees are likely to encase the mouse in propolis. I have in my own hives found small hive beetles encased in propolis near the edge of the frames.

Imagine the gross surprise when I pull these gorgeous frames of honey from Mellona and there between two frames, the bees have encased a roach egg with wax. It literally was bridging the space between two frames.

I cut out the piece containing the roach egg and ground it up in the garbage disposal! I did crush and strain on the rest of the frame in case there were any hidden eggs of any type elsewhere in the frame.


Some of the honey in this super was so well-capped that it begged to become cut comb honey, so that's what I did with it.

Last year I allowed the cut honey to drain, boxed it and then put the boxes in the freezer. When I thawed the boxes, there was more bleeding of honey in the now-boxed honey. I wanted to prevent the post-freezing honey drain into the packaging. So these squares of honey will be frozen overnight, allowed to thaw and drain into the pan below, and THEN I'll box the cut combs.

My favorite part of the honey harvest today was that I had my enthusiastic grandson to help me with this super. If you're interested you can click on the slideshow below and see all of his and my adventures with the honey.

What Do Beekeepers Do After Dark?

Well, we read books about bees, we chat on the Beemaster forum, we gaze at our hives and wonder what it will be like inside when we look in on the bees the next time. We look at the bearding bees on the fronts of our hives and wonder what is going on there.

Tonight in addition to the beards on the front porch, there was a clump of bees on the ground in front of Mellona. I tried to take a picture but it was dark and the bees were not happy with my bursts of flash so I kept my distance.

When I came in and loaded the pictures onto the computer, I found out what was going on in Mellona. The yellow circle is around one of those 2 1/2 inch Palmetto cockroaches. I imagine he came to visit inside Mellona and the pile of bees rushed him right back out.




This evening this beekeeper came home to Beekeeper's Treasure. The beekeeping supplies that I ordered from Betterbee and Brushy Mountain all arrived in a stack of large boxes in my carport. Given the sparse nature of my equipment - so much is in use at the moment - I hurriedly unpacked the boxes to find out what surprises were inside.



From Betterbee there were slatted racks, an inner cover, and a telescoping cover. From Brushy Mountain there were screened bottom boards, cut comb honey boxes, and two medium frames nucs (two medium boxes per nuc). The little end pieces for the boxes are so cute - like a doll house for bees.



So naturally what this beekeeper did on this night was paint equipment in my carport. Now I can help Persephone who has a solid bottom board both for the top and bottom of the hive, graduate to greater heights and state of coolness with a screened bottom board, a slatted rack, an inner cover, and a telescoping cover (all painted in my 2008 yellow and blue). I can also put a slatted rack on Melissa (another hive short of equipment.)








Now I am waiting on medium end bars to turn the shallow frame kits I currently have into medium ones. This will of course be what this beekeeper does after dark on another beekeeper night.

Nastiness in the dead hives

Amazing that I am in Canada on a 10 day hiking trip and can still post to the blog. This is thanks to the Internet and wireless service at my hotel.

Before I left I opened the dead hives to clean them up. In the first hive Proteus, I found wax moth mess throughout. I scraped moth cocoons and killed larvae by smashing it with my feet and with my hive tool. I threw most of the wax mess over the deck to the ground below and then left the frames leaning against an oak tree for the chipmunk to snack on as they are prone to do.

Then I opened Proteus Bee - roaches ran out of the hive and there was wax moth damage throughout. I took the hive apart and when I got to the solid part of the slatted rack just above the SBB, there were these nasty larvae. I think they must be roach larvae since they are not cocooned and were in this pile in the corner. I dumped them on the deck and smashed and stomped on all of them.

Amazing what housekeepers a good beehive contains. This damage is the result of creatures taking over when there are no bees to maintain the cleanliness of the hive.

Yuck!