Author: The Moderator

4 Dollars’ worth of sugar can go a long way to preventing a colony collapse. In late winter sometimes we need to give the bees just a little insurance against starving. I typically will make up a sugar candy recipe. However, if you are short on time, you can just place some newspaper down and pour raw dry sugar on top. I also sprinkle a bit of pollen protein substitute.

Depending on the year, I will also take some unharvested honey frames and add them to the colony. However, this requires good weather to interact with the bees. I prefer to leave the bees alone as much as possible this time of year. Even on a nice warm day, it may be preferred to leave them alone. Breaking all the propolis joints or wax bridges is something that bees this time of year cannot readily repair. So, just adding sugar to the top 1 inch of the hive space is very easy and unobtrusive.

Depending on the time of year, I may check on my hives every week or once a month. Unfortunately for these hives and their location, I have not checked on them probably since November. The good and very surprising news is that all three of these hives are alive.

For these three hives, I decided to leave all the honey and resource frames intact and not harvested. This means these hives have an abundance of resources to survive and their only deficiency for survival may be the lower number of bees. Thes hives also received last summer early fall mite treatments. I really would like to see them through until spring.

Corona Street hives were treated with Oxalic acid vapor.

Niagara Way hives were treated with Oxalic acid vapor.

Campus hives were treated with Oxalic acid vapor.

The bee tree on the west side of the Wellborn lawn is occupied and appears very active. The bee tree on the south side of the smith lawn appears to be dormant.

Corona Street hives were treated with oxalic acid vapor.

Niagara Way hives were treated with oxalic acid vapor.

Corona Street hives were treated with oxalic acid vapor treatments.

Niagara Way hives were treated with Oxalic acid vapor.

Corona Street hives were treated with Oxalic acid vapor.

Niagara Way hives were treated with Oxalic acid vapor.

We will be harvesting the Corona Street hives. Our plan is to leave the double deep bodies for each hive and the overwinter survival. We will be harvesting the single or double honey supers. The lower brood boxes were quickly inspected for adequate survival resources. After harvest, the first mite oxalic acid vapor treatments were performed.

A quick inspection was performed for each hive. All hives are queen-right and look strong. I am a bit concerned about the number of bees as these hives all suffered a break in queen activity. I am less concerned about mite activity as these hives did have an interrupted brood cycle for at least 2-3 weeks. In general, they look good going into fall

I got a call from Officer Ed that some bees may have moved back into his empty hive body. My first suspicion was that the hive was being robbed out. Hive robing is common during late summer. I noticed that the heat and dryness has caused a dearth. The bees are confirming this as a significant amount of robing has been observed. This hive was being robbed out.