Buzzz
Warning: technical discussion about bees. For more fun involving brain ticks, Joe Biden-isms, and Cooch with his modest Virtus, check back later.
We were all about bees yesterday. After last year’s multi-swarm summer (see here, here, here, and here for details), we are now faithful about getting into the bees every week during the prime swarm season (late April — June). We plan to frequently check our established hive into July and August. So far, so good!
Our established Langstroth hive is humming along, the queen is laying eggs, and the gals are starting to put nectar in the honey super. No sign of any swarm cells, and they have plenty of room in there. We’ve been using drone traps and powdered sugar this spring to control the varroa mite population. It seems that lots of people out there want to see what a drone trap is, so I finally took some pictures of what we use. All we do is cut the bottom three-fourths (or more) of foundation out of a frame. Then we set it in the hive. (Note: mark the top of the frame for easy recognition when you’re in the hive next time.) Here’s a drone trap before it goes into the hive:
ok, so we cut out more than 3/4 of the foundation
Here’s a drone trap after it’s been in the hive. Notice that most of the cells are capped. You can tell they’re drone brood cells because they’re larger than worker cells, due to the extreme largeness and manliness of the drones, which are bigger than workers.
big bulging cells for big burly drones
The reason for drone traps: Varroa mites prefer to lay eggs in drone cells — the life cycle of a larval / pupal drone matches very well with the life cycle of young varroa mites. Modern foundation has imprinted cells that are worker-sized (actually, perhaps a little too big), but small for drones. The thought is that this causes the workers to create more worker cells and the queen lays more fertilized (worker) eggs. When left to their own devices, workers will make more drone cells (according to current thoughts). For whatever reason, allowing the workers to build their own comb in one or two frames results in a frame of drone brood. The queen senses the drone cells and lays unfertilized (drone) eggs. The varroa mites sense the drone larvae and lay their eggs in the cells, too. The worker bees cap the drone cells, which now may have 1 to 6 young varroa that will suck the hemolymph from the growing bee larva / pupa. BUT…removing the frame of capped drone brood removes that generation of varroa form the hive. What, you may ask, do we do with the frame of drone brood? Chickens. We cut the bottom of the comb out (the part with the capped brood) and give it to them. They love pecking out the young drone brood, which contains lots of protein. That’s why bears love beehives — lots of young bees to eat.
Our two new top bar hives seem to be doing well. We love these hives so far (I know, it’s only been three or four weeks). The bees are drawing out comb from the top bars, and the comb is beautiful. Here’s a picture:
new comb in a top bar hive (see the queen?)
The [unmarked] queen’s on the left side. If you look closely, you may be able to see eggs in some of the cells. Again, these hives are so cool. We’ll have to post more about them, and how the bees make this shape comb, later. And finally, our bee yard:
Langstroth, top bar, top bar
Now, back to a little more irreverence.