Small Hive Beetle Trap

I guess at some point or other every beekeeper has to deal with small hive beetles.  We've been dealing with ours here for a few weeks, and it seems like we're getting the upper hand.  We've got lots of lines of defense in place, and each one of them is catching beetles.  I'm open to helpful suggestions in the comments section below.

Got the idea for this contraption on YouTube. It's quite a simple concept, really.  To build one you'll need a 10-foot 2x4 (I used treated), #6 hardware cloth with a footprint big enough to cover the floor of the hive, a piece of plywood (I used 3/4 inch), and an 8-foot 2x2.  Finally you'll need screws or nails to hold it all together.

The holes in the #6 screen are big enough for the beetles to climb through, but too small for the honey bees.

The aluminum tray I purchased for $2 at a discount store, and it slides in from the back of the hive.  The tray is given a layer of canola oil (supposed to have the least odor) to about half of its depth.  The 2-inch depth of the tray allows for the forward tilt of the hive with no oil spillage when carefully removing the tray.

Tomorrow my wife and I plan to do some inspecting and super-shifting, so we plan to install at least one of these at that time.  We also need to combine a weak colony with a strong one, otherwise the weak one is not going to survive the winter.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Sunrise: 6:31 am

Sunset: 7:46 pm

Temperature at Noon: 90 degrees

Sun's Angle at Noon: 59 degrees

UV: High

Humidity: 54%

Three Hives and Counting

The buckwheat in the top field is looking good all over again.  The bees have come out of the woodwork and are devouring this new crop.

One of our babies taking a drink.

This is the second crop from this field of buckwheat.

The field is looking good.  The crop down below has again gone back to seed.  I'm going to mow it down again, till it in and see if the seeds will sprout once more before the cold.

Got ourselves another hive working.  This colony was extracted from inside a neighbor's wall.  Couldn't believe the size of it when I got the wall open.  The colony had grown to fill the entire space in the wall. Took several hours inside the suit to get the comb moved and the bees in the new hive.  My wife and I created a large bee compound out of a blue plastic 55-gallon drum.  We cut a hole in the top to accommodate the top of a 2-horse-power Shop-Vac.  We gently vacuumed the bees into the barrel and emptied them into the hive once we got it situated.  Lots of work, but a week later the colony has recovered and is going strong.  We'll see.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Sunrise: 6:28 am

Sunset: 7:52 pm

Temperature at Noon: 81 degrees

Sun's Angle at Noon: 61 degrees

UV: Moderate

Humidity: 63%

Bees On the Buckwheat

If you grow it, they will come ....

I never thought I could have pride in a field of flowers, but here we are.  Just a handful of snaps from the resurrected buckwheat.



The first time this field came up the plants were nowhere near this healthy-looking.  A ton of lime on the half-acre has really made a difference since the last planting.  This crop is from the original planting; once the flowers went back to seed I mowed it all down, limed the field and tilled everything back in.

The hum on the field is once again very pleasant.  These pictures show that the flowers have yet to fully open.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Sunrise: 6:10 am
Sunset: 7:27 pm
Temperature at Noon: 85 degrees
Sun's Angle at Noon: 71 degrees
UV: High
Humidity: 71%

Small Hive Beetle Control

I found this interesting article by Jon Zawislak, from the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture regarding the control of Small Hive Beetles:

http://articles.extension.org/pages/60425/managing-small-hive-beetles

We are trying to deal with beetles right now.  Open to any Alabama suggestions you might have.

We're in the process of trying:

• Sticky paper under the screened bottom board

• Vaseline on the screened bottom board

• Squishin' 'em when we see 'em.

• Vacuuming them out.

• Oil-filled beetle traps between the frames.

We seem to have more than our fair share right now.

Springtime Revisited

Monday, August 14, 2017

Sunrise: 6:08 am
Sunset: 7:30 pm
Temperature at Noon: 90 degrees
Sun's Angle at Noon: 72 degrees
UV: Low
Humidity: 90%

The buckwheat is definitely looking healthy again, but only gets visited by our babies until noon each day.

The lime has definitely helped with the health and abundance of the plants.  I had a soil test done, and they said, "Add this.  Add that," and the chemistry is working wonders.

It looks like springtime again in the field.  This buckwheat is amazing.

We're thinking ahead to fall and are planning to lay down some white clover seed.  Then we thought in the spring we'd scatter some alfalfa and some more buckwheat.  We might have another go with some yellow sweet clover ... we'll see.

Hive Personalities

Monday, July 24, 2017

Sunrise: 5:54 am
Sunset: 7:48 pm
Temperature at Noon: 79 degrees
Sun's Angle: 78 degrees
UV: Very High
Humidity: 72%


At the height of the day the front of hive #1 looks a little sparse, yet activity inside the hive indicates a healthy population. The coming and going from the entrance is constant. At night time everyone is pretty much tucked up inside and no one really comes out till morning.





Hive #2 is a completely different ball of beeswax. Throughout the day there is a constant gathering of chatterboxes pretty much over the front of the whole hive. There is, just like with #1, a constant coming and going, even though it is said we are well past the honey/nectar flow. At night the whole front and landing board is completed covered with little bodies -- unless the temperature is cool, then everyone is inside.



The difference between the two colonies is remarkable. Presently I don't have the experience to know if I should be concerned. This is definitely normal -- for now -- and there doesn't appear to be any distress ... with either hive. I'm keeping a daily eye on things, so we'll see.

The buckwheat has resurfaced.   Last time it took two weeks to flower.  We're watching.

Re-planting the Buckwheat

Wednesday July 19, 2017

Sunrise: 5:51 am
Sunset: 7:51 pm
Temperature at Noon: 90 degrees
Sun's Angle: 78 degrees
UV: Extreme
Humidity: 60%

A couple of days ago I began preparation for tilling the returned-to-seed buckwheat back in.  Things went like this:

• Late in the evening I mowed down the buckwheat which had gone to seed in the field

• Next day I bought and spread two tons of agricultural lime over the acre I mowed down — $30 a ton with free use of the spreader pulled around the field behind our 4WD Silverado

• Later that day I began tilling the seed back in to a depth of about 3-4 inches

• Got lucky with the rain later which drizzled on the newly-tilled field

• Next day pulled a drag around the field to smooth things out (drag looks more or less like this to the left — nothing fancy or complicated)

The field looks gorgeous right now.  We're waiting to see what comes up ... maybe something ... maybe nothing.  We'll see.

Bee Stings Resurrected a Week Later

While preparing to move the hive I was adopting I received a smattering of bee stings; some on the hands (I was wearing a not-thick-enough pair of rubber gloves, since replaced with better) and a couple on the face where the veil touched my chin a time or two.  Honey bees see heat, and so detected that my skin was touching the veil.

At first my skin reacted as it does when I get a fire ant bite: swelling, itchy spots, redness, which later turn into small pus-filled blisters.  The sensation wasn't so bad, and within a few days the stings had more or less disappeared.

About a week later I woke in the middle of the night to the sensation of inconsolable itchiness where every one of those stings had been.  Ice was the only thing that calmed the skin down.  The back of my right hand swelled to almost twice its normal size.  The finger joints were stiff.  I was miserable for the better part of another week.

I did some online research and learned that this reaction was apparently quite normal for first-time honey bee stings.  I've been stung by other critters throughout my life, but this was the first time by honey bees.  I haven't again been stung during the months that have followed moving the hive, so I have yet to see if this response will be true for me.  We'll see ....

As a closing thought, it's best to do all you can to avoid being stung by your bee-babies — not because it's uncomfortable, but because when the honey bee stings you the stinger and a portion of the bee's abdomen remains attached to your skin as the bee pulls away, ultimately resulting in the death of one of the critters you have chosen to take charge of.  Of the two of you, the only survivor will be you — unless, of course, you learn that you have a mortal allergy to honey bee venom.

Calming Down a Feisty Hive

Soon after we purchased our first hive and installed (for want of a better word) a family, or colony, of bees, we inherited another colony.  The colony's owner discovered he had an allergy to bee venom and didn't take care of the hive's needs as he would like to have done.  Over time the colony became used to stillness around its borders and the bees became irritable when approached.

I have no words to describe the fierce activity surrounding me as I prepared the hive to be moved to its new location.  Needless to say, the atmosphere was noisy.

For about a week, as I made attempts to visit our numbers 1 and 2 hives, the new family spotted me coming and sent out a posse to head me off.  It was frustrating.  I eventually kept a water misting bottle with me whenever I was planning to be anywhere close to the hive.  That helped, but it wasn't very peaceful.

In a post or two back I gave a link to a book I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to: "Telling the Bees" (go check it out); it was in this book that I learned of a very simple idea to calm down feisty families.  My version of the waving rag went something like this:

My wife spotted a design of a lawn flag that she liked, so I picked one up.  Later that evening when it got dark I snuck the flag out to the hive and stuck it in the ground about ten feet from the entrance.  The idea is that the flag gently flaps in the breeze where the bees can see it.  At first the flag was of a concern to the bees, but within a couple of days the bees got used to the activity and all the feisty was gone.  Now I visit them and they don't even see me coming; I can stand and enjoy the hive activities without any fear of setting off a revolution.  It's great.

White Clover Just About Gone in Early July

Early July 2017 and the volunteer white clover is all but gone from our fields.

Still flowers on the mimosas, but our bees don't appear terribly interested in our mimosas.  Very few field flowers growing elsewhere around our place.  

Lots of verbena up right now, but our bees don't seem interested in that either.

The buckwheat has turned back to seed.  Getting ready to till that back in and see what happens.

Here's a link to the Mann Lake website.  Some of the finest beekeeping supplies available:

https://www.mannlakeltd.com/

Let the Bees Do the Clean-up

Recently I harvested some honey from our #2 hive, the one we inherited as an ongoing concern.  The colony was fairly strong and, due to the absence of its owner, was somewhat aggressive when approached, especially during and after the move.  I'll share an observation about how we calmed them down, but first this:

I might have mentioned that I got a 2-frame extractor for my birthday this year, so getting to the honey was a fairly simple job.  At the end of a couple of hours' work, though, a person is left with a sticky mess to clean up.  The extractor drum is covered with stickiness that there is no hope of you getting into a jar.  The frames and what's left of the foundation is just — well — sticky.  A friend, who has been around commercial beekeepers and has had his own hives, suggested putting all the equipment and empty frames outside the hives and let the bees clean everything up.  Brilliant!  I thought, and so that's just what I did.


Within a couple of days the Bees had returned to the hive all the honey and pollen that I could do nothing with.  All that was left was a small pile of wax the bees deemed unusable.  I put everything out by the hives after dark, so as not to stir up an almost literal hornets' nest around the beehives.  By the next day around lunchtime, when everything had warmed up, just about half the population of our number 1 and 2 hives (thousands of bees) was out doing clean-up duty on the equipment.  It was quite a sight to see.

Now all the equipment needs is a good wash and dry, and it will be ready to store.

I'll share later what we did to calm down the feisty hive.  Suffice it to say, it work perfectly.

Here's a link to a fun-looking site entitled "Beekeeping Like a Girl."  My girls are interested in our hive activities, so I'm guessing some other young ladies would enjoy seeing this site.  Take a look:

http://beekeepinglikeagirl.com/5-creative-beehives/

A Great Read: "Telling the Bees."

I have listened to the audiobook version of this great read.

There is so much information shared regarding the art of beekeeping, all wrapped up in a complex murder mystery.

One listen is definitely not enough.

Can't recommend the book more highly.

Click the image below to follow a link to Amazon for a preview:

My First Observations - July 2017

• Our bees like white clover, any time of the day, and especially when it is in the sun.

• White clover grows well around here, with very little coaxing, and it comes up year after year ... stronger than the last.  It is apparently best to scatter clover seed before the first frost, then as the soil crystallizes and thaws the seed will drop into an ideal depth.

• In Central Alabama a 25lb bag of White Durana Clover will cost about $120, but is a perennial and will come up every spring.

• Our bees like buckwheat, which grows well around here.  Buckwheat grows best when you till it in a few inches.  We tried just scattering the seed and letting it sit, but won't waste our time doing it that way again, as very little came up.

• Buckwheat is visited by our bees mostly in the morning ... very little after noon.

• In Central Alabama a 50lb bag of buckwheat will cost about $40, but has to be replanted.  Our buckwheat just finished flowering (end of June) and has gone back to seed.  We're waiting for a soil test to come back, (which will tell us why some areas of our land are more productive than others), then we're going to till the seed back in and see what happens.

Here's an interesting link regarding grants for beekeeping:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/grants-starting-apiary-20755.html