Sticky-board varroa count

I put in a sticky-board three days ago and took it out today. That's it on the left. When I took out the tray 3 days ago, there were about 10 bees in the space below the screen bottom of the hive. I looked carefully with a flashlight to see if there was a hole in the screen (there wasn't). I don't know how the bees got in there. There had been some before when I had taken out the tray for inspection. Maybe they get in around the tray's edges; after all, it doesn't fit perfectly. Anyway, I think the bees get their nourishment through the screen from their sisters in the hive. Naturally, I wanted to get them out before putting in the sticky-board. First, I left the tray out for some time, but no one flew out. I used my bee brush, duct-taped on a stick to reach, to try to brush them out, but only got a couple. I put honey on the tray and put it back in place hoping to attract them off the screen and then I could pull them out with the tray, but they didn't fall for it, so, tante pis for them. You can see them on the sticky-board. You can also see the pollen and other debris that fell through the sceen in 3 days.
Here is a close up of one of the squares on the sticky-board. The dark oval shapes are varroa mites. There are 4 in this square. I counted a total of 56 mites. Over 3 days, that equals 18.66 mites/day. According to all the online sources, this is within safe parameters at this time of year, so I won't treat. As has been mentioned before, some beekeepers never treat, believing in survival of the fittest and trying to select for survivor strains.
My girls are still going through the syrup quickly. They are also busy foraging, bringing back white, orange and red pollens.

Whats happening to all that sugar syrup?

I made a quick inspection today. I wanted to see 1) how much honey was being made, 2) what the bees were doing with all the syrup they've been eating, and 3) if they have drawn comb on the new frame that was placed 10 days ago.
In the top super, there was liquid, probably sugar water in the frames just below the feeder. These are the frames I moved from the middle super a few weeks ago. They had brood then; now just nectar.
The middle super felt pretty heavy. (Remember, the bees need 30-40 pounds of honey over the winter.) I pulled out one frame that was full of capped honey. I didn't look at any more, but by the weight, I think they're doing well.
I pulled out the new frame from the brood box- no comb drawn.
The girls were calm and happy.
I'm learning a lot from The Biology of the Honeybee. More of that will come later.

My new feeder

I put the new circular feeder and Vivaldi top on the hive this morning. The picture on the left shows the bees going after the 2:1 sugar syrup. It was taken about 4 hours after the feeder was placed. On the right is a close-up of the bees inside the cup drinking the syrup. I can take the top off the hive to get at the feeder without disturbing the colony. There is a lid that goes on the feeder.

Hive inspected by an expert.

Yesterday, Ian Coulson came out to inspect my hive. Ian is an experienced beekeeper and founded the Santa Cruz Beekeepers Guild. As you may recall, I had spoken with him about my hive and concerns regarding honey stores. He offered to stop by the next time he was out this way. He called yesterday while I was at work and Maidi told him to stop by and look without me. He did so, inspected my hive and had a sandwich that Maidi prepared for him.
I spoke, at length, with him today. He had good news. Firstly, he said I have a very nice hive that is well located. The bees are pretty, happy and calm. The queen is beautiful. My colony looks good and the amount of honey being stored is probably going to be enough. He agrees that I should be feeding them now and should continue probably through October, although I should make the syrup 2:1 rather than 1:1. My new circular feeder and Vivaldi top arrived. I put the first coat of paint on this morning and soon will apply the second. I won't be able to put it on until Friday because of work.
We talked about treating for diseases. He doesn't treat his many hives, believing in survival of the fittest in order to breed tougher stock. He is willing to lose 1/3 of his hives, though. Nosema is not common here, but I can look out for signs and treat if need be. Foul brood is around, and I should treat if any trace of it appears, like a bad smell (like dirty gym socks). I may follow other beekeepers advice and treat prophylacticaly. I should check for mites now although Russian bees are supposed to be able to deal with them themselves.
We also talked about disturbing the colony by inspecting. He thinks this should be kept to a minimum although he understands my newbie interest and desire to look in often. He recommended being careful not to disrupt the cluster, where all the bees are concentrated around the brood, especially when the weather is cool. He suggested making an observation hive, something I've been considering. He suggest an Ulster type and gave some other practical advice.
I asked about swarming and when the swarm season is; around Easter and lasting about 2 months. If I want to get a swarm for my second hive (I do), I can put my name on a list at different places that people call for swarm removal. I might try a bait hive, too.
Ian knows quite a bit about bees and is the first to say that his approach is not mainstream, maybe even a little eccentric. If you ask 5 beekeepers for advice, you'll get 10 opinions.

Nighttime bee care

I went to the Santa Cruz Beekeepers Guild meeting tonight after marimba. The meeting was supposed to be about fall maintenance, and it was, in part. One of the off-agenda topics was robbing. I had noted some robbers hanging around my hive and had even tried to get a video of them to post. The robbers hang around in front of the hive, crawl over cracks between boxes and even go under the edge of the telescoping top. They also try to get in the door, and I was enjoying watching the guard bees chase them off. Other indications of robbing, besides seeing the robbers, include generally more aggressive bees and that heavy honey-laden robbers leaving the hive that fall a bit before going up on take-off. In my case, I also know that any Italian is a thief. But tonight I found out that honey robbing isn't all that innocent. Apparently, this has been a bad year for honey production. I only have one frame full of honey, and that isn't nearly enough. At least 30 pounds of honey is what is recommended to get the bees through winter and early spring until the honey flow. 30 pounds is 9 medium or 6deep frames full. Ian advised me to place the entrance reducer tonight (to help keep out robbers) and to start feeding them, also. At the meeting they also demonstrated a circular feeder and a Vivaldi board. Since I will need to feed the bees for the next couple of months, and the outside feeder I have been using attracts robbers, I decided I should get the circular feeder. So, when I got home, I went out and put in the entrance reducer. I also put the Boardman feeder on top of the inner cover, put a deep super on top and the telescoping lid over all. When the Vivaldi top and feeder arrive, they will be installed instead.
Varroa mite treatment was also discussed. Various treatments were discussed. It was pointed out that the mites quickly develop resistance, so it might be best to use more natural controls, like the drone brood frame, formic acid and powdered sugar.
There were other problems and techniques bandied about. Beekeeping is for more involved than I had imagined it would be.

Paranoia and emergncy inspection

While watching the bees this afternoon, one suddenly flew right at my face, landing on my mustache! I frantically brushed it off and made a rapid retreat. My girls had never been so fiesty... except once, when they were queenless! Oh-no! What if I had lost the queen in the last inspection? Would it be too late in the year to replace her? Would I even be able to get a new queen? Who would I consult? Would Tom at Honey Bee Genetics be able to help? These thoughts and more went through my mind as I was tending to the roses. Would the 3 more days until Friday to inspect make a difference? I decided to bite the bullet and take a look today. I would go right to the deep box, remove the drone brood frame and look for the queen. If she wasn't in the deep box, I'd put the middle super on and look for her there, then the top super if need be. A short inspection.
But first, a little about why I wanted to remove the drone brood frame and what I had been watching at the hive entrance.
When I looked at the hive yesterday evening, I saw many dead bees on the porch. Was there a problem? Then I saw that they were dead drone larvae and there were actually trails leading to them where they had been dragged. There were even more bodies on the ground in front of the hive. I had read that the bees would eat the dead larva and recapture the protein. Perhaps they were unpalatable because they had been sitting unfrozen in the garage for so long. I figured I'd take a drive to Mountain Feed & Farm Supply this week to get some new frames, and on Friday, next planned inspection, replace the drone frame with a regular frame.
When looking at the hive entrance today, I saw two bees struggling with each other. One was a Russian and the other an Italian, an interloper! The Russian was all over the trespasser and dragged her off the porch and they fell to the ground. The wrestling carried them over to the dry creek, where finally the Italian escaped and flew off. It didn't look like either was trying to sting, but the Russian seemed to be biting the other one. I suppose I'll learn more about this sort of thing further along in my text book. So, later on, I saw two more bees struggling, but they were both Russians. They fought around on the porch, then suddenly stopped and began grooming themselves. It was then that I was attacked.
Back to the inspection: After smoking the hive, I inverted the top on the ground and placed the top super on it. Then the middle super went on top of it, making sure that the clumps of bees were over the lid and the other super. I also looked on the ground to be sure the queen hadn't fallen off in the transfer. I took out the drone brood frame, which still had plenty of dead larvae in it. The workers had started repairing the cells also. I set this frame aside, with a few hundred bees on it, and started looking for the queen, one frame at a time. The first two frames didn't have much going on. Then I started seeing capped brood. I looked and looked for larvae, but didn't see any. Oh-oh, no new eggs would mean no queen. Frame after frame, capped brood, no larvae, no queen. Then, much to all our relief, there she was on the 3rd to last frame. Whew!

Biology of the Honey Bee

It's been nearly two weeks since I'd been into the hive. It was partly overcast and warm today. The bees were calm throughout the entire inspection, which was a bit long. I hope my girls didn't get too cold. I've read that if the inspection takes long, the beekeeper should put on the inner cover, but I didn't, being unsure of how I could then look into the hive.
The two frames I had put into the top super still had brood in them, or maybe new brood; no honey. I took two more frames with some brood from the middle super and switched them with two frames from the top super. According to Franklin Carrier, this is done to prevent swarming and to make more honey.
I spotted the queen in the middle super. When I moved the super, I, again, placed it very carefully on the top super which was on the inverted lid. (Moving these is a bit like the Towers of Hanoi.) I noted which frame she was on (4th) and when I put the super back on, looked to see if she was still there- she wasn't. I looked at the two frames to either side- she wasn't there either. I then put the top super back on and looked there for her- no luck. I looked all around the ground and didn't see her or any other bees. I can only assume/hope that she just moved to another frame or into the lower brood box.
Before going into the hive, I prepared the drone brood frame. I uncapped the cells with a fork. Many of the dead larvae had liquified. So, naturally, I wondered if this was because of foul brood disease. Larva that die from this do liquify. But, I figured that it is unlikely that my hive is infected. There should be evidence of disease if it were there and these larvae had been in the freezer for 2 days.
On a more interesting note- I started reading The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark L. Winston, one of the textbooks that was recommended by Thomas Seeley. I've learned some fascinating stuff. Bees have sensory hairs between facets of their compound eyes that sense wind direction. This allows them to adjust for wind-drift when trying to fly in a certain direction. They can sense which direction odors come from via their antennae, there are special notches in their forelegs they use to clean their antennae and there is an intricate arrangement of hairs and bristles on their hind legs that is used to pack and carry pollen.