Booming hives = irritable hives

The last couple of weeks in our backyard have had one thing in common - irritable bees. Normally I get stung very seldom. This year I have had my bare hands inside at least one hive every week since April, but have received only 6 stings. Bees are defensive stingers. In contrast to wasps, bees die when they sting you, so hives that sting excessively without reason would suffer from the loss in population and be less likely to thrive. That means that when a bee stings you, you almost certainly did something to trigger defensive behavior.

Last week I got 3 of my 6 stings in one night. That was an interesting evening in the bee yard, if not fun. Amy and I wanted to do a detailed inspection of the long hive to determine if we needed to continue feeding.

Lesson 1: Bees with stores are defensive bees.

It turned out that the long hive Aureus had plenty of stores, and we could have determined that just by looking at how angry the girls were to have us in their home.

Lesson 2: Bees are more defensive in the evening.

Bees don't like being disturbed late, and we were still in the hive taking photos as the sun went down (expect some of our hard-won images in the next post). Also, as all of the foragers return to the hive, more bees of guard age are available to get agitated.

Lesson 3: Once the bees are upset, they don't care that you are just trying to close up the hive.

Amy got 1 bad sting, and I walked away with a serious sting and 2 minor ones. And putting the top back on the hive was a particular challenge since we (having retreated to regroup) knew that the next person to go within 6 feet of the hive would get stung. Sometimes you just need a beesuit...

On the plus side, at least we know now that Aureus is doing exceptionally well. This hive has tripled in size since it started as a split from Voyager on June 20, and they have plenty of stores and bees to defend them with.

We might have mites!

As the Fall season approaches the nights are cooler and the humidity is down. This is a very pleasant time of year. But early September is also the peak of the Varroa mite population. The mites get a slow start in the Spring and their numbers lag behind the quickly growing bee population. But as the queen reduces her rate of egg laying in the Fall, the mites have their chance to catch up.

Varroa mites grow most rapidly when there is drone brood available to feed off of. So the mite population peaks when the last of the Summer's drones emerge from their cells. Then, they continue to reproduce at the expense of the slowly dwindling number of Fall bees. There is a danger as the bees enter their Winter cluster that they will be overwhelmed by the large number of mites. What can we do about this?

The solution starts earlier in the year. It is most important to keep the number of mites from ever getting to dangerous levels. Rather than wait for the mite peak and then hope your one-shot treatment will be enough to save the hive, it's safer to start early and hit the mites repeatedly. Our preferred method of non-synthetic chemical treatment is powdered sugar. Shaking sugar over the brood nest frames stimulates the hygienic cleaning behavior of the bees. As they clean themselves, the mites are dropped through the screened bottom and are not able to climb back into the hive.

Another commonly used trick to defeat the mites is drone brood trapping. Since the mites prefer drones as a food source, you can reduce their numbers by removing capped drone comb before the drones (and the mites) emerge. The frames can be placed in the freezer for 48 hours and then replaced in the hive. The mites are dead and will be cleaned up by the bees. Then the drone comb will be used to start another generation of drones and the process starts over. Combining drone brood trapping and powdered sugar treatment can really knock the mites back to the point where they will not pose a threat to the health of the hive. And that's good news for everyone.