Winter Solstice and Hive Activity

So far winter here in the Puget Sound has been warm and we even broke an all time record with 66F degrees on Dec 10th.  A few cold snaps have also blown through that took out pretty much everything that wasn't supposed to be blooming for this time of year, and forced plants into their winter dormancy.

One perk of the warmer weather is I was able to do a full hive inspection to see what they were up to for this time of year, and likely will have another chance to do another full inspection this season.  A downside is that I suspect they are burning through food reserves being so busy right now.  Another risk they could run into is that they could get caught in period of freezing weather with a lot of brood to keep warm.

I'm not sure how often people look around the site, but I've updated the Bee Plants page to bring it up to date!  Here's the newest profile:

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a small evergreen tree that adds an exotic look to our Northwestern gardens with it's large glossy leaves.  This plant is a native to south-central China and while it does need slightly warmer weather than our area can provide to produce mature fruit, it will still flourish as an ornamental.  New leaves will be fuzzy red to yellowish in color and slowly mature to a dark green.  Stems of the tree are light brown and also slightly fuzzy and while it looks delicate is actually pretty tough in our climate.  In December it will produce clusters of whitish flowers that give off a sweet scent that can smelled for a distance.  Once established trees will show a degree of drought tolerance, however they have a shallow root system and care should be taken to not disturb the soil under the canopy.

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica)

Here's the Ballard daughter hive on 12/5/2014.  If you can't see the video, use the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efljOTnXEKY&feature=youtu.be

Crimson clover is slowly growing in my planters as a winter cover crop, and am thinking I should start it earlier next year.  Hopefully the birds and squirrels let some of it survive till spring so that it can do it's magic to amend the soil, and maybe bloom to provide an early nectar source.

Bodnant Viburnum has come into bloom.

Mahonia powers through our winters essentially immune to whatever mother nature throws at it.  They are amazingly drought tolerant as well.

Hive checks (12/5/2014)
Ballard daughter
It was 52F today with calm weather and I did a full inspection.  This is the latest point in the year I've ever done a full inspection on any hive.  The queen looked good and I found a patch of brood across 3 frames.  Largest patches of brood were on the sides of the comb facing the back of the hive away from the entrance.   The brood nest started on frame 5 in from the entrance.  I saw a few 7-8 day old larvae in the brood nest as well which means they were raising brood during the last cold snap.  On the very last frame of the brood nest I found a small cluster of dead/dying bees that couldn't get around the comb to the warmer parts of the cluster.  The side of the comb there were on also didn't have any honey stores left.  They are currently robbing honey from the Roma hive and I moved some of the best frames into the hive to save them effort.  These bees definitely have Italian traits.

Dead bees at the end of the cluster on a side of comb with no food reserves.

They have drones!  There were more than just these two.

The queen is laying!

I often find wax moth larvae trying to hide in the grooves above the top bars.  They don't actually get into the hive and are usually safe unless I'm inspecting which exposes their hiding spots.

There were a few frames like this and I didn't want to brush off the bees for a better photo but the brood is there in the middle and there was also uncapped larvae.

Roma
Sadly they didn't make it.  I moved the best frames of honey to the Rosemary daughter, Ballard daughter and Rose hives.

This is what it looks like when comb is torn open to get the honey.  Oddly I never see this rough behavior when they are opening their own combs to get honey.  Perhaps they just clean it up better when it's their own comb.

Scriber Creek
I thought it was odd there was no activity and when I took a look was surprised to find they died in the last cold snap.  I last inspected them on 10/5/2014 and they looked great and didn't see signs of disease.  There didn't seem to be very many dead bees on the bottom of the hive and I did notice what think were a few zombie bee flies (Apocephalus borealis) running around.  I find it interesting the flies survived freezing weather without the benefit of a warm bee cluster. I pulled a few random dead bees from brood cells and a few did have varroa and signs of DWV which I had never seen in this hive before.  In October they really would only have had one more brood cycle for winter bees which seems odd they would have crashed that fast.

Rose
No inspection, but swapped an empty frame in the back for one with capped honey and pollen.

Rosemary daughter
No inspection and filled the back of the hive with honey bars.

Hive checks (12/6/2014)
Visual Checks on the Ballard, Rosemary, Solis and Dyno hives and they all had entrance activity.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff

Late Winter Is Tricky For Survival

Looking out the window it's hard to imagine anything other than being in the middle of a cold and gloomy winter, but if you look closer mother nature is preparing the start of a new season.  More and more late winter plants are starting to come into bloom and in just a few months the air will be filled with nectar and pollen.  February and to some extent March are difficult for hives that survived the coldest months of winter to navigate.  Hives will need to start raising young and rebuilding numbers which means they need food, specifically pollen and nectar.

If a hive starts too late in the season to build up they aren't able to take advantage of the abundance of spring and early summer flowers and thus will miss the best window of time to reproduce (swarm).  However if they start too early and a winter storm moves in for more than a few days they get hit with two major problems.  One their food supply gets cut off, and the second is they have to try and keep their young warm.  Once they start building up and raising new bees they essentially put all their chips on the table and they will die to keep them warm and fed so timing is everything in this gamble to succeed.  Fortunately I've found that the bees are masters at predicting what's coming a season ahead and mother nature doesn't allow for sloppiness.

Speaking of plants in bloom, here are just a few the bees might be finding on those nicer days.

Loquat isn't very common to find but it always is covered in bees.

Viburnum tinus is a great all winter bloomer.

Bodnant Viburnum has come into bloom.

Helleborus is just starting to bloom providing a great winter pollen source.

Witch Hazel is coming into bloom.

Sarcococca ruscifolia may not be a native to the area but this small shrub fits right into our woodland gardens here in the Northwest.  This slow growing evergreen needs a shady spot and has low water requirements once established.  The late winter blooms of this plant are fairly insignificant, however the sweet fragrance those tiny flowers make leaves a lasting impression that will make you want to run out and buy one for your yard.  If there is winter sun the bees will find this one wherever you put it, however to get the most enjoyment from their scent you will ideally want to plant several near a walkway.  They also produce non-editable berries that are red or black that are often still on the plant the following season.

Overwintered Dandelion is blooming and provides both nectar and pollen.  Apparently winter this year was just mild enough for last years plants to overwinter for these early blooms.

Crocus are just starting to come up and are an excellent pollen source.

Winter Heather has been blooming for months.

Jasminum nudiflorum has started to bloom.

Hive Checks (1/20/2014)
The weather when I was checking today was about 40F which is typically too cold for an inspection.  However the sun was out and shining brightly and with top bar hives I can peak at the edges of the cluster without releasing much cluster heat because I'm not removing the roof.

Geeks
- Not flying.  May not have a queen since I found one outside on the doorstep a few weeks ago.  Moved honey frames closer to the cluster.

Geek Daughter
- Not flying.  Moved honey frames closer to the cluster.

Rebels
- I find it strange that these girls have been flying this season in the cool weather because they never have liked to fly in cool weather before.  Moved honey closer to the cluster.

Rosemary Swarm
- Added some honey frames from the Architect hive and some raw sugar.  They had a good number of bees coming and going.

Ballard Swarm
- Same as the Rosemary Swarm.  Added some honey frames from the Architect hive and some raw sugar.  They had a good number of bees coming and going.

Icon Granddaughter
- They didn't make it.  Looking at the frames the cause of death looks a little like they died during the deep freeze in late Nov/early Dec.  They were surrounded by honey on all sides and above.  The bees didn't look like they were sick and I want to say they died due to failure to cluster.

Architects
- They didn't make it.  It looks like the DWV that was there late summer took them out.  I wasn't sure if they could pull through going into fall since they had good numbers.  Pulling un-emerged bees from cells they all had DWV.

Hive Checks (1/25/2014)
It was just under 50F today and sunny.

Sand
To my surprise they were flying and looked like they were in good shape with plenty of honey nearby.  It seems that the new queen was able to power through the DWV that was taking hold in this hive last August.

Luna
They didn't make it. Small cluster without any food nearby on the frame.  It looks like they ignored all the sugar I gave them as well.

Solis
Hanging on but they didn't look very strong.  They were not near any honey and I put sugar into empty frames so they had something within reach.  If there are no major storms they have a chance of making it but otherwise I don't think the cluster is big enough to stay warm enough.  I have noticed that both this hive and the Luna hive seem to be in a cold spot even though they are at the peak of the hill in an otherwise sunny location.  I suspect the building and trees are creating a 10-15 foot micro climate around the hives that keeps these hives colder in the winter when the sun is further South.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff