Endless Summer Fries Seattle Forage

For the most part foliage around the Puget Sound has mostly shriveled up with the lack of rain this summer.  We've already had more 90F+ days on record than ever and it's early August.  This is a very unusual summer with trees and shrubs going dormant early or in some cases dying.  There are a few sources producing flowers but unless there is a reliable water source they aren't making much nectar/pollen. The only sliver lining of being in the city is that people water their yards/gardens and that does keep a few things going.

Besides keeping a close eye on hives to make sure they aren't starving, this is also the time of year that disease can take hold.  This is in part due to increasing mite population levels and the slowed brood rearing rates.  The treatment free way to address this is to create a brood break so that hives can "reset" and raise healthy winter bees.  If disease takes hold over the next 6 weeks hives won't be able to raise healthy winter bees and will die.

Many beekeepers miss these signs and end up pinning the cause of hive death on yellow jackets, queen failure, or starvation.  So if disease is happening NOW, here are a few scenarios that might play out:

• Disease will hit fast and kill the hive by the end of September.  You will find a queen running around with eggs in cells but insufficient bees to support her.  There might be some patches of capped dead brood from rapid brood-nest collapse. You may see PMS as well if you look early enough before things start to mold. 
• Same as the above except yellow jackets will sweep in and clean up the hive with no resistance.  You find an empty hive with a few dead bees and probably yellow jackets.
• Disease kicks in and the queen also gets sick and dies.  They are unable to raise a healthy new emergency queen with the high disease levels in the brood and lack of nurse bees.  They become a laying worker hive and die out early winter.
• Same as the above except the yellow jackets clean up the doomed hive when they don't have enough workers to defend it anymore.
• The hive will battle and overcome the disease.  However they will not have raised enough healthy winter bees.  They will go into fall with what looks like a good sized cluster, and then as summer bees die will be left with a tiny cluster.  The first freeze will take them out and it may look like starvation.  It will look like small moldy cluster if you find them in early spring.
• An alternative of the above is that they go into winter still trying to raise a lot of winter bees, but can't keep all the brood warm in the cooler weather with so many summer bees dying and the hive collapses.
• The hive manages to make it through several freezes but the cluster size isn't viable for them to ever build up in spring.

Basically there are many ways this can play out and I don't want to say that yellow jackets aren't a menace, especially with queen rearing and nucs, but the point I'm making is that I see them getting a lot more credit than they deserve.  I believe strong healthy hives can usually protect themselves from yellow jackets.  While starvation is another very real concern, it also gets blamed as the cause of death when it can also just be a symptom of an underlying disease.  Addressing issues now is the single most important thing you can do to get your hives through winter.

Hebe is blooming.  This variety is a late summer bloomer and a huge bee magnet.

Catananche caerulea is in bloom.

Fennel is in bloom and attracting all kinds of pollinators.

Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' is in bloom.  I watched this poor bee struggle to wedge herself into flower after flower trying to get down deep enough to reach the nectar.  It's hard to say how successful she was.

Toad Lilly is blooming.

Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro)

This mid-summer flower will have bees falling over themselves to work, and it is not uncommon to see multiple types of bees, and butterflies working a single flower head in harmony.  Globe Thistle has spiked looking spherical blue/indigo flowers that are "hedgehog like" or Echinos in Greek.  While the common name says thistle this plant is actually in the aster family, and it's leaves do not have any spines that you would expect from a thistle.  However because the leaves are rough looking with deep cuts, and green on top with undersides that are slightly hairy and sliver green they can appear to resemble thistles.  This perennial is low maintenance, drought tolerant, and likes well drained soil which makes it well suited for local gardens.  Plant in full sun and water regularly to initially to establish plants.  New plants can be started from seed or root cuttings, while mature plants can be fussy when moved and do best when foliage is only cut back in spring.

Oregano is in bloom.

Butterfly bush is in bloom.  I've never noticed it to be a huge honey bee attractant.

Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin) is finishing up it's bloom cycle.

Bee Balm (Monarda) is in bloom.

Russian Sage is mostly done blooming now.

American Chestnut was blooming early July this year.

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ just finished blooming.

Lilies are blooming.

Ginger is blooming.

Fireweed is in bloom.

Hive checks (7/11/2015)

Luna
The hive was very calm and was showing signs that the nectar flow was over.  They have several frames of capped honey and have started condensing the broodnest.  They built out the three bars I gave them a couple weeks ago, but I didn't add more as it looks like they are scaling back to deal with the dry weather.

The well liked queen.

Solis
Much like the Luna hive they were also in good shape and the queen has a good laying pattern.  I saw a few newly emerged worker bees as well from the new queen.  This hive was giving off a more floral scent than the Luna hive which was smelling more like Chestnut honey.

Nice patches of brood.

Good looking queen.

Hive checks (7/12/2015)
Queen Castle - Slot 4
If you are following my notes closely I never noted that I put bees in here when I did the join with the Loyal Heights Nuc and the Queen from Slot 3.  I originally broke that Loyal Heights Nuc into 4 parts, but actually ended up pulling another two frames out of it to make room for the merge that I had planned to use to raise new queens from one of my other hives (that I haven't had a chance to do yet).  Despite the fact I just threw a couple frames of bees in here they managed to make a new queen and she looks great.  I also found a nice area of 5-7 day old larvae.  Maybe she won't be pissy like her mother.  In general it's not a good idea to let little nucs make queens but these girls pulled it off.

Nice looking new queen.

Roma
The hive looks good.  The queen is scaling back and they have great honey stores for a smaller sized hive going into blackberries.  They have some pollen reserves.

The queen is looking good.

Nice frame of capped honey.

Queen Castle - Slot 2
They've filled up the space and are running out of room.  Things look really good.

Good looking queen.

Queen Castle - Slot 1
Still pissy, but the queen is a workhorse when it comes to laying and they are building comb.  They don't have much in the way of stores.  I will eventually replace this queen for calmer genetics.

Another great looking frame of brood makes it hard to get rid of this queen.

Her evil majesty.

Loyal Heights Nuc
There are still some pissy bees in here, but overall they are MUCH calmer.  The queen has been busy and the hive is full of bees again.

The queen is getting used to her new home.

Attis Nuc
I found a single nurse bee with DWV, otherwise it looks like the new queen has cleared up the issue.  They don't have much honey stored so I will need to keep an eye on them to see how they fare over the next few months.  The bees are very calm in this hive.

The queen looks good.

Hive checks (7/13/2015)
Plum Creek
They looked good and are still building up.  They have a little honey stored.  The queen looked good.

She's a big queen.

Quickdraw
Not a lot of extra honey, but LOTS of pollen of many colors.  It seems that they got a gene that prefers to hoard pollen over honey. The queen had also laid out the hive with brood and they are about to explode in numbers (not that they are small by any means already).  Like the nucs, the queen looked big and ready to lay a lot of eggs.  What I've been noticing in the mature hives is the queens have slimmed down a bit as they cut back.

I'm not really sure what to make of them since they seem to be out of alignment with the seasons.  On the one hand I like that they work a variety of floral sources, and on the other they are raising a lot of brood going into a dearth and they didn't store enough honey.  I fear that they could easily starve themselves planning for a nectar flow that isn't coming.

Lots of colorful pollen.

The queen is looking good.

They started to tear up their frame and then they changed their mind and started using it for worker brood.  You can see it used to be drone brood and there are still a few holes left.

Nice frame of brood on the way.

Took measurements of new brood comb they built and it measured in at 5.3mm.  This is quite a bit bigger than I would expect for a regressed hive to build.

Dyno
The hive is full of bees and I was happy to find that they scaled back on the brace comb a bit (still more than I would like but better).  There is a LOT of honey in here that they are drying.  They also had a lot of burgundy pollen and a good amount of brood.  Rearranged a few frames to help condense the broodnest and gave away one frame to Plum Creek to make a little more room.  The broodnest in this hive is about halfway back in the hive with the front frames being pollen, nectar, and honey which is a little unusual.  This is a hot/sunny location so perhaps it's easier to keep the back of the hive cooler.

Nice frame of brood.

The queen is looking good.

Hive checks (7/14/2015)
Rosemary
There was some bad cross comb that I couldn't completely fix and only got halfway through the inspection before stopping as not to upset them too much.  I did see the queen, larvae, and eggs, but my guess is most of the broodnest is in the front of the hive.  There is a good amount of honey in the hive but it was spread out all over and there were very few full frames.

This queen has been going for at least 3 years.

Hive checks (8/8/2015)
Attis
The good news is there was no sign of DWV or disease and the hive was calm.  I didn't find any drones.  The broodnest had a nice solid pattern but was small and only covering a few frames.  They also have poor stores of honey and pollen.

This queen is not very robust.

Rebel
This hive is doing well and all the frames had nice looking pollen and honey arches.  She has a nice laying pattern as well and they were calm.  No signs of disease and lots of young bees which is great because that was an issue for this hive before swapping out the queen.  Honey stores are spread out over many frames.  Only saw a few drones but they are raising more.

The queen is looking good.

Titan
Found a pile of dead bees on the ground in front of the entrance that mostly looked like drones.  I saw an occasional drone in the hive, but there weren't many.  They were also calm and there were lots of young healthy bees with a solid brood pattern.  There is honey, but they aren't capping it yet.

This could be a sign of good hygienic traits in response to illness, that they are conservative/sensitive to food shortages, or a warning that they aren't able to raise healthy drones.  Most of these drones looked like they were pulled from brood cells.  I didn't see signs of disease on them and suspect they pulled them in response to the dearth.

The queen is looking good and they have brood over many frames.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff

A swarm in July

"A swarm in July ain't worth a fly"... at least that's what they say.  In the Seattle area I would agree that swarms this time of year or later are basically doomed unless a beekeeper makes an effort AND some investment to save them.  A big swarm could build enough comb but are unlikely to fill it unless they are near huge patches of Knotweed (which doesn't exist in many areas in the city) or maybe you haul them up to the mountains for Fireweed.  You could also steal honey and comb from other hives or get a couple 50lb bags of sugar and feed it as syrup over the next two months and hope they store enough for winter and also raise good winter bees.  However who says hobbies have to make money and if bees need saving then go for it.  If you are wondering where this is headed, read about my recent swarm adventure below in the hive notes.

Echinacea is now in bloom and a good nectar source.

A bumble is resting on this Dahlia flower.  Dahlia varieties with open petals can be good pollen and nectar sources.  Hint - if you can't see the pollen then the bees probably can't get to it or the nectar.

Caryopteris x clandonensis is another summer favorite that is a very popular nectar source.

Asters are in bloom and provide pollen and nectar.  A lot of the bright orange pollen coming is will be from asters.

Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin)

Many gardeners are surprised when they hear that we don't have many late summer flowers blooming in this area.  Blooming bushes and trees make up a large portion of forage for city hives which many gardeners forget about when they think of flowers.  To counter this I encourage people to plant trees and shrubs with late summer blooms to help provide abundant food sources.  The Silk Tree is a good example of a late summer nectar source and can also be very appealing in the garden.  These trees can range from 15 to 30 feet tall and have wide arching branches with wide flat crowns.  The leaves are fern like that droop downwards at night and the wispy flowers have long silky treads that are white with pink or red colored tips.  Like many good honey bee food sources the trees can be invasive in some areas.  These trees can also be messy in fall and are also susceptible to several disease which can make them short lived, but fortunately they grow quickly.  They prefer full sun and produce nectar in the morning hours which is often why you won't see many pollinators on them in the afternoons.

"Black & Blue" Salvia (Salvia guaranitica) has attractive deep blue flowers and also a good nectar source.

Hive checks (7/20/2014)
Solis
Found the new queen and she is a little smaller but looked like she had mated.  I couldn't find any eggs or brood yet.  Part of that might be due to the fact that the hive is smaller and doesn't have many workers left.

The new queen.

Luna
Similar to the Solis hive the new queen in here looks mated.  The two queens look really similar so I'm going to have a hard time telling them apart in pictures.  I found some larvae laid in drone cells, but only eggs in worker cells so far.  Will have to check back in a week or so to determine how well she mated.

The look-a-like sister.

Hive checks (7/26/2014)
Solis
The queen looked a little bigger and finally has started laying.  There was a small patch of young brood and eggs in worker cells.  The hive is just a few frames of bees so I stole a couple frames of bee bread from the Luna hive to help them along.  Looking at my estimates this marks 22 days since I pulled the queen.  Assuming they made a queen from 1-2 day old larvae a queen would have emerged about 11 days later.  Seeing that I have probably 1-2 day old larvae now she would have started laying 4-5 days ago which means it took her 6-7 days to mate and start laying.  Perhaps I was a bit eager last inspection to hope for eggs/brood.

Looking a little more queen like now.

She is looking for places to lay which is always a good sign.

Luna
This queen also looked a little bigger and is about the same size as her sister and mother.  Overall they are all slightly smaller than what I typically see for queens.  Also because of their striped markings they are much harder to spot and blend in well with the workforce.

There are several newly capped drone cells (laid in drone sized cells) and she has now started laying in worker cells as well.  There were multiple frames with brood in worker sized cells coming and she has the majority of the work force so it doesn't surprise me they are jumping ahead of the Solis hive.  No worker brood capped just yet though which will tell me how well she actually mated.  What I find odd is that she started laying almost a week ahead of the other queen and was laying drone eggs initially.

This queen started laying drone eggs right away that are already capped.

Frame of bee bread that has been fermenting to break down the pollen to release nutrients.

Dyno
They have built up really well and the queen has an excellent brood pattern.  She stubbornly lays out as many cells as the hive can support.  Hopefully they start to bring in stores because they don't have much to speak of at the moment.  They are even starting to raise drone brood.

Nice laying pattern.

The queen is looking good.

Despite the damage the queen is still using this comb.  A stronger hive would have fixed the holes first and it does make me worry that they are still focused on buildup and not winter preparations.

Plum Creek
They have several frames of brood on the way and a good amount of stores for winter.  I'm curious how much they will build up in the next month of it they will try to maintain their size.  As always they are still raising drone brood.

This is the mother queen for Luna and Solis.

Quickdraw
The girls were in my face today telling me to go away, however they were not trying to sting.  As with the other two hives at this location there is a decent amount of brood coming.  They have stores but not enough for winter yet, and are using a good percentage of the hive for brood.  Hopefully they scale back from the buildup cycle and start prepping for winter rather than burning through the little reserve they have saved.  I suspect that this South facing, full sun, location is encouraging them to buildup more than I'm seeing at my other locations.  I curious to see how they winter here and buildup next spring.  I may have to watch for early spring swarming plans.

The queen looks good and has done a great job of building up.

Hive checks (7/27/2014)
Rebel
The hive is full of comb and most of it is either bee bread or nectar/honey.  The nuc I introduced to the back of the hive was still the active broodnest area and the queen didn't have many options for expanding being behind multiple frames of honey.  I resorted the hive combs from the entrance so that there were a few frames of honey, bee bread, broodnest, bee bread and then most of the nectar/honey stores. The laying pattern looked good and they don't seem quite as reactive as the mother hive was. No signs of the DWV that was taking a heavy toll on this hive in the spring.

Nice laying pattern on this new queen.

She looks like her mother, perhaps slightly bigger.

Rosemary Nuc
The queen is aggressively laying brood to rebuild the hive.  The laying pattern looked really good as well and I expect them to buildup well.

She is doing well in the nuc.

Ballard Nuc
Saw signs of DWV on a few bees.  The queen is being conservative as usual in her laying to repopulate the hive.  I'm curious to see how they deal with the DWV now that they are in a nuc.  That seems to be an ongoing issue with this queen.  What I've seen is borderline hives like this don't prep for winter well and die out in November.  Hopefully the new daughter queen will work out better.

She is still going at her usual slow pace which is going to make fall survival risky.

Scriber Creek
The hive is full of comb and for the most part it's all in use.  There seemed to be a good amount of honey stores on each frame, but no full frames of honey stored anywhere yet.  The laying pattern looks good and the new daughters of this queen all look very light colored which seems to support my thoughts that this was a virgin queen.  They were very clam today and I could have easily worked them without any protection.

Nice laying pattern.

A big healthy queen.

Hive checks (7/28/2014)
Rosemary Split and Swarm
I split the Rosemary hive on the 13th and on the 28th rather than having a new queen killing her sisters I had a new queen that decided to be a pacifist and leave the hive in a tiny swarm.  Having already done a split the hive was depopulated and being that the nectar flow is now over I was surprised to discover that they would even try to swarm.

While I call the queen a pacifist for not wanting to kill her sisters the reality is that this wasn't a queen decision but rather the collective workers.  Maybe they aren't localized enough to know that we have a long dearth coming, or perhaps that genetic instinct has been washed out because beekeepers always step in to prop them up with late summer feeding efforts.  Another thought is that the heavy rains in the last week might have created a surge in plant nectar production that is misleading their instinct that a dearth is here.  Who knows, maybe they know something I don't and it's going to be a rainy August and flowers will be plentiful.  Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket.

The small swarm hiding in the branches.

The swarm was about 1.5 pounds and I hived them with some old comb, but have no idea how they would expect to build comb and fill it with stores this time of year.  Not to mention with a virgin queen still has to successfully mate. I will give them a few resources and see how they do in the next few weeks.  I'm curious to see how they fare and if the risk pays off.  I'll give them some honey and syrup to keep them alive to see if they can survive the winter.

After hiving the swarm I looked through the originating hive and found another queen running around killing the others and piping quite authoritatively.  There were a few queens cells in the process of emerging that had not yet been killed and I was able to cage them as a backup.  I had one fly off while I was trying to get her to go in a queen cage and I stood still watching her go up up and away into the air.  She never did come back and I held still waiting so she could orient to me.  Having not come from a hive I have no idea where she will end up but wouldn't be surprised if she tried to enter one of the queen right hives nearby, which would not end well for her.  However being that is was evening I also wouldn't be surprised if a bird found her before morning.

The new queen was running around piping.  She would momentarily stop on the comb and vibrate against it when she made the piping sound.  The rough pattern was about 15-20 seconds running and 1 second stop to pipe.  I did see her cautiously inspecting the outside of a queen cell with stinger ready to make sure no one was home.

Back to the bees,

Jeff