Indications Of An Early Buildup Due To Mild Winter

Winter has been mild this year!  I've been able to open and inspect hives on nice days several times this year when typically I would be lucky to get a peak before mid March.  Looking at my flower photos you might think Seattle is a tropical oasis at the moment, especially if you are under a blanket of snow!  However it's not spring... yet, but we do have some late winter blooming plants that are moving full steam ahead.  I also have seen some late fall plants that should have shut down with winter that are still going.  This means a good amount of pollen and nectar is available for hives to use for buildup.  The worry now would be a winter storm cutting off that food supply for more than a couple days and a hive dying because it had over extended it's resources.

Crocus are coming up and are great pollen sources.

Camellia's are still going strong and the late winter varieties are starting to pop.

Winter Heather is going strong and a good nectar source.

Snowdrop (Galanthus) is coming up.

Bergenia cordifolia seems to bloom whenever the weather is mild.

I came across a whole hedge of English Ivy in bloom the other day.  You can see some older blooms that are fruiting but new blooms should have wrapped up last fall.

Vinca minor is starting to bloom.

Hazelnut catkins (three long parts) and flower (tiny bud coming off the branch with a touch of pink at the tip) are getting close to blooming.

Dandelions didn't take much of a break this year and are already coming back into bloom.

Iris Reticulata is coming up.

Mushrooms are everywhere right now. I don't see bees on the mushroom bodies, but have read that they do collect the mycelium, which would explain cases where I have seen them in soil.

Jasminum nudiflorum is almost finished blooming.

Garrya elliptica (Coast Silk-tassel) have impressive catkins right now offering up polling and nectar.

Helleborus are in bloom and a good pollen source.

Daphne odora is starting to bloom.

Collard blooms are a great food source.

Viburnum tinus (Laurustinus) is still going strong. They have been blooming all winter.

Witch Hazel (Hamamelis) includes several different species that are native to Eastern North America, China, and Japan ranging in colors from yellow to red that bloom during winter on bare branches after the leaves have fallen.  Looking around our northwest gardens the species we typically find are from Japan (H. japonica) and China (H. mollis) or crosses between the two.  The American species start blooming in late fall between October and December, and the Asian species typically bloom between January and March.  They start blooming while the previous years seeds are still on the branches and thus get the Latin name hamamelis which means "together with fruit".  The seed pods contain two black seeds and will pop when mature throwing the seeds a short distance away.  When not showing off their impressive winter blooms, they have attractive soft green leaves in summer.  They need to be planted in a sunny or mostly sunny spot that has fertile soil, and will also need regular watering during dry summer months.

Rosemary is still going and loved by the girls.

Sarcococca ruscifolia flowers might not be noticed, but their vanilla scent is hard to miss.

Hive checks (1/6/2015)
Today was around 53F and did visual entrance activity checks on the hives.

• Rose, Rosemary Daughter, Ballard Daughter, Rosemary, Solis and Dyno all had entrance activity. 
• The Ballard hive didn't have any activity but did have a robber or guard bee hanging around the entrance. 

Hive checks (1/19/2015)
The weather was so-so today and a few bees where flying from Rose, Rosemary Daughter, Ballard Daughter, Rosemary hives.

• There was no activity in the Ballard hive, so I pulled the back frame and there they were, and sadly they weren't equally as happy to see me. I pulled the last frame of comb (empty) out and replaced it with a frame of honey and added a cup or so of dry sugar in the back. Usually they are like kittens during inspections so I'm second guessing that something is wrong other than they really didn't want to see me today. Perhaps it's a lack of food or maybe the queen is dead. Will need to wait for a bit nicer weather to investigate further and for now I know they have food and hope they have a queen. 
• Rosemary hive also got a frame of honey. They had an empty bar in the back so there was room for another comb of honey. Rather than putting it in the very back placement I moved it one frame in (there was still honey on that frame, but not the back side. This way they will be able to cluster around the new frame if they should need it, although the cluster looked to be covering several frames forward. 

Hive checks (1/25/2015)

The sun was out today and temps were over 60F!

Rose
There are several frames of bees and they have a good amount of stores left.  I did not see the queen or signs of the queen.

Rosemary daughter
Same situation as the sister in the Rose Nuc.  There are several frames of bees and they have a good amount of stores left.  I did not see the queen or signs of the queen.

Ballard daughter

This hive is not typical of what I usually see for overwintering behavior.  Brood production never shutdown and they are using over half the hive.  I would also think that a big hive like this would burn through resources and starve, but to the contrary they actually have good stores.  Not only do they have stores, but they have either uncapped honey or fresh nectar in the brood area.  There is also a little surplus pollen being stored, but mostly anything that comes in is getting used for brood production.

The broodnest extends over 5 frames and is at least double the size it was when I inspected in early December.  The brood nest starts 6 frames in from the entrance.  One concerning issue I saw is that they have what looks to be a supersedure cell on a frame.  The angle of the cell made it very difficult to see into it to determine if there was anything in there besides royal jelly and sadly the photos I did get only add to the uncertainty, but I doubt they would waste royal jelly on an empty cell this time of year.  I saw a few drones in the hive, but I doubt there would be many other hives around with drones for mating.  However if you need a new queen, then you have to try.  Fortunately the old queen is still going, so they likely wont get rid of her until she gives out or they have confirmed the new queen is laying well. 

Supersedure cell with royal jelly.

Here is the queen.  She looks good, but they think something could be wrong.  Maybe 5 frames of brood isn't good enough?!

Lots of pollen coming in.

More pollen.

There were 5 frames of brood like this.  Most hives have small patches if anything.

Ballard

I like to think I know what my queens look like, however when I saw the queen in this hive I was thinking, who are you.  While she doesn't look all that dissimilar from the photos I have I am still left feeling like this might be a late fall supersedure queen.  I last saw the queen in here on my 10/4/2014 inspection.

There were hardly any stores left in the hive and I have them several frames of honey on each side of the broodnest.  There was a tiny patch of brood and many cells with eggs in them.  There aren't a lot of bees left in this hive but they are trying.

Hard to see but there is a little royal jelly and little larvae in this patch of cells.

Here is the queen.

Rosemary
This nuc is full of bees and they looked to be in good shape.  They have good stores and the broodnest covers 3 frames.

The queen looks good.

Small patch of brood.

Solis
They are alive but struggling. I cleaned a lot of dead off the bottom of the hive.  Didn't see much of a brood area but did see the queen.  They have a few frames of bees and good stores. Bottom of the hive was damp and opened another ventilation hole.  This hive is in a damp location in general.

The queen and several cells of crystallized nectar.

Dyno,
Saw the queen and a small patch of eggs.  They have a few frames of bees and have plenty of stores.  Lots of dead bees on the bottom of this hive as well that I cleaned out.  Sadly I also saw a small yellow jacket trying to get in!

The queen was being photo shy, but she has a tiny cluster with eggs.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff

Halloween Brings Gloomy Weather to the Apiary

Up until a week ago we still has some summer flowers blooming and now after being soaked with several inches of rain there is hardly any sign of them left.  With the recent weather change I think it is safe to say summer is officially gone and the hives aren't going to get too many good foraging days again until March.  Hives are still raising brood and have managed to build up good stores of honey and pollen for the winter.  The surplus pollen doesn't keep forever like honey, but will last a few months and will help fuel winter brood production giving hives a head start on spring buildup.  I typically see brood production until mid-November in hives.  However we don't have enough warm sunny days between late Nov and Mid-Jan that I can get in enough inspections to definitively say when (or if) brood production ever completely shuts down.

There was interest in keeping bees treatment free at the meeting this month and I wanted to reiterate a few important points related to getting started (based on my opinions) that help to make some people successful when others might fail:

• You should start with bees that are adapted to the local climate.  Local bees will in general outperform bees imported from somewhere else and will respond quicker to the season changes to build up and will overwinter better.
• In addition to locally adapted bees you want to get genetics from lines that have been kept treatment free if at all possible.
• Avoid using wax foundation that retains chemical residue. Let them build comb and allow them to regress the cell size.  The thought here is that smaller bees reach adulthood faster which may give them an advantage.  Also there is a lot of research yet to be done on the overall micro-flora of the hive and clean wax will provide a better foundation for this to develop like it would in nature.
• Having an semi-remote apiary, which is not possible in an urban environments.  I have found that there are on average 50-75 other beekeepers within a mile radius anywhere in the Seattle city limits.  With so many people importing bees every year this creates a wave of foreign drones which can and will wash out any localized genetics you have with each queen mating. 
• Luck.  You can't plan for this.  Perhaps this means you luck out with a great genetic line.  Or perhaps this means your bees don't get exposed to a pest or disease and ultimately do very well for awhile.  It may take you awhile to realize which kind of luck you have.

The take away here is that there are a lot of variables with going treatment free and some of them exist outside of your control, especially in an urban area.  To be successful it is necessary to work with other beekeepers to achieve common goals knowing that it may take several years to identify good genetic lines.  Simply applying treatment free approaches to the CA package you purchased is not likely to yield rewarding results in the long run.  With that said local queens are next to impossible to find in spring so you will likely need to start with a non-local package with plans to re-queen as soon as local queens are available in summer.

Chrysanthemum "Hillside Sheffield" is a good pollen and nectar source.  Finding bee friendly mum's is a challenge in a market saturated with all-petal varieties.

English Ivy is a plentiful fall food source around the city and offers pollen, nectar, and an unmistakable musky scent.

Rosemary blooms pretty much all year round if in a sunny location and is a good nectar source.

Hardy Impatiens (Impatiens omeiana) is another nectar source.

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is in bloom and a good pollen source.

Viburnum tinus "Laurustinus" is an evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean with a long winter blooming period that starts in November and can last until late spring.  They produce slightly fragrant clusters of white and light pink flowers that stand out against their dark glossy green leaves.  These shrubs are fairly versatile and bloom best when given a sunny or partially sunny location with regular watering.  When plants become established they can even show drought tolerance qualities during our long dry summers.  They need minimal pruning to maintain shape over time and can be a good pick for low maintenance hedges.  Their shiny dark blue berries are a food source that attracts birds and other wildlife.

Viburnum tinus is a winter food source.

Seven-Sons-Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) is an early fall bloomer and buzzing with bees.

A few Dahlias are still hanging on.

Choisya ternata is actually a spring bloomer, however it's pretty common around the city to see them putting out a few flowers in early November.

I think this one is a Chrysanthemum "Redwing" and it's another good option for bees.

Fatsia japonica is a nice evergreen shrub with large maple tree sized leaves that does surprisingly well here in the Puget Sound.  They are just starting to come into bloom and are a good pollen and nectar source.

Toad Lily (Tricyrtis) is a nectar source.

Asters are still providing pollen and nectar.

Hardy Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) is a nectar source.

Hive checks (10/11/2014)
Moved the Ballard and Rosemary Nucs to the p-patch about 5 blocks away.  I put grass in the entrance holes to help them reorient, to prevent loosing too many foragers back to the old location.

Watching the next day it looked like a few foragers still came back to the old location circled around and joined with the Scriber Creek hive that was the closest hive to where their hives used to be.  Both hives had a good number of bees so loosing a few hopefully shouldn't put them back too much.

Their new home.

Hive checks (10/12/2014)
Dyno
Overall the hive looked pretty clean and they were trying to be very hygienic.  I did see some varroa and signs of DWV.  I also noticed a varroa running over the queen (yuck) and got a picture before they cleaned it off of her.  That's never a good sign.  The hive has done a great job building up stores of honey and pollen from running lean all summer.  Noticed some crystallized honey as well that is likely ivy.

This is a nice looking frame of brood.

Another good looking frame of brood at the edge of the broodnest.

Hard to see but a varroa mite is running over this queen.  

Here is a good shot of the nectar crystallizing before they have a chance to even cap it.  I suspect this is ivy nectar.

Plum Creek
I was surprised to see DWV in this hive and it looks like they are struggling with it a bit.  This is a hive that pulled out of a bad DWV outbreak last fall and then did wonderful all spring and summer. Seeing how both the child hives are also fighting DWV. I'm thinking that perhaps the genetic line just isn't quite got what it takes.  The hive has good stores of honey and pollen.  Closed them down to one entrance hole.

The queen is still trying to pull them out of it, but you can see a few varroa on worker bees in this photo.

Quickdraw
Like the other two hives this hive is also dealing with DWV.  Their population has dropped off significantly from what it was at last inspection.  Decent stores of honey and good stores of pollen.  Closed them down to one entrance hole.  Like the other hives I was seeing good hygienic behavior in the hive.

Lots of pollen stored to use in late winter.

Hive checks (10/19/2014)
Roma
There are a good number of bees in this hive and they have good stores of pollen and honey saved up.  They are still dealing with DWV and the brood nest is just a small area on a few frames.

You can see a bee in this photo with a varroa on it.  

Rebel Daughter
There are just a few frames of bees left in this hive and it doesn't appear they were able to get ahead of the DWV issues.  The bees that are left all look healthy, but the cluster just isn't going to be big enough to survive a winter storm.  I've been nursing this line of queens along for several years and perhaps it's for the best.  They were never much fun to inspect being so aggressive and have never produced a surplus of honey.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff