Articles

What is Killing Your Bees?

Are you killing your bees? I know it is a tough question to be asked but one that should be asked. There has been a lot talk about the various causes for the plight of the honey bee particularly in North America. This graphic by Capital News Service captures most of the causes usually discussed. But misses one key cause. And that is you! The novice beekeeper. The question is; “Are you killing your bees?” There are many causes of bee deaths but are you killing your bees?

Is the issue geographic?

There have been some recent news articles somewhat related to this tropic. The Indiana Gazette recently published a post titled; “Novices Pose Biggest Threat to Honeybees Local Keepers Say.” The author suggests one cause for losses of colonies in the Pennsylvania area is due to where novice beekeepers source their bees. The theory is that buying packaged bees from the south and bringing them north to Pennsylvania is dooming the colonies to certain failure. This outcome is not the intent of the novice beekeeper, but a result of the packaged bee business model in their area. But is the change in weather conditions really the cause of colony failures?

Many here in the Pacific Northwest source their packaged bees and nucs from California. Weather conditions in California I would suggest are much different from the cool wet Pacific Northwest. So we should see similar results as those in Pennsylvania. But have we seen similar issues? Based on my personal experience and that of other beekeepers I know, I am not sure there is enough evidence for this sort of claim. I have had pretty good success with overwintering bees in western Washington. And those bees were originally sourced from California. Several of the packages of bees and even the few nucs I have purchased from California have performed well. Several other local beekeepers have seen similar results. This is not to say I, as have others, not had my share of colony failures. But were those due to the weather?

How are beekeepers killing their bees?

A variety of factors most likely are contributing to the death of honeybee colonies. But the one not included on this graphic is the beekeeper, especially the novice one. Poor placement of apiaries, removing too much honey or honey too late, lack of management, etc. can all lead to a poor outcome for a hive. Placement of hives in exposed or wet locations, here in western Washington can lead to moisture problems in the hive, decreasing internal hive temperatures and requiring greater honey stores to survive the winter. Adding insulation to hives can work but needs to be done carefully not to increase the moisture issues. Pulling too much honey or taking it too late for the hive to rebuild its stores can lead to starvation in the winter months. There are emergency measure for this situation such as adding sugar candy, but adequate honey stores is best.

And lack of management by the beekeeper can be a contributing factor to bee deaths. Lack of management can be a variety of things. Failure to inspect hives after pulling honey to assure adequate stores for the winter months. Not taking action in an emergency by adding/feeding sugar or sugar syrup when honey stores are running low. Not checking hives during the spring for indications of swarming, diseases, or robbing that might weaken a hive. Lack of monitoring for attacks on hives by ants, wasps, or yellow jackets can also result in the failure of a hive. And lastly not monitoring your hives for some of the “causes” listed on the graphic can be harmful to the long-term survival of your bees.

A little effort and good bee stocks.

While we can mitigate for things such as American Foulbrood, mites, wax moths, etc., we can control our actions as beekeepers. Make sure you are doing what you can to control your influence on the survival of your bees. I do recommend sourcing your bees from local stocks. Intuitively, bees from similar weather should do better. My most successful and long-lasting colonies have been swarms from feral colonies in the local area. But that is a story for another day.

We recently conducted a hive inspection looking for queen cells in one of our hives. We did this for a couple of reasons. One reason was the population of this colony was quickly growing and we wanted to try and prevent the hive from swarming. Since the presence of queen cells, especially capped ones, can be an indicator of potential swarming. While we were hoping to prevent a swarm, we really were hoping to find a few queen cells to use to make a “split” of the hive.

This particular colony is very mellow and easy to work with. So far to work with this hive has required very little smoke or we have been very successful using only a 1:1 sugar syrup. While there are no guarantees, we are hoping that we can replicate the characteristics of the current with through a split into two hives. Time will tell and hopefully during our next inspection we will find a couple of queen cells and give it a shot at a split.

We will report back on that project in the future. The video above is a short experiment in producing videos for this site. More and much improved videos to come.

With winter fast approaching there are at least two tasks you should consider completing soon. These will help get your hives through the fall and winter, as well as helping to set them up to be strong going into spring. I would not the only consider these tasks nice to do but I would see them as two of the most important.

• Task number one:

  Install entrance reducers. Entrance reducers can serve to keep unwanted invaders out of the hive. As temperatures cool mice and other insects sometimes will seek out a warm corner of a hive. A nice place to get away from the cooler wetter weather. The smaller hive opening of the reducer can also aid the bees in defending the hive from another invader, yellow jackets. Yellow jackets can wreak havoc on a hive. In a search for food, yellow jackets can invade a hive, killing bees, including the queen, steal food stores, and ultimately lead to the demise of a hive. I have lost several hives due to yellow jacket attacks. Usually because I did not get my reducers installed soon enough.

• Task number two:

  Check for adequate food stores. If a hive is gong to survive the winter, especially in the colder and wetter regions it will need enough food to make it. Assuring there is plenty of honey in the hive is most important. You can do this as part of a regular hive inspection by checking frames for capped honey. Another way to check, especially if the weather is cold or wet, is to try to lift the hive at the back. If the hive is extremely heavy then there is a good chance there is enough honey. However, if it is light and easy to lift then you might be in for trouble. Depending on how early it is in the fall, you can feed your bees a 2:1 sugar syrup. Another option is to feed excess honey you may have back to the bees. When using honey you can simply pour it on top of the inner cover. Sugar syrup will need some type of feeder like that in the photo below.

While neither of these two tasks are a guarantee to assure your bees will make it through the winter. They certainly are a good start to and effort to help overwinter your bees and go into spring with strong healthy colonies.

During a recent hive check I found two reasons to clean your bottom boards during the winter months. These are worth doing a couple of times during the winter if not more often. To begin with I do use screened bottom boards on almost all of my hives. From my experience the screened bottoms have seemed to help with air flow and moisture issues. I also have entrance reducers in place beginning in the late fall to lower the risk of yellow jackets and mice getting into the hives.

So what did I find on my recent inspection?

Lots of dead bees! Hundreds of dead bees actually. And they were blocking the hive entrance and keeping air from flowing through the hive. While all of my other hives were able to get out on the occasional nice winter day, the bees in this hive were trapped inside. Of course this is a bad thing when the bees are unable to exit the hive. They need to get out of the hive on these nicer days to relieve themselves. Without this unhealthy conditions can develop within the hive.

Excess moisture in the hive can also be another issue during the winter. Condensation can build up within the hive and drip onto the bees. This makes it hard for the bees to keep warm when outside temperatures drop. I have found screened bottom boards seem to help with the reduction of moisture. Not a complete cure but an improvement. In the case of this particular hive, there were enough dead bees on the bottom board that air was having difficulty flowing in the hive. This lead to high levels of moisture in the hive.

For two very important reasons you should clean off your bottom boards during the winter. First is to make sure, especially if you are using entrance reducers, the bees can get out and back into the hive. The other is to insure adequate air flow can occur within the hive.

How to Clean Your Bottom Boards

The simplest way I have found clean your bottom boards is to use a stick that fits in the entrance of your hives. Simply insert the stick into the opening and sweep the dead bees out of the hive. I prefer to do this on a day when the bees do not want to be out flying. It reduces the chances of killing bees that may be trying to exit for cleansing flights. A few quick sweeps of the bottom board can make sure your bees can come and go from the hive when needed and help to make sure ventilation during winter months is adequate.