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The Beeyard Report

I returned home from Fresno to find six inches of snow on the ground and some big drifts. In the following week, we have had more snow, lot's of wind and very cold temps. I'm hoping the snow has covered up all the hives for some extra insulation.

In the Buzz last month, Andy said that a number of people wanted to apply Terramycin to help the health of their bees. This greatly alarmed me. Terramycin is not going to fix sick bees. In all likelihood, it's not even going to offer protection against foulbrood. In my opinion, there are four areas that stress bees--mites, viruses, poor nutrition and insecticides. Mites magnify the effects of the last three. The interaction of the factors is not well understood but we know they work together to shorten the life of the bees. You need to direct your attention to the stress areas.

Viruses have always been present in bees. Mites facilitate the spread of viruses plus they weaken the bees and make them more susceptible. Last year, Jerry Bromenshank got a virus detection machine from the army that was developed for use in biological warfare. Since testing was started, many viruses have been found in the bees that no one suspected were there. We don't know what the effect of these newly found viruses is.

Poor nutrition is another problem. Ag is practiced more intensively that ever. Eliminating weeds eliminates forage. Bees need pollen from a variety of sources. That's where the bees get their protein. Some pollen has been proven to be low in protein. If a bee has less than a 40% protein content in it's body, it's going to have a short life.

The affect of insecticides has been magnified the last few years. All native pollinators are in decline. Insecticides are often mixed with fungicides which can increase their toxicity to an even greater level. A number of insecticides have been found in pollen samples. The bees are carrying this stuff home and feeding it to the brood.

What can you do? Put bees in a sheltered area if possible. That will give them some kind of buffer against spraying. Work with your neighbors. Most people we talk to try to spray when it will do the least damage to the bees. Early morning and late evening spraying will minimize losses. Talk to them about what they are using. Pyrethroids (Ponce, Asana), in general, are less toxic to bees than organophosphates like Lorsban. We don't use pollen substitutes very often but if you are in a barren area, I would recommend them for spring application. I have used them in the fall when we doubled up the colonies we ran as singles during the summer. Those colonies store a lot of their pollen in the first honey super. When we take the supers off, they lose that so we try to supplement it. The winter bees need to have higher protein content in their bodies. The only thing we can do about viruses at the present time it to keep Varroa levels low.

One result of the adverse factors affecting bees is the poor queens we get now. Even the queen breeders admit that it's hard to get queens to last the season. Steve Park gave a presentation on his operation when I was at the Fresno meeting. He runs everything double queen. When one queen fails, he just pulls out the divider. In the other scenario, when the whole stack goes queenless, he takes a queen right box from one of the double queen stacks and puts it on the queenless one. It's a good method.

There is one other caution I would note. No matter how hard we try, we always have some colonies crash from mites. I think those colonies are very prone to break down with the initial stages of foulbrood. The last couple of years, I have noticed a little bit of scale in the combs from the colonies that crashed. Those combs require more than a cursory inspection before they are reused. Typically, they have rotten larva but it doesn't rope. Keep looking. There could be some scale present.

From here on out, activity will start to ramp up. We are getting lots of calls about packages and there are lots of winter projects to complete.

Holiday season is over.

Submitted by Phil Ebert

First Response

‘Those are bees!’ These might be the first words out of somebody’s mouth upon finding a swarm of honeybees. But what if you are a first responder on a call for a “bee emergency”? Stating the obvious isn’t going to get the job done if a truck carrying beehives overturns on the highway. And with the number of hives that cross the country each year, it is a possibility.

Fortunately for a few fire departments in southeast Iowa, Vern and Doris Ramsey know all about honeybees. The Burlington fire department called Vern to inquire about a training session for about 60 people altogether. Vern says he is also looking at possible sessions with departments in Fairfield and Ottumwa. The presentation of nearly an hour introduces personnel to protective gear and protocols for approaching a scene with thousands of honeybees flying through the air.

While a swarm of honeybees can easily be handled by a local beekeeper, it is reassuring to know that more and more of our first responders are gaining the knowledge necessary to effectively handle the larger “bee emergencies” thanks to the Ramsey’s.