The Buzz Newsletter

June 2009

 

 

Page 6

THE BEEYARD REPORT

We have been to the brink and back again. I am always amazed at how fast things can change.  I made the first two rounds though the yards in the spring. I was encouraged. I thought we could split out to 600 or 700 colonies. As Alex and Adam began to work through the yards, they found a lot of European Foulbrood. This attacks the larva in the coiled stage, causing it it turn yellow. The brood was really spotty. The colonies were going downhill. They yielded very few splits. It looked like it was going to be a struggle to get to 400 colonies. No drugs went out the window at this point. We had to treat. Chalkbrood is what we normally see in the spring. This year, we have hardly seen it at all.

Tylan treatments cleaned up our bees in a couple of weeks. They started working dandelions and wild mustard. Population literally exploded. We are going to wind up somewhere between 600 and 700 colonies--just not in the sequence I imagined. The previous fall we had discussed the possibility that we might need to treat in the spring. We were seeing too much American Foulbrood. As I made the early rounds, I thought the bees looked too good to have a problem and I didn't want to use Tylan. Lack of a treatment caused us to lose a couple of valuable weeks. The recovery by the bees has been miraculous. No drugs is still the goal. To this end, I have started a massive comb culling project. I have 35 boxes full of combs that I have rejected. Some of them still look good but I recognize some of the frames. I know they are 15 to 20 years old.

We have two yards of package bees. One is 2# the other 3#. I also had a dozen set out next to our steel building that were a mixture of 2# and 3#. Of the ones by the building, the 2# seemed to stand still while the 3# expanded quickly.  There was a lot of drifting to the colonies on the ends of the row for some reason. The drone congregation made this really obvious. There were lots of bees that drowned in the feeders, too. That's unusual for spring bees. I finally gave the laggards a frame of brood.

Then, they got well in a hurry. After that, I began to wonder what was happening with the packages in the two bee yards. Those proved to be in excellent shape.

Spring beekeeping involves a lot of long days--and nights. Adam and Alex left at 5:30 one morning to move bees out of the orchard in Montour.

Then they went on to do other things. They rolled into the home place at 10:00 that evening. The next day they didn't go out until 1:00 PM but they still got 9 hours in. Supper is almost always after 9:00 PM.

We like to be done splitting by May 15. Sometimes we get a flow at the end of May. It's nice if we are ready to catch it. This year we won't be done until the end of the month. I hope we can get some of the parent colonies supered before then. One of our challenges as beekeepers is that we don't know when the flow is coming or if it is coming at all. A hive full of bees with nothing to do usually winds up hanging in a tree somewhere.

I have missed meals on wheels this year. For those of you that are not regular readers, that's the food you buy at the convenience store to eat while driving to the next yard. It's probably a good thing. I can only stand so many donuts and pieces of pizza.

We have sold quite a few queens. My postmaster has appreciated the business. The Seed Company in Lynnville lost their grain dealers license. Several jobs were lost and it caused a big hit to the business at the Post Office. It was a big loss for a small town. There is lots of space available on Main Street. There is a new welding shop that opened up and they have been busy. I needed to get the Swinger in for modification. It took a long time to get in the door.

There is a big bull snake that lives under the concrete slab by the back door to my house. Lots of times I see his head sticking out of the crack in the concrete when I walk into the house. One night I walked into the kitchen and there it was in the middle of the floor. I know the snake is harmless but it scares me anyway. I don't like the way they feel either. I use a rag when I pick them up.

Let's hope for a productive summer!!!

Submitted by Phil Ebert