News on honeybee deaths--virus suspected

[vicki]

Researchers have a new viral suspect (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_sc/honeybee_virus;_ylt=Ag3IuDDlgsN3F5VdfKjby5Ks0NUE) in the massive honeybee die-offs that have happened over the past year.

[Carlina]

On that note...here's an article from the BBC too...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6978848.stm

Zikes and I love honey in my tea too...I wonder how badly this will affect the price of honey! Well at least I don't have to worry about the cream catching a virus....I hope...

[jtb1951]

Interesting articles, both of them... Quite the mysterious syndrome, but maybe the virus correlation will lead eventually to a full understanding of what is going on! I get our honey from a co-worker who hosts honeybee hives on her farm, and so far there haven't been any hive problems <keeps fingers crossed>

John.

[2maple]

Yeah, beekeeping definitely has its challenges lately...when we first started keeping bees there were no mites. Now part of our fall routine is treating for mites, changing up the treatments every couple of years, after we take off the honey, so as not to build up resistant strains in our colonies.

We haven't had issues with CCD (yet - she says with fingers crossed!) but it does worry me as Maine relies heavily on migratory beekeepers for blueberry and apple pollination. Since bees range 2-3 miles from home there's a lot of potential for bees to mix in the field. We do know of one commercially managed blueberry barren well within our bee's foraging range.

Weak hive and poor hive management practices are definitely a possibility, or at playing contributory part by lowering the bee's resistance to other pests. We tried these mite screens for a couple of years that were supposed to let the mites fall through and then they can't get back up in the hive. But we found that a lot of pollen and some honey also fell through and they let too much moisture into the hive so parts of the hive got mildew in it (and the pollen that fell through got moldy - yuck!) and it also allowed wax moths and african hive beetles a place to hang out where the bees couldn't reach them. As a result, we thought it might be why we got a lot of swarms for the past two years and a smaller than expected honey yield - the bees weren't happy. This year we went back to the old-style bottom boards that the bees can clean - result the hive is drier with no uninvited guests...result the bees seem to be happier, no swarms that we know of :), looks like more honey (we'll find out for sure next week when we start taking it off) and they seem to be over-wintering better.

The art and the science of beekeeping is alive and well ... for the moment anyway.

[jtb1951]

A very enlightening post about the practical aspects of hive management, 2maple; thanks for sharing! As a professional scientist, I'm afraid my thirst for knowledge ranges far afield, and I'm always happy to hear from folks experienced in their chosen avocation or vocation. Thanks!!:)

John.

[2maple]

a block party for bees?

Here's an interesting beekeeping dilemma...something we hadn't had happen before...what happens get ready to take off your honey and there are too many bees??!?

The bottom two boxes (or supers) in the picture are where they raise their brood. The theory goes that when you take off the honey, you have to get the bees out of the honey supers above. They way we do it is by a board that is inserted between the the brood chambers and the honey supers with a "bee escape"...a one way out of the top into the bottom...and in about a week voila - no bees in the boxes you take into your house to extract!

But....when there are too many bees, and they now occupy about half the space...they can't all fit back in the hive! OK if it's warm (it was 90 the day I took the picture) but they'll die if its cold and the next day was in the 50's and raining)

What to do ....what to do... we put another empty super on temporarily before the rain to give thenm some more space until some of the field bees die off, kick all the drones out for the winter and they fit in the space that's not too big for them to keep warm over the winter.

Good thing they weren't cranky!