Broodminder - thermoregulation

 

Not inexpensive, but I purchased the most affordable BroodMinder sensor which measures the internal hive temperature. The sensor is a thin profile temperature data logger that rests on the top bar and syncs with my iPhone (then uploads to the cloud) where data is graphed and accessible on my iPhone or web browser.

The dashed red line is local weather data.   I'm naturally skeptical about weather data.   When I placed the broodminder in hives without bees, I found that temperature data tracked the weather data accurately.  

Hourly internal temperature data values from the sensor created the solid cranberry-colored line. Ideally the solid line tracks within the gray band (92°F - 98°F) and represents a queen-right hive.  There are many reasons why the solid line is drawn below the gray band, but I had no information as to why the temperature had climbed above the gray band to 105°F.  I'm puzzled and reached out to BroodMinder Support and Theresa Martin (author of Dead Bees Don't Make Honey) for assistance in shaping a theory.

I checked the sync with the iPhone which recorded the coin battery strength.  Nothing suspicious there, the battery was 97% of full strength.   

During the inspection of the counting board and an internal hive inspection, I discovered that the small hive beetles had compromised the honey.  The 105°F was likely created by the fermentation of honey.   I found the BroodMinder sensor and temperature graphs very helpful, internal temperature is one of many ways to monitor hive health.

nematodes as a biologic control

On December 24, 2022, Atlanta experienced a historic single digit 8°F (-13.3°C) minimal temperature.  This cold snap turned green ground cover brown and likely pushed small hive beetles (SHB) deeper into hives and compost piles. 

My bee yard has high shade, good soil moisture, and summer soil temperatures for SHB reproduction.  I used biological control, Beneficial nematodes (Heterorhabditis Indica), to treat the soil for SHB larvae.   At dusk, I watered the liquid nematode suspension onto the soil.  Direct sunlight (UV light) is fatal to nematodes.

It's one thing to see and squash adult SHBs with my hive tool and another stranger thing to take a leap of faith releasing after dark 'The Smallest Show on Earth' -  Step Right Up! Step Right Up!

• Moved the insulated FedEx mailer with 2.5 million microscopic nematodes to the refrigerator. 
• Removed the leaf litter at the hive locations and then wet the soil.  
• The next step was washing nematodes from gel transport material - small gel pieces can clog the watering can.   I used a large strainer with a fine mesh to remove and rinse the numerous gel pieces.
• Added more water to the bucket and stirred it to keep the nematodes from settling to the bottom.
• At dusk, I watered the biologic control onto the soil.

counting board debris

I'm not a fan of leaving the counting board beneath the screen.  However, for spring swarms I usually start with the board and remove it when entering warmer weather.

 

Budgeting time between my day job, gardening, dog walking, going to physical therapy, blah blah blah - Well, I left the board in place without inspection for too long - 77 days, what was I thinking?

 

I tugged on the corrugated plastic sheet without success.   I shared my why do I keep making my life difficult story with a friend, Michael Willis, who had a great idea - attach a strip of duct tape along the length of the plastic sheet for additional grip.  If one duct tape strip is good, I thought to myself, let's try two duct tape strips, let's include a handle.  No luck, the board would not move!   In desperation, I pushed an 18-inch metal ruler beneath the screen a few times and was able to move, then pull out the board in one piece.

 

The debris consists of:

• lots of beeswax and you guessed it, wax moth larvae
• pollen
• ants 
• small hive beetles

The last photo was taken after discarding the fine debris with a screen.  The wax scales/flakes look fabulous.

nectar management - checkerboarding

In the previous post using external measurements and observations, I postulated bees consumed honey and raised late-winter brood.   February 12th was my first 2022 hive inspection and I took action, well some actions!

• an 8 frame medium box with drawn comb was set aside from the hive - drawn comb is a luxury that I rarely have at hand as a crush-and-strain beekeeper
• the bees had corralled small hive beetles above the inner cover - I crushed these beetles using the short edge of the standard hive tool or my finger
  
• every other frame in the hive's top medium box was exchanged with every other frame of the set aside 8 frame medium box
• the top medium box contained 7 frames of nectar and 1 frame of capped honey
  
• the set aside medium box was placed onto the hive completing my 8-frame version of checkerboarding
  
• as more winter temperatures are expected, I returned the hard foam insulation above the inner cover and overlapped two hive cozys to cover the new medium box
  

swarm abscond

After a 3 week vacation, I returned to a hive with:

• no May 10th swarm bees
• no wax capping waste on the screened bottom board
• wax moth egg laying concentrated on the only frame of dark comb
  
• most amazing, no small hive beetle (SHB) destruction which makes me more convinced that the bees absconded leaving no brood or honey behind for SHB
  

I found the pre-cleanup look too sci-fi horrific for the blog post.  So, the video was taken after the cleanup of sticky wax moth destroyed comb.  Wax moth larvae were offered to the chickens which they voraciously consumed.  

As you can see in the video:

• new comb was built on all frames showing no reluctance to build on plastic starter strips
  
• previously I donated a deep frame of capped honey to this hive and now this frame of comb is intact less the honey contents

beneficial nematodes

Beneficial nematodes (Heterorhabditis Indica) to treat the soil for SHB larvae arrived in an insulated FedEx mailer which I moved to the refrigerator.  As shown in side-by-side photos, I removed the leaf litter at backyard hive locations and then wet the soil - all strategies so the nematodes land on wet soil and not on top of leaf litter.

The next step was washing nematodes from gel transport material - small gel pieces can clog the watering can.   I followed the Southeastern Insectaries instructions which recommend using a tea strainer.   In hindsight, a larger strainer with a fine mesh is more desirable as the numerous gel pieces quickly overwhelmed the capacity of a typical tea strainer.

I added more water to the bucket, then stirred to keep nematodes from settling to the bottom.  Ultimately, I transferred the liquid to a watering can.   Direct sunlight (UV light) is fatal to nematodes, so one hour after dark I watered the liquid nematode suspension onto the soil - while wearing a head lamp.

small hive beetle larvae 2020

I lost one hive - small hive beetle (SHB) larvae ate their way through the comb and fermentation "slimed" the frames making them unfit for honey extraction.   As shown, I moved all boxes with frames away from the backyard hive locations for sky burial.  SHB arrived in south Georgia in 1999, subsequently SHB numbers can not be reduced to zero - they have become part of the beehive population.

To understand how bad things happen to good people - here I summarized an Australian agricultural pamphlet describing how to manage SHB.   For this lost hive, I've placed a check mark next to my summer 2020 beekeeping practice and observation:

• Minimize hive manipulations ✅
• Keep a high bee to comb ratio (aka maintain colonies with strong flight activity)
• Maintain good hygiene around the apiary ✅
• Avoid using combs/equipment that are infested with any stage of the SHB life cycle ✅

In comparison, a surviving joined stack of two hives has strong flight activity.   This joined stack consists of an overwintered hive on the bottom capped with an open Cloake Board and topped with a medium sized spring 2020 swarm capture.

As shown, the screened bottom board has fermented debris, SHB larvae and a few adult SHB.  I ordered beneficial nematodes (Heterorhabditis Indica) to treat the soil for SHB larvae. As described on the Southeastern Insecectories website, "Each SHB larvae killed by H.indica can cause reproduction of up to 20,000 more nematodes."

tulip popular flower windfall

Today I discovered the first 2018 windfall of the tulip popular flower kind.  Tulip poplar flowers could be a valuable nectar flow for the bees if the weather cooperates - no hard rainfall please.

In late February for one hive and mid-March for the other hive, I checkerboard the honey cap using foundation-less frames with no drawn comb. Both overwintered hives are flying with nearly equal vigor and have an amazing low number of small hive beetles during hive inspections, but are not drawing comb as I expected.

On March 29th I hung 8-frame deep swarm traps from crepe myrtle trees and now wait for the first scout bees - apparently I'm waiting impatiently.

wax moth larvae cleanup

Lazy beekeeping has a few downsides. This summer, two tall stacks of boxes with drawn comb and no bees attracted wax moths.  Next, the wax moth larvae ate the drawn comb...all the comb.    Larvae chewed the wood too, compromising some frames and boxes.  What was I thinking - to busy with other things, to hot to wear the beekeeping hoodie.   The not so lazy cleanup went on and on.  I'm a philosophical contradiction.

The chickens enjoyed live snacks and a few wasps helped with the crushed larvae.  I'm grateful that the problem was not small hive beetles. 

small hive beetle larvae & dark brood comb

If I told you what happened, you probably would not believe it. The first photo contains the queen's retinue. When my finger tips touch these bees, enough space opens up for me to see her majesty - this experience is a rare gift.

I have been away for one week and returned to a hive with significantly fewer bees - maybe the hive swarmed, perhaps more than once.  My concern is that this hive has a huge surplus of honey, and many deep frames of dark brood comb attractive to small hive beetles (SHB) - too many frames, too much space and too few bees to keep the SHB confined to the margins of hive.

To my horror, several frames in the bottom box of this skyscraper hive contain SHB larvae crawling through pollen, honey and the dark brood comb.   I created a new hive configuration containing no dark brood comb at all.  I moved the small population of bees onto clean light colored comb, added a one gallon pail of 1:1 syrup (with Honey B Healthy) and reduced the entrance.  Stay tuned.

white dutch clover

As ever, this year is like no other year in Atlanta - Lake Lanier is 1.5 feet above full pool.  Atlanta has received lots of rain and many un-sprayed lawns are full of white dutch clover.  It took me many attempts to capture this (cropped) iPhone shot of a honey bee visiting clover.  

Had a quick look in my two hives and they seem to be healthy and with small SHB populations - one hive had one SHB above the inner cover and the other hive had zero - lots of earwigs.  Knock on wood, things look on track for a July harvest and split(s).

2013 tulip poplar flower

On April 15th, I inspected all three hives. The hive with the most flight activity recently drew 8 foundation strips and filled the frames solid with honey.  I am out of medium boxes, so I quickly supered with a deep box containing foundation strips.  I am surprised to see a good nectar flow (and storage) before the arrival of tulip poplar flowers.  Weeks ago, I planned to use my deep boxes to split this hive, but they chose to build vertically and not place queen cells where I can find them.  This could be my big honey year or this could be my imagination.

The other two hives are drawing their foundation strips and filling the frames with honey at a much slower pace. All hives have an amazing low number of small hive beetles (SHB) above the inner cover - killed 3 SHB per hive.   Knock on wood the SHB population remains within bee manageable limits.

I quickly ordered more medium sized boxes boxes from Brushy Mountain and they arrived in four days. The frames have a new milled shaped, most noticeably with a redesign of the frame sides (aka end bars).  The frames are easier to assemble than the old design.  My only concern is with nooks where sides meet the top bar and how they may become hiding places for SHB - I have an very active imagination when it comes to SHB.

At the MABA meeting, Jerry Wallace suggested gluing the frames on day1 and nailing them on day2 - works great and preformed better at keeping the frame pieces at right angles. Thanks Jerry, you are the bee man.

On April 19, I found pieces of tulip poplar flowers and unopened flowers that the wind and squirrels have tossed to the ground.  Nothing worth photographing until I found one medium sized tulip poplar flower head for this blog post.

my 2013 spring experience

On March 16th, I removed the bee cozy and added one medium super too each hive.  Blue nitrile gloves worked great - fantastic zero sting outcome.   Discovered many small hive beetles (SHB) above the inner cover which only fed my SHB concerns coming out of a warm winter.  I also readied my swarm traps with new pheromone lures.

The bee cozys were kept off the hives for my beekeeping convenience - I unilaterally declared spring had arrived.  In hindsight, bee cozy removal timing was too enthusiastic as March in Atlanta was cooler than usual. Using the Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network data, I compared this year's minimum temperatures with two other years.

I'm fooled again - next time, I will ignore the NOAA spring climate forecast and watch the NOAA Arctic Oscillation (AO index) for short term Atlanta winter temperature trends. My apologies about the crude correlation of graphs - notice how the negative cycle of the AO index correlates with the cool/low 2013 minimum temperature curve.  A few days after the removal of the bee cozy marks the lowest point in the AO index - oh well.

powdered sugar & bee cozy

On a 40°F November morning, I opened the hive top and applied/dusted one cup of powdered sugar onto the hive by tapping a flour sifter with a hive tool.  The rarely used bee brush found a purpose - this time to brush off powdered sugar resting on the top bar of the frames.  I left the boxes stacked as one unit and carefully let the powdered sugar fall straight downwards onto adult bees and not into cells.  After five hours I inspected the debris on the counting board - it's mostly powdered sugar with a trace of tiny light colored phoretic varroa mites and a dozen or so small hive beetles (SHB).   This is the first year that powdered sugar dusting knocked down SHB.  Past years knocked down many larger dark colored phoretic varroa mites .

I added the bee cozy and made bungee cord adjustments to keep the top vent and bottom entrance open. The cozy fits best on my eight frame hives when stacking one deep box and two medium supers.  Hives with two deep boxes requires that I curl over the top of the bee cozy to make things fit.  Like last year, I am going into winter with a screened bottom board and no counting board.

Beetlejail Entrance Trap - continued

I  removed the window screen which was used to exclude small hive beetles (SHB) entering the top of the hive.  As you can see, the bees propolized the screen which does not fit my winter ventilation plans.  Another downside is that palmetto bugs resided unchallenged between the cover and inner cover.  Compare the two pictures - the bottom hive side looks food safe while the top side has palmetto bug droppings - yuck.

The last clean-out of the beetlejail entrance trap was September 27th.   Today, I found zero SHB in the oil or crawling on the pull-out drawer.  I'll conclude that SHB are no longer flying.  Beneath the inner cover I discovered a few SHB - oh well.

Beetlejail Entrance Trap

Over the winter I prepared the Beetlejail Entrance Trap for attachment to an 8 frame Brushy Mountain bottom board.  I used a foam brush for the green paint and white spray paint for the novel grooved entrance.  From the look of the bleeding white paint I should have used the expensive green FROG TAPE. Apparently, the small hive beetles (SHB) try to escape the bees by running around the grooved rectangular perimeter..  The bottom edge of the perimeter leads to a pull-out drawer which has three chambers of olive oil.  Dave Miller suggested a lure is not necessary - "the hive odor is more than sufficient as a lure" says Dave, and I have to agree.

In June I noticed the SHB corralled beneath the inverted 1 gallon pail feeder or corralled between the cover and inner cover.  On July 7th I added the Beetlejail Entrance Trap to a functioning hive, my split.   This installation was slightly tricky.  I moved the box away from landing area, then attached the trap to the existing bottom board.  The last step is to coax back the box flush with the trap.    

Esthetically the hive now has the charming (or outrageous) look of an elephant seal.  I added a rectangle of plastic window screen to the inner cover hole after I stopped feeding with an inverted pail.   The window screen prevents the SHB from entering by way of the top of the hive.  Initially the bees propolized the perimeter of the inner cover hole, now the bees have completely propolized the inner cover hole. 

Has the trap eliminated all SHB?  Probably not, but it has been a lot of fun.

Winter Outlook (December through February)

NOAA's winter outlook for Atlanta reads as "Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: equal chances for above-, near-, or below-normal temperatures and precipitation. Winter weather for these regions is often driven not by La Niña but by the Arctic Oscillation."  

November seemed very warm and this was confirmed using Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network.  An average Atlanta November temperature of 58.6°F has not been seen since 2003.  

Nov-1    To    Nov-30          Max[°F], Min[°F], Avg[°F]
2011                 2011               70.4       46.7        58.6
2010                 2010               63.5       45.3        54.4
2009                 2009               64.2       45.2        54.7
2008                 2008               59.8       41.0        50.4
2007                 2007               63.6       43.4        53.5
2006                 2006               62.9       44.2        53.5
2005                 2005               65.0       46.1        55.5
2004                 2004               64.1       48.7        56.4
2003                 2003               68.1       47.9        58.0
2002                 2002               59.6       41.6        50.6
2001                 2001               70.3       51.4        60.9
2000                 2000               59.1       44.1        51.6

The Arctic Oscillation has been in a positive phase and forecast to remain so for the next few weeks.  I speculate that odds are now tilted towards above normal December through February temperatures. 

Last Saturday, I added the Bee Cozy, but last year, the bee Cozy was added on the 4th of November.   I like to believe that the prolonged cold during Snowpocalypse reduced the number of small hive beetles this summer, but with a potentially warmer winter, I'm happy that I painted the Beetle Jail for use in summer of 2012. 

IPM counting board debris map

Each week I removed the IPM counting board and drew the outlines of the counting board debris into my journal.  The debris consists of wax, pollen, propolis and other items like the occasional small hive beetle.  After cleaning off the debris, the counting board is returned to the hive.  I transferred  my journal debris maps into a spreadsheet grid where I (one or zero) scored the presence or absence of debris.  The debris mostly lands along blurry east-west lines which relate to the bee space between frames.  Probably most of the blurring of the debris is attributed to:

• debris falling off the bees as they bounce in and out of the hive entrances above the screen 
• debris bouncing or rolling on the screen
• debris moved by ants or wax moth larva beneath the screen on the counting board

To sharpen the debris map blurring, I used a moving 3 week sum which creates a debris map with three intensities.  All of my work is done twice, as I follow two side-by-side hives that were started this year. So, what story might describe these gnuplot contoured debris maps?

• In the beginning, the debris tends to be concentrated near the hive entrances which face west.
• Over may weeks the debris concentration moves east away from the hive entrances and also north.   The two hives consume syrup at different rates, have different flight activity and have different weekly debris maps.  However, both hives show the same overall shift of debris concentration when measured over many weeks. 

Where will I find the debris concentrated this fall?  What about this winter?  What about next spring?

1gal pail feeder

I'm using one gallon pail feeders and Honey B Healthy purchased from P.N. Williams.  It's seems easier to make large batches of syrup and have two pail feeders per hive.

• bees take a few minutes to clear the pail feeder and if a pail feeder is left completely empty, then propolis may cover the pail feeder screen
• electrical tape helps line-up the pail feeder screen and inner cover hole
• inverting the pail feeder over a bucket helps control ant attracting spills

These bee packages have been fed continuously since May.  According to my counting board results, this has been my best year for controlling small hive beetles and varroa mites--this is also the first year with Lula Georgia bee packages and continuous feeding with Honey B Healthy. 

According to the official climate summary, this is a record setting warm summer which followed a prolonged winter--as always it seems difficult to apply the conventional rules of a normal beekeeping year when no two years have the same weather.  As I heard Malcolm T. Sanford says, "all bee keeping is local," meaning that continuous feeding may not work in your apiary.

small hive beetle sizes

AJ Beetle Eaters contents are logged for several weeks in side-by-side hives.   After emptying the AJ Beetle Eaters on to white paper, a log is kept of 1) the number of adult beetles and 2) length of each adult beetle (nearest millimeter). Sounds easy, eh?  It's messy, oily, and the clubbed beetle antennae can complicate the length measurement.

Do the adult small hive beetle populations change over time?

• Probably in response to cooler fall weather, less adult small hive beetles are captured over time
  
• I'm surprised--the hives maintain their unique small hive beetle size profile over time

How do the hives differ?

• Hive A is weaker (less flight activity) than hive B
  
• Hive A is younger (swarm capture) and hive B is older (early spring nucleus hive)
• Hive A has larger beetles than hive B.   Perhaps weaker (less flight activity) hives offer more small hive beetle treats (nutrition).

Unanswered questions:
When does the small hive beetle population peak?  Had I started the log sooner, then I could have captured the small hive beetle population peak.  Oh well, something for next year.  I'll wait for a further decline of the small hive beetle numbers before offering tasty (to small hive beetles) dry MegaBee pollen substitute to the bees.