Run-Away Split

MABA's August speaker, Sam Comfort, shared novel beekeeping and queen rearing practices with the club.   I was spellbound by Sam's life story and accomplishments including:

• inexpensive construction - $0.80 hive box using rough sawmill lumber and bamboo skewer as a top bar
  
• the demanding rhythm of Sam's calendar-driven queen-rearing business by grafting
• SARE grant - emergency queen rearing using Run-Away Splits, Sam's variation on Walk-Away Splits
  

In the absence of a queen, 1) open brood pheromone (versus capped brood) helps retain worker bees in both queen rearing methods (split or grafting) and 2) that new comb is desirable in the Run-Away Split method.

NCSU report compared Sam's 32 mated emergency queens to their database of all tested queens and graded Sam's emergency queens as A- (high reproductive potential).  This dis-spelled my bias that emergency queens mate poorly.

replacing old equipment

 

 

I prepared new deep boxes to replace boxes in use since 2007.  To assist bees in finding their hive, I added a unique painted pattern to the front of the box using an adhesive stencil.    Jürgen Tautz discussed hive marking in The Buzz about Bees - unique pattern are a better bee orientation aid than a unique color.

To enhance the propolis envelope, I made parallel 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) wide shallow grooves seen in the photo.  Last year, I showed that shallow grooves in medium box walls improved the propolis envelope.  This year, I made similar grooves with these deep boxes.  On old 2007 boxes, propolis was concentrated on frame rests, other right angle corners and box abutments - only a thin layer of propolis was found on its smooth box walls.

R value of soft wood

In cold 30℉ weather, condensation is seen at the top vent and cloake board entrance. Warm moist air exiting from these locations are 11℉ warmer than the outside air and this resulted in a large drops of condensation and a wet cloake board landing area.  Foam board insulation above the inner cover and R8 Bee Cozy hive wrap enhances condensation outside of the hive - not inside the hive. Compared to home building codes, R8 insulation does not seem large, but this hive wrap is a wind break and equivalent to 6 inches (15cm) of soft wood. This equivalent hive wall thickness is more like a natural tree cavity wall thickness.

enhancing propolis envelope

I described the honey bee health benefits of a propolis envelope in an earlier post. 

• lowered immune response expression
• less bacterial growth in brood food
• lower number of chalk brood mummies
• reduced severity of American Foulbrood

In March of this year, I added a box where I created side-by-side patches of shallow grooves with a dremel tool and router bit. After honey harvesting, I removed this box and analyzed the interior wall for propolis.  I cropped the photo so exactly 11 grooves in each patch are included in the comparison of: 

• 1/4 inch (6.4 mm) wide shallow grooves (on the left)
• no grooves (seen between two patches)
  
• 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) wide shallow grooves (on the right)

In the first photo, propolis appears as a red film which is distributed everywhere, but groove edges have a thicker red film. In the second photo, I used SimpleCV to mask out areas of thin propolis film.   In the third photo, I used SimpleCV to draw regions of thick propolis and compared 3 regions:

• 61.5% of thick propolis area was associated with 1/4 inch (6.4 mm) wide shallow grooves (on the left)
• 0.5% of thick propolis area was associated with no grooves (seen between two patches) - look at the bottom of the photos for thick propolis in the no groove region
  
• 38.0% of thick propolis area was associated with 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) wide shallow grooves (on the right)

I'm not suggesting 1/4 inch wide shallow grooves is the best option.  More narrow 1/8 inch grooves pack into the same length of box wall than wider 1/4 inch grooves.   There's no significant propolis advantage of either groove width except to say grooves outperform doing nothing with regards to enhancing a propolis envelope. 

an experiment, enhancing the propolis envelope

Seeley's new book, The Lives of Bees, describes propolis research by Marla Spivak and others at the University of Minnesota.   In the wild, honey bees coat their tree cavity surfaces with propolis - with an especially thick layer of propolis at their nest entrance. In experiments with man-made 5 frame hives, hives with a propolis envelope have better health:

• lowered immune response expression
• less bacterial growth in brood food
• lower number of chalk brood mummies
• reduced severity of American Foulbrood

Having seen the experiment where plastic propolis trap material (with 7 mm gaps) is stapled to hive box walls, I'm inspired to modify my own hive.   Shown are medium box walls where bees added a thin layer of red propolis from previous years.  I created side-by-side patches of shallow 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) and 1/4 inch (6.4 mm) gaps to box walls using a Dremel tool.   Whether bees create a thicker layer of propolis is left to be seen during this 2020 season - stay tuned.

my book picks

In Waterstones (UK bookseller), I discovered a phenomenal nature writer, Dave Goulson.   I read two of his books and recommend to beekeepers Goulson's 2014 book, A Buzz in the Meadow.  Then move onto Goulson's 2013 book, A Sting in the Tale.  In chapters 13 and 14 of A Buzz in the Meadow, Goulson discuses these interesting topics:

• sub-lethal effects of Imidacloprid (neonicotinoid)
• inbreeding leading to diploid males and triploid females

I'm reading The Lives of Bees by Thomas D Seeley.  If you are interested in honey bees living and evolving in the wild, then I recommend this 2019 book for you. Here's the first quote in the first chapter.

flow hive

Until now, I have not posted with regards to something that I have not experienced first hand.  I'm making an exception as the flow hive strikes me as wrong.

Follow these links:

• The Deeper Message of the Flow Hive
• The Culmination of Callousness

Importance of small nests

A 2016 paper examines one element of Darwinian Beekeeping, nest size, compared to typical beekeeping management.  Twelve small volume (1 x 10 frame) hives without swarm control are compared to an equal number of large volume (up to 4 x 10 frame) hives with swarm control. How Honey Bee Colonies Survive in the Wild measures how small volume hives influence:

• swarming
• survival
• adult bee count
• cells of brood
• varroa mites per 100 bees

What interests me most is the high survival of the small volume hives.

varroa mites rapidly change wild bees

Wild honey bees quickly responded to a new 1990s parasite, Varroa Mites.  The rapid response was not extinction, but a evolved resistance to Varroa.  After exposure to Varroa Mites, wild bees in Tompkins County, New York changed physically and genetically.

From the Cornell University Insect Collection, 32 wild worker bees collected in 1977 are compared with and equal number of wild worker bees collected in 2010 from the same county.  Only one worker bee is used per wild colony.  This analysis is made possible by Thomas Seeley who collected and deposited these samples in the Cornell University Insect Collection.

Follow this link to the article in Nature Communications, Museum samples reveal rapid evolution by wild honey bees exposed to a novel parasite.

Follow this link to the article review in Entomology Today, New York Honey Bees Evolved Resistance to Disease After Exposure to Varroa Mites.

See figure 5, from the supplementary information section of the article.  32 blue graph points are the wild worker bees collected in 1977 and 32 red graph points are wild worker bees collected in 2010.  As you can see, body size and shape metrics are smaller for wild bees exposed to Varroa.

   

Darwinian Beekeeping

I'll keep this short to describe how I came upon the title of this post. It begins with seeing the film, Leave No Trace - it's about a veteran father and young daughter living on public park land.  The film contains two beekeeping scenes and the credits list an organization called the Preservation Beekeeping Council.  This led me to their pamphlet - 10 practices for better beekeeping inspired by Thomas D. Seeley. Follow the link for more details and I'll reference number 4 in the list (..build from rough lumber) later in this post.

1. Work with bees adapted to your locale
2. Space your hives as widely as possible
3. House your bees in small hives
4. Roughen the inner walls of your hives or build from rough lumber
5. Use hives whose walls provide good insulation
6. Position hives high off the ground
7. Let 10-20% of your comb be drone comb
8. Minimize disturbance of nest structure
9. Minimize relocations of hives
10. Refrain from treating colonies for Varroa mites

How many authors have published books about honey bees living in the wild? - practically none.  Seeley the author of Honeybee Ecology, Honeybee Democracy and Following the Wild Bees speaks about a new idea, Darwinian Beekeeping -  letting bees live as they have evolved to live in trees without interference.   Darwinian Beekeeping turns on the idea that natural selection operates on the bees to maintain their resistance to disease. Regarding number 4 in the list (..build from rough lumber), Seeley describes on page 18 of Honeybee Ecology, bees moving forward and backward as "planing."  In the wild, bees scrub the rough wood landing area of a tree trunk hive. The same bee behavior on an already smooth man-made hive makes no sense.   See my seesaw cartoon - on the left, the predominant beekeeping practice is to manipulate large hives made of thin and smooth milled wood.  On the right, Darwinian beekeeping letting bees be bees.