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.

urban and suburban pesticide risk

The Two Bees in a Podcast discussion of "Finding Pesticide Residue in Nectar and Pollen" led me to dig into that journal article topic.

Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Exposure to Pesticide Residues in Nectar and Pollen in Urban and Suburban Environments from Four Regions of the United States concludes:

• 27% of all nectar and pollen samples contained detectable pesticide residues
• more pesticides were detected in pollen than in nectar
• no seasonal or spatial pesticide trends
• 17 pesticides were detected in nectar samples and 60 in pollen samples. Where honey bee oral pesticide toxicity was known, those samples were entered into the EPA BeeREX risk assessment software and 4 pesticides showed a potential acute risk (survival) to honey bees - see table

 method and materials:

• 768 nectar and 862 pollen samples collected monthly over 2 years
  
• 8 locations in medium to large cities in California, Florida, Michigan, and Texas

 other links:

• Risk Quotient (RQ)
• Pesticide Properties Database
• EPA Will Ban A Farming Pesticide Linked To Health Problems In Children

Risk Quotient

As the RQ equation shows, a tiny "acute oral LD50" can create a large Risk Quotient for any sample containing a small "residue in nectar".  For this reason, the table below is sorted in LD50 order with Imidacloprid appearing in the first row.

Products containing Imidacloprid

Pesticide	Oral Acute LD50 (ug/bee)	Introduced	EPA banned	Pollen	Nectar
Imidacloprid	0.0037	1991		✓	✓
Deltamethrin	0.0700	1974		✓
Chlorpyrifos	0.1500	1965	2021	✓	✓
Esfenvalerate	0.2100	1987		✓	✓

tulip poplar windfall and other spring flowers '22

 

1st Windfall	day of year
April 10, 2011	100
March 27, 2012	87
April 19, 2013	109
April 12, 2015	102
April 15, 2017	105
April 5, 2018	95
April 11, 2019	101
April 7, 2021	97
April 6, 2022	96
median	100

I found this year's first Tulip Popular flower windfall on April 6, 2022 (96th day of the year) and in a few days afterward the ground was covered with Tulip Popular flowers and bees returned with cream colored pollen.   April 6 is just a few days earlier than expected.  However March 27, 2012 is the big outlier, nearly 2 weeks earlier than expected.

Other nectar sources at this time (not shown):

• Chinese Wysteria (invasive)
  
• White Clover
• Spiderwort
• Amur Honeysuckle (invasive)
  

Autumn Blooming Ryan Gainey Chrysanthemums

 

Check out the amazing orange colored pollen!  Cold and windy weather confined the bees, followed by this sunny 47°F morning.  Ryan Gainey Chrysanthemums provided much needed autumn nectar and pollen - just in time as goldenrod flowers have finished blooming.

goldenrod 2021

Along the Atlanta BeltLine, I saw tall upright yellow flowering Goldenrod plants in sunny areas - see photos.

In recent fair weather, honey bees flew vigorously and returned with yellow pollen seen in the photo collage and I noticed a stronger and sour hive odor consistent with Goldenrod forage. 

In late afternoons, I saw a huge number of bees circulating at the sunny hive entrance, busy in orientation flight.  In Atlanta, there are potentially many more weeks of flowering Goldenrod left assuming more fair weather.  This gives me hope that the hive will have lots of bees going into winter.

Will there be a fall honey harvest?  Stay tuned.

pollen color and winter 2020-2021

Here I'm using Growing Degree Days (GDD) to compare this Atlanta winter with previous winters. I calculated GDD using a web based calculator.  As seen in the table, this winter's GDD are much smaller than last year, with the nearest similar winter GDD found in 2013-2014. 

The back yard bees currently return with bright orange pollen and infrequently return with grey pollen - click on the image to enlarge. I'm using a wiki page of pollen colors of plants in hardiness zone 5, while Atlanta is found in plant hardiness zone 7 which presents challenges when comparing:

• plant flowering dates
• matching pollen color with a limited number of trees and plants
  

Other than color, I'm not able to analyze the bright orange pollen, but it's most likely sourced from winter-flowering ornamental cherry trees blooming in the neighborhood and attracting honey bees.

Using binoculars, I see that red maple trees are not yet flowering.  With evidence from previous years, I'll guesstimate that rosemary is the source of the grey pollen.

Have you seen my pollen basket?

 

Amazing orange colored pollen! These photos zoomed and cropped seem as vivid as the live experience. I don't know the chrysanthemum type, but this large flower size is not typical of chrysanthemums for sale.  

slow shutter iPhone app

Reddit had a great bee yard photo using a slow shutter iPhone app.  After deleting some awful first tries, I was able to make the app work for me. At 63℉, the bees are active and returning with pollen.  Crawling bee behavior looks like white lines while flying behavior looks like classic multiple exposure.  Look closely and you'll find the bottom edge of the bee cozy at the top of the image.

winter forage

It's decidedly sunny this afternoon and both hives fly vigorously. I left a small amount of water and twigs in the dog bowl to protect bees from becoming chilled in this 40 °F weather. Some bees return to the hive with yellow pollen - most likely mahonia.

Sunny weather is a real treat. Both hives have bee cozy insulators and have not flown much during the past cold, gray winter days. 

kri-ˈsan(t)-thə-məm - unlikely food source

Following a week of wet, cold and windy weather confining the bees, two sunny days, the bees are active starting at 48 °F.   Where are the bees going?  It's almost too late for golden rod.   Today at noon, walking past a south facing garden with a large patch of flowers, I discovered honey bees and native pollinators visiting chrysanthemum flowers.   I can barely pronounce kri-ˈsan(t)-thə-məm, let alone spell this successfully.

An unlikely food source, Xerces Society resources don't include chrysanthemum in their list of pollinator friendly plants!

mahonia Feb '18

For weeks now, bees forage on mahonia and maple, but as the expression goes, not in my backyard.  This iPhone photo marks a small backyard pride milestone where I can follow the entire beeline between plant and hive.   Click on the image and surprise yourself at the photo detail. 

CO2, staple food and goldenrod pollen

A Living on Earth radio article draws a connection between atmospheric carbon and the nutritional value of staple food.  Staple foods grown in elevated concentrations of CO2 result in a decrease of iron, zinc and protein.   These results are reproduced in an experiment where staple foods are grown in a CO2 controlled environment.

This time of year, the hives have a stinky smell.  Imagine the smell of hiking boots or dirty gym socks.  Strong un-sweet notes can be found in pockets around the hives.  I have goldenrod to thank for this smell.  Goldenrod is a vital late summer forage for honey bees.  I was surprised to see that this radio article also speaks to how goldenrod protein decreases as CO2 increases.  Goldenrod pollen samples taken now have 30% less protein than samples from 1850's.  In the same way, these results are reproduced in an experiment where goldenrod is grown in a CO2 controlled environment.

Have a look at the graph showing the CO2 increase since the 1850's.  I expect a further decline of staple foods and goldenrod nutrition in the future.

mahonia Jan '17

In Atlanta, winter storm Helena kept the honey bees cooped up for days.  Now the bees forage in very mild 70's °F. The bees return to the hive with yellow and dark yellow colored pollen.  As you see, mahonia is a dependable early resource for bees.

Rowse Honey TV Advert 2015

I discovered a humorous advertisement in the UK.

pollen source between equinox and winter solstice

Tropical Depression Eleven strengthened and became Hurricane Joaquin which brought extended drizzly weather and heavy rain to Atlanta.  In the rain gaps, backyard  honey bees vigorously forage for pollen. By hive odor, the pollen is probably goldenrod.  The photos show other plant species of interest at this cooler time of the year, Angel's Trumpet and Camellia.

one of two splits achieves a mated queen

From the parent hives I removed eggs, capped worker brood, pollen and bees and one of two splits achieves a mated queen.  Not bad for a new-bee, but I have to credit the favorable spring weather and drones from local hives.   Here's a summary of what went on with the two splits.

April 6th (day 20) with help from a visiting friend, Ray Karsch, we move the splits which have been sitting on top of their parent hive with the same entrance orientation.  Without a cinch strap we gently stack both splits onto the same hive stand.  Each split has their own deep division board feeder and the bottom split has a counting board to keep them warm.  The top split is taking syrup while the bottom split is not.  April 12th (day 26), bees return to the top split with pollen, while no pollen is found on the counting board of the bottom split.  April 6th (day 30), I simply combine splits into a two deep box configuration.  I'm convinced that one split contains a mated queen based on pollen foraging and syrup consumption.
 
April 23rd, I discover all the bees in the lower box, so I squeeze the resources into one deep box with a division board feeder.  May 1st, I remove the deep division board feeder.  Next I add a medium box with one frame of capped honey (bait frame from parent hive) and seven medium frames with wax strips.  Above the inner cover I invert a one gallon pail and remove the counting board.

making spring splits

I split all (two) of my hives this spring (March 17th).  I chose four adjacent frames from the bottom box of each parent hive which contained eggs, worker brood or pollen.  Next, I added three adjacent frames with wax strips.  Last, I added a 3 quart division board feeder as insurance.  In the parent hive, I checker-boarded the missing four frames with frames with wax strips.  Each split was placed on top of their parent hive and in the same orientation as the parent hive.  From the hive defensiveness, I presume that there is no major nectar flow.

On day fourteen (March 30th), I quickly checked beneath the inner cover of both splits.  The dawn temperature was 59 °F and some reassuring warm moist escaped from beneath the inner cover.  Both splits have a nice cluster of bees over several frames.  One split consumed one cup of syrup and the other split consumed two quarts of syrup.  So far, all seems well.

warmth after winter freeze

 

Bee foraging on mahonia.

 

Bee foraging at birdbath.

 

Two hive entrances, as inspired by John Jones.

 

Insulating Bee Cozy and the two hive entrances, as inspired by John Jones.

Bees unable to fly.

A few days ago Atlanta experienced below freezing temperatures (two days in a row) which killed many of our potted plants.  As the weather has warmed, the bees are vigorously foraging for water and pollen.  The flight path is short and straight (bee lining), making trips to forage at the flowering mahonia and the bird bath.  I spotted red maple buds in the neighborhood, but those buds are not yet attracting bees.

Scientific American Blogs posted an article about a parasitic fly (Apocephalus borealis) which has laid eggs in 77% of the sampled California Bay Area hives.  Perhaps the parasitic fly is another honey bee stress.  I grabbed a few bees beneath the hive which were unable to fly.   I am storing these bees in a jar to see whether parasitic fly larva will emerge in the next week. 

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?