The Scourge of a Bee Hive

An example of "hygienic" behavior - the uncapping of brood more than likely cause by mites.

HIVE INSPECTIONS: 08/08/21

Up until this past weekend, the last few trips to the apiary have been ... boring. But that is good! Boring is good. Quiet is good. Non-eventful is GOOD. We went in, confirmed there was activity at all entrances, did quick, cursory inspections, fed sugar water and got out. Quick like a bunny, as my Mom used to say.

The external parasitic mite "Varroa Destructor"

But after attending Texas Bee Supply's August webinar, it was time to pull up our big beekeeper britches and test for mites. However daunting this task is to a new beek, it is crucial to do this time of year to determine varroa mite levels in your hives. A mite infestation can be devastating to a colony, and is one of the leading causes of colony collapse. (Stay tuned for an “Info” topic on these pests.) Though mites are technically not microscopic – they are too small to actually see on a single bee when looking at hundred of bees on a frame. But there are symptoms within the hive itself that can be a strong indication that mites could be a problem. The photo at the top of this post shows a smattering of uncapped brood, and unfortunately this photo was one I took of a frame in HIVE C. When nurse bees suspect the presence of mites, they will exhibit this type of "hygienic behavior" and uncap brood cells like this to remove the affected pupa, breaking the cycle of those mites.

Her majesty

Last year we tested both hives with the "sugar shake" method and surprisingly we didn’t see one mite. Either we did it wrong or we had unicorn hives. This year with five hives, I opted to do an alcohol wash instead — a method a bit more accurate for newbies than sugar, but the downside is it kills all the bees you are testing. 😢 Both methods require a sampling of nurse bees from 2 frames within the hive. Since varroa mites live under the pupa in the capped brood cell, they emerge with the new nursery bee. So these are the best candidates to test. But, before we can get bees for the test, we MUST find the queens in the hive first. We do not want to accidentally scoop her up in the sampling and kill her.

We started our task with HIVE E. We found the queen early and moved that frame into an empty box to get her out of the way and safe. We then shook all the bees from two frames into a small, white tub and waited a short spell to let the forager bees fly away. What is left in the tub are the nurse bees who cannot yet fly. Using a standard 1/2 cup measuring cup I scooped it full of bees, giving us approximately 300 bees. I put them in a special plastic jar with a basket and added isopropyl alcohol, enough to cover the bottom of the basket. I then swished them around for about a minute. The agitation, along with the alcohol, causes the mites to die and fall off of the bees and settle to the bottom. Now we were able to count how many mites were living on this sampling of bees. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell what is a mite and what is general bee flotsam — especially in the (literal) heat of the moment, through sweat and a full beekeeping suit and veil, but I looked for the general, consistent shape of the mite.

I counted 8, maybe 9 mites? The mite count is then divided by 3 to calculate the percentage of bees infected per 100: 2.67 - 3%. The threshold this time of year is 3% — so it’s time for mitigation for this hive. My hopes that we had a unique and rare apiary that had no mites were quickly dashed.

We moved on to HIVE D but we couldn’t find the queen. it doesn't mean we are queenless, just that she is very good at evading us! Darn. We didn't want to test this hive and risk hurting her so we did a quick inspection and closed everything back up.

As soon as we started working on HIVE C (our first split from the Spice Girlz) — BAM! Oh my but they were spicy. <sigh> Chips off the old block. I thought we were past this misbehavior. It was … overwhelming. I think I panicked a bit. Perhaps it was PTSD from our traumatic weekend. They just came out in droves and were everywhere, covering my suit and veil. It started to get really hard to concentrate. At this point, we abandoned the plan to test, figuring if one hive has ~3% infestation, they all do. So we just did some simple hive inspections on C, B and A. We managed to find two more queens for a total of three out of five — not too bad!. While inspecting HIVE A we discovered – those industrious Girlz – that they moved all their brood and honey stores up into the second deep box, leaving the bottom brood box empty. Pulling a switcheroo, we moved all the frames from top box back down to the bottom.

I started the day with a bit of trepidation and it ended with a not so small defeat. Lack of confidence starts to seep in on days like today — wondering if we really know what we are doing. I remind myself that we have only been beekeeping a little over a year and as long as we keep learning and growing and doing what we think is best for the Girlz, everything should be ok. For me personally, there is such a chasm between the theoretical and practical in beekeeping. The latter just comes from racking up time in the bee yard.

Bottom line, we will treat our mite problem, continue to supply them sugar water and supplement with a pollen substitute to give them the needed leg up going into the fall flow.

In the meantime, come on Girlz… help a sister out.

CURRENT HIVES:

A: Spice Girlz; 2021 Queen (Gretchen BR): 2 Deeps, 1 Super

B: 2021 NUC Golden Cordovan: 1 Deep, 1 Super, Feeder

C: SPLIT from A; 2021 Golden Cordovan Queen (TBS): : 1 Deep, 1 Super , Feeder

D: 2021 NUC TX5000: : 2 Deeps, Feeder

E: SPLIT from A; 2021 Queen (Gretchen BR): : 1 Deep, 1 Super, Feeder

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