help for new season

[DANIEL QUINCE]

Hello everybody. I am new to beekeeping and to this forum.
I started last spring with 2 hives, I had to split one and re-queen the other one, and I lost one in the fall, so IÂ’m back to 2. Before I lost one of the hives I noticed that they were not feeding and the bottom board was filthy. I used Apistan and I donÂ’t know if it was a coincidence or not, but that hive was dead within a week. It was eventually robed by bumble bees and wasps.
I would appreciate any advice you can provide on at least 2 issues:
A. What should I do with all the frames from the dead colony? I had plastic coated foundations. Can I melt the wax, remove foundation, roast the frames and the deep-suppers and reuse the foundations? Should I switch to wax foundations? I am planning on getting 2 or 3 more bee packages in the spring and eventually build an African hive/ top bars as an experiment.
B. Last year I only treated with Terramycin mixed with sugar powder, and Apistan. Can you provide a “shopping list” and some timing guidance for preventive medication/treatment? I’ve read a few things about mineral oils and so, but I guess I do not have the necessary basic knowledge to actually follow and fully comprehend some of your forum discussions.
Thank you.
Daniel

[Michael Bush]

>Before I lost one of the hives I noticed that they were not feeding and the bottom board was filthy.

That typically happens over winter. It gets too cold to take feed and too cold to clean up all the dead bees on the bottom. That is normal.

>I used Apistan and I donÂ’t know if it was a coincidence or not, but that hive was dead within a week.

Odds are the hive was already in trouble. In my opinion, I've not seen Apistan kill a hive. In my opinion I've seen Checkmite kill some hives. (I haven't used it but know people who do). Did they have stores? Withing reach of the bees? Was there a lot of dead bees on the bottom? Did you look for Varroa mites on the bottom? Were there defomred wings on the bees (crumpled, not frayed)? Where there "K" winged bees (the wings in the shape of the letter "K" with the back wing crossing the front wint instead of two wings toghter)? There are many possible causes of death. Among those would be, starvation, Varroa mites and Tracheal mites.

>A. What should I do with all the frames from the dead colony?

Put them in the new colony unless you want to change over to small cell.

>I had plastic coated foundations. Can I melt the wax, remove foundation, roast the frames and the deep-suppers and reuse the foundations?

No need. Just give the frames to the new bees and they will clean them up.

>Should I switch to wax foundations?

Your choice. What do you expect wax foundation to do for you? What size did you have in mind?

>I am planning on getting 2 or 3 more bee packages in the spring and eventually build an African hive/ top bars as an experiment.

That's got the best chance for survival with natural sized cells.

>B. Last year I only treated with Terramycin mixed with sugar powder, and Apistan. Can you provide a “shopping list” and some timing guidance for preventive medication/treatment?

What are your goals? In the last 32 years, the only medications I've every used were Terramycin (and and the last time I used that was 30 years ago), Oxalic acid vapor (twice), Apistan (three times), and plain FGMO fog (2 years). I've never used Fumidil, or menthol, or thymol, or formic acid. Are you looking for chemicals to put in the hive or are you wanting to avoid them?

There is much info here:
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pest&disease/pppdIndex.html

But it mostly from the point of view of using chemicals.

[size="1"][ January 16, 2006, 10:06 AM: Message edited by: Michael Bush ][/size]

[Michael Bush]

Pests, Diseases and Treatments:

Wax moths. Galleria mellonella (greater) and Achroia grisella (lesser) wax moths are really opportunists. They take advantage of a weak hive and live on pollen, honey and burrow through the wax. They leave a trail of webs and feces. Sometimes the are hard to spot because they try to hide from the bees. They burrow down the mid rib (mostly in the brood chamber but sometimes in the supers) and they burrow in the grooves in the frames. Certan is the spores of Bacillus thuringiensis and can be put on the combs to kill the larvae of the wax moth. It is safe for bees and humans. I buy it from www.beeworks.com . Freezing combs will also kill the wax moth. The wax moths will also devastate empty comb that you are storing off of the hive. The only other controls are chemical ones. Some believe that using bacteria in the hive will upset the natural balance in the hive and wonÂ’t use it.

Nosema. Caused by a protozoan called Nosema apis. Nosema is present all the times and is really an opportunistic disease. The common chemical solution (which I donÂ’t use) is Fumidil. It is usually fed in the fall when bulking up for overwintering. The best prevention is to make sure your hive is healthy and not stressed and feed honey. Research has shown that feeding honey, especially dark honey, for winter feed decreases the incidence of Nosema. Any kind of stress and feeding sugar syrup increases the incidence. By all means, feed sugar syrup if you donÂ’t have honey and it means helping a struggling package or nuc or split. By all means, if you donÂ’t have honey, feed sugar syrup in the fall rather than let them starve, but if you can try to leave honey on for their winter stores. Symptoms are a swollen white gut (if you disassemble a bee) and dysentery. DonÂ’t rely simply on dysentery. Sometimes bees get into rotting fruit or other things that give them dysentery but it may not be Nosema. The only accurate diagnosis is to find the Nosema protozoa under a microscope.

Chalkbrood. This is caused by a fungus Ascosphaera apis. The main cause is too much moisture in the hive. Add some ventilation. See the section on ventilation for more information. If you find white pellets in front of the hive that kind of look like small corn kernels, you probably have chalkbrood. Putting the hive in full sun and adding more ventilation usually clears this up. Hygenic bees are helpful. Not feeding pollen from pollen traps on hives with chalkbrood will help.

European Foulbrood (EFB). Caused by a bacteria. It used to be called Streptococcus pluton but has now been renamed Melissococcus pluton. European Foul Brood is a brood disease. With EFB the larvae turn brown and their trachea is even darker brown. Don’t confuse this with larvae being fed dark honey. It’s not just the food that is brown. Look for the trachea. When it’s worse, the brood will be dead and maybe black and maybe sunk cappings, but usually the brood dies before they are capped. The cappings in the brood nest will be scattered, not solid, because they have been removing the dead larvae. To differentiate this from AFB use a stick and poke a diseased larvae and pull it out. The AFB will “string” two or three inches. This is stress related and removing the stress is best. You could also, as in any brood disease, break the brood cycle by caging the queen or even removing her altogether and let them raise a new one. By the time he new one has hatched, mated and started laying all of the old brood will have emerged or died. If you want to use chemicals, it can be treated with Terramycin. Streptomycin is actually more effective but I don’t think it is approved.

American Foulbrood (AFB). Caused by a spore forming bacteria. It used to be called Bacillus larvae but has recently been renamed Paenibacillus larvae. With American Foul Brood the larvae usually dies after it is capped, but it looks sick before. The brood pattern will be spotty. Cappings will be sunken and sometimes pierced. Recently dead larvae will string when poked with a matchstick. The smell is rotten and distinctive. Older dead larvae turn to a scale that the bees cannot remove. This is also a stress disease. In some states you are required to burn the hive and bees and all. In some states you are required to shake the bees off into new equipment and burn the old equipment. In some states they will make you remove all the combs and bees, and they will fumigate the equipment in a large tank. Some states just require you to use Terramycin to treat them. Some states if you are treating they will let you continue but if the bee inspector finds it they make you destroy the hives. Many beekeepers treat with Terramycin (sometimes abbreviated TM) for prevention. This is usually done in th early spring. A month before the supers go on is appropriate. The problem with this is that it can mask the AFB. The spores of AFB will, for all practical purposes, live forever, so any contaminated equipment will remain so unless fumigated or scorched. Boiling will not kill it. TM will not kill the spores, only the live bacteria. AFB spores are present in ALL beehives. (Yes Jim Fischer will disagree and Bjorn will probably agree) When a hive is under stress is the most likely time for an outbreak. Prevention is best. Try not to let hives get robbed out or run out of stores. Steal stores and bees to shore up weak hives so they donÂ’t get stressed and requeen weak hives. What you are allowed to do if you get AFB varies by state, be sure to obey the laws in your state. Personally, I have never had AFB. I have not treated with TM for the last 30 years. If I had a outbreak I would have to decide what I would do. It may depend on how many hives are affected what I might do, but if I had a small outbreak I would probably shake the bees out into new equipment and burn the old equipment. If I had a large outbreak, I might try breaking the brood cycle and swapping out infected combs. IMO if we as beekeepers keep killing all bees with AFB we will not breed AFB resistant bees. If we as beekeepers keep using Terramycin as a preventative we will continue to spread TM resistant AFB.

Parafoulbrood. This is caused by Bacillus para-alvei and possibly combinations of other microorganisms and has symptoms similar to EFB. The easiest solution is a break in brood rearing. Cage the queen or remove her and wait for them to raise one. If you put the old queen in a nuc or the old queens in a queen bank, you can reintroduce them if they fail to raise a queen.

Sacbrood. Caused by a virus usually called SBV (SacBrood Virus). Symptoms are the spotty brood patterns as other brood diseases but the larvae are in a sack with their heads raised. As in any brood disease, breaking the brood cycle may help. It usually goes away in late spring. Requeening sometimes helps also.

Breaking the Brood cycle. For all of the brood diseases this is helpful. To do this you simply have to put the hive in a position that there is no longer any brood. Especially no open brood. If you are planning to requeen anyway, just kill the old queen and wait a week and then destroy any queen cells. DonÂ’t go three or they will have raised a new queen. Wait another two weeks and then introduce a new queen (order the appropriate amount ahead of time). If you want to raise your own, just remove the old queen (put her in a cage or put her in a nuc somewhere in case they fail to raise a new one) and let them raise a queen. By the time the new queen is laying there will be no more brood. A hairclip catcher works for a cage. The attendant bees can get in and out and the queen cannot.

Small Cell and Brood Diseases. Small cell beekeepers have reported it helping with brood diseases. Especially once the size is down below 4.9mm. There are reports of it helping with AFB. A possible mechanism for this is that there are less accumulation of cocoons before the bees chew them back out in the smaller cells than the number that accumulate in the larger cells.

Varroa Mites. Varroa mites (Varroa destructor previously called Varroa jacobsoni which is a different variety of the mite that is in Malaysia and Indonesia http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/ac...0/saasp05b.pdf are a recent invader of beehives in North America. They are like ticks. They attach to the bees and suck the hemolymph (like blood) from the adult bees and then get into cells before they are capped and reproduce there during the capped stage of the larvae development. The adult female enters the cell 1 or 2 days before it is capped. Being attracted by pheromones given off by the larvae just before capping takes place. The female feeds on the larvae for a while and then starts laying an egg about every 30 hours. The first is a male (haploid) and the rest are females (diploid). In an enlarged cell (see cell size section) the female may lay up to 7 eggs and since any immature mites will not survive when the bee emerges, from one to two new female mites will probably survive. These will mate, before the bee emerges and emerge with the host bee. Varroa mites are large enough you can see them. They are like a freckle on a bee. They are purplish brown in color and oval shaped. If you look at one closely or with a magnifying glass you can usually see the short legs on it. To monitor Varroa infestations you need a Screened Bottom Board (SBB) and a white piece of cardboard. If you donÂ’t have a SBB then you need a sticky board. You can buy these or make one with a piece of #8 hardware cloth on a piece of sticky paper. The kind you use to line drawers will work. Put the board under it and wait 24 hours and count the mites. ItÂ’s better to do this over several days and average the numbers, but if you have a few mites (0 to 20) you arenÂ’t in too bad of shape if you have a lot (50 or more) in 24 hours you need to do something.

Several chemical methods are available. Apistan (Fluvalinate) and Checkmite (Coumaphos) are the most commonly used acaracides to kill the mites. Both build up in the wax and both cause problems for the bees and contaminate the hive.
"There is some evidence that AFB and varroa can actually reduce the effectiveness of the bee's immune system thus increasing their virulence. Incidentally, there is also some evidence that some of the varroacides we use can also do the same." http://www.beedata.com/data2/pam_foul_brood.html

I donÂ’t use them.

Softer chemicals used to control the mites are Thymol, Oxalic acid, Formic acid and Acetic acid. The organic acids already naturally occur in the honey and so are not considered contaminates by some. Thymol is that smell in Listerine and although it occurs in Thyme honey, it doesnÂ’t occur otherwise in honey. Dr. Rodriguez has recently started adding this to the FGMO. I have used the Oxalic acid and liked it for interim control while regressing to small cell. I used a simple evaporator that Dennis Murrel had on his web site.

http://wind.prohosting.com/tbhguy/bee/oxal.htm

Inert chemicals for Varroa mites.

FGMO is the most popular of these. Dr. Pedro Rodriguez has been a proponent and researcher on this. His original system was cotton cords with FGMO, beeswax and honey in an emulsion. The object was to keep the FGMO on the bees for a long period of time so the mites either get groomed or they suffocate on the oil. Later using a propane insect fogger was used to supplement the cords in this control system. The other up side of the FGMO fog was it killed the tracheal mites also.

http://www.beesource.com/pov/rodriguez/index.htm

Inert dust. The most common inert dust used is powdered sugar. The kind you buy in the grocery store. It is dusted on the bees to dislodge the mites. According to the University Of Nebraska research, this method is not very effective unless you remove the bees from the hive and dust them and then return them. It is also very temperature sensitive. Too cold and the mites donÂ’t fall. Too hot and the bees die.

Here is a method where the bees are not removed from the hive:

http://wind.prohosting.com/tbhguy/bee/blas.htm

Physical methods.

Some methods are just hive parts or other things. Someone observed that there were less mites on hives with pollen traps and figured maybe the mites fell in the trap. The results were a screened bottom board (usually abbreviated SBB). This is a bottom board on the hive that has a hole covering most of the bottom covered with #7 or #8 hardware cloth. This allows the mites that get groomed off to fall down where they canÂ’t get back on the bees. Research shows that this eliminates 30% of the mites.

What I recommend.

I use the small cell and Screened Bottom Boards (SBB) and I monitor the mites with a white board under the SBB. As long as the mites stay under control, and they usually do, thatÂ’s all I do. If the mites were to start going up while the supers are on I would fog with FGMO. If they are still high after fall harvest, I would use Oxalic Acid. Probably some FGMO fog would be a good idea anyway just to make sure the tracheal mites are gone, but the small cell will usually control both mites and cause less general stress which causes most of the other diseases. Basically just small cell is effective for both kinds of mites and adequate under normal conditions.

Without getting into the issue of what methods are best, I think itÂ’s significant to the success and sometimes subsequent failure of many of the methods we, as beekeepers are trying to use. I used FGMO fog only for two years and when I killed all of the mites with Oxalic acid at the end of that two years there was a total mite load of an average of about 200 mites per hive. This is a very low mite count. But some people have observed a sudden increase to thousands and thousands of mites in a short time. I believe the issue is that the FGMO (and many other systems as well) manage to create a stable population of mites within the hive. In other words the mites emerging is balanced out by the mites dying. This is the object of many methods. SMR queens are queens that reduce the mitesÂ’ ability to reproduce. But even if you get to a stable reproduction of mites, this does not preclude thousands of hitchhikers coming in. Using powdered sugar, small cell, FGMO or whatever that gives an edge to the bees by dislodging a proportion of the mites, or preventing the reproduction of mites and seems to work under some conditions. I believe these conditions are where there are not a significant number of mites coming into the hive from other sources.

All of these methods seem to fail sometimes when there is a sudden increase in mites in the fall.

Then there are other methods that are more brute force. In other words they kill virtually all the mites. Even these seem to fail sometimes. We have assumed itÂ’s because of resistance, and perhaps this is a contributing factor. But what if sometimes itÂ’s again because of this huge influx of mites from outside the hive? Granted having the poison in the hive over a period of time when this explosion of population occurs seems to be helpful, it still sometimes fails.

I have not had this happen on small cell... yet. Nor have I had it happen on FGMO. I have seen it happen when I was using Apistan. But others have observed it with FGMO and I have to wonder how much this affects the success of many methods from Sucracide to SMR queens, from FGMO to Small Cell. It seems like there are at least two components to success. The first is to create a stable system so that the mite population is not increasing within the hive. The second is to find a way to monitor and recover from that occasional sudden influx of mites.of conditions that cause the mites to skyrocket seem to be in the fall when the hives rob out other hives crashing from mites and bring home a lot of hitchhikers.

Tracheal Mites
Tracheal mites (Acarapis woodi) are too small to see with the naked eye. If you want to check for them you need a microscope. Not a really powerful one, but you still need one. YouÂ’re not looking to see the details of a cell, just a creature that is quite small. Tracheal mites reproduce in young bees 1 to 2 days old. A common control for them is a grease patty (sugar and cooking grease mixed to make a patty) because it masks the smell that the tracheal mites use to find a young bee. If they canÂ’t find young bees they canÂ’t reproduce. Menthol is commonly used to kill the Tracheal mites. FGMO and (by some accounts) Oxalic acid will also kill them. Breeding for resistance and small cell are also useful. The theory on the small cell helping is that the spiracles (the openings into the trachea) that the bees breathe through are smaller and the mites canÂ’t get in. More research is needed on this subject. But basically, I just use small cell and they donÂ’t seem to be a problem.

Small Hive Beetles
Another recent pest that has not made it to where I am yet, is the Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida Murray). Sometimes abbreviated SHB. The damage they do is similar to the wax moths but more extensive and they are harder to control. If you smell fermentation in the hive and find masses of crawling, spiky looking larvae in combs you may have SHB. The only chemical controls approved for use are traps made with CheckMite and ground drenches to kill the pupae, which pupate in the ground outside the hive.

I have not had to deal with these, but I will probably go to more PermaComb (solid plastic fully drawn comb) in the brood nests if they become too much of a problem. Strong hives seem to be the best protection according to those who have delt with them.

[size="1"][ January 16, 2006, 10:06 AM: Message edited by: Michael Bush ][/size]

[DANIEL QUINCE]

Thank you Michael. I certainly want to keep my hives away from chemicals, if thatÂ’s possible. Honestly, just reading the posts related to pests and diseases is enough to freak any beginner away from beekeeping. I realize now that I shouldnÂ’t look for preventive medication and instead focus on knowledge related to diagnosis and only treat if necessary. The hive died in September-October last year. I didnÂ’t take any honey last year since it was the first year and the scope was to let the colonies get stronger. For some reason they didnÂ’t even use the top feeder. The other 2 hives cleaned them up in a week. I am concerned that if I re-use the foundations I may perpetuate the problem. Anyhow, IÂ’m going to build screened bases for all hives and IÂ’ll keep reading about symptoms so I can recognize them if needed. However, if treatment is imperative, I would prefer to use a more natural remedy and avoid processed chemicals. ThatÂ’s I do for myself too and it worked so far, except for being called a tee nut (I very seldom drink coffee). If anybody has natural alternatives, please let me know.
Regards
Daniel

[Michael Bush]

>I am concerned that if I re-use the foundations I may perpetuate the problem.

Is there old sunken capped brood in the hive? If so, you might want to send it in to Beltsville to be tested and make sure you don't have AFB. That's really the only reason not to use the comb again.

[DANIEL QUINCE]

What's in Beltsville? Can you give me more details?

[Michael Bush]

http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=7473

[Joel]

display/Copy/Print WRRRRRR. Nice job Michael, this one goes in the notebook! Thanks!

Daniel, don't be intimidated. Keep strong hives, quality queens and be vigilant. Think of your hive as an organism not just a group of bees. Keep reading and learing and sharing your experiances (teaching), we'll all survive together and enjoy the challenges.

[HarryVanderpool]

>>>The best prevention is to make sure your hive is healthy and not stressed and feed honey. Research has shown that feeding honey, especially dark honey, for winter feed decreases the incidence of Nosema. Any kind of stress and feeding sugar syrup increases the incidence.<<<
..........
Once again, a very nice and organized post by Michael Bush; Thank you!

However, the advice on Nosema goes 180 Degrees contrary both to my experience and training.
Feeding honey in the fall, especially poor honey has been listed in many articles as a causation of nosema in stressed bees.

I had a nosema problem with several hives each year annually until I started getting serious about good clean syrup and fumigillin.

Can you expand on your sources or experiences that would compel me to try another fall feeding method?

I'm all ears; thanks!

[Dick Allen]

The dark honey remark has me puzzled. Darker honey is sometimes said to have more mineral content that is not digested by bees. It seems that after being cooped up in a hive, unable to take cleansing flights, for long stretches of time will only add to stress.

[Michael Bush]

>I had a nosema problem with several hives each year annually until I started getting serious about good clean syrup and fumigillin.

Nosema or dysentary?

>Can you expand on your sources or experiences that would compel me to try another fall feeding method?

I've tried to find the research and maybe I should just email Dr. Tom Webster and ask. He said it at a presenation about Nosema here (in Nebraska) at "Beetopia" on Friday, November 21, 2003. He wasn't saying that was "the" solution by any means, but mentioned it. I've never really had problems with Nosema and have never used Fumidil or Fumagilin-B. Honey may be more likely to cause dysentary, but dysentary is not necesarrily Nosema.

[HarryVanderpool]

>>Nosema or dysentary?<<

http://orsba.proboards27.com/index.c...ead=1113020953

Following Dr. Eric Mussen's advice and following up with 2 years of clean syrup and Fumigillin on a hive such as the one pictured, the problem seems to be under control.
It looks like I have a grand total of 1 hive this year with nosema.

>>Honey may be more likely to cause dysentary, but dysentary is not necesarrily Nosema.<<

My understanding is that spore level and stress set the problem in motion.
My bees are highly stressed in the fall after a stint in the deasert.
I'm thinking that a case of dysentary can't help any.

[Dick Allen]

>but dysentary is not necesarrily Nosema.

while that is true, they often do go hand in hand.

[DANIEL QUINCE]

HARRY, COULD YOU "TRANSLATE" THAT PICTURE FOR ME? WHAT ARE THE OBVIOUS (NOT FOR ME) SIGNS OF NOSEMA IN THE PICTURE? ALSO, WOULDN'T TORCHING THE FRAMES AND SUPER ELIMINATE THE PROBLEM SO THEY CAN BE RE-USED?

[HarryVanderpool]

>>>HARRY, COULD YOU "TRANSLATE" THAT PICTURE FOR ME? WHAT ARE THE OBVIOUS (NOT FOR ME) SIGNS OF NOSEMA IN THE PICTURE?<<<

Daniel, you know what is the most disgusting thing about mice?
The most disgusting thing about mice is that they foul [urinate in] their own nest!
One of the wonderful attributes of honeybees is their housekeeping, and their ability to go for weeks or months without deficating. [ taking a dump]
Healthy honeybees will go for unbeleiveable periods of time before the sun finally comes out and they can take a few cleansing flights.
Take a look at this:

http://orsba.proboards27.com/index.c...ead=1135301285

Compare those nice clean frames to this:

http://orsba.proboards27.com/index.c...ead=1113020953

Notice that the latter picture has a look like someone poured chocolate syrup all over the top of the frames? That is a sign of some VERY sick bees.

The picture is one of an extreme case. The colony colapsed.

I'll try to find an excellent article of Dr. Mussen's fo you on this.