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We have talked about the process
followed the first year for catching feral bees or retrogressing
domesticated colonies from oversized brood foundation. Writing
from the standpoint of Southern Arizona area conditions and confining
thoughts to a discussion of necessay data and observations gleaned
in a semi-arid, but still temperate location, note to those following
this Saga, that this is basically a non-migratory area and we
are working with colonies in apiary sites that have been permanently
set (some for decades, generation to generation), making these
sites perfect for determining field feasibility for natural biological
controls for parasitic mites and secondary diseases without the
use of chemicals, essential oils, and antibotics. To assess,
understand, and retool colonies to fit a natural biological system,
beekeepers must work with stable apiary sites from which to observe
and learn, by process of trial and error, that which works, figuring
out why; and that which does not, also understanding why not.
The objective then being, to implement.
Transitory colonies of bees, caught-up within a perpetual migratory
yearlong loop are incapable of completely adapting due to constant
area/regional movement, not allowing for natural acclimatization
necessary for evolution. Though associated inherent problems
of parasitic mites and secondary diseases for transitory colonies
of bees, may be CONTROLLED with proper field manipulative management,
relative to use of small cell foundation matching the top-of-the-range
natural traditional sizing for a given area for acclimitized
honeybees, this does not apply to the breeding aspect of migratory
colonies which has no relativity to real-world natural selection.
Once the process of catching feral bees or retrogresing domesticated
colonies from oversized brood foundation has been accomplished
the first year, with the creation of as much correctly drawn-out
4.9mm foundation as possible with stores of pollen and honey,
the colonies need to be assessed going into Winter to make sure
they contain enough stores to overwinter. If reserves are not
adequate they need to be supplemented. Preferably feed honey
and pollen only. Do not feed substitutes. When feeding honey,
feed it as granulated honey, in manila paper packets with 1/4
punched feeding holes. If feeding pollen, feed it as a mixture
of pollen/granulated honey patties. Place both as needed right
next to or directly above the brood nest or cluster. Replace
as necessary. (Note: granulated honey, fed in packets this way,
is assimilated within the hive like regular stores of gathered
honey). To stimulate brood rearing in the Spring, switch out
the granulated honey in manila paper packets and change to LIQUID
honey in manila paper packets, with pin-holes (4-6 each side,
just enough to let honey slowly drip, but not enough to run/stream).
With the feeding of liquid honey, pollen/honey patties must be
fed, if internal stores of pollen are inadequate to initiate
brood rearing.
Prior to initiation of broodrearing in the Spring, while the
bees are still clustered, pull surplus drawn-out foundation where
stores have been consumed. Leave hives as singles with drawn-out
combs. Where supplemental feed is still necessary, or you are
feeding to stimilate broodrearing for Spring build-up, use undrawn
frames of foundation in a second story super around the feeder
packets positioned over the brood/cluster. As broodrearing increases,
and drawing- out of new wax commences, this restarts the process
of drawing new frames of foundation for the coming year.
Store pulled surplus drawn-out foundation temporarily in supers
standing on end, in a cool place until used. Store butting, facing
bottom to bottom, with top-bars facing out (placement this way
will keep out rodents).
As soon as enough fresh nectar/pollen is being collected to sustain
bees and initiate natural broodrearing in the field, begin shake-down
of selected colonies from oversized combs onto your seed-frames
of surplus drawn-out foundation. Use 3-5 frames, depending upon
your supply of seed-frames made the previous year. Remember,
like the previous year, this is done by physically shaking the
bees off of the combs and restarting like a shook-swarm, only
this time instead of using all undrawn frames of foundation,
you are now using 3-5 frames of drawn-out foundation (Note: Place
drawn seed-frames together in center of super with undrawn foundation
on either side to establish a compact broodnest/cluster site).
This will speed up the process of retrogression, by giving the
queens an immediate place in which to lay brood, instead of having
to wait for comb to be drawn-out to lay in. Like the previous
year, place the shaken down colonies upon a queen excluder, upon
a bottom board, to prevent swarming until the queens are laying
upon a minimum of 2-3 frames. You should notice that this year,
once the queens have finished the first brood cycle and new bees
are emerging, the bees will be sized down to proper sizing and
should be drawing small natural comb foundation more easily,
necessating less culling of mis-drawn foundation.
Having accomplished the field shake-down of selected colonies
from oversized combs, continue the objective of creating correctly
drawn-out combs. CULL ANY COMBS WITH MORE THAN 10% DRONE CELLS
DRAWN ON ANY ONE SIDE. MAKE THIS A MANDATORY FIELD MANAGEMENT
TECHNIQUE. THERE IS VALID REASON FOR DOING THIS. It has been
previously demonstrated that Varroa mites prefer drone brood
to worker brood for reproduction in the feral population of honeybees.
Generally, about 40% of drone cells are infested, while for workers,
the average is close to 10% (Note: For Trachael mites the feral
average is also about 10% for workers for infestation levels).
It has been demonstrated that the larvae food is the stimulant
in oversized bigger cells for attracting Varroa infestation.
For many years it was traditionally taught to cull drone combs
as much as possible.
Since the advent of Varroa, this practice has been reversed to
the detriment of our industry. Beekeepers should go back to the
old traditional way of culling drone combs, as there will always
be plenty of drones reared in corners of the frames or in cells
that become enlarged by accident. It should always be remembered
that while the drones do no work physically in the hive, THEY
DO ACT AS THE BEST ATTRACTANT TO PULL DISEASE AND PARASITES TO
THEMSELVES AS FIRST TARGETS, SO WORKERS CAN SURVIVE THROUGHOUT
THE ACTIVE SEASON. THEN, WHEN THE HONEY IS IN AND NEW QUEENS
ARE MATED, THEIR JOBS DONE, THEY ARE CAST OUT TO INITIATE CLEANSING
THE HIVE OF ITS DISEASE AND PARASITE PROBLEMS.
On a natural biological system, the few phoretic mites that remain
are quickly filtered out through the brood nest by the workers
chewing-out and/or removing mites from infected larvae cells
(cleansing). By culling brood frames which have excesive (more
than 10%) drone cells, beekeepers limit colony infestations and
reduce Varroa infestation down, using the 40% vs 10% infestation
level difference to their own manipulative hive management advantage.
Additionally, by changing out and shaking-down colonies from
oversized brood combs, they further reduce the attraction for
Varroa to enter pseudo-drone cells, (aka: artficially oversized
worker comb acting as an attractant with more larvae food for
mites) and reproduce at a higher than natural 10% infestation
level. By beekeepers actively culling drone comb to less than
10% drone cells per drawn frames, beekeepers can reduce the naturally
occurring 10% infestation level in Nature to below 5% with field
manipulative management.
In the second year of retrogression
back onto a natural biological system of keeping bees, beekeepers
must learn to look for visual signs that their colonies are cleansing
themselves of parasitic mite and disease problems. QUESTION:
Just what are the signs to look for, to see if workerbees are
chewing out and/or removing Varroa mites (cleansing) from infested
larvae cells?
In Southern Arizona, the chewing-out
of Varroa mites (cleansing) happens on the downside of the honey
flow. It starts slowly as the queens stop laying drones, picks-up
speed as the drones are expelled from the hive, then tapers-off
just prior to the end of broodnest cleansing time. By the time
the broodnest is resituated and cleaned by the workers, with
the pulling-out of old larvae cocoons and reshellacked, beekeepers
will find Varroa mite infestation reduced to a non-detectable
level in most cases; and under control by the workerbees. In
Southern Arizona, this happens approximately twice a year with
the primary cleansing season occurring in the fall. Other times
beekeepers will see it occurring, will be right after a colony
requeens, when the hive workers are throwing out drones and getting
ready to roll again.
Beekeepers will see cleansing
mostly around the periphery of the broodnest of sealed worker
cells, although it can occur as a buckshot brood pattern in weaker
hives, or in a strong hive where large numbers of mites are transferring
from drone to workers. In some hives beekeepers will see a combination
of both patterns, starting from the sides of the supers and progressing
towards the center of the broodnest. When this happens, the buckshot
brood pattern is normally nearest the pollen and honey frames,
changing to the periphery around the edge of the broodnest of
sealed worker cells, as frames are looked at nearer the center
of the brood nest.
Beekeepers should look for
signs, like uncapped worker brood with the pupae exposed and
in many cases cannibalized. If there was only one Varroa and
it was located on the head between the eyes, many times the pupae
will be unharmed, as the workerbees have only to remove the mite
to rectify the situation. If the Varroa is situated on the back
of the head between the thorax, the workerbees will eat the head
off to get to the Varroa. If the Varroa and/or another is situated
on the thorax, workerbees will eat down to that also. If those
Varroa and/or more are located on the abdomen, lodged between
the tergits, the bees will continue eating down. Beekeepers should
notice that when the workerbees are doing this and working only
with removing Varroa mites from healthy bees, the pupae will
be a HEALTHY WHITE COLOR, which shows that the workerbees are
not removing diseased or infected larvae/pupae. (Note: What they
are doing is cleaning-out infestation, like our human livers
clean out impurities from our bodies. They are also recycling
protein as a food source, being labor efficient.)
When Varroa is removed from
the top of the head and the pupae left unharmed, beekeepers will
usually notice that the pupae, are at-a-state of purple, darkening
eyes. Beekeepers observing colonies, will find that the bees
seem to chew-out Varroa when other chores of the hive are not
pressing, i.e. honey gathering and major broodrearing, showing
that they have a way of prioritizing work. Until workerbees are
ready to cleanse the broodnest on the downswing of honey flows,
Varroa mainly infest drone larvae and pupae.
Thus the drones, although they do no work physically in the colonies,
DO ACT AS THE BEST ATTRACTANT BY BODY MASS AND THEREFORE A BETTER
BASIC FOOD TARGET, TO PULL DISEASE AND PARASITES TO THEMSELVES
AS AN INHERENT DEFENSE MECHANISM WITHIN THE COLONY CASTE STRUCTURE'S
DIVISION OF LABOR, so workers can survive throughout the active
season raising vital brood and gathering stores of honey and
pollen. Then as the season winds down, the drones are thrown-out,
and the WORKERBROOD ACTS AS A LIVING LIVER IN THE HIVE PURGING
THE OVERPOPOULATION OF VARROA MITES, BY CHEWING OUT (CLEANSING),
to bring the colony back into a balanced parasitic mite host
relationaship (similar to that of Apis Cerana).
Each new broodrearing season, the cycle repeats. Uncapping of
sealed workerbrood (manually by hand, for field observation),
NOT UNCAPPED BY WORKERS DURING THIS TIME, have revealed non-infested
pupae by Varroa. When beekeepers see these signs, they can know
that their bees are doing what they should, to handle the problem
naturally without the use of chemicals, essential oils, and drugs.
CAUTION: Do not confuse this phenonmena with starving bees that
need pollen and/or honey, and are driven to eat their own for
nourishment to survive hard-times. Beekeepers must learn to see
with their eyes and understand the difference.
As progress continues in retrogression,
beekeepers will notice more colonies stabalizing. As parasitic
mites become more controlable, by the end of the second year,
beekeepers should notice the workerbees beginning to chew-out
drone cells, cleaning them as they do worker brood cells. (Note:
While all this is going on throughout the active year, beekeepers
should be actively culling combs for irregularities, i.e. incorrectly
drawn size, disease, etc.) Beekeepers should notice, that just
as culling for incorrectly drawn foundation subsides, so will
the culling of diseased combs. This signals that the colonies
are coming into balance with a natural system of beekeeping,
working with Nature effectively instead of to the detriment -
side, by being out-of-tune with natural flora and climatic conditions,
etc..
During the second year, beekeepers
should continue catching feral swarms as a renewable resource
for bees and clean, uncontaminated wax for recycling into foundation.
Beekeepers also need to start planning how many hives to get
ready for production for the third year (End year with colonies,
a minimum of 3 deep supers of bees, pollen and honey, with all
drawn 4.9mm foundation), and how many hives to keep using for
the production of seed-frames to continuing shake-downs each
Spring until all colonies maintained are retrogressed back onto
a natural biological system of beekeeping. Here it is suggested
that newly caught feral swarms be allowed to do the balance of
the drawing-out of foundation work, along with forced-splits
(swarm cells in colonies, necessitating divides rather than having
bees go to the bushes).
During the second year beekeepers
need to also plan to start recycling empty shook-down boxes of
frames of oversized combs. If chemical treatments were used in
management, beekeepers also need to plan decontamination wax
procedures prior to recycling wax into new undrawn foundation.
--
Signed: Dee A. Lusby, Tucson, Arizona, USA, 1-520-748-0542
Email Address: deelusbybeekeeper@mailexcel.com
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