Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
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I arrived home from YOW (Ottawa) Sunday night, leaving my van with cousin Paul, since I intend to go to Round Lake later this summer, and Ottawa is halfway there.

After settling in, I looked the bees over and saw that several hives were getting crowded and there were a few dead-outs, I gather from failed splits.  Nonetheless, the numbers are up.

I got to work splitting and organizing, and, when finished, have 30 hives where there were 9 this spring after unwrapping.  Jean, Chris and Ellen split them last on May 17th.  That is six weeks ago and more.  I should have been here to split again sooner.   If I had, I'd have another 5 to 10 hives. ( I may, actually after I go through them, if I do, since I can probably pull some brood and bees from the larger ones. I normally don't go through the boxes and scrape, but after years if no scraping and being plugged, the frames do need some attention).
Not having queens, we have been making walk-away spits.  With the price of queens being around $20 or more, and not wishing to produce any honey, this method makes sense.  As it is, most of the hives are plugged with fresh honey.  I'm going to have to go through the hives and pull some out, I am afraid so there will be room to expand.  For now, I pulled a fat comb of dandelion honey and pressed the honey from it using a spoon.  We got a large quart jar full, plus some.

In working the hives I notice that all the supplement is gone from every hive.  I had crammed the hives with feed back in April, some taking three or even four patties.  Ellen had put a lot more on when they split in May.  Nothing is left, and I'm out of patties, but will get some next week and resume feeding.  I can see it pays.  I'd like to get some of the Southern Alberta pollinators trying patties while on canola pollination.  I am sure it would be a huge boost and improve their wintering success very noticeably.

I suppose I could use the Hopkins Case method, but, again that means making a strong hive queenless, at least long enough to get the cells built and capped, at which time they can be distributed to colonies.

I could raise queens for the splits, but that takes time and resources.  It takes a hive or two to do so, and time to do the graft or prepare the eggs, and this way, I get the biggest bang for time invested.  I'll go back and check in a few days, being careful not to damage any cells, and adding eggs to any that do not seem to be raising a queen.  The hives should all be queenright with laying queens three weeks from now.  Some may be ready for another split.  We'll see.  the end of July is the deadline for successful splits.  After that, some years, half the split hives will die over winter.

In the past, I have received considerable flak for advocating emergency queens, with many beekeepers insisting that bees will choose larvae that are too old.  A few wise old beekeepers have taken my side, but most beekeepers are afraid of emergency queens.  After all, emergency queens are what we get in walk-away splits, so if the queens are no good, neither is the method.  In searching around, I notice that Michael Bush has found some justification for my beliefs.  See http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm.  Here is a quote:

Jonathan arrived up from California with the kids for a holiday

Thursday, July 9th, 2009
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It has been a busy week.  The kids and Jon have kept us busy, visiting Jean and Chris, attending the Stampede, and generally holidaying.  I had a visit with the gang at Global on Tuesday and picked up several boxes of patties to feed to my splits.  I figure they need feed all summer for best build-up.  Some, of course, may not actually need the feed, but some will, and all will benefit I am sure.  Supplementation helps balance nutrition and makes sure the hives do not run short on days like today when it is windy and cool with rainy spells, the type of weather that limits foraging.
 

This afternoon, I went out to put on some patties.  I leave my smoker box on top of one four pack of hives for convenience.  Inside are two smokers, some paper, matches, a squeeze bottle of BeeGo that I haven't used for years, but somehow is still in there, hive tools, and burlap for fuel.  I opened the box to get a smoker and noticed I was suddenly surrounded by bees.  They were brightly coloured, not like honeybees.  Bumblebees, I realised, wondering why they were the first to greet me.  When I pulled out a piece of paper to light the smoker, I learned why: bumblebees had moved into my smoker box!  Of course, I worked around them and let them carry on.  These were the first daughters, small bees about the size of honeybees.  Over the next months, I expect to see larger bees until there will be a crop of queens that are comparatively huge.
 

I've mentioned that the bees remove all traces of the patties, but that is not strictly true.  I use pillows that can press down on the frames, if there is no wax on top and so, sometimes, when the frames are well scraped (not normal in my outfit) and there is no ladder comb, the bees cannot access the paper and it remains on the top bars.  No big deal.

Some beekeepers are now feeding patties on the floor and reporting good results if the weather is warm and the hives are strong.  In my case I can count on neither, so I feed on the top bars.
 

In addition to the bumblebees, I encountered a family of skunks, happily mousing under my pallets in the shed.  I had noticed a little bit of skunk scratching around some hives that had been hanging out, but that was my fault for crowding the hives.  After splitting, the bees don't hang out and the skunks have quit eating bees.

I found one split that had dwindled, but also several hives that needed splitting again.  When I left, the hive count was up to 32.  I expect to lose three or four of that number, but we'll see.
 

Saturday, July 11th, 2009
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We took in the parade in Three Hills and then had a picnic at the Trochu Arboretum

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
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I posted on BEE-L, and mentioned this page, so I figure I should update.  Here are some of the patties several days after application (on the 9th). 

We are in the middle of an intense honey and pollen flow, yet the bees are getting going on the patties.  Since the hives were without patties for at least two weeks, it will take time for them to get accustomed to them again.

Today's pictures are extra high-res for those who want a close peek. Click to enlarge

The bumblebees are coming along well, too.

I haven't been doing anything in the way of monitoring or medicating lately.  I suppose I should check them out for varroa one of these days.  One thing, though, constant splitting is a good varroa control measure in itself.  Constant splitting is also a good control measure to prevent honey production, and that is good, since I don't have an extractor.  I gave my last super of honey to friends to extract, but never saw it or the honey again.

Here is something serious that Wayne, and others have brought to my attention -- A regulatory proposal from the PMRA (new window)

Some of us have been aware for a long time that having any approved product for formic acid application could endanger the current status of formic in Canada which allows a number of application methods and some latitude in use.

With an approval of a commercial product, two things happen.

1. The PMRA has an excuse to say that the other applications are now unnecessary, and

2. The owner of a registered product has an incentive to squash competition for the much cheaper generic product -- plus the funds to do so from sales --  by lobbying the PMRA until they cave and make other methods of application illegal.

We have seen this in the US, where the use of formic is a touchy question, and risky for the user, since a number of regulatory agencies may descend on the user and administer draconian punishments, simply for using one of the safest and most efficient methods of control.

One size simply does not fit all.  Mite-Away is not suitable for all purposes and situations.  There are many vital applications for raw formic, such as in nucs, flash treatments, etc.  Beekeepers are wise enough be able to use this product safely.  Not to minimize the real concerns in safe handling, formic is no more dangerous than gasoline, and in many ways safer.  There is no danger to the consumer from residue.  The only risk is to the handler and that IMO is an occupation health and safety issue, not a pest management issue.

Thursday, July 16th, 2009
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Subject: Re: Walk Away Splits
From: allen dick
Reply-To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:19:31 -0600

> After years of observing hives that didn't take our grafted queen cells, I > have the opinion that the emergency queens were 50 % good size, but many > queens were small runts, some so small as to be hard to differentiate from > workers.

I'm glad to hear comments from those who have had different experience from mine. No two operations, locales or management systems are the same, so differences are to be expected. Your situation is obviously very different from mine, and I expect that I would make decisions similar to yours, if in your shoes.

Also, you may be a much better beekeeper than average. I suspect you are. The average beekeeper is not able to consistently obtain the quality you that you may consider normal, and therefore have a lower standard of comparison.

So, in the following, I am not arguing with you, but speaking more generally on the topic and making some random points.

Understanding that situations vary, as I said, the emergency queens of which I speak are those which are raised under specific ideal conditions. For fairness, should be compared to to grafted queens raised under typical conditions, In both cases there are bound to be some culls.

Nobody who has dealt with poor queens raised by grafting methods blames solely the method in the way, for some reason, people tend to blame the emergency impulse for the duds they have seen every time the topic comes up.

Seems to me that we hear a lot of grumbling about the quality of commercial queens and then idealize those same queens when comparing to nature's product.

Just as grafted queens are not all the same, lumping all emergency queens into one class is unfair. I guess we should think about the fact, too, that grafted queens are raised under the emergency impulse, so the only question is who gets to choose the mother and the larva and who is best at handling the larvae, pupae and newly hatched virgin. Each of us has a different opinion as to who knows best, the bees or some newly hired grafter and summer help at a queen factory.

> I would never advocate splits made with emergency cells *if* high quality > grafted cells were available, any more than I would buy cheap poor quality > queens from a breeder to save a few bucks.

There are a lot of factors to consider here. Having bought thousands of cells and evaluated the result, I am less inclined to make a strong distinction. There is also the whole economic question. What is in short supply, time, expertise, weather, equipment, bees? What is the price of honey? Queens? Cells? What is the development and production window?

> All things considered, a good queen has the most impact on the general > quality of the hive.

This is generally agreed. The question then becomes, what defines 'good' and how much better 'best' than 'good', and can that difference be made to pay or is the extra cost and effort just an investment in managerial ego?

> One other consideration that has not been mentioned on this subject most > recently is this: the time factor. When we split in Florida, every day is > crucial to get queens laying ASAP to build up good populations to make > honey. By using cells, one can get a jump on it, especially when queens > are not available because of high demand and pricey.

Very good points that illustrate why an approach that fits me and my goals does not fit yours.

Another consideration is that a beekeeper is not necessarily stuck with either/or. Smart beekeepers when out in a yard a long way from home, no queens along and with no likelihood of an early return to this yard and faced with a need to split, or to deal with a strong but queenless or suspected queenless hive will drop in a frame of eggs and/or young brood -- and walk away. Moreover, queenless hives may not accept a queen, but will generally accept eggs and brood.

All in all, I am sure that walk-away splits will never become the main method, but it is astounding how popular it has become in recent years, especially with those who are not under pressure to extract every penny from their bees.

> It has been shown (or at least strongly implied) in the reading I have done > that starting with younger larvae results in generally more ovarioles-down > to about 18 hours or so anyway, and you tend to diminish the quality of > queens as you move much over 24 hours. "Contemporary Queen Raising" By > Laidlaw Page 18

My understanding is that these studies are in relation raising single queens by grafting, not batches of emergency queens. Maybe there is no no difference, but maybe...

Besides, I personally don't consider the claimed difference to be that significant. For those who are in conditions where their queens are always the limiting factor, maybe this is important, but in my experience, in my operation, the limitations are usually the number of supporting bees, the feed available, the weather, etc. not the queen -- unless she is really bad.

> Randy commented that he had seen some small emergency queens. My > observations are in line with this-that the % of emergency queens that are > small is higher than those rasied "normally".

I have seen some, too, but usually those runty emergency queens we recall seeing are ones raised at inopportune times by weakened hives under stress.

The topic here is walk-away splits made under ideal conditions in terms of population, young bees, season, etc. and I think that tends to preclude the problem.

One thing that should be mentioned is that the walk-away split -- as with anything to do with bees -- may work marvellously for some and not at all for others.

One should not suppose that because it is written up here that everyone is going to see the same success.

The locale, the strain of bee, the condition of the hives, and many other factors may enter into the mix.

The judgement and experience of the beekeeper is a huge factor, too. Some people can do just about anything with bees and get away with it, while others don't ever seem to have any luck.

In addition to experience and empathy for bees, I suspect it comes down in many cases to the ability -- or lack thereof -- to understand and follow instructions, plus the ability -- or lack thereof -- to observe and make intelligent extrapolations.

> When I've done it I've gone back on the fourth day and broken down sealed cells to prevent this. There are usually some.

Since the diet for larvae is the same for the first three days whether the end result is to be a queen or worker, and we are using hives that are thriving, with lots of young bees, and that are on a honey and pollen flow, why would a two or even three-day-old larva not make as good a queen as a younger one?

Also, what makes you think that the unsealed cells were not started with larvae of the same age as the ones being broken down, only later?

> The point Kirk made about timing factors in most of the time. A mated > queen speeds up the process

It can, assuming 1.) the beekeeper is skilled in introductions and assuming 2.) the new queen gets laying right away, and assuming 3.) the new queen is good in the first place, handled OK in shipping, and not superceded as soon as the beekeeper turns his back. We assume a lot.

In many case, in the right hands, these are safe assumptions, however, I have seen the pitfalls too often, and queens cost $20 here in Canada, plus they have a long trip to get here oftentimes...

> plus when bees return to the Midwest from almonds we can not raise our > own queens or even use cells as we do not have mature > drones.

Then the walk-away technique is out of the question. Why even consider it? The fact that people even consider at at times when they should not adds to it's undeservedly bad rep.

> Walkaways are a bit of a gamble as are cells at times but most > professional beekeepers have experimented with walkaways. Another tool for > the beekeeper tool chest.

Yes, and use them fairly often, but don't give the technique much respect. If the truth be known, the bees raise most of the queens in commercial hives behind the beekeeper's back. <Allen is ducking and running :)>

> I will say that only using walkaway splits will *in my opinion* set bad > traits in your bees. Some of the most aggressive bees I have worked years > ago came from beekeepers using walkaway splits year after year.

That can happen, since walk-away tends to be a selection technique, and not one that takes the sensibilities of the beekeeper or his neighbours into account <G>. Depending on the original stock and other factors in management, the results can be unpredictable, except that you will get bees that build up to splitting size, requeen themselves well, and survive to the next split. Obviously some selection would be a good idea from time to time, such as encouraging drone rearing in attractive and productive colonies, and eliminating unbearable colonies, and bringing in some new stock. We all do that. Beekeepers can never be stopped from bringing in a new queen from somewhere distant. It is a given.

Additionally, many of us who do use walk-away techniques will insert cells we raise or beg, or queens when we have them, but do not worry when we do not.

> When you raise your own queens from a chosen breeder or buy queens/cells > from a chosen breeder queen you will *in my opinion* end up with better > yards of bees in all aspects.

Yeah, but you are stacking the deck here. Most beekeepers are victim to what they can get a lot of the time, and only kid themselves that they are getting something decent the rest of the time, after the queens have been raised en-masse by hired help, banked, shipped in hot conditions, and held pending intro.

As pros, influential writers, and volume purchasers, we have some purchasing power, leverage with the shipper, and some idea of who is hot and who is not, but most beekeepers take what they can get and say, "Thank You!".

Saturday, July 18th, 2009
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I split last, it seems on July 2nd, with a secondary split on the 9th.  That means the earliest I can split again is on the 23rd (2+21), and that day is coming up fast. 

Looking at the table from Wikipedia, we see that, assuming that the larvae chosen for queens are aged 3 to 5 days, then the earliest we should expect nuptial flights to be complete is 24 - 3 = 21 days after the split date, or July 23.  Of course, we do not want to mix up and confuse the yard during mating or the queens could get lost.  The splits from the ninth should not be mating on the 23rd, but one never knows.  Sometimes the hives being split were already raising a queen or queens when we split them.  I don't look.
 

Pollen Patty Consumption During a Major Flow Looking at the pictures below, I put these patties onto the hives on July 9th and this is the 18th.  That was just over a week ago, and during a strong nectar and pollen flow.  There are hundreds of acres of clover, alfalfa and canola in full bloom all around these hives. (see the entrance activity in a typical hive, below).  Some people think that bees won't eat patties when there is honey and pollen coming in.  Hogwash.  These are Global standard patties with 15% pollen, but they would be eating patties even without pollen, but possibly not as quickly.  Consider that what I gave these hives and the amount that some ate in a week is as much or more than many beekeepers put on their hives in a whole year! Keeping in mind that some of these hives are queenless, and some quite small, take a look at the consumption.  Note that one hive ate most of two patties already!  Another is just nibbling around the edges.  I took these pictures at random and did not open more than the first few hives I came to.  I was not wearing a veil or using smoke.  One of the pictures shows why I should have used a smoker last time I peeked.  Note the bees trapped and dead on top of the patties.  I normally smoke them down a little before closing. The point here is that bees will eat good patties at any time of year. When it rains, when it is dark, when it is windy, patties benefit the bees and keep them building. Less tangible is the improved health and robustness of the bees and the improved wintering that comes after a season of patty feeding. For that you'll have to take my word, or try it yourself. Click any picture for a better view In case you arrived here by a direct route, this topic is part of this diary page, where the history of this apiary is described more fully.

I guess what I am wondering right now is this:  I have a friend who recommended splitting two-storey producing hives (with excluders over the seconds) at the end of July by removing one of the two brood boxes and placing it behind the hive somewhere and adding a cell to each half.

I don't know what to make of the bumblebee nest in my smoker box.  There are lots of cells, but I only saw one bee.  Maybe they are all out foraging, or maybe it got too hot in the black smoker box.  Another possibility is that they were overtaken by parasites.  Bumblebees are heavily parasitized in nature.

The idea was that if the bees are smoked up a bit trough the main entrance before splitting, the queen will  be in the upper brood box and remain with the remaining single brood box and the the hive.  Any working bees that are removed in the lower box will drift right back to the main stand and continue work in the supers. 

That is the theory.  Therefore, the crop should not be affected much and the split, having quite a bit of brood in all stages and two months and more to get queenright and built up for winter should do quite well.  The split would be somewhat depleted of bees by the smoking and drifting, but should be fine in hot weather and robbing should be no problem during a flow. A queen cell should ideally be placed in each of the two brood boxes at the time of splitting to ensure a quick requeening, but that is not really necessary. 

The process can be very easy, if the hive is tipped back on a ladder-like device and the bottom box pried off or if the hives are being stripped of honey at the time.  A hive loader also makes the job simple.

The first year I tried that idea, it worked marvellously and I got a crop and lots of great splits that wintered well, once a second box was placed under it in September, so the next year I repeated the process.  That year, I lost half the hives over the subsequent winter.  At the time, I blamed it on splitting too late, but on thinking it over, I am now wondering if the reason for the loss was that the hives I split the first time were on fixed locations and the ones I spilt the second time were on pollination and thus stressed.  Moreover, I had to move these hives about the time the new queens were getting laying and that might have been a problem.

Hives on pollination are stressed and undernourished anyhow, so I am wondering if I can get away with one more split since I am feeding protein and the hives are not being moved.  I think I'll take my chances.  With luck, I could wind up with 50 or sixty hives next spring from the nine I had this year.  We'll see.

---

Well, I have been splitting like mad, hoping to prevent the hives getting plugged with honey, but I just went out to take some pictures, and I'm afraid I'll have to super some of them.

I'm trying to get some of my pollinator friends to try feeding patties all summer.  I'm betting that they will see a huge boost in wintering success.  So far, no luck.

Too much work?  Apparently it should not be, though.  In California, many beekeepers are feeding strong colonies by placing Global Patties on the bottom board with great success!  Of course this only works in warm weather with strong colonies.

Sunday, July 19th, 2009
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In the evening, we took a hike in the Kneehill Creek valley near home.

Monday, July 20th, 2009
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Yesterday, I was celebrating the expanse of flowers in every direction.  Today, two swathers showed up and cut the hay east of us and on our railway strip.  Hay cutting is necessary, and results in regrowth later, but in the short term, it sends the bees farther afield to the canola and ditches.

Nature -- the foxes, skunks, birds, and the weather -- and the farming activity viewed from our windows are far more interesting evening entertainment than anything I've seen lately on TV.

I got a call tonight.  A friend who is a very well respected beekeeper and pollinator is considering trying patty feeding during the summer to see if it results in better wintering.  Hooray!  I think that this is going to be a huge discovery and reduce our dependence on imports.

I have to get out and deal with the ants.  I see they are getting the better of some splits.  I guess I have to decide about varroa, too.  Should I just give everything a shot of oxalic syrup and be done with it, or should I survey.  How much time do I want to spend?  Can I get a sticky board into the entrances?  Do I want to kill 300 bees in every hive?  Option number one is tempting.

Summer Bee Meetings; I plan to go away again soon.  East, west, I can't decide.  There are two in the East: The Eastern Apicultural Society in Upper New York State and also a Northeast Treatment Free Beekeeping Conference in Massachusetts.  I considered the latter, quite seriously, but looked at the programme and it looks a bit lame -- and meagre. There are some speakers I know and would like to see, but others of the participants I find overly speculative, argumentative and excessively imaginative.

I have been making some mead lately.  I've gotten it down to the basics.  12 lbs honey, enough water to make up 5 gallons, 50ml of dibasic ammonium phosphate, and one pack of EC-1118.  After several days in the primary -- a five-gallon pail -- I siphon it into a carboy and wait until it stops bubbling.  The I add a pack of kieselsol and an hour later, the Chitosan.  After a day or three, it is ready to drink, but, of course the best plan is to bottle it and wait a while.

The EAS theme is "Towards Nonchemical Beekeeping" and the other group, by its name, claims to have already arrived at the goal.  I know the latter group is sincere and some of them are truly "Nonchemical", but I am concerned that the successes are somewhat unique and idiosyncratic and not commercially viable on any wide scale.  The EAS group includes a very respectable selection of scientists and beekeepers and includes quite a few personal friends, some with whom I debate frequently and with whom I am not uncomfortable disagreeing.  The Northeast group includes some friends, but also some who are quite dogmatic and people I would tend to avoid. Both groups, I am sure will provide a worthwhile experience.  I could go to both, I suppose, but imagine I will wind up at neither.

I suppose I should not forget mentioning the Western Apicultural Society and the Heartland Apicultural Society, too. The annual WAS Conference will commence the evening of Monday, August 17, 2009, continuing through Thursday, August 20. The meeting will be held at the Dry Creek Best Western Inn, 198 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg, California,

I see that Heartland was back in early July.  Their website is very minimal.  I have to congratulate EAS on their site.  It is very good this year, even if getting it ready was a bit late for my plans.  (I always give them grief about their site).

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
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We moved some bees last night.  32 on one location was getting to be a bit much.  Although I moved 12 of them only 0.65 of a mile, I figure there should not be much drifting.  If queens are being mated, this may not be optimal, but we will see.

I have been trying to keep the hives comparatively weak, so that I get the maximum in splits and also so I don't produce honey.  Looking at the pictures from last night, some are getting pretty strong.

I'm going to have to do some beekeeping. Tomorrow is the next split day on my calendar.

Friday, July 24th, 2009
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