|
Sunday August 23rd 2015
|
Today
Sunny. Wind becoming southeast 20 km/h this afternoon. High
25. UV index 6 or high.
Tonight A few clouds. Wind southeast 20 km/h becoming
light this evening. Low 8. |
Click here for current conditions in my back yard
Ten day forecast
Read yesterday's post
Often posts are edited the next day for improved clarity
I woke up early, at 0455, got up, and had breakfast. I am up
for the day it seems. I could use more sleep, having been up
until midnight, but today is Bee Day and I must be excited. I
don't feel excited.
I'm not worried, either. I don't get stage fright.
Maybe I should, though. I've heard it said that the best performers
get stage fright even after many years of performing.
And, I do imagine I will have to perform, and in front of a
group made up mostly of strangers, a fact I am just now realizing.
As far as I can tell, the reactions I have received have
been very positive and a little surprised. When I think of
it, not many people would invite a horde of people they don't
really know to come over and look at their hives. I guess
I just assume that no beekeeper is really a stranger.
What's in it for me? When I think of it, probably
nothing. This is just something that seemed to need doing.
This whole event is based on my notion that people will show
up more or less on time, park where indicated, and when everyone has
arrived (except the inevitable stragglers) we will gather around the
North Yard hives and go through them one-by-one working on them and
commenting.
I plan to have supplies on hand and to take things as they
come. I'll just do what I would do if I was working alone.
I know that will not quite be possible, but I'll do as close an
approximation as possible.
 I
am hoping to record the whole thing. I have some cameras and a
person lined up. If the recording is any good, I'll perhaps
even post it to YouTube.
The picture at right is of beekeepers inspecting
hives on a visit to the bee lab in
Baton Rouge in 2003. I hope to do something similar, but
expect people will be wearing veils. The people in the picture
are pros and very experienced. Most of my visitors today are
newbees I suspect. We'll see.
The weather promises to be nice, so that is not likely to give me
issues. I have an idea what I will need to do. I've glanced
at the hives and they vary from big hives that are plugged to small,
possibly queenless hives. I'll talk about what I am doing and what
I see as I go. No matter what I come across, I am sure it will be
of interest.
Many of these coming have little or no bee experience.
Most have a hive or two, but for some, this is their first year, so
anything they see or learn will be new to them.
I have no firm idea, however, how many people and how many vehicles
will arrive. I am guessing twenty to forty people and that could
be a problem. What if there are sixty?
Twenty is not too hard to handle, but if I have forty, that
will mean that I have a crowd. Sixty? That could be a
swarm.
Parking could get complicated and when looking at hives,
some may have trouble seeing -- or we may have to split into two or
more groups. I might have to draft another experienced
beekeeper to do a second group.
Forty people in a circle, allowing four square feet per
person makes a circle of 4 x 40 = 160 square feet. A=p
r2. \ r2
= A/p or r =
Ö160/p or >7 feet. That means that some would
be at least seven feet away from the hive.
Meijers are coming, so I have some moral support and proven expertise
at hand. Maddy, Jean, Chris and Mckenzie will be here, too, to
help finish setting up and to guide cars and people around. I'm
sure the attendees will be helpful, too.
So, this whole thing is hard to visualize in
advance. I have done the basic planning and setup with allowances
for the more unpredictable aspects. From here, it will be whatever
it will be. Worst case, everyone will have a nice drive in the
country and I'll have a nervous breakdown.
* *
* * *
After writing that, I went back to bed and slept
another three quarters of an hour.
My weight today is 229.6 pounds, so, in spite of
an active day yesterday and being reasonably careful what I eat, I am
not losing. On August 15th, I weighed 228.1, so it seems I have
gained a pound and a half. Time to get serious again.
If I am serious about losing another ten
pounds, I am going to have to be more disciplined, I am afraid.
I'm quite comfortable at this weight, but do intend to keep
reducing.
The math is quite simple. To
maintain current weight, recommendations are to consume around 3,000
calories a day assuming moderate activity (less if inactive).
To lose one pound, I need to eat 3,500
calories less than that number, so if I eat 2,500 calories a day, I
should lose a pound in one week. If I eat 3,500 calories a
day, I should gain a pound in one week. That is the theory.
I have not been keeping careful track
this month, but I thought I was keeping around 2,500, but my
activity may have been less than I had estimated. In fact, I
know that some days I have been quite sedentary.
Ah ha! I recall I ate some tortilla
chips yesterday and the day before, so I got out the box and read
the 'Nutritional Facts' panel. Whoda thunk that 15 little
chips (50g) would contain 260 calories? One bag is 454g or
2630 calories -- or a whole day's calorie ration!
I may have eaten a bag over several days,
along with my normal diet. That alone would account for a gain
of 2630/3500 = 0.75 pounds or half the gain since the 15th!
Wow!
I had a full tank of RoundUp in my hand sprayer,
so I started the day spraying weeds. Next, I have to set out more
items in readiness.
* *
* * *
The Bee Day went off well, with an ideal
turnout. There were about twenty of us.
Everyone had a great time. Thanks to all who
attended and Fern for bringing coffee and cake.
 The bees were calm and nobody needed a veil. I wore shorts and a black
tee shirt. We went through a number of diverse hives, examining
brood and discussing differences between hives as we went, then
extracted several supers of honey as well, out in the open near the
hives without any interference by bees.
The Meijer brothers, Joe and Oene, were here to consult as well, so
attendees were able to grill three professional beekeepers on a range of
topics.
We did several alcohol wash varroa samples and confirmed what Medhat
mentioned earlier: varroa loads seem very much higher this year than
some years and higher than I have seen in my operation ever.
In my case, I will be pulling honey and treating with Apivar
immediately. I had planned to do that anyhow, but the results of the
samples indicated that further delay would not be advisable.
Considering that these hives were treated with Apivar in spring and
split as well, this may indicate that other beekeepers should expect the
same or worse and should be doing alcohol washes immediately -- or risk
losing hives over winter.
Here are the results of the two samples we did.
  The
first hive yielded 13 mites in 146 bees or 9%. We counted both
bees and mites.
We did not need to do any more. The yard
will be treated ASAP. This small sample shows
conclusively that these two hives are over threshold by a lot.
  The
second hive yielded 55 mites in 170 bees or 32%.
Deformed wings were observed, but no riding mites were spotted.
The hive, at first glance seemed quite normal other than some bald
brood.
Purists will complain we should have done 300
bees, but why waste nurse bees? Precision is not an issue when hives are
so far over threshold.
Now, we could have just fluked onto the only two
hives in the yard with high loads, but the odds are that there are hives
with higher and lower infestations. I could waste time testing
every hive or just treat the whole yard. There are good arguments
for both, but my time is limited and I can treat all much faster than
test one by one.
Also, Apivar is slow-acting. That is why
it stays in for two worker brood cycles (21 days each) or three worker
capping durations (14 days each). During that time, a lot can happen --
drifting, emergence of hidden varroa, etc., and and hives showing
light loads could prove to have hidden infestations. There is no
time for second chances, either. In 42 days, we are at
October 5th and that is getting late for effective treatment.
Besides
individual samples are not all that accurate, due to operator error,
chance, uneven varroa distributions in hives...
Jean shot video during the afternoon. I
had thought to edit it and upload to YouTube, but I am unsure of the
ethics of posting a video showing people without their permission and I
had not thought to ask.
The video is excellent and I judge my
performance to have been excellent. I hadn't really thought about
it, but watching made me judge. I noticed that I am very much at
home with bees and read them confidently and naturally -- and I tend to
be a bit droll. I'm also more agreeable than I was beginning to
think.
 It
is an educational experience to watch yourself perform. I guess I knew
all that, but watching myself as I would someone else, I was generally
pleased and can see why I get a little respect now and then.
On the other hand, I knew I was fat, but I
have been kidding myself how fat. I knew I need a better tailor,
but had not realized how awful my shorts and tee shirt are... and that
hat! As for my hair, I need a trim in the worst way. I think
I need to clean up a bit.
* *
* * *
I have not read
BEE-L for quite a while now, having become tired of snipers and
game-players, but decided for some reason to take a look tonight.
I found the discussions I bothered to read to be quite level.
One thread that stood out is
Thoughts on grafting. Here is one post from the thread.
Subject: Re: Thoughts on grafting
From: randy oliver
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2015 08:11:30 -0700
From Punnett, EN & ML Winston (1983) Events
following queen removal in colonies of European-derived honey
bee races (*Apis mellifera*). Insectes Sociaux 30(4): 376-383.
"Of the queens which emerged 91% were reared from brood which
had been egg sat the time of dequeening."
The above strongly suggests that queens reared from
newly-emerged larvae were those not later culled by the bees.
However, Tofilski (2004) Emergency queen rearing in honeybee
colonies with brood of known age. Apidologie 35: 275–282, found
bees allowing queens reared from larvae up to 3 days old to
emerge. |
Interestingly, various posts in
the thread seem to confirm and reinforce points I have
observed and reported in the past, but which have not been acknowledged
generally and, in fact, were dismissed by self-proclaimed
'experts' on the list who insisted on claiming that emergency cells are
inferior to grafted cells and are often from older larvae. It
seems that over a few years the easier availability of information via
the Internet has made a difference and the truth has emerged dominant.
- I have observed that colonies often do not
start raising emergency queens until the last of the eggs in the
queenless hive hatch. That can mean a three or four day delay
after dequeening for some walk-away splits.
- Given emergency cells started with larvae
of various ages, only those which were started with the youngest
larvae are permitted by the bees to complete development.
- A frame of brood given to a queenless hive
should contain older eggs as well as larvae.
The quote from the second reference does not
indicate if the bees had any other choice, i.e. younger larvae. I
would assume that if they had only three-day larvae, they would have to
make do and take what they could.
Also of note:
- Grafting with larvae of various ages in a
batch -- e.g. 48-hr and 12-hr larvae -- will result in queens
emerging over a day and a half, rather than all at about the
same time, making dealing with the cells more difficult.
Choosing a consistent size of larva is therefore desirable.
- When grafting, it is helpful to remember
that the youngest larvae will be right next to the eggs on a frame
that has larvae in the centre and eggs further out.
Will I return to posting on BEE-L? No.
Will I read BEE-L often? Don't know. Probably not.
Questions? Comments? Join us in the
HoneyBeeWorld Forum
All the world's a stage and most of
us are desperately unrehearsed.
Sean O'Casey
|
The
day is turning overcast, but warm. I have supper to make for six
of us tonight.
