Lazybones…but must do September inspections…
September 14, 2020
September 14, 2020
We were lazybones this morning so we didn’t get to the nursery till 10. We first opened the Cecelio hive and I did see some open queen cups so I’m wondering what they are up to. I looked hard and couldn’t find the marked queen but I did find larva as well as beautiful capped brood in both boxes. We did a mite test and found six mites/200 (last time was 20!). We repeated the oxalic drip, knowing that we should’ve done it on a weekly basis but the smoke was just too bad for my asthma. It’s quite possible that the queen is gone and a feral queen is there. We will keep an eye on it.
Jeff checked his hive and found his shop towel has been effective because he has no mites in his test count. Of course he didn’t test last time so he doesn’t know if it improved it or not… 
We went on the assumption that if half of the hives have mites, treat the whole apiary. All three other hives had high mite counts so probably his did as well. He requeened in July to a Pol line queen from Jay. It was a VSH (varroa sensitive hygiene). They pull contaminated varroa larva out of the cells when they find them. They didn’t follow us back to the car like his previous bees did, but they were not as calm as our Italian bees. It may take several generations to calm that hive down. He did not treat. It is a strange thing but his hive is very low on nectar and capped honey so he will have to bring sugar water to feed the hive next time. My hives, 6 feet away are bringing in tons of nectar and have solid capped honey. Our mentors said that is not unusual.
We went on the assumption that if half of the hives have mites, treat the whole apiary. All three other hives had high mite counts so probably his did as well. He requeened in July to a Pol line queen from Jay. It was a VSH (varroa sensitive hygiene). They pull contaminated varroa larva out of the cells when they find them. They didn’t follow us back to the car like his previous bees did, but they were not as calm as our Italian bees. It may take several generations to calm that hive down. He did not treat. It is a strange thing but his hive is very low on nectar and capped honey so he will have to bring sugar water to feed the hive next time. My hives, 6 feet away are bringing in tons of nectar and have solid capped honey. Our mentors said that is not unusual.We then checked the Leno hive and I was so happy to finally see my marked queen. This was a very unusual inspection this time because I have never seen frames (this late in the season) so filled with nectar. There are so many rich things for them in the nursery and they’re certainly finding the nectar sources. It felt like it was almost dripping with nectar. I did not see the queen but I saw larva in both boxes, beautiful capped brood and all three of my hives had so much pollen stored for winter. The bees are bringing in white pollen on their pollen baskets. We did do a mite test and the count was 10 so we treated with the drip.
We then checked the Paloma 3 hive and this looked a little low in population and I could only spot five larva in the two boxes. I looked carefully but could not find any queen but it could be that she was hiding from me. Either way I’ll watch this box carefully to make sure there is a queen and that she’s ok. I’m thinking of swapping out this queen as well.
Stay tuned as we head into Fall and Winter and enjoy the flowering plants I snapped in the Nursery.
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Cindy Smith, Charlene Potter and 18 others
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