From the Editor, Jerry Hayes
The EPA has offered an assessment on using Api-Bioxal (oxalic acid) prepared with glycerin and has found this use to be unacceptable.
A few bulleted highlights.
- The use described (Oxalic and Glycerin) does not fall within the scope of exemptions from the term “to use any registered pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its labeling”
- “It shall be unlawful for any person to use any registered pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its labeling” as stated in Section 12 (a)(2)(G) of FIFRA
- The existing label states the following: “Only apply Oxalic Acid Dihydrate as a solution when mixed with sugar water.”
- Therefore, the instructions on the bulletin to mix the pesticide with glycerin are outside the scope of FIFRA Section 2(ee)
To read the complete message go to: https://www.beeculture.com/epa-rules-on-oxalic-acid-and-glycerin/ and find the PDF linked at the bottom for download.
Tropilaelaps or Tracheal
QUESTION
Dear Jerry,
I avidly read Clarence Collision’s article on Tropilaelaps mites because I researched T. woodi for a local beekeeping workshop. It is possible that some readers of the article may not be aware that T. woodi has been in the United States since at least 1984. This tracheal mite can be controlled by menthol crystals at a temperature of about 70 degrees or formic acid treatments. Is it possible then for this mite to be treated at the same time as treatments for Varroa?
Thank you so much for sharing recent research.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
ANSWER
Just between you and I , Tracheal mites are Acarapis woodi, or abbreviated as A. woodi, and Tropilaelaps is Tropilaelaps clareae sometimes abbreviated to T. clareae and is from Asia.
Two completely different parasites.
Our secret.
Take care.
My Hive is Wet on the Inside
QUESTION
Hi Jerry and all… as you probably know, here in California we’ve had tons of rain lately. My two backyard hives have had lots of water accumulating in the pull-out plastic tray under the screened bottom boards (nearly half full to the rim), and on the inside of the top cover, and even small puddles on top of the inner cover. I know this is not ideal for the bees, so I’ve opened and dried the woodenware every two to three days (did not open hive, just removed top), removed the plastic tray completely and propped up the inner cover in back just a bit to help with ventilation, and checked for leaks on sides and top, but the water continues to appear. It’s a strong hive, so I wonder if it could be excessive condensation from the bees themselves? The bees themselves appear okay, are quite populous (one deep with two supers, mostly full of bees), although there are a handful of dead ones below the six inch entrance. Any thoughts on the significance of this situation? Thanks for your always terrific articles and for your opinions regarding this accumulation of excess water.
Dan Smith
Santa Barbara, CA
ANSWER
Let’s jump to ‘condensation’ first. I don’t know where you are in California or at what altitude. It is lightly snowing here in Ohio with a high temperature forecast to be 34°F today. Ugh… Anyway, I am sure you have been in cold temps before and have seen as you exhale the hot moisture in your breath be in contact with the cold, cruel world and it condenses i.e. forms water droplets that make your breath a visible fog. Or you are inside your house and taking a close look outside on a cold day, your warm breath hits the inside of the cold window glass and condenses on the surface with water droplets. Our honey bee colonies are a warm mass inside at 93°F at the center of the cluster and the rest of the hive volume is close to the outside ambient temperature. They are inhaling and exhaling through their breathing tubes, the trachea, inside the colony. They have consumed honey at 18% moisture or sugar syrup at 30% water which has been provided to them. When you have 10,000-20,000 honey bees eating in early Spring and exhaling inside the hive, they don’t need all the water in a food product. They excrete some of it in their exhaled breath. Warm moist air when it contacts a cold surface condenses and forms water droplets. If there is not some upper ventilation to have the warm moist air flow out of the hive, then the condensed moisture can build up in the inner cover or cover and if there is enough gravity, it can actually rain on the colony which doesn’t help in a cold Spring, Fall or Winter. All that to say, an upper entrance can help.
If rain is ‘leaking’ in, then you need to put better hive parts and pieces on.
Get rid of the plastic pan under the screened bottom board but now consider forever. Having hive debris and varroa fall through on to the ground is better. Let’s assume the screen mesh is small enough to restrict SHB’s.
And finally let’s hope it gets warm there and here… very soon.
I hope this helps.
Dan/QUESTION
Thanks Jerry for all the good info!! I’ll keep monitoring the water situation. I did remove the slide out tray and increased ventilation… woodenware appears okay. I also added a piece of burlap under the outer cover, with a hole over the feeding area, as I read this may help absorb excess moisture. We do still have some more rain on the way, but today is sunny and the ladies seem much better.
Jerry/ANSWER
I would take out/off the burlap. Not to be a pain but I have asked people about why they put absorbent materials in a hive when they are trying to help the bees remove moisture. Why trap it in the colony???
Dan/QUESTION
Hmmm… Thanks again, Jerry. After thinking about this though, I’m wondering, even though the burlap traps the water inside the hive (not good), it may also prevent the water from dripping down on top of the frames and foundation (which is a worse case scenario)? Maybe it’s better to keep the burlap but rotate it out every few days ? Also making sure ventilation is sufficient. Any thoughts on this approach?
Jerry/ANSWER
Feel free to experiment, BUT…
If you have a leaky roof that you cannot fix, then at some point the burlap will absorb more water than it can hold and drip anyway. If the bees are exhaling moisture with each breath then the same thing will happen. Provide an upper entrance and help the high humidity exit the hive naturally.
A poor example would be for you to wash your clothes and try to dry them inside your house. Without your HVAC system running it will get a bit damp in your house and I hope you like moldy walls.
Dead Bees!
QUESTION
Jerry,
I found a lot of bees dead outside my one hive. Now, I did not go in deep. I have two supers, one deep and one medium. When I pulled some frames, there was honey still stored and about eight to 10 frames were full of bees. The frames I pulled were full of bees on both sides. I did not go to the lower super because it was 59°F but there was some wind and I did not want to chill any brood. I have been feeding them since October. Should I worry about the dead ones?
Peter Zablocky
ANSWER
I can’t remember what part of the country you are in, but mentioning that a 59°F day as a good one to open a hive means you are not in South Florida.
So, my colonies have gone through a cold Ohio Winter. When temperatures get below about 57°F, honey bees snuggle up (cluster) and through body movements keep themselves and the queen warm. But over the days, weeks and months bees will die. They only have a certain life span. Winter bees have a little longer life span than Summer bees but as it gets to be late Winter, they die. One of the reasons beekeepers see whole colonies die in March/April in the north is that it hasn’t been warm enough for the queen to start laying or the colony left is not large enough and it is too ‘sick’ to facilitate replacing the dwindling colony members as they die. That is why we need to address Varroa and the Varroa Virus Legacy in late Summer or early Fall so the bees going into Winter and clustering are healthy enough to stay alive as long as possible. But, as bees die from age, cold, lack of food, viruses, disease, etc. they fall to the bottom of the hive, die in empty comb cells or in the cluster itself and there isn’t a lot of movement of the cluster to let the dead and dying fall to the bottom. When outside temperatures get warm enough and either ambient or sun shining on the hive forms a warm micro-climate to let the cluster relax, if you will, and reorganize itself in the hive, one of the things a colony of bees does is clean. They want to manage the hive for some level of cleanliness and get the dead and rotting out of the hive. They clean out/clear out the bottom board of the dead and sometimes struggle to open up the entrance blocked by dead bees. All of this clean up procedure has the hygienic bees drag out this ‘refuse’. Because it is still coldish outside, they go dragging a dead sister to the outside and dump the ‘refuse’ over the far edge of the entrance in front of the hive on the ground instead of flying a distance to move it further away as they will do in the warmer Spring, Summer and Fall seasons.
On some of my colonies, I had significant dead bees in front of the colony on a warmish day as they cleaned up and in some I did not. There is tremendous genetic variability with colonies and how they handle Winter, pests, parasites and disease over this cold, stressful season even with responsible management by ‘us’ the beekeeper.
But, honey bee health is all about Varroa Virus Legacy in 2023. I hope you have a copy of the HBHC ‘Tools for Varroa Management Guide’ and other info, https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/
Sounds like you are doing the best you can.
