Zachary Lamas
I was recently asked by a beekeeper what would be three things I would encourage new beekeepers to do if I could only suggest three things to focus on? This was such a good prompt. They asked it at the end of a talk, that was on disease ecology of honey bees.
I thought for a minute and said: I would identify colonies with mites at or near threshold and address them immediately, even if it means you give up the honey crop for that colony. If you don’t want to treat, and it’s a time of the year where you can do drone comb removal, start it. Don’t wait. Become a disease ecologist with your bees first, and then build your breeding program second. Second, when I find a colony that has a lot of infectious material, remove it. Don’t wait for it to die and get robbed out. Just euthanize it and move along. These colonies can be difficult to identify because it takes skill and we don’t want new beekeepers to become vigilantes, euthanizing fixable colonies. However, I have colonies where I look at them and there are more liabilities in that colony than assets. I truly do not want to spread that pathogen by moving brood, making splits or having the colony get robbed as it crashes. I removed these infectious units instead of fixing them. I did this with chalkbrood, and it was one of the best management decisions I’ve ever made. Third, I would begin feeding for Winter on August 1st. That is when I begin in Maryland. I find colonies with queen issues as I am feeding. Great, I can requeen and feed. Now that colony has 6+ weeks to build a population for the Winter. If I start feeding in late September then all my weak colonies lost that period of time to build up for Winter.
1. Identify infested colonies early, and do not wait to manage the Varroa.
Varroa reproduce exceptionally well on Apis mellifera. It is astounding how well this parasite, which is a recent evolutionary host jump onto the European honey bee, is adapted for its new host. The simple fact is, Varroa if left to their devices, can overwhelm a colony in a short period of time. Some management practices such as treating can prevent the parasite from killing a colony. Some non-chemical management practices, such as drone comb removal, can effectively prevent mites from over taking a colony. Some lines of bees do better with mites than others. However, there is no genetic silver bullet at this time. Identifying and managing colonies which Varroa are growing faster than bees are suppressing their reproduction is necessary. We do not want those queen lines to persist in our operation anyways.
For new beekeepers especially, I recommend monitoring and then addressing mite issues as they become apparent. The threshold at which this should be addressed varies depending upon geographic region and time of the year. Beekeepers are the resident experts of their own colonies. You should be the expert of your own colonies.
2. Euthanize colonies that have a lot of symptomatic material.
Hosts can be removed from a population for numerous reasons. The word removed is the word I want to focus on here, as it can have multiple meanings depending on context. If I fly to another country and decide to permanently live there, I have, in essence, removed myself from one population. If my plane were to crash mid-flight, then I would be removed from both populations. However, in one storyline I live and have a wonderful life. In the other, well, not so great. From a disease ecology context removal simply means I am no longer in contact with anyone in a population, whether or not I continue to live or I pass away. Removal can also mean recovered. There is a special explanation for this.
SIR stands for: Susceptible, Infectious, Recovered or Removed. SIR models for disease represent the potential condition for each host. You are either susceptible and can acquire an infection. You are infectious and can make others sick. Or you are removed (from death, moving away, staying isolated, etc.) or you recover (meaning you develop immunity and cannot become sick again, think Chickenpox). Remove can mean a lot of things in beekeeping. It can mean removed to an isolated yard so that the colony, even though it may die, will not come into contact with other colonies. It can mean the destruction of the colony. For example, burning a colony with American Foul Brood is also removal. It can mean the effective treatment of a disease, such as using oxytetracycline to eliminate European Foul Brood.
To manage the spread of communicable diseases we limit the number of infectious hosts and eliminate the contact of infectious hosts to susceptible hosts. Now that that is said, what do we do, with this host pictured here?
With this particular colony I decided to euthanize it. The colony was purchased from a migratory beekeeper. The colony was supposed to be two-double deeps full of bees. Instead it was 5 frames of bee coverage with brood that looked like this. This colony had multiple, bad indicators. 1. The colony was small when it should have been large. 2. The brood was morbid when it should have been healthy. 3. The adult bee coverage was sparse, not dense. 4. The colony could not corral small hive beetles or cannibalize their dying larvae. When I have multiple bad indicators all pointing towards a problem, then I immediately address the colony. For multiple reasons I hate fixing colonies like this. First, there are no assets in this colony. Anything I give to this colony, like donor frames of healthy brood, represent more assets than are in this unhealthy colony. We have an expression for this and it’s called throwing good money after bad. Secondly, unless if giving the colony a new queen or brood will eliminate all the infectious material, then all I am doing is allowing a sick individual to persist longer in my apiary. Is the comb still infectious if I make splits from this a month from now? Will this disease spread to healthy colonies when it dies and is robbed out? In short, will this colony cost me more by keeping it alive than just removing it today. I applied soapy water and bagged the colony, bottom board and woodenware. Until writing this article I haven’t thought of this colony since. To further my point, I expanded the number of colonies I manage this year by almost 3x. You do not need to save liabilities to expand your apiaries.
3. Start your Winter prep on August 1st.
Winter prep begins mid-Summer. This was one of my biggest takeaways working for French Hill Apiaries in Saint Albands, VT. Michael Palmer, a well known queen breeder, shifts to replacing queens, and feeding colonies well before Fall. He has to. He can’t undo things once cold weather sets in.
But what I really learned at Mike’s is that by addressing weaker colonies mid-Summer, we give them a lot of time to make the population they need to cluster through the Winter. A colony with a queen issue addressed in August will have multiple rounds of brood rearing before the cold weather arrives. The same goes to feeding. Nutritionally stressed colonies which are living hand to mouth are unable to build a Winter cluster. Feeding them in the early Fall allows them to rebuild their population in time.
Bees also take down syrup quickly in warm weather. Use this as a resource and to your advantage. I’d rather my bees drink 2:1 syrup in 80 degree August, than to slowly drink it in 35 degree October. Unfortunately, our sense of urgency betrays us. Feeding does not feel urgent in early August, while it does feel urgent in October. Change that mentality, and you’ll improve your wintering success while making beekeeping fun again. I begin feeding all colonies in early August in Maryland. The Spring splits will absolutely need feed before Winter. I simply fill their internal feeders with 2:1 as I am listening to music blasting from an open truck door. That is my whole day. I feed again 2-3 days later. Healthy colonies will consumer syrup. Colonies with issues often will not. If the feeder is still full, I will check for mites, brood disease or a queen issue. This is why I begin feeding early. After two feedings I can pause, and heft test colonies. Some will be fine, some will need more feeding.
