Bee Health

March 2013 Starvation Risk. Important Information about Colony Food Levels

apiarymanager Feeding Bees and Starvation, National Bee Unit

advice from the national bee unit

With the continued poor weather looking to persist through to the end of March, colonies may be starting to run out of food (if they haven’t already). It would be advisable to check the food levels by opening the hive and making a very quick observation on their store levels. Key points to remember are:

• The colony may still have stores available which are at the other end of the brood chamber to the cluster of bees. If there are ‘empty’ frames between the two then the bees could still starve, despite food being in the chamber. Move the frames of food directly next to the outer frame where the cluster resides, ensuring that you score each frame of food (not excessively, but enough to stimulate feeding). Be sure not to knock or roll the bees when doing this and to be as quick as possible.

• If the colony has little or no frames of food then give them a block of candy or fondant. You want to aim for about 2.5 kg per hive and although this may seem to be a great expense, it is far less than the money you will have wasted should the bees die.

• Mini plastic bags that are used to store loose fruit in from the supermarket are perfectly acceptable for holding the fondant and cost nothing. Pack the candy in the bag and then pierce holes in the appropriate place once you get to the hive. If the bag seems fragile then you can double bag it (just be sure to pierce both bags).

• At this time of the year we would usually start feeding sugar syrup but with these temperatures it is still too cold. Place the fondant directly above the bees, turning the crownboard if necessary so that one of the porter bee escape holes is above the cluster.

Please be aware that this should be done as quickly and carefully as possible and although it may seem too cold to open the hive now, it is far better to do so knowing the bees are ok than not to and find later that they have died.

For more information please refer to Best Practice Guideline Number 7 – ‘Emergency Feeding’.

Winter Losses

apiarymanager Bee Health

Many beekeepers are starting to find out how their bees have survived the winter, although the weather is still cold and starvation a possibility.

At a Bee Farmers’ Association meeting recently losses of 35% were being mentioned – mainly due it seems from poorly mated queens last summer.  Presumably this meant too few bees going into the winter.

The BeeBase website reports the following consistent losses over winter:
2009/2010 – 21%,
2010/2011 – 19%,
2011/2012 – 16.1%.

Let us know how your bees are doing on the website or our facebook page.

VMD Approve MAQS Beehive Strip

apiarymanager Bee Health, Nosema

Press Release – February 27th 2013,

MAQS® Beehive Strip has received registration in the United Kingdom for beekeeper’s use.  It has received approval by VMD (Veterinary Medical Department). 

The beekeepers of the United Kingdom now have a new tool to combat the most serious threat to its honeybees, the Varroa destructor parasitic mite.  Left untreated, Varroa mites will transmit viruses that weaken a honeybee colony. Millions of colonies across Europe have died in recent years from this parasitic mite. 

MAQS® is a saccharide gel strip formulation of formic acid, an effective active ingredient that is naturally occurring in honey.  Because the Varroa mites reproduce on the developing baby bee, transmitting viruses that deform the bee, their control is being approached as a brood disease.  The saccharide gel formic acid vapours released from the saccharide gel strip penetrate the brood cap, stopping the mite where it reproduces.  The initial target was the male mite, which never leaves the brood cell.  However, trials show that it is also very effective on all stages of the female mite.  It is the first mite treatment to successfully target Varroa mite reproduction. 

The concept of MAQS® Beehive Strip was first developed in Canada, by NOD Apiary Products Ltd. operating in the UK as NOD Europe. NOD’s personnel worked with BASF’s scientists to overcome technical barriers, the solution to which was BASF’s biodegradable and compostable film Ecoflex®.  The resulting treatment is just 7 days.                       

The physical product will be available in the UK from early April 2013.

End of press release

Webmaster Notes:

  • MAQS® stands for Mite-Away-Quick Strips®.
  • NOD stands for Natures Own Design the developers of the product.
  • VMD is the Veterinary Medicines Directorate an executive agency of DEFRA (Note that MAQS is not appearing on their database as of 1 March 2013)

Further information

You can find out more on the NOD website here.

Randy Oliver has carried out an early summer test in 2011 and the results of this are published on his excellent Scientific Beekeeping website.

 

Are Your Bees Short of Supplies?

apiarymanager Feeding Bees and Starvation, PBKA

Remember to keep an eye on the stores in your hives by giving them a heft periodically. The queen is likely to start laying in earnest soon and the remaining winter stores can soon get used up. Late winter and early spring are the danger periods for lack of stores, so don’t risk your colonies. If you need to feed them now, use candy or fondant. You can use light syrup (1:1 by weight) in a contact feeder once the weather warms up and the signs of spring start to appear, especially if you want to build up a colony for queen rearing, or to split. Don’t use a rapid feeder, or pan feeder as NBU now suggest we should call it, though as it may be too cold for the bees to come up. For more information see BeeBase’s Best Practice Guide to Feeding Sugar.

Remember too that bees need energy food (sugars) and protein (pollen). Raising young bees takes a lot of both. So in addition to making sure that sugar is available in liquid form stored from last year (honey or fed in late summer as sugar syrup) or in fondant form make sure that pollen or a pollen substitute is available. See this Feeding Pollen and Pollen Substitutes guide on BeeBase for more details.