September 3 - Varroa Mite Treatment

Mark and I inspected our hives on Saturday, September 3.  (Click on photos to enlarge).

We were a little messy in the process and spilled a little honey.
The bees are always quick to respond to clean up our mess for us.

There were a few familiar late summer flowers blooming around the hives.

Foxglove blooms in front of our hives (aka purple gerardia).

Foxglove and honey bee.

Foxglove flower.

Texas copper rain lily (Habranthus tubispathus var. texanus)

 Texas copper rain lily seed pod.

Bitterweed flowers.

Boneset flowers are beginning to bloom.

On August 13 (see our last blog post), Mark and I walked away from the bee yard visit a bit concerned about our varroa mite condition and wondered how bad our mite situation really was; we weren't sure.  We decided that we should react and order varroa mite treatments and apply them to each hive immediately, even the hives where we had supers installed for honey extraction this fall.  We won't extract the honey for our use after all because the honey could have treatment residue and may not be good for consuming.  No problem though, as the bees can use it for through the winter for themselves.

Hive 01 had been without a queen for too long, and when we inspected this time, there were virtually no bees to be found.  Instead, we saw plenty of wax moth larvae and small hive beetle larvae taking over what was left of the frames.  Hive 01 was dead and we were too late to save it.  We removed all of the frames and disassembled the hive boxes.  Mark and I both think that our varroa mite problem likely lead to this end. 

Look toward the center and to the top right portion of the frame.
These worms are a combination of wax moth and small hive beetle
larvae.  Now that there are no bees left to fight the pests, hive 01 is
considered a loss.

We purchased a varroa mite treatment called Apivar.  Mark and I placed the Apivar in each deep hive box for the remaining seven hives (hives 02 through 08). 

Two Apivar strips per brood chamber should do the trick.

We will leave them in place between 42 and 56 days.  Hopefully, we will stand a chance at seeing a rebound in our bee populations and health within each hive.

(This link is a great source for information about Apivar and the varroa mites' life cycle:  https://www.dadant.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2011/09/Apivar-leaflet-EDITED-010413.pdf.)

Hive 02 was really struggling and we fear may suffer the same fate as hive 01.  During our last visit, we installed a queen in hive 02, but she was nowhere to be found during this visit.  We have now ordered yet another queen, this time from Bee Weaver, (a hybrid of a Buckfast and Italian bee called a "Bee Weaver Queen").  We are scheduled for a pick up in Navasota on September 16 and will install her then, and hope we are not too late to save the hive.

The queen we installed in hive 02 on August 13 is nowhere to be found.

Hive 02 capped honey.

Hive 02 no queen, no brood, no eggs and a small bee population.
We will have to work very hard to save this hive.

 

Hive 03 is in poor shape.  We fear we may lose this hive as well and have also ordered a Bee Weaver queen to be installed on September 16. 

Hive 03 also stands a chance of failing.

Hive 03 frame with no brood.

Hive 04 looked pretty good, although the population is lower than what we would expect.  We saw our loyal Buckfast queen, as well as larvae and brood. 

Hive 04 honey stores.

Hive 04 bees.

Hive 04 capped brood.

Hive 04 Buckfast queen near the upper center of the photo.
She has a blue dot on her thorax.

Hive 05 had larvae a little brood, and is hanging in there.

Hive 05 capped brood.

Our hive 06 queen is still in place and we saw larvae as well.

Hive 06 larvae.

Hive 06 queen.

We caught our queen in hive 07 as she was laying an egg.

She is the bee just to the upper right of center in the photo.
She has a large dark thorax and her abdomen is tucked into a cell as she lays an egg.

Hive 08 is our best hive, with a queen that is doing a great job producing larvae and brood.  The population in hive 08 is also good.

Hive 08, lots of larvae and brood.
She is a very hard working queen for sure.

Mark and I are hoping that this Apivar varroa mite treatment will help get us over our hurdle.  In addition to the giving the mite treatment to the seven remaining hives, we have ordered three new queens for pick up on September 16; a queen for hive 02, hive 03 and an extra queen for "just in case we need her" for any of the other hives.

The one thing that Mark and I know would be helpful for us in beekeeping is a closer proximity to our hives, or rather...more frequent visits to the hives.  Our round trip visits to the bee yard are a little more than three hours' drive.  We know that if we were able to peek into the hives more often, we could work proactively instead of reactively.  Still, we are so fortunate and thankful to have friends like Doug and Linda who allow us to use their land for free for our hobby.  The property is beautiful and a perfect home for our bees.