Honeybees: To overwinter or not

Honeybees: To overwinter or not

Summary

Goal: The first goal of my project was to do a cost study on over wintering honeybee colonies in PA compared to purchasing new packages in the spring. The second goal is a study of “shook swarming” in Sept. 2008 compared to conventional over wintering for winter survival, to be evaluated on March 30, 2009.

Participants: This was primarily a one person research project however Maryann Frazier, Penn State University Bee Extension Specialist, Glen Crimbring, PA Dept. of Ag. Honeybee inspector and Dennis Van Engelsdorp, PA Dept. of Ag. State Apiarist provided input and help throughout the season.

Project Activities: We went into the fall with 50 strong hives in 4 different locations. All were treated with Mite Away II Sept. 20 and by April 20, 2008 only 21 were still alive. New queens were introduced the first week of April. Divides were made where possible. One hundred packages were installed on April 1, 2008 on new equipment or on power washed frames and foundation as per Penn State’s directions. A decision was made to go from the original 50 over wintered and 50 packages to 100 packages because of the large over winter loss. This also allowed me to do a little testing in July and August using a protein supplement on 40 hives with help from PA Dept. of Ag. And Penn State University. Also, some colonies were “shook swarmed” during the first week in Sept. which is a procedure where all the bees and queen are removed from their hive and placed on a new foundation. This forces them to build new comb and breaks the brood cycle which in turn breaks the mite cycle. Some of these colonies also were requeened at the same time.

Results: To start with we had a heavy winter loss (29 out of 50) which isn’t really that bad in today’s world. Fifty % is about normal with some years higher wand some lower. Both the over wintered colonies and the packaged colonies were doing well in late April, May and into June but then things stood still in July and by August they were on a downhill slide that continued through Sept and into Oct. I expected to see more of a mite loss on the “shook swarmed” hives than I did and I didn’t expect to see colonies dwindle away in late summer. By Oct. 21, 2008 I was down to 68 colonies. I could have had more but when I knew a colony could not make it I would dispose of it. I have learned it does not pay to feed a problem because the end result will be the same. The seventy two hour sticky board drop of Varoa mites on Sept. 3 was reduced 71% by Oct.1 on the shook swarmed hives. I was expecting 80% or more.

Conditions: Overall, I felt it was a good year for bees. The weather for our locust bloom was excellent and the summer had a lot of nice sunny days and continued through the goldenrod bloom. However, it takes three ingredients to produce a honey crop: good weather, good nectar flow and good bees. I didn’t have good bees. They started out doing well but by mid June they came to a standstill and by late July and August it was apparent they had problems. When we evaluated the results of the protein supplement experiment on August 25, Maryann commented after the last hive was inspected she just couldn’t understand it. When we would judge a hive it would seem to have more sealed brood in proportion to the adult bees than normal. Where were the adult bees? Were viruses shortening their lives? This

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