Canadian Honeybee Genomic Project

 

The Canadian Honey Council has funded a genomic study of the honeybee which will be conducted by York University.

 

Dr. Amro Zayed, PhD; Department of Biology, York University, and his students are conducting a study of the genetics of Canadian Honeybees.

 

They hope to collect one thousand worker bee specimens from across Canada and analyze the data the data in regards to genetic diversity and ancestry. The study  will be submitted to a peer reviewed journal, and the results posted to the Honey Council's website. - See more at: http://www.supersede.me/2013/09/collecting-bees-for-york-university.html#sthash.YBX1TioW.dpuf

 

Earlier in the year an invitation was emailed to beekeepers across Canada asking them if they'd be interested in participating in the survey.

 

They'd be required to submit dead bees to York University.

 

So since all I had to do was submit dead bees, I signed up to participate in the survey.

 

A few weeks later a padded envelope arrived.  Inside were plastic test tubes filled with small glass vials.

 

Inside the vials was alcohol.

 

At that moment I was starting to feel like I might have made a mistake about the 'just collect dead bees' part.

 

On reading the instructions it turned out that I would be required to insert live bees into the alcohol.

 

I just don't like killing bees.  I counted the containers.  I'd have to collect 24 bees to fill the vials.  And it was for science.

 

So I picked up live bees and carefully stuck them into the vials, all the while apologizing and thanking them for their contribution to science.

 

On the accompanying form I wrote what breed of queens I had in the hives where I collected the bees from.

 

The challenge this year was that my bees were all requeening constantly all summer.  So they may have started off the season with a particular queen but by the end of the season they all had another queen entirely.

 

My bees are primarily Buckfast bees but of course my queens mate with any available drones and I have no control over their selection.  Ontario is well known for working mostly with Buckfast bees (a strain of bees developed by Brother Adam in England - more info on him in a future blog).

 

I mailed off my samples in October 2013.  It'll probably bee a while until the results are released but I'll publish the info on this blog once I get it.

Bees Robbing out Cappings on the Robbing Table

Each year we learn more about being better beekeepers. We learn how to harm less bees while working in the yard, how to save time, and how to do more with less effort.

The robbing table is about 50' away from the hives.  This helps to keep the robbing frenzy away from the area where all the hives are. My table is a large box about 2 1/2 feet high.  So far no raccoons have climbed up there to cause problems.

In the past when laying out sticky combs on the robbing table, I didn't have the bowl covered well enough. When it rained it got water in it. And you guess correctly that I discovered quite a few drowned bees.

Those are moments when it's too late to take it back and you feel bad. The best thing to do then is to learn from it and make changes so you do it better next time.

I use outer covers and my plastic political signs to create a roof over everything.  Then I cover it all with a ground cover and plastic sheeting.

One thing I've done the last couple years because I thought it was best is to spread the sticky combs out on a flat surface.

  I'd come back a week later and find all the combs as dry as a bone. Those bees sure are dutiful workers when there's honey to be cleaned up.

This year Dad (who does all the extracting) put the drained but very sticky combs into either small pails or plastic bags (double bagged).

 I found it worked really well to set the plastic bag or pail out under the tarp. Believe it or not the bees would go at this mass of sticky combs and get them entirely clean right to the bottom.

They'd drill down through the combs, cleaning and drying them off as they go. They'd get to the bottom and lick every last bit of honey off those flakes of wax.

Spreading them out is fine but if you're in a pinch, just give the combs to the bees. They know what to do.

Up to Here

I've struggled with feeding my bees in spring and fall.

I give them sugar syrup for two reasons, one so that they can top up resources and second so that I can medicate with Fumigilin B for Nosema.

I have used both hive top feeders and sugar baggies.  And I'm not happy with either one of them.

[sugar baggies placed on top bars in 2011]

I did like the Styrofoam hive top feeder at first but I soon found that wasps and ants can all too easily chew holes through the Styrofoam creating leaks.

I spent so much time duct taping and melting wax to plug the holes only to find this type of feeder kept leaking.

It's design is perfect in that it sits flat on top of a hive, it has a slit for the bees to go up, it has a clear plastic cover where the bees are so you can see them feed and refill the feeder with no bees flying around.  It's only fault is the material it's made from.

I found the wooden feeders leak and the baggies leak too.

I can't tell you how many times I've carefully filled and sealed a baggie and laid it on the hive.  I made sure my slits were small so it wouldn't leak.  I'd close up the hive and then look down a the platform and hour later to see a puddle.  A finger in the liquid and taste would confirm the baggie leaked.

The feeding is done in early spring or fall when it's cold and it's not acceptable to have liquid dripping over the bees.

The problem with a hive top feeder is the bees won't go up into them in cold weather to eat the syrup.  That's when the baggies are best because they sit right over the cluster and are so much closer at hand.

For quite a while I've been thinking about how to use a baggie and prevent leaking or dripping.  I finally came up with a solution.  I bought plastic and cut squares about 12" x 12".  Then I folded the corners up and stitched the corners - forming a tray with sides.  Then I filled a baggie and set it inside the plastic tray.  If the baggie leaked, the plastic tray would hold the liquid.

[My new method using a plastic tray that the baggie sits in.  The reason to use plastic is because I want to keep it thin so it's close to the bees and warmed by their bodies].

The other part of the plan was to put syrup in a Styrofoam feeder and set it out on the robbing table.

While carrying my large stock pot the 50' to the robbing table I stepped carefully through the long grass.  When I had only three or four more feet to go my foot caught on a tree stump and I fell.  The syrup went up in the air and splashed all over me.  I had it in my hair and all over my face, glasses and shirt.  What a sticky mess.

Unhurt, I discovered there was still 3 or 4" of syrup in the pot so I took it and poured it into the feeder.  It was a new Styrofoam feeder I bought this spring.

I worked in the yard for a couple hours and came back to check the feeder.  It was empty.  The robbing table was soaking wet with syrup.  It had leaked out completely.

Oh yes, I have had it up to here with those feeders.

On the up side, I checked my plastic trays and they are working well.  The bees are eating the syrup.

I'll be able to experiment with them more in the spring.

Sunny Day with an Observation Hive

A fellow beekeeper who is a very talented carpenter built us an observation hive.

Whenever we put up a table at an event or attend a school Dad and I do our best to educate the public about bees.

We want them to know the differences between the yellow jacket which they're well acquainted with and the friendly honey bee.

We want to let them know about the problems beekeepers are experiencing with pesticides in corn and soya beans.

 

We set out a petition from the OBA and people are signing it without question.  The bee problems have been in the news so much that people know a great deal about it.

On Thanksgiving weekend, Dad and I set up a table at Fanshawe Pioneer Village.  If the weather is good we bring the observation hive that fits a deep and a medium super frame.

We've been learning as we go with using this hive.  One thing is that the frames that go in the hive can't be fat ones or the bees will get pinned against the plexi-glass.  It's hard to find narrow frames to use.

So far I have not taken the queen.  In summer I'll select a frame with some brood but I don't want to risk my hive losing a queen to stress so I make sure she stays at home.  People don't seem to mind that she's not there.

Normally we're in the shade or part sun when we set up but on this occasion we had to put up under our canopy in the sun.  Due to the sun's angle we didn't get any shade until late afternoon.  It didn't take long until the was on the deep began to melt the wax.  Yikes!

We quickly moved the hive into the shade.

When we first set up there were two or three stray bees flying around outside the observation hive.  They could smell the honey.  But once it melted the bees outside were quick to put their tongues in the cracks at the bottom to lick up the honey.

 

And then they went home and told their sisters.  And they came too.

 

Lesson learned.  Even though it was not a hot day the observation hive can heat up quickly in the sun even though it has ventilation holes.  What is interesting is that the bottom deep frames had newer and thinner wax.  The upper super frame had thicker older wax aged to a golden brown.  The upper frame with the old wax didn't melt at all.

 

It was great for education.  I sat beside the hive all day and explained.  People were not afraid which was awesome to watch.

Of course the bees behaved.  It was a lovely sunny day in October and they had some honey to eat.

A Dog of a Day

Beekeeping is a time-consuming hobby as I'm sure you know.

We're all busy with our lives and many of us also have full time jobs and family to take care of as well.

It's hard to manage our days so that we can get to the bee yard.

We are at the mercy of the weather too and our working schedule.

This time of year it's even more challenging as the fall rains come.  This summer and fall we've received quite a bit of rain--enough to cause me to go to the doctor for arthritis medicine for my aching joints.

Some workers on the property where I keep my hives had done digging on the laneway to remove some old piping.  They left a gouge in the lane which I'd been driving through.

But as the rains came it got enlarged and became quite deep.  There was no gravel to hold the sandy soil and a lot of it washed away.  One night we got 100 mm of rain.

The next day I was trying to get to the bee yard because I had a queen I wanted to put into a queenless hive.

 

But I got stuck in that big rut.

My sister and her husband came out to try to pull me out.  We did a rope from trailer hitch to trailer hit.  It was actually working... until the rope broke.

 

So I lost that days work while I waited for a tow truck to get me out.

My sister brought their dog and she had a blast running around the property and digging in the mud and splashing through the large puddles.

 

Yes, it was a doggy day.

 

At least one four-legged critter was happy.

Queen Rearing Workshop

On 9 June 2013, a group of enthusiastic beekeepers gathered in Burgessville, Ontario at Oxford Honey & Supplies for the day.

The Ontario Bee Association's Tech Team were doing a workshop on Queen Rearing.
 

We arrived with our bee gear and then got our manual and handouts.

With the agenda to cover both classroom and  hands-on experience we knew it would be a very interesting and educational day.

We reviewed queen biology drone biology and many of the queen rearing systems.

Then we got to the practical aspects.

Out in the bee yard we inserted frames set up with rows and rows of queen cups so that the bees could build queen cells for the queen to lay eggs in.

Next we practised finding the queen.

On other hives once we found the queen we created four frame nuc hives and put the queen in them.  (Two frames of brood, one frame of pollen and one frame of honey and shook bees into the nuc).

 We also dug down into the deeps' brood area to find eggs and very young larvae (1 to 3 days).

We took the frames back to the workshop where we sat down with magnifying lenses and intense light.

We experimented with four or five different grafting tools trying to lift larvae out of their cells.

It was very difficult to get the tool under a larvae and lift it out and set it into a queen cup, all without touching the actual larvae.

You can't flip the little larvae over either since their spiracles (breathing tubes) are only on one side - because they lie in a pool of royal jelly they can't have breathing tubes on that side.  If you flip them over with breathing tubes down they'd drown in the royal jelly.
 

Most of us preferred the Chinese made grafting tool.

It had a tiny plastic tip (instead of a goose feather) and it had a plunger which aids to slide the little larvae off the tool and into the cup.

 

We all really struggled to remove tiny larvae from cells without touching them.

There was 100% agreement that after this experience paying $30.00 for a queen from a queen breeder was a very fair price considering all the work involved.

We created mating nucs using these cute Barbie Doll sized boxes with tiny frames inside.

There was a partition where sugar syrup could be added and a locking entrance to keep the bees in, or to let the bees out but keep the queen in.

We shook frames of nurse bees into plastic tubs.  Next we used one cup measuring cups.  We scooped 2 cups of bees into each mating nuc.

One cup of bees = 140 bees.  (Yes someone at one time actually counted them).

We also practised clipping wings and how to pick up and mark queens (practising with drones).

The course was very worthwhile. I don't plan on rearing queens yet ... well maybe a few for my own hives at some point.

They had draws at the end of the day and many prizes.  I won a Chinese grafting tool.  So no excuses for delaying getting into queen rearing.

I took the course because I wanted to know more about queen rearing. It was a very worthwhile day and well worth the cost.

In Search of Propolis

It’s that time of year for the bees when the weather is changing.

 

The little breeze now feels like a cold draft. It chills the brood and take the hard won heat out of the hive. The rains are more frequent and the icy drips of water sluices through every crevice.

 

If there’s a crack or a hole in the hive, wind and water will find a way in. This sends the bees in a late season scavenger hunt.

 

They are looking for propolis so they can caulk up the cracks or holes in the hive. They’ll also seal up the inner cover and even sometimes reduce the entrance by creating a curtain of propolis.

 

Since propolis is gathered mostly in spring the only way to get it at this time of year is to scavenge it from somewhere else.

 

This is where you can help the bees. Your honey supers which you’ve removed, those boxes will have nice globs of propolis inside them from the summer when the bees glued all those frames in place. You can either scrape some off and lay it out for the bees—trust me they WILL find it—or you can set the empty super out and they can scrape off the propolis themselves.

 

 

They will chew it into small pieces that they attach to their back legs to take back to the hive. I have watched them and videoed them doing this on many occasions. The bees worked on the huge lump in the picture until it was gone!

 

I think that’s why I enjoy setting out a good sized piece for them to harvest. I know they appreciate it.