its that time of year

[Riverrat]

Well well well.  Its been another year of beekeeping and now its winding down.  Hope everyone had a successful year.  Now its time to pull a chair up to the ole fire grasp a cup of coffee or tea and discuss our year.  Lets share some gained knowledge from the year. While at it tell us how the harvest was this year.

[Bakersdozen]

Beekeeping is a form of agriculture.  Agriculture success and failures revolve around many aspects we cannot control.  The weather is the first thing that comes to mind.  We are entering an era of weather patterns that are erratic and in the long range, unpredictable.  Last spring, summer, and fall, in the Kansas City area, we experienced some very unusual temperature fluctuations and an extreme drought.  I am happy to say we have had some rain and snow fall but it all came too late to do any good for the nectar flow and for the bees to build up their stores for winter.  The asters, which are our final nectar and pollen sources to bloom in the fall, was the only species to profit from the late rain.
In 2018 we went from winter, one of our coldest in a long time, to briefly touch on spring and on to extremely hot and dry summer conditions.  Fall was brief, very brief.  We went into winter conditions a month or so early.
All that being said, I have learned that there are no guarantees in beekeeping. (I have known this for some time, but this year it really hit home.)  I pulled my honey supers as soon as the nectar flow was over.  I put mite treatments on as soon as the supers were off.  I still lost 2 colonies to excessive mite load.  I intended to do OA treatments in November.  I didn't get that done because we have been experiencing winter weather conditions.   Mite treatments in the spring will be an absolute must.  I got feeder buckets on too late so go into winter feeling good.  I got feeder buckets off too late so that I could put shims on and provide ventilation.  I am lucky.  I saw condensation forming on inner covers and the start of mold.  No damage done by condensation.  Now I am sure I need to put candy on all the colonies to get them through the winter. 
Sometimes family, home, and work get in the way of doing what we like to do...work our bees.  That is just the way it is.  It doesn't help when the weather is challenging too.
Despite the abnormally dry conditions this past spring, I did have a good harvest of honey.  My colonies were strong in the spring. 
For the first time, I made an attempt to sell honey.  I took some honey to a swap and shop.  I didn't make a killing, but I sure learned a lot.  I will probably try again.
Sorry for being windy. 

[Some Day]

I am not that far from Bakersdozen and our weather was similar.  April was extremely cold and wet which led to a very slow build up of hives.  Spring arrived on May 4th from 2:00 P.M. to 4:.00 P.M. then extremely hot and dry Summer weather for the remainder of May.  We were in a severe drought through June, July, and August.  September had record rainfall which brought up our yearly average to about normal.  There was very little swarming reported this year and it did not start until end of June and July.  Normally the last week of April and all of May will have swarming.

I and several other local beekeepers where having queen problems.  Existing young queens less than a year old  becoming drone layers, queens disappearing with no swarm or superceedure cells, new queens not being accepted etc.  My plans for hive increase were completely altered by the bees and the weather.  Or at least that is my story.

I had planned on doubling my apiary of surviving colonies from the winter of 2017-2018 but was only able to manage about a 40% increase.  Hopefully I will have a winter survival rate of 80% or so.  I removed honey supers on August 1 and treated for mites.  I also began feeding in August due to the lack of flowering plants with the drought.  I combined weak hives in September.  I did a clean up OAV on the hives Oct. 31 and will do another in December if we get a decent weather day.

I took very little honey from them for personal use.  I did store some frames of honey for emergency feeding in late winter if needed or to boost new nucs in the spring.

Now I just read old bee books, wait for Black Friday Bee equipment sales, plan out next year and occasionally worry about the girls.

[adgjoan]

Earlier this month I went to the Ohio State Beekeepers Meeting near Columbus, Ohio.  I got to hear Marla Spivak speak about mites in the hives.  She said something that about made me fall out of my chair.  Scientist have known for years that the viruses the bees are suffering from have been in the hives all along. Untill the mites came along the bees were able to fight off the viruses for the most part.  The mites are weakening the bees immunity to diseases to where the viruses are causing loads of damage to the bees. 

I recently saw a video of Samuel Ramsey where in the last minute of the video where he said the same thing.  The video is "Mites do not feed on Hemolymph"  Thanks to his research we now know the mite feeds on the fat bodies of the bee which is similar to our liver.  The site where they feed remains an open wound which is the vector for disease. 

[Bakersdozen]

I recently saw a video of Samuel Ramsey where in the last minute of the video where he said the same thing.  The video is "Mites do not feed on Hemolymph"  Thanks to his research we now know the mite feeds on the fat bodies of the bee which is similar to our liver.  The site where they feed remains an open wound which is the vector for disease.

This is probably why Randy Oliver likes to use the term "fat bees" as a desirable trait. 

I have heard Marla Spivak speak several times.  Glad you got to hear her too.  She is full of cutting edge information.
There is an interview, in the December 2018 Bee Culture magazine, with Samuel Ramsey.  I haven't had a chance to read it yet.  Thanks for the video tip.

[riverbee]