Hotham Family Apiary

Varroa destructor is the scientific name for an arachnid parasite that can only reproduce in the presence of honey bees. These parasites infiltrate a bee colony by means of external introduction and once they are present, become a burden on a colony. Normally, parasitic relationships are not devastating, as the parasite needs the host to survive. However, in the case of varroa mites, they destroy their hosts. The mites can transmit several types of diseases, that ultimately destroy a bee colony, either directly or indirectly by weakening the bees to the point that they are no longer able to carry about the normal working functions. Varroa mites are relentless but not invincible, that is where the beekeeper comes in. To give you a bit more perspective about the nature of the mites let me first describe the size of the mite. The mites are normally between 1 and 2 mm long and about the 2 mm wide. Honey bees, in comparison, are on average 14 mm long. That means a varroa mite is approxim...

Remember the film, "Good Morning Vietnam" with the late, and great, comedian Robin Williams? One of my favorite lines from the film was when Williams replied to the liason who greeted him at the airfield, "Warm? No. This is a setting for London Broil!" Well, I got thousands of little six-legged Robin Williams' running around the hives saying just about the same thing. The past few days have been in the low 90's and today was especially humid. When the dog days of summer turn up, bees go on vacation. Not a "real" vacation, there is still work to be done, but rather an extended siesta if you will. Most of the bees are just trying to cool down the hive, so they stop building and beging fanning (or collecting small buckets of crushed ice). Some just hang out on the porch and others hang out on the walls of the hive (inside and ouside). This is the problem I currently have. Another round of Mojitos please! © 2015 Jason Hotham It is infact so...

..."what the heck is going on here?" For the first time in my illustrious and well documented career as a beekeeper, I was faced with a situation I had no answer for. There I was, staring at a frame full of capped brood, when suddenly my eyes were drawn to a small concentrated patch of opened cells with exposed pupa in them. Immediately I said to myself, "that's something I haven't seen yet. Are they sick!?" "I wonder what that is," I said to my mother-in-law. "What?" she asked. "Those weird looking open cells with chewed off capping and exposed brood. Huh, guess I'll have to make a note of it and ask my beek mentor about tomorrow." Great. Now I have to wait until tomorrow to find out if my colony is doomed or if it is just normal behavior with a few bees cleaning up sick brood. The internet has thusfar been a treasure trove of beekeeping information, but I just didn't know how to formulate the phrase for the Google ...

Poor drones. You have to feel bad for them. They are bred by the worker bees for one purpose: mating. Some of you male readers may be thinking, sah-weet!, but I promise you, a drone's life isn't as glorious as you'd expect. First off, drones are incapable of taking care of themselves. They need worker bees to tend to them. Which of course, kind of sets them up for what must be a 24/7 hailstorm of nagging and complaining : "Why can't you sweep the floor? Or do the dishes? Or take care of the youngin's? All you want to do is lounge around, watch football, and generally be useless." Yikes! Second, when drones venture out on a mission to give their DNA to a vibrant, young, sassy virgin queen, it is almost definitely a suicide mission. Granted, the drones probably aren't aware of this macabre fact, seeing as they come from an unfertilized egg, but still, seems a high price to pay. Once a male has made his deposit, the queen tears out the probe...ouchy! Ev...

Leia's colony is not as strong as the other two, so I acted on a tip from my beek mentor. He suggested I place a frame of capped brood from one of the stronger nucs into the weaker nuc. The reasoning behind it is that the weaker bees will get a slew of new bees within a few days that will help in strengthening the colony. It is important however, that all the bees that are sitting on the frame be brushed off before the move. Otherwise, we would end up with a lot of dead bees. I was a bit nervous to do this for two reasons. 1.) When you brush bees off a frame, they fly around in a cloud for a few minutes before they settle down and try to re-enter the hive. Since I generally do not work with a veil, I was worried some might get caught in my hair and sting me. 2.) I was afraid I might hurt the queen. Well, no bees got caught in my hair, in fact most of the bees that I knocked off / brushed off fell immediately into the hive, while the others flew directly to the bee house window....

Getting three nucs in July means having to help them expand their hives. When I say expansion, I mean drawing out comb on wax foundations. The young Queens want to lay eggs and to do this they need empty cells. The problem is, the honey flow has slowed significantly here in Upper Franconia. We'll have to stimulate the building by faking a honey flow. To do this, we give each nuc about 300ml of sugarwater at a concentration of 3:2. The solution is a bit thicker but it facilitates comb construction. Some old beeks will say the best way to go is with a 1:1 solution since it better simulates field nectar. 3:2 solution is mainly used for winter stores, but my mentor told me to go with 3:2, so that is what I'll do.  The results justify the 3:2 usage. In all of my nucs, the bees are drawing out new comb. I spotted eggs on some new comb a few days ago as well as nectar and pollen. The key, I think, is finding the right combination of amount and frequency. Right now, the nucs...

Today, during inspection, I was able to lay my eyes on each queen. Although it is never my goal to see the queen during an inspection, but rather evidence of her existence, I was pleased with each sighting. Luckily, I had my phone readily available, and I was able to make snapshots of each queen. Leia Copyright 2015 Jason Hotham Notice the capped brood in picture above? That's the brownish colored capped cells. Also, there is open brood which can be easily seen (eggs and larvae). Below, is a photo of Chewbacca. She is moving around on a frame with capped brood (upper left corner of photo) and with food (pollen and nectar). She is a bit nestled in among the workers but we can easily recognize her by the large black plate on her upper thorax. What a beauty! Chewbacca Copyright 2015 Jason Hotham Adriana is quite large compared to the other queens. I wonder if she will be able to reign for four or five years. An very impressive specimen, indeed!   Adriana Copyright...

After about 10 days of scorching hot weather a cold front finally moved in. A nice summer thunderstorm at night, followed by two days of cloudy, cool, and windy weather is just what we needed.  My bees however, have different feelings about that. Honey bees will not venture out of the hive unless the temperature is above 13°C. The optimal flying temperature is 20 C. Yesterday the temp hovered around 19°C, which would theoretically be warm enough for flight. Temperature alone, is not the only factor to determine if the lil ladies will fly out. Sun intensity, wind, and rain strength also play a part. We had overcast skies and a steady breeze the last two days.  Conditions for flight: unfavorable.  My mother-in-law called me yesterday evening saying she noticed that there was little to no flight activity at the hives. I went over there just to check, but it was just as I learned - bad flying weather.

Yesterday, we performed inspections on our hives. I am happy to report that all three are thriving! Leia's hive is picking up momentum and they were able to store the food that I had given them. I was relieved to see that they were able to make such a swift turnaround. The robbery that I reported has stopped. I plan to keep the entry at a reduced size for a little while longer until the number of bees increases. Catastrophe averted! Chewbacca's hive is exploding as is Adriana's hive. Both colonies are drawing out comb at an astonishing rate. I noticed that both queens had even begun to lay eggs in the freshly drawn out comb. That is very good news. I will ask my mentor when he thinks I should add a second brood chamber. The last week or so has been extremely hot. So hot, in fact, that many of the bees have decided to lounge out on the front of the hives. Copyright 2015 Jason Hotham This is common behavior for the bees. They are trying to regulate the temperature w...

On Sunday, June 28th, I installed three nucleus colonies into our newly built bee shed. What a feeling it was seeing the little girls flying out for the first time! On that day, I officially became a beekeeper. Uh oh. Well, no, it's not bad, but I suddenly realized that I was now responsible for the well being and health of thousands of little creatures. Yikes! OK, seriously though, I'm good, really, I'm good. Buzzzzzzzz. The next day I went back to the shack to observe. I sat there for about half an hour and was mesmerized by what I saw. Bees were bringing back pollen, guard bees were directing traffic, drones were buzzing loudly around the hive entrance, lots of fun. My joy, however, quickly turned to dread, as I noticed that some robbery was taking place with one of the nucs. Bees were wrestling around on the landing board, which I had read, was a sure fire sign that robbers were in the area. I quickly reacted and decreased the size of the entry to 1cm. The robbery did...