Hotham Family Apiary

I've been feeding the bees 3.6 kg of homemade sirup (3:2 mix) the past three weeks. Looks like they are handling the amount that I have given them pretty well. I have noticed that they have finished killing off the drones and are fully concentrated on storing the food. I am still a little bit nervous about the whole process as this is my first time doing winter prep. I have noticed that in one of the colonies (Leia) that there are still two frames of wax foundation that have not been drawn out. Now, I am not sure what that means, and what kind of problems that will make for my bees. I will have to ask my mentor or other beek colleagues to see how I should proceed. The other two colonies have drawn out comb on all the frames, so I think I will be good to go with them. I have also noticed that the queens are STILL laying eggs. It is amazing, that although the temps are dropping, the queens are still trying to increase the population of the colonies. Somewhere, I did read that you...

I got back from a three week vacation not too long ago and I was happy to see that the lil ladies were still doing well. Before I left, I gave each colony 800 grams of food (ApiFonda). They were able to store the food and many of the field bees were still out and about bringing in pollen and water. I wasn't able to identify any mites on the mite shelves, but there were several ants running around so even if mites did fall down to the shelves, the ants may have carried them off. One of the first things I did when I got back was begin to feed them for winter. Each colony got 3600 grams of sirup. A day later I peeked in under the inner cover and I was amazed to see that they managed to suck down all that food! I was smart this time, and I tightened up the entry of the hive to one-bee width so that robbers could be easily defended against. That all seemed to work out well. Currently there are also lots of wasps flying around, trying to gain access to the food inside. On one of he col...

It is so hot. More than a week has passed since the first formic acid treatment and it has been too hot to perform another one. Fortunately, there are still no dead mites in the colonies, so I may be able to get away with postponing the next treatment until the weather has improved.

Yesterday, I treated the girls with formic acid. Sounds wonderful doesn't it? Actually, for the bees, it is a critical step in fending off the mites, but it isn't a very pleasing experience. Formic acid is an organic substance that is naturally found in ant venom, hence the name (the Latin word for ant is formica), and can also be found in stinging nettles. The acid, in certain concentrations is corrosive and should always be handled with caution. When the acid is allowed to vaporize, it becomes very pungent and causes quite a deal of stress for the bees. The vaporized acid in essence suffocates the varroa mites, causing them to die. Today, I will remove the sponge towel that I used for holding the acid, from the hives, and attempt to count the dead mites that have hopefully fallen off the bees, down through the wire meshing of the floor, and onto the mite board. Ideally, the number of dead mites will be small. This would first of all mean that my bees are generally in good s...

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 ...