Reverie


Reverie - n. a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream or fantasy; a visionary or impractical idea

"To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.

The revery alone will do
If bees are few." - Emily Dickinson

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You.

I checked in with my backyard hive the other day, expecting to find them busily working on drawing new foundation and storing nectar. They were doing that (see above), but...
...apparently they are working on some side projects as well.  Dang!  This is the fancy pants Russian hygienic queen I bought last year.  Multiple capped and uncapped swarm cells in the middle brood box (I use all 8 frame westerns).  
Here is a queen larvae swimming in a bath of royal jelly.  And WOW, my gloves are dirty!
Here is another surprise for me.  Look closely...
Multiple varroa mites in a single drone cell.  I check the mite board on this hive regularly, and I have counted maybe one mite in the last few weeks.  But scrape open the drone cells and it's a different story.  This highlights the importance of monitoring and testing for varroa beyond just visual inspections of a mite board.  
It's not all doom and gloom though.  The bees and brood look good and they are bringing in loads of nectar and pollen.  Swarm season is upon us! I hope this queen stays.
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3 comments:

  1. meemsnycMay 16, 2014 at 10:43 PM

    We were fighting mites all of last year as well. What do you use to combat them? We did the powder sugar method, but had to resort to using mite strips. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChristopherAugust 15, 2014 at 8:54 AM

    I've gone chemical free for more than 5 years, and it's painful to watch hives die from varroa, and even more painful to re-buy bees each year. I did powder sugar dusting each year, along with other techniques that in the end has allowed varroa to take over my hives and they died from varroa.This year I started treating with MAQs and the experience (and results) were great. I'm planning to make this my annual mite treatment plan.

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