Russian Honeybees

From reading some of the trade magazines, it seems that a lot of beekeepers are having a hard time with wintering over their honeybees.  Whether the hives are starving out, or some other problem, beekeepers have noticed that overwintering hives has been getting harder year after year.

We've had a few losses over the years, but have been relatively lucky.  That doesn't make it any less heartbreaking to open a hive in the spring only to find a cluster of dead bees, when just two frames away there is plenty of honey.  After some research and discussion, we've decided to switch from raising Italian to Russian honeybees.

For most types of honeybees, when the temperature starts to warm up, the hive comes alive.  The queen increases laying eggs, and workers get busy cleaning out the hive from the winter, as well as searching for pollen and nectar sources. 

But, what happens when, after a warming trend, you get a late frost?  What happens if, like last year, we get a long, cold, wet spring?  Not only did it cause a blight that attacked potatoes and tomatoes, but bees cannot fly in rain.  The bees will have increased their numbers when their honey stores are at the lowest point of the year, and will not have access to forage to replace what they consumed over the winter.

These conditions put honeybees at great risk for starvation, increasing the need for the beekeeper to provide supplement feed, commonly in the form of sugar syrup, sugar candy, corn syrup, or high fructose corn syrup.  Pollen packs (usually a pollen-like supplement, not true pollen) are another form of supplementation, but they stimulate a hive to increase its numbers- not something you want if the weather isn't cooperating and/or there are no natural forage sources available.

While these supplements can keep a hive from starving, none of them are their ideal winter food, honey.  A steady diet of such supplements will result in nutritionally-deficient bees.  Weaker bees are less able to fight off disease and pests, like varroa and small hive beetle.  It also results in more work and more expense for the beekeeper.

In addition to spring food sources, honeybees are still struggling to cope with mites- tracheal mites and varroa mites.  Many tracheal mite problems can be handled with the application of natural remedies, like menthol.  But varroa mites are still the number one problem facing honeybee populations in the US. 

We didn't have a bad varroa problem last year.  We used a method that encouraged the bees to build wax comb for drone brood (varroa grow in drone brood chambers, not worker bee chambers) by replacing a deep frame with a medium frame.  The bees built comb downward from the underside of the frame.  We were then able to remove it from the hive, removing both the drone brood and the varroa mites.  However, it takes three pounds of honey to provide the energy to make one pound of wax.  While it cut down on varroa, and we got quite a bit of extra beeswax, it also cut into our honey production.

Wintering over may not be such a problem in the south where weather is warmer and the winters milder.  The northeast, however, faces cold, wet winters, often with heavy snow and winds.  So, what is a beekeeper in the Northeast to do in order to cut down on the starve-outs and mite infestations? 

This year, we're going to try keeping Russian honeybees.  According to the Russian Honey Bee Breeders Association, Russians have excellent wintering-over abilities, are much less susceptable to tracheal mites, and significantly lower varroa populations combined with greater varroa tolerance.  It is possible that they are genetically disposed to more hygenic behavior and clean the mites off better than other other types of honeybees.  They have a similar honey production and pollination abilities to Italians, the standard for many beekeepers, both professional and hobbiest.

There are two primary differences that accounts for the Russian honeybee's ability to better handle a long, cold winter as compared to the Italian honeybee:

1. Because they are more cold-hardy, Russians are able to reduce their numbers more so than Italians before the winter.  During the winter, honeybees form a cluster around the queen and flap their wings to keep the hive warm.  The more bees, the more wings to flap, the warmer the hive.  However, the more honey is required to keep the cluster alive all winter.  Since Russians can get by with fewer bees in a smaller cluster, their honey stores last longer.
2. Instead of looking for a temperature cue to build up numbers in the spring, Russians begin building up the size of their colony when pollen sources indicate there is enough pollen available to support a larger colony.  This further extends the honey reserves into the spring, one of the most dangerous times of years for bees to starve.

However, Russian honeybees do require some adjustments in management.  Once they start to build up their numbers, it happens fast, and they have a tendency to swarm.  They can be more curious, and have a tendency to buzz around the beekeeper a bit more than Italians.  This has given them a reputation of being more aggressive.  Aggressive, however, is not the same as curious.  It can be more challenging to requeen an Italian hive with a Russian queen, which is what we will have to do. 

We will also have to keep track of our queens carefully.  If a hive makes a new queen for any reason, she may well be a hybrid, and not a true Russian.  The problem with a Russian hybrid is that they tend to lose their beneficial traits against varroa in a few generations. 

As long as it goes well with the requeening and management of the Russian bees, especially wintering over next year, this may be the better choice for us as colder region, sustainable beekeepers.

Live better, a little every day.

Rainy Days- Knitting and Melting Beeswax

Under our kitchen window sit six additional pepper plants waiting for a home in our garden. The past few days have been too wet and rainy to any additional planting. We still have another garden plot to prepare, but it will have to wait until the end of the week when the sun is rumored to be in town for a two-day performance.

Personally, I love rainy days. More accurately, I love rainy days when I have no obligations outside the home. Rainy days are perfect for knitting, curling up with a hot cup of herbal tea, and baking... well, anything!

Yesterday (Monday) was one of those days. I'm making a beautiful aran sweater, with cables upon cables out of chocolate brown fisherman's wool for my husband. It will most likely take until October before it is done, but it will be ready for the cold weather. I caught him, out of the corner of my eye, watching me knit. He looked so proud, or perhaps touched, that his wife was making something that takes such time and care to create, and doing so just for him.

This sweater is a great example of self-reliance. Making your own clothing allows you to control every factor- style, color, quality, and every other aspect that contributes to its uniqueness. While I did not spin this yarn myself (though spinning is a skill I'm working hard to improve), it was purchased from a small, local shop. With a little effort, a warm work of art is crafted. All it will require is a little time, effort, and moderate skill.

No money went to support a large retailer with a history of mistreating employees. No money went to a corporation that employs foreign workers at slave wages. Some money did get paid in sales tax, which is one of the reasons I'm honing my own spinning skills, but the bulk of the purchase price went to support a local, small business.

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Today, (Tuesday) I had a little time after work to clean out the uncapping tank and melt the beeswax cappings that have been waiting on me to have some free time for over a week. A solar wax melter is in the works, but probably won't be finished for a few weeks. However, it will remove any need for further fossil fuels, and therefore any grid connection, to process our bees' beautiful wax.

Always be very careful melting wax. Melt wax in a double-boiler, preventing the container of wax from touching the heat source. Beeswax is highly flammable, so please take all reasonable precautions.

I pour the melted wax into old liquid egg and milk cartons that have the tops cut off. When the wax cools, the clean wax floats to the top, and the sludge sinks to the bottom. After it cools, the sludge is cut off, and the process begins again and is repeated until the wax comes perfectly clean. At that point, the melted wax is poured into pretty, one-ounce cakes with a honeycomb and queen bee design, ready for easy measuring for future use or sale. Do not refrigerate the wax to cool it. It will not make a good candle if you cool it too quickly.

Beeswax just smells absolutely delicious! It requires no toxic artificial fragrances to scent a room. Beeswax is used in candles, lotions, soaps, and furniture polish, just to name a few uses. We used our own beeswax to make the taper candles that lit our home last winter. Beeswax is more valuable pound for pound compared to honey.

When you get the chance, read up on candle making, and then locate a local beekeeper in your area. Every county has a beekeeping association, and you should be able to find their contact information (and probably web site) on line easily enough. Make an inquiry asking if any of the beekeepers have wax for sale, and you should have yourself a local source of beautiful beeswax for all your crafting needs.

Live better, a little every day.