Michigan Overwintering Honeybees

It is December 11, and Old Man Winter has finally hit West Michigan. My hive tops are laden with 8 inches of snow cover.   As I stand basking in the warm light and heat of my kitchen baking cookies, I look out at the hives adorned in their black cloak of tar paper and I smile. The thought of them all clustered together to maintain life and keep their queen at a balmy 90 degrees is nothing short of miraculous.  God, our and the honeybees creator, is to be praised!!  Such detail, intricacy and wisdom!!  To walk out into a snow filled apiary and place your ear up against the cold hive box and hear the low hum of bees vibrating their wings muscles collaboratively to maintain heat and life is amazing!!  I took a few winter pics of some of my hives and a fellow beekeepers. Enjoy.

Quickly peeked in on this cluster Dec 4, 2016.

Honeybees on sugar brick. December, 2016

December 11, 2016.  Yes, hundreds of thousands of Honeybees alive in those boxes! I can hardly stand to be outside in the whipping wind and snow.  The Honeybees are clustered down, maintaining the required temperature for survival and consuming the honey they had stored over the summer.  These hives have a barn for a wonderful  windbreak.

The snow actually helps insulate, but you need to make sure you have ventilation, somewhere for that warm air rising from the cluster to go so it doesn't condense on the underside of top cover and drip back down on the bees.  Honeybees can do cold, they can't do WET!

Can't get enough of awesome apiaries! Just to know there is life in those boxes in the dead of winter gives me hope for spring!

Goodbye Summer, Goodbye Nectar Flow, Hello Fall

This summer was a whirlwind of honeybee activity.  I started late spring with ten nucs.  Seven nucs were given to me by a generous beekeeper. Two others I worked for by assisting another beekeeper to make splits and one was the swarm I hived on that cold June morning.  How did it get to be almost the end of October?  Well since June,  I worked with and split the ten into thirty-three hives using the OTS queen rearing method by Mel Disselkoen.  I sold two,  and am forging into the fall with thirty-one hives.  I did not even take a lick of honey from the bees this year!  I focused mainly on making more bees.  Now the focus turns to keeping them alive for the winter.
Because of last winters losses and the probable varroa mite infestation, I did mite counts this summer.  If the mite count was high, above threshold, greater than two mites per 100 bees, I treated.  I used the oxalic dribble (medium strength) per guidelines on Scientific Beekeeping website. I did the dribble while there was no capped brood in the hive, that window where all the brood from the old queen  had emerged and the new queen had not started laying or was just beginning to lay.  Treating during this window of time means there are no mites hiding beneath the capping and all mites should be phoretic, hitchhiking on the bees in the hive.  So all the mites in the hive are exposed to the oxalic acid.
I didn't want to treat, but I do not wish to lose my bees again either.   The brood breaks are an excellent way to knock back varroa and keep there numbers to a manageable level, BUT even if your bees are "clean," drones carrying varroa mites from any hives in your surrounding areas can enter your hives uncontested and re-infest your hives.  Many beekeepers have done mite counts in July and August and find them to be below threshold and then suddenly in September their hives are inundated with mites.  Beekeepers call this a Varroa Bomb.  Getting nailed with drones infested by Varroa or your strong hive robs a neighboring weak hive that is full of Varroa and your bees unknowingly carry Varroa back to your "clean" hive.  It is a sad state of affairs and one must remain vigilant.
This summer was so busy with the bees, my son's graduation open house and a trip out west, I didn't get many "in the hive" pictures but I did manage to catch them foraging here and there.   Enjoy the images of summer 2016.

Honeybee on Anise Hyssop

Honeybees water color at hive entrance

Honeybee on Lemon Queen sunflower

Home Apiary with splits

Honeybee on Basswood bloom.  Right in my own back yard! The smell of this tree in bloom is intoxicating.  Love standing underneath it and listening to the happy hum of busy bees!

Honeybee alighting onto Basswood bloom.

Honeybee on Sunflower bloom

Honeybee on Buckwheat bloom

Honey bee gathering nectar from Buckwheat bloom

Buckwheat blooming in my backyard.

Honeybees on top of frame

Honeybee on Anemone bloom

Honeybee on Japanese Anemone bloom

Honeybee on Anise Hyssop bloom.  See the pollen she has started gathering in her "pollen basket" on her leg?

Honeybees on Japanese Anemone bloom

Honeybee on Zinnia bloom

Honeybee Swarm on a Chilly June Morning.

The morning started out like any other work day. I got up at 0500, went to the pool, swam 30 laps  and then headed the short distance to work.  I pulled in the drive of the parking lot at work.  It was 45 degrees, quite chilly for a June morning, but the sun was shining. As I turned towards the parking lot, I noticed a patch of brown in a small tree on the landscape.  I wonder if I am scanning subconsciously  for swarms all of the time??  I pulled off onto the grass and walked a few feet to the tree. It is now 0650 and my eyes behold a small oscillating mass of golden, sparkling ( the morning sun was shining directly upon them) honeybees!  It was a swarm!  Not just any swarm, a swarm within reach. All I needed to do was lop off one small branch and place them in my box.  I watched in amazement as one or two scouts broke off the small shining mass and flew off in search of a new home.
As I stood there gaping, my co worker pulled up, rolled down her window, and questioned, "What ya doing?"  I pointed and said, "Honeybees!"  She, knowing I'd not be able to focus on anything but the bees, said, "Are you gonna get them? You should run home and get your stuff, we'll be alright here till you get back."  I issued one, "Are you sure?" She replied, "Yes!"  Thanks Nikki!  That was the only encouragement I needed.

My bee buddy Mary came to be the branch cutter and be the courier to transport this sweet little swarm back to my place.  She also ended up being the photographer, thanks Mary!

The tightly clustered swarm (remember it is 45 degrees!) just about to go into my nuc box. I had already placed some frames of empty comb and honey in there for them. June 8, 0720 AM!

Now how easy was that!  One small branch within easy reach! Wish all swarms were so simple. I transferred these girls into their new hive body later that evening. Found the queen and the bees filled out the five frames nicely.  It will be fun now to watch her start laying and build up brood. 

Booming Brood and Blossoms!

The nucs I have that have 2015 post soltice queens are building up nicely! Some of them have seven to eight frames of brood already with new bees emerging all the time. Around 4:30 on sunny afternoons they seem to have their orientation flights.  They have also been on the Dutch clover, Buckeye tree, Catmint, Dogwood and the Black Locust has just started to bloom here in West Michigan. I have yet to get a picture of them on the Black Locust bloom.

Honeybee alighting on Red Buckeye bloom. May 2016

Red Buckeye Bloom

Honeybee coming on for a landing on Dogwood bloom, May, 2016. I had watched my Dogwood tree bloom and did not see honeybees on it until the  white petals started to brown and then they were all over it for a few days. The flowers within the big white petals had popped open and they were gathering pollen and possibly nectar from the green little mass of flowers you see in the middle.

The honeybees love this Catmint perennial. I love it too as it starts blooming in May, splits well, does well in poor soil and does well with minimal water. Requirements for most plants in my yard!

Honeybee on Dutch Clover.  June, 2016. 

Honeybee on Dutch Clover, early June, 2016.

Honeybee on the Catmint blooms.  Hummingbirds and other pollinators love this also.

Honeybee orientations flights on a warm sunny June afternoon.

Honeybees, don't they just make you want to smile.

Honeybee on Autumn Olive Bloom, a species on the "Invasive list."

Honey bee on Autumn Olive Bloom, May 24, 2016.

Honeybee gathering nectar from Autumn Olive. May, 2016.

I couldn't resist putting this pose in here, Honeybee on Autumn Olive bloom. May, 2016.

Honeybee on Autumn Olive. May 2016. These flowers give off a heavenly aroma in the spring!

Honeybees and Trees. May 6, 2016

Last night I was able to bring home four more nucs and get them settled in.  Thank goodness for a few days of warmer temperatures and sunshine!  As if just for the honeybees arrival,  my Crab Apple tree and Red Bud welcomed the bees with blooms bursting forth everywhere today.  You could stand under or near the Crab Apple and hear their soothing buzzing and observe them gathering pollen and bringing it back to the hive.   The honeybees definitely preferred the Crab Apple over the Red Bud. There were only one or two honeybees on the Red Bud, but there were many native bees and bumblebees on the blooms.  I have no idea what the proper names are of any of the native bees or bumblebees, I will work on that!
Before keeping bees, I did not realize the importance of trees to the bees!  I have only begun scratching the surface of all the different types of trees, their bloom times and their nectar and pollen production for the bees.
If you want to plant trees for bees, contact Honeytree Nursery in Shelbyville, MI at honeytreenursery.com or email honeytreenursery@yahoo.com.  They are the experts in what trees you should plant for bees.

Honeybee on my Crab Apple tree

Crab Apple tree in full bloom, May 6, a welcome present to the Nucs I brought home last evening.

Honeybee on Crab Apple bloom.

My nucs, six now. First morning in their new home, settling in.

White Crab Apple I think??  The honeybees were all over these millions of blooms, but were too high up for me to get a good picture of one.  Way, way, way more blooms than a small planting of flowers could ever provide. Plant trees for bees!

An closer shot of the bloom from the tree above.

The only honeybee I saw on my Red Bud trees.

A native bee, unsure of the name, many of these were on the Red Bud

Big ole Bumble, I don't know the type, there were three of them on this Red Bud, often fighting with each other.

New Bee-ginnings, Michigan Honeybee Nucs, May 2, 2016

       It has been a while since my last post due to the fact there wasn't much to say as the remaining two hives I had in February, were both dead in March.  I found the queens in each and one even had eggs,  open larva, and capped brood.  They were giving it all they could, but there were too few bees to maintain the warmth they needed.
      Of course, I must begin again.  I knew I wanted nucs that had overwintered in MI.  Thanks to a wonderful  network of other beekeepers I was able to find MI bees that had successfully made it through the winter. These nucs have queens that were mated last July so I was able to receive them sooner than most MI nucs are available.  I brought the first two home last night.  I set them on top of the hive box that they will be going into and opened their entrances, giving them a chance to fly and orient to their new spot before installing them into the hive boxes. I can't wait to give them my extracted honey frames for them to lick clean and full frames of honey!

Incoming bees, the stick is there holding the entrance open on the nuc box. I set the nuc box on top of the hive box they will be going into, allowing them to orientate to their new spot.

Two nucs with bees adjusting to their new location.  After a day or so I will transfer the frames into the hive bodies.

Honeybees at entrance of the nuc.  The stick is there to prop up the opening. 

Red Bud starting to bloom. Other beekeepers have told me the bees do work the Red Bud.

NOT a honeybee, a native bee on the Red Bud bloom. I am not sure of the bees proper name.