Combat Varroa Destructor

Today was a bee day for me. The Mite Away strips I ordered ten days ago finally arrived, and when I went down to care for my bees, it was as if a small swarm had left the hive and gone into the mite monitor area below the hive for sustenance. I opened the hive to see if there were queen cells that would indicate swarming. But though I found capped honey (hooray!) and some brood cells (not nearly so many as I would have hoped, but certainly some), I found no queen cells anywhere. Presumably, the few hundred bees outside the hive were not a swarm then.

Varroa destructor mites are external parasites that attach to the bees and suck their lymph-like blood (called hemolymph). They leave open wounds, which, obviously, weakens the bees. And apparently it can affect the DNA of the bees, causing bad wings and other problems. They lay their eggs on the bee brood, and reproduce exponentially.

Incredibly, the same formic acid that makes bee stings hurt and swell can be used to kill the varroa mites even in capped brood. Mentor Gunther said that formic acid has been researched for many years and it does not persist in either the honey or the wax. And because it is a naturally occurring substance in the bees themselves (at a lower concentration), it is not damaging to the bees at all.

It can be damaging to people, though, so when I went to put the varroa mite pad on the hive, I wore eye protection under my bee veil, and chemical gloves over my normal neoprene gloves, as well as head to toe rain gear for general skin protection. Under the September sun, I was sweating profusely.

So the more heavily hit Celadon hive was cared for. On to the Celestial hive, not hit nearly as hard with the varroa.

Ever so much more brood! A large amount of capped honey! This is what a strong hive should be looking like!

I went back to the trailer to research, convinced that I needed to combine the hives. Celadon seemed too weak by comparison with Celestial, despite the three weeks of heavy honey feeding, in which the bees have eaten probably over 40 pounds of honey.

Combining sounded fairly easy. Remove the cover and put a layer of newspaper on the top of the strong hive. Then take the weak hive, find the queen and remove her (probably by killing, or by putting her in a nuc, or 5-frame small, temporary hive), and put the bees above the strong hive. Cover. In the few days it takes the hives to eat the paper between then, they get used to each other's smell, and make a strong hive together. Better to lose a queen than an entire hive.

Okay. I found my queen catcher and put back on my heavy clothes. I got the Celestial hive all ready to receive their weaker Celadon counterparts, and began putting the Celadon frames in place, one by one, searching diligently for the queen. No queen. No queen. No queen.

At six frames, I suddenly realized that there was more capped brood than I remembered. As the bees were returning from their foraging, the hive seemed a good bit more crowded with bees than I had remembered. Was I really prepared to kill a queen (or force her into slow death with an ill-planned nuc)? No. I'll give the Celadon hive a bit more time.

Back went frame after frame. So sorry, bees, that I don't know what I'm doing! Thank you for your patience, for your peacefulness despite my fumbling and indecision.

***

Phil calculated how much lumber he needs to build the forms for the base of the metal building. He figured he needs to cut and mill at least 9 trees with an 18" diameter. He found seven in the bottomland that will be easily accessible.

I pulled weeds from a section of our future blueberry patch. The chickens came along behind and scratched up bugs.

I quit when I was stung by a yellow jacket. I felt the sting and crushed the insect. Then another one targeted my other arm, and I killed that one, too, after getting a second sting. When a third instantly came up near my face, I dropped my weeds and dashed to wash the smell away.