Back Forty Bees
  • Buy Bees & Hives
    • Package Bees
    • Queen Bees
    • Nucs
    • Assembled Hives
  • Bee Educated
    • Blog
    • Getting Started in Beekeeping
    • Educational Resources
    • Invite me to speak
    • Build it yourself
  • Bee Services
    • Pollination
    • Bee Removal
  • Honey
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Buy Bees & Hives
    • Package Bees
    • Queen Bees
    • Nucs
    • Assembled Hives
  • Bee Educated
    • Blog
    • Getting Started in Beekeeping
    • Educational Resources
    • Invite me to speak
    • Build it yourself
  • Bee Services
    • Pollination
    • Bee Removal
  • Honey
  • Shop
  • Contact

Adventures in Beekeeping
(my blog)

Treating with Oxalic Acid Vapor

10/30/2017

0 Comments

 
It will be soon be the time to treat your broodless hives with oxalic acid vapor for varroa mites.  This infographic provides a simple to follow set of the steps to complete a treatment. 
oxalic_acid_treatment_-_back_forty_bees.pdf
File Size: 2114 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Picture
0 Comments

Making a lot of 1:1 sugar syrup

10/20/2017

0 Comments

 
This video demonstrates how to make larger quantities of sugar water for feeding honey bees.  Video editing quality is not so good (sorry), but the information is all there.  Note, it is 18 gallons of water, not 8.  You can download a sugar calculator spreadsheet on my blog - www.backfortybees.com/blog
0 Comments

Building a bee escape

10/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
I built a bee escape ( also known as a clearing board) a while back. You place these in between honey supers and the brood boxes (or any other box you are leaving on) and after 24 hours the bees have gone down, but not back up.  It works, I use it on my hives.  Why it works is up for debate, I’ve seen a lot of differing reasons (bees only turn one direction, etc). Once most of the bees have exited the honey super you can remove it to extract the honey. 

For anyone else who wants to build one the dimensions for the larger triangle are 10.5″ (long edge) and 8″ (short edge). This will give you the correct angle. I was able to build it with leftover wood from my other projects, so that was a nice bonus.

0 Comments

Treating packages with oxalic acid

10/12/2017

0 Comments

 
 The folks at the University of Georgia have investigated the treatment of honey bee packages with oxalic acid to kill the mites.  You can read an article on this at Bee Culture magazine.  I followed up with them and they provided a copy of the research paper on Spraying Packages with Oxalic Acid (file below) upon which the article was based.  In addition, some hands-on advice on how to treat a package with a spray bottle, which I’ve copied below.
  • The correct dosage is 3.0mL of solution per 1000 bees. A two pound package has about 7,000 bees so 21mL per 2 pound package. To make the solution you dissolve 35 grams of oxalic acid with 1 liter of warm 1:1 sugar/water. Evenly apply the 21mL to both sides of the package through the screen. 21mL is not a lot of liquid (1.42 tablespoons) so care must be taken if you use a spray bottle. Over treating can kill bees.
  • Make sure to spay heavily with sugar water a few hours before treatment to limit the bees eating the oxalic mixture.
  • Make sure the bees remain in the package, with plenty of food, for 72 hours before hiving them. The oxalic needs time to work. Keep the bees in a cool, dark, and well ventilated area.
oxalic_acid_and_packages_article.pdf
File Size: 544 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

Solar wax melter

10/12/2017

0 Comments

 
I cleaned up my solar wax melter today, it had a ton of slum gum in it (you can see it on the grass in the video). I put through some wax I had already rendered as it had more non-wax bits and pieces (bees, ants) than I wanted. You can see how hot the melter gets by how quickly the wax is melting. I added a clean piece of weed barrier as my filter – this works great and is cheap and easy to replace.
0 Comments

Securing a hive for hurricanes or storms

10/12/2017

0 Comments

 
When a hurricane or storm heads towards your apiary you need to secure your hives stronger than just a brick on top! The easiest way I’ve found is to secure it with a ratchet strap and two pet anchors (only one in photo).  You place an anchor on either side of the hive and then run the strap over it, tighten up, and you are done.  You can drive stakes into the ground, but I’ve found this is the easiest for installation and removal.  The pet anchor is in aisle 17 at my Lowes (BlueHawk – AC1017).
Picture
0 Comments

Laying Worker

10/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Unfortunately, this is an excellent photo of what it looks like when you have laying workers.  I lost a queen for a hive over winter and on my full inspection last weekend I found this.  The hive is too small to save (really a nuc) and I will be merging it with another queen right hive.
Picture
0 Comments

Tool to calculate 1:1 and 2:1 sugar syrup

10/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is a simple spreadsheet which allows you to quickly calculate the amount sugar:water ratios for 1:1 and 2:1 syrup. The formula is simple, but this spreadsheet calculates it quickly for you to make life easy. Enjoy!

sugar-feed-calculator.xlsx
File Size: 10 kb
File Type: xlsx
Download File

0 Comments

Dragonflies and honey bees

10/12/2017

0 Comments

 
I took this video the other day when I arrived home from work. You can see dragonflies feeding on honey bees at the entrance of the hive. The dragonflies are easiest to see towards the end of the video. Apparently, in some areas, they eat so many bees they can cause a real problem. Here in Hampton Roads Virginia, I have not experienced this as a significant issue.  For more info, see page 3 of this article. 
0 Comments

    Don Cole

    Beekeeper extraordinaire.  

    Archives

    October 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017

    RSS Feed