Skunk at the Bee Hive

A few of my hives have the telltale sign they've been visited recently by a hungry skunk, or possibly an opossum. Skunks (and opossums) tend to chew up honey bees and then spit out the exoskeletons in wads that resemble chewing tobacco. It's been cold enough at night that live bees probably aren't being coaxed out of the hives and eaten. Instead, the critter is likely just cleaning up the already-dead bees on the ground in front of the hives. So no harm no foul. If it were warmer and the bees were being taken alive, a common solution is to run a strip of carpet tack in front of the entrance. This helps keep skunks from scratching the hive with their hands to draw out bees from the safety of the box. That could be a compounding problem over the course of several days or weeks, but as long as we've got winter weather, cold temps and a lack of food remain my biggest concerns.

Diagnosing a Winter Dead Out

I just spent several hours diagnosing the cause of a winter dead out. I went through the enter hive, each frame, top-to-bottom, paying close attention to the contents of cells and the state of the bees themselves. I also reviewed my records for the hive, because the logical first question is, "Did mites kill them?" It's possible the mites did weaken them enough to contribute to their demise. The colony consistently had my heaviest mite load throughout 2017. I got it below 1% by the end of October, but a lot of viral damage could've been done by then. So I'm going to say mites were a factor, but not the sole cause of death. As I explained in my last post, I experimented with this hive by foregoing fall feeding in an attempt to avoid a honey-bound hive in the spring. Here's the unfortunate result as I see it:

1. During the fall and early winter, the colony completely exhausted all food resources in the bottom box. It was totally empty.
2. Following the food, the bees clustered in the back-left corner of the top box.
3. The temperatures stayed well below freezing from December 23 through January 7. I found a lot of dead bees on the bottom board during this time, suggesting they weren't getting the calories to keep fueled. It was too cold to shift the cluster over new honey during this time.
4. When the cold spell ended and it got warm enough to fly, the colony was sufficiently weakened to be vulnerable to robbing. I tried to stave off robbers by closing and reducing entrances, but they were overpowered nonetheless.
5. The arctic weather returned from January 12 through 17, and by this time the colony was so decimated by winter and robbing that they succumbed to the second round of extreme cold.

The postmortem showed bees with their heads buried in cells (shown in the picture), with empty cells directly under the nest. This is the classic sign of starvation. Sadly, there was still 30-40 pounds of capped honey in the hive--mostly near the center of the top box; frustratingly close to the cluster itself. This would be even more tragic if I didn't learn from it, and what I learned is that fall feeding is not optional. You've got to try to backfill every last cell in the hive to give the bees the best chance of surviving long periods of freezing temperatures. Any downside to overfeeding in the fall is better than a box of dead bees in the spring.

Horrible Decision Yields Horrible Results

It's winter, it's warm, the bees are killing each other, and it's my fault. In the fall I made a critical mistake my bees are paying for now mid-way through winter. Back in October I decided to send some of my hives into winter without supplemental feeding. My theory was that, by not feeding, the colonies would avoid becoming honey bound in the spring, and therefore brood up faster. Well, those hives have become so weak (presumably from starvation) that they're being robbed by stronger colonies whenever we have flying weather. I'm trying to stave off their demise by tightening up entrances as much as possible, but they're not going to survive the winter. The decision not to feed was a failed experiment. It's clear now that ensuring a hive has ample food in January is worth dealing with a honey bound hive in May.

Rotten

Netflix recently released a series about the food supply chain, and the first episode is about honey. The episode is well-done, but it's not really about bees as the thumbnail above would suggest. Honey is the star of the show. There's little discussion about bee biology, and no mention of varroa, viruses, or barely any other diseases or pests. While it's not a source of information for people wanting to learn about honey bees, that's not all bad. There are other documentaries that cover that subject, and the story of honey is often overshadowed by the plight of the bees themselves.

The bottom line message is that China is adulterating honey and illegally shipping it to the US, where it's sold at our grocery stores under false labels. This adulteration--usually dilution with cheap syrups that are difficult to detect without sophisticated testing--is a serious concern for people who want to know what they're eating, and also undermines the economic viability of honest honey producers. The flood of fake honey from China has artificially depressed prices, to the point that most profit to be had in beekeeping is from either being crooked or by migrating to the almond bloom each year with semi-trucks full of hives.

In the end, if you're buying honey from a supermarket, you're almost certainly eating fake honey at least some of the time. The only way to be relatively sure your honey is real is to find a local beekeeper, get to know him or her, and become a customer. You'll pay more per pound than you pay at Walmart, but you'll still probably be paying below cost to that beekeeper. Plus, it'll actually be honey.

Alive

After several weeks of very cold weather, often falling below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, we had temps in the high 50s today. There were bees flying at all of my hives, so each colony has so far survived the winter. After checking the fondant, I removed the mouse guards and entrance reducers, and then gave each colony some time to clear the dead from their bottom boards. I'm relieved the hives are alive, but know it's still a few more months until spring brings them fair weather, pollen, and nectar.