15 Years of Beekeeping Failures and Successes

I can't say it has been an easy hobby, but it has been interesting and rewarding.  I started out with a one foot square wooden planter box that I converted into a top bar hive.  Our fruit trees had not produced any fruit the previous year and I thought maybe if I could keep some bees in my backyard, it would help the trees.  I purchased a "bee lure" online and put it in the makeshift hive.  It only took less that a day for a colony to take it over.  

I wasn't educated about beekeeping at all, which is not a good way to start.  I didn't even know if I could tolerate being up close with bees.  I had a veil and a pair of thin worker's overhauls on when I opened up the hive and pulled up one of the top bars,  I was amazed at the pale yellow comb the bees had built  that hung down in a half moon from that bar.  The bees were all over it and I was fascinated by their beauty.  I was hooked on beekeeping from that point on.  Of course, there was a lot for me to learn.  I got my first bee sting through my suit that day.  

It soon became clear that the colony would outgrow the space in very small top bar hive.  I found a beekeeping club in a city 20 miles away and went to meetings and asked a lot of questions and researched beekeeping online.  I decided that a Langstroth hive was the best way for me to continue keeping bees, so I ordered one online and wired the top-bar combs into empty Langstroth frames.  That worked pretty well and the colony grew.  What I didn't realize was that the area where I lived was the home of mostly Africanized feral bees.  As the colony grew larger, it became increasingly aggressive.   When the bees were so aggressive, we couldn't even walk outside to our backyard without being attacked and stung, I had to put the hive down. 

I guess most people at this point would throw in the towel and give up the idea of keeping bees, but I was determined to make it work.  When the club offered package bees for sale, I decided to try again and ordered two packages and got more wooden ware for keeping them.  The two colonies did well until about August, when I learned about the devastation varroa mites can have on a colony.  I lost both colonies by that October.  

The next Spring, I bought two more packages and started again, this time testing for mites regularly with alcohol washes.  Mites showed up with the washes and I decided to treat Mite-Away strips.  I treated one colony with two strips and the die-off of bees was horrendous.  The queen also did not survive.  So on the second hive, I treated with a single strip and there were dead bees, but not as many and the queen survived.   I was able to keep that colony alive, but it was weak and didn't thrive.  By October, wax moths invaded, and I got my first experience of dealing with that gross mess.  The colony died.

The following few years, I became familiar with many pests in my hives, such as hive beetles and chalkbrood. (In picture above.) I kept two to five hives   Africanization of the hives was the biggest challenge.  I studied requeening.  Most of what was written that I found was not good advice.  I did find one source that talked about a large requeening cage that would allow the colony better access to an introduced queen and the queen should be kept in the cage for at least 7 days before letting her out.   During this period, the hive has to be meticulously checked for queen cells that need to be destroyed. (Below are some queen cells and drone cells.)

  That sounded like good advice, so I built a queen cage out of hardward cloth and wood with a little wood plug on top.  The cage is about 6" X 9".   It works great.  I put it in the place of one frame,  I have had good success in requeening Africanized hives with this technique.  

As you can see in the picture above, I like to use foundationless frames in my deeps when possible.  It works best when replacing deep frames in a box that has been built out.  I nail a paint paddle to the top of the frame and the bees build down from the paddle. Adding in new foundationless frames during very hot weather is not a good idea because the wax can melt and the combs falls down.  Once the frame has been fully attached, the comb does not fall, so it is better done during cool weather. 

I used to listen to all the advice on testing and treating for Varroa mites from the science guys.  (Oh, and then there were the "natural" beekeeping people who told everyone bees didn't need to be treated for varroa mites. Wrong!)  One problem is, the scientist guys giving out the advice are not focused on hobby beekeepers, they are coming up with experimental procedures for commerical beekeepers who are interested in the bottom line of their business. Hobby beekeeping is different.  If you are into experiments with your bees, you are probably going to lose colonies. 

As far as varroa mites, I have come to the conclusion that testing is unnecessary.  Colonies all  have mites.  I prefer to treat my colonies proactively on a schedule.  I used to use Mite-Away single-strip treatments, but they have been discontinued by NOD and Formic Pro has taken their place. I have started using Formic Pro single strip treatments, and they work well.  During the Summer and Fall, I treat for mites every two months.  During Winter and Spring, I treat every 3 months.  This has worked great for me.  I do not use any other type of mitacide.  I prefer organic treatments and the bees do not build up a resistance to formic acid.  Don't believe those who says otherwise.

One issue I have faced when keeping healthy colonies is when to requeen.  It's not pleasant killing a good queen.  Some advise not requeening until 3 or 4 years, others say to do it every year.  I have kept queens 3 years, but then they died when my favorite breeder's queens weren't available, and I had to buy queens from the big breeders.  I am not a huge fan of those queens. They never seem to work out for me. So, I will requeen every two years, as long as my queens continue to be productive, and get the queens I prefer.   Requeening every year is definitely not a bad idea, just more expensive and you never know if the new queen will be better or worse.  

To me, a good hobbyist's queen is one that produces bees that don't swarm.  My colonies got the real test when I was preparing to move from Orange County, CA, to Prescott, AZ in early July this year, at the peak of the bee population.  I wouldn't be able to fit more than two single deeps in the back of my SUV, so I removed the other boxes over time until the hives were down to one deep and one honey super.  I then removed the supers to move them separately.  The bees were extremely crowded in the deeps and I worried they would swarm before the move.  They didn't.  This is the characteristic I like most in bees, because when a colony swarms, you need to requeen to prevent Africanization.  Requeening is expensive and takes a bit of a toll on the bees.   That's why I buy the queens from a smaller breeder whose queens don't produce bees that swarm easily.     

Another challenge I faced  for many years was robber bees.  I could never figure out why I wasn't getting much honey, even though my bees were healthy.  I made rather tall robber screens for times when robbing was obvious.  What I didn't realize was that robbing was going on almost all the time in our area.  Last year I decided to experiment putting on the robber screens and leave them on year round.  The bees didn't seem to mind them.  To my surprise, this past honey flow season, right before the move, my two hives produced 14 Gallons of honey!  I had never had more than two gallons of honey per year before that.  So now I am a firm believer in keeping on the robber screens.  

After about 6 years of beekeeping, I became allergic to bees.  It came on gradually. My reaction to stings became increasingly systemic.  Then one day my husband rushed me to urgent care where the doctor diagnosed that I was going into anaphylactic shock and gave me shots ot Epinephine and Benedryl.  After that, I went to an allergist who tested me, and I had indeed become seriously allergic to bee stings.  I went on a monthly routine of bee venom shots to deal with the problem and have continued beekeeping.  I have a basically sting-proof suit that helps a lot.  It's called an Ultra Breeze.  It's an expensive ventilated suit, but for a person who has allergic reactions, it's worth the money to keep from being stung. 

 I am sure there will be new challenges to my beekeeping in Arizona, but I am looking forward to overcoming them, or at least learning from them. I have never kept bees in a freezing climate, so that will be a new experience. Living in an area where there are not a lot of flowers will be another challenge.  It has only been one month since the move, and so far the bees are doing fine.  They are enjoying the super of honey I put back on both hives and I can see that they are even bringing in a little of their own honey.  

My only beekeeping goal this year is to keep my bees alive and learn as much as I can.