Feeding the hive in winter and treatments for varroa mite
January is at the heart of the winter, and usually there is not a lot to be done with hives in the apiary at this time.
This year the ivy yielded a huge amount of nectar and pollen, and most colonies have taken advantage of this bumper crop to fill up all available space in the hive with this precious winter food, even though it granulates rapidly.
However, the syrup from the autumn feeding is mixed with the ivy and so tends to reduce its tendency to granulate hard.
Therefore, we can be fairly confident that our colonies have closed down with ample stores to take them through to the month of January. However, it is good practice to visit out-apiaries now and again to make sure the hives are not disturbed by stormy weather or other mischievous characters.
If the hive is knocked over and the brood nest exposed to the elements, it can be lost, but if caught in time and restored to its upright position, there usually will not be any ill effects.
When beekeepers visit out-apiaries, it is good husbandry to check the weight of the hives, just lift the hive with your hand under the floor, if it takes effort to lift it, then all is well, but if its very light, it is best to feed fondant, Fondant is a mixture of icing sugar and water, used by bakers for icing cakes, but in recent years we can get an inverted form of fondant from beekeeping suppliers which basically means the bees can digest it more easily, it also stays soft and does not go hard on top of the feed hole.
I prefer this one myself.
In general, December is the time when brood-rearing is very low, the queen has reduced her egg laying, perhaps has stopped altogether.
This of course depends on weather, if we have a mild November and December, brood rearing can still be in full flow, and foragers can be seen bringing in pollen, while the larvae produced are going to contribute to the bee population in early spring.
Their existence, however, also encourages the multiplication of varroa mites (this mite is the bane of the beekeeper’s life for some years now).
Beekeepers prefer to have a cold winter so that there is a break in the bee’s brood cycle. This gives the advantage of breaking the reproductive cycle of the varroa mite.
This means the mites are forced to exist on the bodies of the bees, leaving them vulnerable to winter treatments such as Apibioxal, which is a winter treatment registered by the Department of Agriculture and containing mainly oxalic acid, a powerful organic acid.
The treatment is most effective during a broodless period, as the acid will not kill mites in capped cells.
The two methods of administering Api-bioxal are the trickle method and the evaporation method. In thetrickle method, 5mls of the api-bioxal/syrup are trickled between two brood frames.
The evaporation method involves a small rodlike pan placed in the entrance with 2.5g of oxalic crystals, heated by a car battery and left for three minutes to allow the crystals to vapourise.
The dispenser/pan has to be cooled in cold water after each treatment and the battery disconnected. It is important to read the instructions before administering, and to wear safety eye glasses, gloves, and mask, as inhaling the vapours is very dangerous.
This is the first year that I will be using the vaporiser method, it is less invasive than the trickle method as the hive is opened for the latter.
Due to the heavy losses over the last few years there is a lot of bee equipment to be cleaned and scorched and washed. It is a job most beekeepers hate, but the sooner we get started the sooner it will be finished.
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