Grant Gillard shares seasonal management tips for beekeeping at the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association, EMBA, in St. Louis at the Monsanto center for education. Topics include pesticide exposure, swarm management, neighbor relationships, spring feeding and other topics of interest to beginning and experienced beekeepers.

1. EMBA 05-10-2017
Grant F. C. Gillard
gillard5@charter.net
www.slideshare.net

5. Four Red Flags
“You should always…”

6. Four Red Flags
“The bees will never…”

7. Four Red Flags
“If I was you…”

8. Four Red Flags
“I was reading
on the Internet…”

9. ☻

10. ☻
‫ס‬‫ס‬

13. 1. Neighbor Relations
 January 21, 2017
“Did you lose a swarm?”
“They’re all over my bird feeder.”

20. 2. Swarm Prevention
 Excessive feeding may cause congestion
 Lack of empty drawn comb
 Competition between incoming nectar and brood
 Imbalance of too many young bees to older bees
 Inferior queens (perhaps due to age)
 Easiest solution: Add more hive bodies and gently
intersperse empty frames into brood nest.

21. If your colony has swarmed…
 Option 1: Cut out all but one, maybe two swarm cells
and leave hive intact.
 Option 2: Divide up the frames with swarm cells into
nuc boxes. Reduce the swarm cells to one, maybe two,
cells per nuc box.
 Key: do you know the difference between swarm cells
and supersedure cells?

24. 3. Swarm Retrieval

32. Retrieving Swarms
 Bee Vacuum highly recommended
 Vacant hive body with drawn comb*
 Solid bottom highly preferred by bees
 A drop (only one) of swarm lure
 Inner cover with extended lip
 Queen catcher to hold queen
*means extra equipment on hand

33. 3. Prudent Mite Management
1. Do I need to treat for mites?
Assessment tools and timing (late July)
2. How do I want to manage my bees?
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
What kind of bees did I acquire? (genetics)
3. Timing of application and restrictions
Rotating protocols

34. Late Summer – Mite Treatments
Oxalic Acid (organic, inexpensive, approved)
1. Vaporization (sublimation)
 Very effective on the mites
 Tough on the bees
 Application precautions (respirator mask)
2. Dribble Method – Dr. Marion Ellis, U of NE
 Not as effective on the mites
 Easier on the bees
 Very safe for beekeepers
 Both methods: Quick and easy, broodless period

35. Glycerine – Oxalic Acid
 Used in Argentina
 Very effective
 Longer term exposure required, slow release
 Bees must make contact with paper towel
 Fall meeting – Randy Oliver’s work
www.scientificbeekeeping.com

36. Recipe
 Two bottles food quality glycerin (Wal-Mart, $3.88)
 One tub of OA Wood Bleach (Ace Hardware, $8.95)

37. Recipe
 Empty 2 bottles of glycerin into a 6” saucepan
 Refill 1 of these bottles with tap water
 Heat until 140 to 160 degrees
 Empty tub of OA, slowly, and stir
 Keep heat on until 140 to 160 degrees
 Heat until clear
 Drop in ½ roll of paper towels

41. 4. Feeding Bees
 Last fall – timely rains, good foraging, heavy hives
 Warm winter – heavier consumption
 Early spring – hungry hives
too cool to feed syrup (50 degrees)
Candy boards (cooked)
Sugar Bricks (5# sugar to ½ cup water)
Ted’s Mush (1 cup water, 4# sugar)
“Mountain Camp” method (dry sugar)

42. Candy Boards

44. Waxed Paper lined cake pans

45. Takes the place of inner cover

46. Late winter food stores

47. Results
 Added extra protein (Dadant’s AP23)
10 cups to 40 lbs sugar
 Candy readily consumed
 Colonies survived
 Hives did not brood up until I started 1:1
syrup
 SHB not a problem until rain seeped in

48. 3. Pesticide Exposure

51. Skunk, possum predation

53. What can I detect
 March 24th – too wet to spray (?)
 No crop or pests to spray (?)
 Anhydrous Ammonia for corn (?)
 Hives sit within 40 yards of rail road line
 Power line company had trees trimmed
 Water drainage plentiful – runoff (?)
 Plain vandalism?

54. Pesticide Analysis
Very expensive ($160 per sample)
Testing limited
Need freshly deceased bees (do not
freeze)
Pesticides quickly break down

55. Drift watch
 http://mo.driftwatch.org
 Voluntary registration
 Needs better participation
 No enforcement

56. End Result
 Thirteen hives affected– all queen right
 Populations obviously diminished
 Fed 1:1 syrup
 Four weaker hives continued to decline
 Stronger hives made a recovery
 Nine hives seem to be making a comeback

57. Then it was time to move…

58. Any
questions?
gillard5@charter.net
www.slideshare.net