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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JUNE 2017
Frank Lindsay, Life Member KEEP YOUR HIVES DISEASE FREE ABOUT THE APIARY
Winter has arrived. Deciduous trees are losing their leaves and so are some of the evergreens. We can now see the extent of giant willow aphid infestation on the willows. The branches have turned black with mould and aphids.
Dr John McLean took this photo recently. John remarks, “My giant willow aphids get quite upset when I (or anything else) shakes their branch. Their immediate response is to vigorously wave their long hind legs (metathoracic legs) in the air in what I presume is a protective response. A mere shadow passing over them will bring about this response also. I have yet to see either a wasp or a bee actually approach the GWA directly to harvest the drops of honeydew as they are formed on their rear ends. Lots of colonies around at the moment.”
Some of the winter sources have started flowering (tree lucerne, Spanish heath), and banksia is budding. We have even seen mānuka and pōhutukawa flowering out of season but they aren’t producing nectar—a product of the crazy season we have just experienced. Hopefully these trees will get back into sync if we have a cold winter. Older queens have stopped laying, whereas young queens have brood in three frames as there’s still a dribble of nectar and pollen coming in. Gorse and ornamentals in flower gardens have flowered longer than normally. Disease and pest inspections After a short cold spell in early May, the robbing season for bees has finished, so I have been out checking hives for disease. Some hives don’t look that good. Where varroa was under control a few months ago, some hives are now starting to show deformed wing virus. Hives with brood have varroa on the mesh bottom board slides. Those hives with old queens have no brood so mites are not dropping, but they still could be amongst the bees. I’ve given these hives another treatment, this time with Apiguard®. A few hives have died of starvation, which was a bit of a shock as I thought I’d left plenty of honey in them. Mostly it’s nucs that have died, but some five-frame nucs are still heavy with honey. As someone suggested, this may be nature’s way of knocking out the failures early.
What I’m looking for is hives with next to no nosema showing so I can select the best of these as breeding stock.
Wasp numbers in most apiaries are not high and some are very small, suggesting newly established nests. I have put out some homemade jam to kill the wasps but my bees were more interested in it, so I’ve left things alone for nature to sort out. Perhaps the wasps are still working the willow honey dew. I know that some areas in New Zealand have had very high numbers of wasps attacking hives. Now that the sun is getting lower in the sky, check that your hives get some sunlight each day. Full sun is best, but we have to put hives where it suits farmers or away from the public, therefore sites can become shaded. Clear away as much scrub as you can to let the sunlight in. Make sure the pallets the hives sit on are structurally strong with no rot. Bees need air flowing underneath and around them. They like to live in hollow structures well away from the damp. Provide the best you can for them. I’ve noticed that a couple of new beekeepers have placed hives straight on the ground. The bees can survive but it’s not good for them, and bottom boards tend to rot quicker.
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