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Subject:
From:
William Lord <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:59:58 -0500
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Randy and Mike;

My diagnosis Saturday of 'Nosema issues' was a quick and dirty visual
inspection as I was popping tops and feeding (and doing mortality checks)
in 50 degree weather.    I keep a 2 gallon division board feeder in the top
box so I can feed with little disturbance.  I did not do any spore counts
but if the rain and cold break this week I will go back out to sample some
colonies and do spore counts.  I worked hard to get my mite levels down
last summer and fall and had them down around 2-3, with a good
number 0-1's,  in alcohol washes, by late September, so I don't think this
is a mite kill.  When I went around to do oxalic treatments in mid December
I could see a few signs of trouble where some colonies had not taken the
syrup out of the division board feeders from the last feeding in October.
My visual cue for 'Nosema' is a full feeder in a hive with live bees.  The
dead-outs I called "Nosema' hits are bee-less, usually with feeders full or
nearly full, and wet combs, sometimes with what looks like oxalic acid
still on the top bars.  We have had a wet winter, so there has not been
much chance for any natural drying.  I frequently find combs of honey in
these hives.  If I find a survivor with a full feeder I carry around a 1
gallon Solo sprayer with Fumidil and Nozivit and I give them a good spray
over the top bars.  I have pretty good luck turning many of these around
with the top bars spray twice a week for a couple of weeks.  Or maybe they
just turn themselves around?

Regarding locations, the two suspect yards are a real puzzle.  One is the
side yard of my honey house, which is halfway down a good sized hill.  But
when I step back, it is near the bottom of a larger hill and there is a
large stream in the bottom and as I live near the stream I know it is a
cold damp bottom - prone to late frosts and cold air damming.   When I walk
down to the creek behind my house on a spring or fall evening I can walk
into a pocket of cold air that is perceptibly colder that the air just
above it.   The second yard is carved out of the pine woods with a good
thick understory of ligustrum.  It gets a good 8 hours of sunlight but now
I suspect it gets cold air damming too.  I once toured a peach orchard at
the Sandhills research station in N.C. for a discussion on protecting
peaches from late freezes.  This peach orchard was on a sandy hilltop that
should have been a good peach location but it was plagued with late
freezes.  The orchard was about 50 acres but was surrounded by a forest of
mature lob lolly pines.  The researchers discovered they had a cold air
damming situation where a pocket of cold air would settle in the orchard
and could not drain through the surrounding forest.  They cut some alleys
in the pines and were able to drain the cold air and had many fewer
freezes.  There is an isothermal belt in the N.C. foothills with similar
conditions.  Apples are grown on the hill sides as the valleys are too
cold.  The isothermal belt refers to the relatively warmer hill sides
compared to the valleys and hill tops.  I am going to start paying more
attention to cold air damming.

Randy I use a hive loader too - an Ezy Loader.  It is o.k. but like yours,
only fails when I am in a pinch.  Easy enough to fix, but not with a load
of bees sitting in the truck and the temperature climbing.  I know the
feeling.

good luck with the moves.

Bill

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