As many of you know, no matter how long you have been a beekeeper, you will
always be a student and a teacher/consultant.
 
Today I was called in by a new land owner as a teacher,  but quickly became
a student.   Being an avocado farmer, he is eager to learn about beekeeping
and how bees may help his avocado orchard.
 
A new property owner of 25 acres of avocados had inherited 5 single story
hives protected from an occasional bear intruder by a narrow 6 foot high
chain link fence. This narrow and high chain link fence created a chimney
like effect for the bees as they would not fly though the mesh of the chain
link fence, instead they would enter and exit from the open top.   In
addition, being too narrow, there was no room to stand behind the hives so
we had to inpsect the 5 hives from a front entrance position (FIRST
problem).
 
Unfortunately, according to him, these hives have been left unattended for
the whole of this year (SECOND problem).
 
The hives did not appear to be in too bad a shape from an exterior point of
view. 2 of the hives showed good bee activity, 2 portrayed signs of
weakness and 1 had no activity.  The one with activity had died out and was
developing early waxmoth signs.
 
The 4 remaining hives were honey bound. (THIRD Problem).   Each had 2
Apistan strips which in all probability were put in early Jan of this year.
(FOURTH Problem)
 
When the farmer saw all the honey he naturally wanted to extract it but I
cautioned him about taking honey with the presence of the Apistan strips.
We removed the Apistan strips and disposed of according to instructions.
 
IMO, I am now face with these scenarios to help this farmer:
 
1. Extract the honey, and slowly feed back to the bees.  Reinsert the empty
wet combs, giving the queen more space to lay.
 
2. Add another deep super and place the honey bound frames above the brood
frames. It is a mild winter here in Santa Barbara and the Eucalyptus flow
is in full force.
 
3. Do nothing and wait until early Feb when I can perhaps order some queens
from Hawaii to make splits.
 
The learning goes on.  I am interested in getting some feedback from others
on the list as to whatmy next step is.
 
Thanks for the input.
 
 
 
 
Paul Cronshaw, D.C.
Cyberchiro and Hobbyist Beekeeper
Santa Barbara, CA  USA