State Inspection

[bassman1977]

Yesterday afternoon I had my second state inspection (registered beekeepers are required to have them every two years in PA and queen operations yearly).  It went really well.  Of my 11  hives, he inspected my 4 oldest hives, since the other 7 are new packages or splits, he didn't want to bother them.

The 4 hives inspected are on small cell, completely regressed, with the exception of one, which kinda screwed up my mite counts a bit.  3 of the 4 hives had mite counts of 2 or 1 after a sugar shake.  The problem child, had 18.  We concluded that it was due to a box of foundation that I put on my hive last month.  The foundation had buckled a bit and instead of drawing out small cell, they filled it up with drone cell.  This created a breeding ground for mites.  I knew this box was a bit hey-wire anyway but I was waiting for my 25 pound box of small cell foundation to be delivered before I took care of it.  I will use the mucked up box for a honey super instead. 

Needless to say, if anyone not on small cell ever had any doubts, I can attest that the small cell works.  I have never put a drop of chemicals into my hives.  Even with this drone laden hive, I am going to do a powder sugar dusting once I get the foundation problem fixed.

This hive with the mite problem also recently swarmed and is queenless at the moment.  There are swarm cells that should be emerging any day now.  Queeny will have plenty of room to lay eggs so they will build up pretty quick, I suspect.

All in all the inspection was good and I learned a bit from the inspector.  He's a big advocate of using plastic frames and foundation because he thinks they draw nicer comb with less chance of it being mucked up.  I don't particularly like it myself, but as I've mentioned before, I do use the plastic pierco for preparing my bees for small cell.

He didn't have too much advice as far as starting up a beekeeping business.  I was a little disappointed about that since I am hoping to build my colonies up for that.  He did suggest to not rush it so that it is done correctly and to learn a lot/ask a lot of questions.

He offered a neat story that I thought I would share (I don't share the same philosophy as the main character of this story, by the way).

He has a beekeeping friend (let's call him Fred) who he said has a lot of wild ideas.  Apparently Fred does not believe in wintering hives because he feels it is more economical to just buy new packages and let them do their thing come spring.  Well, essentially, what Fred does is shakes out his equipment come Fall and takes everything back home for storage.  During the bee season, he keeps his hives on trailers in the fields.  Well, a day after he shook all his bees out and took his equipment home, Fred went back to the site for whatever reason and saw that there were bees hanging out on the frames of the trailers.  The kind of thing you would see in a swarm.  Feeling bad for the bees, Fred decides to go back home, get some brand new boxes and frames, etc., and hive these bees again.  He takes the bees to his place, feeds and feeds and feeds, as much syrup as they would take (this is taking place on or about October 1, by the way).  After a few weeks he has a box filled with newly drawn comb and 4 frames on either side of the frame filled with brood!  He then winters these hives and they make it through and are currently the best hives he has.  And to think he was just going to kill them.

The inspector said the reason they are doing so well is because when he dumped them out, they got to spend a day out in the open getting away from mites in the hive and of course since they got all new equipment and comb when they were hived again, there wasn't any time for a mite population to establish themselves in the new colonies.  The inspector said he's going to try that with a couple of his hives this year.  I'm not so brave.

Anyway, I just thought I would share my experience with everyone.  Maybe someone will learn something.  Feel free to ask any questions.  We talked about a lot.

[KONASDAD]

I have come to think that one mite defense is swarming. By swarming, bees leave most mites behind, this is what your friend created by accident.

[bassman1977]

Sounds reasonable to me.  After what he had mentioned, it makes a lot of sense.