The Big and Final Update--August-September

Well.  I left off updating this blog at the end of August, when things still looked...relatively optimistic.  I'm going to make a few long posts here with dates in late August through February, charting the course to the eventual sad demise of my hive.

There are reasons to feel optimistic, even in the midst of this, and even though I'm still quite sad about my 2014 bees.  I'm a better, smarter beekeeper now, and I have a nuc on order for 2015.

First, just a reminder of how beautiful my bees were:

August 24, 2014:  Hive inspection today. The mites haven't done much of any damage, that I can see. The whole colony has slowed down production, but that's to be expected: there aren't as many flowers blooming now, and they've got to work harder to stay warm at night.

September 2, 2014:  I went out to close the top of the beehive, in advance of the giant rain storm, and as I got close to the fence something BIG stamped and scurried away in the brush. What's living out there?

September 11, 2014:

September 22, 2014:

Ben says he was thinking about me:

September 24, 2014:

Elliott sends me a bit of Yeats:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

September 26, 2014.  Mites:

Well, it's bad news. My beehive has a serious infestation of varroa mites--about 3-4 times manageable levels, from what I can tell right now. I'll have to treat the hive, and even then...well. I'm not sure whether my bees will make it through the winter. I couldn't be more heartbroken.

As soon as possible. In fact, I'll have to take the honey crop off--even though it's not capped, and thus not really honey yet. I just ordered Apistan strips, which are strips impregnated with a chemical that kills the mites: they should get here Monday, and I'll have to take the honey off before I put the chemicals in. At this point I just want the bees to live. I don't give a shit about the honey.

I'll try some other things this weekend, too. Shaking powdered sugar into the hive can help knock the mites off the bees, according to some beekeepers--sort of like dogs rolling in the dirt to knock off ticks. I'll try that.

September 28, 2014:

Well. I just went out and shook 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar into my hive. And I took about 200 bees and put them in a jar and shook them around with some sugar, and collected that sugar (and the mites that fell off with it).

It's very weird being a beekeeper sometimes.

I've never seen my bees this angry. There's a little swarm hovering around my porch, just daring me to come out and play.