Bee health – making sure disastrous bee deaths never happen again

Lately, beekeeping has been affected by a series of unprecedented challenges and losses in terms of the health of bee families. The problems have been multifactorial, but not intractable. In this article I would like to recall a list of these and potential solutions.

1. The strongest negative impact was the presence of Varroa mites in large numbers, which benefited from favorable growing conditions about a month faster than in most years. The most frequent problem was the development of resistance to classical synthetic acaricides. Without going into details in this article, safer solutions to reduce Varroa populations during the beekeeping season could be:

• Removal of head-brooded brood from the family associated with treatment with oxalic acid (3.5% in water or by sublimation). Headed brood may found new swarms after hatching and treatment,
• 42% formic acid brushing combined with oxalic acid treatment (3.5% in water or by sublimation), especially in early spring,
• Formic acid by evaporation when outside temperature permits,
• Use oxalic acid in a 1:1 mixture with glycerine on cellulose support after the acacia harvest or earlier (does not contaminate honey),
• Use volatile oil-based solutions in spring before the first harvests,
• With the effect of partially reducing the varroa population, eliminating the drone brood and shaking off the mites with powdered sugar from the adult population, especially at the time of honey comb extraction (primarily targeting the bees occupying the extracted honey combs).

2. Of paramount importance, often difficult to assess or realize, is the quality of fall feed and the quality of winter reserves.

The body’s protein reserve (the fat body inside bees) plays a determining role in the longevity of adult bees, detoxification and immunity. It can only be formed and accumulated to its full capacity by consuming good quality pollen or protein substitutes and with a sufficiently large and balanced bee population in the colony. (… citation / link – scientific paper) The quality of protein feed is often unsatisfactory (too little protein, deficiencies of certain amino acids due to insufficient quantity) during the second part of summer and in the fall, especially in areas with intensive agriculture and in dry years. The feeding of colonies with good quality protein should be supplemented.

The protein reserve in the bee body is significantly reduced in Varroa parasitized bees.

In conditions with deficiencies in the fat body, which plays an essential role in the processing and detoxification of accessible food, of course any kind of deficiencies in energy (sweet) food can adversely affect the bee’s body. Possible feed deficiencies:

• Non-digestible substances (generally carbohydrates or polyglycides or minerals in excess) present in industrial syrups intended for the food industry (humans), insufficiently purified sugar, some types of honey (especially manna, but also floral) – have harmful effects in winter in flightless and weak colonies,
• Toxic pollutants or substances of plant origin,
• pH too high (above 6) in honey or sugar syrup or too low (below 4) in some industrial syrups,
• Partial or total lack of active substances of plant origin and/or micronutrients (lack of minerals useful to the body) in industrially produced food not supplemented with plant extracts and micronutrients.

Thus, in order to avoid depopulation by attrition (reduced longevity of bees), it is recommended to use syrups and cakes that correspond to hygienic conditions, avoiding the deficiencies listed above and at the same time it is recommended to feed protein in the fall and early spring before the appearance of accessible pollen.

All Ideal Bee syrups meet these conditions.

Ideal Bee Classic Syrup and Ideal bee Energy Syrup are recommended for supplementing quality honey or feed supplies with plant extract. To replace honey from honeycombs or massive top-up feedings, these two are supplemented by adding Apiplant at the recommended doses (17-35 ml/kg), or use Ideal Bee Optimal Syrup, which contains plant extracts.

For maintenance (“stimulus”) feeding, when check scales indicate stagnation or weight loss in the hives (spring or after the last harvest), we recommend feeding moderate amounts of Ideal Bee Complete Syrup (with the caveat that during the winter it DOES NOT harm the bees if present in the combs) or Ideal Bee Optimal Syrup.

3. The balance between the number of young adult bees (dobies) and the quantity of larval brood is of great importance for optimal colony functioning, especially if temperatures and food quality are not ideal. It is important to avoid situations with a surplus of larvae in periods with insufficient adult bees.

Thus:

• The swarms form strong enough to avoid imbalances due to a shortage of dozy bees and feed on energy and protein,
• Both spring developing families and developing swarms are kept crowded by folding the diaphragm. This practice ensures an optimal temperature, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, avoids a possible surplus of larvae in relation to the family’s possibilities, while maintaining the quality of the bees.
• All the colonies are uniform at a sufficient number of bees between July and early August.

Maintaining bee families at the highest quality according to their genetic potential can be done by these 3 measures listed above. We believe that the appearance of problems due to oprotrophic germs, such as nosema or bro brood foulbrood, is due to failure to respect these minimum hygiene conditions, which nature alone no longer ensures throughout the year.

Healthy families, on the other hand, are known to follow their reproductive instinct and tend to go into the cold of the swarm, which some beekeepers are flawed in trying to prevent by not following the measures I wrote about above. We believe that the management of the swarming instinct is not by poor maintenance or poor feeding, which brings vulnerability to disease, decreased longevity, the hard to control need for unionings, but by population balancing in the spring at the beginning of fruit tree harvest.