Beekeeping has changed, and today's beekeepers face significant challenges that yesteryear's beekeepers never encountered, according to one Knox County bee business.
While bees are busy in the late summer and fall collecting enough nectar to feed the colony throughout the long winter months, beekeepers can also do their part to ensure the colonies survive.
“As the days shorten, the bees know it's time to go into this food-gathering mode," Debbie Delaney, assistant professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, told Phys.org. "If supplies run low during the winter, beekeepers can feed bees various sugary concoctions— for example, sugar syrup, corn syrup or granulated sugar in the form of sugar boards. But wild bees are out of luck in this regard. Their colonies may not survive if they didn't make adequate preparations."
Fall feeding of bees may also be necessary for other reasons, such as if the beekeeper harvested too much honey, weak nectar flows or bad weather kept the bees from collecting enough for the winter, or a bee colony got a late start in collecting enough stores, a release issued on the HoneyBeeSuite website said.
One Knox County bee expert noted that there is a lot of interest in bees this time of year.
"There is much interest in the wonderful world of beekeeping," Stephen Miller, owner of Superior Bee, said in an email to Mt. Vernon News. "Especially at this time of the year, when not only the honey bee and the beekeeper are reaping the rewards of another very successful year, so also are all the diligent gardeners and produce growers that are so dramatically affected by the pollination from the bees."
Miller said the work, however, includes ensuring the bees survive— and today's challenges are different than in previous years.
"The honey bee and the beekeeper are facing some challenges today that our ancestors knew nothing about," Miller said. "They include the varroa mite and the hive beetle, which both need to be monitored and controlled for successful winter survive.
For approximately the past 10 years, many beekeepers depended heavily on chemical treatment "only to find that the health of the bee was jeopardized and the mites became resistant," Miller continued. A better alternative is hive management "by making hive splits and breaking up the brood cycle which will also terminate the reproductive cycle of the mites." He also recommended putting essential oils on top of the hive frames.
Superior Bee created a hive that was designed and redesigned after being tested; and unlike other hives, it does not absorb moisture.
"University tests also show that our Superior Bee polystyrene hive does not absorb moisture like the wooden style of hive," Miller said. "A drier climate inside the hive is a detriment to mite reproduction. Many times, a lot of hive invasions can be greatly reduced by reducing the size of the entrance, giving the guard bees less area to control." It's also a big factor with moths, yellow jackets, mice and ants.
