I've been busy, like all others and haven't updated my Apiary notes lately so here we go ..
I've been really struggling with the SHB. Their are the bain of existence and wish all of them a really horrible death. Whew - that felt better. :)
They have been wreaking havoc in my hives lately even though I seemed to have strong hives. So far this year, they have decimated 2 nucs, and wiped out 2 of the 3 deeps out of my Nuc bomb hive. The nuc's suffered, I believe, even though I had plenty of nurse bees whenever I created them, from the robbing I couldn't stop in time - and there fore they were quickly over run and I had to just 'dump' what bees I could save, back into other hives, and 'trash' those nucs. I really don't know why I suffered such a loss on the 3-deep Nuc bomb other than their being more SHB than I knew were there whenever I tried to split it. The process went like this .. Thursday I slid a choke board between box 1 and 2/3, to temporarly split the hive and created some queen grafts. I noticed 2 days later whenever I went to check on the grafts that there were some dead bees out front on the landing board of the 'new' upper hive but just thought that this might be normal because of the split, and them trying to stave off robbing and etc. I went back to check on the hive about 3 days later and noticed not only a lot more bees on the same landing board, but also what looked like some larva. I slid my hive tool down the metal separator to 'draw out' what was there and noticed SHB larva - which really freaked me out. As I carefully slid out the metal seperater more (but not too much) I quickly determined there was a problem and promply took the top 2 boxes off. What a mess !!!! Not only was the top 2 hives severely infested with SHB, 1/2 of the hive was lost - but the larva was everywhere and now I potentially have lost my great Nuc bomb, as well as potentially killed that hive. I rinsed and killed as much larva as possible, giving the nearby ant piles a great treat and left the hives out to 'air dry' for about a week. As expected the other bees welcomed the opportunity to retrieve all that necter and honey left over.
I've sense started an aggressive plan to kill as many as possible, through almost any means possible. I keeping a closer eye on any larva in all the hives, and removing any frames with larva on them. I've also started using the Beetle traps with mineral oil in them and have found not only striking results, but possibly a little hope. In the last week I've had 1 to 3 traps in each hive and have had to replace them every 3 to 4 days (per hive) because they are full.
I'd guess that there are at least to 70 SHB per trap. I know that this only kills the "adults" but if I can potentially reduce their numbers, I can slow that process down. I've also removed the top bars from the hives to reduce their abilities to 'hide' from the bees and have ordered some Nematodes to put into the ground. The Nematodes are reported to be voracious microscopic eaters and hope they are fruitful and multiply. Go Nematodes - Go !!!
I'm still feeding them and keeping an eye out that they won't get "honey bound" and so far this hasn't been an issue. With it being almost the end of July now, I'm just on a maintenance plan for now to build them up for the winter. I'll have to try and do some more splits in the spring, and work on moving the existing 3 hives I have into a sunnier place for the rest of the summer - and winter. Thankfully, I've already cleared an small area that I can put them. I'll be working on a larger area over the rest of the summer and winter so hopefully I can have some more hives next year.
that's all for now .. but here's a quick video of their feeding frenzy from the other day .
Although it's in the same spot it's been, it only took them about 10 minutes to find it again. The 4 1/2 hives seem to consume a 5 gallon feeder in about a week.
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