Orange Blossom Beekeepers Association

Monthly Meeting: November 18, 2021

OBBA Announcements

What's the buzz?

OBBA Workshop

Maybe on Saturday after Thanksgiving - Watch Slack for an announcement

Honey For Sale

We have OBBA honey to purchase!

(Send Matt a message on Slack)

Number (1 lbs)	Price
1 bottle	$10
2 bottles	$18
3 bottles	$25

OBBA Website: orangeblossombeekeepers.org

Online Event Calendar (obba-calendar)
Online Membership Sign-up (join-obba)
HoneyBeeWiki (wikibee)

Facebook: OrangeBlossomBeekeepers

Instagram: OrangeBlossomBeekeepers

Slack: obba.slack.com

Looking Forward

December
- With proposed eligibility requirements
January Voting
2022 Plans/Ideas
- i.e. Honey Bee Day (August 20, 2022)

Before and at December:

Let me know if you are interested in a position
Eligibility requirements will be posted on the website
We will announce at the December meeting

Plan for new leadership:

President (1-yr term)
- Establish eligibility requirements
Vice-President (1-yr term)
- Establish eligibility requirements
Secretary?
- Establish eligibility requirements
Treasurer?
- Establish eligibility requirements
Public Relations/Social Media manager
- Establish eligibility requirements
Establishment of President Board
- Chair as Current president
- Slack channel for help/advice
Apiary Manager
- Establish eligibility requirements
Chief Technologist
- Establish eligibility requirements

2022 Ideas:

Honey Bee Day (August 20, 2022)
Education
Mentor List (Google maps api for beekeepers) / OBBA Directory (swarm call on Slack)
Discussion/workshop topic coordination
Mentorship training
Beekeeping outreach
Marketing for OBBA, bee products, swarm removal, etc
Bee photography and media
Bee gardening in FL (pictures of and include blooms) - Build a pressed book
Plant share
Honey and Mead tasting

Nov/Dec Bee Management

Current UF Management Recommendations (Nov/Dec)

Monitor colonies for varroa
Consider treating colonies for Nosema (Fumagilin)
Monitor for and control small hive beetles
Feed colonies if light

What is blooming in Central Florida (Nov)

Bush Aster
Goldenrod
Mexican Clover
Primrose Willow

Smart Weed
Spanish Needle
Spotted Mint
Vine Aster

What is blooming in Central Florida (Dec)

Bush Aster
Goldenrod
Mexican Clover
Primrose Willow
Spanish Needle
Wild Radish/Wild Mustard

Planning for Winter (in Florida)

Surviving the winter - Winter Bee-havior

Summer and into fall: Focus on building the essential honey reserves needed for winter
Fall: Workers kick drones out of the hive since they don't help in any meaningful way and simply consume resources
- New brood is reduced
- Winter bees develop
Temperature maintained for the queen by forming the winter cluster

Winter bees

Workers that emerge near the end of the foraging season
May live 6+ month+ (vs 6 weeks)
Determine whether the colony survives winter
Main difference: Presence of enlarged fat bodies in the abdomen
- (they do not look heavier)

Fat bodies

Puts together, stores, and breaks down fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and other molecules
Produce vitellogenin (allows a nurse bee to secrete brood food even in the absence of fresh pollen)
- Enhances the immune system
- Increases lifespan

Winter bees can be considered a caste

Spend their lives within the nest
Care for the queen
Help with temperature regulation
Raise the brood for the spring

Making a Winter Bee

When pollen becomes scarce
Raised by feeding a larva a lean (protein deficient) diet
Dependent on local conditions
- Pollen, not temperature, regulates winter bee development

Pollen can become scarce during protracted wet weather, dry spells, and certainly over winter.

winter storage of protein actually occurs inside the winter bee. The enlarged fat bodies, along with enlarged hypopharyngeal glands, provide a vast storehouse for vitellogenin and other materials needed to produce brood food.

But just as a pollen cell is limited in size, so is a winter bee. As winter bees begin to feed brood, their fat bodies shrink and the glands produce less. Eventually they can run dry. In many situations, they have enough to get them into spring. But if conditions are bad, if a dry spring follows a harsh winter, the protein may eventually run out.

The possibility of running out has a lot to do with the strength of the colony going into winter, the amount and quality of stored food, the mite load, and the winter weather. For those reasons, many beekeepers find that a supplemental pollen source can make a world of difference in the strength of overwintered colonies.

In an interesting twist, Mattila and Otis found that feeding supplementary pollen to colonies in late summer or early fall did not boost the quantity of winter bees but merely increased the length of the normal brood rearing season [6]. This makes sense if you consider that that lack of high-quality brood food is what stimulates the production of winter bees. As long as good brood food remains available, normal “summer” bees will be produced.

Their findings suggest that supplemental feeding may be more beneficial after the winter bees have emerged. Many beekeepers follow this pattern, waiting until mid-winter before giving supplements. But even giving supplements early can have benefits because increasing the brood rearing season decreases the length of time winter bees need to survive.

Vitellogenin

A phospholipoglycoprotein - it has properties of:
- sugar
- fat
- protein
A biomarker for honey bee health

It also influences what foragers collect. A nurse bee’s vitellogenin titer develops in the first four days after emergence and affects its subsequent age-related duties. If young workers are short on food their first days of life, they tend to begin foraging early (we sometimes label them precocious foragers) and they preferentially seek nectar. If moderately fed, they forage at normal age on nectar while if abundantly fed, their vitellogenin titer is high and they begin foraging later in life and are more likely to be pollen collectors. (Nelson, CM, KE Ihle, MK Fondrk, RE Page Jr., GV Amdam, 2007, The Gene vitellogenin has multiple coordinating effects on social organization. PLoS https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050062. Reviewed by Randy Oliver in “Fat Bees Part 1,” ABJ August 2007)

There additionally is a mutually inhibitory interaction between vitellogenin and the systemic endocrine factor juvenile hormone (JH), which is central to honey bee reproduction. Vitellogenin and juvenile hormone work antagonistically, regulating honey bee development and behavior. Suppression of one results in high titers of the other. One may surmise that swarming bees would want to pack along vitellogenin to extend their lifespan and to be able to quickly build a new nest.

One of our measures of healthfulness in bee colonies is seeing early 1- to 3-day-old larvae floating on a generous pool of worker jelly. Nurse-age adult bees must be healthy to secrete enough jelly from their hypopharyngeal glands to feed their larvae in August and September. That depends on their having a low varroa parasite level. See 3-part article series on fat bees by Randy Oliver, https://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-bees-part-1/ (and part-2 plus part-3, which has an update related to sugar syrup feeding), originally published in ABJ (2007). Clustering bees

In addition to fat bees, colonies need to be “fat” on colony stores. A “fat” colony is one that has adequate stored honey, and enough bee bread reserves to sustain the colony during the winter. The adult bees form a “thermoregulatory cluster” around diminishing brood and their queen. Powered by honey stores, they shiver their muscles to produce heat, keeping temperatures at the center of the cluster a comfortable 75 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit, 22-30 Celsius. To compact the brood area, bees backfill cells used in

Kicking Out the Lazy Ones (Drones)

An early sign of preparation for winter:

Eviction of drones

Forming the Winter Cluster

Worker bees huddle around the queen for the entire winter to keep her warm

Workers toward the center of the cluster stay warm
The cluster revolves
All the workers take their time on the outskirts of the cluster

Threats: Moisture

Condensation within the hive is
- Caused by warm conditions created by the cluster and the low ambient temperature
- The bees can be "rained on" inside the hive
Fine balance between:
- Ventilation
- Ensuring cold air does not enter the hive

Threats: Temperature

Assuming sufficient honey reserves - the bees can take care of themselves well

Strong winds: Cold air finds nooks and cranny's

What about the Central Florida Winter?

Bees are not able to fly very well when the air temperature falls below 55°F
The warm temperatures keep the bees active all year long
The temperature fluctuations are confusing to bees
A nectar flow somewhere in the state at any given point
Remember: Just because the bees are flying doesn’t mean they are producing

Assess Honey Stores

Is the fall nectar flow sufficient to get your bees through the winter?
- Talk to local beekeepers
If needing to feed:
- Sugar to water should be 2:1 or 5:3

Hive Preparation

Extract honey
Reduce down the hive
- Smaller hive = less drafty (and less likely pests, like mice, will enter)
Look for your Queen
Prep the surrounding area

Remove Unnecessary Bee Furniture

The bigger space, the harder it is to keep warm

Turn hive from an auditorium to a little cabin
Make sure the supers are off
If small, move them to a nuc which is smaller, or combine them with another colony
Remove queen excluders

Pests and Varroa Mites

Do a mite count
- Treat proactively and relatively early
Bears - Male bears may remain active all year

Let them bee

Most hives are lost in the winter because of freezing and starvation

Do not go through your bees in the winter

Stay Calm - All you can do is keep a watchful eye at a distance and try to help your bees if you see a problem when it is cold

Overwintering in Florida

Entrance reducers: Help with warmth and hindering robbing
Solid bottom boards: If temperatures get very low, it adds an extra layer of protection
Check for nectar and honey stores early: Feed if needed
Remove queen excluders: Allow the queen can move into the super if necessary
Watch Varroa mite levels

Equipment Repair

Winter is a great time to fix, build, or paint things!

Bottom boards
Boxes
Frames
Covers

When does Spring start in Florida?

For bees in Florida, spring starts at the beginning of December/January with the first bloom of red maple

(Blueberry: Early February)