It seemed that this season there were an unusual amount of swarm and colony removal calls. We'll have to see if next season there are more reports of feral hives reported. Also there was an increase of "HELP" or distress calls from new and seasoned beekeepers alike, as they seek to find answers and remedies to bee-related or colony failure problems. I performed some house calls to several beekeepers that had concerns about the progress or lack thereof with the performance of their colonies.

Some were first year beekeepers using queen excluders over brood boxes and starting off with foundation in their honey supers. I don't advocate the use of queen excluders unless you are using them under drawn comb. it is more important to make drawn comb the first year. Bees seem reluctant to work through the excluder and oftentimes they tend to cause swarms. There are worse problems than having a queen lay eggs in your honey super. Having a good laying or prolific queen is not considered a problem in beekeeping. There are other methods of hive manipulation that can help prevent the queen from laying eggs in your supers. One reason the queen may go up into honey supers to lay is that the brood chambers are honey bound. Take two or three frames of honey out of your brood chambers and extract them, returning the drawn comb to your brood chambers. Remember you have removable frames and this is good hive management. This will take less than an hour start to finish and put 6-8 pounds of honey on your table. Who said first year beekeepers can't make honey? Robin Spears of Charlestown harvested 6 full supers from 4 colonies started this Spring.

In the first week of August I got a call form Pam Stone in Watch Hill, Pam is originally from Texas but has relocated to R. I. were she performs her duties as Food Forager and Director of Culinary Education at The Ocean House on Bluff Avenue, Watch Hill. Pam is also an early riser, so before 7:00 a.m. on August 7th, I met up with her and Dabney Pierce who is also a beekeeper that summers in Watch Hill . We met up in Avondale on a property also owned by the Ocean House and where Pam keeps her bees and a large organic garden that provides fresh veggies for the dining room at the Ocean House. Also on the property is an historic house that has survived a few hurricanes and a very large beautiful barn that has been reconstructed on the premises. As I lit the smoker to prepare for the hive dive two things were obvious before I even opened the hive. There was a large population of bees and there was a queen excluder in place. Upon opening the  the outer and inner cover I saw foundation with no work being performed. We inspected the brood chambers and determined there was a prolific queen, reassembled the hive without the queen excluder, and added a hive top feeder with liquid simple syrup blended with essential oils.

With that task done we continued to Dabney's home to inspect a colony for which she had expressed concerns about the drop in population. At the site an outside inspection revealed not much bee traffic, not much activity overall. We opened the hive to find an invasion of wax moth. Now wax moth is the secondary problem, what caused this colony's drop in population enough for wax moth to take over in the first place? As we made our way through the brood chambers it became obvious there was no queen, therefore no eggs, no brood. Now the question poses itself, "How can we save this colony?" In this case we took these steps. #1 Remove all frames with obvious wax moth infestation. #2 Add a laying queen, no time for this colony to raise one. #3 Add brood, back to Pam's hive, and kidnap two frames of brood. It's great to have a generous beekeeping friend. #4 Feed, feed, feed. So the colony was broken down to six healthy frames, two frame of brood were added,and a healthy queen, all were placed in 8 frame equipment.

So what did cause the colony's failure to start with? When get these types of calls, house calls or are asked to make some kind of diagnosis over the phone I can only make an educated guess at best. Did the colony throw a primary swarm leaving a virgin queen that fell prey on her mating flight? Did poor weather prevent the new queen from making it's mating flight? Was the queen killed or mishandled in a previous inspection? So many variables, but this why you need to read the signs of a queen right colony visual sightings of the queen are not always possible, and looking through 20-30 deeps is not necessary seeing evidence that there is a queen is. Do you see eggs, do you see brood, do you see capped brood? all these things can tell you if there is a queen or isn't a queen and how long the colony has been queenless.

I would like to THANK ALL THAT DONATED THEIR TIME to HELP MAN THE BOOTH AT THE FAIR.

BEARS IN RHODE ISLAND? YUP!

While attending The Washington County Fair August 11th - 15th I had a conversation with Gilbert "Gibby" Fountain, Gibby owns and operates Spring Hill Sugar House on Gardiner Rd. in Richmond, where he makes pure maple syrup, and raises pumpkins and corn. Gibby reported that his corn crop had been damaged by a bear and had some concern that the bear might cause damage to hives that I have in an out-yard not far the way the crow flies from his fields. My hives in Exeter aren't much more that a mile from there. I thanked him for the "heads up" and told him I would check the hives after the Fair. On August 19th I had a chance ton make that inspection and this is what I found. (See pictures at the end of the message.) The bear, thought to be a two year old male, had torn into a couple of hives and left three unscathed. I gathered up the broken frames and boxes and salvaged what I could. Adding three 10 frame honey suppers to the other colonies left in the yard and I managed to save 7 deep frames that were added to a seven frame colony that I had in that yard. I know that we have actually had more bears in R.I. in previous years, but I haven't had any trouble until now. With many sightings of bears between exits 3 and 5 on Rt.95, I was actually surprised that two other out-yards have not been hit. The bear damage has been reported to the state bee inspector and also Charlie Brown, State Wildlife Biologist, Great Swap Management Area. If anyone is interested in attending a seminar on BIG GAME IN RHODE ISLAND, I am hosting a program at my lodge in Kenyon, on the 26th of September. Bill Betty will be the guest speaker, he has given talks throughout New England on bears, mountain lions and other big game in this area. Chowder and clam cakes on the menu, for admission (donations) reservations are a must. See me for more details.

Putting your hives to bed for the Winter.

If you have questions on Winter prep, you should be attending Lou's workshops. This topic is being covered extensively right now. Don't forget to get two gallons of 2-1 syrup with Fumidil B into each colony just before they form their winter cluster.

Fall Festival October 17th. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Nancy Ostiguy, Ph.D., Penn. State University. Dr. Ostiguy spoke at Betterbee's outdoor event this summer and comes highly recommended by several Assoc. members.  Members Tony and Jackie Morrow have offered to house our guest speaker, and I want to thank them for their generous offer.  We are looking to move the Fall Festival to the North this year and Betty is negotiating with the Pines located in North Smithfield, details to follow or will be announced at our September meeting.

Hope to see you there.

Mark Robar