parasite to fall through to the ground below, but too fine to allow bees or other unwanted creatures or insects in. An entrance block is fitted to reduce access to the hive during the winter time to help keep the warmth in and unwanted visitors out, during the spring and summer it is removed.
The Brood Box
The brood box is the largest part of the hive, this is where the queen lives all year round and she will lay her eggs, the bees will also store pollen, nectar and honey for themselves. The beekeepers will never take the honey from this box as the frames are purely for the bees to feed themselves.
The Queen Excluder
This is a thin sheet of steel or plastic with slots or holes in it. The holes are big enough to allow a bee through but too small to allow the slightly larger queen through. So the frames kept above the excluder and queen can be filled with honey which the beekeeper can remove when they are full with out any eggs in it.
The Super
The super is the box of frames for the bees to store their excess honey which the beekeeper can remove when its capped over and ready to be extracted. If the weather has been good and there is a lot of nectar to be collected some beekeepers may stack 2,3 or even 4 supers full of frames on top of the brood box and queen excluder. Although as a general rule one or two is normal and these will be swapped out when full and replaced with another super with fresh frames. The queen excluder and supers are removed after the bees stop making honey to reduce the hive space to just the brood box to help the bees keep warm.
The Roof
Some hives have plain felt covered roof others a steel sheet covered roof, but generally they are a good weight to stop them being blown off in strong winds and to trap the warmth in the brood box for winter time.
Frames & Foundation
The frames are the wooden rectangles which hold the thin sheets of foundation which the bees pull outwards to create the tiny hexagon shaped cells made of bees wax. The cells are used to raise the eggs into larva and then finally bees, they are also used to store pollen, nectar and honey. The frame size depends on the over all size of the brood chamber and also the supers, the brood frames being x2, x3 or even x4 larger than the super frames. Supers are kept small due to the weight when full of honey and smaller frames are easier to spin to remove the honey once the cap over each cell is removed.
Current Varroa Treatments v Essential Oils
One notable topic of debate between beekeepers is the types of chemicals put into the hives once or twice every year. Its well known the humble honey bee is under threat from several different problems. As a result most beekeepers have turned to some very toxic chemicals to try and ward off some of these problems, but the mites develop a level of immunity so the treatments have to be modified and made stronger and stronger and now as a result several of them are forced to display warning signs as they are highly toxic to humans and will often kill any developing larvae in the hive. This is likely to reach a point when they will be far to dangerous to even consider using, some may argue we are far beyond that point already and alternatives will need to be used.
I joined the forums at www.biobees.com and I followed with interest one member who has been working on finding a method of treating for varroa using non-toxic natural oils and has come up with a treatment and a simple method to apply it which has proved in several hives to be part of an effective method in helping to control the levels of these mites. He has posted his results and they look promising.
Essential oil treatment -
10g of thymol crystals
10 drops of tea tree oil
Olive oil, 25 ml
Sunflower oil, 50 ml
One or two pieces of bees wax (walnut sized)
Two or three teaspoons of fine sugar (icing sugar)
Thirty 50mm (2 inch) lengths undyed garden string (eg. hemp)
The only thing that is measured accurately are the thymol and tea tree.
Gently warm the oil and beeswax until the beeswax dissolves and then add the thymol crystals. Stir to dissolve these. (They smell strongly, so do not touch them with your hands.) Cool and add the tea tree (it will evaporate if the mix is too hot). Then add the sugar and stir. The mix will turn lumpy and sticky at this stage. The consistency should be that of soft butter. Dip the pieces of string in the mix to coat them thoroughly. Use enough string to soak up all the mix.
This makes enough to treat 3 hives once each provided that they are not heavily 'mited'. I generally repeat after about 10 days and will do a third treatment after another 10 days if the mite drop is still high. (The ten day timing is not crucial.) The treatment is most effective when the bees are active and the weather is warm. The dosage rate is about 1/4 that of commercially available thymol treatments and much more effective in my experience. This treatment is best used with a mesh floor so the mites fall out of the hive, but it should also work with solid floors although may be to a lesser extent.
To apply, move the top bars apart enough to push two pieces of string down between each for a top bar hive or tie the string to a used match stick or cocktail stick and rest it on top of the frames. The string, being sticky, will catch on the face of the comb. That's fine. Do this for 5 or so bars in the centre of the brood nest (10 strings in total). If the mite load is very heavy, a double dose will still be less than that in commercial treatments.
Over time the bees will chew at the string and throw it out of the hive entrance or push little pieces (finely chewed) through the mesh floor (looks like brown candy floss).
In addition to the direct effect of the oils on the mites, I suspect that the bees also groom each other more often, as they don't like the smell of either tea tree oil or thymol. In this regard, I suspect that the olive oil and sunflower oil also play a role as they contain oleic and linoleic acids which in insect terms is the smell of death and is what triggers the undertaking response in bees. The sugar is there to give the mixture some substance that the bees can get their mandibles around - I've tried it without and it is much less effective.
Remember that the aim is not to knock out all the mites, but to keep the numbers from spiralling out of control. I would be cautious about using the mixture if I was due to be harvesting honey. Although thymol is said to break down fairly quickly in wax, I'd want to be sure of avoiding contamination of the comb. (Thymol does not dissolve in water.)
Gareth (www.biobees.com)
