About Me

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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
I am a beekeeper in Vancouver, British Columbia. The bees forage all the way up Stoney Creek by Burnaby Mountain.I am committed to not exposing my bees to chemicals for pest control or a quick fix to their health. I am committed to keeping them without treatment and I am working very hard to make this a success. I prefer my bees to feel like their sister's in the wild and a little bit more comfortable with the care I provide. Enjoy the pictures and follow my beekeeping endeavours.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Whats left.

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day hitting the highest of 5 deg Celsius. I was excited to check the hive after such a long 2 weeks of rain and cold weather.

As of know I already know that Camille has died of starvation.

 Matilda is still doing well. She is all I got right now. I gave a pollen patty. I was considering not to give as the hive still had tons of pollen gathered from last fall in the lower chamber. But I guess, it may be too cold still to venture to the bottom chamber. Please do well Matilda! I need the weather to cooperate. I wish for more warmer and sunny weather.


Bombay is a goner too. Lost her to Nosema. I've collected some bees to send to the Ministry lab for testing. Evidence of Nosema were everywhere. I would like to know if this is Nosema Ceranae or Apis. I treated Bombay with Fumagilin and still Nosema affected it. I noticed that bees in the hive had somewhat of a similar way of dieing. Alot of the bees had the middle left leg sticking upwards. I am guessing that is how the Nosema bacteria in the guts ruptures through a nervous system that kills the bee and also causes that leg to rise. I could not get a clear picture as they were blurred from a camera that has lousy focusing. I made the picture huge so maybe you can see what I'm describing. Scroll to the right and see some of the evidence of Nosema.
When observing the frames, I can tell it was a horrible death. Bees having to hold their bladder from December to February and then getting killed by the bacteria in their own guts. The high number of bees that got affected by the Nosema, the hive could not maintain a warm cluster. The rest of the bees surviving were probably left stranded wherever they were, either in a paralyzed state coz of the cold and others who got hungry and were in a spot where the combs are empty probably did not have enough energy to walk to find food even if it was just 10cm away and then died of starvation. I saw bees with their butts sticking out of the comb probably trying to keep warm and licking every last drop in the comb at the same time. And may have even froze in the comb. Tragic!




I decided to quickly clean out the hive screen bottom boards and clear out all the dead bees before fungus grows. The boards were caked with a 2 cm deep of dead bees and mostly covered with fungus. I made sure I cleaned them out while I was upwind. Really don't want to breathe in any of that fungus spores.


Matilda you are my only hope! All the gloom and doom has to stop with great memories of summer. :)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Currently Reading: Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley.

Winter is a good time to pick up on more knowledge while there ain't so much work to be done in the hives. THere is also less I could do anyway so I just borrowed Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley from the library. Its understanding bees swarming in a whole different angle. I"ll add more to this post when I turn more pages in the book. I found this video that decoded the illusive waggle dance.