The first of my beekeeping experiments this year is to try out SuperBoost, a larval brood pheromone product supplied by Pherotech Inc in British Columbia. It’s the result of four years of work by Pherotech, “capped by a rigorous experimental test at Texas A&M University.”

What is SuperBoost?

SuperBoost is a slow-release product that replicates the 10-component pheromone produced by larvae within the cells. In nature it tells workers, “We’re hungry, please go out and get us some food.” As I understand it, the effect is basically to make the bees think that there’s more brood to tend than the colony actually contains. Extra brood to feed means bees are stimulated to forage more actively. More food coming in will stimulate the queen to lay more eggs, which produces more bees, which can bring in more food. And so the cycle goes… and so the colony builds up.

SuperBoost is delivered through the membrane on one side of a small plastic pouch mounted in a 35 mm photographic slide frame. The corners slip into a holder that is set into the brood area of a hive so the product hangs down between the frames. Bees pick up the pheromone by walking on the membrance and gradually distribute it as they move around the hive.

My SuperBoost Trial

The pheromone supply of each unit will last for about 30-36 days, according to the instruction sheet, and 3-4 treatments a year are suggested: early spring, later in the spring, late summer, and over the winter.

My partner Rick and I are going to follow a similar treatment pattern (assuming that we get good bloom and good weather) with two overwintered colonies here in Keswick Ridge. This is not intended as any kind of a scientific study, of course, but just from a curious beekeeper’s perspective, to see how the bees respond to the product.

Colony #1 was started from a nuc with queen cells early last summer, so the queen is new. It built up well through the summer, was overwintered as a double, and came out of winter with enough bees to make a fairly good single. I started feeding at the end of March (medicated syrup in a top feeder, plus pollen patty, in both hives) and reduced it to a single super as soon as the weather warmed up enough to do so — about the third week of April.

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David VanderDussen (NOD Apiary Products) has prepared a Summary of “Take Home Messages” on Mite Control, Nosema, and an IPM Strategy for Canada. The article, written for Hivelights and reproduced on the CHC website, gives an overview of presentations made at the Colony Health Symposium at the Canadian Honey Council AGM (January 2008).

Here’s a quick “summary of the summary” —
For details, please see David VanderDussen’s article at http://www.honeycouncil.ca/users/folder.asp?FolderID=6171.

Dennis vanEngelsdorp:
Update on CCD in America

“The current situation in the US is in flux, but there are reports of up to 90% colony losses in CA in colonies staged for 2008 almond pollination, occurring over a 2-week period,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp reported. “No single factor explains CCD, and multi-factor analysis has been initiated to see which factors in combination may cause collapse.”

He noted that residues of the active ingredients in Apistan® and Checkmite+® (i.e., fluvalinate and coumaphos respectively) can build up in both wax and pollen within the hive, reaching levels where the pollen becomes toxic to bees.

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Farm Focus reports this week that 97% of bee hives in Nova Scotia have been opened and checked, now, and the over wintered colonies in that province are looking strong.

Joanne Moran, secretary of the NS Beekeepers Association, told Farm Focus that beekeepers took extra care with management last year, and in preparing their bees for winter. “And the weather co-operated.”

Moran attributes Nova Scotia’s winterkill of 18.4% to starvation, ineffective mite managements, and/or the effects of Nosema ceranae, which has “taken over” from Nosema apis in that province.

See:
• NS Bees Look Good by Heather Jones
  Farm Focus of Atlantic Canada: 8 May 2008

Beekeepers are always experimenting with new methods and new products, looking to help our honeybees prosper while keeping the workload and expense of beekeeping under control.

As a small beekeeper who was nearly wiped out last winter (2006-07), I’ve decided to make 2008 a season for full-on experimenting — exploring new methods and products that I might not otherwise have ventured to try.

You probably know that a lot of the innovative ideas in apiculture have traditionally from small beekeepers, rather than the commercial outfits. That’s because we “little guys” the ones who are able to devote more individual attention to our colonies.

But a major driving force behind new beekeeping developments, these days, is the need for pollination by crop producers. When so many farmers’ livelihoods depend heavily on honey bees for pollination, and honey bees are in short supply as they have been in recent years, keeping the bees in good health becomes the interest of both government and private sector researchers.

That means there are a lot of new ideas floating around the beekeeping world right now. Some have a good deal of research behind them. Some are still in the early stages of testing. Others have not been scientifically tested, but carry some word-of-mouth clout from beekeepers who have tried those methods. And a lot of the new ideas are pretty controversial…

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Colony Collapse Disorder, the mysterious bee ailment that has led to the disappearance of millions of bees in the United States alone, “and in a worst-case scenario could be a threat to the food chain that humans depend on for life, has made its way to Utah,” according to a report yesterday in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Until recently, however, the state of Utah seemed to be successfully dodging CCD.

The Tribune story tells of commercial beekeeper Gary Dutson, whose family has kept bees for more than 70 years. He built up to 4000 hives last fall , then unexplained die-offs cost him half of the colonies. As a result, Dutson says he has had to sell of 500 acres of the family farm.

The replacement cost of the lost colonies is estimated at $130,000 USD, and Dutson says he has just barely enough hives to meet his pollination commitments to the Utah orchards. Any further losses may put him out of business.

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