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How much pesticide in commercial foundation?

A reader in Maryland was told by a master beekeeper that 1) there are fewer chemicals in purchased foundation than previously thought and 2) foundationless hives have just as many chemicals as hives containing purchased foundation. She doubted these gems of wisdom and wanted to know if I’d seen any research supporting these claims.

First off, all the research I’ve read on this subject reports alarming amounts of pesticide—both number and quantity—in manufactured foundation. Particularly common are the acaricides fluvalinate and coumophos, which are used to treat colonies for Varroa mites. I’ve seen no papers claiming otherwise. Furthermore, it seems highly unlikely that foundationless comb would contain as much pesticide as comb built on commercial foundation.

Just think of it logically. Commercial foundation is made my companies that purchase wax from a variety of beekeepers. Usually it is large-scale beekeepers who sell their wax because most small-scale beekeepers do not have enough wax to bother selling.

For various reasons large-scale commercial beekeepers are more likely to use chemical pesticides such as fluvalinate and coumophos in the hive and they are more likely to have their bees working in agricultural areas where multiple pesticides are used on crops. So the wax coming from these hives is more likely to be contaminated with an array of acaricides, insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides, all of which go into the commercial foundation.

Now suppose you start two new colonies, one on commercial foundation and one foundationless. Even if both colonies bring in pesticide from the field—and even if you treat both colonies with acaricide—the one with the commercial foundation is going to have more total contamination than the other because it had a head start. It is just numbers.

So even if the amount of pesticide in commercial foundation is less than originally reported (which I doubt), there is still going to be more total contamination in a hive with commercial foundation than one without.

Isn’t it possible that your foundationless colony foraged in places with more pesticide than the other colony and ultimately became even more contaminated? Of course it’s possible. But is it likely? Absolutely not.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Drowning in drones

Several beekeepers with foundationless frames have reported finding large number of drone cells in their hives. In some cases, the new brood is 25% to 50% drones.

While colonies on foundationless frames always have more drones than those on preformed foundation, the number of drones can seem out of hand. And indeed, vast amounts of hive resources are going to raising these bees who give nothing in return. Instead of having workers out there collecting honey and raising more workers, you have hundreds of drones lazing around, waiting to be fed.

The first thing you should do is make sure the queen is laying at least some worker brood. If so, the queen is probably fine. If you see no worker brood—or at least none in a clear pattern—you may have an infertile queen that needs to be replaced. Although not frequent, it does happen from time to time.

If you think the queen is okay, you can try moving the drone brood to the outside of the brood nest and inserting new frames near the center of the nest. It is usually best not to remove the drone frames completely (unless you are doing it for mite control) because the colony will just expend more energy in an effort to replace it.

One thing to remember is that most drone brood is raised in early spring just before and during swarm season. It should taper off after that. You may just have to be patient for a few weeks. As the season progresses you should see a greater and greater percentage of worker brood.

Some beekeepers use a queen excluder just about the hive entrance to keep the drones from returning to the hive where they take up space and use resources. The problem with this is that newly hatching drones are unable to leave, so it is necessary to remove the queen excluder every few days to allow the newly­-hatched drones to exit.

Another thing you can try is using a pre-stamped piece of wax foundation as a starter strip to encourage worker-sized cells. If you have a proper saw, you can even cut starter strips from plastic foundation.

Remember, there are many reasons that beekeepers developed pre-stamped foundation. One of them was to keep down the number of drones. If you go foundationless, you will always be faced with a higher proportion of drones and a lower yield of honey than a beekeeper using patterned foundation. Every method has its pros and cons.

Rusty

How to do a simple brood nest inspection

Your very first hive inspection can be scary. Here are a few tips to make easier.
To begin:
  • Know why you are opening the hive before you do it. It helps to know exactly what you are looking for.
  • Pick a warm and sunny day when most of the foragers are out in the field. The hive will be easier to inspect when it is less populated.
  • Stand behind the hive so you are not blocking the entrance.
  • Calm the bees by using smoke or a gentle spray of sugar syrup, whichever is your preference.
  • If you are using smoke, puff some into the entrance and wait a few moments for the bees to begin eating honey.
  • Remove the lid and place it upside down on the ground to use as a place to stack brood boxes and/or supers.
  • You may puff smoke or spray sugar syrup under the inner cover if you wish. Wait a few more moments.
  • Remove the inner cover.
  • If you have honey supers or more than one brood box, stack everything on the inverted lid except the bottom brood box.
Moving the frames:
  • Lift out one of the two end frames, inspect it, and then set it aside in a safe place.
  • One-by-one, slide a frame into the empty spot, lift it up and inspect both sides, then replace it in the same orientation as before. Sliding each frame away from the others before lifting reduces the chance of rolling the queen between two frames.
  • Hold the frame over the brood box so if the queen falls off, she will fall back in the box.
  • Each time you replace a frame, slide it toward the side where you removed the first frame. By the end of your inspection the empty slot will be on the other side of the box.
  • When you are finished, slide the frames back to their original position and replace the first frame.
  • If you have a second brood box to inspect, place it on top of the first and then do your inspection.
What you are looking for depends on your purpose. But for a general inspection, you may be looking for:
  • Sealed brood in a compact pattern with few empty cells: a solid pattern of brood generally indicates a good queen.
  • Eggs­—the presence of eggs means the queen was present within the last three days.
  • New white comb—a sign of a honey flow.
  • Supersedure cells—queen cells on the surface of the comb may indicate the queen is failing.
  • Swarm cells—queen cells on the perimeter of the comb may mean the colony is preparing to swarm.
  • Nectar or honey in the cells.
  • Pollen stored in an arc next to the brood nest.
  • The presence of drone brood.
  • Signs of disease.
Special notes:
  • If you have a top-bar hive or foundationless frames, do not hold them sideways (parallel to the ground) because the weight of the combs may cause them to break from the frame.
  • Keep your hive inspections as short as possible—an inspection is very disrupting of the hive. On the other hand, keep your movements slow and deliberate. Do not rush.
  • Jot down any notes to yourself before going into the next hive. It can be difficult to remember what you saw and where.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

How to make starter strips

Starter strips can be used in nearly any type of hive. They are used in place of foundation in hives where you do not want to introduce chemical contamination from commercial foundation.

The purpose of starter strips is to get the bees to build comb in straight parallel lines. Bees need only a small amount of encouragement to make beekeeper-friendly comb. They are much easier to convince than you might think—nothing like teenagers.

There are dozens of videos available online of beekeepers melting wax, soaking slats of wood in water, painting multiple layers of hot wax on wet wood, peeling the wax sheets loose, cutting them in ribbons, waxing them onto top bars and on and on. All types of devices have been jury-rigged to contain and deliver hot wax, jigs have been developed to hold the frames, and salves have been concocted for beekeepers to sooth the inevitable burns. Oh my, oh my. If I had to do all that I would quit beekeeping and become a pastry chef.

In nature, bees build parallel combs in places unprepared with hot-wax and paintbrush, and I urge you to let your bees do the same. Here are four of my favorite ways to make un-waxed starter strips.

  • Fill the slot in your top bar with popsicle sticks (also called “craft sticks”). You simply turn them on their sides and glue them in. The sticks form a ridge that serves as a guideline for the comb-building bees. (If you really want to, you can “glue” them in with beeswax. But an environmentally-friendly household glue is a lot easier and won’t melt and release on a hot day.)
  • A similar ridge can be made by using wedged top bars. You just detach the wedge, turn it on its side, and nail it in place.
  • You can use old frames where the foundation has been cut out. The attachment points of the old comb tell the bees where to begin building new comb.
  • If you put an empty frame between two existing combs, the bees don’t need any other help. They will build the comb right where you want it–parallel to the two existing combs and equidistant from each.

If you decide to use a wooden strip, be sure to go all the way to the ends of each frame with the strip. If you discontinue the ridge line too soon, the bees may curve the ends of the comb into an arc.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Top bar with popsicle sticks glued in place.
End view of wedge turned sideways and nailed in place.

Foundationless colonies raise more drones

A reader in Romania wrote to say that he had decided to go foundationless in his Langstroth hives in order to avoid the chemical pesticides that are often found in commercial foundation. However, after he made the switch his bees began building much more drone comb than they had previously. He asked if there is a way to keep the number of drone cells lower.

The problem lies in honey bee genetics. Feral honey bees—that is, bees that have escaped into the wild and live without beekeeper interference—build comb that is approximately 25-30% drone cells. Higher and lower numbers have been reported, but this range seems about average.

This plentiful number of drones is good for bees from the evolutionary point of view. Most beekeepers, however, would be happier with fewer drones. With a lower proportion of drones you get more honey and more pollination service. Not only do drones not forage, but they eat a lot of the food that is ferried back to the hive by the workers.

Pre-stamped foundation lowers the number of drone cells in a managed colony. With pre-stamped foundation, a beekeeper may be able to keep the drone cells in a colony to 10-15%. This is a huge decrease from the 25-30% found in feral hives.

The 10-15% number is artificially low and, as most beekeepers have discovered, bees on foundation will start building drone comb wherever they can find a free space. They will build it in the form of burr comb, placing it between frames or under the cover. They routinely build it at the edges of worker brood and will sometimes climb up into the honey supers and build it there.

This hunt for more space is exactly why bees build drone comb in the bottom portion of an Oliver drone trap. Randy Oliver places foundation in the top portion and leaves the bottom portion empty. Almost miraculously, the bees do exactly what he intended—store honey in the top and raise drone brood in the bottom.

Any time you allow a colony to build free-form comb—such as in a Warre, top bar, or foundationless Langstroth—the bees revert to their genetically programmed proportions of drone brood. It is just a fact of honey bee life. So what can be done?

  • If your reason for going foundationless is to avoid chemical pesticides, you may consider uncoated plastic foundation. You can coat it yourself or not—it will work either way. But plastic itself contains chemicals that can leach into the comb. Some people can taste or smell it; others don’t seem to notice.
  • You may be able to purchase organic foundation. I have never seen it, but someone might be selling it.
  • You can buy a piece of equipment that allows you to stamp your own beeswax into sheets of foundation.
  • If you don’t want to use foundation at all, some beekeepers recommend removing a portion of the drone comb from the hive. Some bees seem to avoid storing honey and pollen in drone cells, so if empty drone cells are available, the queen will usually lay in them—producing even more drones. On the other hand, if the bees find the number of drone cells you left for them to be insufficient, they will just build more. Building new cells requires more energy than reusing old ones, so this technique can backfire.
  • The best answer might be to just accept more drone cells as a cost of going foundationless. Nothing is ever free: you gain something by having fewer chemicals in the hive and the price is having a bit less honey—not a bad deal.

Rusty