The Bee Doctor

When transporting potentially sick bees, its best to keep them in a ziplock baggie in case they puke. You don't want bee puke (which is actually honey) all over your dash would you? That stuff never comes out.

I've been observing the bee's on a regular basis now that they weather is warm, and they are getting busy.  Its nice to see any new pollen colors they are bringing in loaded to their bee knee's (true story, and true thing) and try to find out which kind of tree it has come from.  There is some sort of excitement that comes along with finding out another type of tree is now in bloom- and so early in the season too.

So upon observation yesterday (ooh that sounded smart) I noticed that the bee's have been coming in with red dots on their foreheads.  The more I watched the more I saw coming in with this war paint like dress.

My gut reaction said its "probably," pollen and not to worry- this IS the first spring I have seen bee's become active and awaken from winter slumber (gosh another smart sounding line). But my other gut (yes sometimes I have two) said "it could be mites."

Bee mites?

Yup.

They get them too- 

Its kinda like bed bugs and lice combined forces.  The varrao mite in particular will lay eggs in the broods comb (typically drones) and when the bee hatched from its comb you will see these little red dots on the bee's furry back.  The mites seem pretty harmless, but what they do is suck the hemolymph out of the poor little bee. The bee's born with the mites nesting on their bodies will emerge from their comb with what looks like shriveled wings. Most of these bee's will be unable to fly, making them utterly useless to the rest of the hive, and only consuming food stores. Eventually this mite could devastate the colony in 12 weeks time. And you as a bee keeper will be shit out of luck.

Ok- so I thought, "instead of panicking and looking up on the Internet about mites ( which will only lead to doom and gloom, and weirdo beekeepers opinions) why don't I take a couple bee's to the vet.

Alright so there is no such thing as a vet for bee's or a bee doctor, but it got you to look this far at the blog post didn't it?

Keep reading please.

I took a couple of the gals that didn't quite make it into the hive last night, and froze up on the ground.  I grabbed the ones with the most red dots on their foreheads and put them in a baggie to drive down the street to the local beekeeper and supplier.

When I walked in I was immediately dropped into a conversation about how terrible the mites were over this past winter and how colonies in the area were being tormented by these red terrors.

I swallowed hard. Here I was walking into a bee shop with a baggie full of what could be the enemy of the conversation.....just a young (maturity wise) dumb (brain wise) bee charmer, with a baggie full of bee questions.

It was my turn next to ask the owner of the shop my question. I mustered up what courage I had and swallowed any pride (for the moment) and ask my question. "Pollen, or mites?"

The answer was what I wanted to hear. It was pollen. Seems to be these gals were working so hard that when they came back to the hive to drop off their pollen store, they would cram their little heads so far into the comb that they would get this nice orange/red pollen stuck to their heads. Thus- decorating them.  

I sighed relief. 

But as the bee keepers looked at my baggie full of bees, we all seemed to realize at once that the gals had warmed back up- and were buzzing about the bag. Some were even eating the pollen off of one another, all seemingly checking on each other to make sure everyone was "ok."

I looked at the beekeepers around me and I told them that I must leave to get these gals back to work. Some chuckled while other looked at me as if a slave driver and muttered their opinions.  This, I was prepared for because bee keepers are really weird, unusual people. (but thats a story for another day) 

SO I got home and let the girls go back to work. 

Happy as can beee.