Mountain View Apiaries

05/28/2026

The nectar flow is officially on here in N. Idaho.

What this means for beekeepers is that it is time to get honey supers on, if you have not already done so. Also, swarming season will now kick off in earnest so colonies will require attention and management to deal with that.

I personally use queen excluders on all my colonies and have done so for nearly 50 years now without any adverse impact. There are some who refer to these devices as "honey excluders", but I have found that claim to be without any merit. Down south, we often would drill 3/4" inch holes in our honey supers to make things more efficient for foragers returning to the hive to offload their nectar to house bees before heading back out to gather more nectar.They completely were able to bypass moving up through the excluder by using this approach.

I am the first to admit that it is not easy to drill a nice round hole in an expensive piece of wooden ware but if one uses a hole saw and keeps the round cutout piece in a box, it is a simple matter to fit it back into the hole and secure it with a bit of glue after honey harvest is over.

The reason I use queen excluders is simple - I do not want to find that the queen has gotten into the honey supers and is laying in them. It makes honey harvest extremely complicated and just ends up making a mess of things. Keep her down in the lower two stories and provide plenty of room for her to lay in, and she will be more than content to remain down below.

Additionally, providing plenty of supers above the excluder helps to keep congestion from building up in the colony and thereby works in favor of aiding against swarming. Nothing will induce a colony to swarm faster than confining them in an area where they become too cramped for space. My philosophy in this mattter is very simple - -it is much better to err on the side of providing too much space than leaving the colony too confined. One can always come back after the main swarming season has passed and take off excess supers above an excluder if they are not needed.

In terms of the nectar flow going on at the moment - Black locusts are now in full bloom. Lindens are already putting out small floral buds. Those will be opening soon. Clover is blooming alongside many seasonal perennials such as saliva, always a honeybee favorite. Nepeta, or catmint, which honeybees love, is also blooming.

Pollen is being gathered from numerous sources right now. I personally find it incredibly satisfying to see foragers returning from the field with their pollen baskets stuffed with the stuff! It tells me, even without examining the colony, that they are raising brood and building up their numbers.

Now is a good time to check to see what kind of laying pattern your queens are producing. More on that at another time.

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04/23/2026

The Dandelion flow is on!
Here in N. Idaho, we beekeepers, along with our hard-working honey bee gals, eagerly await the onset of the alder, willow, and maple bloom. These provide both pollen and nectar for our bees to spur them to begin ramping up brood production.

But more exciting than this - at least to me - is the start of the dandelion flow. While most homeowners want their perfectly manicured yards to be free of these members of the sunflower family, beekeepers welcome them for a strong source of both pollen and nectar for our colonies. The last thing we want to do is to be spraying them with any sort of broadleaf w**d killer! Those sunny yellow flowers are a boon to our bees.

For beekeepers who want to help their hives get a good jump start on increase, consider putting on some pollen substitute patties to provide nutrition to the brood especially when we experience a bout of colder, rainy weather, which precludes the bees getting out to forage. These can be obtained from just about any beekeeping supply outlet online or in some cases, locally.

If you are establishing new colonies from packages, and if you do not have any frames of capped honey available, make sure that you are providing sugar water for the bees. This time of the year you want to mix the syrup with a 1:1 ratio. This is by WEIGHT. So one gallon of water should have one pound of sugar mixed into it and then given to the hive.

By doing this you are accomplishing two things:
1.) you are simulating a nectar flow which will encourage the queen to start laying.
This, and the substitute pollen patties will allow your colonies to actively ramp up brood production ahead of the main nectar flow which is only a few weeks off.

2.) You will be providing carbohydrates (energy) for your bees. Adult bees need energy to not only draw wax (wax building is extremely energy intensive requiring about 7 pounds of honey to make just one pound of wax).

When the sun is shining, you will see your bees actively foraging on the dandelions for both pollen and nectar. Watching them wiggle their way through the blooms is always a delight to me personally.

When the sun is shining and the temperatures are at least 60, you can take a bit of time to go through your colonies to check to see whether the queen is laying, how their pollen stores might be and whether or not they have brought in any fresh nectar as you will see it in the cells on the frames that you pull out to check.

Now is also a good time to put on some spring mite treatments. Oxalic is good if there is no sealed brood. If there is, you can use Apivar strips. It is not yet warm enough for Formic as it needs some heat to vaporize the product. Same goes for thymol - you need warmer temperatures.

This year I intend to try a new product, "NORROA" which is already mixed into a type of fondant patty that is set on the top bars above the brood chamber area. It supposedly targets the mites directly and has no negative on the bees as it is based on the genetics of the mites. We'll see how it works.

Remember, if you do use any treatment for mites, make sure that it is safe to use with honey supers on that are intended for human consumption. If your hive is not supered yet, and most are not, you do not need to worry about that. But, please, if you do intend to super ahead of the main flow, make sure that any mite treatment product that you might have in the colony that is not intended to be used with honey for human consumption is removed prior to the installation of the honey supers.

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12/21/2025

A new product for varroa mite control has been approved for use in Idaho.

Here is a link to the company's (Greenlight Biosciences) website where you can obtain more information about the product (Norroa).

https://norroa.com/norroa

What is unique about this product - according to their website - is that it employs no pesticides or organic acids, such a formic, oxalic or thymol, but instead targets a specific protein in female mites which is necessary for their reproduction. In effect, it short circuits their ability to reproduce!

In theory, this means less build up of residue within our colonies from various mite treatments. In my experience, and without any scientific evidence but based merely on my many years of beekeeping, this cocktail mix of mites and residue from mite treatments is shortening the productive lives of our queens. Years ago, my queens would still be laying good patterns into their third year and would be superseded on rare occasions. We now see much shorter viability for queens and much more frequent supersedure. While it might be due to the impact of these things on the quality of the drone semen, the fact is that queens are not what they once were.

If we can eliminate, or at least reduce our reliance on chemical products used within our colonies, I am all for it. Of course, the Holy Grail of beekeeping continues to be the breeding of bees that can tolerate and coexist with mites without succumbing to them and without the need for treatments. That is proving to be quite a challenge globally although some intrepid beekeeping pioneers are making solid progress in this area.

One last thing -the manufacturer's website notes that Norroa is best used when Varroa levels are low and when honey supers are NOT on the colony. My view then is that the best time to use the product would be on colonies coming out of the winter ahead of the spring buildup when varroa levels tend to be their lowest. The product can do its thing and after the treatment period passes, in time for the seasonal nectar flow, honey supers would then be placed on our colonies.

Mite levels would need to be monitored heading into later in the summer when mite levels tend to rise and perhaps another treatment option be employed if those are high. Formic Pro, Varroxsan, Thymol, etc, could be used to knock mite levels down to manageable numbers and then a second treatment of Norroa employed to take the bees into the winter months.

https://norroa.com/norroa

Norroa™ targets a specific protein in varroa mites that ultimately stops their reproduction. Multiple years of field trials have demonstrated up to 18 weeks of mite control with one treatment and no negative impact on colony health or brood production.

10/02/2025

These are samples of the sugar blocks that I make each year for all of my colonies. I place them on the top bars of the uppermost super with my insulation and ventilation mini-supers above them.

Without exception, every single year, as the winter begins to soften and move towards spring, on a warm-enough day, I open colonies to check on their stores and find them on these blocks. I never have to worry about my colonies running out of honey or food stores since I started using these sugar blocks years ago.

Another plus that is gained by using them, is that any excess moisture that might be in the colonies is absorbed by the sugar softening them a bit. This makes it easier for the bees to feed on them.

10/02/2025

Here is a photo of a honey bee gathering pollen from Goldenrod. As I have previously noted, Goldenrod and Asters are two late summer/early autumn sources of pollen and nectar for our bees. Once they are finished blooming, that is it with the exception of a few flowering perennial shrubs and flowers that neighborhood gardens might contain.

09/28/2025

Shown here is an example of the setup I use for insulation on my colonies in preparation for the long winter. I have a small upper entrance hole that the bees will use in late-winter/early spring for cleansing flights and to begin foraging for pollen coming off the alder and willow bloom. I keep it closed from October through late February/early March depending on the temperatures. The lower section is used for space into which I place my sugar blocks and winter patties.

09/28/2025

Fall blooming Asters provide a late-season supply of both pollen and nectar for honey bees.

09/18/2025

Prepping for Winter - Part One

The change from summer to autumn will be here very soon and that means northern beekeepers need to start preparing their colonies for the long winter that lies just ahead.

So what's involved in this?

First of all, the supply of honey that each colony has put up during the season should be determined. Many novice beekeepers make the mistake of pulling too much honey off their hives to maximize their harvest, but in the process of so doing, they leave an insufficient amount for the hives to survive the winter months. A general rule of thumb for winters in northern Idaho is 85 pounds. That is the approximate weight of a 10-frame deep with capped honey in nearly all of the frames.

Italian colonies in particular go into winter with much larger colonies than Carniolans, Caucasians and Russians, so it is essential that they are not short-changed on honey supplies. If you are running Italians, please take note of this.

If your inspection determines that colonies do not meet this threshold, then by all means, get some syrup on them. The sooner the better! It is not easy to mix up a 2:1 sugar water solution and get it thick enough to prevent the sugar coming out of solution, especially when overnight temperatures begin to drop. Warm daytime temperatures will help the bees evaporate thinner sugar syrup mixes and thicken it ahead of the seasonal drop in daytime high temps. In my experience, once the daytime high temperatures stay consistently below 60, it becomes increasingly more difficult for the bees to remove the excess water in sugar syrup.

What this means is that your hives then go into winter with greatly increased moisture amounts inside their colonies. Keep in mind that it is excess moisture inside bee colonies which kills bees, not cold temperatures in and of themselves. That excess moisture tends to precipitate out when it comes in contact with cold hive covers whereupon it then essentially rains down on the cluster. Wet bees will die. Full stop!

By the way; the 2:1 sugar syrup mix is by weight. That is a very thick syrup. Again, do not be overly concerned if you cannot get your mix this thick. It goes without saying that you will need to heat your water/sugar mix to boiling to get all the sugar to dissolve. Watch that while making the syrup, you do not scorch the sugar. Add it gradually and stir as the water heats up. Take care not to splash any of the boiling hot sugar syrup on yourself or get it in your eyes as you are stirring. Hot syrup can cause some very severe burns.

Second - check pollen stores .
You should have severalframes that contain pollen. This pollen will have been mixed with nectar to form "bee bread". This is the food that the bees need for their larvae. I always have pollen patties on my colonies beginning in mid-late August. If they take them, GREAT!. If not, no damage is done. You can remove them and refreeze them or just throw out what they do not take. The risk of your bees having insufficient pollen to feed to the new brood that they will be raising as they come out of winter, in my view, far outweighs the cost of a few surplus pollen patties.

when I go through my colonies, I rearrange them, if necessary. OFtentimes youy will find pollen containing frames out on each of the sides of hive box (super) and away from where the brood frames are located. I shift those frames so that they are on both sides of the brood frames. Most of the time these pollen-containing frames will have a ring of honey above the center of the frame and down each side.

Honey containing frames are then added on both sides of the pollen frames so that all the brood frames are located in the center of the super, pollen frames on both sides of those and honey frames on both sides of the pollen frames. That is the typical configuration of most colonies but there are colonies in which this can get mixed up at times.

Generally speaking, if you are running a colony in two deeps, this time of the year there will be very few brood containing frames down in the first floor, if any, but you can find pollen containing frames down there. Those frames are useless in that location since the bees are already making their transition to the upper portions of the colony as the lower night time temps mean that they are moving up to follow the rising heat produced by the colony. Bees do not shift pollen around inside the colony as they do with nectar. In other words, they will not access that pollen until sometime in the late spring as they descend lower in the colony with rising outside temperatures.

To be continued:

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08/18/2025

07/28/2025