Mountain View Apiaries

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 Years ago, my queens would still be laying good patterns into their third year and would be superseded on rare occasions.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

07/20/2025

Queen Laying Pattern

Here is a photo of what an excellent queen laying pattern should look like. Whenever you inspect your hives (and you should be doing this weekly during the active season), this is one of things that you should be checking for - "Is my queen laying well or do I see some problems which might require me to take proactive measures?".

Keep in mind however that during dearths of pollen, which generally happens in late summer once the main nectar flow period has ended, your bees, particularly Carniolans, Caucasians and Russians, tend to cut back on brood rearing. Most beekeepers in the Northern California region experience this yearly and will provide supplemental protein to the colonies in the form of substitute pollen patties.

I keep an eye on my colonies to see if they are bringing pollen in. Because my apiary is located in an area where there are plenty of perennials blooming in the nearby residential gardens, there usually are pollen sources available to them. I do however put on pollen patties in case the bees need it. If they do, they will take the patties and start in on them. If they do not, no harm done.

Also, this is the time of the year when varroa populations tend to soar so keep an eye on mite counts. I am trying Varroxsan this year due to my concerns that lazy beekeepers have created mite resistance to Amitraz (Apivar) due mainly as a result of leaving the strips in the colonies too long.

The method whereby Oxalic Acid works to kill mites is much different than Amitraz and Varroxsan is NOT TEMPERATURE sensitive as are formic acid and thymol products.

06/26/2025

New developments in varroa control...

As beekeepers, we are facing ongoing challenges when it comes to dealing with varroa mites in our colonies. It has been my experience over many years of raising bees, that this mite is the number one cause of our growing winter losses.

Management practices preparing colonies for long wintering periods can be easily learned and adopted by serious beekeepers (adequate winter stores, proper ventilation, additional insulation, strong - young queens, mite treatments, etc) but in spite of these, colony losses during winter continue to plague our industry.

Fortunately, a serious and concerted effort is being made to develop treatments to deal with the mites in a more biological rather than chemical method.

Following is a link to a brief article showcasing Vadescana dsRNA, which seems to have the potential to be a large step forward in combating (Varroa destructor).

https://www.useforesight.io/news/epa-backs-rna-based-pesticide-for-varroa-mite-control-marking-shift-from-chemical-norms

https://wvbahive.org/varroa-control-whats-new/

EPA proposes RNA-based pesticide Vadescana for Varroa mite control. A sustainable alternative to traditional chemicals with targeted action.

06/09/2025

A few close-up shots of my bees working various nectar sources.

06/08/2025

Testing a new product for mites