Accuse me of going soft if you like, but nothing made me appreciate the normally balmy Southern winter quite as much as the recent spate of cold waves.  To put that into perspective, the last time Dothan Alabama schools had a snow day off was before I moved down here 8 years ago.  Last week they had three snow days off.

However, in important thing is that we all made it through the cold snaps, and that includes the 14 Miller bee colonies that entered the winter.  I consider that an endorsement of good winter preparation.   In spite of the cold, early spring buildup has been proceeding, and I expect that once again we will start seeing swarms down here in early March.   I had best start into reversing my colonies when I get the chance.

Today (Feb. 1) was not a day to go into hives, as it was cool and drizzly.  Instead, it was great weather for the annual Alabama Cooperative Extension Service’s symposium at Auburn University.  Attendance at this symposium has grown by leaps and bounds in the years I have lived in the south, and this year it drew more than 600 folks.   The picture gives you an idea of how large the symposium has become.  The symposium has outgrown Auburn, and next year will move to larger quarters.

The leadoff talk was given by Dr. Jeff Harris of the University of Mississippi, who chose as his subject the small hive beetle in Mississippi.  If I were to pick a primary take-away from his talk, it would be that small hive beetles in colonies are like wax moths:  they only become a problem in weak colonies that do not have enough bees to patrol the entire colony.  Strong colonies, which are measured in terms of number of bees on each frame, rarely experience beetle problems.

When are you most likely to see a beetle problem?  Just like Varroa, you are most likely to see a beetle problem as the population of a colony reduces after the nectar flow.

The next session I attended was one given by an Alabama beekeeper on recovering plastic frames.  Plastic frames appear to be one of those things that you either love or hate- I happen to like them.  Cleaning them up for re-use turns out to be not all that hard.  The process  used by our presenter starts by placing the frames to be recycled in plastic hive bodies or a drum, then setting the frames aside to let the wax moths do their thing.   Don’t try this with wood hive bodies, as the wax moths will attack the wood.  Since the wax moths don’t attack the plastic, they leave you with cleaned frames ready for final cleaning with a pressure washer.  After that, waxing the frames using a trim roller finishes the job.

I also learned of a new product coming soon.  A new company called Acorn bee Products is going to offer plastic drone brood frames sized for medium depth boxes.  Previously, these frames were only available in the deep size.  Drone brood frames are of interest to those who want to control Varroa using drone trapping and/or raising drones for queen mating.

The last lecture I attended was again by Dr. Harris, and was titled “Queen Management and Selection for the Backyard Beekeeper”.  The first part of the lecture was devoted to queen evaluation, which is really colony evaluation.  You pick the traits you are looking for – in my case gentle behavior, good honey production, and Varroa resistance, and then rank the colonies.  Don’t be surprised if you find a colony that ranks well in some traits doesn’t do so well in other traits.

Now that you have identified what needs fixing to make your perfect bee, you can set about creating that bee.  Dr. Harris’s advice:  Select for small improvements, and keep checking to make sure you aren’t losing the traits you already like.  Also, be patient- bee breeding takes years.

So went my symposium.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warm, so I’ll be checking my hives.  Things in a colony change quickly in February; I’ll keep you posted next month.