Back in May 2013, I had an extra swarm to give away and Vernon was in need of a swarm for his self-built Perone hive. We gave him our Mother’s Day Swarm which went into his Perone hive #1. Through Vernon’s updates we’ve learned that the Perone hive that our swarm inhabited, made it through the 2013-2014 winter treatment-free. Vernon built a second Perone hive which he populated with some packaged bees. The following is the story of the second Perone hive…
In Vernon’s words from January 5, 2015…For almost a month the activity at the entry of my newer hive has been near zero. At first I thought the colony was settled in for the Winter, but the weather has been mild and the older hive was still somewhat active. So today I opened the shutters and found that my colony had failed. Although there were a few dead bees left in the hive, it appears that the majority absconded. It’s a clear case of Colony Collapse Disorder. My heart is broken, but I decided to take some pictures to document the failure, in hopes of helping other beekeepers.
2015-01-05…It’s difficult to remove the comb from a Perone brood box. I broke two combs, which isn’t too bad.
Here’s a view from the other side.
Maybe some of the local beekeepers will be able to help me do a post mortem. Some of the comb is very dark, almost black. Is that mold or mildew I’m seeing?
The spaces between the combs appears generally uniform.
This close-up shows that most of the cells were empty, and the black substance was pervasive.
Although this comb measures an impressive 19.5 inches in width, it was, in the end, non-functional. Most of the cells are empty, and those that are capped are covered with that black substance.
It appears that brood was developing when the colony absconded.
A few dead bees remain, but the most concerning thing about the floor is the black mold (or whatever it is).
Close-up of the Black Death and some of its victims. The hive was always very moist inside. Maybe next time I’ll slant the floor, or drill some holes, or make some other provision for drainage.
A solitary worker clings in death to the comb she helped build and fill. You and your mates worked tirelessly, little friend, and I’m sure you’re all in bee heaven now. Hail and farewell!
Vernon wrote yesterday his recent thoughts…”I’ve got a plausible hypothesis for the cause of this hive failure. Some beekeepers equalize the populations of adjacent hives by trading frames. This is supposed to discourage robbing. Early this Spring my Hive #1 probably had close to 100,000 bees. I located Hive #2 adjacent to it, populated with at most 12,000 bees from a 3 pound package. Not smart. Bees from Hive #1 were probably robbing Hive #2 from the start.
Going back over my old photos it’s clear that the new bees built a lot of comb that never got filled, even though they brought back a lot of food and produced a lot of brood. Wouldn’t that indicate robbery from their stores?
Stocking the hive with package bees may have made robbing more likely. The queen was a Carniolan type and the workers were Italians, derived from a number of hives. The brood was Carniolan, so the Italian workers were nursing juvenile bees with a different pheromone signature. That may have desensitized the colony to the unfamiliar pheromones of bees from outside the colony.
April 28, 2014…Vernon’s first Perone hive is on the left. The colony in the older hive was started from a swarm 11 months ago. Clearly it over-wintered successfully under the Perone system.
In Vernon’s words…”This winter I built a second Perone hive. This version includes 16 ½ x 11 ¼ inch observation windows in the front and back of the brood box. The windows are 1/8 inch plexiglas that my local hardware store cut to size. The plexiglas was so easy to work I bought two additional pieces to cover the roof and another to serve as a lid over the brood box grid bars. The roof covers were adhered to the wooden roof and sealed on all sides with beads of aquarium-safe silicone cement. The window covers were made of knotty pine. Otherwise the design of my two hives is the same.
A better view of plexiglass on roof of new hive on right
Lacking a swarm, I decided to stock the new hive with purchased bees. A 3 pound package arrived April 15. After a night in my garage, the package was placed unopened within the Perone hive brood box for 40 hours to allow the bees to acclimate. Then I opened the package, removed the queen’s cage, and suspended the queen’s cage under a centrally located top bar using masking tape.
April 18, 2014…The queen in her hanging cage was immediately surrounded by a mass of attendants.
The next day I let the queen out of her cage. After a few hours the queen and her attendants had moved in a mass to the north-west corner of the brood box grid, where they seemed content to settle. Hopefully I won’t use the observation windows so often that I (negatively) impact the success of the colony.
The bees had been packaged with enough syrup to feed them for a week, and I’d been warned that they might need that much time to accept their new queen. However, when I opened the package the feeder was empty. Probably the syrup had leaked out.
Feeling guilty that I should have released the bees from the package sooner, I made a very simple jar-lid-and-rocks syrup feeder and refilled it occasionally for four days. The bees fed from it, but not very much, and after four days I removed it.
A lot of dead bees were observed inside and outside the new hive during the first six days after freeing the queen. Since then I’ve found very few dead bees and the overall foraging behavior of the colony has become more purposeful and successful. About 10% of the foragers are returning with bright yellow pollen.
A week after the new bees were introduced, the two colonies display similar behaviors at their hive entryways.
Early in June the physical appearance of the foragers should change a bit. The queen of the new hive is a Carniolan variety, but the bees shipped with her in the package are all Italians.
Hive Inspection the Perone Way
When it isn’t too cold outside I find it restful to sit on a lawn chair about two feet in front of my hives and watch the foragers come and go. It’s a form of meditation. That’s what passes for hive inspection at my apiary. The foragers never sting me. When it’s cold the bees stay inside and no inspection is possible.
I’ve been told that my bees have mites because all hives in the USA have mites. Perhaps that’s true, but I’ve never observed any sign of any disease. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough. But if mites are present they don’t seem to be a threat to the survival of my colony, at least not yet.
Some of my friends are trying to combat mites by keeping “hygienic” bees that are naturally vigilant in removing mites. The Russian honeybee strain is supposed to be hygienic, but I don’t know anyone who is raising them. Instead, several are going to “requeen” their hives by introducing queens from hives that are certified never to have been treated for mites. The fact that the queens are still alive without treatments makes them “hygienic.” To me this sounds like circular logic. An equally valid conclusion is that mite treatments reduce the capacity of a colony to fight infestation through normal comb maintenance. In other words, all bees are hygienic until poisoned.
Going into Winter, the comb occupied only a small fraction of the big Perone hive. It’s likely that the over-Winter population was quite small. Now the colony is a year old and business is booming at the entryway. The yellow pollen is almost certainly myrtle and the bees have been collecting it for months. The orange pollen is of unknown origin and sticky. Some foragers are returning smeared with it.
May 25, 2014 Vernon’s entry…”There’s been a population explosion in the year-old hive. During the warm hours the small entryway seems hardly adequate. To relieve congestion the bees have developed a traffic pattern with exit on the right and entry on the left. The system breaks down a lot but I’m still impressed.
I keep a couple of supers stored away. One of them has an entry, and stacking it on would give the old hive bees two doors. This morning I decided to take off the roof and look down through the bars to see if the hive is ready for the super. A clear plexiglas lid over the bars allows me to look inside the brood box without opening the hive and disturbing the bees too much. The bars are oriented north-south, and the eastern 3/4 of the hive looks full. Four or five bars on the western side aren’t being used yet. The brood box still has room, so I didn’t add the super.
While I was at it I looked into the new hive observation window. I take back all the bad things I said about my package bees, because they’ve been building comb like crazy. Next week I’ll take pictures to record six weeks of progress.”
May 27, 2014 Vernon’s writes…“Okay, I put the super on the year-old Perone hive. With decent honey now selling for $6/lb and up I’m counting on the girls to keep me well-stocked.
The 1/8 inch thick plexiglas lid was warped pretty badly and was letting in some water droplets. I replaced it with an indoor plywood lid over the super bars. Later I’ll replace the plexi lid on the new hive as well. Actually, the thin, construction-grade boards of the hive body are also warping in some places. If spaces open up I’ll probably seal them with fine mud. Maybe I’ll give the hive a fresh coat of linseed oil.
This morning I saw a blackberry flower moving…….A bee was buried in the blossom!…….Submerged in her work! I’m waiting for the blossoms to fall from the berries before I weed-wack them. Maybe I’ll save a few berryweeds for snacks, though they attract bears.”
June 1, 2014
For the last three days foragers from both of my colonies have been bringing back much less pollen. With all the blackberries and assorted wildflowers in bloom nectar should still be plentiful. A large number of drones were observed entering and leaving my older hive, more than ever before, but still no signs of swarming.
New hive six week check-up
Moisture droplets coated both observation windows, making photography difficult. Humidity in the hive must be quite high.
The new colony is building comb from the northeast corner of the hive out.
There are seven combs so far, suspended from the first seven bars numbered from the east wall. The space under the first bar was a solid mass of bees so I couldn’t actually see the comb. The combs are as ruler-straight and parallel as any I’ve seen. My other Perone colony disregards the top bar orientation and builds highly-irregular comb.
The maximum depth of the comb is 28 cm (a little over 11 in.).
This close-up shows the comb attendants are a mix of Italian and Carniolan varieties (Carniolans have darker abdomens). The package used to start the colony was comprised of Italian workers and a Carniolan queen, meaning that all the Carniolan workers in this photo were born in this hive. The package was shipped to me on April 15, so all the Italian bees shown are at least 47 days old.
July 1, 2014…The traffic at the entries of both of my hives seems slightly down from a late May/early June peak. Worried that my hives might be infected or invaded or something, I took the shutters off the new hive for a “10th week check-up.” Everything looked fine inside. Comb building is continuing at a fast clip. There are now eight combs, the largest of them just under 18 inches deep and 19 inches long.
July 1, 2014… A cute little ninth comb is just getting started. Water droplets on the window indicate high humidity, which concerns me, though the bees seem okay with it.
July 4, 2014…Some honey-filled cells are visible in this close-up. The queen of this colony is Carniolan, but the workers seem to include a number of Carniolan/Italian hybrids.
July 4, 2014 – Vernon added…Over 50% of my foragers are bringing back pollen today. That’s a new high. Most of the pollen is yellow, maybe sow thistle, which is growing anywhere in Klamath that isn’t being mowed. That includes my lawn, which I haven’t mowed in months because it’s full of wildflowers and the bees are all over them. Sweat bees and a little black thing (probably a fly) seem to prefer sow thistle, bumble bees like the purple clover, and honey bees go first to blackberries and white clover. There’s also a low-growing purple flowered weed that attracts all the pollinators. I like the idea of providing for the bees passively, by not mowing, rather than actively planting flowers the bees might like. Of course, if I lived in suburbia with neighbors who could see my house I’d probably be getting complaints about my ratty-looking yard.
August 1, 2014 – After much waffling I’ve decided to over-winter my older hive with the super in place. My first honey harvest will be next Spring, when the colony is about 24 months old. That’s in keeping with Perone’s recommendation that the first harvest should come at 18 months or more. Since adding the super May 27 the major nectar flows have been blackberry, clover and thistle. Bees make exceptional honey from all these sources, so it’s hard to resist putting it into bottles. But I’m just not confident the hive has enough stores in the brood box alone to last the winter.
The foragers have brought back very little pollen this week. Most of the wildflowers in my unmown lawn are shriveling away. There are still some thistle, and plentiful Queen Anne’s lace. My bees don’t seem to like Queen Anne’s lace much, but they are visiting them occasionally, probably because other flowers are getting scarce. Bumble bees have elbowed the other pollinators away from the few patches of red clover that remain. The only pollinators I’ve seen on my pretty-but-intrusive orange freesia weeds are hummingbirds.
Some of my beekeeper friends maintain that the nectar flow is virtually over in my area. They are feeding syrup now. Certainly the number of foragers from my older hive is decreasing, but the new hive is sending out more foragers than ever. I’m trying to learn how to assess nectar collection by comparing the relative abdomen circumferences of the bees entering and leaving the hive.
August 1, 2014 _ New hive fifteenth week check-up
On August 1 the shutters came off my newer hive for a quick assessment. Comb building continues and the colony has no observable disease. The population is quite high for a first-year colony (though several times lower than that of the older hive). The fixed-bar design of the Perone hive doesn’t permit direct observation of honey and pollen stores. However, foraging remains vigorous and comb area is more than sufficient, leading me to conclude that the colony is probably setting up well for the Winter.
Nine functional combs are now adhered to the north wall of the hive, and a tenth “baby comb” is underway. The largest combs have grown to 18.5 inches deep and 22 inches across, only an inch away from spanning the hive interior.
Second Perone hive, August 1, 2014…It was easy to shoot this close-up through the south window because the combs are almost touching it. Does anyone see signs of disease? To me this looks like a big thriving colony of Carniolans doing what bees do best.
August 1, 2014…Only 12 days ago the driveway leading to my house was lined with thistle flowers. Most have gone to seed now.
September 2, 2014
It’s been a dry year in California and my place is parched. The forager numbers are down for both of my hives, especially the older one. I doubt there is much nectar available to them. Last week the foragers brought back a lot of orange pollen and smaller amounts of other types. From a lot of observations I was able to confirm that the orange pollen comes from sow thistle. The newer hive produced a lot of drones this year and the workers are currently doing their best to expel those that remain.
A quick check inside the hive shows no measurable comb building occurred during August. The colony population also appears unchanged.
This view from the other window shows a lot of empty cells. Building additional comb now would probably be wasted effort. Carnies are noted for their early winter preparations, and everyone seems quite busy.
October 2, 2014 Vernon’s update…”Despite my firm resolution to leave my newer hive undisturbed until next Spring I couldn’t resist removing the shutters for a quick check inside. My previous check found no measurable comb added in August. Today I confirmed that none was built in September, either. Still, the hive is full of very busy bees. A moderate number of foragers are out, bringing back a modest amount of orange and yellow pollen. No drones have been seen for the last 2 weeks, which isn’t surprising since they were being mercilessly expelled during the prior 2 weeks.”
October 2, 2014…Comb building has stopped but the worker population remains steady.
October 7, 2014…Yesterday and today the foragers from both my hives have been out in big numbers, and they’ve been bringing back a lot of pollen, mostly orange pollen from sow thistle. When I checked the on-line weather report it said there was very little pollen from trees and none from grass and flowers in my area. So I know not to rely on pollen reports anymore. These little rains we’ve had have put the pollinators back to work.
October 19, 2014…My bees have been foraging in large numbers all week, bringing back lots of yellow pollen with an orange tinge. I’m seeing ivy flowers all over my neighborhood, and that’s probably the pollen source. An on-line article The honey and the ivy: Why gardeners’ foe is the bees’ friend says 80% of the foragers on ivy bring back nectar rather than pollen, meaning that virtually all my bees are probably on the ivy now.
Vernon
October 26, 2014
After the big storm…The runways of both hives were wet. There were 13 waterlogged corpses on the new hive runway, which I removed to get them out of the way. The older hive had only one runway casualty. Foragers were out in modest numbers but they weren’t bringing back pollen. In the 10 minutes or so I was watching one worker was expelled from each hive, a behavior I haven’t seen in months. I fought off the urge to take off the shutters and take a look inside.
Vernon’s Perone hive, showing the brood box (24 inches in length, width and depth), one super and the roof. Construction was of Douglas Fir with the exterior thin-coated with linseed oil. Materials cost about $140 including the concrete footed mounting frame and a sheet of galvanized metal for the roof.
When my first Warre hive was threatening to swarm, I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t want any more hives but I wanted to give it to someone who would really appreciate a prime swarm. I found out about Vernon through the new bee keeping network of Oregon South Coast Beekeepers Association…he had just built a Perone hive. He wanted a swarm rather than package bees. That was me a year ago. The bees swarmed on Mother’s Day, May 12, 2013. We handed him a bucket of bees a day later, but I didn’t want to leave it at that, I had never seen a Perone hive before and wanted to see how big it was…I wanted to make sure our bees had a good home.
He sent me these photos and his details…
The plans I used to construct my hive are on-line:
The authors are from Chile so the useful dimensions are in metric. Perone insists that the internal dimensions of the brood box be 57 X 57 X 57cm, which is 184.5 liters. Each of his supers is 32.5 liters. Whenever I converted to English units I adjusted the measurements slightly for convenience. My brood box is built of 1 X 6 inch lumber, which of course actually measures 3/4 X 5 1/2 inches.
Stacking 4 boards on edge gave me a brood box 22 inches in height (not including the floor which is 3/4 inch thick). The outside dimensions for length and width were 24 X 24 inches, so the interior dimensions were 22 1/2 X 22 1/2 inches
Scrap lumber sticks placed inside the brood chamber to help support the expected massive comb loads.
The height of my supers is 4 1/2 inches rather than the 4 inches recommended by Perone. I measured my bars in metric (24 cm height and width, which is about 15/16 inches) and cut them on a circular saw from 2 inch cross-section stock.
There were 49 bars: 17 bars for the brood comb spaced 9mm apart, and 16 bars each for the two supers, spaced 10 mm apart.
Perone insists that the brood comb bars be 9mm apart because he feels this helps the bees maintain optimal brood comb temperature to fight infestations. Also, that spacing is preferred by the queen, so an excluder isn’t needed to keep her in the brood box.
Note the lower entry and 2 inch deep landing strip. The metal strip above the entry is a mouse guard. The upper landing strip is also attached to the brood box.
My gabled roof has a 5 1/2 inch peak and the ridge is 31 1/2 inches long. The roofing is made from 1 x 6 inch boards and is covered by galvanized sheet metal.
Side view of the hive just after the swarm dump. Everyone’s confused!
It wasn’t long before scouts returned and started their waggle-dance.
I asked Vernon if he would consider shooting a video of the bees…
This video was shot on May 23rd about 9 days after installation.
Some updates below…
On Aug 3, 2013, at 10:50 PM, Vernon Strength <eurekawriters@yahoo.com> wrote:
Today I removed the super from my Perone hive and had a chance to look down through the brood box grid bars. The attached photo shows that the bees have been building weird comb: rather small, all in the southeast corner, cross-combed to the extreme, and the comb cells between the bars are oriented “up.” After almost three months the population of the hive seems about the same as the original swarm.
Obviously, my inclusion of a super from the beginning was a dumb idea. The colony isn’t going to come close to filling their brood box by winter, much less a super. My only defense is that I believed the South American beekeepers’ claims of rapid proliferation in the first few months.
Now the roof lid is directly over the brood box bars, almost touching them, so maybe the bees won’t be able to move over the top of the bars so easily to produce vertically-oriented brood cells. That might reduced cross-combing, too. Still, it’s already August and I don’t think there is time before winter for the bees to change their ways and build enough aligned combs towards the center of the grid. They will have a hard time increasing their numbers significantly in their present nest, which may also be hard for them to heat in winter. I can’t think of anything else to do now that I’ve removed the super. Unless you have any suggestions I’ll follow the Perone philosophy and let the bees figure it out.
Vernon
On Aug 26, 2013, at 12:42 AM, Vernon Strength <eurekawriters@yahoo.com> wrote:
The population of the Perone hive colony seems to have increased significantly in the last few days, based on the unprecedented numbers entering and leaving the hive entryway. Maybe they’ve increased their numbers for a last big food gathering push before winter. It’s still a mystery what they are foraging on; they still fly straight up and over some big trees and disappear when they leave the hive, and they return from the same direction. Lots of bumblebees have foraged around my house, but zero honeybees.
Last time I gave you an update I was concerned that there was so much cross-combing, and the comb was smaller than I’d expected. It appears that the oddball comb has produced lots of brood though, the comb is ugly but functional, so I’m going to follow the Perone approach and leave the bees to gather their own supplies. If this colony doesn’t make it through the winter I’m going to feel like a murderer.
I’ve started building another Perone hive using lessons learned from this first one. The main difference is a 11in X 16.5in observation window. I’m going to mount the new hive on the same platform with the first one, but probably the entry will face in the opposite direction so the bees won’t get confused about which entry to use.
Ciao,
Vernon
November 26, 2013…I took my new & improved Perone hive to the beekeeper’s meeting in Gold Beach last Thursday and got a lot of interest. In fact, Del is thinking of using something similar while he’s in the Peace Corps. The new version has two large picture windows so I won’t be completely in the dark about activities inside the hive the way I am now. The day-before-yesterday I checked the first hive when the weather was damp and in the low-to-mid 50’s and there were no signs of life. I put my ear to the side wall but could hear nothing, so I lightly rapped it with my knuckles and three bees came out to see what was going on. I concluded that the hive was simply hunkered down inside due to foul weather. Really, I’m not sure what the temperature was outside, though I have two thermometers that weren’t cheap. It’s nearly impossible to find a mercury thermometer anymore: The alcohol substitutes are safe but inaccurate. When I compare thermometers at a store they always show different readings (i.e., two different thermometers of the same make & model may have readings over 5 degrees apart). The Italian bees we are keeping are apparently notorious for taking the day off when it’s coolish outside. My friend Steve Sottong of Eureka recovered a swarm he claims was about 3X the volume of mine. His bees are little and black, probably the species native to Great Britain, and they forage when it’s in the high 40’s.
Del suggested again that I feed my bees. His idea had some appeal: Hang a Christmas candy cane from a top bar using a string or thin flexible wire. Of course, once I do that I no longer have a “pure” Perone experiment going, so I’m torn. Maybe the foragers are still finding nectar. Lots of ivy grows around my neighborhood, and some weed flowers still persist.
November 28, 2013…Well, my (inaccurate) thermometer reads 61 damp degrees and my foragers are out in moderate numbers, moving verrrry slowwwly. The bees appear healthy so I’m attributing their lethargy to the cool moist weather and perhaps advanced age. I can tell the bees I’m seeing are all experienced veterans because they approach the small entryway so accurately. The inexperienced foragers I observed in mid-summer came in crazy-fast and usually crash-landed on the runway, sometimes banging their heads against the hive walls or landing on other bees. Anyway, nothing worrisome to report regarding the colony.
Vernon
January 24, 2014…The Perone bees are busy foraging this morning, taking advantage of the unseasonable 64 degree F. (17.7 C) temperature. I’ve still never fed them. Hopefully they are finding nectar someplace (the myrtle trues seem to have buds).
Vernon
Solarbeez says…Hi Vernon, I’m so glad you decided not to feed. I’ve been reading Michael Bush’s book, “The Practical Beekeeper.” He talks about the pH of the hive. When you feed sugar, it raises the pH of the hive which makes it more susceptible to nosema.
The only hive I’m feeding is the Warre, but I’m going to discontinue that. I never took any honey, but I CAVED IN to the temptation to feed them dry sugar. The other two hives are not getting fed and they seem to be fine.
Here’s another Michael Bush quote you won’t see anywhere else… On Page 435…
“Pathogens?
Even some seemingly pathogenic organisms such as Aspergillus fumigatus which causes stonebrood, supplants worse pathogens, in this case Nosema. Or Ascosphaera apis which causes Chalkbrood but prevents European Foulbrood.”
Thanks for the update.
Pat
January 26, 2014…The Perone bees are collecting from a different pollen source today, a golden yellow variety.
January 26, 2014…The only flowers I see in my yard are on these myrtle trees, which locals also call pepperwoods or bays. Of course, my bees never forage around my yard so I don’t know their actual pollen source.
February 10, 2014…Vernon says, “After a few days of rain the foragers are again out in force, and they are collecting more golden-yellow pollen than ever. This winter has been so warm and dry I’m not sure the Perone hive is getting an adequate test.”
Vernon’s entries:
February 19, 2014…Drove to Crescent City this afternoon and Queen Anne’s Lace weeds were blooming all along the road.
February 22, 2014…The foragers are out today in about the same numbers I saw during the summer. It’s likely the colony considers that Spring has arrived. A few dead or dying workers were on the ground below the entrance, probably over-winter bees that have been replaced by the next generation. I believe the queen started laying during the mid-January warm spell. About 20% of the foragers are bringing back golden-yellow pollen, which Carla believes comes from Myrtle trees. Odd that our west coast winter has been so mild while the east coast has been frigid and stormy.
March 27, 2014…
I’m hoping to finish my second Perone hive this weekend. Will send photos when I do. I also want to write a summary of my conclusions after taking a Perone hive through the winter without feeding or treating or helping them in any way. My friend Steve in Eureka lost 5 of his 6 Langs, including the one that housed the huge swarm I wrote you about (small, cold-adapted black bees from northern Europe). He’s looking into setting up a horizontal hive.
Of course I’m in need of a swarm. Please let me know if you hear of one available.
Vernon
March 27, 2014…Pat’s reply
My congratulations on getting through the winter without feeding or treating. I welcome your conclusions on that. I understand your second hive will have an observation window. You’re going to love it.
My log hive has bees that are fanning. I think they might be getting crowded. Last year the first swarm was on a hot 80˙F day on March 31. If the weather settles down, that could happen again this year. The first swarm has been promised away for a swarm swap. I’m debating whether to keep it (if that person’s hive isn’t ready) or give it away to try to get different genetics. I’m hoping my other log hive will attract a swarm without me interfering.
If Vernon sends photos, I will post them here.
April 26, 2014 Lessons Learned
Last May I introduced a swarm of moderate size into a Perone mk2 hive. The colony survived the winter and appears to be thriving. Since the hive has no observation windows I infer colony condition by watching the numbers and behaviors of individuals who venture out.
The hive is located in mixed woodlands on the northern California coast, USDA plant hardiness zone 9b. Winter was warmer than usual this year, with only one hard freeze. While it may be argued that survival through a mild winter isn’t an adequate test of the Perone design and philosophy, it remains that beekeepers in my area with carefully-tended Langstroth hives reported roughly the same high losses this year as previously.
Hopefully the success of my hive will encourage others to try Perone hives. I strictly followed the Perone approach of benign neglect.
I never fed my bees. They were industrious foragers and didn’t appear to need any sugar water. At times it was difficult to resist feeding, because experienced beekeepers I respect advised me in the strongest terms to either feed my bees or watch them die. They cited seasonal stoppages of nectar flows (while flowers were in bloom) and pollen production (when pollen.com warned allergy sufferers in my area of high pollen counts). Swarms were represented as particularly vulnerable to starvation. My bees proved the experts wrong. Apparently feeding is so strongly entrenched in our beekeeping culture that it will persist superstitiosly no matter what.
Hive inspections. I never opened my hive to check the condition of the comb. Typically beekeepers open their hives at least monthly to check for diseases, monitor comb development, and discourage swarming.
Disease treatment: I never observed disease syptoms in my Perone bees. Of course they were given the “preventative medicine” of a Perone hive. The design of the Perone hive discourages disease through a more natural, healthful, undisturbed environment, and the relatively large populations of Perone colonies encourage thorough hygiene and robust reactions to parasite infestation. However, I do kill every yellowjacket I see.
Monitoring comb development: The only apparent benefit of monitoring comb is that it’s fascinating for the beekeeper. The removeable frames or top bars of more traditional hives encourage maniputation of comb positions. For example, one of my colleagues found that some of his Langstroth hives were “honey bound.” These hives had a few brood frames located between frames of mostly honey, which he said inhibited the development of more brood. In response he moved the honey frames to outside positions to encourage more brood nearer the center. My colleagues often switch frames between hives. For example, if a hive is producing more brood and less honey than what is considered optimal a honey frame is brought in from another hive and exchanged for an “excess” brood frame.
Drone cells and queen cells are often destroyed, as they consider worthless. Most destroy the “swarm cells” of developing queens to avoid population reduction in their hives due to swarming. Many “re-queen” (killed the queen and introduced a new one) when brood development doesn’t meet their expectations.
These are the same beekeepers who report 30-40% losses or worse over the winter and attribute the survival of my colony to luck. I never inspected the comb in my Perone hive—for all I know it may be “honey bound” and full of drone and swarm cells—but it seems to be working.
The value of swarms: The swarm introduced into my Perone hive appeared very organized from the beginning. Foragers quickly set out in all directions, returned in an excited state, and congregated for waggle-dancing on the landing platform in front of the hive entry. After the first day the foragers I observed always left my yard and returned from the same direction. From this I infer that the foragers quickly found an optimal feeding area and returned to it regularly thereafter.
Last week I introduced a 3 pound package of purchased bees into a second Perone hive. So far these bees appear disorganized compared to the swarm. It took several hours for the package bees introduced inside the hive to discover and regularly use the single entryway, compared to about 20 minutes for the swarm. And I never saw the package bees waggle dance. Now, after a week, the foragers continue to meander around, each in her own direction, without urgency.
My theory is that a swarm is more specialized to establish a new colony than most beekeepers appreciate. The swarm population seems to be made up of an appropriate number of workers specialized to perform each of the needed functions. It’s known that individuals carry enough supplies in their bodies to begin the processes. By contrast, package bees are shaken off frames pulled from established hives without regard for the functions the workers are currently performing. Then they are packaged with an unfamiliar queen and shipped off with some syrup to eat. What an awful start for a colony! In this first week I’ve observed a disturbing number of dead bees from the package bee colony.
Other hive maintenance. My hive is mounted on concrete foundation blocks that settled over the winter. The hive is no longer level. After some consideration I decided not to level the hive. There are no rigid frames in a Perone hive, so the bees are free to angle their comb building to adjust for settling. Returning the hive back to level would require the bees to readjust.
My daughter, son-in-law and new granddaughter were visiting us on Mother’s Day. It was about noon, we were eating lunch…my wife spots this horde of bees. “It’s a swarm!” We all rush out to see it. I think it probably came from the Warre hive that’s been threatening to swarm for over two weeks. Son-in-law says, “What can I do to help you capture it?” My wife says, “Oh, thank you, Jim, I didn’t want to have to do it.”
We let the bees coalesce on a branch.
They settled down into a nicely shaped swarm about 12 feet (4 m) up.
This calls for the Steinkrauss-Morse swarm retriever
A Bucket of Bees
“The queen is over here…” Bee stick their abdomen up in the air to fan the pheromone letting stragglers know where the queen is.
It was a win, win, win. My son-in-law, Jim Montgomery provided much needed assistance in corralling the swarm, my daughter was able to capture the whole event with the camera, and my wife was able to spend more time with our granddaughter.
Where did the bucket of bees go? Well, I would have liked to put it into Bee-atrice log hive because it’s a ‘prime’ swarm, but Bee-atrice was already occupied. I found someone who didn’t want package bees. He has built a Perone style hive. It’s a BIG hive. I like his attitude…”The Perone hive is built for the bees, not the bee keeper. It’ll hold about 150,000 bees. I’ll let them build their own comb.” We arrange for the ‘hand-over,’ and meet at a very scenic state park along the Oregon Coast.
Vernon built his own Perone hive. He brought the framework holding 17 top bars where the bees will build their natural comb. He held it up so we could see how big the hive will be. In the background you can see why I wanted to live on The Oregon Coast.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 