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| Hello everyone welcome. We’re just gonna let a few more people come in and then we will start the webinar. Okay I am not seeing anyone else coming in from the lobby. hi everyone I’m Bri Price. I’m the Extension Coordinator with the WSU Bee program. Thank you so much for coming to one of our webinars in our 2025 webinar series. I just have a couple announcements before today’s speaker presents. The WSU Honeybees and Pollinators Program is a cornerstone of the College of Agricultural Han and Resource Sciences abbreviated CAHNRS that is dedicated to fostering resilient ecosystems in Washington and beyond. Our mission intertwines innovative research community engagement and education to safeguard pollinators that are pivotal. To our food security and environmental health. In partnership with the CAHNRS Resilient Washington Initiative we’re committed to advancing sustainable practices and pollinator-friendly landscapes. And ensuring a flourishing future for agriculture and natural resources. We have two more upcoming webinars this year. For more information about those please visit our upcoming events page on our website Bees.wsu.edu. There will be time today to answer any of the questions you have after the presentation. Feel free to type your questions in the box below anytime during the presentation. After today’s webinar and before you close your browser you should be prompted to answer a very short five-question education and outreach survey. These surveys are very important for us to make sure we’re tailoring our education and outreach to what you’re wanting to learn about. Today’s speaker is Joey Rosario. Joey is a master’s student in the Hopkins Lab and her research focuses on controlling comb storage pests like wax moth. Whether you’re a hobbyist or a commercial beekeeper storing extra comb is inevitable. How you store and reuse your comb can impact a colony’s health and productivity. This webinar will explore long-term effects of comb reuse and hidden risks involved and the common pests that target stored comb. And some efficacy of possible strategies to prevent and manage these pests infestations. Okay Joey I’m gonna mute myself and you can go ahead and share your screen. | Woman in grey shirt on screen wearing glasses and a Washington State University Logo in the background. |
| Joey: Okay I will try sharing now. Here you go can everybody see this? Bri: Looks good. Joey: Okay thank you. | Woman with black hair and glasses shares her screen. |
| As Bri said my name is Joey Rosario and I am in my second year of my master’s degree. and I’ll be covering the honeycomb storage and management. | The Washington State University Honey Bees and Pollinators Logo and the Washington State University Extension. The heading reads, Honey Comb Storage and Management. The text reads Joey Rosario and Master’s Graduate Student. The background is a semi-transparent photo of three bees on the honey comb. Joey Rosario appears in the corner of the screen, speaking. |
| And a little bit about myself. I have been part of the WSU since 2019. And I graduated last year with a general biology and Fine Arts degree on my senior year I joined the Honey Bee Lab and that’s because I just decided that bugs are really cool and honeybees are really really interesting to learn about and decided to stay in the lab as a master’s. I’ve learned so much about honeybees really cool facts about them and how to manage them as a beekeeper. And with my research I mainly focus on stored comb sanitization and we’ll talk more in depth about it at the end of the presentation. | The next slide heading reads, About me. A photo of the presenter. Texts and bullet points. Graduated Washington State University in 2024 with a major in Biology and Fine Arts. Joins the Honey Bee Lab in 2023. My research focuses on stored comb sanitization. |
| Okay so here’s a quick overview. I’ll be mainly talking about what exactly are combs and the effects of reusing combs, the main pests around wax combs, and what are some available management practices are out there and what my research is looking into. | The next slide heading reads, Overview. Bulleted points. General information on wax combs. What happens if you keep reusing combs? Pests. Management practices. My research. |
| Okay so first combs are… basically constructed beeswax that are made of different components like esters fatty acids long-chain alcohols and hydrocarbons, all of this just makes them really hydrophobic. so any water it doesn’t really stick to them. On the other hand beeswax is very malleable so they can easily collect debris and pesticides. Which are the issues that we will be talking about later. but how are they made exactly? So with after a worker eats honey and pollen. Beeswax is secreted from their wax glands. Through their abdomen. in this photo here you could see that honeybees have a total of 8 wax glands. And this is how they create wax scales. And they collect these scales with their tarsus and use their mandibles to mold it and create the hexagon shape of the comb. So now you can think about it like this that honeybees are rarely really small relative to us creating wax scales to make a whole frame of comb takes a lot of time and energy for every worker so, Wax equals valuable. | The next slide heading reads, How are honeycombs made? A photo of a honey bee secreting wax scale is shown. Texts and bullet points Combs are constructed beeswax made of complex lipids. Hydrophobic, It does collect debris and pesticide. Secreted by workers through their wax glands. They chew the wax and add it to the structure. Requires a lot of energy for workers. |
| And in a comb a cell is the most important unit because a honeybees hold basically everything in there like their food storage and any of the stages of the honeybee from like egg larvae and pupa. And why did bees exactly choose Hexagon as their comb shape? | The next slide heading reads, Comb Composition. Two photos of a bee on the comb. Texts and bullets. Cells are the fundamental unit of a comb. Primary site for food storage and bee development. Optimized hexagonal shape. Slightly angled upward to prevent spilling. Cell size and shape vary, depending on the caste level. |
| And in a comb a cell is the most important unit because a honeybees hold basically everything in there like their food storage and any of the stages of the honeybee from like egg larvae and pupa. And why did bees exactly choose Hexagon as their comb shape? Well there’s a scholar that created a theorem called the honeybee Conjector. And… so it’s Marcus Thuringius Varro. Did the math on why bees evolved to make hexagon cells. And this is because this was the most compact shape of all and the more compact it is. Meaning there is less materials bees need to use. And in this comic here it shows that oh for solitary bees they use circular shape and they’re like oh it’s strong it’s good enough. But if you need to have like a whole… call any of the support you need more sales so… They try to put it where it’s like a grid but there’s a lot of gaps to it. So it made it like alternating. It’s like efficient but there’s still a lot of materials that’s required for that. And at the very end they’re like okay let’s make it a hexagon shape. It’s like straight lines optimized. Less materials good to go. but some people ask like oh why can’t it just be squares or triangles but, they are still considered, bigger in perimeter rather than hexagon so that’s why… they’re not used. | The next slide heading reads, The Honey Bee Conjecture. A comic is shown, the first panel is a bee with a thought bubble that shows a cylinder with text, bee shape. Strong. Efficient. The next panel shows a bee with a thought bubble containing six cylinders and text: gaps!!! No!!! Inefficient!!! The next panel shows a bee with a thought bubble with six cylinders that fit together and text, efficient. Good. yes. The last panel shows a bee with a thought bubble with cylinders that are hexagon in shape and the text reads, connected. Straight lines. Optimized. Texts and bullets. Marcus Terentius Varro. Calculated the hexagons are most compact. Bees can use less wax to finish the honey comb structure. Squares and triangles have a higher perimeter. |
| Going back to this… With cells they’re slightly angled upward so that the neck there doesn’t spill out or the larva doesn’t fall. Usually they are at a 9 to 13 degree angle. With a cell depending on the… the case they have different sizes so for a worker as a regular size as you’ve seen everywhere. Drones are a little bit bigger because of their they just have a bigger body size and have more fat bodies in them. And for queen cells they are more likely to protrude out. Since they also need a lot of space. And after learning more about cell shapes. it’s very interesting to see how a lot of the art designs are very very misleading. like in the very top photo you can see how the tips are very like very much in the bottom and the top. While in drawing so you could see how the edges or the lines are on the top and bottom and… And bothers a lot of beekeepers or bee researchers. | The next slide heading reads, Comb Composition. Two photos of a bee on the comb. Texts and bullets. Cells are the fundamental unit of a comb. Primary site for food storage and bee development. Optimized hexagonal shape. Slightly angled upward to prevent spilling. Cell size and shape vary, depending on the caste level. |
| So with comb storage it’s very very important and inevitable especially during the winter when boxes or frames are not getting used. It is more cost-effective to reuse comb over and over again because it takes a lot of energy for workers to make them. There’s also less supplemental feeding that beekeepers have to keep up with … to support the wax production but what if it is more detrimental to the colonies to do this. | The next slide heading reads, Beekeeper Use. A photo of a beekeeper holding a frame by a hive is shown. Texts and bullets. Comb storage is crucial. Valuable to reuse. There are risks such as reusing frames and pests. |
| And in the next few slides I’ll talk about how wax combs change over time. | The next slide heading reads, Wax Combs Overtime. A transparent background of waxcomb cells are shown. |
| So first is the color change. When wax is secreted and constructed it starts out… it usually starts out as white. But over time the wax darkens because it is absorbed whatever… is put on that comb as the… vital workers. So if there’s pollen and honey it stains the comb into a medium color like an orange or yellow, light yellow. Since it does not have a lot of debris in it. But once you start putting brood in, or eggs lay eggs in the cells, This is where they tend to turn into shades of brown or black. And this is because anything from the bee development like feces silk or any cocoon shells that they have is absorbed by the wax. And this is why brood wax… or brood frames turn darker quicker than supers. | The next slide heading reads, Color Change. A photo of two frames, one is darker than the other, is shown. Texts and bullets. Wax readily absorb any debris. Pollen and honey stains the combs. Turns into a darker color with bee development due to fecal excretion, silk spinning, and molting. Brood rearing turns comb into brown or black color. |
| And it’s not only that it’s also the… it also constricts the cell shape because of its layers. You’ll see in older frames they have a more circular shape rather than a hexagon. in the top photo here the left side shows the full like a newer cell. It has a more. hexagon shape to it. While their right side has a more like a bullet shape at the bottom it’s more circular. And because of this, bees tend to have a smaller, body smaller morphology which affects the majority of the bodily functions that they have. Two examples is that their legs they usually use them to measure how deep to make the cells and the diameter of it, and because their legs are smaller. The cells are smaller so any future workers will be smaller. Another example is the proboscis. Because their proboscis are smaller. their foraging capabilities lowers since they cannot bring a lot of nectar into their body their crop. And because of this this creates a lot of work. For foragers to go back and forth from the colony to the foraging area and vice versa. | The next slide heading reads, Change in Cell and Bee Morphology. A photo of two cells are shown, one has a distinct hexagon shape while the other is more circular and has a rounded tip. Another photo shows a row of cartoon bees getting smaller as the size of the cell becomes smaller. Texts and bullets. Cocoon residues overtime make the cells smaller. The cells look more circular. Restricts bee development, which means honey bees are smaller, along with smaller legs and proboscis. |
| So this creates a domino effect where the overall colony strength is also affected. In this diagram below, it shows the different areas of the cells and how they are used. In a new or fresh comb all of the cells are used by the workers as a food source or for pollen, or as a brood cell. On the other hand with old comb there are more cells that are not getting used especially in the corners, and there are a lot of pollutants that are present in the area. And this is because of like pesticides or any drift zones. And this also creates another domino effect; with less brood cells, there are less workers that emerge and less food storage. And because of this the space is limited. And… so the workers cannot fly or forage for longer periods of time thus getting a shorter lifespan. And this is something that should be considered … even something as small as reusing frames can even affect the overall colony’s strength. | The next slide heading reads, Colony Strength. A diagram is shown with two frames, the frame on the left is labelled New/fresh comb that has color coded cells of yellow, orange, and light brown. The other frame is labelled Old comb with the same three colors, but with the addition of dark brown colors at the corners of the frames as well as grey dots around th frame. A key is uncluded underneath the frames, stating that yellow is the honey cell, light brown is the pollen cell, orange is the brood cell, dark brown is the empty cell, and the grey dots are the pollutants. Texts and bulleted. Lower worker emergence. Shorter lifespan. Decreased flight speed and foraging. Less food capacity. |
| Okay. So yeah with pollutants this does increase over time. due to the pesticides that’s applied for crops they are affected especially if they are at the drift zone. | The next slide heading reads, Pollutants throughout the years build up! A photo of a person with proper PPE is spraying pesticide t the orchard. Text reads Agricultural-based. Pesticide application on crops or the colony and the consideration of heavy metals. |
| So next we’re gonna cover the stored comb. There are two main pests that are in Washington State. The amount and different types of pests depend on the environment. | The next slide heading reads, Pests in Stored Combs. The background is a photo of wax combs. |
| Okay. So yeah with pollutants this does increase over time. due to the pesticides that’s applied for crops they are affected especially if they are at the drift zone. So next we’re gonna cover the stored comb.. There are two main pests that are in Washington State. The amount and different types of pests depend on the environment. So first is the wax moth. it is an umbrella term for multiple species but there are two main ones are the greater and the lesser wax moth so the Galleria mellonella and Archoia grisella. These are very very common pests for stored combs. If the hive is still in use. A strong colony can easily remove the wax moth and propollize the hive to lessen the invasion. But on the other hand if it’s a weaker colony they have little to no chance to… and may result in secondary diseases like black wing virus, Varroa mites, or Nosema. they mainly damage the frame and eat the wax pollen honey and brood and leave tunnels which I’ll explain more to that with the life cycle. | The next slide heading reads, Waxmoth. A photo of waxmoth is shown. Texts and bullets reads, Two species, with Greater waxmoth (Galleria mellonella) and Lesser waxmoth (Achrois grisella). Very common pest in stored combs. Eats wax, pollen, honey, and brood. Leaves tunnels using silk and frass or feces. |
| So first with the eggs they are usually deposited in the crevices. After 2 weeks? And after 2 weeks that’s when the larva emerges and this is the stage on where. They are considered the most. [damaging] because they eat a lot of their resources in the hives such as the honey like honey pollen wax and brood, and because of this they create a lot of webbing and frass. Tunneling and I’ll show in the next slide. But after this they pupate on the hive and stay pupated for 6-7 weeks. And once they emerged in the middle they don’t eat any of the resources in the hive. Their main goal is to mate and lay the eggs and repeat the cycle again. | The next slide shows the life cycle of the waxmoth. At the top are the eggs, where they will stay in this stage for five to thirteen days. Next is the larva at six to seven weeks, feeding on their surroundings. The next stage is the pupal stage that could go from eight to fifty days, depending on the temperature. The last stage is an adult moth that lives for seven to thirty days and will start the cycle again by laying eggs. |
| But here are the main damages that they have. On the very left side it shows like the pupil how it creates dense into the box. Which is not ideal in hives because it creates more spaces for the bees that they need to use their propolis which is an important resource that they have. The middle top photo shows a group of larvae in the very corner eating. All of the resources as much as they can, and you can see some slight tunneling around it but, they usually like to clump and just eat whatever is in there. It looks like they’re indestructible they could just… whatever’s on their path they just go for it. The bottom, the middle bottom photo shows like the pupil casing and how, this is how they usually are formed. They’re like in rows and that’s how they create the dents. And finally on the right. Is the more prominent tunneling. You could see the white webbing that is the silk that they produce around it. And you can see a little bit of the yellow it looks like pollen but those are the frass. And… usually the best way to tell that you have a wax moth infestation is through the white webbings rather than the frass because of how similar they look to the pollen. | The next slide heading reads, Wax Moth. four photos are shown. The first is a photo of the hive box with indents for cocoons inside. The second photo is a clump of larva at the corner of the frame, feeding into everything. Third photo shows the white cocoons lines up on top of the frame. The last photo shows the frass tunneling. |
| Okay so next we’re going to cover the small hive beetles. These are recently emerging pests in Washington state which was surprising since they. Their ideal environment is usually in the higher temperature and humidity. So like the southeastern states like Florida and I think North Carolina has them. These are the only species in the Nitidulidae family or like the sap beetles. That relies on honeybee hives. So if I put them anywhere, I don’t know like somewhere that has flowers they won’t even care about it they just, as long as it has wax or a hive, that’s where they thrive. similar to the wax moth the small hive beetles are destructive during their larval stage eat everything in the hive except for the wax. And they spread the yeast all over the hive and spoil the honey and attract other small hive beetles. But if you would like to know. More and read more about small hive beetles and how to manage them. A team in our lab wrote this extension publication. You could scan it in this like corner the QR code that will be available in this slide and a few more slides so… And let me know if the QR code is too small and I can enlarge it. | The next slide heading reads, Small Hive Beetles (SHB). A photo of the top, back and side of the small hive beetle is shown. At the bottom of the slide there is a QR code for A Guide To The Small hive Beetle. The text are bullets and read, Aethina tumida. Emerging pest in Washignton state. Lives inside or in close proximity to honey bee hives. In the larval stage it feeds on everything but wax as well as uses yeast to ferment honey. |
| But in that publication it shows like a heat map of where the small hive beetles are more likely to thrive in Washington state. The red and orange areas are the more suitable. habitats while the blue and purple are the least. So here the higher habitat suitability are at the lower elevations near the Puget Sound so it’s more on the west side. While the central and eastern areas. Of Washington State are less suitable because of its arid and desert climate. It’s too dry so they cannot survive through that. | The next slide heading reads, Habit Suitability in Washington State. This shows a heat map with the areas were the small hive beetles could possibly thrive. A QR code is provided at the bottom of the slide. |
| Here is a diagram of the small hive beetle life cycle created by Bri. it shows here first is that the female small hive beetles lay clusters of eggs in the crevices of the box. And once they hatch the larva just eat anything that’s on-site and releases disease that makes the honey pungent. And it makes them fermented and very slimy. So we can’t really use this honey once it’s at this state. It just looks really gross. And once they are close to pupation or once they’re close to cocooning, they’re at the wandering larva stage and they just wander around the hive until they find a place to burrow and pupate which is usually outside the hive and under 4 inches under the soil underground. during the pupil stage this is like the most vulnerable and longest part of their cycle usually spanning 75% of their life. And when they emerge as an adult they go back to the same host hive and repeat the cycle. And again with the yeast because of the sliminess and how fermented smell of it that’s how the adult knows that they can go back to this hive and there are resources available for them. But if there is an active colony in the hive honeybees typically can remove them but because of how small they are and if there’s a lot of crevices in the in the box, that’s where they can easily hide in the crevices. | The next slide heading reads, Small Hive Beetle Life Cycle. A photo of small hive beetle larva on the super frame is shown. There is a diagram shown where the eggs are deposited inside the cells, then the larva wanders around the frame for pollen. The next stage shows the larva burrowing in the soil for pupation, which is the next stage. After pupation, the adult emerges outof the soil and returns inside the hive. Text underneath the diagram reads, Diagram by Briana Price. There is a QR code provided at the bottom of the slide. |
| Okay. And other pests that we have are the ants. They’re not really that detrimental to the wax or like the materials but they’re mostly considered as a nuisance to beekeepers. And the next one is our mice. Usually they create a nest inside the hive and use it as a shelter. And this could be more dangerous to beekeepers especially with the presence of fecal dropping so if you’re cleaning out your stored combs and all of a sudden you see. frames with… like these random… what do you call it clusters of nests and you just get that poof. You have to be really careful when it comes to that. And this is where personal protective equipment is very very important. | The next slide heading reads, Other Pests. A photo of the bottom board with ants and a photo of a mice nest in between the frames inside the hive are shown. Texts in bulleted points read, few ant species where they may next inhive equipment. Mice may shelter empty equipment, which leaves old leaves and fecal droppings. |
| Okay. So next I’ll cover the uh management strategies that are available out there and what we’re looking at. | The next slide heading reads, Management Strategies. The background is a semi-transparent photo of waxcombs. |
| Okay. So one big factor that I’ve been putting out there is that it’s beneficial for future colonies to only reuse the frames for 3 years. After that it would be best to throw away the frames to increase the colony’s strength and they don’t have to work with frames that have debris or pesticides embedded in it. The main downside of this strategy is that it’ll be very very expensive and it’ll be also expensive for the workers to remake their wax again. But this is also like something to consider just for their money versus like the strength of your colony. You can weigh that out. But another possibility is you could scrape off the old combs on the frame but that’s not very ideal in a commercial setting. | The next slide heading reads, Replacing Old Frames. A photo of a beekeeper pulling out a frame midway through is shown. Texts and bullet points read, Throw away frames older than three years. Workers wil be larger. Colony has a lower mortality rate. There are less debris and pesticides contained in the wax. Expensive. |
| Another possibility is the cold storage. Which is a good cultural control for… mainly for wax moth. According to this paper from Zhu et al the table shows the different ages of the eggs like 1 day old 3 days 5 days 7 days old, and their mortality percentage at a specific time, whether it’s like 1 hour 3, 5, 7, 10 hours and also compares the negative 15 degrees Celsius versus negative 20. And seeing whether one is better than the other. But what this paper is basically saying that freezing equipment in either negative 15 or negative 20 degrees Celsius for 10 hours. Would kill the wax moth in all stages. It just shows that there’s 100% mortality in all stages or in all these. But when it comes to larva pupa and adult wax moth. You can easily kill them in like an hour. Eggs are like the most frost-resistant and they’re the ones that need no more time. There are two ways to handle this. You can either freeze all your equipment. In like 10 hours or you can even leave it overnight like for 24 hours and all the stages will be dead. Or you could just freeze it… all the equipment’s in an hour and then after one week you could freeze it again in an hour so that all the eggs that emerge into. Larva like that will also kill them instantly. | The next slide heading reads, Cold Storage. A table shows the age of the waxmoth eggs and their mean mortality when exposed to -15 degrees celsius or -20 degrees celsius at different times. The speaker points out that freezing at ten hours at both temperatures kill all stages of the waxmoth. |
| So next is the… another popular approach is the biological control and this is the… Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt in short. it is well-known agricultural biopesticide because it has a protein. Protein that is highly toxic to some insects. Like butterfly and moth larva so in moth larva that’s really really good for wax moth. It is naturally occurring in soil so it won’t become invasive in the future and their mode of action is having these proteins bind into the receptors of the insect. Which causes the cell function to disrupt and kills the insect. It just makes their bodily function like really wonky and just kills him through that. And the best part about this option is that it doesn’t affect the pollinators making it really a safe alternative to chemical pesticides. So this is what is really well known. There is like Certan or B402 that’s being used. | The next slide heading reads, Biological Control. A person wearing gloves and using a bottle sprayer to spray frames are shown. The bulleted points read, Bacillus thurengiensis (Bt). naturally occurring bacteria on soil. Applied before storing frames. Infects the midgut of the wax moth larva. Does not affect pollinators. |
| So this one’s the pesticide use the chemical control or using synthetic pesticides which are used as a way to combat really stubborn pests. When it comes to using pesticides it is important that you read the label and follow the instructions especially wearing the proper personal protective equipment, PPE in short. And this is because. A lot of it can go wrong with using pesticides. They can build a lot of resistance and It could be damaging to your health and also the pollinator’s health so it’s very important. With the Bee Health – usually it’s bad for bees or majority of these pesticides are pretty bad for it to be health in general and it should only be used once. The frames are in storage. So for wax moth there’s the paramoth. Which uses the PDB. It is a fumigant that is usually left in storage supers. It cannot be used with live bees though. Same with the small hive beetles, there’s a checkmite Plus and the Y-tex — these two are explained further in the Extension publication. But they are approved in Washington State but they are highly toxic to bees and are only used as a last resort if the small hive beetles took over the hive. So beware. | The next slide heading reads, Pesticide use. There is a photo of a bee laid on its side with a poster on a stick that says Dange/Peligro, Pesticides/Pesticidas, Keep out/No entre with a skull face. The bulleted points read, Combat stubborn pests. It is important to change pesticides to avoid resistance. Follow instructions and proper PPE. For waxmoth, there is Para-Moth that is used as a deterrent. The small hive beetles have three pesticides available that are still very dangerous and can cause acute toxicity. |
| So this part is my research. It’s like an overall showing like what I’m working on. And as you can see here that at the very left it shows like the bacteria the larva viral diseases and viral mites going into the honeybees the colonies. Once they’re affected and the colonies pass away. Like you think it’s the end but actually the hives are still contaminated with these things. the main thing I look at is the American and European foul bread which are highly contagious. So one of the three options of how you can manage them is – first is burning. But this costs a lot of money over time since once you burn the equipment you can’t really sometimes it’s harder to use them or it just can’t be used. Second, is putting antibiotics but over time that can cause antibiotic resistance so it’s not really a good constant repairment. And third it’s just an overall like chemical or pesticide use but that can create residues which could be bad for us, consumers of honey. So the three options that I’m looking at here are ozone parasitic acid and chlorine dioxide. With ozone all three of them are fumigants so they’re just applied through a big chamber and I just put all the materials in, and see whether it removes American European foul brood. And I’m also looking at wax moth and small hive beetles in this case. But for ozone it’s pretty well known to use as a sanitizing agent for other fields so I think it’s used for onions tomatoes or potatoes. And same with the parasitic acid that’s used mainly as a wash. So seeing how this is used as a fumigant will be interesting to see in for wax and any stored equipment. Because peroxyacetic acid’s been used in the medical field mainly in dentistry as a sanitizing agent for their tools. And for chlorine dioxide that’s mainly used as a surface cleaner ,so it’ll be I want to see how that gets infected how that changes like the surface of hive boxes and frames but I think for Wax it might be more difficult since that’s where a lot of the pesticide or diseases are mainly embedded within, inside the wax so… I don’t know if that will be as useful as an option. | The next slide heading reads, A Comparative Analysis of Ozone, Peracetic Acid, or Chlorine Dioxide as Disinfectants for Stored Bee Hive Sanitation. The Washington State University Honey Bees and Pollinators Logo. On the left side of the slide, there are icons of bacteria, viruses, and pests that are funneling down to a honey bee worker with a red X mark on her eye, and there is an arrow that points down to a hive with a red skull in front of it. In the middle of the slide, there are three circular photos stacked top to bottom. The top photo has burning hives and an arrow pointing to the right that shows a dollar bill icon. The middle photo depicts a hand using a syringe on the comb, with an arrow that points to a bacteria with a shield. The bottom photo shows the top of the hive with a pesticide sheet on it with an arrow pointing to honey with a skull in front. On the right side of the slide, there are three metal container icons labelled: Ozone, Peracetic acid, and Chlorine dioxide. Underneath the icon shows a photo of beekeepers working in the storage facility with stacked hives on the wall. |
| Joey: But that’s all I have. Thank you for listening. Do you have any other questions? Bri: It looks like we have one question about your slides about the cell shape. So as the cells change shape over time does the queen bypass those cells to lay an egg? Like does she show a preference? JoeyL No she doesn’t show a preference because if the cell is that she like all of the cells in that frame is in that shape. If she doesn’t have a choice that, but to lay an egg there. Like she wouldn’t care as much about it. Like there’s no preference to it. Bri: Does using a home freezer work for freezing the frames? Joey: As long as the freezer can go to negative 15 or negative 20 that should be ideal. Because… I think a lot of freezers can if it’s like a big freezer like a when you open inside these should be fine. But that’s where you just have to look out on like what temperatures it can go for Is the main thing with when it comes to freezing the hives or the equipment. Bri: So maybe put a thermometer inside or something? Joey: Yeah. Bri: What is your preferred method to replace the wax in frames? Joey: To replace the wax… Another way is, usually if you want to save the frame, the wooded frame around it you could kick it and remove the middle and then replace it with a foundation and then that’s where they the workers can rebuild their own cells again, or you can scrape it. So there’s either scraping and then leaving the foundation in there. Or you could kick out the foundation and the rest of the wax combs and then just put a new foundation in. Those are the two best options. Bri: What is the best way to store your supers over winter or when they’re not in use? Joey: Usually what we do we just leave with regular boxes, we don’t really do anything special when it comes to keeping supers. As long as they’re indoor and they’re stacked, you just keep track of the past by applying Certan or… BT before… storing or putting it in the freezer before putting him in the final destination. Bri: Is there a best method or a best practice for storing frames? Joey: A lot of it’s preventative. So as long as you make sure, before storing them in a container, you apply the… you can apply BT or you can even put the Paramoth and inside throughout the season or throughout the winter. And then midway through check it again and then before you start check it again. It’s a lot of checking in between. Bri: How often do you change frames and foundations? Every year? Joey: In our case because it’s also hard to get the materials unfortunately we do not really change it as often. In an ideal situation where if you change, the frames often the colonies would… get better but in a actual setting as of right now it’s harder to achieve that. Because materials are expensive right now and with our colonies they also are more reliant on ones that are already used that we have unfortunately. Bri: I know one recommendation our apiary manager had was replacing about 30% of your comb each year. So you don’t always have to do all of it every year, but that was the standard that he recommended. Joey: Okay yeah that’s a good idea too just so… Even like slowly changing it over time is good. It doesn’t have to be all of a sudden like all material’s gone because, like your colony would not thrive at that point. BrI: Are there any other questions? Okay if anyone thinks of any other questions after the webinar, you can email Joey. j.rosario@wsu.edu. Okay thank you so much for attending this webinar. Remember before you close your browser you’ll be prompted for that short 5-question education and outreach Survey. And as another reminder we have two more webinars planned this year. Our next one is in September and then the last one’s in October. For more information about those you can go to our upcoming events page on our website. If you want to rewatch this or tell your friends about it all these webinars in the series will be recorded and posted on our YouTube channel so I’ll be uploading that within the next couple of hours. So thank you so much for attending. Joey: Thank you! | The next slide heading reads, Thank you. The text underneath reads, Questions? A comic four panel comic is shown thanking the bee for everything has done. |