Killing varoa mites - formic acid treatment

During the last month I noticed that I got higher and higher varoa mite count in the bottom plate of the hive. Just before the last harvest I counted more than 100. After the last harvest I fed the bees with inverted sugar so they had something to feed on and then it was time to treat the bees with formic acid. This is a kind of harsh treatment and lots of bees will be killed but the hive will be almost cleared for mites afterwards.

The procedure is simple. For a 12x10 box with 10 plates you need 3 ml of 60% formic acid per plate i.e. 30 ml which is sprayed out on the bottom plate with a syringe.

This is repeated 4 days in a row. The bottom plate is sprayed with formic acid preferably at night where the temperature is lower and the bees are all in the hive. In this way all bees are exposed without the concentration in the air is excessively high.  There are several other procedures but this one is simple, easy, and not other equipment is needed. 

The result is obvious already after the first day. 

... Every small black dot is a mite

After the 4th day I estimate I had killed about 1000 mites (every dark brown dot). 

I changed the cloth in the bottom plate and a week after I counted about another 1000 mites......

..... And about 500 the week after (no pic).

Hereafter I have only counted 1-3 mites. But I was surprised that I had this many mites in the hive. Fortunately the number has only been high for a few weeks so the family had not been damaged by the invasion.

The last honey harvest - so which honeys to use for mead

By the end of August i harvested 3rd and last time this year. The honey yield has been quite OK. First harvest resulted in 22.8 kg, second harvest 21.9 kg and finally third and last was 11.0 kg - a total of 55.7 kg from just one hive. Not bad! 2014 has been a good year.

I had bought a 20 L bucket instead of the 40 L which I have used  earlier since I try to collect several times during the summer and I will never have more than 25 kg after harvesting one magasin, which corresponds to 18-19 L. It is also more handy in small kitchens :o)

Below the third honey batch is transferred to the final container.

I reserved 7.4 kg of honey from the spring honey as described earlier and 2 x 7.2 kg from the summer honey so a total of almost 22 kg. The rest we are enjoying or selling - first come first served. This is all that is left from the first two batches ...

The mead I prepared last year has a strong acidic note to it, which can be directly traced to the honey used, but there was only one batch to choose from. This year I have selected the more smooth batches - spring and summer. The late summer batch has a strong sting to it so now I am wondering what the source is, so that I next year can harvest before this flower bloomes. The summer honey (clover and flowers) is just fantastic and the spring honey (fruit trees and early flowers) is a close second. The late summer honey is not fit for mead making in my opinion, but it is still great for eating, salald dressing, glacing etc. Mmmmmm. I will probably stir it untill it crystallizes as this should take some of the acidic sting out too.

2014 batch 1: Cyser

Finally back in the apartment, so now I have time to write again :o)

This weekend I have prepared a second cyser. I hope that I can repeat the success from last year because that mead is just fantastic.

At first I needed apple juice. I have been collecting apples throughout September so that I would have enough for 20 L. This year the season is over already, so I have been storing apples in airtight boxes hoping that they were not all rotten when I got access to the apple press.

Most of the afternoon Saturday I was crushing and pressing apples with some help from a friend. In the end I had about 16 L so I went to the local store to pick up some apples (fortunately they were on sale) - 12 kg of danish aroma apples which turned into about 6 L.

Slicing......

Crushing...

And pressing...

I finally got 20 L for the cyser which roughly were distributed:
Red Ingrid Marie: 7 L
Guldborg: 5 L
Aroma: 5 L
Pigeon, Ananas, and "unknown": 3 L

The rest of the juice will be enjoyed over the next few days. 

So the recipe was as follows:
20 L of apple juice
5.5 kg of summer honey
12 g of pectonase
Sweet mead/wine yeast (WLP720)

In the evening I prepared the must by raising the temperature of the must to 80C for 10 min to knock out wild yeast. Since I only have one 12 L pot I had to heat 10 L at a time.

Last year I used 7.2 L of honey and the gravity was out of the scale. Best estimates OG was about 1.170 so it was probably close to dumb luck that the fermentation started at all.

This year I wanted to take into account the sugar content of the apples (yes that was what I did not do last year....). I measured the gravity of the warm must to about 1.035@60C, so at 20C the gravity is probably closer to 1.040 so if I want to start at 1.120, I need to add about 0,080 in honey. Last year I got an increase in gravity of about 0.016 for 1 kg of honey when the total volume was 20L, so that would be 0.080/0.016= 5 kg. Now adding honey will increase the volume and I will also loose water during the boiling, so I estimated my total volume to 22 L so all in all I would need 5 kg /20L*22L =5.5 kg. Then OG should be around 1.120.

Yeast starter: On the yeast bottle it says that a 1-2 pint starter should be considered if OG is higher than 1.070. So I diluted 300 ml of must with 300 ml of boiled (and cooled) water. The gravity was measured to about 1.058. The yeast was heated to room temperature for 3 hours and then added to diluted must. I used a magnetic stirrer to agitate the solution so I would continuously aerate the solution. Then I left the starter over night so that I could add it the next day in the evening, when the must had cooled.

Sunday morning the must had cooled to 28C so I added 12g of pectonase. I would now have the entire day to work on the must.

Well, things initially looked good with the starter but then suddenly at around noon I find the the stirrer was overheating and the started had been heated to 35C. I did not have anything nice to say by then. Fortunately I have several yeasts in the fridge, so I could quickly begin preparing a second starter using the same volumes as before. This time I used my home made magnetic stirrer (instructions on how to do that later). Secondly I aerated the starter solution with a kitchen mixer to speed up the process. The yeast was taken out of the fridge at 14:30. At 17:00 the starter was prepared and it was added to the must at 23:00. Not must time to become a starter............

Second attempt at a starter. Notice there are two yeast flasks to the right. Aerate...

...then stirring...

The OG of the must was 1.116 (as could be expected from the gravity of the starter...) I also measured pH with my new purchased pH meter - no more pH strips :o). The must was 3.21 whereas the starter was 3.40 so I guess the CO2 generated by the yeast lifted pH a bit. Usually pH is high in the must and is then lowered by CO2 generation.

The must was aerated by stirring it roughly with a large spoon for a few minutes and then the starter was added. Now it is just time to wait and see when the happy bubbling will start.

Monday morning: The water level in the airlock had not moved at all... But then started slowly to move ..... And made the first plop just before I went to work. Jaaah. Is there a better way to start the day ;)