[UPBEAT FOLKSY MUSIC PLAYING]
OK.
Today I'm going to show you how to clean your laminate blue
orchard bee nests.
Some tools that you're going to want to have
are scissors for cutting open the straps on your nest,
if you have them; a small, dull screwdriver; some forceps
of some sort for picking out diseased or parasite larvae;
and a stiff brush for cleaning the nests.
You'll also want a screen mesh for reducing the amount
of small particles and dust.
And then, I like to have a bucket with water
and a little bit of soap for putting
any chalkbrood larvae or parasites or parasitic beetles,
wasps, whatever.
I'm going to show you another one of our pests
that you will probably encounter in some of your nests.
And that is chalkbrood.
It's right there.
It's going to look like a dead, C-shaped larva that is black.
And this is where your forceps or tweezers come in handy.
So I could pick this up gently.
And it should stay intact.
You just don't want to be using your fingers
and get the spores all over your fingers.
That can go right into your soapy water.
With your cocoons, this is how many I got out
of that particular nest.
And just going to sift that a little bit.
At this point, you can pick out other things
that you don't want--
maybe some excess pollen.
You can also just simply wash it later.
But with these cocoons, you can then put them into a container.
You can use cardboard boxes, or Tupperwares.
But make sure to put a hole in your Tupperwares.
I use a nail that I heat up, and I melt holes
so that you get some air flow--
also in the lid as well.
So then, you can put your cocoons in here.
And they're ready to be stored in the refrigerator.
And you can see some good nests here.
I see some pollen masses, or pollen balls that
did not develop into a bee.
This one looks pretty clean.
So I'm just going to start cleaning it out.
And what I mean when I say "clean," as far as I
can see any beetles, mites.
So it could just be this chalkbrood.
Those are the main ones I encounter here in California.
Tricrania beetle, stelis, cuckoo bee, sapyga wasp,
and chalkbrood.
I sometimes find mites, but not very often.
If you live in a more humid climate,
you're going to find more mites.
Another thing that's useful to know when you're raising bees
is which ones are males, and which ones are females.
Females are larger, and usually fill up
the entire width of the hole.
Males tend to be shorter and narrower.
So those ones are females.
Now, this is all the same nest right here.
So we have a female, female.
The next one is that one--
also female, female, female.
And then, we get up to here.
That one looks like a male.
Male, male, male, male.
So I would rate this one as five females and four males, which
is excellent.
Usually, there's more males than females--
usually about 2 to 1, 2 males for every female.
Over here-- female, female, female, female, female.
Sometimes, you get ones that are a little in-between.
Take your best guess if you're trying to sort them.
But again, 5 females, then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 males.
And sapyga cocoons are smaller, more rounded on each end.
They have a cottony silk around them.
And they're harder when you squeeze them.
So that's a sapyga.
So here's a nest that I just opened.
And right away, you notice something odd.
Every once in a while, you're going
to encounter a big mass of pollen.
And we don't really know why this happens.
But I think of it as a bee.
Maybe it's senile, or just her programming got off,
or whatever-- she just kept collecting pollen
and never finished the cell, never laid an egg,
and just was in that pollen-collecting mode over,
and over, and over, and over, until you
get this big mass of pollen.
Yeah.
I just opened this section of laminate.
And I noticed something that I wanted to show you.
And that is a stelis, or "steh-liss" cocoon right there.
So we have some healthy cocoons in this nest,
a couple of females, and then three males,
and then this one, which is a cuckoo bee called stelis.
And when we pull it up, one thing you notice about it
is lots of curly frass.
This is the fecal material--
so lots of it, and it's curly.
A pronounced nipple on this end of it.
And we pull it out of there.
The thing about it is that it's quite hard.
If you pinch it, it's going to feel hard.
And that nipple is really characteristic,
and all this frass.
So that is still stelis.
[BUZZING]