Spring Honeybee Management
WOOT! ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!
I will be adding Pics and vids through this coming spring. Splitting hives and putting in new queens, as well as treating for mites. Mixing Syrup, putting out the feed stations, and going through the hives to remove the sugar rations and check on the status of the bees.
I am trying to reorganize to make understanding a little easier. I am also trying to stick to what I do, rather than going through the different strategies and methods I know of.
I will be adding Pics and vids through this coming spring. Splitting hives and putting in new queens, as well as treating for mites. Mixing Syrup, putting out the feed stations, and going through the hives to remove the sugar rations and check on the status of the bees.
I am trying to reorganize to make understanding a little easier. I am also trying to stick to what I do, rather than going through the different strategies and methods I know of.
This is what nearly every hive looked like in the spring of 2014. In most cases half the sugar or more was gone. The Sugar was all that kept the bees alive from mid February until late March. The pollen patty was partially used but was obviously less important to them than the sugar was.
Does putting Sugar on the top bars create a mess?
That depends entirely on your definition of mess. To me, picking dead bees from the cells after they starve to death is a mess. It took me about three minutes to scrape this bottom board clean and put it back on the stand. As stated in the wintering section, I would MUCH rather clean this mess than the alternative.
That depends entirely on your definition of mess. To me, picking dead bees from the cells after they starve to death is a mess. It took me about three minutes to scrape this bottom board clean and put it back on the stand. As stated in the wintering section, I would MUCH rather clean this mess than the alternative.
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Using cakes eliminates nearly all of the mess associated with using loose sugar poured onto newspaper. This was how some of the hives looked in spring.. Actually it is April 1st 2013 that this picture was taken. They are starting to get nectar and pollen from Pussy Willow, Maples etc, so the sugar came off. As stated above, if I didnt have cakes made, I would never hesitate to put granulated sugar on top of newspaper.
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Spring Management;
Keeping your bees alive is priority one. Most bees perish of starvation in March and April as they attempt to raise brood, and BURN through their remaining reserves with little to nothing coming in.
Make sure they have SOMETHING to get them through to the natural spring flow if they use up the resources they had. Syrup is usually not taken when its cold, so I try to make sure they have granulated sugar available at all times. By late March they will also get pollen sub or pollen patties. Once you start feeding them, do NOT stop.
Once feeding begins, they will start rearing brood, building colony numbers and strength. Brood requires a lot of food. If you stop feeding when nothing is available, they will feed what they have to the brood, and as they starve they may try to cannibalize the brood in an effort to survive. See more in the feeding section.
The winter wrap;
Dont take it off too soon. Through March and into April it will continue to give the hive added thermal gain. It will still be 30 degrees at times during the night. The wrap will help that hive warm up faster in the morning as the sun hits it. Giving the bees a little help in keeping their expanding brood nest warm.
Once your bees begin to build up, most types build up rapidly, and they can very quickly catch you off guard. Stay ahead of them. I don't do FULL inspections every week, but I do break the boxes to peek in and see how much space they have, how much brood they have etc.
I prefer to make a few spring Nucs with the old queens. It relieves the congestion of the original hives. Some brood, and some bees are gone, but not enough gone from any one hive to impact honey production. I can move bees and brood from at least three hives into a Nuc, with one of the old queens, and carefully introduce a new queen to the hive. The hive will feel as if it has swarmed, the queen in the nuc will feel as if she has swarmed, and neither are likely to swarm again that year, provided the queens/hives do not become badly overcrowded, or the brood chambers become plugged with syrup/nectar/pollen.
Bees SWARM to procreate, to extend their range, to insure the survival of the species. It is natural, and instinctive for them to swarm. Do it for them before they do it for themselves.
More on swarm management under the Swarm Prevention tab.
More on Spring Splits under that tab.
Rotation, Boxes and frames.
Mid April? It depends on your temps.. when I have a mid 60's day with little wind, I begin spring maintenance.
I use all medium boxes, so I have three boxes. The bees are still in the top box at this time, so NOW is the perfect opportunity to rotate the boxes. Separate your boxes and set them aside on the tele cover. Scrape and clean the bottom board. Is the bottom board in good shape? Ready for another year? Clean the top of the frames in the top box, and set it on the bottom board. Depending on the size of the brood chamber, I may replace a couple of frames at this time. This is the last chance you will get until next spring!
Pull the second box off the OLD bottom box, go through the old bottom box, scrape the bur comb from the frames, clean the propolis from the frame rests etc.. Go through the combs. Rotate in new foundation to replace old comb, or cut out the old comb and put the frames back in the box. Even if the old comb is still in good shape, I rotate in as many as five new frames, and set the drawn frames aside to use in new hives. Starting a new hive with SOME drawn comb is a huge boost to their growth time.
Set the old bottom box on the new bottom box, and go through the new top box, and do the same with it. Rotate new frames in as needed or desired after cleaning the box.
Now is also the time to replace the boxes that need maintenance, paint or repairs.
Put this on top of the hive. Inner cover in good shape? Tele cover?
One hive prepared for spring.
I am feeding at this time, so the bees will be capable of getting the new comb drawn, and of course a flow is coming on, so they will be right in build up mode.
As natural nectar and pollen begin coming in, I MAY stop feeding, make sure nearby beekeepers are doing the same, and I put two supers on the hive. Usually, as natural pollen and nectar become available the bees will slow and possibly even stop taking the pollen substitute. I like to use it as a generic measure of natural resources. If they dont touch it, it means they have natural availability.
( The strength of the hive and my need to split them determines if I stop feeding at this time or not.)
If your supers are on new foundation, you may want to put them on a little earlier so the bees can begin drawing the comb on/in them. Just make sure the syrup comes OFF before they start storing it in the newly completed combs.
Keep ahead of the bees, Keep supering ahead of their need for the storage space. During a good flow from late April to late June they could fill four supers. If they are filling the fourth super you should have a fifth and maybe a sixth super already above them.
If we actually get rain in mid summer the flow will not end in July, so you need to be ready.
In a good year I can expect 90 to 120 lbs of honey from a second year colony. That is two medium supers. Don't become complacent thinking that two is enough, or one morning you will go to your window with coffee in hand to see the swarm boiling out of one of your hives. In order to fill two supers with capped honey, they need four supers to use while dehydrating the nectar.
Queen Excluder;
Its time to add the Honey supers!
To exclude or not to exclude?
From; The Hive and the honey bee, page 139
I think I hear you say, "But wouldn't it pay to use excluders for the sake of keeping the queen out of the supers?"
I may reply that the queen so seldom goes up into a super that not one section (frame) in a hundred, sometimes not more than one in a thousand will be found troubled with brood. So on the whole I hardly think that all the advantages to be gained from using excluders would pay for the time and trouble of using them.
C.C. Miller, 1911
Some people hate Queen Excluders passionately, some wouldn't let the bees fill supers without them in place.
I do not use them as a general rule, but will put one on if I get a queen that decides that's where she wants to be. My experiences are much the same as those of C.C. Miller. When I do find a queen that wants to be up there, I move her down and put an excluder on.
If the foundation in your super is undrawn, don't put the excluder on until it is well under way and they are beginning to fill those frames with nectar. Once this is started, they will continue to build and use those supers after you install the excluder. If there is nothing up there to lure them, they may treat the excluder like a barrier.
Some like to put a frame of brood above the excluder to draw the bees through. I prefer to let them get on with it and only add an excluder if the queen decides to start laying in it.
If your queen DOES begin laying in the honey super, find her, move her down, and put the excluder on as already stated above. When the young bees emerge those cells will be polished and back filled with honey.
Another aid, is using a top entrance. Some like drilling one inch holes in the front of their honey supers. It gives the forage bees an entrance directly to the super. I just use the notch in the inner cover as I do not like drilling holes in my boxes. My Tele covers are 1/4 inch wider and longer than commercially purchased covers, so the bees have easy access to the notch in the inner cover. I do this if I use an excluder or not, and the bees seem to appreciate it.
Treatments
Treating your bees is very much a matter of personal preference. Some do not treat at all while they struggle to produce bees that are resistant to the mites that are their greatest current threat.
I don't want to treat my hives, but I would rather treat them than lose them.
Depending on your chosen method for treatment, you may need to treat you bees before brood rearing begins in earnest. Make sure to check the label of your chosen treatment and apply it according to the instructions from the manufacturer.
Oxalic Acid has now been approved for use in the hive to kill mites. Get a vaporizor, and use it. Stop putting insecticides in your hives to kill a little insect on a big insect.
You can see more on treatments in the treatments section under honeybee care.
I do not go for the tuff love treatment. I DO NOT believe that if the bees die then all is as nature intended. In my book, that is total bullshit. Sorry for the strong word here....
Putting a better queen in with those bees will mean in about six weeks, that hive will BE OF her bees with NO RELATION to the bees that "WOULD" have died had you not intervened.
You get new genetics, hopefully better bees, and you did NOT have to buy a nuc, or package, nor did you weaken a colony by splitting to replace the loss.. If you are going to buy bees and NOT help them, Then don't buy bees. Please walk away and do NOT attempt to become a beekeeper.
You can see more about how I treat in the Treatments section, and read more about Natural beekeeping under that tab.
Feeding
More information is available under the Feeding tab.
Basically, spring feeding starts as soon as the bees are flying regularly, preferably well before the main spring flow starts, and yet, After the risk of any prolonged COLD spell is past. This will encourage them to begin building brood rapidly, and allows them to build up stronger, sooner than allowing them to wait for the natural flow of pollen and nectar.
As Spring arrives.. I will add pictures and videos to hopefully make this more understandable.