Bee Chronicles June 2012

May 20 2012: Spring nectar flow in the mountains of North Georgia is over one month early. Counting the dwindling of the lush blossoms, the peak nectar flow probably ended two weeks ago (6 wk early). It was a challenge to adjust to the remarkably early spring. The plants seemed to adjust to the early warm weather better than the bees. Perhaps the bees live more on the length of daylight cycle than the temperature cycle. Although I noticed early egg laying by the queens which coincided with the early arrival of nectar and pollen into the hives, population build up was not appreciably faster than “normal”. My hives are just now approaching the late May population count indicating they are ready for peak spring nectar flow with the tulip poplar blossoms. But, alas, the tulip poplars blossoms have gone the way of the dodo bird. Having been nipped by the 19 April frost the damaged blossoms did not seem to produce the normal amount of nectar and the blossoms in my neighborhood fell early.

It is hard to tell the package bee hives that arrived 2d week of March from the nucs I received 2d week of April. The hives are all about 8 good frames of brood and loaded with pollen and honey. However, they have followed an expected trend of not having any excess honey in the honey supers yet. All my new hives had drawn comb so none needed to waste energy drawing foundation before honey could be stored or used for brood. If I had to draw significant amounts of comb I would not have single hive bodies ready for the upcoming sourwood flow. In that respect I think I am ahead of a normal year. I have started doing the sacred sourwood dance to encourage a good year for that honey. As I look at the sourwood trees I don’t see fully mature leaves yet and no bloom stems starting. This would lead me to believe there is more than 4 weeks to go before sourwood nectar flow.

What does this mean for the bees? Hives approaching full food stores, a good population of worker bees, and 6 plus frames of brood. This is the recipe for swarming! As the population increases the queen will start anticipating swarming and the workers will start putting up queen cells. Be diligent in you hive checks. Honey supers that need some foundation drawn out will be a good way to discourage swarming. Especially if you have 1 year old queens. A two year old queen will swarm a little quicker than a younger queen. Keep room in the hives and work for the bees to do and the colony will be a little more content.

Right now I am getting daily afternoon thunderstorms. This is good. It keep the nectar up in the smaller blossom plants like clover. There are lots of daisies, roses, queen ann’s lace, butter cups, etc blooming. This should satisfy the colony. However, if we snap into 2 or more weeks of drought there could be a nectar dirth which will stimulate swarming to go look for a more productive location. If you prevent swarming the large population will start to consume the stored food in the hive. With the large food requirement for the brood and the foragers eating stores you can empty a hive that has 8 frames of brood and only 2 frames of food very quickly. Then the queen will stop (or slow down) egg laying. This could diminish your population just before sourwood flow starts. Be vigilant, if you need to supplement a little syrup to keep the food stores up and the queen laying eggs, consider doing it. HOWEVER, don’t mix syrup feed with hives that are collecting honey. The bees will mix the two, diluting your honey. You may need to remove honey supers and replace them when sourwood starts.

Everything you do in the hive will have a consequence. Unintended consequences are common. Think about what you want to achieve with you management. Then weigh the action you are going to take against the several different outcomes that are possible.

If you have really robust colonies and the workers start pulling queen cells you might consider starting nucs. Take the frame with the queen cells out of the strong hive and place them in a nuc box or a hive body. From that hive or one or two other hives take out one brood frame and one food frame with the nurse bees on them and make 3 frame nucs. This will give you late summer queens for replacement if needed and excess bees if you need to beef up a weak hive. If you don’t need the bees this year you can create a 10 frame hive going into the winter and have a replacement for next spring. This will help keep your hives from swarming. It also can be done after the sourwood season if it is appropriate.

Don’t mess with your hives too much between spring flow and sourwood. The less interior manipulation the more ready the colony will be for sourwood. Pulling one frame of comb and replacing it with a frame of foundation is also good to discourage swarming. Do it one frame at a time so the hive will be done pulling the comb when sourwood starts. I don’t like to waste sourwood honey making comb.

Another month and more to worry about

Glen