Bee Chronicles April 2013

Another Unique month, “ March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”. Has anyone looked out the window. Here in the mountains the beginning of March was not too bad. The February warm weather had cooled off and the speed of the flower blooming had slowed down. This was good.

Then the “Alberta Zepher” hit. Rain on the 23rd and 24th. Snow on the 25^th and 20 mph winds. The next 5 days are supposed to freeze at night and hit a Caribean 40 degrees for a high. I don’t think the bees are going to really enjoy this period.

The queens have been laying brood very nicely. However, the patterns are getting bigger than the nurse bees can cover and keep warm. With the clusters tightened up for several days in a row, brood left out side the cluster will chill and die. When it warms up again you will find pupae thrown out front by the house cleaning bees. Your colony should survive this set back, but brood build up will be delayed as new bees will have to develop and hatch to cover the losses.

Some of us are trying to put packages of bees in the hive. How can you do it in the cold? I used to use the tried and true method of installing packages in the hive. Take the syrup can out, remove the queen cage with some bees hanging on it, remove the cork from the candy plug end and hang it between two frames. Leave a few frames out of the center next to the frames holding the queen cage and shake all the bees out of the shipping cage. Now you have lots of bees in the hive body and a whole lot of bees flying around. If you only have one or two packages, eventually the bees will calm down and go into a hive. Not necessarily the one you want them in.

My new technique (not necessarily invented by me) is to place 3 frames of drawn comb (hopefully with honey if available) in a 10 frame brood box. Spray the bees through the screen on the shipping cage with syrup. This will help hold the bees in the cage. Remove the syrup can and set it aside. Quickly remove the queen cage and set the shipping cage on its side on the bottom of the hive, inside the brood box. Make sure the open hole is facing the frames where the queen is hanging one frame away. You might have 10-20 flyers. Within 10 minutes they will probably settle back on the shipping cage. Pop the cork on the candy end of the queen cage and hang it between two frames; one frame away from the shipping cage. If there is syrup in the can place it on the side of the shipping cage a little cock eyed so the bees can get under it and eat the syrup. You can also use a baggie feeder on the side of the shipping cage, or an entrance feeder if it is warm enough for the bees to move to it. This works well in cold weather keeping the bees from flying. It also works great if you have lots of packages to install in the apiary because the bees will stay in the correct hive. This eliminates the need to rebalance hives later. It is also fast. In two days you can remove the shipping cage as all the bees will be on the queen. Add one or two more frames. You have less bees than a 5 frame nuc. Don’t give the bees more frames than they can cover. Too much space causes the bees to work slowly. A little crowding stimulates work and allows the bees to keep the hive more hygienic.

You can also use about any feeding technique that gets the food close to the bee cluster. This is important during the spring wild temperature fluctuations. During cold spells the bees may not get to a tray feeder or a feeder through the top of the outer cover. You can use a bordman feeder, or just a mason jar with holes in the lid. Set it directly on the top bars near the queen but not dripping over the queen. Place a deep or medium super around this feeder and then the covers. If the weather is cool make sure you have all your components at hand before starting the installation of the nuc.

I have been a little slow some times getting back to check a 4 frame package, only to find the bees have pulled an entire frame of comb, filled it with honey and started another frame. This comb is perfectly square as if it was in a frame parallel to the other frames, but there is no wooden frame holding the bur comb. This queen is a keeper. Just pull the bur comb and insert another frame or two. I feed my packages until they are 10 frame or the nectar flow starts. These bees need a lot of nectar (syrup) to draw the comb or make honey for brood food. Help them out as much as you can.

This is also a time when you have to keep an eye on last years queens. You are so proud that they made it through the winter, but, but, but! Some time the strain of starting to lay eggs will exhaust the queen and she will die. She may use up the last of her semen and go sterile. You will see lots of drone brood if this is the case. Some times the worker bees will decide she is too slow and kill her. Calendar age is not the good measure for assuming the queen will be okay. The current weak status of bees in general makes one wary after one good year out of a queen.

The month of April, here in the mountains, becomes a serious management month. You need to start your mite management program especially on your winter over hives. Aggressively attack hive beetles so they don’t eat too much of your brood. As the weather worms the beetles will start laying eggs in the honey and pollen patties making a mess of everything.

As minor nectar starts to flow with the increased blossoms hive bodies can fill quite quickly with honey and brood. Small swarms may occur. I see this with packages that are over fed. The young queen does not lay eggs as fast as the foragers bring in nectar. The storage bees place the honey in the empty cells in the center of the brood pattern where bees hatched out of. The queen then has no place to come back to and lay eggs so she assumes the hive is full of brood and food and decides to swarm. As stated before, if it takes 3 days to empty the feeder, let it sit for 3 days before refilling it.

If you manage against Nosema with fumigilan B now is a good time to add it to your feed. Healthy bees resist Nosema. This is important with Nosema cerena. You can catch this from your neighbors bees.

As soon as it quits raining every other day treat you apiaries against small hive beetle larvae going into the ground around the hive to pupate. StarGuard is the chemical, some folks are using nematodes, some people are salting the ground with granulated agricultural mineral salt. This also kills the grass so no weed eating. The bees like the salt for minerals and hopefully it desiccates the larvae when they hit the ground. You bear fence will be needed to keep the deer out of your apiary.

Start planning ahead. Do you need more frames drawn. As soon as the hive body is nearly full of food and the queen has a substantial population with replacement bees coming along well, use the bees to draw comb for rotation or expansion as needed.

Monitor your flower blooming so all improper stuff is out of the hive as appropriate before the honey nectar flow.

Happy beekeeping