Bee Chronicles April 2016

How can a month be so messed up with such good weather? Spring has come back with a vengeance. We are now paying for the warm weather we had at the end of December 2015 and January of this year. I had shrubs starting to bloom in early January. Of course the frost knocked them back the 3^rd week of January. Then we went into a warm but normally cool late winter (by the calendar). Not many nights below 20 degrees.

When spring hit us in late February the croci bloomed, then the johnquils (daffadills), and the Lenten roses. Next came the pussy willows and flowering quince. The quince does not have as many blooms as normal because some got frosted in January. The pussy willows should have bloomed in late January but it is okay because the bees can’t use the pollen that early. Next came the important plants. The red maple and hembit weed. The red maple bloomed nicely but the bees were not “all over it”. The blossoms only lasted about 2 weeks. This may be a result of that January warm period. I don’t think there was much nectar in the flowers. I do see some maple seeds forming now so there was some pollination. Next there was the fancy blooming cherries and apricots. I don’t have any but see them along the road. They are good for the bees also. We are having a fabulous hembit, chickweed, bluett bloom. You see carpets of very short(4”) purple, white, or blue tiny flowers. The bees love it. Now, 3^rd week of March, the eastern red bud (pink small tree), sweet bush (yellow small to large bush), fansy magnolias, tulips are all blooming. Bees are shifting into high gear.

I think we are moving into a period where we can relax on bee food. BUT, (always the proverbial but), I keep feeding both pollen patties and thin syrup to even out the pollen and nectar flows. With the alternating long cool mornings, warm and cool days, the bees are not working a “regular” schedule. The peaks and valleys of food coming into the hive may restrict the number of eggs the queen lays daily. I try to have an even food source to keep the queen at her optimal production. When it is cool outside it will be warm enough inside the hive for the bees to gather syrup and patty pollen to keep the queen stimulated.

I think the queen is looking 14 days ahead. If the food stuffs coming into the hive on a daily basis is not adequate to feed the larvae when they hatch in 4 days and all the larvae, she will slow down egg laying. She is monitoring the activity at the front door, not what is in storage. The queen wants that new pollen and nectar near the brood area where she is working.

I thought we were over “February the mysterious die off month”. OH NO, I lost 6 decent hives in Mid March. Probably Varroa mites. Nothing I can do but replace them. This is why I order a good number of replacement packages a year in advance. I can always sell them as packages or nucs if I don’t use them. But, you can’t find bees to buy when you need them in the early spring, without ordering early.

I know it is expensive but times have changed. You used to order your bees in January. Then it move back to October. Now the bee sales apiaries are book full by May the year before you need the bees. And that is not always a sure thing because the producers’ bees die also. There is talk in the fly ways of a migrating pollinator who lost 15,500 hives this past winter. That is not a typo. Along those lines Theft of Bee Hives is up. One fellow headed to California had his entire semi-truck load stolen along with the truck. Only a bee keeper steals bee hives. You might think about marking your hives. Wild geometric patterns on the outside for easy spotting, and something (brand or marker pen) on the inside incase they get repainted. Wild geometric patterns help the bees located their hive.

While your queens are working over time get ready for spits. These can either be for your use or sale to those who forgot to order early.

Get your replace brood frames made up so you can rotate out old comb during the heavy spring nectar flow to maximize wax building. The more you get done before nectar flow for honey the more honey you will get.

If you are like my buddy whose bees went through the year in perfect condition and his queens are working overtime, you have to start worrying about swarming. This year is weird and I would not count on any of the old practices being correct. The queen should not swarm until after she is laying drone eggs. The queen knows there has to be drones to mate her successor. If it gets too crowded she might swarm anyway. Keep the bees busy drawing new comb. This might require syrup feeding even though you don’t need the honey. If you have enough good brood comb, put on some honey supers with foundation in them. If you have storage space, pull brood frames with honey and let the bees draw comb and store honey. Use the stored frames for nucs when queens become available.

Putting drawn comb and comb with honey into nucs or new packages will allow those queens to lay more eggs sooner. Those colonies will now expand faster and you might get excess spring honey from them.

I am going to treat all my hives including the new packages early this year to clean the mites out before population build up really gets going. I want to keep the mites out of the capped larvae. Even though your packages were treated this spring by the seller, some mites sneak past and it was months ago before the packages were made up.

Treat your apiaries for hive beetle larvae. They are in the ground around the hives. I use a pretty good salting of agricultural granulated red mineral salt. It does not have to be real thick on the ground. It will also kill the grass under your hives so you don’t have to weed wack around the bees. The bees also need the mineral salt to make the enzymes used to make honey. Win, Win, Win!

One of the new thoughts planted in my scrawny skull: The fungicides on farms and gardens is having more deleterious (bad) affect on our bees than thought. That is because no one was thinking about it with little subsequent research. Now the research shows the bees gut track and digestion are being disturbed. Okay, that makes sense. What to do about it? “They” now sell probiotics for the bees. These are supposed to be the same gut track bacteria and fungi that the bee needs. I cannot attest to that. But do we feed it and hope or not feed it and wish we did. I don’t think feeding will cause too much upset to the bees. If you live around a vineyard or orchard I know they spray a lot of fungicides. “Captan” is the main fungicide in home gardens. Rose people use a lot also.

Good luck with the next 30 days of bee keeping. Chins up!