Bee Chronicles
6 April, 2021
6 Mar. red maples in full bloom bee main source of nectar for now, also pollen
10 Mar. Starting to see maple blooms on ground (could be from cold nights)
13 Mar. more maple bloosoms on ground, trees still in full bloom, passing the peak good weather 55o days and 40o nights
Some ornamental flowering apricots (pink) blooming
15 Mar. Eastern redbud in full bud, will pop into bloom any day now. Bees love it
Henbit in full bloom Pagoda plant starting to bloom right along with henbit. Good pollen for the bees
Bradford pears starting (real good for bees) 16th Mar. Bradford pears full bloom bees visiting
The January pussy willows are finally in full bloom and the bees working them.
Quince in full bloom (bees working it hard)
Halbred leaf violet (yellow) blooming
Bluetts and Creases blooming (small blue and small white) Chickweed blooming (white)
The honeybees will be visiting the "best" flower. Whether they are collecting pollen or nectar they will go to the flower with the most and sweetest. Hence, you may not see more than just a scout bee visiting a flower patch. If the situation changes due to a freeze or dearth the bees will change what they visit.
15 March, Inspected hives 7 remaining. 3 queens laying in upper and lower double hive bodies. Brood on front warm half of frame. Good sign that queen is laying up and down. No signs of mites (larvae inspection). Will treat for mites just for security. Added sugar water syrup and pollen patties inside the hives (bees are eating it aggressively). Bees have stopped going to "Ultra Bee" (artificial pollen powder) outside of hive. Maybe because of lots of natural pollen.
I need to work stored (dead ) hives and use "para moth" to keep wax moths out so frames will be good to use for new packages 11 April. Done with that project. Now I can start getting Honey Supers ready. Nectar flow will be early this year.
Plan ahead! I only use white comb for sourwood honey. That is first or second year comb. While the colonies are building up the population and have already drawn 10 deep brood frames (and put honey in it) I will add honey supers with foundation. The bees will start pulling the comb out (I hope). When spring nectar flow starts, I will pull these honey supers off and replace them with 2-3 year old comb in the honey supers. Now before you are completely confused, you need a few extra honey supers with frames. You also need to feed lots of sugar water syrup during this spring population build up. Not for the brood specifically but to maximize the production of wax in the hive. When the nectar flow starts, I will stop feeding syrup. If any of the new drawn frames have new honey in them, I will set them out in the field and let the bees "rob" out the honey taking it back home to the hive where they will feed it to the brood.
Two important results come from this level of management. One you can rotate out your honey combs every 3 years keeping it light colored. Dark wax will stain your honey darker. Hence, the new white wax for light sourwood collection and the darker yellow wax (2+ yr. old) for the darker spring flow honey (wildflower).
Secondly, you are not using flower nectar to pull a lot of wax. Using syrup for wax pulling leaves drawn comb (mostly) so nectar can be put up as usable honey.
BEARS are out and very active. They are hungry and looking for food. Service your electric fences and test for strength. Tighten up the wires so it is harder for the bears to get through.
Be prepared to manage colony populations using work and splits starting the end of April on wintered over hives and end of May (or June) for super good packages. You don't want a swarm just before the spring nectar flow starts (wild black raspberry/ black berry bloom).
First increase the space and increase the work load on a hive starting to fill up with bees. When the bees are working out to frame 2 and 9 (in a 10 frame hive body) give them more work. Drawing wax takes the most bees (foragers, honey storage bees and wax makers). You can place that honey super on the hive to draw out the comb.
Or, you can checker board your brood chamber. Remove some of the drawn out frames that have honey in them and place them in a weak hive that hasn't started on frames 6-9 or 3-1.
If you have to make a split well before the main spring nectar flow is apparent, move the queen and 4 frames with bees on them into a nuc (this can also be a hive body). Move the queen with one frame of open to capped brood on it and one with honey and pollen. The next 2 frames can be honey or empty. You don't want to take too much honey out of the old hive. Replace the old frames with foundation alternating from the center of the box. Brood, then honey, then foundation, then honey (or empty comb) on both sides of the brood area. The bees will need the honey left behind to draw out wax comb. You may still be feeding syrup.
Just before the black raspberry/ blackberry starts blooming make a split with the queen on the brood frame, one frame of honey and one empty drawn comb. It does not take many bees to keep a queen working. Slowly her colony will grow.
The hive left behind will draw a new queen. The advantage is the brood will hatch out while the queen is developing (about 40 days). During this period the main nectar flow will occur. Older bees inside the colony will become foragers. There will be fewer larvae to feed. The colony will put up more honey in storage. You don't need lots of young nurse bees in the colony because there is nothing to feed. Hence, they become honey storage bees. Just as the nectar flow stops the newly mated queen will be laying eggs which will boost the bee population just in time for sourwood flow. You can either repeat this split for sourwood or not. It mostly depends on how warm it is and the associated bloom volume. How crowded is the colony? Will it swarm before sourwood? If you don't split before the spring nectar flow starts you will need to soon after sourwood ends to keep the colony from swarming mid-summer.
This means you need to have extra boxes to do splits ready by early June. Order them now, assemble and paint in April or May. Remember you need to make frames ahead of time also. I caution you that the equipment purchased "ready made" is not as well glued and assembled as the ones you do yourself.