What Does the Novice Beekeeper Need to Know?

Number 4

"Activity in a Hive or a nuc?"

"And Why"

After you have installed your package or developing a nuc from a spring split what are you looking for in the new colony?

Call it what you want. Your inspection criteria will be the same to identify what is going on and determine if it is normal and on time.

The first thing a colony needs is drawn comb to live on. It helps if you were lucky enough to have some drawn out frames to start the colony on. Maybe you moved some frames with the bees when you split an already established colony. If you are starting a package on foundation the population build up will be slower.

Wax building will be amazingly fast in an industrious colony provided there are enough bees and a good nectar flow. Look for slow wax drawing during your first inspection. You may need to feed syrup water to expedite comb drawing.

You will have no problem seeing the newly drawn comb on foundation or your wooden frame if you are a foundationless practitioner.

You can see the difference between old comb (yellow or brownish) and the brand new wax (pearly white). The bees should be cleaning the old comb and putting new wax around the edges and drawing out just to the depth they desire.

Bad weather can slow the collection of nectar. Too much rain or too cool to fly.

A shortage of nectar (syrup) caused by a nectar shortage. Has the cold weather delayed the flowers from blooming? Has there been a frost that damaged or killed the local blooms? Is your apiary a long distance to the source of nectar? More than 1/4^th of a mile with a small colony will noticeably impact the rate of nectar collection. Consider the complete flight time of a round trip. When working with a few bees they are working as hard as they can but you don't see them completing their work as fast as a well populated colony.

Second, look for adequate food stores. Is there honey and pollen being stored in the comb. This is dependent on the number of forager bees and sources available. The bees will store food a little faster than the brood can consume it. This is designed so the colony will survive the days when the bees can't fly in the spring.

Is the queen laying eggs as rapidly as she should? Some queens just are not as good layers as others. A slow queen could be from a lack of workers or food (read the cause) add more worker bees if possible. The queen will slow egg production based on not having a good food flow coming into the hive. There could be not enough foragers or not enough nectar and/or pollen. Monitor this as the population grows. If egg laying does not accelerate change the queen out.

What does the brood pattern look like? Spotty brood can be from several causes, like a bad laying pattern (some queens and laying workers just don't get it), chill kill from warm days and real cold nights (young brood dies), or hive beetles will eat eggs and very young larvae as a protein source.

Does the queen re-lay in the center of the brood pattern (back fill the empty cells)? This looks like "shotgun" brood pattern except there are eggs, royal jelly, and larvae filling the holes in and among the capped brood pattern. This means the queen is doing a good job moving around and inspecting the brood area and laying "close in". She wants a tight smooth pattern for efficiency. It might take a week to notice the improvement as the cells must be cleaned before new eggs are deposited. Then, the eggs are laid and must hatch before you can really see them. Give the queen a chance during really erratic weather.

Spotty brood can also be the result of extremely hygienic bees. This is good! Now, you must find out what is making the nurse bees pull out the defective and dieing larvae. Heavy varroa mite infestation is one reason.

Go ahead and replace a defective queen, she won't improve. You can put her in a nuc for emergencies or kill her. By saving her in a nuc you can slowly grow replacement bees, draw comb, or just hold her for an emergency replacement in another hive. BUT, don't grow daughter queens from her. Kill her as soon as you don't need her and put a new queen in her place or combine her nuc with a weaker hive which has a queen.

Third: Look for wax moths and hive beetles around the edges of the colony.

Wax moths come in two sizes Large and Small. They will hide around the edges of the box, under or over the inner cover. A strong colony will keep them out. If you see them it is a sign the colony is weakening.

Wax moths that get into the hive will go to the periphery of the hive where the bees won't bother them. They eat the pollen in the wax/propolis edges. If you see the moths the bee population should have kept them out. As the moths spin their web the bees will get entangled and die. This cycle reduces the number of bees allowing more space for more wax moth webbing. The next thing you know the bees are gone.

Too few bees to manage hive beetles will allow the hive beetles to increase in number. Hive beetles lay their eggs in honey and wax/propolis build up at the end of the top bars. If there are enough bees in the hive the bees will collect the hive beetles and guard them in a corner of the hive, either at the end of the top bars or on top of the inner cover. When you "pop" the lid you disturb the guard bees and see the beetle scurry away. When guarded the hive beetles can't lay their eggs, hence no beetle larvae. Large bee populations will keep the beetles out of the hive and at bay inside. The book says 300 beetles if the upper limit allowable. I think 6 is too many.

I say play "wack-a-mole" on both beetles and wax moths. Just squish them when you see them.

These two signs tell me there are not enough bees to cover (clean and protect) the surface area inside the hive. I reduce the surface area by removing frames that the bees are not sitting on. Maybe you start the colony on 3 frames and then add one or two a week until there are enough bees to cover them all. All the additional cell holes just make more places for parasites to hide. The smooth walls of a half empty hive box are easier for the bees to patrol. Starting with a nuc box instead of a 10 frame box full of frames is the optimal solution.

Look for signs of varroa mites. There will be a "big red V" in the hive. Not really! You will have to test for them. Packages frequently come with a built-in supply. There is a tag with the package that says inspected and treated, etc. This means for American and European foul brood. Mites are free. Test 30 days after the package is installed. You may need to do your first mite treatment. Let the bees get really settled with comb, food, and some brood so the treatment does not force them to abscond from their new home. On a split you should complete the treatment cycle just before you split.

What happens to a weak hive? Besides dyeing? Too much space where the bees can't manage it all, will allow hiding places for hive beetles and wax moths. In the fall there may not be enough bees to form a large enough cluster to protect the queen. Identify and rectify a weak hive months before you see the population decline.