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Greetings Hello,
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Our April BeeGroup meeting is next Tuesday (4/16) starting at 5:45PM. Our tentative plan, weather permitting, is to meet at the bee yard on Weidner Drive which is 1 mile from the Olive Free Library in West Shokan. If the weather is not cooperative we will meet at the library. At this time the weather forecast looks promising.
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It's time for your spring nosema treatment! Click Here for procedure.
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Queen 16 Days, Worker 21 Days, Drone 24 Days...Capped at 9th Day...
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Please check the Resources section below...
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If you have any topics, ideas, selling bee equipment, or questions, feel free to contact us at BeeGroup@HVHiives.com.
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It is the time of the year that you find a lot of beekeepers getting giddy about swarms. I would suggest more effort be given to making splits from your own bees for three reasons. One is that swarms can be hit and miss, and although you convince yourself they are "free", they really are not when you consider the time and travel it can take. Secondly you are bringing strange bees into your apiary and with that comes risk of disease and temperament issues. Granted only strong colonies swarm so disease is not much of a concern. But aggressive colonies are also more likely to swarm (ie AHB). Finally, swarms are much more likely to abscond than splits.
Ideally you can time your splits with the swarming impulses of your hives. This can sometimes seem like a game of Russian roulette, but it is your best bet of getting quality queens.
A common mistake when making splits as part of swarm prevention is removing the queen cell(s) and leaving the mother queen still in the hive. You will have much better results preventing swarms if you move the queen into a split and let the mother hive re-queen with a cell. By removing the queen and making them queen-less the hive will loose the swarming instinct and turn the focus on raising the new queen. Now often times you will get multiple queen cells and can make multiple splits from the hive. Another common mistake is to move uncapped queen cells into a nuc. Although this might work, you are potentially reducing the viability of the new queen as the small population of the split may not be able to provide the copious amounts of royal jelly that the larger mother hive can.
My rule of thumb when making splits with swarm cells is to first try to find the mother queen and move her to a 5 frame split with 2 frames of bees with resources (pollen/nectar) and empty drawn combs for her to continue to lay. If you find capped cells at this time then you can move them into 2 frame splits with 2 frames of bees with resources, preferably with capped brood and limited open brood (less mouths for them to feed). If you can't find the queen, you must assume they swarmed and leave at least one swarm cell. Despite our belief that we can tell they didn't swarm because "there are too many bees here" it is often a way to end up with a queenless hive. Strong hives can easily have a pound of bees hatching each day during swarm season making it impossible for a beekeeper to accurately judge if the hive has swarmed.
If you find the queen and move her but the swarm cells aren't capped yet, then leave the cells until they are capped before making the splits. This allows the strong mother hive to continue to feed the cells in abundance. You have a week between uncapped cells and cells hatching so plan your return trip to do the splits accordingly.
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Overwintered Nucs
are ready.
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If you ordered nucs, please Contact me to make arrangements to pick up.
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Bees In the News...
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Wait, does America suddenly have a record number of bees?
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Where in the unholy heck did all these bees come from?
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After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage and years of grieving suspiciously clean windshields, we were stunned to run the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture (otherwise known as that wonderful time every five years where the government counts all the llamas): America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.
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Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have developed an edible antiviral treatment that can be used to protect honey bees against deformed wing virus (DWV) and other viruses, according to a recent study published in npj Sustainable Agriculture.
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Photos of the Month...
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Resources:
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Critical Thinking Beekeeping
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Rob Overton presentation to Wake County Beekeepers
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Commercial Queens-Nosema and Low Sperm Count
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Constructive Beekeeping - Ed Clark, 1918
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SABA (Southern Adirondack Beekeepers)
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Lots of great information from this Club's website, many articles, and many lectures and seminars by various people in the worlds of beekeeping. Lot's of knowledge to be had here and worth your while.
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A SAD DAY IN THE BEE YARD...
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Beltsville Lab: If your bees die, God Forbid!, please send a sample to the Beltsville Lab in Maryland. The analysis is free and they will email you the results. They check for Nosema and Mites. I sent a sample down a month ago and my hive was loaded with mites -- in December! Please share results with Rob,Tom and the BeeGroup so we can help keep tabs on what is happening in the 'hood. Thanks! CLICK HERE for details on how to submit a sample.
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Talks about nutrition for your bees. This will impact how your bees can fight off disease and ultimately survive.
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For Honeybee information, videos, podcasts and workshops please visit the links below. Workshops are being updated as we speak!
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Dave Cushman Beekeeping Website maintained by Roger Patterson.
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NOSEMA: Treatment Procedure. Don't forget to treat for Nosema! Click Here for procedure.
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HONEYBEE LIFE CYCLE - Very Important to know. This is the building block of understanding your hives.
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Queen 16 Days, Worker 21 Days, Drone 24 Days...
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These are a Few Videos that You May Find of Interest (I particularly like the Skep video!
NY Bee Wellness - Diagnostics
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