Month: June 2020

As we move into July we are nearing the end of the beekeeping season as regards to honey flows. There are still many tasks to come for winter preparation but that is for another day.

Swarming tends to reduce significantly when the days no longer lengthen so less attention is needed for swarm inspections. However, those colonies that were artificially swarmed or swarmed before they could be split must be checked for a laying queen. Large colonies can take up to 3 or 4 weeks before a new queen comes into lay after she emerges. So a colony may appear to be queenless but is just waiting for the new queen to start laying. A simple test is to add a frame of eggs from another colony and look at the frame a few days later. It is a good idea to place a pin in this frame in order to identify it when checking for queen cells. Move other frames away from the test frame in case any queen cells that may be present are not damaged when removing the test frame from the brood box. If no queen cells have been drawn a queen is present and should come into lay soon. If queen cells have been produced select one where a grub is visible in a good position on the comb and destroy all the others. Leave the colony for 3 to 4 weeks and then check for eggs.

Recently I inspected a colony which had several frames of brood only to discover drones were present in worker cells. The sealed brood had domed cappings rather than a flat surface that is typical of worker brood. There were also several eggs per cell which is another indication of a laying worker. Note that new queens sometimes lay two eggs in some cells but practice eventually resolves this issue. Colonies with laying workers cannot be recovered so the only option was to take the brood box a little distance away and shake the bees off the comb and remove the hive from the apiary. Hopefully the worker that was laying would not be able to fly back to the original location and the remaining workers would find a home in neighbouring colonies. The brood frames were destroyed as they were potential varroa producers.

Another potential issue is frames of foundation in colonies that were artificially swarmed earlier in the season. When making up the artificial swarm brood box it is good practice to add frames of foundation in the box where the old queen is placed in. When making up an artificial swarm I like to give the old queen a frame of sealed brood (so the queen has young bees available to produce royal jelly), two or three drawn frames (so the queen can continue laying), and a frame of stores. So there could be 5 to 7 frames of foundation in the box with the old queen. Bees are sometimes reluctant to draw these frames especially the outside ones. For these colonies move a frame of foundation into the brood nest every 7 to 10 days. This forces bees to draw these frames as the nest has been split.  My preference is to move one or two frames at a time into the nest to ensure these frames are drawn before the end of summer. During autumn feeding  bees quite often ignore these blank frames meaning a colony could go into winter underweight because not all the frames are drawn.

The recent hot weather plus the June gap has significantly reduced the honey flow. But there are still a few weeks to go for bees to forage on blackberry etc. So make sure bees have enough super space in case of a late flow. If there is a good soaking in the coming days plants will start nectar production again and bees are opportunists – ready to take advantage of whatever is available to them.

Now is a good time to consider which varroa treatment to use in the coming weeks. My approach is to treat when no honey is on the hive so the intention is to remove honey from the hives by mid August in order that treatment can start. There is plenty of advice on Beebase on the different products available and attached is a pdf (varroa-pdf-2020) from Beebase showing the various products.

Last but not least – wasps. They can become a problem from July onwards and often target weak or diseased colonies and nucs especially. As we move through July it is a good idea to reduce the colony entrance to around an inch or so to make it easier for bees to defend. If wasps are in robbing mode on a colony it is difficult to stop. Definitely a case of prevention better than cure. Final thought, place wasp traps around the apiary to reduce wasp numbers. Traps can easily be made from jars with some small holes in the lid, spoon of jam and half fill with water. The wasps eventually drown but bees are not attracted to the mixture.

Regards
Wally

The Met Office described spring 2020 as exceptional. As a result bees appreciated the record sunshine amounts of the past three months; they have built up strongly and filled super after super. Bill Turnbull interviewed yesterday morning on BBC Breakfast, explained in normal spring weather bees forage for a couple of days a week and then are confined to the hive for the rest of the week, they then eat the honey they brought in when the weather was good. Not so this year. When colonies became strong enough they have filled a super in a matter of days – quite extraordinary.

This may explain why not all colonies have tried to swarm yet. Some have produced queen cells and needed artificial swarming but many others have not.

However, the forecast for the next few days is for much cooler weather so my suspicion is that colonies will start producing queen cells during their confinement to the hive. When the weather conditions allow do check again for queen cells. We are at peak swarming time now and many colonies are really powerful – just right as far as bees are concerned to split themselves into two.

If bees are confined for the next few days they will be able to finish off ripening the stores brought in recently. It is not necessary for honey to be completely capped before it can be extracted. Do a ‘shake’ test with a frame to see if honey falls out. Hold the frame with one side facing downwards. Give the frame a sharp shake downards. Repeat with the other side of the frame. If no honey ‘flies’ out of the frame it is safe to extract. Quite often the outside frames in a super are still ‘wet’ but the others are good to be extracted. I collect all frames that need further ripening into a separate super and place it back over a hive. Mark this super with a chalk tick helps identify it and it should be safe to extract a few days later.

As most of my supers are now on hives I need to extract some of them. The really heavy ones I rearrange above the crown board and they are normally found immediately above the queen excluder. Remove all supers from the hive putting aside the lighter ones apart the heavy ones. Return the lighter supers above the queen excluder followed by the crown board. Now place the heavy supers above the crown board – some help may be needed here depending on how high the hive has become. Leave the heavy supers for a few days which allows the bees time to finish ripening them. Any fresh nectar the bees collect is generally placed in the supers below the crown board. But do a shake test when removing the heavy supers as unripe honey can cause fermentation thereby losing a whole bucket of honey. As always bees do not always have access to our books so they sometimes do things a little differently. So it is safer to test frames that are not capped.

Finally, we now entering the ‘June gap’ with little forage available for bees. When taking honey off a colony ensure it has enough food to last it a few weeks. If too much honey is removed a colony can easily starve – there are so many bees and a lot of brood to feed.

Regards

Wally