Ed.Note: this is a new section for The ABK. Bob Gulliford (Editor February, 1991 ñ December, 2007) did include a section in The ABK titled Beginning in Bees, but with the surge in interest beekeeping, I as Editor have decided to try and include a similar section, aimed at assisting the newer beekeeper with advice to make them better beekeepers. There are a number of 'Experts' out there who set themselves up as such after having been beekeepers for a year or two, and they are often putting out misleading and erroneous information.
I will therefore be trying to draw on the knowledge of beekeepers on many years' standing, or those with formal qualifications. In saying that, my own qualifications are 40 years' experience backed by a Beekeeping Certificated NSW TAFE/DPI Qualification in 1979, and some 12 years as a qualified Adult Education Officer teaching beekeeping courses for NSWDPI.
The following articles have been written by Arthur Gaske, an inaugural member of Parramatta Amateur Beekeepers, who has many yearsí experience as Education officer for the Parramatta Branch and as an ABA Committee for many years. Arthur also helped world-renowned queen breeder Gretchen Wheen with The Bee Breeding Program at Hawkesbury Ag College after serving a 9 year apprenticeship on and off with Ian Dutton at Wilgian Queen apiaries at Manilla, NSW. I have included two articles to (belatedly) kick off the topics applicable to the new season.
Prepare for hive opening
Light the smoker, prepare scrapings bucket, water bucket with cloth, (this is to wipe your hands), gloves, hive tool – tools. When the hive tools get honey on them they become slippery and it is not a good idea to drop or bump frames as they are being withdrawn from the box as this makes the bees angry.
Preparation complete - go to the hives and standing 3 - 4 metres in front of the hive(s) entrances watch what is happening. Look for:
Are the bees coming in empty light or
Are they landing short and heavy, some
describe clumsily
What is on the ground in front of the hive(s)
Dead bees
Particles of wax
Chalk like matter
Ants on outside of entrance
Guard bees rushing around intercepting
incoming bees
Are the guard bees grabbing hold of other bees?
Is there a scramble going on?
Are bees bringing in pollen?
Are bees their pollen baskets filled with different coloured pollen?
Is every 3rd or 4th bee bringing in pollen ? GOOD
Are no bees bringing in pollen? BAD
If you have more than one hive it is essential to observe what is going on at each hive’s entrance. What is on the ground in front of the entrances.
Is there less activity?
Is there more activity on the hive entrances?
The hives with less activity need to be looked at more thoroughly to ascertain why. Possibilities include:
Old queen
Sickness
Queen less
If there are bees looking at cracks or little openings like ventilation holes, are they flying with quick jerky movements hovering at front entrance, with guards flying at them energetically? Maybe attempting to ROB?
If while watching have bees come over to where you are standing and check you out? Maybe even bumping into you with an elevated wing pitch, this tells you all is not well in the honey-gathering stakes.
If so, the decision must be made NOT to look at the bees today, except for the hive showing little activity. A quick look to ascertain what the problem is and to give a brood frame a shake to see if they are getting any nectar. And to partially shut down the hive entrance to stop robbing. Return another day and spend time looking at what is happening with
the bees.
When you are able to look at the bees on a better day smoke the entrance and under the lid. Wait for a minute then remove lid, positioning yourself at the side of the hive, (depending on whether you are left or right handed.)
Put the lid on the ground at the back of hive with the lid rim up then lift off any super(s) and place them on top of lid rim. Gently puff smoke over all exposed surfaces, hang a frame holder on the opposite side then gently smoke and using your hive tool, lever the second frame off the first and the third frame end bars then slowly and deliberately lift out the second frame. Look at all both sides of the frame and bees looking quickly to see if there is any unsealed brood – eggs – larvae – and possibly the queen.
If aforementioned is nil, then hang that frame on the frame hanger. LOOK – LISTEN to the rhythm of the bees and if necessary a couple of gentle puffs of smoke over the top of the frames then using your hive tool or your thumbs and forefinger to break the frames apart.
All hand movements need to be smooth, controlled, not jerky, and all the time looking and listening to bees, If you observe the bees starting to form rank and buzzing noise starts to change tone a judicial couple of puffs of the smoker over the frames will solve that problem, then you pull out frame no. 3. Check all sides of the frame looking for all stages of brood – stores – pollen honey or queen, when you see something that you want a closer look at then shake the bees off the frame, this enables you to look at everything. Turn it on the flat and shake it vigorously and whatever nectar shakes out has been gathered that day, the quantity that shakes out tells you how heavy or light the honey flow is and this tells you whether it is time to add another box and how soon you need to have your next hive inspection.
All these steps are called “Working the Hive” – “Read the Bees” – “Hear the Bees” Use your senses and this tells you when the brood nest needs expansion to help control swarming tendencies, when to add more honey supers.
When to rob and extract will depend optimal conditions so that you can put back stickies and on a good honey flow they can be refilled in a couple of weeks. If you do not work the bees regularly you can miss all the signs and lose out on honey gathering, and honey missed is missed forever
The same with the brood. If the bees become crowded, the potential to swarm is much greater and then by the time the bees build up to a working strength again, the honey season is over and you have missed the season.
The way hives kick off in spring depends on the temperature, both days and nights.
DO NOT OPEN HIVES too early in spring as brood and bees can become chilled and die.
The thing to do early is:
Observe bees flying, to see how many and how much pollen is being brought in
Feel weight of hive by back handle method. If light, stimulative feed, i.e., 1 part of sugar to 2 parts of water. Feed warm and donít give large amounts as whatever is not eaten quickly can start to ferment and alcohol
kills bees.
After a couple of weeks of warm weather, both
days and nights:
Inspect hives in the middle of the day\
Look at the brood, observing the number of eggs, pattern of laying, larvae and sealed brood
Look for signs of disease - E.F.B., A.F.B., Chalk brood, Sac brood, Nosema and spring dwindle
Available food supplies
Now is time to FIND and CLIP and MARK the queens.
Depending on brood and conditions
How much pollen
How much available nectar, shake frame to gauge ñ new nectar will drip from the frame
How many bees. If necessary, add an additional super, lifting up frame of sealed brood (without the queen). Put drawn comb into space left vacant.
Look at the bees EVERY 3 WEEKS.
Unless you are wanting to breed queens, eliminate drone comb by removal. In its place put worker drawn comb. The drone cells on bottom bar of frames should be scraped with the hive tool. Bees will clean them out. The queen will lay again but as it takes 25 days for drones to hatch out, and providing you are looking every three weeks you just go through the same process again and again.
REMEMBER THE CAUSES OF SWARMING ARE:
Congestion of brood nest. DRONES help do this.
Insufficient room for queens to lay in
Plentiful supply of pollen and thin stimulative nectar. Remember 1 of sugar, 1 of water to stimulate
feed hives.
Old queens
Queens bred or swarms gathered at swarming time (this genetic trait is bred in them)
As the season moves into late spring or earlier, depending on weather conditions, the signs to look for indicating bees are preparing to swarm are:
Queen cups (drawn out of face of combs)
Congestion of brood nest
Lack of amount of eggs
More larvae
Sealed brood
Maybe eggs in queen cups
Plan of action to prevent swarming
Expand brood nest
Remove all sealed brood frames. In their place spread out the other frames and interleave frames of foundation so as you have brood, foundation, brood and so on.
Place the new super containing the brood frames that have been taken out and repeat the same brood, foundation, brood process in that box. Then add a super of foundation on top of that box.
As a result, conditions of ABNORMALITY have been created in the hive; and the bees that were thinking of swarming have to repair after this interference.
A hive works internally on a BEE SPACE and this has the backs of the bees on one comb just touching the backs of the bees on the next comb. As new foundation has been placed in the hive this cannot occur and therefore the bees draw the foundation out to get the required bee space.
Also in the BROOD CHAMBER there cannot be gaps in the brood as this is unnatural and as such the bees feed the queen lavishly on Royal Jelly and her abdomen swells and she commences to lay up all those frames of foundation that you interleaved between the brood.
So, as you can see the whole hive has to work to get their hive back into shape again and there is no time to think about swarming and queens in full lay cannot swarm. In a couple of weeks look at the brood again, as well as the condition of the hive, and if the bees are preparing to swarm repeat the process all over again.
If you have any weaker hives you can take frames of brood and bees and add them to weaker hives to make
them stronger.
If, on the next inspection, the bees are still making preparation to swarm create an artificial swarm by taking a whole box of brood and bees and moving this to a new place with a new bottom board and lid and in its place put a new box with frames of foundation and move up brood frames and do the interleaving process again.
Try not to take the Queen
However, if the queen cannot be found, look at both hives in the next two days and you will know which hive has the queen in it as the other one will have drawn cells. The hive with the queen will have eggs present.
Once, either a honey flow is found or the main honey flow has commenced then the bees will forget about swarming, the bees will get down to gathering.
If that extra hive is not wanted, and if the new queen that the bees have made, and her progeny, are quiet and easy to work, then kill the original queen and UNITE the two. To do this, use a couple of sheets of newspaper (between the two hives) with a couple of sharp knife splits or cuts in it resulting in a super honey gathering hive.
Late spring to early summer
This is the time to start extracting. It depends on
The honey flows and what is to follow
How much honey taken
This is the time to get good drawn combs by interleaving foundation between the stickies which have been put back on the bees.
