A year in a treatment free apiary in Nebraska
Presentations online Before you take copious notes, all these presentations are online here:
Bee Camp
“Everything works if you let it” ––James "Big Boy" Medlin
April Check weight of hives (brood rearing can burn a lot of stores) Mark dead outs and check for causes. If dead outs are heavy redistribute stores to light hives so they don’t have to be robbed out. Check “boomers” to make sure they aren’t going to run out of room.
May Check for drones flying so we can decide when to do splits and queen rearing. Mid-may do splits of hives that have filled four boxes. Start looking for swarm cells and open brood nests or split booming hives. Start queen rearing when drones are flying.
June Seriously into queen rearing. For the first two weeks still keeping an eye on swarming. Mid-June stack on the supers for the main flow Late-June start shipping queens. Clean up after tornadoes...
July Continue queen rearing and queen shipping. Split mating nucs that are getting too strong. Break up hives that are languishing into nucs and give them queen cells. If the flow continues, put more supers on. If the flow lets up, reduce entrances, watch for robbing and start feeding mating nucs a small amount at night to keep the queens mating. Go fishing
August Continue queen rearing and queen shipping. Split mating nucs that are getting too strong. Watch space and if there is still a flow, keep adding supers. If there is not keep an eye on the robbing situation and the food situation. If you have to feed (rare), reduce all entrances and feed all hives.
September Weather and flow can vary a lot. Usually asters and goldenrod are the main flow at this time, with chicory filling in if those are in short supply. If you see bees working sawdust and coffee grounds and feed dust (signs of a pollen dearth), open feed pollen for a last batch of young brood.
October Weather and flow can vary a lot. We may get a hard freeze early or late in October. Once there is a freeze the year is over. If the weather is still warm and there has been no killing frost, continue to keep an eye on pollen needs. If the weather is around 40°F in the mornings, start harvesting and leaving stores. After harvest put wets back on for cleanup Get all the nucs clustered together for winter Get all the hives clustered together for winter Consolidate mating nucs into nucs or queen banks.
November Finish up any of the October projects that are not done or have been postponed because of warm weather. If we have finished harvest and if the wets are cleaned up, get them off and stacked so the mice can’t get in. Put insulation on the covers.
December Leave them alone... Good news will keep. Bad news won’t go away. Work on equipment
Sevareid's Law: “The leading cause of problems is solutions.”
Bush's Law of Problems and Solutions: “Most problems are imaginary and most solutions are illusions”
January Leave them alone... Work on equipment
February Leave them alone... Work on equipment
March Depending on the weather, either leave them alone or take a peek to see how some of them are faring. Heft them for weight. If any are light to the point of being worrisome, steal honey from dead outs for them. Deliver foals...
Further Reading
Contact Info Michael Bush bees at bushfarms dot com Book: The Practical Beekeeper