1. Hive Inspections & Overview of Yearly Management

2. Hive Inspections Inspections are a necessity in the management of honey bees Removable frame hives allow for inspecting the health and needs of colonies Results of the last inspections manipulations

3. Hive Inspections Prior to inspecting gather the necessary tools and equipment These are to be considered the minimum items necessary for opening a honey bees colony: VeilHive ToolSmoker Additional Items: Jacket/CoverallsGlovesBrush Frame HangerFrame grip

4. Hive Inspections Get your smoker lit - Smoke is a great help in controlling honey bees. However, don’t use too much. Good fuel to use in your smoker….. Wood shavings Burlap Pulk wood (decaying wood easy found in dead trees. Pine needles Grass clippings

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6. Hive Inspections First, make sure all is ready. You work the hive from the side or back if possible. Blow a little smoke toward the entrance. Use your hive tool to remove the top & inner cover. Use a little smoke now and again as you proceed. Once the inner cover is off the top bars of the frames in the top box (super) are exposed. Use your hive tool to remove the frames from the hive body for inspection starting from the side. Pull frames straight up and handle by lugs or with grip.

7. Hive Inspections Move slowly when working the bees. Fast rapid movement causes the bees to react to your actions. Work bees during the mid day in good weather. If the hive becomes uncontrollable, close the hive and wait for a better time of day.

8. Hive Inspections What should we be looking for when we begin to work the hive? First, a beekeeper’s job is to do the least amount of damage to the bees.

9. Hive Inspections At a minimum you should be looking for these things in no particular order: – Food Stores - pollen, nectar and/or honey – A good population of bees – Brood in all stages – Eggs – Evidence of disease or pests

11. Hive Inspections A hive should not be open any longer than necessary to do an inspection. Hold the frame so that the sun is reaching the frame from over your shoulder. A good population of bees will be covering the brood areas. Close the hive up in reverse order and document your observations & manipulations

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13. Overview of Yearly Management

14. Spring Management Spring Management starts in February/March with feeding colonies There are many types of feeders. Division board feeders fit inside the hive. Bucket feeders go over the inner cover hole. Top feeder can go over the frames or the inner cover hole.

15. Spring Management A warm March day finally arrives…. 60°+ & no wind The bees have been fed….. We are now ready for a real hive inspection!

16. Spring Management What you want to accomplish… 1.Check on colony build-up. 2.Check on the condition of the queen (brood patterns, population size etc.) 3.Check for diseases. 4.Check for equipment needs. Your goal is to get your hive to maximum hive strength for the nectar flow – for your surplus honey and their survival.

17. Spring Management Cleaning chores….. Clean all debris from the bottom board. Loosen frames and clean them if necessary. Clean around the hives. You may have to re-level your hive. Check for hive maintenance. Be proud of your hive/hives. If you maintain your equipment, it will last for a long time.

18. Spring Management Mid-March/Mid-April Expect your hive to develop swarming fever! You must be one step ahead of the bees. About the time apple trees begin to bloom. Bees will not usually gather a honey crop from apple and maple. They will however be using the pollen and nectar for brood rearing. It takes approximately one frame of nectar and one frame of pollen to produce one frame of brood.

19. Spring Management Mid-March/Mid-April As the population explodes, the bees will be crowded without the extra space. Bees swarm as early as mid March in Virginia. The beekeeper expands the room available for the bees by making splits or adding more space to the hive (supers). Manipulations have to be done or else....

20. Spring Management Mid-March/Mid-April Swarming is a natural process for feral honey bees but not for a managed colony!

21. Pollen and Nectar sources…. Spring -- Beginning of honey flow Maples Dandelion Dead Nettle Holly Fruit Trees

22. Pollen and Nectar sources…. Late Spring -- Honey sources…. White Clover Various mints Wild flowers Tulip Poplar Black Locust

23. Supering for the nectar flow: The "honey hoarding" instinct of the bees is increased if the amount of storage space (drawn comb) is increased. A colony with 2 or 3 empty supers of drawn comb will store more honey than a colony with one super of drawn comb during the same period of time Spring Management

24. Getting Ready for Summer! May is most likely the most pleasant month of the year! Hive inspections have been done. Honey supers added. It is now time for the bees to do their work!

25. What you want to accomplish… Keep check on the condition of the queen (brood patterns, population size etc.) Check for diseases and pests. Keeping a watchful eye for problems like robbing. Check for equipment needs. Summer Management

26. Your goal is to keep your hive to maximum hive strength till the nectar flow ends – for your surplus honey and the bees survival. But what about those hives that just aren’t measuring up? Summer Management

27. Summer Management Making splits This is one hive with the top deep hive body next to the bottom brood box.  We can certainly make two hives from this one.

28. Summer Management Making splits What is needed? A New queen/s or queen cell/s to be introduced to the queen- less hive/s. The equipment needed… Bottom board, top cover, inner cover.

29. Summer Management Making splits A new location for the new hive is selected. Frames of brood and stores are divided equally between the two new hives. Older bees will return to the original hive location. Provide a feeder filled with sugar syrup.

30. Summer Management Making splits Keep them as single hives until the bees move into the outside frames and support brood raising in them. At that time add a second deep brood chamber. This is what your new hives should look like in 8 weeks.

31. Summer Management Many commercial beekeepers are working hard to get their bees ready for pollination of pumpkins & squash

32. Robbing: Honey bees are good at finding nectar/honey sources. If they find any weak hives, they will arrive in large numbers to steal the weak hives honey. A new beekeeper will sometimes assume that the large number of bees indicate that the hive is doing well. Just the opposite is true. Summer Management And if you make the mistake of taking off your honey and putting it somewhere the bees can get at it or keeping a hive open too long for inspection you will discover to your dismay the problem you created.

33. Fall & Winter Management

34. Fall management can be said to begin with the honey harvest which usually this takes place in late summer. Consists of: Taking the honey supers off the hive Getting your bees ready for winter Fall Management

35. Finally … Strong hives get honey DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV

36. One of the joys of keeping honey bees is the reward of having some of your own honey. It is not "store bought.” A beekeeper must determine just how much honey he/she can remove from the hive and still leave enough for the bees to over winter. You can estimate this amount by checking the honey stores in the brood chamber. A deep frame full of honey will weigh approximately 6 pounds. The bees will need 10 of these. Two shallow frames will equal one deep frame. Fall Management

37. Taking honey supers off the hive What is a honey super? It is a hive box filled with honey (hopefully)! Capped honey In a frame

38. Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey super/frames. Honey supers will have bees in them. Taking honey supers off the hive

39. Brushing/knocking them off the frames. This is time consuming but does little damage to the bees. Allows you to check each frame for harvest. Picture from the Dadant 2007 catalog. A bee brush is useful for a number of things around the bee yard. Taking honey supers off the hive

40. Using bee escapes of various kinds. Inner cover with bee escape placed in vent hole. Triangle & Conical bee escapes These work by placing the escape under the honey super to be removed. It takes time for all the bees to leave the honey super. Taking honey supers off the hive

41. Using a bee blower An effective way to get bees out of a super. A lot of equipment to drag around however. Bees are surprisingly gentle when blown out of a honey super. Do not blow them out where you intend to walk. Taking honey supers off the hive

42. Using Fume pads or boards as they are sometimes called. This fits the top of the super to be removed. A chemical repellent is sprinkled or sprayed on the cloth pad in the frame. This is placed over the hive. It drives the bees down into lower sections of the hive. If left on too long, it will drive bees out the front entrance of the hive. Several can be used on different hives at the same time to speed up honey removal. These are Dadant catalog photos. Taking honey supers off the hive

43. These are things to do before removing the honey super and frames from the bee yard. Check for any brood on the frames of honey. Check for frames of uncapped nectar (80%). Taking honey supers off the hive

44. Honey supers with honey in them will attract many bees. They arrive to take honey from the supers back to their own hive… A serious robbing situation can develop in the area where bees can get at honey supers. After the honey supers off the hive

45. Do not sit them away until you have time to do something with them. Honey is hydroscopic meaning that it collects moisture from the air. This causes honey Fermentation. Honey will become sour-- Look for bubbles in your honey. And honey may granulate in the comb making it very difficult to remove the honey by extracting. After the honey supers off the hive

46. And Small Hive Beetles will attack the combs And wax moths will attack the comb if the weather is warm. And ants and mice will visit your supers if they can get to them. After the honey supers off the hive

47. Winter Management The management year for established colonies is often said to start with winter Those bees born in October are our winter bees and these bees will live from 4-6 months. Honey bees have a fat reserve like mammals. In honey bees this fat is called “VITELLOGENIN”

48. Winter Management Starting in September when all surplus honey is removed… Check hive for a good laying queen and brood pattern. Check hive for a good population of bees. Check hive for diseases.

49. Winter Management Before hard weather arrives…. Provide for entrance reducers & mouse guards. Level hives left to right with a slight forward tilt. Provide the bees with a wind break. Provide for an upper entrance and good ventilation.

50. Winter Management Feed your bees during winter Feed your bees on a warm winter day with a liquid syrup. Fondant or sugar candy placed on the top bars below the inner cover for colder days. It is best to check/feed colonies every warm day throughout winter

51. Dry granulated sugar placed about the inner cover hole is a good emergency feed if the bees are in the upper hive body. Winter Management

52. Winter Management Summary The bees will take care of themselves if you left them enough stores, provided ventilation and wind protection.

53. QUESTIONS?