Colonial Beekeepers Beginning Beekeeping

Colonial Beekeepers Beginning Beekeeping

Overview of Yearly Management
Honey bees lived just fine until man came along and began to capture them. This is called keeping bees and managing them. In the wild they are just wild feral bees.

Overview of Yearly Management
A feral colonies population will rise and fall in conjunction with: Nectar Flows Swarming Healthy colonies will survive and flourish Sickly colonies will perish Knowing this natural cycle of honey bees allows us to manage colonies throughout the year to maximize on populations for honey production or pollination requirements.

Fall/Winter Management
The management year for established colonies can be said to start in the late Fall getting colonies ready for Winter Much of this presentation has been adapted from a PowerPoint provided by the Ohio State Beekeepers Association.

Getting bees ready for winter
Lets take a look at the 2003 US National Arboretum "Web Version" of the 1990 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture. Beekeeping puts you in touch with the seasons Our area in SE Virginia is 0-10 degrees.

This graph shows bee populations during late summer into winter. This information is copied from Bulletin 450 issued by the Ohio State University in 1971. Those bees born in October are our winter bees and these bees will live from 4-6 months. Have a fat reserve like mammals. In honey bees this fat is called

Winter weather can be harsh. Days are gray and temperatures can reach down to freezing with wind chill factors below that. What can the beekeeper do to provide for winter survival?

What can the beekeeper do to provide for winter survival? Starting in AUGUST/September when all surplus honey is removed… Check hive for a good laying queen and brood pattern. If she is not doing a good job, now is the time to replace her. What is the bee population of the hive? If it is small, you may need to think about combining the hive with a stronger hive or replacing the queen.

What can the beekeeper do to provide for winter survival? Starting in August when all surplus honey is removed… Check hive for diseases. Especially any brood diseases and mites. Then treat for these diseases.

What can the beekeeper do to provide for winter survival? Before hard weather arrives…. Provide for entrance reducers. Level hives allowing for a slight slope from the back of the hive to the front to allow water to run out of the hive rather than into the hive. Provide the bees with a wind break. Provide for an upper entrance and good ventilation. Provide for entrance reducers – set these in place early to keep mice out; 1/2” wire works well with/without reduced opening Level hives - not necessary if using screened bottom boards Provide the bees with a wind break – this simple precaution has a great effect. Wrapping hives is not usually done in our area but some, like Andy, have good success with using insulation boards to increase the r-value of the hive Provide for an upper entrance and good ventilation – moisture must be allowed to escape from the colony and/or be absorbed

Feeding your bees during winter
Winter Management Feeding your bees during winter Feeding your bees during a hard winter with a liquid syrup is most likely not going to help a whole lot. This is a job that should have been done when the weather would have allowed the bees to move to the syrup and place it in the locations that would have helped them now. What will help? The temperature of the syrup can limit the bees ability to take it Some have found that insulation will keep the syrup warm and allow the bees to take this feed SE VA’s winter’s will allow days to open feed or put warm syrup on the colonies

Feeding your bees during winter
Winter Management Feeding your bees during winter What will help Now? Fondant or sugar candy placed on the top bars below the inner cover. Dry granulated sugar placed about the inner cover hole is a good emergency feed if the bees are in the upper hive body. Remember the inner cover has two sides, summer with a shallow rim and winter with a deeper rim. The deeper rim will allow for feeding fondant Dry sugar and/or fondant will also absorb moisture which is a good thing

Winter Management Summary
The bees will take care of themselves if you left them enough stores and provided ventilation and wind protection. This may not be a true statement – varroa, tracheal mites, small hive beetle, nosema

Getting Ready for Spring!

Hive Population Growth
In the Spring/winter…. In Virginia queens begin laying in early January and you will find patches of capped brood in February. This growth increases in March and April. This chart is based upon a chart released by OSU in 1976 of an ideal colony entering January with a population of 40,000 bees. SE Virginia is probably one month ahead of Ohio. This year possibly not

Spring management really began last fall. We put our entrance guards on our hives We made sure our hive had enough honey surplus for the bees to survive the winter. We tilted the bottom board so water would not run into the hive. We provided upper ventilation We provided a wind break for the hive. And we treated for mites. And so why do we need to worry about spring?

Spring Management If your bees survived the winter, there are things that need to be done. You can open your hive even during cold weather. However, do not pull out any frames. You will need to carry out an early hive inspection. Things you will look for and do: You can take the top cover off to see if the bees are alive. Good sign: The bees are alive!

Spring Management Open the hive, and check to see how many frames the bees seem to be covering. You do not want to leave this hive open very long on a cool day like this. Also check the hives weight. If light, the hive will need to be fed.

Spring Management Do they need feed? If so, it should be one of your higher priorities. Many people feed sugar syrup. Use a heavier mixture 1:1 sugar and water early in spring and later go to 2 parts water and 1 part sugar.

Spring Management Do they need feed? There are many types of feeders. One not recommend in early spring is called the Boardman Feeder. Can you see why the boardman feeder in this picture is not doing the bees any good?

Spring Management 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.

A warm day finally arrives…. The bees have been fed….. We are now ready for a real hive inspection! Temperatures should be above 60 degrees with little or no wind to chill the brood Look at the forecast and don’t make excessive manipulations if the future forecast is for cold night-time temperatures – look for the lowest of the lows to be NLT 50 degrees.

Spring Management -- Spring inspection Examination of your hives requires a careful check of each hive. This is called a spring inspection. It is easier to examine the hive in the spring because the bee population is small.

Spring Management -- inspections What you want to accomplish… Check on the condition of the queen (brood patterns, population size etc.) Check for diseases. 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. Rule of thumb is to have two brood cycles run before the start of the nectar flow – that’s 42 days! If the nectar flow is starting now, 24 MAR, then I needed to have been stimulating my colonies to raise brood 10 FEB…..

Spring Management -- Spring inspections You could find your queen to mark her and clip her wings if desired.

Spring Management When the bees are flying and the temperatures have warmed up to 60 degrees or so: Open the hive………. If there is no brood you have a problem -- You will need to purchase a new queen immediately. If the queen is laying poorly, plan to replace her. Don't kill her until the new queen arrives. Don’t keep the hive open for very long if the temperatures are cool. It is too early fr queens now but a frame with eggs and young larva could be introduced from a stronger colony. A queenless colony could be combined with a weak queenright colony

Spring Management Check the hive for any mouse damage. Mice get into the hives during winter and build a nest in the lower corner of frames. If this has happened, remove the frames that are damaged -- remove the nest and check to make sure no mice are running around inside the hive.

Spring Management Cleaning chores….. Clean all debris from the bottom board. Loosen frames and clean them if necessary. Clean around the hives.

Spring Management Another thing you might want to check would be: Are any critters brothering your bees. Bears can be a problem (You will see the damage without any trouble). Skunks are a problem in some areas. Skunks eat honey bees and once they discover a meal to be had, they will be back every night. Signs of skunk damage: the grass in front of the hive entrance will be matted down and if the skunk has been working the hive over a period of time, the grass will be worn away showing a bare patch of dirt in front of the hive. You will also find scratch marks on the front of the hive. Skunks disturb the hive and when a honey bees comes out the entrance to check to see what has caused that disturbance, the skunk will have a meal. You may have to re-level your hive. Check for hive maintenance. Does it hive need a new coat of paint? Be proud of your hive/hives. If you maintain your equipment, it will last for a long time.

Spring Management -- Adding supers You can expect your hive to develop swarming fever! It is important to be one step ahead of the bees. This is about the same 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. As the population explodes, the bees will be crowded without the extra space. Bees swarm as early as mid April in Ohio. You will be faced with the decision to make splits (discussed in the next series of slides), or add honey supers to expand the room available for the bees.

Pollen and Nectar sources…. The bees use this for brood production… It takes approximately one frame of nectar and one frame of pollen to produce one frame of brood. March is a very important month for the growth of a hives bee population. They consume a lot of food.

Pollen and Nectar sources….
Late Spring -- Beginning of honey flow Raspberries Black Locust Honeysuckle

Pollen and Nectar sources….
Late Spring -- Honey plants…. White Clover Various mints Wild flowers

Getting Ready for Summer!
Summer is most likely the most pleasant season of the year! Packages have been picked up and installed. Hive inspections have been done. Honey supers added. It is now time for the bees to do their work!

Summer Management Many commercial beekeepers are working hard to get their bees ready for pollination

Summer Management 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. Your goal is to keep your hive to maximum hive strength till the nectar flow ends – for your surplus honey and the bees survival.

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.

What is needed? A New queen or queen cell to be introduced to the queen-less hive The equipment needed… Bottom board, top cover, inner cover.

A new location for the new hive is selected. Move the queen with at least 4 or 5 frames of brood to the new location. Older bees will return to the original hive location. Fill the deep box with additional frames and one division board feeder filled with sugar syrup. Put an entrance reducer on this hive as well.

The hive in the original position is given a new queen and also fed. Both hives should be about equal strength at this time. 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 hive should look like in 8 weeks.

Summer Management 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. And if you make the mistake of taking off your honey and putting it somewhere the bees can get at it, you will discover to your dismay the problem you created. Notice this bee has pollen on its legs, it is not a robbing bee.

Wouldn’t you just love to see if the rocking hive rocks!
Summer Management Painting hives I like nice white hives, but they are easy to see. Hive painted green or gray are harder to see. Some people can not resist the temptation to tip over hives or even shoot at them. If your hives are located where they can easily be seen, you may be facing four legged problems. Wouldn’t you just love to see if the rocking hive rocks!

Low Ground – flood danger All that’s left after a flood.
Summer Management Low Ground – flood danger When you are looking for an out yard to put your bees, avoid low lying ground. Some people letting you use their land will give you an opportunity to place them away from any area that they use. Often this area is flood prone or hard to get to in the spring of the year because the ground is too soft to drive to the location. All that’s left after a flood.

And talking about pest……..
Summer Management And talking about pest…….. Here are a few: Ants Yellow Jackets Mice Skunks Ratcoons Snakes

Finally … Strong hives get honey
Summer Management Finally … Strong hives get honey

Honey Plants during summer
Summer Management Honey Plants during summer Yellow & White Sweet Clover Basswood Tulip Poplar Sourwood Field crops: Pumpkins Pickles Blueberries Soybeans

Topics to be discussed:
Fall Management Introduction Fall management can be said to begin with the honey harvest. Usually this takes place in late summer. Topics to be discussed: How to take the honey supers off the hive Processing the honey Processing wax Some characteristics of honey Getting your bees ready for winter

Fall Management Taking off honey supers and processing honey
Taking off honey supers and processing honey 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. We have indicated earlier that at least 60 pounds of honey should be left on the hive. 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.

How to take the honey supers off the hive
What is a honey super? It is a hive box filled with honey (hopefully)! Capped honey In a frame

Methods to remove honey supers from the hive. Honey supers will have bees in them.

Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey super/frames. Brushing/knocking them off the frames Using bee escapes of various kinds. Using a bee blower Using Fume pads

Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey super/frames. Brushing/knocking them off the frames. This is time consuming but does little damage to the bees. Picture from the Dadant 2007 catalog. A bee brush is useful for a number of things around the bee yard.

Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey super/frames. Using bee escapes of various kinds. Inner cover with bee escape placed in vent hole. Conical bee escape These illustrations taken from the Dadant 2007 catalog. Both of 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.

Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey super/frames. 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.

Various methods are used to drive bees from a honey super/frames. 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.

These are things to do before removing the honey super and frames from the hive. Check for any brood on the frames of honey. After the honey is removed from the hive……. Secure the honey supers in a secure area where bees can not get to them to rob.

Check for brood on honey super frames Check for any brood on the frames of honey. This is brood placed in a honey super frame. You will have this if you do not use queen excluders and care must be taken that you have not also removed the queen from the hive. The brood frames should not be removed from the hive. If you use queen excluders, it means the queen got thru it some how and is located in the honey super area of your hive.

After the honey supers are off the hives.
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 situation can develop in the area where bees can get at honey supers. This is a secure honey room of a commercial beekeeper. This room is kept dark and warm until the supers are moved for extracting. The honey in this room will be in 50 gal. barrels in two days.

After the honey supers are off the hives.
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. 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.

Getting Bees Ready for Winter
Your honey crop has been harvested

Removing honey from honey supers
It is time to remove the honey from the supers.

Extracting Honey Check the various Bee Equipment catalogs for equipment…. Always buy stainless steel products. They do not contaminate honey and they are easy to clean up. This is an area where you can spend a lot of money. Our illustration is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.

Extracting Honey You most likely will want an extractor (hand crank or electric) which spins the honey by centrifugal force out of the comb. There the honey collects and moves down the sides of the extractor so it can be drained into buckets, etc. Shown in the photo are the essentials for extracting honey. The extractor A plastic uncapping tub Bottling bucket Capping scratcher A uncapping knife Our illustration is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.

The process of removing honey from supers is called “extracting” if liquid honey is being obtained. For the sake of time, we are not going to discuss comb honey production. This is a topic for a more advanced class. The process begins with removing the cappings from the honey comb. This is usually done with a knife. If you have several supers of honey to extract, it pays to have a good knife. Our illustration of uncapping knives is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.

Some of the equipment if you plan on getting into commercial beekeeping. Buildings to house your business, moving equipment such as trucks, and skid loader, honey house and supper storage, and of course a lot of bee hives.

Processing Wax Wax cappings which are cut from the face of the comb include honey and wax. The wax from this source is outstanding – usually a very light yellow. Wax melted from old comb generally tends to be dark. Honey processed in iron vessels will also darken due to the oxidation of the iron. Our illustration of uncapping knives is from the 2007 Dadant catalog.

Processing Wax The easiest way to process wax in small amounts is to place the cappings in a solar wax melter. The sun will not only melt the wax in the melter, it will also bleach it to the lightest of yellow. You will also be able to recover quite a bit of the honey in the cappings. They are easy to construct yourself. Cappings can also be placed in water and boiled. The wax will separate and rise to the surface. When cooled, the wax will be a solid. Illustration from the 2007 Brushy Mountain Bee Farm Catalog.

Processing Wax Wax is very flammable and melts at 147.9 degrees.
Light beeswax is highly desirable and sells quickly. A beekeeper may also use wax for candles, as an ingredient in various cosmetics, and many other uses.

Characteristics of Honey
Honey is not nectar. It is created from nectar by the honey bee. So bees do not gather honey from plants but rather they gather nectar from plants which is then converted by them into honey! Lets take a look at this process.

Nectar undergoes a physical and a chemical change to become honey. The Physical change occurs as the bees reduce the amount of moisture in nectar. Nectar may have as much as 70 to 80% moisture. Dr. James Tew of Ohio State University has often describe the honey bees behavior of collection flights as, "shopping for nectar with the highest sugar content much as a housewife shops for bargains at the local grocery store." Most flowers secrete nectar but this nectar is not always attractive to honey bees. Thus, honey bees will visit flowers which provide the honey bee with just the right access to its nectar rewards. After gathering the nectar, the bee must reduce the moisture in the nectar to less than 18.6%. This 18.6% figure is the maximum amount of moisture in honey which prevents fermentation at or below this moisture level. The chemical change occurs as the bee change sucrose (the sugar content of nectar) into the sugar of honey (glucose and fructose). .

The color of honey varies considerably according to the nectar source of the honey. These samples represent the wide range of colors found in honey and are identified from the left to the right as: very light clover honey, amber star thistle honey, dark amber blueberry honey, and buckwheat honey which is almost black. To help with some description of honey, these colors may be of some help but the pollen grains in these honey samples can tell us the true source. Looking at color alone can not determine what the nectar source is or if it is a combination of nectar sources. A dark honey for example, might be overheated lighter honey. Taste is also a factor to take into consideration.

Getting Bees Ready for Winter
Your honey crop has been harvested

Colonial Beekeepers Beginning Beekeeping

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