What would you do?
Here are some situations/questions that beekeepers have asked this month. What would you do?? What advice would you give? What would YOU do?
Re-queen or not? I may have made a mistake and stuck a new queen (caged) in our hive yesterday. I got her because I hadn't found eggs or new larvae over the past 2 inspections (10 days apart) and I wasn't able to locate the old queen so I assumed she was dead and gone. But after doing s-1ome research and thinking on it I realize she may still be there and may kill the new queen. I'm not sure what to do or think because the old queen was only a year and a half old and I don't see any reason she should've stopped laying which is why I thought something happened to her. There are no queen cells with anything in them, I did find some cups though. What do you guys think?
What is causing this? Hello all, I’ve come across these tiny worms for the first time. We often have wax moths infestations in weak hives and im used to seeing those chubby wax moths larvae but I’ve never seen these tiny ones? What could they be? The hive obviously has an issue with the brood and I discarded this frame. Any lead would be appreciated!
How do you keep up? I’m a newish beek (2nd year). I have 4 hives (two are from swarms my first hive cast off in March). I feel like I’m constantly working to keep enough equipment ready for these 4 hives. My question is this: how can I better prepare during the winter for how many new frames/hive bodies I’ll need for the upcoming season? So I’m not panic buying and struggling to keep up with the bees? How do you experienced beeks prepare?
MAKING SPLITS
Due to unexplained technical glitches, this article was incomplete in our last issue, so we are repeating it here.
The following article was written by David MacFawn and published by Bee Culture magazine. (note: the article was edited to enable it to be included here)
David MacFawn is an Eastern Apiculture Society Master Beekeeper and a North Carolina Master Craftsman beekeeper living in the Columbia, South Carolina area. He is the author of three books:
Applied Beekeeping in the U.S. https://outskirtspress.com/appliedbeekeepingintheus/
Beekeeping Tips and Techniques https://outskirtspress.com/BeekeepingTipsandTechniquesfortheSoutheastUnitedStatesBeekeepingFinance
Getting the Best from Your Bees https://outskirtspress.com/gettingthebestfromyourbees
By: David MacFawn
Here’s how and when in the SE U.S.
Splitting a colony is one way to control swarming. It is also a way to make increases to make up for lost colonies. When making a split, the new split should contain capped worker brood with some worker eggs and larvae, honey, and pollen. It takes workers consuming honey and pollen to produce worker jelly to feed worker larvae, to ensure worker brood are completely fed. During the Spring nectar flow in any places there is a tradeoff between making splits and obtaining a honey crop.
Enough nurse bees are required to care and cover the brood on cool nights. Older field bees are required to for water, pollen and nectar to feed the young larvae. When making a split, if swarm cells are available, the beekeeper will refer to the time needed for a split to become a functional colony. With a capped swarm or queen cell, it takes an average of about seven days for the queen to emerge from a freshly capped pupa. Add another ten to fourteen days for the queen to mate and start laying plus another 19-21 days on average for first workers to emerge for a new split. This means it takes approximately 36 to 42 days for new workers to emerge. Add an additional 18 to 21 days for workers to start foraging means it will take approximately seven to nine weeks for these new foragers to start collecting nectar, pollen, or water.
Most colonies swarm either right before or during the nectar flow. However, if mated, local queens are used the wait time for new foragers can be reduced by approximately 14-17 days compared to moving a queen cell (seven days for emergence and seven to10 days for mating). If a walk away split is made, where the bees raise their own queen, it will take approximately 15 to 17 days for the queen to emerge, 10 to 14 days to mate and start laying, 19-21 days for workers to emerge in a new split, and an additional 18 to 21 days to become field bees. In total that is approximately nine to 10 weeks to produce field bees from a walk away split. This maturation time will impact honey production. Hence, the old saying you can make either bees or honey is true.
When making a split, the split should be closely monitored for about three weeks to see if you need to add another frame of brood. Bees typically only live an average five to six weeks during warm weather and it may take 6 to 10 weeks to obtain field bees. Splits should be fed sugar syrup as a safeguard with the understanding that during the nectar flow stored syrup may intermingle with collected nectar. Bees typically will stop using sugar syrup when fresh nectar is available. However due to the reduced size of a split, and normal population losses, it is wise to offer sugar syrup until they become a functional colony. If another frame of bees and brood is added from a strong non-split colony, and if the nectar flow is ¼ to ½ complete, the brood that is removed from the strong non-split colony will minimally affect honey production. This is because of the time needed for any brood taken from the donor hive, has yet to complete its development into mature field bees.
Time lines for different types of splits:
Mated queen split – this is when you split the hive, and you put a mated queen in the queenless hive. The new queen should start laying in 3-7 days, and you should have workers start emerging in 22-28 days, and finally have field bees in about 40-49 days
Capped queen cell split – this is when the laying queen is removed, and you have a capped queen cell in the queenless hive. The new queen should emerge, get mated, and start laying in 10-14 days, and you should have workers start emerging in 29-42 days, and finally have bees in about 47- 63 days.
Walk-away split – this is when the laying queen is taken with the split, and the other half is left without a queen or queen cell, but the bees have new eggs with which they can make a new queen. The bees will make a queen cell and the queen should emerge in 15-17 days. She will then get mated and start laying in another 10-14 days. Worker bees should start emerging 44-52 days after the split, and finally have field bees in 62-73 days after the split.
When selecting a frame of brood, you want mostly capped brood with some eggs and larvae. Capped brood has completed its feeding stage which means the split does not need as many nurse bees. The eggs and larvae are an insurance policy in case the new queen does not take, and the bees need to raise a new queen. Also, you want all different stages of brood so you have a continuous supply of bees. A minimum three frame split is recommended with a frame of capped brood, eggs and larvae, honey, and pollen. A five-frame split is better with all stages of brood since it will build up quicker than a three-frame split.
A good frame for a split will contain a lot of capped worker brood, with some larvae and eggs on the upper part of the frame. Typically, at least one total deep frame with brood should be used in addition to a frame of honey and a frame of pollen. The brood frame should be placed in the middle of the three frames for warmth. All three frames should be covered with as many bees as possible.
The split should typically be moved greater than three miles to retain your field bees. If you decide not to move the split and leave it in the same bee yard, the field bees will return to the original location. Leaving the split in same bee yard will still work if you have enough nurse bees to cover the brood. The split needs to be monitored closely and another frame of bees and brood added if necessary. The split should be fed sugar syrup.
A frame with lots of open cells and little, if any, eggs, larvae, capped cells or nurse bees is not an optimum choice for a split. An optimal frame contains capped brood in addition to larva and eggs. This will allow a continuous supply of bees until a queen starts laying.
A good pollen frame for a split will have the various pollen colors indicating the pollen is from various sources. This results in a varied pollen diet. It takes brood, honey, pollen, and bees for a split to be successful.
Three or more frames for the split should be placed in the middle of a brood chamber with additional frames on either side. During a nectar flow, the additional frames may contain foundation since the bees will typically draw the cells out. If a split is made after the main nectar flow, frames with drawn comb are preferred. The colony should typically be treated for Varroa prior to the split to ensure the treatment chemicals do not interfere with requeening.
In any locations, splits may be done during the Spring nectar flow, in June after the nectar flow is over while the colony still has a lot of bees and brood, and in the August time frame. Splitting in August with young local mated queens is good preparation for the next year when queens are not available during the typical Spring buildup period.
Sometimes, for unknown reasons, a newly introduced queen may not take, and the bees will build emergency cells. In this case, this split should be monitored closely to ensure they have enough bees to get them through until the foragers start maturing. This can be done by adding a frame of brood and bees from another hive to sustain the split.
Splitting a strong colony is one way of swarm control and to make increases. A five-frame split is preferred, with the equivalent of a frame of brood/eggs/larvae, a frame of honey, and a frame of pollen. The split should be monitored at approximately three weeks to determine if additional brood and bees need to be added. In South Carolina, splits may be created at least three different times of the year. In the March through May time-period when the spring nectar flow occurs, in June after the spring nectar flow, and in the August time frame. Usually there is a tradeoff between making splits and making a honey crop.
References
1. Personal discussions with Randy Oliver
2. Making splits, David Tarpy, MP4 video, North Carolina State
Extension
3. “Increase Essentials, second edition”, Lawrence John Connor
, Wicwas Press, ISBN 978-1-878075-35-2