The Dutiful Beekeeper
by Neil on May.03, 2010, under Articles
Well June will soon be upon us and the dutiful beekeeper will be checking their hive(s) in a 7 day cycle. Why? Well the early summer honey should be due for removal before the first week in June.
Honey left where it is and the bees left to their own devices will result in (if the early summer bloom has been good) bees gradually taking back the honey ready to swarm. The bees will take the stored honey ready to feed the swarm for the three to five days it takes to relocate and get settled. If the honey is removed the bees do not have this option and you will gain a larger early harvest.
If the early bloom is not so good it simpy take longer for the above process to happen. They probably will still swarm but the honey extracted for the process will be over a longer period. Also the bees will be producing more brood to replace the innevitable swarm later in the Summer, which could result in Queen fatigue or congestion, plus the bees wont have much to do because of the lack of forage!!
Not sure if your bees are going to swarm? Well if they are short of space (lebensraum) they will swarm!! Is the brood box rammed full of bees (another delay tactic would be to add another super for brood)? Are there queens cells or even other queens? If yes a swarm is imminent.
One of the best solutions and certainly the easiest is to remove the early honey harvest (sealed honey) at the end of May and create a couple of “mini” swarms with the bees which would otherwise have not much to do. So give these new nuclei a couple of frames of eggs and open brood and remove to another locale. Feed all the hives well with 1 part sugar to 2 parts water syrup.
Now you have a queen right colony and perhaps two “mini” colonies with the right tools to re-queen start anew!! Awesome!
The other good thing about this whole process is the opportunity to treat Varroa and look out for EFB and AFB!!
May 7th, 2010 on 12:48 am
hi there
you mention a 7 day cycle that should be followed? why is this? why not 6 or 8? i would love an answer to see how it fits into the 7day week and the Sabbath as a day of rest.
May 7th, 2010 on 4:27 am
Hi Marthie, Well you answered it yourself. We have a seven day week so the bees should be checked once in this period. I guess if we had evolved a 6 or 8 day week I would have used those figures for the cycle. Im just saying check them regularly as they will swarm if conditions are as specified.
Also I dont see Sunday as the Sabbath or day of rest, nor do I see hive manipulation as real work. Manipulating the hive is certainly easier at midday when most bees are out foraging. So if your schedule is so busy that the only day you can do this is Sunday then Sunday is when you should do it. Or perhaps think about not keeping bees at all if you dont have the time to do all the necessary activities, either that or enlist the help of a local beek that has more time.