
training
Midnite Bee-Beekeeper's: Article
ARTICLES
We have some new
members since last spring and we have some novices that tend to forget. In my
effort to UPGRADE all beekeepers to be BETTER, and attempting to prevent some
disappointment and discouragement, I thought it might be a fine idea to repeat
two of the items that appeared in last year's March edition of the PINK PAGES.
Getting foundation
built into DRAWN COMB and SWARM PREVENTION are surely two functions that need
much explanation as well as much understanding.
I want to strongly
impress on every reader that what I have written in the PINK PAGES are NOT ideas
that I have developed myself, but generally are the programs that have been
investigated and worked out for many recent years by bee scientists, bee researchers,
and professional apiculturists. Examination of any book
recently written by any number of famous beekeepers, such as Roger Morse,
Mark Winston, Diana Sammataro, Dewey Caron, or both Norm Gary and John Ambrose
chapters in the 1992 edition of "The Hive and Honey Bee" will demonstrate
that my PINK PAGES are just my style of writing about these things with which
all of these famous apian researchers agree. The definitive difference is that
my PINK PAGES are related to the events in Montgomery County and the surrounding
area of central Maryland.
I also want to
mention that our year 2000 Short Course is almost complete, and we have had
14 very interested and hard studying adult "students" instructed by Master Beekeepers
Ernie Miner, Barry Thompson, David Bernard, Nancy and Bill Troup, Bill Miller,
myself, and Chief Bee Inspector Bart Smith. When you are taught by 7 Master
Beekeepers + Bart, you should learn a great deal. Although not all are from
Montgomery County, I have asked them to join MCBA and attend our monthly meetings.
I will not be able
to attend the outside work session scheduled for Saturday, April 8th, as I have
been asked to repeat as the speaker for the spring meeting of the Illinois Beekeepers
in Peoria, Illinois. Since no one in their right mind can say they like my stroke
disabled voice (I HATE IT), I am taking my Bee Partner, Ann Harman, with me
so she can share in the program. It would not be a surprise if they asked her
to come back in 2001, because she is a fine speaker and a lot better looking
than me.
I have asked Bill
Miller to "run" the April 12th meeting and to use the help and knowledge of
our other Master Beekeepers on the broad subject of "Honey Production in central
Maryland". As I have said before, come to the meetings and let us help you,
or YOU help
us!
March 1999
How
Good is
Your Swarming Knowledge?
Swarming is
the natural program of honeybees for two purposes: to increase the
population of honeybees
over the world, and for bees to spread out away from home to new
territory. Some humans have rendered a truly anthropomorphic reason: two "queen
mothers" can't confortably live in the same house.
A main goal
of 20th century bee scientists and professional apiculturists was to determine
the primary reasons for
swarming and formulate colony management techniques to either prevent or diminish
the tendency of bees to swarm. Prior to this century, the lack of sound knowledge
about swarming often made it necessary to keep 3 or 4 colonies in order to produce
100 pounds of honey each year; but there were some skilled beekeepers who could
constantly produce over 100 pounds of Honey per colony every year and almost
in any part of the country.
Changing the
established procedures of the times and scientifically researching many possible
reasons for swarming as well as the management techniques to prevent or retard
swarming, much helpful knowledge has been made during the past 50 years to control
swarming in order to help a colony of bees to produce 100 pounds, or more, of
honey each year.
The following
points have been firmly established:
a.) There
is
a definite SWARM SEASON for all apis mellifera ; which is generally defined
as that period in the spring when brood rearing is at its peak; and in most
areas, that is the 4-6 week period just ahead of a major nectar flow.
b.) Some races
of Apis have 'a higher propensity to swarm than other races. The same can be
said regarding the different stocks (strains) of a race: This
is not a problem
for a skilled beekeeper, but can be
a major problem
for an uninformed apiarist.
c.) The Number
One reason for swarming is
over crowding or congestion tion in the BROOD
CHAMBER . This
has nothing to do with the supers, which is a totally different problem!
d.) The Number
Two reason for swarming - is the age of the Queen. In addition to her task of
laying eggs, it is her job to produce and spread the queen pheromone (queen
substance, also called 'queen odor') which acts as a
"glue"' to seal
all of her 50-60,000 progeny together
as one single
functioning unit.
Research has clearly
proven that the production of this
queen pheromone
DIMINISHES
every
day from her mating
day, and the older she becomes results in the lesser bees she can control. Bees
rarely swarm when headed by aqueen less than a year old
e) It is not
natural for bees to swarm during a nectar flow, because they would leave the
very thing they are trying to collect to provide for colony survival in the
coming winter. However, there must be enough super space to store this thin
watery nectar until the bees can evaporate its water content and ripen it into
thick honey. If adequate super space is not available and since idleness or
loafing are unknown in the genetic make-up of the honeybee, they swarm during
a nectar flow. This is totally 100% BEEKEEPER'S FAULT.
f.) Many beekeepers
have concluded that swarming
is a "sudden happening",
or that there were few warning signs to the beekeeper, and swarming is just
one of those unfortunate problems of beekeeping. None of these statements have
any meaning or truth in them. When the BROOD CHAMBER becomes congested with
too much brood, too many nurse bees,not
enough laying space for the queen, no space cell space for pollen or nectar,
and the .foraging bees "fighting their way through crowd" to get to and from
the front entrance, the bees initiate their swarming program. For a period of
perhaps 7-12 days in advance of, the swarm issue, bees have to build swarm cells,
produce lots of royal jelly to feed the larvae, reduce or even stop the queen
from laying eggs so she reduce weight in order to fly with the swarm, send out
scouts looking for a new home, and gorge themselves with honey to carry along
to their new home. Hence, they partially give up foraging in the field and just
sit around the hive waiting for the "signal" to swarm. This is the swarming
program in SWARM SEASON
before a main nectar flow.
When a nectar flow
comes about, bees
give up all thoughts of swarming and concentrate on nectar collecting.
If the beekeeper has not provided enough Super space, the bees try
to make storage space by building burr comb in every nook and crany, and
finally stop the queen from laying eggs by fiUing empty brood cells with
nectar, and they build queen cells arid all the rest of the program mentioned
above anch swarm because the beekeeper was too lazy or not smart enough
to provide adequate super space at the right time, WHICH WAS AT LEAST
7-10 DAYS BEFORE THE SWARM.
Some Leaders
will surely say: "George is crazy, out of his mind about swarming and swarm
control". If that is so, then most commercial migratory beekeepers who have
5000 colonies or 25,000 colonies moving bees all over the U. S., and the
pollinators who move 1000 colonies to New Jersey one week, move them two
weeks later to New York, three weeks later move them
up to Maine
and then back to Florida to make a crop of orange blossom honey must all
be CRAZY too. BeeKEEPING is their total income and they can't make mistakes
by allowing swarming. Some of them even requeen a colony twice each year
to make sure that the queen is very young to she can lay lots of eggs and
produce lots of queen pheromone to retard swarming. Almost all of them buy
queens from a highly skilled queen breeder and requeen in the fall so they
don't "mess up" the spring honey flow or pollination contract. If you attend
the meetings of the American Beekeeping Federation, you can talk to these
people yourself like I do and find out how knowledgeable they are!
This is already March,
so you can't do anything until next year, but you can sure plan for this
years after this one. Here are the things you shoul do:
1.) Prevent brood congestion
by reversing the brood chambers as needed during February,March and April.
You should either use 2 deep hive bodies or 3 medium Illinois hive bodies
for your brood chamber space.
2.)Supers are no good
in your garage or in your basement. Bees may need additional space in the
BROOD chamber, so put at leats one super in place in early April so that
the bees can more nectar or honey up to that super out of the brood chamber
if they need space.Put 5 Illinois supers of drawn comb on each colony about
April 15th. Do not use foundation.
3.) Plan on requeening
every year and see my PINK PAGES about Almost 100% Foolproof Requeening
in September and contact your queen supplier and order by July.
4.) Read, read, read;
but especially read Diana Sammantaro's 1998 3rd Edition, The Beekeeper's
Handbook; primarily aimed at beginners and intermediate. beekeepers. It
is maybe the BEST book for beginner's ever written. You are silly if you
do not have a DESK COPY of The Hive and Honey Bee Revised 1 992 Edition,
for your advanced studies with 1300 pages written by 34 of the greatest
beekeepers and bee scientists in the US. Many call it the beekeepers' Bible.
I think Dr.Norm Gary's Chapter 8 about BEE BEHAVIOR is one of the world's
greatest writings and Chanter 9 about Pheromones is the target for 2 1 st
century understanding more about bees. PLEASE NOTE MY FOIIOWLNG THOuGHS:
The mites were. not found in the USA until 1984 and 1987; the Africanized
bees did not enter the USA until October 1990, and the tremendous importance
of pheromones was just broached in recent years. Hence; BOOKS WRITTEN BEFORE
ABOUT 1982 ARE NOT OF MUCH VALUE TO YOU BECAUSE THEY DON'T DEAL WITH THE
PROBLEMS OF MITES, AFRICANIZED BEES, AND PHEROMENES. Therefore; in spite
of the fame of some particular book, don't read about how to improve the
speed and endurance of a Nash Rambler automobile or correct the steering
problems of Ralph Nader's Chevrolet Corvair; when you might be driving a
fuel injected Ford Mustang or a Cadillac Northstar in 1999. Buy a book that
is written by a bee researcher, professional apiculturist; or bee scientist
that features the necessary new management techniques needed in 2000 beekeeping.
Some
Swarming Truths and Falsities
1.) For many
years, beekeepers practiced removing all swarm cells about once each week
to prohibit swarming- Although that program might delay swarming; usually
the swarm issues and leave a queenless colony behind. Further; most often
the beekeeper
overlooked one queen cell when doing his removal procedure and the
bees swarmed right on schedule. REMOVING QUEENN CELLS DOES NOT STOP SWARMING!
2.) Many beekeepers clip
a queen's wings so she cannot fly and believe this procedure is a swarm
control technique. When
the bees find
the queen is not part of the swarm, they return to the hive with the idea
of trying again tommorrow. This action may happen for a day or so; but usually
a new virgin queen emerges and the swarm leaves the old homestead
headed by a new virgin queen- CLIPPING THE QUFFN'S WINGS DOES NOT STOP
SWARMING!
3.) Not unlike the addiction
of some humans to alcohol or drugs; after the bees set their program on the
urge to swarm and perform many of their necessary PRE-swarm
steps, it is is extremely difficult to stop this colony of bees from swarming
unless drastic measures are used- These. measures might include dividing the
colony into two parts, removing the queen, removing all brood and other labor
intensive tasks; even then they may not, work. If you observe queen larvae
floating in royal jelly in a queen
cell, the swarm
program is
well established; and
stopping swarming
will
be difficult.
Further; if you
see CAPPFED
queen cells; you can forget any prevention technique; because that colony
will swarm within 24 hours unless the weather is bad. One might
Say
that "Bees have a one-track mind", and if they have made swarm preparations,
it is very difficult
to re-orient
their thinking to some mundane task like nectar collecting.
4.) Although not often
seen here in Maryland, bees may swarm in the summer or even the fall due to
certain unusual circumstances. In total desperation, bees may have a "hunger
swarm" in the summer if their colony stores are down to zero, caused by either
the beekeeper removing too much honey or a very bad, long dearth of nectar.
Further, every now and then, a fall nectar flow or September that
is
intense and long lasting might cause a fall swarm. Although there are swarms
that occur at tines other than springtime, if you have sufficient knowledge
and skill to prevent or control normal spring swarming, you do not have to
concern yourself with these unusual out-the-ordinary happenings.
George Imirie