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TBH Spring Management
Splitting the brood nest
Bees do not use calendars their actions are dictated by the daily temperatures and weather conditions. We know that bees do not fly until temps reach at least 50-55 degrees, well right before or about that time of year the early nectar producing plants are blooming i.e. Willow, Maple trees, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha, Skimmia, Cotoneaster, Holly, Crocus, early Daffodils, Snowdrops (Galanthis), Winter Aconite (Eranthus hyemalis), just to name a few! Bees know that spring time is just around the corner; and that means nectar collecting to make honey for next winter's survival and that requires a large number of worker bees to gather that nectar.
The gestation period of a worker bee is 21 days, and it spends the first 18 days of its life doing hive duties, mainly being a nurse bee for the brood larvae and does not go out foraging for nectar or pollen until it is 19 days old. 21 days gestation period plus 19 days of hive duty equal 40 days between the time the egg was laid and foraging. Therefore, if you want a foraging age bee ready for foraging at the start of major nectar flow the queen had to lay the eggs 40 days prior to flow. The worker bees start heavy feeding of their queen to produce large quantities of eggs, plus cleaning and polishing of the brood cells for the queen to lay in.
To properly manage your hives you need to be an expert on the local flora and fauna. Know what is blooming and when. What are significant nectar sources? When are the flows and how long do they last. All these factors are what drive the hive. You do not tell the bees what to do and when. You make your manipulations when it fits to what they are currently doing. The best example of this is the only manipulation you need to make in the spring. When the temps hit the 50’s and the last frost has come you want to make that first inspection you have been dying to make since you saw the first bee emerge. During this inspection you want to assess the condition of the colony. Make sure there are eggs and make sure there are enough bees to cover the entire brood nest. If there are not enough bees or the hive seems weak they may need a feeding jump start. Honey from a trusted source preferably their own is the best, but if you don’t have that sugar syrup is the next best.
Anyone that says sugar syrup is better for bees then thier own honey is an Idiot! Artificial feed should ONLY be used in case of an emergency
Sugar syrup can be made up into three different strengths, and you use different ratios for different purposes and at different times of the year, as follows:
1:2 -1 pound of sugar dissolved in 2 pints of water is primarily used as a egg laying stimulant for the queen in late winter and early spring.
1:1 -1 pound of sugar dissolved in 1 pint of water is primarily used as artificial nectar to get bees to build comb and feed brood larvae in spring and summer.
2:1 - 2 pounds of sugar dissolved in 1 pint of water is a winter feed substituting for honey in the fall or early winter. Timing
The bees will soon switch their focus to reproductive swarming. The swarm impulse will start when the bees sense everything is prepared for winter. They have enough stores and the hive is starting to get crowded. When the swarm impulse starts there is usually nothing you can do to stop it! Swarm season will usually end after apples bloom. You have from the time there are enough bees to cover all the frames until the bees decide they have enough stores for the winter and crowding starts to head it off. In a Lang type hive there are manipulations made in spring to prevent this and to get a good spring build up of bees commonly known as reversing the brood boxes or “checker boarding” both involve manipulations of the brood nest. Well, as you know we can’t do either in a TBH. However there is a much simpler way to accomplish the equivalent of this manipulation in a TBH. If you have started a new hive and the bees are building comb you should look for the changes in focus. The bees will start out building comb and establishing a brood nest. You will see comb building very fast, usually on one side of the hive. The comb will alternate back and forth from the side out and to the rear. The change in focus comes when building stops and they start to store. It is here you want to start watching for enough bees to cover the brood comb. It is here that you may decide to feed to encourage comb building especially if there are enough bees and you split some bars and add new ones. When you add the empty bars the bees will sense that they need to keep working and will not develop the swarm impulse.   If your hive is established and is not filling the whole TBH you can do the above manipulation as soon as they are bringing in nectar and have enough bees to keep the brood warm. When you have established the colony and it is working well on its own the above manipulation can be used to remove old brood comb. Pull the brood comb you wish to harvest and replace it with an empty one. Pull the last capped honey bar and replace it with the brood bar you wish to remove ( my design will require an extra spacer for brood bars added to the honey storage area), save or harvest the honey bar. Insure there are honey bars between the brood nest and the brood bar you are pulling so the queen does not lay in it again. As soon as all the brood has emerged pull it and harvest the wax. Full bars of honey between the brood nest ant the brood bar you are removing should be enough to keep the queen off it.
As soon as there are enough bees to keep the brood nest warm you want to split it by inserting empty bars between brood bars. You may insert as many bars as you have bees to keep existing brood warm. Inserting too many will result in chilled brood which is a BIG step backwards in what this manipulation is attempting to accomplish. Two to three empty bars should be enough at this point. With a good nectar flow the bees should draw out these bars in no time. You can split the brood nest in a TBH as long as there is a flow and as long as the bees have enough time to establish the core nest prior to winter clustering. If you have two major flows that would mean you could only make this manipulation once. This should be done early in the flow so the bees have maximum time to establish new comb.
Another way to gauge this manipulation is when you harvest honey. When the TBH is full there is no room left, it is time to harvest. Let’s say it is June between a spring and summer flow. At the end of the spring flow and the beginning of the summer flow you would harvest all bars from the back up to the one or two adjacent to the brood nest and replace them all with empty bars. Always harvest the combs from the back of the hive, when you place the empty bars back in the hive put them in between the brood nest and the first honey bar or any uncapped honey bars. This will encourage them to draw new comb and if for some reason they don’t draw them out you can always remove them and restore the natural order of things prior to winter clustering. Store harvested bars in a cool dry place preferably a refrigerator; you may need them in case of a dearth or emergency. Now watch the colony to see that they are drawing out the new bars. Always keep some bars in reserve for insurance.
When you know what your bees need to survive and what is excess you will be able to gage what can be harvested.
Splitting the Hive
At this point you have some options you could let it be or make a split. Take bars from the existing hives and put them in a new hive, bees and all of course. Replace them with new bars. Insure you have left the queen behind and the bars you chose have new eggs. Never take two adjacent bars or close the brood nest without replacing the removed bars with new ones the bees have built according to what was there and should rebuild to fit, like a jig saw puzzle.
Depending on how these hives fare and what they need will determine if you can harvest the bars you took in the first place. As soon as you know the bees do not need the bars you took go ahead and crush them and reward yourself! This can be done as long as the new bars have been drawn and filled and there will be enough left for the bees to over winter on. RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE Copyright © 2002-2007 Gary Piantanida- Free for Private Use. - All Other Rights Are Reserved. |
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