On a warm, sunny day with calm winds, preferably during the early part of the month, thoroughly check each colony. The items to be checked are as follows: 1) Evaluate the food stores, 2) check the amount of brood and the brood pattern and 3) write down your findings.
1) Evaluate the food stores. Most likely during this time of the spring build-up, the bees will be clustered in the top super or top brood chamber. Wherever they are located, check and make sure that they have at least fifteen pounds of reserve honey. If the colony has less than this fifteen pounds of reserve honey, then they should be fed. Feed according to the recommendations listed in the February article.
2) Check the amount of brood and the brood pattern. By early March, a normal colony with a good queen should have several frames of brood. The exact number will depend upon the amount of honey they have, the amount of pollen they have and of course the size of the cluster. As the frames are being moved, note the pattern of the brood. Dr. Roger Morse (1990, ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, 84) suggested that the best way to evaluate a queen is to observe the pattern of eggs, larvae and pupae on a frame in the brood nest. "A queen with a good brood pattern has brood of the same age adjacent, that is, eggs should be next to eggs, larvae next to larvae of the same age, and pupae next to each other in the same manner." Dr. Morse (1983, A Year in the Bee Yard, 58) further explains that every cell in the brood nest will not be filled with eggs, larvae or pupae but preferably 90 percent or more should be filled. "Cells may be empty for a variety of reasons, but when empty cells appear in large numbers, the colony should be checked first for disease and then for starvation. If these are ruled out, the blame is put on the queen and she is replaced. Queens can fail for a great variety of reasons, including disease, improper mating, old age, poor nutrition, physical handicaps, and so on, and it is often difficult or even impossible to determine which of these is the problem."
It is also a good idea, as each brood frame is moved, to check the condition of the comb. If the comb is bad and contains a lot of drone cells, it should be removed. If the comb to be removed contains more than a few cells of brood, it should be moved to the outside of the cluster. It can then be exchanged with a frame of foundation or drawn comb after the brood emerges.
3) Write down your findings. It is a good idea to keep a log or record on each of your colonies. Record data such as the date the colony was requeened, source of the queen, was the queen marked or clipped. After working with a particular hive, write down what you did and what you saw. Record any thing that may be of interest at some later date.
After the above checks have been completed, our next goal is to have all colonies at full strength around the middle of April in time for the tulip poplar honey flow.
George W. Barkley in his booklet, Beekeeping in Forsyth County, noted: "It is unfortunate for us that the poplar trees, which are our main source of honey, bloom so early. If they bloomed a month later the colonies would have more time to build up and we would get a lot more honey."
Possibly one way to get our colonies to build up earlier would be to follow a procedure recommended by The Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth in (1853, Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey Bee). Rev. Langstroth recommended feeding early in the spring, after the weather has turned favorable, in order to stimulate early brood rearing. "I always feed my bees a little, even if I know that they have enough and to spare. There seems to be an intimate connection between the getting of honey and the rapid increase of breeding in a hive; and the taste of something sweet, however small, to be added to their hoards, exerts a very stimulating effect upon the bees. A few spoonfuls a day will be gratefully received, and will be worth much more to a stock of bees in the spring than at any other time."
Dr. Keith Delaplane (1993, American Bee Journal, 133-7, 471) identified the dilemma that most of us face at this time of the year as follows: "The goal of honey production management is to have hives at full strength immediately before the major nectar flows. If colonies reach full strength too early, they might swarm. If they are still growing during the nectar flows, bees convert the nectar into population growth instead of honey for the beekeeper. This means you must learn the nectar flows of your area and time all beekeeping activities with that calendar in mind."
For those of you that are not familiar with the name L.L. Langstroth, he was the father of modern beekeeping. In 1851 he observed the bee space, in 1852 he patented his movable frame hive, the design that most of us use today, and in 1853 he published his well-known book that was referred to earlier. In his book, Rev. Langstroth referred to our favorite honey-producing tree as one of the greatest in the world. "The tulip-tree, Liriodendron, is probably one of the greatest honey-producing trees in the world. In rich lands this magnificent tree will grow over one hundred feet high; and when covered with its large bell-shaped blossoms of mingled green and golden yellow it is one of the most beautiful trees in the world. The blossoms are expanding in succession, often for more than two weeks, and a new swarm will frequently fill its hive from these trees alone. The honey, though dark in color, is of a rich flavor. This tree has been successfully cultivated as a shade tree even as far north as southern Vermont; and for the extraordinary beauty of its foliage and blossoms it deserves to be introduced wherever it can be made to grow. The winter of 1851-2 was exceedingly cold, the thermometer in Greenfield, Mass., sinking as low as 30 degrees below zero, and yet a tulip-tree not only survived the winter uninjured, but was covered the following season with blossoms." kgp
Updated:
11-17-09