Managing Honey Bee Populations for Greater Honey...

98
Managing Honey Bee Populations for Greater Honey Yield April 2015

Transcript of Managing Honey Bee Populations for Greater Honey...

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Managing Honey Bee Populations for Greater Honey Yield

April 2015

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We’ll discuss • Introduction

• A seasonal approach:

– Fall

– Spring: Varroa and stimulative feeding

– Summer

– Winter

• An alternative configuration

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Honey Bees Hoard Honey

• The methods and techniques described in this program are intended to support this natural drive

• The more methods utilized, the greater the likelihood of producing large populations and honey production

• A seasonal approach is used to organize the methods

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Biology of Honey Production

Nectar flow = major nectar producing plants bloom. Bees collect and store nectar converting it to honey.

Winter stores for them, surplus for you

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Basic idea: be prepared to take advantage of available resources and bees’ hoarding instinct

Spring colony expands & prepares for the summer

nectar flow Fully expanded

colony

June 1st June

1st

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Randy Oliver

Bottom line: Going from single deep to double deep means triple number of bees available for honey production

% of bees making honey

% of bees covering brood

Hive population and honey production per colony

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Big diversity means big population

•Location – location – location •Where you set up your colonies affects quantity and

quality of the food they collect

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We’ll discuss • Introduction

• A seasonal approach:

– Fall

– Spring: Varroa and stimulative feeding

– Summer

– Winter

• An alternative configuration

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Seasons are circular like a merry-go-round; you can jump in at any point

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A Seasonal Approach

• Fall

– Make sure they are strong and healthy

– Well provisioned going into winter

– Re-queen?

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Strong & Healthy Bees = Maximum Population = Maximum Honey Yield

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If the ratio of mites to bees is high in the fall, the bees will suffer and so will honey production

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Beyond the economic threshold

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Well provisioned and staying that way: unloading free loaders

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Honey Stores

Hive

80-100 lbs

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Feed Feed Feed

Fall is your last chance to feed syrup to the bees

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When being fat is a Good Thing

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Protein Substitute is Necessary to Make Fat Bees

Randy Oliver Scientific Beekeeping

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A young queen is necessary for a strong population and honey production

“Young queens prevent swarming better than one year old queens and much better than two year old queens.”

George Imerie

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What, you raise green bees!

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Fall Requeening

Pro Con

Timing breaks brood cycle helps reduce pest

problems

No honey flow = more irritable bees

Better mated Hive more populous; harder to find old queen

Less expensive More difficult to introduce

Faster population build up in later

winter/early spring

Less time to assess queen’s performance

Better availability; no back log

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Italian

Source: Glenn Apiaries

Race and Honey Production

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Pros Cons

•Earlier morning forager

•Forages on colder and wetter days than most other bees

•Overwinters well on small stores, as

queen stops laying in the fall

•Explosive build up in early spring

•Exceptionally gentle and easy to work

•May interrupt brood rearing during times of drought

•Does not typically propolize heavily

•Creates less brace and burr comb

•Crosses well with other varieties

•Likely to swarm unless carefully managed (no room to expand)

•If pollen is scarce brood rearing

greatly diminishes

“Carniolans are known for their explosive, early spring build-up at the first sign of pollen.”

Brother Adam

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Pros Cons

•Resistant to Varroa Mites

•Resistant to Tracheal Mite

•Quick Spring build up

•Winter tolerant

•Brood rearing is highly dependent on forage availability

•Increased tendency to swarm

•Tend to propolize

•More time needed to introduce to non-Russians

Hubert Tubbs shared that his Russian hives produced 130-150 lbs of honey. This compares to approximately

84 lbs of honey for non-Russians.

Note: Russians require different management; they are NOT for beginning beekeepers

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Winter Keep them dry and well provisioned

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Stay on top of food stores

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When do you need to feed?

Late Winter

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Feeding

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Bees’ reward for being good

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Winter

Insulation Box

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Insulation Box

Screened ventilation holes

Screen to hold hay in place

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Spring

it is time to ramp up your population management activity

When you see Red Current blossoming,

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A Seasonal Approach

• Spring

– Control Varroa

– Stimulative feeding

– Balance population with growing room

– Re-queen

– Pyramiding

– Reversing

– Supering

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Maintain Varroa below the economic threshold: Do a Varroa Count

+ _______ 1

1

2 Much

You MUST control Varroa mites!

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Economic threshold

• Point at which the level of infestation is too high

• Various ways to determine this – Alcohol wash

– Sugar shake

– Collection board

– For more details go to www.scientificbeekeeping.com

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Alcohol wash = Gold Standard Goal =Less than5%

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Sugar Shake

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24 hour natural drop Does not give % of infectation

Screened bottom board

Collection board

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Collection board for 24 hour natural drop

Use hard plastic Draw a counting grid Spray with Pam Slip into slot in screened bottom board Frequency: monthly except winter

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Notice the 8 legs

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How are your mite numbers trending? The trend is what is important

Early season (March)

Less than 10 mites on the collection board in a 24 hour period

Watch for false negatives

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Varroa destructor

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April Fools Day Don’t be foolish. Start building your

population now.

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Don’t leave them searching for a stimulating meal!

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Carbohydrate Feeding

• 1:1 sugar to water ratio with Honey Bee Healthy added

• Mimics the honey flow

• Workers feed queen more

• Queen responds by laying more eggs

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Protein Feeding

• Simulates a pollen flow

• Insures that there is available protein for the colony

• Stimulates the bees to feed the queen more

• Queen responds by laying more eggs

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Feed carbohydrate & protein simultaneously to build population BEFORE the nectar flow NOT ON the nectar flow

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Once you start simulative feeding, you CAN NOT STOP

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Your Balancing Act

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When the balancing act is off balance

Swarmed

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Wow! This hive is really congested or maybe it’s just my compound eyes.

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Look at that swarm!

There goes our honey

crop.

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There goes the queen & your future honey

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Spring Requeening Pro Con

Smaller colonies Interferes with spring build up

Less likely to swarm

Good mating early in season less likely

Easier to introduce More competition to purchase queens

Vigorous egg layer = large population for

nectar flow

Dependent on variable weather

Large population going into winter

Time to assess queen performance/replace

if needed

Requeening: Swarm Prevention

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Growing Room: Pyramiding Going from 1 to 2 brood boxes

1. Make space in the center of the new brood box by removing about 3 empty frames 2. Take less than half the brood from the original brood box & place in the space created in new brood box

3. Center remaining brood frames in original brood box & fill the space created on the sides with frames (preferably drawn) removed from the new brood box

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Pyramiding after adding 2nd brood box

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Growing Room: Reversing starting with 2 brood boxes

HONEY

BROOD

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Reverse Brood Boxes

Before After

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Supering

Start supering before the nectar flow

Anticipate...Manage colony population...timing!

Summer

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Follow the 70% Rule*

When 1st brood box reaches 70%, add a second brood box

When the second brood box reaches 70%, add a honey super, etc

*60% rule for

Russians

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Drawn comb: worth its weight in gold

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When you see the Blackberry blossom in early June, the nectar flow has started!

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June 1st June 30th

Nectar flow in Willamette Valley

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A Seasonal Approach

• Summer

– Don’t BUG

– Checker boarding

– Tools of the trade

– Supering

– Extract

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Summer Don’t BUG Us

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When is too much honey not a good thing?

The idea behind checker boarding is to perforate the barrier of honey in the super

above the brood area

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Checker Boarding

• Manages placement of stored honey

• Relieves congestion

• Helps control swarming

• Contributes to increased honey production

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Brood

Honey & Brood Less Honey & Brood

Brood

F F F F F F F F F

Honey Super F = full frame E = empty frame

Before Checker Boarding After Checker Boarding

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Comparative weight of full boxes

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

10 frame

deep

10 frame

medium

8 frame

medium

Weight

Michael Bush

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“Friends don’t let friends lift heavy supers” Jim Fischer

Dave Cushman

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Tools of the Honey Trade: Imerie Shim

Western

Imerie Shim

Dado Cut

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Why the Imerie Shim?

• Provides upper entrance(s) to the hive. This makes it possible for foragers to gain access to the supers without having to cross a queen excluder (if used).

• Upper entrance(s) relieves congestion not only on the landing board but also in the brood area. It provides the field bees a more direct route to the honey area where the nectar is ripened and stored.

• Improved ventilation making it easier for the bees to vent the hive of the moisture produced from ripening honey.

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Imerie Shim Placement

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Do NOT place Imerie shim directly above

the brood box!

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Continue to follow the 70% Rule* When the second brood box reaches 70%, add a honey super, and keep it up during

the nectar flow

*60% rule for the Russians

Do NOT disturb the brood chamber during the nectar flow!

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Some medications must be removed before

adding a honey super to the hive

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Now this is successful supering!

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Extract honey by August 1st

• Remove supers

• Put boxes in hot

dry room

• Uncap both sides of frame

• Spin honey out w/ extractor

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80 - 100 lbs honey for bees

Surplus for beekeeper

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What is honey?

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What is honey? Bees convert nectar….

– chemically into nectar sugars glucose & fructose

– physically into thick consistency with water evaporation

C12H22O11 + H2O C6H12O6 + C6H12O6

sucrose + water glucose + fructose invertase

Enzyme invertase chemically converts nectar sugars

Nectar Honey

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We’ll discuss • Introduction

• A seasonal approach:

– Fall

– Spring: Varroa and stimulative feeding

– Summer

– Winter

• An alternative configuration

Page 86: Managing Honey Bee Populations for Greater Honey Yieldpcbeekeepers.org/.../Maximizing-Honey-Production-20152.pdf · 2015-04-15 · Managing Honey Bee Populations for Greater Honey

The two queen hive: a configuration that maximizes honey

production

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Why a two queen hive?

• Two queens exist harmoniously in a single colony

• Workers have access to either brood box and honey supers

• If 1 queen dies, second queen remains in colony

• Each box has its own landing board

• MAXIMIZES HONEY PRODUCTION

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Randy Oliver

Bottom line: Going from single deep to double deep means triple number of bees available for honey production

% of bees making honey

% of bees covering brood

Hive population and honey production per colony

20%

60% Single deep

Double deep

Triple deep

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“When 2 queens are better than 1”

Photo: Bee Culture February 2009

Queen excluder

Queen #1

Queen #2

Honey super

Honey super Upper entrance

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Setting up a 2 queen hive • Early May or fall, select a 2 brood box hive to be divided, remove the old

queen, make the division and introduce a new queen to each division • Separate the two brood boxes and place them adjacent to each other on

the same footprint of the original hive • Place a single queen excluder and at least one honey super over the

center of the two brood chambers • Cover the exposed halves of the brood chambers with half sized migratory

covers • Add the second brood box to each existing brood box as the population

grows maintaining the queen excluder between the top brood boxes and the honey super(s).

• Add honey super(s) using the 70% rule

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Coming full circle back to fall

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Stored and Stacked

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“James Bond” Method

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Varroa destructor Your Bee Hive Any Place, USA

OREGON Class K

Restrictions

Untreated Hives

Don’t Give Varroa a License to Kill!

License to Kill

00753276 Expires NOW

Varroa destructor Your Bee Hive

OREGON Class K

Restrictions

Untreated Hives

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The result of maximizing honey production

Glass Jar Beekeeping Bee Culture May 2012

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“I have led you to the water now you must decide whether to drink or not.”

George Imerie

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The End

Photo: Roger Ledbetter

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Questions?