Beekeeping

[CloverKnollFarms]

Did a lot of work at the bee barn today. Finished up 35 more frames, primed them with foundation and started baiting swarm traps to hang next week! Beautiful sunset on the walk home after working. This barn is such a blessing for the apiary.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

The bees are crazy this morning. Pollen is pouring in. Probably putting up swarm traps next week and looking to do a split soon as well!

 

[EddieWalker]

What is a split?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

What is a split?

Taking brood and nurse bees and typically some queen cells from a strong hive, and creating a new, nucleus hive.

 

[EddieWalker]

That's what I was curious about. Will more queen bees be born in your hive, and you have to catch her and move her to another hive? What happens to those queen bees if you do not move them? I thought there could only be one queen bee in a hive.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

That's what I was curious about. Will more queen bees be born in your hive, and you have to catch her and move her to another hive? What happens to those queen bees if you do not move them? I thought there could only be one queen bee in a hive.

There is only one queen. Colonies make new queens every year for the most part. They will raise 8-10 in fact. However, when the first new queen hatches, she goes through the hive and kills the remaining queens before they emerge. I’m simply taking queen cells and placing them in a new colony, so they will have a new queen emerge I their new home. It’s also called artificial swarming.

 

[EddieWalker]

Does a queen live just one year? So when a new queen is born, and she kills all the others, does that include the existing queen? And then she takes over as the queen for a year, until it happens all over again?

Is a queen cell a bee egg? I have no idea what a bee if born from? But I'm guessing a queen cell in noticeably different then other baby bee's?

I should look for a YouTube on this. LOL

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Typically if the old queen is otherwise in good health, she would leave and take about half the colony with her before the new queen hatches. That's called a swarm, there are several reasons this would happen and it's the natural way bees propagate. Making a split is the beekeeper's way of avoiding swarms so we don't loose our bees.

In perfect conditions a queen can live up to 5 years, laying up to 2,000 eggs per day. A typical summer time worker will only live about a month.

A queen cell does look different than a worker or drone cell. Easily identifiable. All bees are hatched from eggs, eggs hatch into larva, larva pupate and emerge as bees. The queen lays unfertilized eggs that will hatch into drones (males) and fertilized eggs that will hatch into workers (females). The worker bees will occasionally take some of the fertilized eggs, put them in the pre-made queen cells and feed the larva that hatches "royal jelly" until it pupates, causing it to become a queen.

 

[EddieWalker]

WOW!!! That helps me understand it better. Eventually my wife wants to have bees, but we don't know anything about them. Her goal is to make the garden better, and she says that having bees will do that.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Yeah, I have two colonies, from the same original colony, that swarm every year. They fill the hive by mid April, and cast huge swarms. They have been on property since we started. Never treated, never fed, just amazing strong bees. These are the colonies I wish to split. They have good numbers and good genetics.

 

[RobertEH]

Here is a queen cell that was killed by a hatched queen (Right side, middle). The queen will chew in from the side and kill the one in the cell.

and here is one that hatched

 

[Torvy]

WOW!!! That helps me understand it better. Eventually my wife wants to have bees, but we don't know anything about them. Her goal is to make the garden better, and she says that having bees will do that.

Same...Wife is getting a hive next month and knows almost nothing about what she is doing. I want to be supportive, but my only experience with beekeeping is seeing hives placed on my cousin's ranch.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

It's really interesting. I feel like you would like it if you enjoy piddling outside and appreciate/ like animals.

Cloverknoll does things differently than you would probably learn from any local beekeepers around you. It works well for him and his goals. I keep mine the more traditional way. I am more than happy to give you any info I can.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I’ll admit, we are outliers in the US in The way we keep bees. In Europe and Russia maybe not so much. The Langstroth hives and ways were developed mainly for commercial beekeeping and honey production. I find Langstroth inspections brutal on the bees and beekeeper

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Now that I have my house and shop built. I may ask you for some pointers and plans for your horizontal hives. I will still be spending a lot of time getting the property the way I want it and getting the shop set up this year. So I'm not planning on being able to do much in the way of other hobbies that I normally would. So I am not planning on being able to implement one this season. But, depending on how many splits and swarms I can get this year, I might like to implement one or two next year.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Now that I have my house and shop built. I may ask you for some pointers and plans for your horizontal hives. I will still be spending a lot of time getting the property the way I want it and getting the shop set up this year. So I'm not planning on being able to do much in the way of other hobbies that I normally would. So I am not planning on being able to implement one this season. But, depending on how many splits and swarms I can get this year, I might like to implement one or two next year.

Absolutely. As I age, I’m also not really into lifting supers…

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Took a quick look in on our bees yesterday and wow, they have A LOT of honey left from last fall. Probably 15-20 pounds per hive! They went into winter with maybe 35? Incredible how little they use in these hives over winter.

 

[NorTracNY]

Absolutely. As I age, I’m also not really into lifting supers…

When I started beekeeping, I was told that I'd have to make several decisions. One was did I want 8 frame or 10 frame boxes. I was told that there are 2 types of beekeepers. Ones that use 8 frames and ones that will use 8 frames. Of course I was young and strong, so I went with 10 frames. Honey is not light and often you're lifting in ackward positions. I soon understood why many of the much older beekeeper always had young people helping them.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I went through mine yesterday. I confirmed only 1 hive survived the winter. But man if it's not bursting at the seams. Has at least 50 pounds of honey, lots of bees, and lots of brood. I took in all the woodenware and will get it all ready to go for splits or swarms. I've seen several around me on different FB groups. I'm hoping to get some.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Traps going up!