July 20, 2006

The Winter of 2005-2006 was tough. Significant hive loss to mites and the problems they foster. No rain for 3 months which will (and did) affect Spring flowers. January was warm, however, allowing us to work the hives and treat for mites. We  also fed all the hives which were light with high fructose corn syrup.  We began doubling up weak hives who hadn't responded to feeding and equalizing (giving frames of brood, bees, honey and pollen). When we doubled up two hives, we place one hive on another and separate them with a sheet of newspaper.  This allows them to adjust to each other's scent while the paper is gradually chewed away. Crude, but it works.  The two queens will co-exist for awhile with the younger eventually dominating.  The increase in population often allows the colony to become productive, whereas the two smaller hives normally piddle along and eventually dwindle and crash.  This is not 100%, but it is successful enough to warrant losing a queen. We did alot of re-queening in '05, with mixed results.  We have some African Hybrid bees (AHB) and it is difficult to requeen one of these colonies with European queens.  They might accept them initially, but a month or two later they'll supercede (replace) them with one they make.  Next year we'll "nuc" these hives, mixing frames of brood from them and from other European hives- giving each of them 6-7 frames of brood, and 2 frames of honey and pollen.  Then we'll introduce  a young, laying mite resistent (good housekeeping)  European queen or a queen cel from European stock.  The Africanized bees aren't so if you stay on top of these hives and split them up before too many genereations pass.  They are here to stay so we are trying to identify their strengths to help operations.  They are disease and mite resistant.  they build up brood population quicker than europeans - they actually hatch in 1-2 two days - quick. They are good pollen (protein) harvesters, and they are strong, hardy creatures.  The down side is that they swarm alot! - little swarms with generally the old queen and the older workers leaving with the colony creating a new queen (= 2nd generation AHB).  They get more defensive with successive generations = NOT FUN.  this is when they must be "nucked",  with new nucleus hives given a European queen.  We try to have our yard of bees (apiaries) within a couple of miles of each other to canvas the area with our drones to mate with any supercedure virgin queens coming from our hives.  This has worked fairly well and we have noticed a number of golden supercedure queens.

I think or main goal in spring 2006 was to knock down the mite populations and build up our hives (increase populations, inprove immune systems and general health).  We accoplished this a good degree - but it is definately an ongoing process - struggle. the Varroa mites, just like the African hybrid bees, aren't going to dissapear.

This March we made up 90-100 new hives with purchased California golden queens.  We like to make strong nucleus hives with  6-7 frames of brood, bees, honey and pollen.  Most of the time we screen and move these hives to a new location where nectar flow is just beginning.  We  then unscreen them and introduce a young laying queen in a cage.  Eight days later we return and do a queen check- we make sure she is out of the cage, and look for eggs in cells on the queen herself. At this point we'll feed the hive to help them along.  Depending on how they develop (build up) as a colony, we may feed a second time after they empty the feed bucket.  If the nectar flow is good, and the queen is laying a lot of eggs, we will leave them alone.  When they totally fill their brood box - a deep super- we will add a second box, ususally, a shallow super.  If they are bringing in alot of nectar, there is no need to feed.

This Fall, if we have received some decent summer rains, we will make more new hives with laying queens.  Fall here, in Central Texas, is like a second Spring- making it conducive for making increase.  There's usually a moderate amount of nectar from Goldenrod, Broomweed and Aster- but plentiful pollen- which is so important for a colony buildup.  Good Fall "nucs" develop into serious colonies by Springtime.  Those hives that don't respond for one reason or another will be doubled-up and fed.

Back to Spring '06 :  hot,dry April - strong hives made some honey from the early mesquite tree nectar flow.  Yaupon, occasionlly our early nectar source, didn't do much.  Good pollen from the Elm and Oak trees helped but timing and amount of rains hurt nectar production.  In May we got 7 inches of rain in one week.  It would have been preferable to get 1" of rain a week for 7 weeks.  Marigold made a good show but did not producemuch nectar.  Horsemint came up late due to earlier drought, and never really produced much. - good old Mesquite- which was washed out by the 7 inches of rain, started blooming again in June.  Here's hoping. We moved most hives from sandy land early to black land (prairie) and to cotton.  The hives by mid june are strong and heavy.  Whether there will be that much surplus honey remains to be seen.  If it's going to happen, now is the time.