Management Question

The Bix · March 06, 2012, 04:00:31 PM

Facts/Observations:
I am entering only my 4th year of beekeeping.
I'm in Colorado at an elevation of about 6,300' MSL, but not in the mountains...I'm east of Denver, below the 40th parallel
All of my colonies have been overwintered in double deeps
Bees have just begun to drag pollen into the hives
All colonies that have made it thus far are now mostly in the upper deep, with about 60-75% of the stores consumed
One colony is the exception...

This particular colony has consumed maybe 40% of the winter stores and they are only now beginning to make a dent into the upper deep. I pull the inner cover off and see maybe 3 bees as about 90% of the colony is still in the lower deep. I've never had a colony where the queen was laying in the lower deep at this time of the year until now. They clustered very small over the winter and are now brooding up very quickly but the upper deep is nearly 100% full of stores. The population has increased since the last visit on 2/25, they now cover about 5 frames and have lots of new brood. I'm pretty excited about this colony, they are in the best shape of all of them and I don't want to screw anything up!!!

I've been considering what to do at this point...here's what I've thought of as a few options:

1) Do nothing...count my blessings...leave well enough alone and let the colony exchange their stores for more bees
2) Add an empty super with drawn comb...giving the bees room to move stores and provide the queen more room to lay
3) Take out some of the honey and replace with drawn brood comb giving the queen more room to lay.

What do you think?

Thanks!

FRAMEshift · March 06, 2012, 06:33:24 PM

Just make sure that the brood nest stays open. If there are five frames solid with brood, then add a frame into the existing brood so the bees don't feel too crowded. Don't add too many frames until the weather warms up where you are. You want to keep the hive from swarming before the flow. And later on I would start a few queen rearing nucs from the eggs in that hive, since you like their behavior.

rdy-b · March 06, 2012, 06:51:52 PM

**If there are five frames solid with brood, then add a frame into the existing brood so the bees don't feel too crowded.**

If i read it right he has five frames of bees--not five frames of brood-makes a huge diferance

**I've been considering what to do at this point...here's what I've thought of as a few options:

1) Do nothing...count my blessings...leave well enough alone and let the colony exchange their stores for more bees
2) Add an empty super with drawn comb...giving the bees room to move stores and provide the queen more room to lay
3) Take out some of the honey and replace with drawn brood comb giving the queen more room to lay.**

first week in march in colorado--Do nothing and count your Blessings,,, :lol:--RDY-B

The Bix · March 24, 2012, 01:21:13 AM

Update on this hive...on March 14th I split up the brood nest by adding a frame of drawn comb in the center of the brood frames. I did another inspection today, that frame was wall to wall with open brood. There are now 5 1/2 frames of brood. Today, I split up the brood nest again, this time with two frames...one frame of drawn comb and another mostly empty (foundationless). I put the two broodless frames in so that there were two frames of brood between them. I considered that two broodless frames may be a bit risky, but I took the chance since we're looking at high 60's to mid-70's for the next week+.

We had 75 degrees and no wind today...absolutely beautiful. The girls are hauling in the pollen like crazy too. I tore down the beehive in short sleeves, bare hands and only a veil. The bees didn't seem to care one bit about my intrusion. It is truly an amazing thing to experience wearing very little protection. What a great hive this is, I'm really looking forward to see what they do this season. And FRAMEshift, I do plan on doing some queen rearing with brood from this queen. I have a bunch of grafting frames and starter/finisher nuc almost ready to go...

SerenityApiaries · March 24, 2012, 04:14:27 AM

Sounds like a great colony. If you do end up queen rearing, I might consider having you send me one to Oregon :) Wouldn't having some stock like that.

Khalen

FRAMEshift · March 24, 2012, 10:21:33 AM

Quote from: The Bix on March 24, 2012, 01:21:13 AM
Update on this hive...on March 14th I split up the brood nest by adding a frame of drawn comb in the center of the brood frames.

Adding drawn comb to a rapidly growing hive is like throwing gasoline on a fire (in a good way). :-D We have learned the hard way that you don't want to keep doing that as the hive gets much larger. As you have wisely done, it's good to start switching to foundationless (or undrawn foundation) for brood nest opening as the hive grows large to give the bees some construction work to do. Unemployed nurse bees/comb drawers are a major signalling mechanism for swarming. Undrawn frames act like a moderator on a nuclear reactor.... slowing the reaction to prevent an explosion.

Michael Bush · March 24, 2012, 11:38:11 PM

>it's good to start switching to foundationless (or undrawn foundation) for brood nest opening as the hive grows large to give the bees some construction work to do. Unemployed nurse bees/comb drawers are a major signalling mechanism for swarming.

As Frameshift has pointed out, empty frames are more effective as they employ more bees at more variety of jobs. Drawn comb works somewhat, but it is just quickly laid full of eggs where the empty frame has to be drawn and gets laid as it progresses.

BlueBee · March 24, 2012, 11:57:53 PM

Frameshift, if we need to keep the nurse bees busy, how about shuffling up the brood nest a bit? Ever tried that? I've never really tried it for swarm prevention, but I have seen the bees re-arrange the pollen back to where they want it when I get in there and mess with the frames. I'm not recommending this to Bix, but just an open question.

As for nuclear reactors, they don't explode (at least not via fission), they only melt down if the neutron moderators are absent.

FRAMEshift · March 25, 2012, 12:45:47 AM

Quote from: BlueBee on March 24, 2012, 11:57:53 PM
Frameshift, if we need to keep the nurse bees busy, how about shuffling up the brood nest a bit? Ever tried that? I've never really tried it for swarm prevention, but I have seen the bees re-arrange the pollen back to where they want it when I get in there and mess with the frames. I'm not recommending this to Bix, but just an open question.

I think that would be a minor effect. Drawing comb is intensive work and the queen can't lay until it's at least partly drawn. I ususally move whole pollen frames to the end of the brood nest closest to the entrance, which seems to be where the bees like it.

Quote

As for nuclear reactors, they don't explode (at least not via fission), they only melt down if the neutron moderators are absent.

Read the October, 1986 issue of Scientific American for a description of the fission explosion at Chernobyl that occurred when the moderator rods were withdrawn.

BlueBee · March 25, 2012, 02:37:10 AM

Good point about the re-arranging vs new building. I do open the brood nest with empty frames as y'all suggest. However this discussion got me wondering if shuffling the deck, might have a similar effect.

OK, you might be right about Chernobyl :) It sounds like they are still debating rather the 2nd explosion was chemical in nature or a very small nuclear event. Usually they are chemical (hydrogen gas exploding) in nature and not nuclear since the concentration of fissile material is not high enough in fuel rods. Anybody know what effect Chernobyl had on the bees in the Ukraine?