Beekeeping never ever really finishes, its a transition from one phase to the next as each season progresses.
Just when you think things are starting to get less busy your reminded that these are animals and they need care and careful management right up until they really are not flying.
I started treating all my bees with vaporised Oxalic Acid a little later this year than planned, but also discovered that the growth of my Apiary numbers and individual colonies add further dimensions to their subsequent management.
To be honest Vaporised Oxyalic Acid (VOA) is still my choice weapon against Varrao Mites but the logistics of treating some now 160 production colonies and some 120 Nuc for next years sales and replacements wherever needed are something else i failed to estimate the work in time and logistics.
However i did make a good time saving by investing in a better and very efficient Vaporiser called a "Sublimox"
To be brief, this machine relies on dropping a measured amount of Oxyalic Acid crystals on to an already very hot vaporiser plate or dish. The existing machine i used ( A Varrox) and still have, relies on you starting from cold, putting it in to position, then turning it on, waiting for it to heat up, then removing after about 3 minutes, cooling and repeating the process for the next colony.
You will see from the video below just how quick the new machine is. It dosent cool down between each treatment and also it extremely quick. time saving devices is something i am looking to use! i must be as efficient in my overall management.
Mite management is probably the most important issue i have to deal with during the beekeeping year. I am lucky in the fact that many beekeepers around me all treat regularly in different ways and i dont have mites jumping ship from the dead or dying colonies from non treating beekeepers.
I respect their decision not to treat however i dont welcome extra mites. Its a big issue among the beekeeping community and sparks regular heated debate.
With the final treatments (of 3 x treatments over 15 days) finished for this year. I am now having a count up. Moving nucs to new apiaries for next year and doing final autumn prep checks before it really is time to start the winter beekeeping duties.
Any colonies that are not up to sufficient weight are noted and i will give the candy before the end off January. There is not many but never the less they will need the extra feed.
Apiaries are all in line for a good cutting back and clearance where necessary but the volume of work ahead is enormous.
Theres is lots of new hives to paint up and assemble, as well as still lots of feeders and queen excluders to clean up! After that there is lots of spring prep. on Honey supers etc etc etc. the list is enormous. I am going to be very busy. Like all things you get out of beekeeping only what you put in. Organisation is key!!
One of my apiaries full of overwintering nucleus colonies, all in polystyrene boxes this year.
Asian hornet pictures, a sequence of three pics, just to highlight the issue of summer detection. Very difficult indeed, a classic example.
Taken in my local Village. this nest although dormant now will be there for all to see over the winter! we cant complain here though, all communes have grouped together to form the "Dinan Aglomation" and there was some 5,000 traps put out over the spring. we hardly had any presence of asian hornets this year. A terrific result! spring trapping does work.
The close up of the nest. not a huge one, but queens almost certainly would have dispersed to found next years colonies.
Winter planning commences! A bientôt .
Sunday, October 29, 2017
A very big Hello to you all!! Hi all, posting on my mobile mobile, whilst away in the U.K. for a few days so excuse typing errors!!
A little time to reflect and mentally catch up on things!!(and rest)
So we’re end of October and I have not posted since March , well no excuses! Other than it’s been pretty crazy!
In Summary is perhaps easier:
So, didn’t sell any Nucs this spring(for those of you who don't now Nucs are Nucleus Colonies usually made the previous summer, then overwintered on 5 to 6 frames for use the following soring summer.)
All (about 80) were used up in various ways.
To requeen colonies lost over winter, ( about 8% losses ) and obviously the rest went in to new hives to expand my stock, which has always been my main aim this year.
With out good stocks you can’t get honey ! You can’t make splits and so on, you have to
Investvand sacrifice in order to get up your numbers. You can’t make bees, honey and colonies from fresh air !!
Spring was good but not a good spring for honey. Cold nights in April meant a slow start to the nectar flow. In addition To this, nectar in hives more than 4 weeks started to crystallise even earlier due to cold nights and lack of bees to heat thé whole box. Classic signs of this were the edges of the frames crystallising first ! Although crystallisation is pretty common in spring, cold nights accelerated this problem!
So the solution was early selected harvesting and extraction before any
more crystalised. Crystallised honey in’the supers” is still better than having your Bees hanging from “the trees” due to no room in the colony, however it’s a lot of work!
As well as cold night, spring was also pretty dry and heavy spring showers didn’t materialise until nearly the end of the spring flow, which only complicated issues, in the fact that more very wet nectar arrved n the supers at a time when we were nearly ready to harvest, but half of many super frames were dripping with uncured nectar. If that got in to the rest of the honey , then this may have just have pushed up the moisture contents to above 17 percent and initiated rapid fermentation, so we had to
Be really careful!!
However I did have a spring harvest, not great but some valuable income!
Spring Splits
So after the honey was harvested I made as many spring splits as I could. It was mid May by this time and with finally better night time temperatures I was able to make up a load of early queens.
Cell building is an Interesting process.
The trick of it all is timing and strong cell builders! Strong Cdll builders means strong queens, in large cells, fed to the max during their growth period!! I am
Not a specialist breeder, but anyone can
Make some good queen cells, as
Long as you have the good starting materials!
Here’s the link to my cell builder video.
Early mating was good this year! Plenty of nice drones around. So good results were achieved! In total I produced about 60 nucs. They went out in End of June to new apiary sites and I also sold 10 to generate some much needed turn over.
The Next Stage: Prep for the Summer Flow:
This consists mainly of checking each stock 2 or 3 times over the next 3 to 5 weeks before the start of the chestnut and bramble. Emergency re queening of colonies that either swarmed already and hadn't re queened on their own and replacing the odd few poorly performing queens.
Feeding most colonies was really a necessity. When we make spring splits you potentially weaken a colony. Subsequently you need to help that colony as usually we may have taken about a quarter or its bees and two of its brood frames. So for us here in Brittany after the second week of May, its vital that we get that colony up and running in time for the summer flow only a few weeks away.
After the spring flow subsides, the swarming stops too ( for a while). Supers are put back on colonies immediately after harvesting if they haven't been used for splits. Or if their still really strong. Its very important you manage your colony populations well. Too much space too early, can result in slow build up due to cold in the hive. Too little space and your bees are hanging from the trees before you know it, then its also likely you will loose most of your summer crop too.
Heres a little video of how I do my summer splits. In the summer splits, I replace the 3 frames removed, with 2 partitions and one foundation. this is our overwintering configuration, 7 frames n the brood nest and one for ivy flow expansion of honey (if it materialises) and also early spring foundation, before the bees
Spring splits is usually two frames from the brood nest replaced with two frames of foundation.
Obviously for all these splits you need queens. Managing the production of Nucs twice a year, with two honey crops and post harvest Mite Treatments is a complete Juggling act! but I got there in the end. It was a big learning curve for me this year.
The summer Flow
Well it wasn't good this year but and its a big But.... still had a honey crop and I still made lots of Nucs. It was Incredibly hard work trying to Juggle me existing job to maintain income for my family as well as give my bees the maximum time needed to look after the now 160 hives and ever growing nucs to overwinter.
The Flow came and went In about 10 days, usually it lasts a month. We had sinking hot weather and no existing ground water . Plenty of pollen so colonies had made lots of young bees, so summer splits were good with plenty of brood and bees to use! another year for the record books.
Admitting your mistakes and learning from them is a very Big part of beekeeping. I like many have made serious mistakes and this year. I learnt that you must feed more in the summer dearth. Some of my spring nucs were so light from a late summer of no nectar at all. I did loose two colonies. School boy error and no excuses. If your colonies are strong and well fed. or at least to a point where they haven't lower numbers because of lack of food. Then their always ready to make use of a flow, whenever it materialises No matter how big or small it is!!
So going in to this winter, I purchased another 100 hives and all the equipment to put them together, but next spring I will sell 60 of the 120 nucs I have produced late summer (subject to them overwintering well). This will create much needed income to fund more syrop I will need for next year.
Ivy flow was excellent in the end the first two weeks of October we had good temperatures and the ivy dripped nectar. Hives stinking of the stuff Thank goodness!! Any colonies that hadn't made good weight usually means their were not queen right at the critical time. ts candy for them now, but the vast majority did well. heavy hives going in to the winter, free of charge. a real Bonus that we didn't have last year!!
Ive included a few photos below . ( will upload these shortly)
So things are progressing well.
The new 100 hives are being painted up and we've nearly finished making the roofs. Just tons of work but all completely necessary
I had a brief pause to reflect on last years queen rearing and have put together a little video to summarise the queen rearing process. A nice reminder of how lovely and enjoyable it is to be able to raise your own queens, successfully.
Treatment with Vaporised Oxalic Acid this week, tin all hives! Much easier to control when you have little or no brood for mites to live under.
Manufacturing new roofs.
Then the 2 coats of paint!!
Painting, does it ever end!
New roofs after the paint are covered with lightweight metal sheets`
Hive roofs all ready!
Hive assemble line, of sorts!
There assembled hives, going in storage for a couple of months before they will be needed. Storage space is of a premium.
A little feeding of Candy or balkers fondant, put on top of a lightening hive is a good insurance against starvation. In Nucleus colonies, the queens are young and strong, with population sometimes large. this time of year is the most critical, when bees start brood rearing, against their stores. Sometimes their storers just run out and the colony collapses. Fondant will usually be the best insurance as its too cold for a liquid feed!
a poly eke candy placed over the hole cut in to the plastic.
Nearly finished wth hive preparation, then were moving on to some Mini-Plus frame production.
Spring is nearly around the corner!! we've had a good cold spell and temperatures down to Minus 7, so the bees are good and in good shape!! Pollen starting to come in! a very good sign!
