The past few days have been warm – at 4pm today (Friday) the temperature is 68 deg F with a slight wind. I have noticed the bees busy at the entrance to the hive and a number of bees helicoptering in front of the hive (i.e going up and down in front of the hive). They do this to memorize the hive so they know where to return. This is good news for me since it means these are new field workers and therefore there is a functioning queen. I am assuming the older bees who overwintered do not need to rememorize the hive entrance.
So, with the happy knowledge that my bees made it through the winter, I decided to make my first attendance at the local bee keepers’ association. The association is fortunate to have, as its leader, a commercial beekeeper “BJ” who is extremely knowledgeable and from whom I bought my bee nuc two years ago. A “nuc” or nucleus was, in my case, 5 frames of nurse bees, eggs and a queen, which I placed in my 10 frame box (I added 5 frames) and from which my colony developed. So last evening I signed up as a member and absorbed the slide show presentation of risks and opportunities for bees during the closing stages of winter. Although I have managed to hold on to my bees for two years and have some idea (though limited) of hive activities, some of the techniques and rationales for frame and super manipulations seemed mind boggling and there appeared to be alternative courses of action as all three instructors chipped in. The key nugget was when BJ said you have to use bee logic not human logic but he then added that it took a long time to learn bee logic – so I will keep observing. Another useful nugget was to make sure the hive is “queen right” which means it has a well functioning queen. This does not mean opening up the hive and finding the queen and counting her legs and checking out her wings – this would be beyond me. Rather it means intelligently looking at the frames to ensure there are new eggs being laid in an orderly fashion (no missed cells) and there are capped eggs – in other words to check that production of new bees is efficient and in process.
I was pleased to learn there is some flexibility in how to keep bees. I follow a minimalist approach which means I rarely open the hive except to harvest honey and quash queen cells so as to forestall the arrival of new queens. The arrival of new queens inevitably leads to swarming when half the colony hives off with a queen. I learned that finding the queen cells is not that easy and to be sure you have found them all you have to scoot the bees off the frame since they are cunning and will hide the queen cells from view.
My main objective for signing up with the association is to learn how to propagate my colony without buying a new queen (I am trying my self reliance jig again). I listened intently when an instructor said he takes the frame with the queen cells and uses this frame to start a nuc. I think he was using shorthand but I will be reading up and trying my hand. He also added that if you split a hive so as to make two hives from one, then the bees lose a lot of momentum in their honey gathering, so it’s a trade off (but isn’t this the case with much of life anyway?)
I am not celebrating that my bees made it through the winter since recent setbacks with some of my chickens have instructed me that my “successes” may be more beginner’s luck than due to any insights and ability. However, my bees have made it through two winters and I attribute this to: a) leaving lots of honey for them for winter food, which I believe is much better for them than sugared water (I opened the hive today and there is still lots of food for them); b) no pesticides or herbicides or any chemicals in my growing activities and, fortunately for me, it appears my neighbors do not use ‘cides either; c) no chemicals used on the bees; d) a well sited hive which has full exposure to the winter sun and is surrounded on the west side by a window and north and east sides by plastic sheeting, all of which provide some protection from the wind and cold (the south side is open for the entrance to the hive). Perhaps I should also give credit to a queen with good genes and, of course, luck.