Volume 2 -------------------- January 6, 2011 --------------------Number 3
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What To Do With Bees Coming Out Of Winter: Part I
by David Burns, EAS certified Master Beekeeper
There is plenty of information in the beekeeping literature to help beginners. But there is far less information that goes into great detail about what
to do with your bees the second year as they come out of winter. I'll take the next few articles to address what you should be doing with your bees
as winter draws to a close and spring makes its usual grand entry. The first thing you should do is celebrate and rejoice that your bees made it
through a long winter. After you've had sufficient time to celebrate, you'll need to get serious about helping your bees have a great season.
I've made an acronym to make it easier to remember how to prepare your bees for their second seasons:
Stimulate For Rapid Foraging Force
Prevent Swarms
Rotate Hive Bodies
Inspect The Productivity Of The Queen
New Queen
Give 1:1 Sugar Water & Pollen Patties
In this article, we'll look at how to stimulate your late winter bees for a rapid buildup of the foraging force. A colony that is very populated with
foragers will be able to gather more pollen, nectar, propolis and water. This alone will make a much healthier colony. And if you desire to increase
your honey yields per hive, increasing your foraging force is essential.
How can you help your colony build up a huge foraging force to gather an abundance of resources? To start, we have to do the math. We have
to work backwards to arrive at our target stimulation date. Let's randomly choose May 1st as the day we want our full foraging force. By foraging
force I mean a maximum number of worker bees of foraging age. Since worker bees take 21 days to emerge and another 21 days until they take
their first foraging flight, that gives us a total of 42 days. So we want our queen to be laying at her maximum 42 days prior to May 1st, which would
be March 20th. But, we'll need to stimulate the queen about a week before March 20th so that she can be at her maximum laying on March 20th.
Bingo, March 13th is our date that we will want to manipulate the colony to ensure we have our full foraging force for May 1st.
To stimulate our queen to lay at her maximum we would normally want a natural, heavy nectar flow. That might be the case the further south you live.
In central Illinois I will have to introduce pollen substitute patties and a 1:1 sugar feedings to stimulate my queen to start laying prior to the natural nectar
flow. And once I start, I cannot stop, because the colony is counting on my pollen and sugar water to feed to their larva. Even the adult bees feeding the
larva need this same food so the glands in their head can produce the much need brood food.
Of course you'll need to be sure you have a prolific queen and you'll be able to determine this once the temperature warms up above 65 (F) and you can
lift out brood frames and inspect for eggs and sealed brood.
...in our next installment, Swarm Prevention
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IN THE NEWS....
Maplewood Richmond Heights Middle School In Missouri Make Beekeeping A Class Project
Seventh & Eighth graders near St. Louis participate in a class project involving honey bees... Read more
Are Pesticides Being Fully Tested To See How They Effect Honey Bees?
The current concern over the use of crop pesticides and the death of honey bees continue...Read more
Victory For Indiana Beekeepers Who Almost Lost The Opportunity To Keep Hives In Their Backyards
Beekeepers in Vigo county Indiana shut down a proposal to limit bees to one hive per 10 acres...Read more
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Package Bees & Nucs For Sale Now From Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
Give us a call at: 217-427-2678 to get yours while they last!
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Look At Our Next Two Beekeeping Classes:
January 7th, 6pm - 8pm Mead Making CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
January 15 (Saturday) Basic Beekeeping 9am - 3pm CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
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Here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms we are offering a special on 2 hives,
2 three pound packages and all of the supplies. This was our holiday special
that we decided to continue until January 15th. FREE SHIPPING.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS and thank you for your business.
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14556 N 1020 E Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
(217) 427-2678
www.honeybeesonline.com
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms is here to serve the beekeeping community with beekeeping equipment, 3 lb packages, nucs, queens and more.
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