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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter October 2007 |
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Beekeeping (Fall Planning) Even though there will be many more warm, to hot days ahead the time is rapidly approaching for making a decision as to which colonies qualify for wintering. My predecessor as State Apiarist, Floyd B. Paddock, Professor of entomology at Iowa State, always referred to the month of August as being the month to begin colony preparation for fall management and wintering. Beekeepers hesitate looking deep within their colonies if there is still much surplus honey still in the colonies. However, by the time you receive this, a good share of the surplus honey will have been harvested, so a closer look within the colonies can be made. There are a few items to consider when selecting colonies that will be likely prospects of Wintering. Here in Iowa and throughout the Mid-west, along about the last of September, or first weeks of October, each colony would have three or four combs of brood. That is assurance that the colony will have enough bees hatching late, which will survive the winter. Prior to that, the honey flow is over so the lower entrance should have been reduced to a small opening. Now, comes the act of making sure that each colony has an adequate supply of honey stored in the two brood chambers. The ONLY WAY to make sure of this is to weigh each colony. It would not be wise thinking to believe every colony would be placed on a platform scale and weighed. So to avoid all such lifting, I designed a scale to do it all with little effort. (Scale pictured). This is done with the use of a spring scale with a hook reversed so the scale can be read as each side of the hive is lifted. Just weigh each side and add the two and the accuracy of weight will be within a pound or two.
In central Iowa it was determined that we needed each colony in two standard brood chambers to weigh 115 to 120 pounds without the outer cover. In Northern Iowa, and further up in the Midwest that would need to be increased to maybe 125 or 130 pounds. That can be accomplished easily with a little maneuvering of combs of honey. Any colony weighing 90 pounds or less should be eliminated. Just use what honey the lighter colonies have to bring the better ones up to the desired weight. In some areas some colonies will gather excessive amounts of pollen. In that case, make sure that there is not full combs of pollen that are being weighed instead of honey. The bees need some pollen but not much until brood rearing begins next spring. The colony that has made the most honey may not necessarily be a good colony to plan to winter. The greater production could have resulted from the loss of their queens for whatever reason, at just the right time and that left the colony with no brood to feed so consequently a big honey production. Sometimes when weighing colonies you will find a colony that has too much honey. Why is it too much? Such a colony will also likely have to much honey come spring so the number of empty cells for the queen to begin laying will be inadequate thus delaying development of the colony.
Glen L. Stanley demonstrates his colony weighing scale. Assessing fall weight is an important part of winter survival.
A Review of the Final Preparations to Colonies for Winter Is As Follows: If you have followed the former plan, then the remainder of preparations is easy and does not require a lot of time. Colonies have been weighed so now set off the top brood chamber and place two or three combs of open cells or brood in the upper chamber, putting the combs of honey in the bottom chamber. Why? Because bees prefer to cluster on partly open cells and this will also be where the bees will begin their brood rearing in early spring where it might not occur had they been confined to the bottom brood chamber by excess honey in the upper chamber. Having completed that, place a middle entrance between the brood chambers by using two pieces of wood shingle about 1 inch wide on each side of the lower chamber. Then cut 2 pieces of lathe, 7 ½ inches in length to place in front leaving a one-inch entrance directly in the middle. This is a must, in case the bottom entrance should become plugged during the winter. Place the upper chamber back then the inner cover on top. Cover the escape hole in the inner cover with a thin material then place a sheet of Styrofoam on the inner cover. Colonies may be wrapped with the 15 pound felt paper with or without the outer cover. Two colonies may be wrapped together to save material. The felt may be cut in half, the long way to wrap around the hives. Just so there is an overlap at the ends. One lathe will hold that in place. If wrapping two hives together then cut a full sheet of felt 36”x48” – fold as if wrapping a package and lathe on all four sides. Make sure a hole is made in the felt at the middle entrance. Now, all is well and made secure until next April with no need to think about feeding, even then there will likely be enough honey in the hive until some source of nectar is available come spring. The question will arise, how do I get replacement bees for those I disposed of last fall. If all goes well, there will be enough brood and bees in nearly every colony to rob two or more combs of brood and bees to make up more colonies than you eliminated. Even additional colonies could be established. For 40 years we did it so we know it works and we sold nuclei besides. I now have three colonies and they have over 400 pounds of surplus honey on them now, and could be 500 if I can provide empty supers. This is August 20th and the alfalfa where they are foraging is still blooming. Glen L. Stanley
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