April snow shower, pollen is here and nectar is near, smart beekeeping with COVID 19, OH MY
One of the reasons I really enjoy writing this blog is because I get to look back to previous months and years. This is very useful in beekeeping, especially when you are still learning because sometimes you forget over a long winter what to do when. Also, did it snow in April last year? Yep. Sure did. In the same week in fact! Read the April blog of 2019. Much more snow and a Texas dust storm turning that white fluffy brown to boot. As much as I groaned when I saw it falling, we should consider ourselves lucky it is not going to be worse! I have been getting a lot of calls and emails about what to do with a brand new package of bees in weather like this. We do not sell package bees nor do we use them anymore. If you buckled this year and got one, let me give you my advice. Don’t do anything different. A few years ago, it was really cold during package week. Like single digits. That is when I would recommend that they go in an UNHEATED shed or garage with the entrances closed with screens and feed in a bucket above them. BUT, we are not going to hit single digits this year. They will be fine outside if you hived them in the past week. If you just got them, leave them in the package but the package in your deep box in a garage and spray the outside with sugar water to keep them fed. Hive them on the warmest part of Tuesday or Wednesday. DO NOT PUT THEM IN YOUR BASEMENT OR ANY OTHER HEATED SPACE. The warmth will make them want to come out and if you close them in, they will not be able to ventilate and may poop all over the inside of the hive. Ok. enough about that. You all probably know how I feel about package bees but you have to start somewhere, right?
WHAT ARE THE BEES DOING IN APRIL?
our overwintered hives are in the homestretch. one reason i hate to see this winter storm in the middle of april is because they were just starting to rev up their baby making engines. First pollen was on March 27th this year(another good thing to look back on year after year). while the bees were already working on a small patch of brood, the real stuff coming in on the bees knees is the signal to kick it in gear and replace those tired winter bees with shiny and new baby bees. The queen will get bigger in size as her reproductive parts activate again and she starts laying her next generation. They need a few key ingredients for this to be successful. Pollen, nectar stores and heat. Now, many beekeepers and some experts recommend giving the bees pollen substitute before there is real pollen. I know a few northern beekeepers, including myself that don’t do this. The sooner you activate the baby making the more they eat. If you prematurely give them the signal that it is time to get going, the sooner they will run out of honey stores and the harder it will be for them to keep all that brood warm enough in the uncertain springtime. Same applies for feeding sugar water. You give them sugar water and they think there is a nectar flow on. They also will probably be more swarmer when real nectar comes on. That is why myself and the other beeks I share queen stock with do not give bees supplemental feed in that form. We want bees that take signals more from the outside world than from the beekeeper. Work with their biology, don’t assume they need what we assume they need. This is not to say that if you have a hive that will starve unless you intervene and it is your only sweet hive, that you should let it die. Feed it left over frames of honey if you have them, some winter patties or sugar cakes. This will sustain not stimulate. If you must feed, Remember to keep feeding until their is nectar. The middle picture in the row up above shows a hive that I put 2 winter patties on a week ago. Good thing I returned with some more sugar cakes. they would have starved without my intervention. This colony I will re-queen in early or late summer with genetics from a hive that did not have to be fed in the springtime.
WHAT SHOULD THE BEEKEEPER BEE DOING IN APRIL?
April should be a pretty safe time to remove those black wraps. I do however leave the moisture boards on till May and any hives that are smaller and questionable, i leave the wraps on. Some people leave them on a bit later. i think that is ok too. one of the reasons that I like to remove them is that I notice pollen seems to fall off when they are trying to get back in and there is a lot of traffic. This was happening to the large hive featured in the 2nd photo. This hive is huge. they already have several frames of sealed brood and is full of bees. After this winter storm, I plan to make the rounds and add supers or another deep to keep them from swarming in early May when dandelions and fruit trees are blooming. As soon as nectar comes in this hive, they are going to be ready to split. This is what I do to avoid doing reversals. This is another thing that gets recommended from beekeepers that I disagree with. I have had too many bad experiences where I reverse too early, it gets cold and the brood gets chilled. And do you know what happens when the brood gets chilled? The hive is stressed and they succumb to a virus like chalk brood or European foulbrood. the only time i will maybe do a reversal is around the main nectar flow in late June/early July. I try to avoid this by taking brood away if the split I did in the 3rd week of may did not prevent this already. if it didn’t, Make more bees and overwinter a nuc. it is fun and you get a free queen cell with your club membership anyway!
The other thing you should continue to do is monitor their food stores. If the hive is so light it takes no effort to lift it, they need food yesterday. As I mentioned above, because they are baby making, their stores are going away much faster. Depending on weather, we are still a few weeks from dandelions and wild fruit trees like plums and cherry. Check out the blog from last May. Cross your fingers this is not a repeat! I don’t think so. It has already been a very different year. If you are worried about their stores, it is not too cold to quickly slip in a winter patty or a sugar cake. Don’t forget your feeder rim to make space. We have plenty at the honey house if you need one. Be careful when you lift the inner cover off. If they are hungry, they will be hanging from the underside of the inner cover. I reminded myself yesterday why you always check for the queen on the underside of the inner cover. Picture number 4 in the line above, the bees had built some comb and the queen was laying in it! After I saw the eggs in that little piece of comb, I looked down and saw a green dot on a beautiful queen. There she was crawling around. Good thing I did not set her in the grass! The remainder of the day, I would give a quick bonk of that cover directly over the hive to knock everyone off so I could add my sugar without hurting mama.
The other thing I am doing in April, which I was trying to do in March but COVID happened, is getting a management plan in order, getting equipment assembled, painted and ready to go. We are still not letting folks into the store. We are taking orders online and over the phone for pick up. Thank you so much to those that are supporting us during this time. I can’t express how much it means. If we make it through this thing as a business, it will be because of you all. Speaking of COVID, check out this guideline sheet about beekeeping during COVID created by Dr. Katie Lee from the bee lab. I hope you are all staying safe and sane during these times. Here’s to a quick end to this stupid snowstorm!
