We celebrated the first day of summer by removing the debris boards from the rest of our first year hives. Usually those are out earlier, but it has been a cool, wet season.
So what else should you be thinking about if you have first year colonies in a climate similar to SW Michigan’s?
Debris boards: You may have solid bottom boards, or you may have a combination of removable debris board with a screened bottom board. If the latter, probably time to pull the debris board. It’ll likely be covered with bits of wax, a few wings and legs, pollen, etc. – the normal debris from a colony of bees. It’ll like look like golden saw dust with lots of dark debris mixed in. Likely all perfectly normal. I wash and store the boards for later use.
We removed most of our debris boards a week or so ago. The ones pulled recently were from hives that have been slow to build up, such that I didn’t think they were in much danger of overheating the few hot and muggy days we’ve had so far. (Note, not complaining about the lack of hot and muggy weather—I’m sure it is coming.)
Entrance reducers: All colonies that pass the basic check (see below) are likely strong enough to defend against raiders and keep brood warm, so you could probably remove the entrance reducer next time you’re working the colony.
Second … or third box: You might have a superstar first year colony that’s ready for a third box by now. We have a few of our 35 with a third box on. You don’t want them to swarm, so make sure they have room to expand. If you’re using Langstroth equipment, previous blog posts outline my guidelines for when to add the next box. The same general criteria, but there’s a much larger workforce now so they’ll draw out that second, or in the case of some lucky beekeepers, that third box faster.
Is that third box honey for you? Whether you’re using 8- or 10-frame equipment, mediums, deeps or shallows, I think you should leave it for the colony for the winter. If that colony is filling a third box in July though, that’s impressive. You may get some honey this first year after all, by fall.
Queen separator? This is a framed narrow-gapped wire device placed between the brood boxes and the honey boxes. It keeps the broader queen from moving up to lay in honey boxes.
Should you use one? Your preference, but—if you’re going to leave that third box of predominantly honey for them anyway, what does it matter to you if she lays up there? A queen excluder will impede progress—it is another thing for bees to maneuver through, and sometimes they propolize much of it, which is why some beekeepers call it a ‘honey separator.’ You can drill a 3/8” hole in upper boxes, helpful for both ventilation and efficient access, to get around that. Hubby and I disagree on whether to use them or not, so we use them on about half our hives.
Pests: We’re finding lots more ants and beetles in hives than usual, probably because of the damp weather. We haven’t started looking proactively for the dreaded Varroa mite yet, but we’re proactively trying to control the population. In a future blog I’ll discuss mite counts.
So, what do you do about these different pests?
- Ants: See previous blog post
- Beetles: If they’re Small Hive Beetles (SHB), a strong colony can defend against them. My good friend Richard Underhill, President of the Arkansas State Beekeeper’s Association, shared that hives can usually tolerate 300 or so. Arkansas has a much bigger problem with them that we do up north. If you’re seeing dozens, make sure they’re SHB, as there are plenty of other relatively benign beetles you may find in the hive. If SHB, reduce the colony space so that the bee population can better patrol it. Use beetle traps if you want.
- Varroa: We use one frame of commercial drone comb in the second box of each colony to reduce the Varroa population. That’s been highly successful for me in years past, although this year most of our bees are putting honey in the drone comb instead of drones. Remember, bees are gonna do what bees are gonna do. If you want to know more about how to use this, drop me an email and I’ll send my instruction sheet. This is a natural method for knocking down the Varroa population, with mixed results, but generally some effectiveness. There are lots of ways to combat Varroa, and if you look long enough, you’ll find studies to support and discourage almost every method. Drone comb has worked for me, so I use it.
Basic Check: I’ve had a number of calls from first year beekeepers who are either lacking some basic knowledge, or just don’t have the time, interest or courage to ensure their colonies are on track. The actually keeping of bees requires interaction and proactive inspections, otherwise you’re a bee-haver, not a beekeeper.
By this time in the season you should:
- Have removed the queen cage
- Know that you have a queen laying predominantly worker brood. You don’t have to find the queen, but you do need to see evidence of her (see previous blog posts)
- Verify that the brood pattern is good to great (see previous blog posts)
- If Langstroth equipment, you should’ve or should be getting close to adding a second box.
If they’re bee-hind: Out of 35 colonies we’re monitoring, probably a half dozen of those are still working only 4-5 frames of their first box. Installed early May, yes, they’re behind.
Why? For a few of our laggers its because they requeened. The colony determined their queen was not optimal. They created another one and killed off the original queen. We know of this requeening because during routine checks we found capped queen cells and no queen or eggs for a bit. This requeening caused several days of no future bee production, putting them behind.
Some of our other laggers still have the original queen. The queen won’t outlay the workforce, so there’s the possibility she’s not laying much because she doesn’t have the workers to tend to lots of bees yet. Because we have other hives, we’ve moved a frame or two of brood and nurse bees to the slower hive—hopefully that’ll help them come up to speed. If you have this option, make sure you don’t move the queen also!
Another possibility some years is a lack of forage. A dry spell can shut the queen down. Not this year so far …
Time to panic? No. July could be a beautiful month of lush, ample forage. Besides, unless you can collect pollen and nectar, there isn’t much you can do about it. Keep feeding if they’re taking it, and if you have more than one colony, consider moving over a frame of eggs and nurse bees.
What I Didn’t Tell You: Unfortunately, there’s lots, but it isn’t intentional. There’s much to this keeping of bees. This blog is hopefully just one source of information for you.