Mid-May, mid-40 degree temperatures: I refilled hive feeders Thursday while wearing a winter coat. I’m done with this chill, but I’m sure when it is 90 degrees I’ll also be whining.
Anyway, here are things, Honey, to Bear in Mind this time of year for bees in areas comparable to SW Michigan. I’d promised a discussion of when to add the next box. Based on the weather, probably not any time soon for a new package, so that blog post is coming in about another week.
When is it warm enough to work without chilling brood? When you see bees out and about—not just a handful, but many of them, flying in and out.
Attention Bees: Comb Building Class 101
Kathy W. sent me this question: “On a couple of my frames, the comb doesn’t seem to be attached to the foundation and the bees are walking between the foundation and the comb…? (See top left image)
This is probably due to one or a combination of things:
1) Most likely the bee space is wrong. If your foundation sagged (ie, no support pins if it is wax) or it was warped, or if the frames are too far apart, they’re “building out” to fill the gap and get to proper bee space (google bee space.) It happens often in new hives where there isn’t much pre-existing guidance (ie, no existing comb).
2) Somewhat likely—they don’t like plastic foundation. I’ve heard that some bees don’t like it and build parallel to it instead of on it, but they’ll get over it and probably won’t build all of them that distended way. It helps to spritz the foundation with sugar syrup when you put it in the hive to make it more attractive. (If you sprayed chocolate on a room of my new home I’d certainly check it out.)
3) Cabin fever? I was at two bee club meetings over the weekend, and some experienced beekeepers report more of that ‘build out” than “usual.” They think it was because bees have been stuck inside and a little bored.
What to do about it?
1) Make sure your frames are properly spaced.
2) Tear out? I probably wouldn’t. That was a lot of work for a new package early in the season. As long as it doesn’t impede your working the hive, I’d let it, er, bee. If that were a frame that would hold honey for extraction, that build out would be difficult to deal with, but it’s not. It’s a frame that will exist at the bottom of the hive and rarely even need to be pulled out. In 2-4 years, when you begin to routinely replace comb, I’d get rid of it then. But ’til then, I’d tend to give them all the help you can (ie, not destroying their work.) If the protrusions are such that they’re consistently in the way, they’ll get knocked out and shaved into shape over time anyway.
However—if the bees are building comb in pillars, I’d probably tear those out. That’s a signal that they want to go perpendicular to the frame, not just parallel.
Feeding:
When it is cold, rainy, windy—the bees can’t get out. Especially if you have a new package, they haven’t yet built up any stores, so keep providing food. When it is quite chilly, they’re not very active and their consumption will be minimal, but as soon as some warmth comes, they’ll start moving and consuming.
Easy spring syrup mix: Pour a 5-pound bag of white sugar into a gallon jug, fill to a couple of inches from the top with hot tap water, shake. You’ll likely need to add more water as the sugar goes into solution.
“My bees aren’t eating!” It may be because of the chill, although some colonies just don’t seem to care for the not-natural stuff—unless they’re starving.
Do you dare open the hive? Top feeders, jar feeders – you can refill those without really getting into the hive. If you have feeders that can’t be filled unless you open the hive body (like the ones that take the place of a frame), use the inner cover to hold in as much warmth as possible as you refill quickly. Sure, cold isn’t ideal for bees, but it is better than starving to death.
How long to feed and slimy containers are discussed in a previous blog.
Dan’s Awesome Egg Photo…and why we worked a hive at 8 p.m. on a rainy, 50-degree evening:
When Dan was installing his new package into the hive, the queen was inadvertently released into the shipping box (which was in the hive.) As the weather had turned chilly, her workforce decided to hang with her and make that familiar location their home, instead of moving onto the frames.
The forecast showed no signs of getting better, so we decided we’d better take advantage of that 51-degree temperature (a high we didn’t reach for three to four days after that) to get those bees working in the right location.
Picture this: pouring down rain, three of us humans standing under a golf umbrella over the open hive, and any bee warm enough to move joining us under that umbrella. (Yeeks.) Unfortunately, you have to picture it in your mind because I couldn’t use my camera during the deluge.
Dan’s motivated workforce had built plenty of comb in the shipping box and the queen was already laying in it. We carefully pried open the box, dumped them into the hive body onto some drawn comb, and got the feeder properly installed so they could get to it.
We removed the comb they’d built from the shipping box; it went to school with his kid the next day. We also removed the shipping box from the bee yard; we didn’t want them going back in it.
In the photo, the eggs are the long cylinders easily seen in cells 2 & 3 in the top row, cells 1, 2 & 4 in the second row, and the middle of row 3. They’re quite tiny in reality. (See top right image)
Got Bees? A guy west of Schoolcraft has a great property for bees if someone is looking for a place to locate hives. Contact me if interested and I’ll put you in touch with him.