Increase of Colonies and Production of Honev

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 95, Issue 3, 16 September 1957, Page 225

Increase of Colonies and Production of Honev

Seasonal Notes for the Domestic Beekeeper AT this time of the year the beekeeper should have made up his mind whether he intends to manage his apiary solely for the production of honey or for a limited increase of colonies. In this article A. W. Bennett, Apiary Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Hamilton, describes the work to be done in both methods.

TF the bees were headed by a young, A vigorous queen and a good supply of stores was left last autumn, by this time of the year brood rearing will have begun and hives should now contain some brood in all stages and begin to show an increase in the number of bees in the hive. Before this increase becomes too large a thorough inspection of the brood should be made, Any hive showing disease should be promptly destroyed by fire and the oca! Apiary Instructor informed of me action taken. During this inspection a check can be made on the stores in the hive, and if they are low, feeding will have to begin and continue until the bees can gather enough food to maintain themselves. After the inspection of the brood the hive can be given a spring clean-

ing. Floor boards should be scraped and any burr comb removed from the frames and boxes with the hive tool, If the inside of the hive is wet through the use of bad-fitting or worn-out. equipment, sound, dry parts should be provided. This Sn g cleaning of the hive is; of immense help to the bees and thebuilding up of the colony will greatly benefit by it This work should be carried out as quickly as possible to. avoid exposing the bees and brood, too long to the cool air. An opened hive is also likely to attract robbers, and robbing at this time of the year can become quite serious. Making an Increase For the domestic beekeeper still gaining experience with his bees it is perhaps best to increase slowly and be

content with the doubling of the number of colonies kept; otherwise he may run into trouble through lack of experience and find he has lost money on his bees.

For each increase he intends to make he will require a floor board, 2 brood chambers complete with combs or frames of foundation, 1 mat, and a lid solely to house the brood of a new hive, plus any supers that may be required this season for the surplus honey. This equipment should be got ready now to receive the increase, as later in the season stocks may be low at the dealers and some items not procurable.

In 3 or 4 weeks the hives should be inspected again, and if a regular supply of food has been obtained by the bees during the last month, they will be quite strong and may be making preparations to swarm by building queen cells. At this stage the colony will be just right to make an increase.

The beekeeper must now go through the colony and find the queen. The

Domestic Beekeeping

comb with bees and queen adhering is placed in a new hive alongside the old one. Next the old hive, now queenless, is removed to a new location and the new hive placed in the old position. In this hive are placed some of the combs of honey and empty combs, if any, from the old hive, the remaining space being filled with frames ; of foundation. This operation should be carried out during the daytime while a large number of bees are flying. . There will now be on the old stand a new hive containing one . comb of brood with the queen and a few bees. To this will return all the flying bees and those away foraging for nectar or pollen at the time of the change-over. During the next couple of days all the older foraging bees from the old hive will also return to the new hive on the old stand, thus swelling the num-

bers of bees in the new hive to above that of a good swarm. In the old hive at the new location, now queenless, there will be queen cells on several combs. These will have to be removed with the exception of one from which in a few days will hatch a virgin queen. This queen will mate and begin to lay eggs in about 8 to 10 days from hatching. The colony will still have quite a number of cells with brood from the old queen to hatch, so no great setback will be noticed in the old hive. The old queen in the new hive will, of . course, have carried on producing eggs, and as soon as 7 or 8 combs are filled with brood and there are enough bees to fill the first box, add another; at the same time lift a comb containing emerging brood up into this second box. This will encourage bees and queen to work in the new box. With this system, which could be named “swarm control”, and the add-

ing of further supers as required by the bees for honey, swarming will be kept down to a minimum. Production of Honey The beekeeper wishing to produce honey without making an increase can work on exactly the same lines as described in the foregoing, but when the division is made the old hive should be kept close to the new one and when the young queen is laying, the old queen in the new hive can be found and killed. The two hives are then united by the newspaper method. In 2 or 3 weeks this hive, which is now headed by. the young queen, should be gone through and all brood and queen placed in the bottom two boxes and below an excluder if used. Other frames may be put in the super above ready for the honey flow. With the addition of extra room in the way of honey supers as required by the bees this hive will show little inclination to swarm this season.