I was one of about seven ECWBA members that attended the bee seminar in Wausau. One guest speaker impressed me the most; Alex Zomchek. Besides being an excellent public speaker, he seemed to drop little nuggets of important information that I think I should pass on to ECWBA members. So here goes.
One, commercial beekeepers only have 7-9% winter mortality. Much higher than that they could not remain in business. Commercially beekeepers actively manage their hives for both low varroa, but also high honey production. Only part of that success is due to their hives going south for the winter.
Two, overwintered hives have a typical spread of 1/3 strong, 1/3 OK and 1/3 weak. Commercial beekeepers manage those hives in the spring to even things out. Strong hives contribute bees and brood for strengthening their weak sisters. This does not seem to weaken the strong hives, but definitely improves the weak hives.
Three, 95% of the stored honey is usually gathered in the 40 day period of the main nectar flow which occurs in June through early July. This confirms my own observations. There may be a secondary flow in the fall, but it should be left for the bees.
Four, feed early in the fall.
Five, the spring population buildup is critically important to having the hive population peaking in time for the honey flow. Population growth is triggered naturally by the start of availability of low sugar content nectar. In our area, with its long winters, the population growth is not triggered soon enough for the hive to always be ready for the onset of the primary June nectar flow. A larger honey crop can be attained by giving the bees an early spring stimulative feeding. The stimulative feeding is not the usual the 1 part sugar to 1 part water sugar syrup we normally feed new packages, but a weaker syrup mixture such as 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. This more closely matches sugar concentration of naturally occurring early spring nectars, such as bees utilizing maple sap, and stimulates brood production.
Six, with item five above in mind, what about new packages? We usually can get packages in three time slots; early April, late April and early May. Since time is critical in building up the hive population after package installation it would seem logical to avoid May package deliveries. Early April has an increased odds of inclement (ie cold) weather and is a bigger gamble for the beekeeper, but the bees can usually be successfully installed even then. If I remember several club members got the opportunity for a few packages in early April last year and successfully hived them. (I was always surprised at hearing of Minnesota beekeepers getting early April packages.) So, for me the obvious plan would be as a minimum to request late April bees in the future and would even try early April bees if I were more of a gambler.
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