We have now built up to 14 hours of daylight! If you hadn’t noticed, the bee population also builds up to a maximum at about the same time as the summer solstice which is the longest day on about June 21st. In our area this also coincides with the height of the honey flow. Over the eons the bees have amazingly got their population cycle in sync with the sunlight and honey flow.
All of my winter nucs and new packages have been installed in hives. At this time the winter nucs appear to be about three (3) weeks ahead of the packages in their population build-up. Both the new package and winter nuc hives will be fed 1:1 sugar syrup until the start of the honey flow. Then the feeding will stop and honey supers will be installed.
All overwintered colonies have been inspected to verify they are queenright and growing. In my apiary one colony was found to be queenless and I installed my last winter nuc in that hive. I thought 4 colonies were building up slowly. After verifying they were queenright I transferred in 2 frames of brood and bees from strong colonies. This is called “equalizing”. It weakens the overly strong colonies and hopefully prevents the strong colonies from swarming. It also gives the weak colonies a boost and will hopefully get them up to strength prior to the honey flow. The weak colonies have no problem with integrating the bees and brood into the hive. The combination of less swarming and more strong colonies will help increase the honey crop.
The overwintered colonies are bringing in some nectar. I don’t know the source. To even out my work load I will be installing the honey supers on these colonies soon even though the main honey flow has not yet started. The first nectar flow will be from black locusts in my area. This will probably occur in the second half of May.
I also just finished the second of two oxalic vapor treatments on my overwintered colonies. Its important to stay ahead of the mites. The new colonies, made with either new packages or winter nucs, did not get this spring mite treatment, but will get treated in early summer.
In the past weak all colonies have been hauling in a lot of pollen. This bodes well for population buildup. If only we could get a week of warm, dry and sunny weather.
The photo shows approximately 50% of the bees have full pollen baskets. The other bees are probably taking orientation flights.
So far, during my colony inspections I have seen no queen cells. Of course, it is still several weeks away from the swarm season. On about May 15th I will be putting out my swarm traps. The traps should be installed at least one hundred yards away from your apiary if you hoping to catch swarms emanating from your apiary. For wild swarms you can place your swarm trap almost anywhere.
For about 30 days after May 15th I will try to visit my apiary at about 10am each warm morning to look for swarms hanging in nearby trees. Several empty hives and nucs are always kept in reserve to house captured swarms. Remember the Boy Scout motto: “Bee Prepared”. Well something like that.
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