ECWBA OUTREACH

Public outreach is one of the objectives of the ECWBA.  In the past week the ECWBA discussed pollinators and beekeeping in Westfield and also at Fond du Lac's Walleye Weekend.  Thank you to club members that participated.

 Mark and Patty in Westfield

 Al, Patty and Mark at Walleye Weekend

BLACK LOCUST IS BLOOMING IN THE ECWBA AREA

Black locust trees have decided to bloom this year. This is about 9 days behind their normal schedule.  The bloom will last for about 10 days.  Black locust can provide a lot of nectar.  Be sure that you have room in your honey supers to accommodate this nectar.  Check your honey supers every few days to ensure there is room for this bounty.  With a little luck we will be having a few days of sunshine which will allow the bees to work these short lived blossoms.

 Big stand of black locust starting to bloom. 

Closeup of black locust blossoms. 

USDA ARS BEE PROJECTS

Follow this link for a listing of bee related projects being worked by the USDA.

https://search.usa.gov/search?query=bee+projects&affiliate=agriculturalresearchservicears

A DAY IN THE APIARY

Tuesday, June 4^th

Beautiful bee day.  Sunny with a light breeze.  The bees were out.  For some reason the bees were very temperamental and began harassing me as soon as I entered the apiary.  Not sure of the reason for this, but suspect it is the high humidity and a lack of abundant nectar to keep them occupied. 

I used today to check my nine (9) hives on the edge of a marshy area.  I verified each hive was queenright as I did my inspections.  At my next visit in 2 weeks I will also be treating them with a ½ dose of Formic Pro.

Hive DD-this was a hive started with an overwintered nucleus colony.  Inspection showed a strong colony fully occupying the 2 brood chamber boxes and already putting honey in the 1^st honey super.

Hive E-this hive was started with a package on April 19^th.  I added 3 frames of capped brood approximately 3 weeks ago from an overcrowded hive.  Three weeks after this bee transfusion the colony occupies the entire two brood boxes, but has not yet entered the honey super added last week. 

Hive YY-this hive was started with a package on April 19^th.  It did not get a bee transfusion like Hive E above.  It has only grown to a full bottom box and 4 frames in the upper brood chamber.  I topped off the syrup feeder to speed their growth.  

Hive M-this was an overwintered hive with an Ankle Biter queen.  It has filled 7 of 9 frames of the 1^st honey super.  I moved the two empty outside frames into the center positions.  The bees were also working on the frames in the 2^nd honey super.   I added a 3^rd super to make sure they don’t get ahead of me.  

Hive AAA-this is another overwintered hive.  It had required spring feeding but is now starting to place honey in the 1^st honey super.

Hive EE-this is an overwintered Saskatraz hive and is putting honey into the 2nd honey super.  

Hive OO-this was an overwintered hive with Saskatraz queen.  It swarmed several weeks ago.  It has about 7 queen cells.  Last week I saw the replacement virgin queen, but this week I couldn’t find her or any eggs.  There is still capped brood that is emerging so there is not an immediate danger of laying workers.  She gets one more week to make an appearance or I see eggs and open brood.  After that I will requeen the hive. 

Hive PP-this was an overwintered Russian hive.  It has just started to put honey in the 1^st super. 

Hive WW-this hive was started with an overwintered package.  Already putting honey in the first super. 

As you can see there is a wide variation between hives.  It pays to keep notes of your observations so you can determine if individual hives are growing or failing. 

Another interesting observation is that the hives started with overwintered nucs are greatly outperforming even early package hives.   This and the fact that the overwintered nucs don’t cost me anything makes them an interesting method to better my apiary sustainability. 

MAJOR NECTAR SOURCES

Bees obtain nectar from many plants.  Here is a list of the MAJOR nectar sources in central Wisconsin.  There are also too many to mention MINOR nectar sources. 


TRESS/BUSHES

                -Black locust

                -Raspberry

                -Blackberry

                -Basswood

PLANTS

                -Milkweed

                -Asters

                -Thistle

                -Soybeans

                ‘-Sweet clover

                -Alfalfa

                ‘-Alsike Clover



The tree sources of nectar are of relatively short duration; usually less than about 10 days.  The plant sources are of longer duration.   Clovers can produce up to 500 pounds of honey per acre in good year.  As Grandpa Jack likes to say “Location, Location, Location”.