The Art, Craft and Science of Keeping Honey Bee Colonies

Spring is getting closer, the maple trees are just beginning to expand buds. I always get excited about the possibilities the coming season will bring. I have “kept” honey bee colonies since the spring of 1971. My education includes coursework from our land-grant university and I have trained at almost all of the USDA/ARS bee labs in the United States.

I was raised on a farm where at varying times our family raised grain, hogs, dairy and laying chickens. The farm included about 15 acres of fresh market vegetables. The farm is located near the East coast close to the 38^th latitude in the 7a USDA plant hardiness zone. The addition of the bee colonies not only provided much needed vegetable pollination yield and quality increase, but provided honey for sale at the roadside market.

A quick start

I started with 10 colonies and quickly increased in numbers. For 31 years I maintained 150+ colonies and provided pollination service for numerous other vegetable growers in the area. I have had the pleasure of instructing and mentoring beginner beekeepers and I still enjoy the excitement and pleasure of keeping bee colonies as when I first began.

Photo Courtesy National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Bees do what they do naturally, as they are feral in nature. All we can do as “beekeepers” to insure success and productivity of the hive is to facilitate what they do naturally.

Beekeepers are not “beekeepers” at all. Beekeepers are actually “population managers”.

In order to maximize the productivity of the colony a maximum population of bees is necessary. Think of it in terms of “economy-of-scale”. A colony of 60,000 bees could potentially produce 4 times more than a colony of 30,000. Doubling the population may increase productivity on an exponential scale.

More bees in the colony equates to an increase in honey production, crop pollination,  or an opportunity  to sell excess bees (including Queens). Queen rearing requires numbers of bees to generate food in order to produce quality Queens.

Let’s Talk Royalty

Basic bee nomenclature; a bee colony is a”family”. A hive is the domicile in which the colony lives, but most of the time these terms are used interchangeably. A colony consists of one Queen, the only reproductive female in the colony. Well managed colonies should have approximately 90%  of the population as non-reproductive female worker bees, the remainder will be male drone bees.

As I mentioned previously beekeepers are population managers. The logical question to follow would be; how would one manipulate the population?   Good colony management would include installing a new Queen each year. I like to re-Queen my colonies in late summer/early fall. In the event I find a  failing Queen I will introduce a new Queen ASAP.

The Queen is very specialized. She has two jobs, one is to lay eggs, the second to produce chemical odors (pheromones). Pheromones provide cohesiveness to the colony. The Queen is the mother of every bee in that colony. When she is not producing an abundance of eggs she probably isn’t producing pheromones well either.

The result would be the colony could decide to do one or two things that would greatly reduce productivity. The first would be to create their own Queen (sometimes not a bad thing) and provided the colony made it through til spring it is a safe bet that the colony will then kick out a swarm or two, or three. That is the bee colony managing itself, and not the  are beekeeper managing the colony.

Colonies

Colonies that are allowed to swarm cost the beekeeper at minimum 50% of the population often even more. Also re-Queening the colony allows you, the “beekeeper” the opportunity to select the  genetics of the colony.

Many Queen suppliers provide great Queen stock that have been selected for such traits as gentleness, productivity, disease/mite resistance, over-wintering ability and so on. Re-Queening with known genetics allows you to take advantage of that.

Assuming that the Queen is productive, population manipulation is not too complex. The Queen naturally begins to lay eggs (brood rearing) when the daylight length increases, and conversely will begin to decrease egg laying activity when the daylight length begins to decrease.

Egg laying activity can be increased  by providing a stimulative feeding of sugar syrup (1 pound of water to 1 pound of cane sugar, spring season ratio ). This ratio mimics the sugar composition of the nectar from flowers the bees are naturally foraging on for food.

Begin continuous feeding of the colonies for approximately six weeks prior to your anticipated maximum bee population need. In other words, you want to make a crop of Tulip poplar honey and you estimate the tulip poplar nectar flow will begin on May 10, look at the calendar and count back 6 weeks to March 29, then plan to begin your stimulative feed on that date.

You could include in your feeding regimen a pro-biotic, pollen supplement, or feed stimulant at the same time.

Winter

Colony population is important even when over-wintering colonies. In the event the colony has a low population and is too weak, the “winter cluster” of bees will be unable to move to cover the honey in the frame which is their food source. Honey is a carbohydrate and energy. Bees keep warm in the cluster by consuming honey and making micro vibrations of their thoracic flight muscles. In the event they are unable to move the cluster they will literally starve to death only inches from life saving food.  Small clusters perish, its that simple.

One common problem I observe when over-wintering colonies is that lack of ventilation. Bee colonies need some amount of ventilation during the winter. When the colony is in its winter cluster the bees are consuming honey, generating heat and “breathing” in an enclosed box.

The first problem is that of Carbon dioxide build-up. Carbon dioxide is actually used as to anesthetize Queen bees during the artificial insemination process.

Hives that are sealed too tightly can put you bees to sleep, permanently… Also the moisture from the respiration will cause condensation on the inner cover or lid, causing a cold rain to fall inside the hive. Moisture in the hive will also cause mold issues on comb, and cause your equipment to deteriorate more quickly. A little ventilation could prevent all this from occurring.

Variables

Of course all of this said there are a lot of other variables such as colony health and parasite load that could affect the outcome.

Provided the bees “steward/population manager” has performed his/her duties and kept the colony disease free with mite and Small Hive beetle populations to a minimum a good harvest of honey can be anticipated.

If all of this sounds like a lot of work, it is. It is very rewarding and satisfying work. It is also a great way to learn. I have just scratched the surface of one aspect of the keeping of bee colonies. There is so much more. It really isn’t that complex, it is learning to observe what naturally occurs in nature and take advantage of the surplus and opportunities to learn that are offered.

It was my goal in writing this to pique your curiosity and to encourage you to learn more.

Take advantage of learning opportunities from your local and regional beekeeping clubs, cooperative extension offices and your State and regional apiary inspector. Yes, there are actually “State bee colony inspectors” and you will find most are very well informed and helpful, take advantage of them.