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Thanks to Tony and Tupelo.Full Moon Apiary.
1. Go thru hives and check storage, 20-25# or 3 drops to get them thru. Or syrup.
Maples coming in
Look for half to three quarters frame of pollen, wild mustard, camellias. Need pollen to feed larvae or raise drone
Warmer weather look for shb hasnt been cold enough.
Put pollen patties on to feed if no shb problem.
Check brood comb quality. Rotate out 30% per year. Date frame or the color of queen. Bee wax absorbs chemicals they've been exposed to. It will accumulate and compound. Nosema spores etc accumulate.
Testing comb is too expensive, so rotate
Fix your equipment make up new equipment. Clean off propolis from frame rest especially on cooler days.
Clean bottom boards, even if screened, a couples of times a year.
Look at your bees. Quantity of bees but also are bees but and fat or small? Small bees, poor nutrition. Old comb? no room to grow. Good clean comb,
Greasy bees, black and shiny are an indication of paralysis virus spread by varroa.
Stressed bees will sting if stressed by lack of food, virus, beetles, are the nervous, what's their temperment.
After march, temperment improves.
What's the condition of the queen? Check quality of brood and brood pattern. How old is she, what's her genetics. Italians has larger brood nest, carnelian have smaller then explode. Is she marked?
Mark her and find her now. Before Feb brood up. Make a filter box. 2018 was red. 2019 is green. Jan mark old color since new queens haven't been raised for new year. Light color shade early in year, dark shade later. Tony uses model paint.
Brood condition? Spotty pattern, why? Queen failing? Virus? Varroa? Varroa all poop in same place, inspect cells with flashlight and magnifier. If varroa poops on developing larva, the varroa will je sterile. Varroa poop is white. Founder mite hides right before the cell is capped.
What color is brood, pearly white and gleaming, shiny not creamy and slimy.
Antibiotics for bees us by prescription, tetracycline tylan and one rRer. You can get the prescription on line by state I speak for, ask tony.
Got mites? You'll have a big problem. Do you check even if you treated. Check before and after. In cooler weather, thymol based are possible. Formic acid will cause supercedure in queen and theresa's no way to replace this early. Most mites are forectic, outside of cell. Lots brood means you'll have more mites.
Try drip to control.
Beekeeping is math. Figure out numbers and you'll have a plan.
Eggs 3 days, lays down right before hatching
Larvae capped on day 8 or 9 for queen and workers,11 for drone
Cell hatch
21 worker
24 drone
15 or 16 days
Egg grows 1500 times before capped
23 days for queen egg to be fertile.
Drone is 38 days to be fertile
Queen lays 1000-1500-2000 eggs a day.
Calculate days to hatch then look back to know honey production.
Citrus blooms mid march. Want 45k bees, you need good queen by mid February
Jan 15 queen cell goes in.
Tupelo april15 blooms, let them raise queen takes much longer.
Gallberry low Bush blooms may 1st, April 1st the hive needs to be ready. March 1st for queen cell, the hive makes, Feb 14.
Popcorn trees bloom?
Varroa, founder mite buries it self 70 hous later lays male mite and the a female egg ever 30 hours. About 3 female mites comes out from worker and 4 female mites for drone cells
Manage cycles or break cycle
Treat broodless like when doing splits and you can cage queen while treating a split.
When do supers go on? When nectar is flowing unless you are chasing a specific crop. . Maybe by first of March, if hive 80% is built out, put on super and stop feeding.
Feb 14 is grafting your queen day. Without drones, it's a failure. Drone production determined by pollen. No pollen for 4 or 5 days, they will kill drones or open cells. Pink eye to purple is indicator. Uf in purple eye, graft queens they will be mature at the same time.
Swarming. Built up lots bees and they are swarming. Forgers will revert to nurse bees as necessary. Year old queen has high tendency to swarm. Lots pressure to swarm. 2 year old queen, definately will awarm. Ma
Make sure they have lots room.
Split your hives to fool them. Gotta be done before swarm impulse sets in.
Splits are important tool for this. Split then recombine if you want to keep number down, then choose best queen.
Can make split in any box 4, 10 frame, plastic box. Since we can't buy queen early enough for split, let them raise a queen.
After the impulse is over. Dont so it late or they will choose to built brood not store honey.
Dont wait till you see swarm cells to split.
Need you need and lots resources. Move old queen with minimal resources, leave lots resources in new split to raise queen.
Easy split put on 2nd bros box. Divide resources, wait 24 48 hours to put in exclude then separate later. Make sure to equalize resources in both the split out.
Eggs, pollen, honey frames and put in excluder. Take only 2-3 frames, not five solid in a nuc so they have room. If raising queen, need a frame if eggs and lots young larvae. Any bix with eggs and no queen, they will start raising new queen.
Queen cell on perimeter, they will still try to swarm. Middle if frame, emergency cell versus queen cup for supercedure queen.
If you found a queen cell, or uncapped queen cell, leave it. Move old queen to new box.
Do the math. When no capped brood do the math. Treat for mites and you'll get 90% reduction.
Feed heavier syrup to keep them storing, not thinking flow us on. But pollen will stimulate drone production. Swarming may start 1st.
What's box weigh? You last fed dec 15.2018 They are still heavy.
If they draw fast, the comb will be straight and pretty. Put in new foundation between frame of pollen and first frame of brood nest to encourage comb building. Pull out stores honey and let them rub it out.
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