For Maximum Survival and Yield!
Your overwintered 4-frame nucleus is a live unit of honeybees from the
Russian stock, with a laying queen introduced during the summer of last
year. The queen is the daughter of Pure
Russian Breeder Queen, who underwent a number of tests designed to select for
traits desirable to genetically enhance resistance to brood diseases and mites,
such as: American Foulbrood, European
Foulbrood, Chalkbrood, Sacbrood, Nosema, Varroa, and Honeybee Tracheal mites.
The queen in the nuc was open mated in our mating apiary, where we
maintain only Russian colonies (open and closed mated), producing Russian
drones in large quantities. The drones
present in the mating apiary should carry the selected genes for the desired
traits mentioned above.
Therefore, the queens should be pure Russian, and the resulting bees in
the nuc should be for the greater part Russian.
According to our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices over several
years, we have greatly reduce using hard & soft chemicals, and antibiotics, without harmful
effects to the bees.
1.
Clean Equipment
1.1.
Use new
equipment if you can or disinfect with a propane torch by scorching brood
chamber, inner cover and floorboard.
1.2.
Use frames of
foundations or new empty combs to fill the supers. Plastic frames or foundations
are OK. They should be coated with
beeswax from cappings preferably.
1.3.
Be aware that
beeswax coming from brood combs or
unknown sources may contain pesticides residues (coumaphos, fluvalinate,
amitraz…), which are known to potentially harm bees.
1.4.
If you reuse
combs from dead colonies, be aware these combs may contain infectious spores. Inspect thoroughly. It is now recommended to
fumigate dead-out brood chambers with acetic acid.
1.5.
Do not use
combs of honey from AFB or EFB infected colonies, they may contain disease spores
in the honey.
1.6.
Discard or
cull old dark combs, the ones you cannot see through when holding up to the
sun. These also carry all kinds of
spores, resulting in added stress to the new colony.
2.
Good Location
2.1.
Locate your
nucleus in a permanent location that will enhance its productivity.
2.2.
Choose a sunny
area, sheltered from dominant winds.
2.3.
Keep away from
wet locations where melted snow tends to accumulate in the spring, or where
heavy rainfall might also make the immediate environment soggy and humid. Bees like a dry location.
2.4.
Elevate your
colony from the ground by placing the hive stand on cement blocks or a pallet,
about 6-9 inches from the ground.
3.
Least Disruption Possible
3.1.
Install your
empty equipment in place, ready to receive the bees and their frames from the
nucs.
3.2.
When
transferring the frames of brood and bees into your full-size equipment, take
care not to injure the queen. Do it
delicately, trying not to crush any bees if possible.
3.3.
Remove all
empty frames from the brood chamber, or remove the 4 center frames.
3.4.
Begin
transferring the nucleus by removing the frame of foundation first. Put in the brood chamber or put aside for
later use.
3.5.
Gently pry
apart the other frames and remove them one by one and transfer them into the
brood chamber.
3.6.
Keep them
together in the center of the box, making sure they are positioned the same way
they were in the nucbox, in relation to one another.
3.7.
Replace or add
empty frames on either side to fill the box.
3.8.
Reduce
entrance. Install the inner cover.
4.
Feed Immediately
4.1.
Your objective
is to stimulate and give some food stores to your nuclei.
4.2.
You want to
prevent starvation and dwindling.
4.3.
Even if a
strong flow of nectar is on you should feed your nucleus to help it develop and
grow fast.
4.4.
You can feed
it continuously using a top feeder, a feeding pail, a frame feeder, or an
entrance feeder.
4.5.
Use thick
sugar syrup (2 parts sugar - 1 part water) by weight or volume.
4.6.
Do not feed
heated honey, brown sugar or molasses.
4.7.
If you elect
to supply the nuclei with combs of honey, make sure it is not granulated honey
and free of disease or contaminants.
There should be empty cells surrounded by honey to help the queen lay
eggs.
4.8.
Feed a pollen
substitute patties continuously until you are ready to add honey supers for the
main flow. Global Patties or Bee Pro are proven
patties that work well. Bees love them and they do not harden like rock.
4.9.
Do not
underestimate the potential of your nuclei.
The goal is to ensure the nuclei builds up without interruption because
of inclement weather in the spring. It
takes a lot of feed to raise lots of bees.
4.10.
Stop feeding
whenever the nuclei has about 4 frames of feed, and the brood chamber is full
of bees; unless you add a 2nd brood chamber on top. In this case, continue feeding.
4.11.
Do not
overfeed, because the queens need enough room to lay eggs.
4.12.
A brood
chamber full of honey in June is not a good sign. Instead, it should be full of
bees and brood, with about 1 frame of honey on either side of the brood nest,
and some honey surrounding the brood area.
5.
Medication
5.1.
The nuc you
received should be free of brood diseases, therefore there is no need to treat
this nuc for now. The amount of mites present should be minimum.
5.2.
You need not
treat again for AFB or EFB or mites before next fall.
5.3.
The only
recommendation is Fumagillin, to relieve the stress induced by moving the
nuclei to its new location. Follow the label.
5.4.
It is not
recommended to install a Check-Mite strip in your nuclei. Be aware that this
product is very strong and can kill the nuclei instead of helping it. This product is not intended for small
colony of bees.
5.5.
Do not use the
formic acid pad Mite-Away II on a small nuclei. It is not intended for colonies
smaller than 5 frames. The harmful
vapour will also kill the nuclei or the queen.
6.
Summer Management
6.1.
When the population has reached about 9-10 frames, add another brood chamber
or a queen excluder and several honey supers.
It is OK to add more than 1 super at a time.
6.2.
Visit each colony every 7-14 days approximately.
6.3.
The colony
must not become full of honey. Make
sure to add supers as they are needed to make sure the queen has enough room
for her to lay abundantly. The queen
must not become honey bound, or her population of bees will dwindle in the fall
and they won’t winter successfully. The
queen’s brood nest must not be restrained from May until August. The queen must be allowed to maintain a
large population of bees until the end of summer. Otherwise, the bees will be too old to spend the winter, leaving
the colony with too small a cluster.
The colony needs lots of young bees being produced in August &
September.
6.4.
SUGGESTION:
Instead of running the colony with 2 brood chambers, install the queen
excluder immediately above the first brood chamber, and add several honey
supers in preparation for the main flow, which begins in late June until late
July. The bees will move newly
collected nectar above the excluder into the supers, and the queen will have
enough room to lay eggs down below. Do
not underestimate your bees! Make sure
the bees have enough room to work to the best of their ability!
6.5.
Later at the
beginning of August, you can add the 2nd brood chamber below the
queen excluder, and the bees will work it in preparation for winter. To do so, move up into the 2nd
chamber some brood frames from below, keeping it together in the center with
the added combs from the 2nd super.
If you are using new frames of foundation, it is recommended to feed the
bees from the entrance, to help build the new combs.
7.
Varroa Survey
7.1.
You should
monitor the population of Varroa mites in your colony.
7.2.
You should
survey your colonies at least once during the season.
7.3.
Beginning of
September is the best time.
7.4.
Survey a
minimum of 25% of your colonies.
7.5.
Make use of
the screened bottom boards OR follow the method outlined below.
7.6.
Install a
Sticky Board on the baseboard for a period of 24 to 48 hours approximately, to
collect dead mites falling by natural death.
7.7.
A sticky board
is a piece of white poster board covered with a sticky substance such as
Tanglefoot, sold at Lee Valley Tools & Garden to catch fruit flies in
orchards.
7.8.
Record the
apiary or hive #, date and time in and out, so you can calculate duration of
the survey.
7.9.
You must cover
the cardboard with 8x8 mesh to prevent the bees from cleaning it.
7.10.
Insert the
sticky board on strong colonies only.
7.11.
Later,
retrieve the sticky boards and bring them home to examine.
7.12.
Count the
number of varroa mites on each sticky board and record.
7.13.
Calculate the
24-Hour Mite Drop for each colony.
7.14.
24-Hour Mite
Drop = # of mites x 24 hour / (divided by)
# hours of survey.
7.15.
Calculate the
Apiary Average for each apiary surveyed.
7.16.
Interpret the
results and decide whether or not to treat for mites this fall for each apiary,
or each colony.
7.16.1.
If 24-Hour
Mite Fall # is 0-10 mites, you may elect to skip treatment this fall.
7.16.2.
If 24-Hour
Mite Fall # is 10-20 mites, you may go ahead and treat as a preventative
measure.
7.16.3.
If 24-Hour
Mite Fall # is >20 mites, you should treat this fall, otherwise the colonies
may be damaged during winter.
7.16.4.
If 24-Hour
Mite Fall # is >40 mites, you should
treat immediately, otherwise the colonies may die during the winter, or be
severely weakened at the end of winter.
7.17.
The decision
is yours to make. These guidelines are
for your own information and are there only as a help. We do not make any guarantees in offering
advices and accept no responsibilities if you suffer damage to your bees
because you followed our advices.
8.
Fall
Treatments
8.1.
Follow the
recommended treatments as described in the 2009
Ontario Recommendations for Honey Bee Disease Control located on the OBA Website (Ontario Beekeepers’
Association).
9.
Feed Early
9.1.
Remove honey
supers early in September and feed immediately before the daytime temperature
falls below 15° Celsius.
9.2.
It is not
necessary to leave surplus honey for the bees.
Honeybees overwinter well on refined white sugar honey. Fall honey granulates hard and fast, and the
bees cannot feed themselves properly. If you want the bees to overwinter on
their own honey, give them white honey from the main flow.
9.3.
Feed your
colony early in the fall, in the month of September. This is to insure your bees has enough warm weather to help them
evaporate all the excess water from the feed and keep them nice and dry for the
coming winter. Moreover, the bees spend
themselves tremendously producing the enzyme invertase to convert sucrose into
honey. They need some time to recuperate before the cold weather sets in.
9.4.
Feed them
using 2:1 sugar syrup (2 parts sugar: 1 part water).
9.5.
Give them
enough feed: about 60-70 lbs per
colony.
9.6.
To help the
bees recuperate, feed them pollen substitute like mentioned earlier.
9.7.
Remember they
have to last until the next dandelion flow in May of next year, and raise brood
in early spring also.
9.8.
Sometimes the
weather in April or early May is unreliable.
9.9.
That way you
rarely have to feed them in the spring.
10.
Overwinter
Properly
10.1.
Make use of
wintering boxes with wood shavings, especially if you are running single brood
chambers.
10.2.
Or else use
equipment designed to protect from wind and rain. Do not forget freezing rain!
10.3.
Bee supply
house have valuable winter packing equipment for sales.
11.
Next
Spring
11.1.
Monitor your
colonies again, using the sticky board method.
11.2.
If you have done
a good job last fall, you may not need to treat for varroa again before next
fall.
12.
Support and Attend Beekeepers' Association
12.1.
At the local level Local
Associations, provincial level OBA
Website and national level Canadian Honey Council.
12.2.
You can learn
a lot from attending and participating at beekeepers’ meetings.
12.3.
The last
research and techniques are discussed on a regular basis.
12.4.
They have
hands-on sessions or how-to demonstrations.
12.5.
You can ask
questions to experienced beekeepers.
12.6.
Experts in the
fields show presentations of research results
12.7.
You can visit
apiaries and honey house facilities.
12.8.
They organize
courses for beginners and other topics.
Happy beekeeping!
Back To
Pilgrim Honey House Page
Updated on December
18, 2009