April is Busy

 

April is the busiest month for bees and beekeepers. Populations of bees are expanding toward their maximum, and flowers are coming into bloom in abundance. Bees eagerly gather nectar and pollen to produce brood food for rapidly expanding colonies. Heavy springtime nectar flows often lead to brood nest congestion when nectar is stored in the brood nest. Without available cells for the queen to lay eggs, the colony divides and swarms, with swarming reaching a peak in April and May. Beekeepers attempt to capture swarms of bees, as these have the potential of growing rapidly into productive colonies. For those hives that lose a large population of bees through swarming, it usually means the loss of the year’s honey crop. April saw periods of nice weather, conducive to bees’ foraging, interrupted by periods of extreme weather. Numerous thunderstorms and tornadoes along with severe localized flooding lingered across Arkansas and neighboring states. Some bee hives were overturned by strong winds, and some were flooded.

 

April found beekeepers busy expanding their operations. Bee Day activity at Bemis Honey Bee Farm in Little Rock attracted beekeepers from throughout the region to pick up hundreds of packages of bees and nucleus colonies. I participated in speaking sessions held throughout the day. Dr. Cameron Jack of the University of Florida spoke on varroa mite and small hive beetle integrated pest management practices, and he described his ongoing research on seasonal varroa mite treatments. Bo Sterk and Dave Westervelt of Bees Beyond Borders, www.beesbeyondborders.org, spoke on swarms and splits, common mistakes made in the bee yard, and feeding bees among other topics. Dr. Jon Zawislak of the University of Arkansas described queen genetics, and I spoke on honey bee communications. An interested group followed my presentation on ethical beekeeping. I joined Bo and Dave who remained in Little Rock for two days of beekeeping workshops, sharing their experience, much of it involving their training of beekeepers across the Caribbean. Today’s photo: catalpa, a prolific bee forage tree.

--Richard

Pax Vobiscum

The honey bee’s year begins on December 21, the winter solstice, and the start of our winter. The weather today is seasonal for central Arkansas. Temperatures hover around 45 with a light rain falling through the day, good weather for the bees. Colonies consume the least amount of their winter stores of food while confined in their hives at this temperature. The colony’s winter cluster of bees expands and contracts with the temperature. On warmer days, the cluster expands and consumes honey near the cluster. On colder days, the cluster contracts tightly, consuming honey to generate heat. Over the winter, the cluster eats honey above the cluster and moves slowly upward in the hive. On extended periods of cold weather, the constricted cluster may not move into available stored honey. The cluster remains in place, protecting its brood. Because colonies share their food, bees die at the same time when they run out of food, and a cluster may starve even with ample honey nearby. It is a frustration to find dead bees as shown today with their heads in the empty cells, the tell-tale sign of starvation, when there is plenty of honey only inches away.

On our first brief hive inspection on a warm day in late winter, we merely check for live or dead colonies. If the bees are alive, we estimate if there is enough food remaining in the hives to last until spring flowers bring about a nectar flow. If a hive is short on remaining honey, we apply emergency feeding of dry cane sugar to save the colony from starvation. If the bees have starved, we protect the combs until next spring by stacking the boxes on strong hives and distributing frames of honey to other hives that may need some extra food. The Underhills of Peace Bee Farm encourage you to share your food and warmth. To our friends of the great religions and traditions of the world, we offer: Peace be with you.

--Richard

Beekeeping at Heifer Ranch

 

Heifer Ranch at Perryville, Arkansas, part of Little Rock-based Heifer International, is celebrating its eightieth anniversary with a mission of ending hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. The ranch, a model of regenerative agricultural practices, tends to livestock using methods beneficial to the land. Assistant Rancher Lizzy Parker tends to the ranch’s bee hives and cattle along with their sheep, hogs, turkeys, and chickens. Lizzy keeps thorough records of her honey bee colonies as she does her individual cattle. This year has been busy in the ranch’s bee yard. Lizzy rearranged the hive stands along the edge of one of the ranch’s pastures, facing the morning sun and with afternoon shade to help cool the bees—and the beekeeper! She transitioned the bee hives from traditional Langstroth deep hives into lighter-weight medium-depth hives by cutting down the hive boxes in the ranch wood shop. Lizzy established bee hives, identified feral colonies among the ranch’s bee trees, lured swarms to bait hives, combined weak hives, expanded strong hives, and managed queens.

 

Lizzy, whose background as a science teacher and banker, is expanding her knowledge and experience in beekeeping. She attended four beekeeping classes at Bemis Honey Bee Farm in Little Rock, and she participates with activities of the Ozark Foothills Beekeepers Association. She compares the principles of genetics and breeding of honey bees and cattle. She provides resources of young brood to colonies in need. Working with Heifer Ranch’s bees, she discovered that colonies may experience brood cycle interruptions, often through supersedure of the queen. She learned to observe colonies over time as the bees are often able to correct hive problems themselves. I have been pleased to visit Heifer Ranch occasionally to provide a little assistance in the bee yard. While gaining experience herself, Lizzy is helping share the craft of beekeeping by producing a short video of the twelve rules of apiary etiquette, the steps beekeepers employ to safely and gently handle honey bees.

--Richard

Lizzy Parker

Splitting Honey Bee Colonies

Making colony divisions, also called making splits, follows the natural behavior of honey bees. It is the natural behavior of honey bee colonies to build up rapidly in the spring, outgrow their hive, and then divide the population and swarm. By swarming, bees increase their number of colonies, expand their range, and leave behind old, contaminated hives. When beekeepers make a colony division or split, they are producing an artificial swarm. Splitting hives is useful for creating new hives, for producing nucleus colonies for sale, or for replacing over-winter colony losses. Splitting colonies is an effective method of controlling swarming.

The simplest method of splitting a colony, though not necessarily the best method, is the walk-away split. Here, the beekeeper divides a hive’s frames among two hive boxes. The beekeeper puts frames of bees, brood, pollen, and honey in a new hive box and leaves the bees to rear a new queen. Once the bees have detected that they are queenless, they will produce a new queen if they have the resources. If the split is successful in rearing a new queen, she will be laying eggs in about one month. A more reliable method of making a split is to take the same frames from a strong hive and put them in a new hive along with the colony’s original queen. Then, a new queen is introduced into the original hive. Splitting a colony while adding a new queen allows  both hives to continue growing with little delay in brood production. If a queen cell is used when splitting a hive, we should expect a delay of almost a month before the new queen starts laying eggs. Timing when to start splitting a colony is important. Often, beekeepers start the process too early in the year, resulting in poorly mated queens and weak colonies. We should inspect our hives and observe the drones. Splitting hives should begin when there are plenty of drones walking on the frames.

--Richard Underhill

A January Thaw

 

The bees are flying today. Even though it is the middle of the winter, the weather is warm today, a January thaw. Bees are making foraging and cleansing flights. Warm southern winds often bring a few days that allow the bees to break out of their winter cluster. During these warm periods, beekeepers get an opportunity to briefly open their hives for a quick check. This will not be a thorough hive inspection; we will only check to see that the colonies are alive and that they have enough food to survive until spring flowers bring a nectar flow. The beekeeper gently smokes the hives and opens the covers. Since bees tend to move upward in their hives through the winter, the beekeeper may find the cluster at the very top of the hive. If that is where we find the bees, it is likely that the bees have consumed much of their winter food stores and the colony needs an emergency feeding of dry sugar placed above the inner cover. If the bees are not seen, the colony may be clustered in a lower box underneath a box full of honey. In this case, we may pull a frame to peer into the box below. If we see the cluster of live bees there, all is well; we can close the hive feeling comfortable about the colony’s chance of surviving the remainder of the winter.

 

If a colony is found to have died, usually by starvation, its remaining honey stores can be distributed to other hives. The combs of dead-out hives need to be protected from hive scavengers. The equipment can be brought to an indoor storage facility or the frames can be protected by the bees of strong living colonies. Stacking hive bodies or honey supers on strong hives protects the combs from wax moths and small hive beetles. This equipment can be used in the spring to make colony divisions. Today’s photo: winter foraging flights.

--Richard

Rita Peace Underhill Memorial Beekeeping Scholarship

 

I am pleased to announce that the Bemis Honey Bee Farm has established a Memorial Beekeeping Scholarship honoring my late wife, Rita Peace Underhill, who along with me built Peace Bee Farm. Rita loved the Bemis family, and I value their friendship and generosity. The Bemises have been quite instrumental in serving and promoting the beekeeping industry in Arkansas by supplying bees, equipment, and training. Bemis Honey Bee Farm also hosts two annual public beekeeping events at the Little Rock farm, Bee Day in the spring and the Arkansas Honey Bee Festival in the fall.

The Rita Peace Underhill Memorial Beekeeping Scholarship is designed to help establish a new beekeeper in Arkansas between the ages of 16 and 30. The scholarship will provide a Bemis Deluxe Beekeeping Kit with its woodenware, jacket, gloves, hive tool, smoker, feeder, bee brush, and beginner book. The scholarship also provides a live colony of honey bees and registration to a beginner beekeeping class at Bemis Honey Bee Farm. I am honored to be the instructor for this class.

The deadline for application for the scholarship is March 1, 2024, and the winner will be announced on March 2, 2024. Arkansas applicants may apply for the scholarship at

https://forms.gle/MFxvLgw6fdEqZ8QH8

For a PDF file of the application, email: emily@bemishoneybeefarm.com

I am humbled by the generosity of the Bemis family for creating the Rita Peace Underhill Memorial Beekeeping Scholarship. It will be a pleasure for me to participate in the training. It is a most fitting tribute to Rita, who loved beekeeping and the people that she encountered along the way.

--Richard

Rita Peace Underhill

Pax Vobiscum

 

December 21 marks the winter solstice, the date with the year’s shortest daylight and longest night. The solstice falls among winter days in which religious and cultural holidays are celebrated around the world. The winter solstice is also recognized as the start of the honey bee colony’s year. It is on the solstice that queen bees start laying eggs after an egg laying interruption in the fall. Today, when temperatures rose above 50 degrees allowing bees to make foraging flights, I observed foragers bringing pollen into the hives. The arrival of pollen is usually associated with egg laying occurring in the hive. When brood is present, the colonies must warm their hives to 95 degrees by consuming their honey stores to generate heat. Though there are few plants in bloom during the late fall and winter, I have observed bees foraging on fall asters on the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. Some honey bees and native pollinators have been foraging the citrus-scented blossoms of mullein, shown in today’s photo.

 

As we end the beekeeper’s year, it is a good time to reflect on the friends we have encountered. I am especially appreciative of the Bemis family, who operate Bemis Honey Bee Farm and Supplies in Little Rock. The Bemis’s business includes the production of honey as well as bee hive equipment and bees. The honey bee farm also provides beekeeping training, which I participate in, as well as hosting two annual public events, Bee Day in the spring and the Arkansas Honey Festival in the fall. I am overwhelmed by the generosity and thoughtfulness of the Bemises who established the Rita Peace Underhill Memorial Beekeeping Scholarship in honor of my late wife, Rita. The scholarship provides hives, bees, equipment, and training for a starting beekeeper. Others beekeepers contributed hives and colonies of bees. It is with great appreciation that I recognize our beekeeper community. In the spirit of the season, I offer to all that peace be with you.

--Richard