Want to start raising bees in the spring. Any advice welcome!

[Happy Chooks]

I see Spring, too! Solstice is when they start the first small batches of brood... and that's just around the corner.

I'm getting antsy about spring here too. Last year, our first bloom was in January, but we didn't have a winter. I'm hoping this year we get a better winter and the first bloom holds off until February. But I am excited for them to start building up for the spring activity! (and hopefully a much better honey year)

 

[Happy Chooks]

Never claimed to be "short"winded...

Just messin' with ya!

 

[babsbag]

But I am excited for them to start building up for the spring activity! (and hopefully a much better honey year)

Better honey would be nice. I won't get out my extractor for three frames so I do the crush and drain and it makes me so sad to destroy all the comb. Hoping for enough frames of honey to make the extractor worth the trouble and then the bees can have the empty comb back to clean up and reuse. I really feel guilty taking the honey to start with.

 

[Robbin]

Thank you so very much!!! Big hugs.
I may try one more time. We will see. I will freeze the frames and see how craZy I feel in the spring!!! I so appreciate the support.

You have to treat for mites, usually it's the second year that gets them going into fall. Mites breed up with the bees, literally using the brood to raise their own.
But the numbers of the mites don't fall as fast as the number for bees in the fall. So the number of mites compared to the number of bees goes thru the roof.
The mite load grows more than the hive can tolerate. I treat with OAV or oxalic acid vaporizer. The vaporizers are expensive, but after the initial cost, the treatments only costs pennies per hive. Search Beesource for OAV and you'll find all the info you will ever need. I treat during the summer dearth after the big spring build up and again in late fall when their is little brood in the hive. Mites in the brood comb are protected and will hatch, the less brood, the more effective the treatment. During the summer I usually treat 3 times, a week apart, that allows most of the mites in brood to come out where the treatment kills them.

A little more advice, it's easier to become self sufficient with 4 hives, very difficult with 1 hive. With 4 you have hives to split to replace lost hives, or resources to add to weak hives or queen less hives. 4 small hives is much better than one large one. I went a little overboard and have 14, and that's more work than I really want to do. But if you lose 3, it's not a big deal, if you only have 2 and you lose them, it's 100% and the only way to continue is to buy more. I got 21 gallons of honey last year out of 21 hives.
Should have gotten more but I lost a lot of swarms. I'll do better this year.

Good luck!
Robbin

 

[manybirds]

Would it help the hive if for the first summer or two if I didn't harvest anything only kept an eye on the mites and let them build up their combs and supplies

 

[Latestarter]

It depends on how well the hive does. Old adage: don't plan on getting/taking any honey the first year. But there are too many factor to list that effect that. My first year this year I ended up being able to harvest one honey super = 26.5 pounds of honey while leaving them a huge amount in the 2 deeps below where the brood chamber is... I hadn't planned on getting any, the bees just did better than expected.

Whether you get honey or not, you will always have to keep an eye on your hives, like any other managed livestock, to ensure they are healthy and doing well. When the nectar is flowing, you'll be amazed at how fast the bees can draw out comb! Mine as a new hive, were able to draw out 4 frames of comb in about a week!

 

[babsbag]

Commercial bee keepers get honey every year but they feed the heck out of them to get it. I had one here tell me that he makes more money on the wax than he does on the honey and if it wasn't for wax and pollination contracts there would be no money in honey; he just has to feed too much to turn a profit on just honey. And that was before the drought hit us.

It's tough being a bee.

@Robbin Everything I have read lately says to treat a new package in early spring...the bees come with mites. Many of us aren't making it to fall of the first year let alone fall of the second. Another good plan for mite control is to re-queen in the summer and let the brood rearing take a break for 3 weeks, it will stop/slow down the cycle of the mite.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Would it help the hive if for the first summer or two if I didn't harvest anything only kept an eye on the mites and let them build up their combs and supplies

It depends. If they build up and store a lot of honey, then the queen has no place to lay, and they will swarm on you. Since you lose a lot of bees and honey when they swarm, it affects production. You just need to keep an eye on them and add boxes as they need room.

You don't HAVE to take the honey, you could freeze it for feed later, or leave it on the hive for winter food. But it's so delicious, so I take the extra from my bees. (which this year wasn't much)

 

[Happy Chooks]

Better honey would be nice. I won't get out my extractor for three frames so I do the crush and drain and it makes me so sad to destroy all the comb. Hoping for enough frames of honey to make the extractor worth the trouble and then the bees can have the empty comb back to clean up and reuse. I really feel guilty taking the honey to start with.

Since we have had such a bad drought, I'm going to feed the crap out of them in the spring and get them built up nicely. Their stores were low this spring and I didn't realize it until it was too late. They had enough to "get by", but they should have been fed early.

I don't mind building them up high, because it wouldn't bother me in the least to split off for another hive.

Looks like we are going to have a good storm the next couple of days!

 

[Robbin]

Commercial bee keepers get honey every year but they feed the heck out of them to get it. I had one here tell me that he makes more money on the wax than he does on the honey and if it wasn't for wax and pollination contracts there would be no money in honey; he just has to feed too much to turn a profit on just honey. And that was before the drought hit us.

It's tough being a bee.

@Robbin Everything I have read lately says to treat a new package in early spring...the bees come with mites. Many of us aren't making it to fall of the first year let alone fall of the second. Another good plan for mite control is to re-queen in the summer and let the brood rearing take a break for 3 weeks, it will stop/slow down the cycle of the mite.

I've never bought a package, just nucs, but I would say the same thing, If you treat them in the spring, that's a great extra treatment. but I wouldn't do that instead of a dearth treatment or a fall treatment. Treating a new package, with NO BROOD, would be very effective. But they will still get mites, and the mite numbers will explode during the spring build up and the full flow. The reason I wait till the dearth is to treat after I've removed the supers. So I would ADD a spring treatment, and keep treatments in the dearth and fall. My only experience is with OAV. I only treated with chemicals one time, so I really don't have long term experience with other treatments. They may be more effective over longer time frames. I've had great luck with OAV, I lost half my hives when I didn't treat, I've only lost 4 since I started using OAV. I'm currently running 14 hives. It takes me about an hour to treat them all with OAV. I have two vaporizers so I can start working the next, while the first is cooking.