late winter management of bee colonies
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Late Winter I 'r-I
Management of
Bee ColoniesJames E. Tew
Some TweakingKeeping bees is not as easy as it once was.
In past articles, during presentations, and during
interviews, I may very well have acquired a cranky repu-
tation that I'm not sure I want. My wife frequently tells
me I sound a bit negative in some of my comments and
ritings. I certainly don't mean to sound pessimistic
but rather appear realistic and adaptive. Simply stated,
have become increasingly convinced that today's bee-eepers need to reconsider their goals and expectationsor their bees. Across the u.s. - indeed even across the
world - Varroa mites have dramatically changed the way
we manage our bees.
I speak for no one but myself. I have taken no surveys.
have no science. Even so, I have slowly and reluctantlyrown to accept that my beehives will not soon look like
he hives I managed 20 to 25 years ago. Generally, my
resent hives will have smaller populations, will notwarm as much, and will need much more assistance
rom me. In 1999, I wrote that beekeepers seemed to
o through four phases as their colonies were found toVarroa.
I
My bees will not get Varroa! It will not happen to me.
- BOOM- I find Varroa in my colonies. This is theock phase.
II
It has happened to my bees! My colonies clearly have
arroa mite infestations. Oh, my stars! This is the panic
hase, but thankfully, it's fairly short. During this phase,
blame my neighboring beekeepers. I blame my package
rovider. Someone must be held responsible for this pest
nvasion. A common suggestion during this phase is to
et up regulations and blockades to keep our bees safeom outside infestations.
III
This is the frenzied treatment phase. If I use enough
pecial chemical treatments combined with hygienic
ueens, my bee colonies will be like they once were
strong and productive. This phase can last for manyears while the beekeeper searches for the Golden Fleece
f beehive chemicals and super queens. I d on't know that
nyone has ever found the perfect answer.IV
This is the final phase and is the phase of acceptance.
ssentially, by this phase, years have passed and we
ebmary 2008
Suggestions
have punched ourselves out. We have tried everything,
yet our bees still have some level of Varroa and they will
seemingly always have some varying level of infestation.
At this phase, could it be said that we are defeated or that
we have simply become realistic?
Why all this review?
Varroamites have been having their way with U.S.bees for well over 20 years. Why all this review about the
trauma of this pest's establishment? Because, I sense
that Phase IV has a lingering quality that slyly gives false
hopes for the return to the years of glory beekeeping. True,
my bees will seemingly always have some varying level of
Varroa infestation. True, there is not a perfect chemical
or hybrid queen that will end my colonies' Varroa prob-
lem. True, managing these infested colonies will be more
challenging, but bee life must go on.
I verbally say that my bees have chronic Varma
infestations but secretly in my heart, I still cling to the
hope that somehow - someway - the bees and the mites
will work out an amicable agreement. I know I need to
control Varroa, but I still hope that the bees and mites
will come to an agreement, but what should I be doing
while I am hoping? What significant management changes
should I make as Spring arrives? What can I expect next
season from my embattled colonies? So, which manage-
ment concepts do I keep? Which concepts do I discard
and which concepts do I change? And what new tactics
should I be exploring?
MyWinter survivors
In years past I hoped for strong colonies coming out
of Winter. Now I am content with the colonies simply
being alive as they come out of Winter. Live bees give
me something to work with, while dead bees just giveme more work. I don't know why the bees don't seem to
Winter as well as they did two decades ago. Even if I did
know, would it really matter in the short term? Already,
I am trying to control Varroa within the colony. I can't
really do anything about virus infections other than to
know what they are. I've always known that Nosema infec-
tions should be treated, yet I rarely apply the medication.
American foulbrood is still an occasional problem that I try
to eliminate when I find it. So I don't know why my bees
don't Winter as well, but even if I did know the reason,
I suspect my bees would still be wintering poorly. I can
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,
(,-,""'---:.~-..,~"- . "'-'S';_""'~~"& ~..'" ...&
Spring/Summermanagementdirectlyaffects Wintermanage-
ment.
reduce this complicated scenario to the simple statement
- "Ijust hope they are alive in the Spring, "
General management change#1 -feed heavily during
late Winter/early Spring
Supplemental feed - carbohydrates and protein
During the past couple of years I have presented
conflicting advice and opinions on supplemental feed-
ing. I have frequently recommended leaving the beehives
undisturbed as much as possible and I still recommend
that procedure. But when these weakened colonies come
out of Winter, recovery will take much longer if you are
not there to help with supplemental feed.
In years past, there were two kinds of Spring supple-
mental feeding procedures - stimulative feeding and
survival feeding. Stimulative feeding involved giving the
bees thin, watery sugar syrup to "stimulate" them from
their Winter dormancy so they could get on with foraging.
This no longer seems important to me and probably never
was a very important management procedure. If you are
going to feed your bees, feed them copious, thick syrup
and feed it to them long-term. Feed them something on
which they can survive.
Which type of feeder
There are several designs of feeders. I have described
them in previous articles. I feel a need to be blunt. Use
hive top feeders. You can get more feed in place quickerwith the least amount of disruption to the recovering
colony. I have several hundred internal division-board
feeders but I plan to leave them in storage. They require
opening the colony, sloshing syrup around while I try
to pour it into the narrow feeder. Entrance feeders are
nearly useless for serious feeding - too small and too far
from the wintering cluster. Open feeding in transitional
weather is "iffy" and depends on the bees having good
foraging conditions. Additionally, open feeding stimulates
robbing and fighting among the bees. While this technique
42
is labor-efficient, it is not particularly efficient for ~
colonies. I say again, use hive top feeders.
What carbohydrate to feed?
If possible, feed traditional sugar syrup mixed fr=
granulated sugar. I presently have several drums of cae:
syrup that I will probably use later in the year, but mu-
ing late Winter/early Spring, Iwant to go with someiliii¥
that I know works. Syrup made from clean granulRc-,:w-
sugar works. Com syrup is probably fine as a Wmie""
feed, but nagging questions keep arising about the u...~of corn syrup as a bee feed. If you have your perso~
reasons for wanting to use com syrup, I don't object tJo.::"
feed something and feed plenty of it.
Protein supplements
Throughout the passing years, research interest ~
waxed and waned on the subject of pollen substitutes.
Each time I comment about pollen substitutes I get (XL-
respondence from those who manufacture it. I am in ~
position of information weakness here. While I have DC
objectively compared the various protein diets that a:=
available, I have used all the common diets. D~
some years, some colonies take some of the diets. ~ z=;
sume it helps meet my colonies' nutritional needs, b---I don't know how much. That's not much of a reco--
mendation.
Why recommend these protein supplement prodUL~
at all? Assuming we agree that our bees are geneI1L~
more challenged than they were a few decades ago, aR:.
assuming we agree that all the precise reasons for ~
challenging situation are unknown, I personally want :;.
eliminate as many variables as possible. So, I plan to f=
pollen substitute in late Spring this year.
General management change #2 - weak colonies
In a publication I have written, I stated, "In -rr.,,;s
cases, it is poor management to overwinter a sTTl/lJ:
weak colony because in most locations the weak c:oiLr.;.
will not have time to increase to its peak population for;:.-:...
Spring nectar flow1. "Why my change? It used to be ~
weak colonies were the minority category. Now,for m;;;-of us weakened colonies coming out of Winter are ~ -,::
common. In early Spring I would commonly comh=::o--
weak colonies into stronger units, being hopeful that ~
would build up, and then I would divide them later in ~
Spring back into two units. I am not totally comforta.;;J-
with that procedure now - especially for colonies t.b:.
have a chance of surviving even if they are weak. V,~For two reasons.
Intensive colony manipulation
Combining colonies is a simple process on pap=-
In the beeyard it's disruptive and chaotic. Drifting ~may be lost. Occasionally, colonies being combined. a7
trapped between newspaper-divided units and it's eJ:::"work for me. If I combine two weak units, I now t..:.
a colony that is not as weak as it was - but still ~
Counting my labor and counting the extra stress ~ :--
on the combining colonies, I say again, I am not w~comfortable with this recommendation now.
'Backyard Beekeeping, James E. Tew www.aces.edu/counties/Mor1igl:r-
documentsIBackyardBeekeepingANR-0135,pdf.
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Wintering smaller colonies is now more common.
Queen loss
When I combine weak colonies, I lose queens. They
ere not good queens or the colony would not have been
eak, but they are a living queen in late Winter/early
pring. This is a time of the year when replacement
ueens are difficult to get. My present attitude is that I
ould rather have a poor queen than no queen at all. I
you to one of my opening comments above - "Isimplyant them to be alive. "
Let me be clear. If the colonies are profoundly weak,
ombining them is proper. If the weak colonies have a
hance of making it to Spring, let them have a shot at it.
stronger colony is not made much stronger by adding
weak colony to it. During this time, when U.S. colony
umbers are declining, I tend to keep smaller colonies
ntil they become really small before combining.
ralmanagementchange#3 - stores
This really is not a change so much as it is just
ore important. True, supplemental feeding seems to be
ncreasingly important, but nothing beats honey in the
omb as food stuff for wintering beehives. Last Spring (I
rote about it), I supered with many more deep supers
han I would have in past seasons. Last November, I leftore honey on the bees that I used to. In fact, most of
y colonies are tall for wintering colonies.
As has always been the norm, some of my colonies
tored more honey than others. As Winter progressed,
hose that tended to be lightweight were given capped
- in deep frames - from those colonies having
ore stores than they could use. This was a significant
hange in my Winter management scheme. I intentionally
educed my overall extracted honey crop in order to have
oney in deep frame reserves. I still have had colonies
ie with honey stores on the hive. I have moved some of
hat unused honey to colonies that seemed to be light.
ut, my point is that I had some honey to give back to
hem. I can't lie to you. It was hard to keep that extrafrom going under the uncapping knife. I'm glad
resisted. As the Winter shifts into Spring I will try to
resent an occasional update as to how well this "extra
oney" campaign worked out.
,-~-~-,
ebruary 2008
Traditional Winter management procedures
Don't throw out the baby with the wash water. The
established wintering hive management scheme is not
totally dysfunctional - far from it. In all my rants I have
never meant to suggest that all we have ever done in
wintering hive management is now wrong. What I have
been saying is that we should change some of the ways
we manage our bees in the light of the present colony
shortage. Seasonal management of bee colonies is a com-
mon topic. For those of you needing to read a complete
discussion of traditional hive Winter management, look at
nearly any current bee book. Several times I have referred
to management information in Backyard Beekeeping
at: http://www.aces.edu/counties/Montgomery / docu-
ments /BackyardBeekeepingANR -0135. pdf
Honestly
The best current wintering recommendation is to
send your colonies into Winter with a strong population of
workers, headed by a young queen, having abundant food
stores, and with a reduced pest population. That would be
the perfect bee world. If y ou are having to feed your colo-
nies, as I described above, something went wrong. Ifyour
colonies are small and possibly will have to be combined,
something went wrong. If your colonies need extra frames
of honey added during the Winter, something went wrong.
Clearly our goal is to send our bees into Winter in strong
shape. If that doesn't happen, we must do whatever we
can to apply management bandages during the Winter.
Do whatever it takes to keep your bees alive..
Dr. James E. Tew, State Specialist, Beekeeping, The OH State
University Wooster, OH 44691, 330.263.3684, [email protected];
www2.oardc.ohio-state.edul agnicl beel; beelab.osu.edul
COWEll
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